WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2003-12-02 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 12/2/2003 5:26:53 AM
S.Africa: Chief Economist: Black Empowerment is risky
INDUSTRIAL giant Barloworld’s chief economist has come out in strong support of petrochemicals group Sasol over its stance on black economic empowerment as a risk, saying it imposes heavy costs on business.
“Empowerment has a negative impact on productivity, on the cost of business and, therefore on the competitiveness and profitability of companies,” said Barloworld chief economist Pieter Haasbroek on Friday.
He was speaking at a conference entitled Doing business in Latin America hosted by the South African Institute of International Affairs.
Haasbroek suggested that the added cost of empowerment in business contributed to inflation in the domestic economy.
Haasbroek is the only other mainstream South African business figure to have publicly endorsed Sasol’s stance on empowerment to date. Their views on the subject as two of SA’s largest companies were likely to draw interest from potential foreign investors.
The two companies have also raised the ire of leading black businessmen and groups.
Barloworld CE Tony Phillips said at the weekend that the company did not hold this view. However,he said that the real issue was dignity and jobs and there was an unhealthy emphasis on equity partnership.
Responding to the comments, Eskom chairman and head of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) Business Group in SA Reuel Khoza said at the weekend that with these views Sasol and Haasbroek were “saying that black people should be excluded from the economy. And they should consider the consequences of having the masses of black people excluded.”
Khoza insisted that forced empowerment was the only way to include black people in the domestic economy.
Sasol came under fire from various quarters last month when it was reported that the group had listed empowerment as one of several risk factors in a document required by the New York Stock Exchange.
“Sasol was accurate in its report,” said Haasbroek.” If the Public Investment Commission (PIC) is up in arms, then it has no understanding of the dynamics of our business world,” he said.
Sasol came under severe fire recently from the PIC’s Brian Molefe.
Haasbroek said there should be more focus on previously disadvantaged people’s capacity to participate in the domestic economy, through training, and that government should then ensure that they could be employed.
The way to do this was to grow SA’s small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME) sector. Haasbroek suggested government was not focused on the plight of the SMME sector.
“Increasingly, government bodies are meddling in the plans of private businesses, or preventing the establishment of competing enterprises. This can force businesses to relocate to more friendly economies,” said Haasbroek.
Khoza disagreed the focus should be on training, and not on forced empowerment
“If they say the focus should be exclusively on training they are unrealistic, because the challenge is much more comprehensive than that.”
Meanwhile, National Black Business Caucus president Dupreez Vilakazi questioned whether government was “employing the right people at Sasol”, given the group’s position on empowerment.
Source: AllAfrica.com
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200312010964.htm…br>