BEE

I am pro-empowerment, that is my bread and butter and my business, but I do think that a lot of what is portrayed as BEE is not worth much. I've seen too many BEE companies get contracts to do some project out in the Transkei or somewhere and then don't do the work right and the community receiving the service is not benefiting, but the company did. Those people in those villages care less if it is a white man or black man that is building the road or dam, they just want water, toilets or a road. They want to be treated with dignity. It horrifies me to see the way some of these companies have treated the community members. The fact is that we (white people) do have some skills that will benefit the country. The white guys that I work with in my field, engineers, town planners etc are all people who have compassion for the communities they are working in. They invest themselves into those communities and projects and render a high level of service. There are BEE companies who have the same values, many of them, and I grant them the blessing, but there are those who get work based on race classification and not on skill or character.