Ramaphosa reaffirms B-BBEE and EEIP as essential

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has reaffirmed South Africa’s commitment to broad-based economic transformation, emphasising that the country’s empowerment laws are practical, effective, and central to fostering inclusive and sustainable growth.

- HOPE NTANZI [e-mail]

In his weekly letter to the nation, Ramaphosa highlighted that the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) framework and the Equity Equivalent Investment Programme (EEIP) are key to both economic redress and development.

“Amongst the most salient features of our country’s empowerment laws are their practicality, feasibility and responsiveness to economic conditions without deviating from the objective of redressing the economic injustices of exclusion of the past,” said Ramaphosa.

He explained that South Africa's transformation agenda is guided by two complementary goals: changing the racial ownership and control of the economy, and ensuring inclusive, long-term economic growth that brings black South Africans, women, and the youth into the mainstream.

The EEIP, designed for multinational firms whose global structures may not allow equity ownership transfers, enables impactful investments in skills development, enterprise support, and innovation. Addressing misconceptions about the programme, Ramaphosa clarified: “Some in the public space have recently sought to suggest that the EEIP represents a circumvention of B-BBEE laws and that it is a response to the conditions of a particular company or sector.

“Neither is factually correct. Firstly, the EEIP is not new and has been in existence for a decade.”