BEE: From 'celeb deals' to disillusionment - what must come next?

Former investment banker and Nedbank board member, Linda Makalima, remembers the days she packed her suitcases to board a bus to Johannesburg from the Eastern Cape 28 years ago. South Africa had just entered a new dawn of democracy. The corporate doors were wide open for black professionals. She was intrigued by the "sink or swim" world of investment banking and was ready to walk right into the open doors.

She had white male bankers mentoring her. There was a willingness to change how things were done, even though no one knew if they were doing things right. When South Africa promulgated the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act in 2003, she saw the sky as the limit. There was now a structure in place, not only for the white male-dominated investment banking industry to transform, but every other sector in the South African economy.

"All of a sudden, there was a framework. There were key deliverables you can pinpoint and say; you have to do it this way. And [...] I had benefitted greatly from that as a young banker," recalled Makalima during the Nedbank Top Empowerment Conference.