Contrary to the simplistic notion of SA's government officials, capital is not the problem. The problem is a poor skills base, a lack of viable business ideas and, most of all, anaemic economic growth. Fix those, and the need for yet another transformation fund tax fizzles away.

When Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau first suggested his R100-billion transformation fund, the idea was rejected outright by business groups, mainly on the basis that introducing a new tax on business was inappropriate in a time of economic stagnation. The hope was that this terrible idea had gone away.

No such luck. Tau published a discussion document this week on the proposal because "the imperative is to transform the economy through increased participation of the previously disadvantaged groups in the mainstream economy, which remains relevant for economic redistribution and the changing of patterns of ownership of means of production". (And, BTW, doesn't the use of that phrase inadvertently reveal the underlying philosophy of the whole effort?)

But the crucial thing is that the document seeks to claim this idea is not just a new tax, but actually a "partnership" with the private sector and that the fund constitutes "no additional requirements for entities over and above what currently exists in the BBBEE policy". Right.

Both of these claims are false and duplicitous, as the briefest examination of the proposal will attest. Tau's notion is that the BBBEE policy through the Codes of Good Practice requires that entities must...