Top BEE business leader says white South Africans must feel treated like real human beings and appreciated

Saki Macozoma, one of South Africa’s most prominent Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) figures, said that South Africa has abandoned non-racialism.

He made these comments during a discussion at the 2026 National Democratic Revolution (NDR) Seminar, held on 29 June 2026.

Macozoma is well known in South African business circles as a top corporate leader and high-profile BEE player. However, he started his career in activism and politics.

He was politically active since he was young, and worked as an organiser for the South African Students’ Movement.

When he was 19, he was arrested for leading a student protest and served five years as a political prisoner on Robben Island.

There he met South Africa’s future president, Nelson Mandela, who became his mentor, the start of a lifelong relationship.

Following his release from prison in 1982, he played a prominent role in forming anti-apartheid organisations, including the United Democratic Front.

In 1994, Macozoma became an ANC member of Parliament and was elected chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications.

However, he resigned as a Member of Parliament in 1996 to enter the business world as the first black managing director of Transnet.

He became a prominent business leader and was appointed to the board of Standard Bank, and later became its deputy chairman

He was later appointed as chairman of Safika Holdings and Ntsimbintle Mining, as group chair of Vodacom, and as a director of Volkswagen South Africa.

Macozoma is also a prominent BEE player and served as the chief executive officer of New Africa Investments Limited (NAIL).

NAIL was one of South Africa’s earliest and most high-profile black-controlled publicly listed consortiums, holding significant assets.

Safika Holdings is Macozoma’s primary investment vehicle with interests in financial services, mining, telecommunications, transport, and property.

Through Safika, Macozoma has anchored numerous black empowerment consortia that partner with multinational and domestic corporations.

South Africa has abandoned non-racialism

Macozoma told delegates at the 2026 National Democratic Revolution (NDR) Seminar that South Africa has abandoned non-racialism.

“We have abandoned non-racialism. I don’t know what happened or where, but we have abandoned non-racialism,” he said.

He explained that one of the important tenets and strategies of transformation is to convince the other guy to go along because it is in his interest, too.

“Once we dichotomise this issue by race in such terms, nobody is going to be willing to support this dream of a true, non-racial South Africa,” he said.

As Transnet MD, he used to say that while he had black people who had to find space there, the white South Africans also had to know they had a future.

“The white South Africans who worked at Transnet also had to have a reason to come back to work the next day,” he said.

Macozoma said that white employees must feel treated like real human beings and feel appreciated.

“If we say to someone, ‘I’m sorry, but I’m going to move you because I need transformation,’ they must understand it. You must convince them,” he said.

Despite criticism that BEE did not achieve the transformation it aimed to achieve, he defended the policy.

“If I had not had the privilege of being a beneficiary of ANC policies, I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you today,” he said.

“I would not have had the opportunity to join the board of Standard Bank. When I joined the board of Standard Bank, I could ensure that the next CEO was black.”

“The subsequent CEO of Standard Bank was Sim Tshabalala, whom we recruited very early on.”

“If these policies were not there, that would not have happened, because there would be nobody around that table to raise these kinds of issues.”