“ Macro-environments of South Africa : time to stop the rot , deterioration , distrust and dysfunctionality

Since the introduction of black economic empowerment (BEE) in South Africa by the African National Congress (ANC) in 2003, the impact of the legislation and its accompanying policies on the six major “PESTIS” (political, economic, social, technological, institutional and structural-physical) macro-environments in which businesses in the private sector and government in the public sector operate, has largely gone unnoticed or has been ignored. In an exploratory study using the “5 Star” research methodology, and with the aid of specially developed qualitative research adjudication matrix (QRAM), the impact of the ANC’s BEE policies on these macro-environments was investigated. Unfortunately, it appears that these policies have negatively affected South Africa’s political, economic, social/cultural and institutional macro-environments. Allegations of state capture and nefarious influences on government and ministerial appointments, poor economic performance and possible further credit downgrade to “junk” status by the international ratings agencies, increased prevalence of racism, hate speech and discrimination, and violation of the Constitution of South Africa and international treaties by the ANC government, paint a dismal picture. In addition, the country is facing unseen high levels of corruption, graft, fraud, looting, bribery, nepotism and self-enrichment in government, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and businesses. BEE can be regarded as the ANC’s “Achilles heel” in South Africa, and the political party should rather abandon this policy in order to stop the rot, and further deterioration, distrust and decay in the country’s most important macro-environments. Louis P. Krüger (South Africa) BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES LLC “СPС “Business Perspectives” Hryhorii Skovoroda lane, 10, Sumy, 40022, Ukraine www.businessperspectives.org The impact of black economic empowerment (BEE) on the macro-environments of South Africa: time to stop the rot, deterioration, distrust and dysfunctionality Received on: 7th of June, 2017 Accepted on: 13th of February, 2018


INTRODUCTION
Black economic empowerment (BEE) which was introduced by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in 2003, has affected every sphere of government and the management of businesses in the last 14 years.BEE is basically a race-based formula which prescribes preferential economic treatment for so-called "black people" (who include South African Indians, Coloreds, Chinese and others), but explicitly excludes white people.
The impact of such BEE legislation should be evident or manifest itself in one or more of the country's macro-environments if the policy is to be considered effective at all.The most common macro-environments include the political, economic, social-cultural, technological, institutional, structural-physical environments -acronym used "PESTIS".While the study which investigated the impact of BEE on these environments only covered the first six months of 2016, this year could be viewed as a rather eventful year on account of the plethora of cataclysmic events or happenings that occurred.The relevance of the research looking forward to the realization that enforced BEE compliance by government will continue to affect many of the macro-environments in South Africa -all negatively.

LITERATURE REVIEW
"Like many, I feel that the dream of South Africa sometimes feels more like a nightmare, a prolonged Passiontide, so to speak.Personal interests, corruption, private gain, entitlement, a vicious contempt for the poor and the common good, a culture of blatant lies and cronyism -and possibly worse -dominate our public landscape".
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba (April 16, 2017) The ANC, which is one of the oldest black political movements in South Africa, was founded in 1912 (ANC, 2017) and became the ruling party of after the historic first democratic election under the iconic former and late President Nelson Mandela in April 1994 (SA History, 2013).He served a fiveyear term in office as president of the country until 1999, and was succeeded by President Thabo Mbeki.The latter led the country for his first five-year term from 1999 to 2004, but only served part of his second five-year term after the ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC) asked him to step down in 2008.This was after somewhat controversial circumstances following his defeat by Jacob Zuma at the ANC's Polokwane Conference, and Judge Chris Nicholson's High Court ruling that corruption charges against Zuma were illegal because of evidence of high-level meddling in the case (Reuters, Sapa, 2008) e. preferential procurement from enterprises that are owned or managed by black people; and f. investment in enterprises that are owned or managed by black people".
The objectives of B-BBEE, according to the Act, are to "... promote the achievement of the constitutional right to equality, increase broad-based and effective participation of black people in the economy and promote a higher growth rate, increased employment and more equitable income distribution; and establish a national policy on broadbased black economic empowerment so as to promote the economic unity of the nation, protect the common market, and promote equal opportunity and equal access to government services …".
According to the mid-year population estimates in 2016 (Statistics, South Africa, 2016), the South African population is estimated to be 55.9  The above basic composition of the variables included in the macro-environment is still largely used, although different acronyms and combinations are found in the literature.The following are examples: "PESTLE" -PEST for political, economic, social, technological, L for legal and E for environment (Oxlearn, 2017); "PESTEL" -which is similar to the previous one.with the L and E switched around (Wikipedia, 2017); "DEPEST" -D for demographic, E for economic, P for political, E for ecological, S for social-cultural and T for technological (Marketinginsider, 2017); and possibly even the most elaborate, "SPECTACLES" -S for social, P for political, E for economic, C for cultural, T for technological, A for aesthetic, C for customer, L for legal, E for environmental and S for sectoral (Slideshare, 2017).
The objective of this research was to investigate the impact of the ANC's BEE policy on the six selected so-called "PESTIS" variables, with an inter-

