Constructing the Symbolic Agendas of Political and Structural Transformation with the Discourse of Black Economic Empowerment in South Africa

ABSTRACT By employing a critical discourse analysis and approaching Black economic empowerment as an institutionalised discursive phenomenon, this article argues that BEE has always maintained a discursive stance against the transformation of historical, structural and power inequities in South Africa. However, there is a presumption in academic circles that BEE aims to transform these inequities that emanate from the structural legacies of apartheid and colonialism. This article disputes this presumption in constructionist and discursive terms. It concludes that BEE contains corporate and ahistorical discourses of managerialism and depoliticised empowerment and redistribution that disconnect the policy from structural and political processes. These discourses structurally preserve, conceal, reproduce and depoliticise oppression and domination while running the risk of maintaining existing structures of decision-making, power and procedures in the private sectors. The article finds that primary documents such as the Black Economic Empowerment Commission Report, the Department of Trade and Industry’s BEE Strategy and the BBBEE Acts appropriate anti-colonial and anti-apartheid discourses to legitimise the legalisation, formalisation and implementation of BEE and to promote the inclusion, participation and assimilation of Black people within the existing structures and historical practices that produced racial injustices in the first place.