Posted Sunday, May 29, 2005; 09.37 BST

	graeme williams for time Ramaphosa He says comparing South Africa's "revolution" to the Soviet Union's is "madness"

But not everyone is thrilled that the economic empowerment sought by bee is flowing to just a few people — some critics compare South Africa's new élite with Russia's oligarchs. Business analysts and unionists, black and white, question whether that is the kind of entrepreneurialism South Africa needs. "We should be building capacity and building businesses, not just buying political credibility and political access," says Reg Rumney, a director at research firm BusinessMap Foundation, who is white. "None of these guys have really built anything." Archbishop Desmond Tutu warned late last year that bee seems to benefit only a small "recycled" élite allied to the ruling A.N.C.

Still, it's an élite that has paid some dues to gain entry to the corporate world. Macozoma is a former political prisoner who became head media liaison for the A.N.C. after it was legalized by apartheid authorities in 1990. Ramaphosa is a former union worker who became A.N.C. secretary-general and played a major role in writing South Africa's constitution. (Both still sit on the A.N.C. National Executive Committee.) Sexwale, an A.N.C. military officer jailed for 13 years by the old regime for "terrorism," later became a provincial premier. (Motsepe is the lone outsider with no direct A.N.C. links, though his sister is married to an A.N.C. minister.) Businessmen with those sorts of contacts have always been valued in other countries, but in South Africa's charged environment, they have come under scrutiny. Not surprisingly, the quartet are reluctant to discuss the situation and rarely give interviews. But Macazoma and Ramaphosa agreed to speak to Time to take on their critics.

Macozoma argues that comparing the experiences of Russia and South Africa is "analytical madness." In Russia, he notes, the oligarchs snapped up state-owned assets at bargain prices; in South Africa, the new élite is making deals with private companies which are obviously profit motivated. "I find it very strange that people who profess to believe in capitalism criticize people who embrace it," Macozoma says. His work with the A.N.C. helped transform the color of South Africa's government, he says, and now he's doing the same for its boardrooms. "You need the same kind of person who was the bedrock of the A.N.C. to be the bedrock of a society that is based on a middle class. There is no way I would support a free-enterprise system that tolerates poverty. But with five or six of us spread out through the economy, that can make a difference in a very fundamental way."

As for the idea that bee has precipitated sweetheart deals, Macozoma notes that none of the new black élite "control any independent capital" that would otherwise allow them to influence corporate South Africa, and that their investments are "often at [their own] considerable financial risk." He also sees more than a touch of racism in the criticism: "It appears that white South Africans are prepared to commit class suicide in defense of the status quo. If I were a white South African, I would welcome a situation where black people join my class and take on some of my values."

Ramaphosa, who says he's let his membership of the Rand Club lapse, is also angered by the comparison to Russia's oligarchs. "That's absolute rubbish," he told Time. "None of us have been able to make headway in business riding on the coattails of government. I've been an entrepreneur from the age of 16. What could have been a business career for me was interrupted by apartheid. I started as a hawker buying and selling things. But that had to stop because there was a struggle to be prosecuted."

As for critics who claim he and other big bee players just buy things rather than build them up, Ramaphosa says they miss the point — black South Africans need to get their hands on capital or they won't be able to build anything: "First you become a financial investor to accumulate capital, because capital does not fall from the sky. Once you're accumulating capital, you begin to acquire skills and skilled people whom you can deploy in various businesses. The third stage is acquiring control of companies and beginning to be an operator, running a proper business. Part of all that would mean having capital to start your own businesses." Being an entrepreneur, he says, "doesn't just mean you have to run a business. A guy like Warren Buffett has never run a business in his life. He's the greatest and richest entrepreneur in the world. He manages money. He invests money. That's what he does."

Nonetheless, the A.N.C. has begun to rethink its bee policy. Party secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe complained last year that "we see the same names mentioned over and again, in one deal after another," and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Minerals and Energy Minister, has grumbled that white-owned companies that fulfill their empowerment obligations by selling stakes to "a few bee gentlemen" are guilty of "sabotage and neglect of the transformation imperatives." South African corporations are getting the message. In February, banking and insurance group First Rand finalized a $1.2 billion empowerment deal that will put 10% of the company's shares in trusts established for black staff members as well as poor rural women and mine workers — and not one of the Fab Four is in sight. Another recent deal put a small slice of South Africa's dominant telephone company, Telkom, into the hands of a black consortium unaligned with any of the main players. This deal was criticized, though, after it was revealed that Andile Ngcaba, the government's former director general of communications, and senior A.N.C. spokesman Smuts Ngonyama would both take chunks of Telkom.

The Fab Four also sense the mood change. After a DaimlerChrysler spokesman boasted to local newspapers last year that Motsepe, Ramaphosa and Sexwale had each bought the company's new $500,000 luxury Maybach 62, Ramaphosa announced he would sue, complaining that he did not own a Maybach. "For me it's far too much of a conspicuous display of wealth in a sea of enormous poverty," he says. "For a person to be driving a [$500,000] car to me is a bit gross." The German automaker quickly admitted it had been wrong and paid an undisclosed amount into a charity Ramaphosa established through his company to help improve poor schools. "It's almost like, 'Here they are, the Johnny-come-latelies,'" says Ramaphosa. "'Look at the type of cars they drive; look at the clothes they wear.'" I find it despicable. Because quite often black people who are succeeding in business are not recognized for what they are achieving, but for how different they have now become." Changing racial perceptions in South Africa would be quite an achievement. An even bigger accomplishment would be building a millions-strong black middle class in addition to creating a few new Rand Club members.

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