Unmasking South Africa’s BEE billionaires: Who’s in the power circle? - Viv Vermaak

Key topics:BEE billionaires likened to Broederbond’s economic power grabCritics question if BEE aids the poor or enriches connected elitesCall for BEE elite to fund real change in SA through active projects.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..By Viv Vermaak*.World attention is increasingly focused on South Africa. In the vast, rich country of extremes and diversity, human dramas are played off every day. It is the country of gold, diamonds, apartheid and Soweto. Despite this, a crucial element of South African political reality has largely escaped detection: the BEE billionaires.The above paragraph is the inside blurb of the best-selling book: The Super Afrikaners. I just changed the words “The Afrikaner Broederbond” with “BEE billionaires”. This highly organised clique of super-rich black businesspeople has, by a sophisticated political intrigue, waged a remarkable campaign to harness political, social and economic power. Again, this sentence is from the book. I only changed the concept of “Afrikaner” to “super-rich black businesspeople”.President Ramaphosa is correct in referencing the economic emancipation of the Afrikaner as a valid comparison when discussing the legislative force behind BBBEE (Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment). He said to Corné Mulder in Parliament: “The history of your people, they became economically empowered because of the laws that were put in place, the sweet deals they were given, and they became more and more serious economic players.”Mulder could not argue, as Ramaphosa’s observations are valid, and I believe in good faith. We need more black people to become economic players, as well as economic empowerment, to widen. Our bottom 50% of poor people have hardly been uplifted. Who will help them?History has shown that small groups of individuals, an ‘elite’, hold a disproportionate amount of power and influence in society, shaping policies and decisions that affect everyone. According to ‘elite theory’, these small groups are not only present in politics, but in financial institutions, think tanks, corporations and societal structures. The basic tenet of this theory is that power is concentrated.The elites are unified, the non-elites are diverse and powerless. Elites’ interests are fused due to common backgrounds and positions, and the defining characteristic of power is institutional position. Examples of this might be the Afrikaner Broederbond, the PayPal Mafia, the ‘Tech Bro’ billionaires in the USA, the Russian oligarchy, any government, really, lobby interest groups, and the BEE billionaires. Depending on the group’s vision, its influence might be positive or negative on society at large, and might have an impact on history itself.Motives of the beneficiariesIn South Africa, the motives of the beneficiaries of BEE are increasingly being questioned. Wits professor William Gumede is quoted as saying: “Black Economic Empowerment has led to increased poverty, unemployment and inequality in South Africa. Over R1 trillion has moved between fewer than 100 (politically connected) individuals since 1994. The same people have been empowered and re-empowered over and over again for decades.” Genuine South African entrepreneurs who are not politically connected do not benefit from BEE funding.It is a sentiment echoed by the liberal and righter-wing press. In a phenomenon named ‘economic capture’, it is claimed that 100 black businesspeople are capitalising on 1 trillion rand. One can assume the commentariat knows the names of these people; otherwise, they would not be making such confident claims. They should publish these names so we can all be educated. The list can be called: The Super Blacks. Someone can write a book about the B-BBEEB (Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Billionaires). Is it economic capture, or is a lot of wealth creation happening, we just don’t know about it? Let us investigate. A trillion rand sure can build a lot of homes, fix a lot of infrastructure, and create many jobs for the lower classes..Read more:.Patrick Mclaughlin: Ramaphosa warming up for a fight - ANC remains clinging to BEE .Marius Roodt, deputy editor of the Daily Friend and regular contributor to the Daily Friend Show, recently jokingly referred to the elite as ‘upper-class twits.’ It is a colourful phrase that demystifies these shadowy groups and points out their disconnect from the majority of the people in the country. Of course, not all twits are upper class, not all upper-class people are twits, and many of us are an upper-class twit to someone else, but South Africans are starting to realise that a form of money hoarding is taking place here in the name of ’empowerment.’I recall, as a child, the outrage caused when Super-Afrikaners was published. The Afrikaans community had two reactions at the same time; the first a denial that the Broederbond existed, the second that it was a bloody cheek that the names of the non-existent group were made public. Everybody rushed to see if they or their family were on the list. You would be simultaneously relieved if your family was not outed, while also being disappointed that they were not somehow in line to receive some of the largesse.Someone should do itThe book published a comprehensive membership list of 7,500 names. So, to print but a hundred names would not take up that much space, would it? It can fit into a column. Someone should do it. Then we can see what we are dealing with and move the topic out of ‘conspiracy’ territory. The Broederbond list included members in the cabinet, prominent churchmen, school principals, geologists, receivers of revenue, farmers, jewellers, doctors and building contractors.More importantly, it revealed a highly organised mindset of harnessing skill around a single cause – to advance the interest of your group. Nothing wrong with that, and it is clear that BEE initiatives advance the financial interest of black groups. The next step is to make the first two Bs in the B-BBEE real. Trickle-down economics must become a stream.South African billionaire and mining magnate Patrice Motsepe is a great philanthropist and is known for his generosity. He is said to have pledged half (50%) of his wealth to the ‘Giving Pledge’ upon death, which will be distributed to charity. We might ask if he is prepared to consider a type of living pledge where we dedicate a significantly smaller portion of his wealth to helping the government with projects they seem to be struggling with: housing, job creation or infrastructure maintenance. I am not suggesting charity; it is real change. It is a project where the wealthy and successful directly step in and do the work our government is failing to do. We publish their successes and replicate them.He likes fixing thingsJohann Rupert, while not black, is certainly upper-class, and a right royal twit for telling the American president he sleeps with his doors open in his luxury mansion with security guards, showing exactly the disconnect Roodt was talking about. Rupert can be an honorary member. We can add Rob Hersov; he likes fixing things. Plus − ask Magda Wierzycka to join.We’ll call them the B-BBEEB+. Let those with the means and authority share it with others. Each billionaire or super-rich businessperson can pick an area of contribution and dedicate a year and R10 million, not for profit, but for the future. 100 Billionaires, a hundred fixes.They can pick which projects they want: building a house, fixing schools, assisting with title deed transfers, supporting startup enterprises, upgrading a clinic, anti-corruption fundamentals, basic learning skills, entry-level building skills, projects teaching South Africans how to speak to each other without descending into race arguments, economic growth theory, making a community safer with working lights, patching up a train station, building a community garden, upgrading a road, sponsoring a police vehicle, economic growth basics, lessons in how to be a good councillor, broadening employment opportunities, building another house, creating another job. A small group like the B-BBEEB+ can change the course of this country in a short space of time – if they set their minds and money to it.We have to get started now. Our country needs the Super Blacks. Call a summit, get them all in the same room. I can imagine the opening speech at such a gathering:“Show me a greater power ….”“Do you realise what a powerful force is gathered tonight between these four walls? Show me a greater power on the whole continent of Africa! Show me a greater power anywhere…” This speech was made by H.J. Klopper at the celebration of the Broederbond’s 50th anniversary. The wheel turns, as President Ramaphosa correctly points out. It is time for another group to deploy their powerful forces.BEE has transferred enormous capacity and opportunity to its beneficiaries. But with that comes responsibility. It needs to make its circle bigger. If this group can agree on a common vision for economic growth, while opposing enrichment for the few, the future of this country will take a different trajectory.Moreover, if the BEE 100 takes up the challenge, the rest of SA, in all its rainbow colours, will be cheering them on.Viva!.*Viv Vermaak is an award-winning investigative journalist, writer and director. She was the most loved and hated presenter on South Africa’s iconic travel show, “Going Nowhere Slowly’ and ranks being the tall germ, “Terie’ in Mina Moo as a career highlight. She does Jiu-Jitsu and has a ’69 Chevy Impala called Katy Peri-Peri..This article was first published by Daily Friend and is republished with permission.

Unmasking South Africa’s BEE billionaires: Who’s in the power circle? - Viv Vermaak

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