AIMS
The aim of this article is to report the findings of an exploratory qualitative research study that used a "5 Star" research methodology to investi-gate the impact of the ANC's BEE policy on the six selected macro-environments in South Africa.
Unfortunately, it appears that these BEE policies have negatively affected at least four of these macro-environments, namely the political, the economic, the social/cultural and the institutional macro-environments, in a profound manner.

Research paradigm
The

Research proposition and assumptions
The basic proposition for the research (research problem) was as follows: The African National Congress's (ANC) and its black economic empowerment (BEE) policy have a direct and indirect positive impact on South Africa's political, economic, social, technological, international and structural ("PESTIS") macro-environments.
The assumptions underlying this research were as follows: 1. Black economic empowerment (BEE) refers to the implementation of the provisions and regulations as contained in the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act 53 of 2003, as amended by Act 46 of 2013.
2. The focus of the research was on the direct and indirect impact of the ANC and its BEE policy through major events and occurrences in South Africa from January to June 2016, and provide evidence (both positive and negative cases or manifestations) of such impact on one (or more) of the six "PESTIS" macro-environments.
3. The adjudication whether a specific event or happening was deemed to have a positive or negative impact on a particular "PESTIS" macro-environment was done with the aid of a decision matrix referred to as QRAM -Qualitative Research Adjudication Matrix (see Figure 2), which was developed for the research.Basically, it considers four possible scenarios of whether a particular event or happening is viewed as either positive or negative, and whether the response to the event is considered good or poor, in order to determine the outcome or impact on the particular macro-environment.Q1: negative event and poor response lead to a negative impact; Q2: positive event but a poor response also lead to a negative impact; Q3: negative event but a good response lead to a positive impact; and Q4: positive event and good response lead to a positive impact.
4. The implementation and application of BEE policies as provided for by the B-BBEE Act, specifically targets and benefits so-called "black people" who, according to the definition in the Act, include all population groups 5.The meaning of the words "transform" or "transformation" in the South African context refers to the implementation and application of BEE, whether the change is to ownership, shareholding, company, business, firm, corporation, enterprise, partnership, enterprise, proprietorship, tile, rights, tenure, possession, control, management, supervision, jurisdiction, rule, domination, hegemony, appointment, employment, nomination, promotion, selection, choice, office, assignment, post, opening, representation, position, opinion, view, stance, standpoint, etc., whereby so-called "black people" must represent the majority.
6. Qualitative research through the collection of secondary data sources was used and there was no empirical data generation either through questionnaires or interviews.
7. The guiding control measures included credibility (equivalent of validity in quantitative research) and trustworthiness (equivalent of reliability in quantitative research).

RESULTS
The researcher identified, on a daily basis, a total of 290 e-newspaper articles relating to the direct and indirect impact of the ANC and its BEE policy on the six "PESTIS" macro-environments which occurred during the first six months of 2016.Of these, 119 were logged for the purposes of this article.The remainder were discarded because of the sheer volume and taking the selection criteria into account, namely that the event/happening had to relate to the ANC and be associated with BEE.
For the political macro-environment, 26 enewspaper articles were captured as recorded in Tables 1A and 1B (see Appendix).Fifteen events were deemed to have a negative impact and 11 events a positive impact -of these last 11, eight, however, involved negative events, but the response to them was positive or NG (see Figure 2 for explanation).This means the majority (23) (88%) of events occurring in this macro-environment during this time were deemed NEGATIVE.
For the economic macro-environment, 22 e-newspaper articles were recorded in Tables 2A and 2B (see Appendix).Fifteen events were deemed to have a negative impact and seven a positive impact -of the last seven, one involved a negative event, but the response to it was positive or NG (see Figure 2 for explanation).This means the majority (16) (73%) of events occurring in this macro-environment during this period were deemed NEGATIVE.
For the social-cultural macro-environment, 23 enewspaper articles were recorded in Tables 3A and  3B (see Appendix).Nine events were deemed to have a negative impact and 14 events a positive impact -of these last 14, eight, however, involved negative events, but the response to them was positive or NG (see Figure 2 for explanation).This means the majority (17) (74%) of events occurring in this macro-environment during this period were deemed NEGATIVE.
For the technological macro-environment, only one e-newspaper article was recorded in Tables 4A and  4B (see Appendix).The one event was considered to have a positive impact.This means the majority (1) (100%) event occurring in this macro-environment during this period was deemed POSITIVE.
For the institutional macro-environment, 41 (the most of all the macro-environments) e-newspaper articles were recorded in Tables 5A and 5B (see Appendix).Sixteen events were deemed to have having a negative impact and 25 events a positive impact.
Of the last 25, 17, however, involved negative events, but the response to them was positive or NG (see Figure 2 for explanation).This means the majority (33) (80%) of events occurring in this macro-environment during this time were deemed NEGATIVE.
For the last "PESTIS", the structural-physical macro-environment, six e-newspaper articles were recorded in Tables 6A and 6B (see Appendix).Three events were deemed to have a negative impact and three events a positive impact.Of the last three, one, however, involved a negative event, but the response to it was positive or NG (see Figure 2 for explanation).This means the majority (4) (67%) of events occurring in this macro-environment during this period were deemed NEGATIVE.

