Hope amid Trumpeting

There's a glimmer of hope amid the noise about US President Donald Trump's executive order against South Africa.

- Martin Williams

If economic sense prevails and the right people in South Africa speak to the right people in the US, it will be possible to roll back the biggest impediment to investment here.

Trump's executive order cites "countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business".

Countless? The SA Institute of Race Relations calculates 142 active racial Acts of parliament are operative today.

Laws on broad-based black economic empowerment, employment equity, preferential procurement and their variations are justified in pursuit of apartheid redress. Fair enough.

Yet they are also a hindrance to investment.

Trump's accomplice Elon Musk is an obvious example, baulking at giving away a 30% stake to B-BBEE in order to bring Starlink connectivity to the land of his birth.

To him and others such handouts don't make business sense.