Moeletsi Mbeki is not known for holding back – he frequently criticised government while his brother, Thabo Mbeki, was president – and not much has changed. In Architects of Poverty, Mbeki fares out against corruption, with BEE as his target.
According to Mbeki, BBE has had a hand in increasing corruption within the ANC government, a view he outlines in the following article on IOL:
Black economic empowerment is one of the most destructive policies adopted by the ANC government since the advent of democracy in 1994.Sadly, conventional wisdom in South Africa thinks BEE has been a pillar of strength for South Africa’s democracy. The reality is that while BEE has enriched a significant minority among the blacks, for the great majority of black South Africans evidence shows that their condition has been deteriorating over the last 15 years.
An article by Stephanie Hanson in the Ethiopian Review echoes Moeletsi Mbeki’s views on corruption with a closer look at the botched Kenyan election:
The experience of Kenya demonstrates how corruption can tip a seemingly stable country into political crisis. Kenyan analysts widely agree that the violence following the December 2007 elections, in which President Mwai Kibaki claimed victory over opposition candidate Raila Odinga, was in large part caused by the zero-sum nature of Kenyan politics: Unless one’s ethnic group was in office, there were no possibilities for economic or political advancement.
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