CONCLUSION
The purpose of this research was to investigate the direct and indirect impact of the ANC's BEE policy on South Africa's "PESTIS" macro-environments.
The "5 Star" research methodology that had previously been used in a successful research project guided the research in the utilization of an exploratory qualitative research method, in which only secondary data were consulted.In continuing the research, e-newspaper articles with statements, quotations or opinions were collected and documented over a six-month period as evidence to judge whether the proposition could be accepted or rejected.A Qualitative Research Adjudication Matrix (QRAM) was especially developed to help judge whether an event/happening had a positive or negative impact; and whether the response was deemed good or poor, and thus in combination, determining the impact on a particular macro-environment.The researcher acknowledges that the judgment was mainly his, but with evidence provided in the form of precise extracts (see the motivation column in Tables 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A and 6A in the Appendix) of the particular e-newspaper article.
The ANC and the continuation of its BEE policy seem to have negatively impacted on the political, economic, social and institutional macro-environments of South Africa.However, this does not apply to the technological environment, and also on a limited scale, to the structural-physical environments.
The stated proposition in this research that the environments would be positively impacted should therefore be rejected.Importantly, the first four macro-environments above could be viewed as critical for the future harmonious development of South Africa, especially for the youth whose hopes, dreams and aspirations seem to be seriously compromised by the negative narratives surrounding these areas.
On the political side, the extremely serious assertions of state capture by the united opposition parties and the "blind" support of the ANC and parliament involving a number of scandals engulfing President Jacob Zuma are of concern.On the economic side, the poor economic performance of the country (the country demoted to third largest in Africa), and the increasing anxiety over a possible looming credit downgrade by most of the ratings agencies, are worrisome.Socially, racism has alarmingly become rife, and social tensions have increased between the different population groups in South African, not to mention fears of xenophobic attacks against foreigners, which are real.Institutionally, the undue influence exerted by the Gupta family (with their close ties to President Zuma) on various institutions of government, including the appointment of ministers, is profoundly distressing.However, the resilience of the judiciary in upholding the Constitution of South Africa of 1996, despite relentless efforts by the ANC to discredit institutions such as that of the Public Protector, is most commendable.Internationally, South Africa is no longer considered the "darling" of the world, but rather seen as the "bad boy", and the ANC, as the ruling party since 1994, must shoulder the full blame for the shameful state of the country.Finally, the failure to execute an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Al Bashir for crimes relating to genocide, says it all, as far as the first six months of South Africa in 2016 is concerned.
In view of the findings of this research, the ANC would do well to reconsider and abandon its racially inspired BEE policy.This policy has done little to effect the much needed high economic growth rate, reduce the record unemployment, eradicate the high levels of poverty and narrow the large gap in inequality experienced in the country (these three objectives are frequently cited as the government's toppriority drivers).12 Economy must not be skewed on racial lines -Zuma x NP: "President Jacob Zuma says the economy of the country cannot be skewed in favour of one racial group and should be shared by all … the economy of our country must not be skewed along racial lines".

APPENDIX
13 Anthea Jeffery: Punitive EE fines are another Oliphant job-killing disaster x NP: "Labour minister … companies fined R1.5m or 2% of turnover … for failing to meet their racial quotas under the amended Employment Equity Act … ordinary black South Africans, only 7% of whom endorse the EE Act".
14 Collaboration between govt, labor, business paying off -Zuma  PG: "The collaboration between government, labour and the business sector to rescue the country from possible downgrade and to stabilize the economy is starting to bear fruit".
15 Black business left out for generations, says Zulu  PG: Small businesses are beginning to take their place as the engine of the economy but are catching up from generations of being left out in the cold, Minis ter ".

