Gayton McKenzie: 'If I were President, I would scrap BEE and start an empowerment bank'
Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie proposes bold reforms, criticizes Black millionaires for lacking community investment, and blames illegal immigration for unemployment, urging South Africans to embrace 'unpopular decisions' for collective growth.
Image: File
Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader and Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, says if he were made president, he would completely scrap the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) policy.
He was speaking at the Black Business Council Summit on Friday.
Instead, he proposes replacing it with a single empowerment bank, funded by a mandatory contribution of 1% of turnover from all white-owned businesses and previously empowered individuals.
'You can't build wealth without collateral,' McKenzie said. He believes the new bank would provide loans where 'your blackness will be your collateral. Your black skin.'
According to him, this model avoids the counterproductive practice of forced partnerships, such as the 26% equity expectations under current BEE frameworks.
'Instead of telling white people, come make me a 26% partner, I will not do that. That's not business. That's counterproductive.'
McKenzie highlighted that the new bank would enforce accountability, mentorship, and evidence of impact before extending further loans.
On the current implementation of BEE, he is critical of how it's benefited a small elite rather than addressing broad economic disparities.
'BEE has not failed. We have failed BEE, and I'm including myself in all the Black millionaires today.'
'It is the same people doing deal after deal, and that is the truth. We can't run away from it.'
He said black business leaders have become complicit, often choosing repeated partnerships over building independent ventures, even after attaining significant wealth.
'You do a deal, you're no longer poor; you are now a dollar millionaire, yet you still insist on becoming a partner in a business that a white man has built. That's a conversation we don't want to hear.'
McKenzie drew a contrast with the Jewish community, suggesting that Black millionaires should show similar communal responsibility, especially in addressing the country's staggering Black unemployment.
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'We have so many black millionaires, but we have the highest unemployment rate. We just get more, we get more, but you're not even giving back to where you stay.'
On illegal immigration, he blames the national budget deficit and service delivery failures on unaccounted foreign nationals.
''The ANC is getting an F, but they don't deserve an F. The ANC should be getting a D. But the reason why they don't deserve, don't know why they're getting an F, because they budget for South Africans.
''Mabahambe, and you will see jobs will appear.'
'Two million of them have jobs, waiters, whatever. So when we chase them away, immediately we have two million jobs for locals.'
He says South Africa is budgeting for people not counted in the census, which causes direct economic strain.
Ultimately, McKenzie argued that real empowerment comes not from forced partnerships, but from building institutions and taking 'unpopular decisions' that directly benefit the broader Black population.
'Let us get rich, all of us, but let's take the unpopular decisions. Mabahambe.'
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
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