Transformation for transformation’s sake does not serve us as black people. Instead it gives more ammunition to the naysayers.
The selection of inappropriate and unqualified companies to run critical projects is not just a matter of ‘bad’ policies. Transformation is a crucial imperative to sustain our democracy but transformation done wrong threatens that goal.
In a speech in 2010, SACP secretary-general Blade Nzimande coined the word and defined tenderpreneurs as: “those who corruptly seek to capture tenders, especially government tenders, in cahoots with public servants and private companies”.
There are some bureaucrats and politicians who have sworn that they will not give work to white companies. In fact, they would rather give jobs to pitifully hopeless black people whose only qualification for delivering a technical service of any sort is having influence over politicians and procurement committees.
Nzimande gave this further caution about tenderpreneurs:
“Most important in so far as the state is concerned is how to roll back tenderpreneurship. By tenderpreneurs we, amongst others things, mean the corrupt collusion between business, politicians and civil servants to capture government tenders.
“Tenderpreneurship also poses a threat and is an obstacle to especially genuine small and medium entrepreneurs who get deprived of government work just because they do not have political connections. We must defend and promote genuine and clean entrepreneurs, and there are many of them, and defeat tenderpreneurs!”
There is this misguided thinking pervading the corridors of the state that it is better to give any black person or black owned business the contract than to give it to a white-led or -owned business.
This is worse than just taking the car keys away from the white person. It is akin to taking the car keys and then shooting out the tyres or removing the wheels of the car and expecting it to move.
It is sad to recount stories of black service providers who receive government projects and then the owners squander the money on their lavish lifestyles and expensive tastes whilst they underpay their workers and do a shoddy job.
In such cases the state loses twice and sometimes even thrice. One, funds are misappropriated and paid over to a business grossly unqualified to deliver the services they are contracted for. Two, the services or products are not delivered as paid for. Three, the state entity may need to enter into litigation or launch an investigation thus incurring further costs in time, money and effort.
The biggest loss is the decrease in the state’s legitimacy because it is seen by the citizenry to be captured by narrow political and economic interests.
In Chapter five of the book Beyond Tenderpreneurship: Rethinking Black Business and Economic Empowerment, Khwezi Mabasa reflects on a number of crucial areas necessary to strengthen BBBEE policy. One of those is to ensure that empowering black entrepreneurs is linked to achieving developmental goals.
“The focus [of BEE] has been on transforming large entities to create black entrepreneurs, without proposing clear policy instruments to ensure that beneficiaries contribute towards wider national developmental goals such as: employment creation; transforming South Africa’s economic structural base through industrial diversification; decreasing the exclusion of black youth, women, unemployed and rural citizens from formal economic activity; and eliminating racialised poverty and income inequality.”
It is important, as Mabasa highlights, to clear up misconceptions about genuine black entrepreneurs. They are not a homogenous group, but have differentiated interests, needs and challenges. Discounting this fact limits the transformative effect of BBBEE and the country’s developmental policy instruments such as the National Development Plan.
But more dangerously, discounting this fact provides the fertile ground for the mushrooming of tenderpreneurs who take advantage, resulting in the disenfranchisement of deserving emerging black entrepreneurs who encounter a number of barriers including lack of support and access to opportunities.
Comment on Twitter @NompumeleloRunj
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.