16
SA no longer 2nd largest economy in Africa on weak rand x NP: "The latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggests that South Africa is now only the third-largest economy on the African continent -behind Nigeria in first place, followed by Egypt".17 White people do not control SA economy -analyst  PG: "White people do not control the economy of South Africa, that is a myth, analyst Moeletsi Mbeki … this notion that there has been no change … or it is superficial … was a narrative that was being perpetuated by the ruling party". 18 Zuma "a danger to SA's economic stability" x NP: "The single most serious clear and present danger to South Africa's shortterm economic and political stability has a name: Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma".

19
"Is there an ANC group that wants SA in junk territory?"x NP: "Could it be possible that there is an interest group inside the ANC and government that actually wants the rating agencies to push us into junk territory?"

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Qualitative Research Adjudication Matrix (QRAM) national dimension in each variable where applicable.The six areas in the South African context are further described as follows: Economic environment: This includes the economic activities conducted by government, institutions, SOEs, businesses and enterprises in the country, whereby the available resources are used in an attempt to meet the needs and demands of the participants.The following concepts and terms are associated with this environment: economic growth rate, gross national product (GNP), GDP per capita, inflation, monetary and fiscal policies, interest rates, taxation, employment, exchange rates, balance of payment, foreign direct investment (FDI), etc.Social-cultural environment:This includes the social conduct of people as members of multicultural communities and the use of their language, their practice of religion or non-religious beliefs and values, as reflected in the demographic composition and geographic location of people of the country.The following concepts and terms are associated with this environment: demographic changes, age improvements in access to sanitation and the reduction of carbon emissions.On the negative side, concerted efforts were made to extend the nuclear program, which is deemed unaffordable, and the poor management of piped water and water-related infrastructure projects amidst a state of disaster being declared in most of the country's provinces because of drought conditions.
BEE, which is policy legislated by the ANC, is purely based on race."Blackpeople" are clearly defined in the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, B-BBEE Act 53 of 2003 (and tem still more difficult to criticise for fear of being labelled a racist or apartheid apologist".She further argues that "… the racial foundation of BEE has had other consequences too … it has breathed new life into the [concept of the] Population Registration Act of 1950 [appealed by the statute of 1991 by the former National Party government, which was the government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994, when it was replaced by the ANC], under which all South Africans were previously classified as African, Colored, Indian and white"(Jeffery, 2014, p. 25).vants".However, alarmingly "… it [BEE] has also fostered a toxic mix of inefficiency, waste and corruption that frequently causes great harm to the 19 million poor South Africans …", of which "… the ations pertain to the political environment: (1) the opposition party's condemnation of the loss of integrity within the ANC and designating President Jacob Zuma as a "cancerous lump"; (2) the opposition parties and the ANC's own alliance partner's (the SACP's) assertion of state capture; (3) the ANC's apparent new emphasis on creating racial division in the country; (4) the ANC's support for President Zuma, despite the Public Protector's findings on the misuse of state funds, and the opposition parties outrage over the improvements at his private Nkandla homestead; and (5) the ANC youth league's emotive threats and utterances of "civil war".

Table 1A .
Political macro-environment (January-June 2016) NP: "… the ANC is facing its most frustrating conundrum since it was formed … it sits with a powerful president who is like a cancerous lump that has metastasised over time … the whole body has itself become the cancer".11DividingSA on race is all ANC has left -Zille x NP: "… the ANC had performed so poorly that all it had left ahead of elections was to divide people along racial lines … the former leader of the DA".12 Don't defend Zuma, defend the ANC -Mantashe x NP: "ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe … said those wanting to defend the ANC should defend the party first, not its president".13ANCdoesn'towncopyright to struggle icons -EFF  NG: "These are icons of our struggle and can't be monopolised by anyone, including the ANC and the family".25Youcan'tengagewith the ANC through violence -Zuma  PG: "President Jacob Zuma on Saturday said that if people wanted to engage with the party they couldn't do it through violence ... your methods of engaging with the ANC cannot involve violence, burning of property and looting".26ANCworried about Zuma effect on elections -MMC x PP: "The ANC is worried about the effect President Jacob Zuma will have on the party's performance in this year's elections … president needs to consider the impact he has on our country".

Table 2A .
Economic macro-environment (January-June 2016)  NG: "The Banking Association of South Africa, which includes all major banks in the country … must be clear that 'state and corporate capture' is a euphemism for blatant corruption MD Cas Coovadia".10 Whites have owned economy for too long -Ramaphosa x NP: "Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised black business that government will spend billions on Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) in the coming years … we are going to intensify B-BBEE".11 African Bank must pay for "mess" -BEE partner x NP: "Someone has to pay for the mess at African Bank, one of the beleaguered bank's black economic empowerment partners … can't create a precedent in South Africa that it's okay to go about recklessly with shareholders' money".

