Top South African CEO says the ANC has condemned people to poverty

Sygnia founder and CEO Magda Wierzycka says the ANC has condemned people to poverty and unemployment because of a lack of quality education.

She shared her views on South Africa’s economy and business environment in a discussion with Lelethu Shayi.

Wierzycka is a prominent South African billionaire businesswoman, actuary, and anti-corruption activist.

She grew Sygnia, one of South Africa’s prominent ETF providers, from R2 billion in assets under management in 2006 to over R460 billion by 2026.

She is well known for being outspoken about corruption, which includes criticism of the Gupta family, KPMG, and Steinhoff.

In her latest interview, she said her biggest criticism of the ANC after it came into power is the lack of quality education.

“The ANC has effectively condemned the next generation of South Africans to unemployment,” he said.

“They have not injected quality education into the system. This means that black people have a lack of access to good education and skills.”

She said this was a self-created problem by the government. “No attempt was made to improve education,” she said.

She also bemoaned black economic empowerment (BEE), which has failed to make a tangible difference for the average South African in 30 years.

She compared BEE beneficiaries to oligarchs created after the fall of communism, where the model only empowers a handful of politically connected people.

In turn, many black people with good jobs, living middle-class lifestyles, complain that they are not on par with the ultra-rich BEE beneficiaries.

The people living in townships are the worst affected, as their lives have not improved at all over the last two decades.

“Nothing has been done for poor people in townships. They have been left out of the system,” she said.

She said that BEE, in its current form, has not made a tangible difference in the lives of most South Africans.

Others agree that black economic empowerment has failed

Wierzycka’s view that black economic empowerment in its current form has failed aligns with the views of many others, including economist Dawie Roodt.

Roodt argued that true black empowerment does not exist in South Africa because a large portion of the population remains unemployed and impoverished.

He famously stated, “It is not black empowerment when a large portion of black kids go hungry at night.”

He said true empowerment is providing people with quality education, a safe environment to live in, and essential services like water and electricity.

The government has failed to provide black people with these essential services over the last 20 years.

Instead, BEE has created a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals who are politically connected.

In his recent 2026 Budget analysis, Roodt said there were signs that marked the beginning of the end of BEE.

Roodt believes that the R100 billion Transformation Fund will replace the current BBBEE legislation.

He said this fund will offer an alternative where they can simply pay into a fund rather than dealing with complex BEE scorecards and racist forms.

“In the future, you will buy your BEE rating. Businesses will give the state money and forget about BEE,” he said during a State of the Nation discussion.

“It is a much more attractive alternative to South African businesses. It will simply become another tax.”

He said the R100 billion Transformation Fund will lead to the official BEE framework coming to an end.