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Fikile Mbalula says South Africa’s push for economic redress has to deliver more than boardroom deals, and he wants to see more Black billionaires as proof it is working.
The African National Congress secretary general made the remarks at a Peter Mokaba remembrance gathering in Polokwane this week, stepping into a renewed argument over Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment, the policy framework meant to widen participation in an economy long dominated by a white minority.
Mokaba, a former ANC Youth League leader from Limpopo, is remembered inside the party for militant activism in the final years of apartheid. Mbalula invoked that history while urging supporters to judge transformation by changes in ownership and living conditions, not by speeches.
“We have only one Black billionaire,” Mbalula told supporters, pointing to mining businessman Patrice Motsepe as the exception. He urged South Africans to confront how wealth and property remain concentrated decades after apartheid ended, and he questioned why poverty and informal housing are still overwhelmingly Black realities.
Motsepe, who built his fortune in mining and now chairs African Rainbow Minerals, appears on Forbes’ Africa billionaire rankings. Lists of South Africa’s richest remain still dominated by white industrialists today.
Mbalula used the moment to defend BEE against critics who argue the policy has enriched a connected few while leaving unemployment and inequality largely unchanged. “How do we get rid of Black economic empowerment when transformation has not arrived?” he said, casting the debate as unfinished business rather than a technical adjustment.
The comments come as pressure builds on the governing party ahead of a key political year and amid persistent frustration over jobs, rising living costs and failing public services. Disputes about BEE have also spilled into investor circles, where some executives complain about compliance costs, while labour and community groups say the rules are still too easily bypassed.
The opposition Democratic Alliance has seized on the mood with a proposal it calls the Economic Inclusion for All Bill. The party says the plan would amend the Public Procurement Amendment Act of 2024, repeal race based preferential procurement provisions and replace them with criteria tied to poverty and disadvantage.
Mbalula dismissed that approach as an attempt to weaken redress and protect existing privilege. He framed BEE as a bridge toward a more inclusive economy, saying policy tools remain necessary while ownership patterns, access to capital and senior management structures lag behind the country’s demographics.
Analysts say the fight over BEE often turns on competing definitions of success. Supporters point to new Black owned firms and expanded middle class participation. Critics counter that the benefits have been uneven, and that corruption and weak growth have limited how far any empowerment policy can go.
Mbalula offered no new legislation, but his call for more Black billionaires signaled the ANC’s intention to keep BEE central to its message. He said transformation should be measured in tangible outcomes, including more Black South Africans building large businesses, employing communities and passing wealth to the next generation.
