He said that, although South Africa is on a good economic trajectory, there are a handful of policies that are hampering growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSouth Africa\u2019s economy is growing at 1%. It should be growing at 5%. The reason it is not happening is because of government policies,\u201d Cronje said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The key policies preventing growth in South Africa are black economic empowerment (BEE) and the Expropriation Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new Expropriation Act allows the state to take property without compensation or at a price below market value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis act has nothing to do with land reform and everything to do with putting politicians in a position to extract wealth from money committed to the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commenting on BEE, Cronje said it is a tax on capital on arrival, as companies have to give away a portion of their business to invest in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you want to enter the South African economy, you have to pay a steep fee because of the empowerment policies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe consequence is that many projects which would have been viable become unviable and investors go to other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He highlighted ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri\u2019s comments, where she said companies can take their money elsewhere if they don\u2019t like BEE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said that if investors don\u2019t like South Africa\u2019s policies, they can go elsewhere. \u201cThey can invest in India or somewhere else,\u201d Bhengu-Motsiri said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Changing perception around BEE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Frans-Cronje-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a>Frans Cronje<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCronje stated that there were significant changes in how people perceive black empowerment, and it was time to reconsider this policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He cited President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s comments regarding BEE following the Democratic Alliance\u2019s (DA\u2019s) proposal to significantly alter B-BBEE policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramaphosa stated that Parliament is the correct and only venue for discussing amendments to the BEE legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cronje said this was an astonishing show of how far the country has moved, considering that black economic empowerment was a foundational policy of the ANC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that it is now commonplace for people close to the ANC to concede that BEE policies are counterproductive to economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTen years ago, you could not even talk about it. However, it is now the case that people don\u2019t view BEE favourably,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cronje cited a poll, where 80% of South Africans said businesses that employ people and pay tax should not have to comply with further BEE requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the ANC does not read the signs well enough, it will increasingly find itself in a position where the balance of public opinion overtakes it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This creates a situation where the party’s leadership and ideology fail to align with what their voter base wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cronje highlighted that investor confidence has halved over the last two decades, which illustrates the devastating effect of poor government policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The solution is to remove obstacles to investment, which include black empowerment requirements and the Expropriation Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This will encourage local companies to start investing, which, in turn, will spark more interest from their international counterparts to follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Political and economic expert Dr Frans Cronje said the black economic empowerment experiment has failed and that it was time to move on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":840536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1232,22379,1293,21717,21863],"class_list":["post-843566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-bee","tag-black-economic-empowerment-bee","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-expropriation-act","tag-frans-cronje"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843566"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843594,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843566\/revisions\/843594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>Cronje stated that there were significant changes in how people perceive black empowerment, and it was time to reconsider this policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He cited President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s comments regarding BEE following the Democratic Alliance\u2019s (DA\u2019s) proposal to significantly alter B-BBEE policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramaphosa stated that Parliament is the correct and only venue for discussing amendments to the BEE legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cronje said this was an astonishing show of how far the country has moved, considering that black economic empowerment was a foundational policy of the ANC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that it is now commonplace for people close to the ANC to concede that BEE policies are counterproductive to economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTen years ago, you could not even talk about it. However, it is now the case that people don\u2019t view BEE favourably,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cronje cited a poll, where 80% of South Africans said businesses that employ people and pay tax should not have to comply with further BEE requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the ANC does not read the signs well enough, it will increasingly find itself in a position where the balance of public opinion overtakes it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This creates a situation where the party’s leadership and ideology fail to align with what their voter base wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cronje highlighted that investor confidence has halved over the last two decades, which illustrates the devastating effect of poor government policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The solution is to remove obstacles to investment, which include black empowerment requirements and the Expropriation Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This will encourage local companies to start investing, which, in turn, will spark more interest from their international counterparts to follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Political and economic expert Dr Frans Cronje said the black economic empowerment experiment has failed and that it was time to move on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":840536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1232,22379,1293,21717,21863],"class_list":["post-843566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-bee","tag-black-economic-empowerment-bee","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-expropriation-act","tag-frans-cronje"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843566"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843594,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843566\/revisions\/843594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}