Embrace Transformation

Spirit of partnership is encouraging.

- Richard Zulu

Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau recently made one of the clearest and most urgent calls yet for decisive action to address South Africa's deepening economic disparities.

To ignore this call is to risk a future too grim to contemplate.

His proposed Transformation Fund could not be more timely.

The National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) welcomes this renewed clarity and determination from the government.

It represents an honest reckoning with the past 31 years of transformation initiatives - initiatives whose impact has too often been overwhelmed by the enduring legacy of apartheid.

Listening to Tau, one appreciates that the Transformation Fund is not simply another financial instrument. It is designed to serve as a catalyst for black enterprise and to address the structural exclusion that continues to define much of South Africa's economy.

Critics have questioned the necessity, governance and effectiveness of such funds. Some argue that broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) has been inconsistently implemented.

Others highlight corruption or the perceived lack of measurable outcomes from previous efforts.

While these critiques cannot be ignored, dismissing transformation as a policy imperative is short-sighted and perilous.

Transformation is not a political preference - it is a constitutional and moral obligation.

B-BBEE remains one of the primary vehicles for this redress, and the Transformation Fund is a critical instrument.