Abstract
Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa in 1994, transformational policies such as black economic empowerment (BEE) and affirmative action (AA) have increasingly and inextricably become part of the everyday political, economic and social life of its populace. As a result, South African businesses are subject to a whole array of mandatory regulations which ostensibly influence their operational capabilities to effectively and efficiently compete in national and global markets. In a survey of the largest 500 (including the top 100 JSE listed) companies in South Africa, it appears that transformational policies are positively supported and endorsed, although their impact on the operational competitiveness of these companies is largely unclear and unknown. A number of warning signs, however, are now being detected from reports in the popular media and in the academic literature about the possible negative consequences of such policies. BEE malpractices, which basically result in the continuation of past injustices against the majority of poor and unskilled people of the country, are becoming increasingly evident. Even more alarming is the fact that the corruption, nepotism and self-enrichment that accompany most BEE transactions are attributed to the ruling ANC political elite.
Highlights
The current South African government, formed by the African National Congress (ANC) following the first, allparty democratic elections in April 1994, has done away with or altered previous legislation and enacted many new pieces of legislation – laws that impact on the daily political, economic and social lives of the country’s populace
While the results for the main part of the 2009 study were reported in an earlier article by Krüger (2010), this article focuses on the results of part D of the survey questionnaire, namely the influence of transformational policies on the competitive operations priorities (COPs) and general competitiveness of South African businesses
South Africa is the only country on the whole African continent that is included in the world competitiveness rankings conducted annually by the IMD (IMD, 2010b) under the top 50 to 60 nations
Summary
The current South African government, formed by the African National Congress (ANC) following the first, allparty democratic elections in April 1994 (which the ANC won with a more than two-thirds majority), has done away with or altered previous legislation and enacted many new pieces of legislation – laws that impact on the daily political, economic and social lives of the country’s populace. The performance objectives – usually a combination of improved quality, lower costs, high speed, greater dependability and/or more flexibility – represent the competitive operations priorities (COPs) that management will attempt to pursue. In this context (i.e. transformational policies and business) it is necessary to consider the potential influence of BEE and AA on the operational capabilities and the competitiveness of South African businesses
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