EXPOSED: The BILLIONS in ‘Black Empowerment’ Funds That Have VANISHED Into a Regulatory BLACK HOLE
A SHOCKING admission from inside South Africa’s telecoms industry has revealed a systemic FAILURE so vast it calls the entire nation’s empowerment project into question. In a bombshell interview, Association for Comms & Technology CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi pulled back the curtain on Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes (EEIPs), exposing them as a MULTI-BILLION RAND FARCE with ZERO accountability.
“I have NEVER heard of any company falling short of reaching its target,” Batyi declared, her words a DAMNING indictment of a system built on smoke and mirrors. “Who is responsible for monitoring that? There hasn’t been ANY transparency.” This isn’t just bureaucratic bungling—it’s a potential case of ECONOMIC SABOTAGE, where massive investments by multinationals are announced with fanfare, only to DISAPPEAR without a trace, with NO audits and NO consequences.
The watchdog meant to police this system, the B-BBEE Commission, is a TOOTHLESS, “volunteer-based” body forced to “go BEGGING for funding” from the very corporations it is supposed to regulate. It’s a classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse, engineered for FAILURE. The so-called B-BBEE ICT Sector Council, tasked with annual reports, has allegedly NEVER produced one. The entire oversight structure is a GHOST TOWN.
Now, Communications Minister Solly Malatsi’s new policy directive has ignited a political INFERNO, with the ANC accusing him of “undermining transformation.” But Batyi’s explosive testimony suggests the real undermining has been happening for YEARS under the ANC’s watch—a silent, systemic PLUNDER of empowerment funds happening in broad daylight.
The telecom giants—Vodacom, MTN, Telkom—are RIGHTFULLY demanding parity, fearing newcomers like Starlink could use these opaque EEIPs as a GET-OUT-OF-JAIL-FREE card to avoid real contributions. But the scandal is DEEPER. This isn’t just about fairness; it’s about a nation’s economic soul being hollowed out by a broken, unmonitored scheme where billions for the poor simply VAPORIZE.
Icasa, the independent regulator, is caught in the crossfire, not obligated to follow the minister’s order. The result? Endless delays and a regulatory purgatory that protects the status quo. The victims? Every South African promised a stake in their own economy.
This is more than a policy debate; it’s a GLARING RED ALERT that the very foundations of economic redress in South Africa are built on SAND, monitored by NO ONE, and bleeding the country dry. The question is no longer about implementation, but about WHO PROFITED from this monumental lack of oversight.
If this is transformation, then the dream of economic justice has been sold for a handful of empty promises and un-audited ledgers. The era of blank-check empowerment is over—what remains is the ROTTEN CORE of a broken system.