Table 3A .
Social-cultural macro-environment (January-June 2016) Mr. Zuma, you and your Government don't represent me.You represent your own interest and I am warning you.""One day, we will start praying for the defeat of the ANC Government.You are disgraceful".White South Africans should … try and understand and acknowledge the pain and humiliation that apartheid caused black, coloured and Indian people … black South Africans must show greater sensitivity to our history".Leaders in South Africa should shape up … negative defining moments … the shootings at Marikana, President Jacob Zuma's home in Nkandla, the case of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, and Eskom's load shedding".The Department of Tourism has referred allegations of racism by the owner of Sodwana Bay Guest House to the South African Human Rights Commission for investigation … to take immediate action".

Table 5A .
Institutional macro-environment (January-June 2016) The key contribution came from Mosiuoa Lekota leader of COPE … Zuma has admitted to the highest court in the land that he has broken his oath of office … Zuma may legally no longer serve as the President".
NG: "The Constitutional Court has given President Jacob Zuma just over three months to pay back the money for some of the upgrades to his Nkandla homes tead ".

Table 5A (
cont.).Institutional macro-environment (January-June 2016) The Constitutional Court on Thursday handed down a precedent-setting judgment that both President Jacob Zuma and the National Assembly were in breach of their constitutional obligations in the Nkandla matter".Parliament has not been advised correctly, and the ANC caucus would now look at the quality of the advisors … we gave an impression that what we did was correct, the court has set aside that resolution of Parliament".In its continued defence of President Jacob Zuma, the ANC Women's League (ANCWL) took aim at his detractors in an open letter on Wednesday; specifically Public Protector Thuli Madonsela".The High Court in Pretoria has said the decision taken by former NPA head Mokotedi Mpshe to drop corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma in 2009 was irrational".President Jacob Zuma on Sunday criticised 'political opportunists' who would wreak havoc on the country … some desperate elements seem hell-bent to promote anarchy and chaos".President Jacob Zuma will be addressing empty benches in Parliament … he will be addressing mostly ANC MPs, as Cope, the UDM, FF+, NFP and DA have decided to stay away".Government should have approached the banking regulator instead of the individual banks over the closing of the Gupta family's accounts …government should have approached the SA Reserve Bank instead".28ICC:SAnot off the hook x NP: "South Africa would not be absolved from dealing with the consequences following its decision not to arrest Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, even if it was to act on its threat to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC)".President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday insisted in Parliament that he knew nothing about the business dealings of the Gupta family … Why should I have a view about if it must be investigated or not?" President Jacob Zuma told Parliament on Tuesday that he had never lied about the upgrades to his home in Nkandla … the government came to build … the amphitheatre, cattle kraal, chicken run, and the swimming pool".NG: "National Assembly Speaker … rejected claims that her decisions in Parliament were personal because of her close links to the ANC … the Speaker or any presiding officer to maintain order and make sure there are orderly proceedings".32Wedon't want blood in this house -ANC  NG: "The ANC does not want to see anyone dying in Parliament, or blood to be spilled, the party said … has called for more stringent security in Parliament".The Supreme Court of Appeal said on Friday that Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema's statement that the ANC government had massacred Marikana miners was not unparliamentary".The SABC's decision not to broadcast footage of people destroying public property during protests should not be seen as censorship, the ANC".There is no justification for the burning of schools and property, ANC President ... placing the blame squarely on relatively small bands of anarchists and agent provocateurs".Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has approached government for additional resources … investigation of President Jacob Zuma's links with the Gupta family … in order to investigate complaints about alleged state capture".The debacle involving Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir showed South Africa was unsure of what it stood for anymore … allowing an alleged human rights violator and war criminal into the country without arresting him".Guptas have received no indication that they are being investigated for state capture … followed the ANC inquiry that found the Guptas had not captured state resources through their friendship with President Jacob Zuma".PG: "The High Court in Pretoria has dismissed President Jacob Zuma's leave to appeal its decision that he should face corruption charges".Zuma and the National Prosecuting Authority's application for leave to appeal … he should face corruption charges was dismissed by the Pretoria High Court … must have his day in court as he has always claimed he wanted".ANC spokesperson … called SABC acting CEO Jimi Matthews's sudden resignation disingenuous and [cowardly]… Matthews's resignation was a ploy to create instability at the public broadcaster ahead of this year's local election".