Chairperson, Cope shall also support the Bill in front of this House. Even though it's almost 20 years into our democracy, it is still necessary to entertain a programme of corrective action for those who were previously disadvantaged under apartheid. On the Nelson Mandela twitter account this morning, they tweeted the following quote of Madiba: "None of us is a superstar and none can succeed without the success of the other".
This Bill and the codes are designed to introduce a new era of empowerment in which fronting is criminalised and with the incentives to promote the creation of black enterprises. What we should not allow is the illegal misuse of this concept to enrich the wrong ones, but we should also not hamper the entrepreneurial spirit of those who are not black and who were born after 1994.
Maybe now is not the time to do it, after only 20 years, but it must become part of a debate for the future. Black economic empowerment, BEE, should be a long-term strategy designed to ensure the long-term growth of our economy. It is a situation that is both politically stable and conducive to growth. The commitment to the spirit of BEE and how South Africans participate in it will guide its success. Nothing holds back an entrepreneur if there is freedom to get ahead, but you need time for those who were previously disadvantaged to catch up, and then only will it be fair. More wealth has been created in South Africa since 1994 than in the previous 300 years. We never realised that. However, not enough of that was passed on to black South Africans. In the 2011 census, we saw growth in the black middle class, but it is not enough. Some are calling for a sunset clause to be introduced; some say there cannot be a sunset if there has not been a sunrise. Let's hope that we soon see the rays of the rising sun over South Africa so that we can start the debate about the sunset clause and maybe conclude it in the next 10 to 20 years. This Bill might get us in a position to normalise the situation sooner. As I have said, Cope will support it. [Applause.]