Inner Empowerment As one ponders over the state of black economic empowerment over the last ten years

in this heritage month, it has been quite a ride. This became very evident in my interaction with black entrepreneurs and their white partners when evaluating their BEE contribution. The seemingly wide gap in their engagement in their business became a cause of concern which was heavily depressing. A missing link in this BEE puzzle is that of inner empowerment. Inner empowerment is the basic foundation and precedes all types of empowerment. This concept of inner empower can actually be determined and measured through the inner balance sheet which consists of inner assets and inner liabilities. The inner assets are internal resources controlled by a person that results in the inflow of positive inner resources to the person. Examples of such inner assets are positive self esteem, confidence, awareness, integrity, love, prior experience, special skills etc. These assets are a critical foundation of inner empowerment. For example without a positive selfesteem, confidence and awareness black people going into BEE deals would not recognize the inherent value they bring to the deal and thus would not be able to leverage that to get favourable terms in the deal. Without the integrity asset there would be no congruence in the thoughts, words and deeds of the parties to the BEE initiatives. This just highlights some of the values of the inner assets. The inner liabilities represent the outflow of inner resources from a person. Examples of such liabilities are fear, doubt, worry, guilt, anger, etc. Fear is the mother of all inner liabilities because it can stop meaningful contribution to BEE due to its ability to replicate itself in a myriad of ways. Both black people and their white counterparts are assailed with this liability as evidenced by the myriad of protection clauses in shareholders agreement, as well as the undue encumberances that are sometimes placed on black people in a majority of these BEE deals. It may be economically justified to have such protections but it demonstrates the underlying theme of fear quite starkly. The other insidious inner liability that rears its head, especially in black people, is that of doubt. We as black people most of the time doubt our abilities and intuitions to the extent of attempting to validate them with other people at all times. These doubts poke holes at our confidence and self-esteem which makes us susceptible to participate in fronting and in clearly unsustainable BEE initiatives. The inner liability of guilt that sometimes racks our white brothers and sisters may be counterproductive to the final outcome of the BEE initiatives if done as result of that guilt rather than the genuine interest to contribute meaningfully to the BEE process. Inner assets minus inner liabilities equals inner equity. When the inner assets exceed the inner liabilities, then there is positive inner equity and negative equity is a result of the inner liabilities being more than the inner assets. If I want to have higher inner equity, I have to maximize my inner assets and minimize my inner liabilities. It is close to impossible to eliminate inner liabilities completely but they may provide some good leverage to maximize inner assets. For example some fear may be a good propeller to major achievements. What does this all mean at the end of the day? Without higher inner equity President Thabo Mbeki would not have stood up in Parliament and gave his I am an African speech which

resulted in the rekindling of the African Renaissance spirit and led to the establishment of NEPAD. Without higher inner equity the illustrious contribution to BEE by Ma Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka would not be possible at all. Without a high inner equity the achievements by Herman Mashaba, Mark Lamberti, Nthato Motlana, Brian Joffe, Bridget Radebe and other illustrious entrepreneurs would have been a figment of our imaginations. The bottom line for the robust and sustainable contribution to BEE is that all the participants in the BEE process must have higher inner equity for this process to work. If we took a look at the current BEE initiatives and link them to the level of inner equity of the people behind the initiatives, the results would be telling indeed.