[happypants23]

> The real reason you can't operate in ZA is Empowerment, and what Google probably ran into. They can only own 49% of the business the start.

There's no evidence that Google ran into empowerment (BBBEE) roadblocks here. And that assertion about 49% ownership is quite incorrect. BBBEE doesn't actually work like that (1). A lot of factors go into scoring a company's empowerment rating.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad-Based_Black_Economic_Emp...

[dade_]

'Companies in South Africa that deal with the government or parastatals must be empowered as required by the Preferential Procurement Act.'

$3M USD / year turnover is a low bar these days and must apply all seven pillars of BBBEE to calculate their score as per the Generic Scorecard. - Black Ownership - 25 points - Black Management control - 15 points - Black Skills development – 20 points - Black Enterprise & Supplier development – 40 points - Black Socio-economic (SED) development 5 pts

So yeah, I need 51% Black ownership to get full points and again for management control points.

This is so racist my brain is bleeding, but it could be republished as a book on how to make a corrupt government.

From the Wikipedia article, "A general criticism can be made that wealthy and politically connected black individuals have been the real beneficiaries of BEE and not those still living in poverty. In fact, unemployment and inequality have both increased since the introduction of BBBEE policies.

In 2018 a surfacing argument is that BBBEE should be changed from a race-based policy to a policy that favours poverty regardless of skin colour. Apartheid was criticised exactly because of race-based legislation that favoured a minority based on skin colour and BBBEE once again has introduced race-based policies diverting South Africa's problems from endemic poverty to race. "