Abstracts

26 economy. In 2013, South Africa scored 0.651 for economic participation; in 2020 that score had decreased slightly to 0.649 rather than showing any improvement (WEF, 2013). Policy in South Africa has sought to address and meet this need by introducing specific stipulations and frameworks to bolster women empowerment; yet, since thesechanges,women’sempowerment has been stagnant. Moving forward with the continued implementation of BBBEE, there is a need for gender equity regarding economic empowerment. The challenges facing women’s empowerment initiatives correlate closely with the challenges facing the entirety of the BEE agenda. Comparative Analysis—Malaysia As the South African government moves forward with its implementation of BBBEE and the quest for equality, it can look to other socioeconomic restructuring programs for models to emulate. As one example, the New Economic Policy (NEP) in Malaysia is a similar transformation agenda that also sought to redistribute wealth and economic power to the majority population group. The bumiputera of Malaysia share challenges similar to those of HDSAs. 2 Malaysia’s population by racial groups when NEP was adopted in 1970 was 55% bumiputera, 34.4% Chinese, 9.1% Indian, and 1.5% others. Comparatively, South Africa’s population by racial groups at the end of apartheid in 1994 was 76% black/African, 13% white, 9% colored, and 3% Indian/Asian (RSA, 1996, p. 5). In both cases, the respective affirmative action policies sought to restructure economic involvement and ownership among the disadvantaged majority population group. The NEP, instituted from 1971 to 1991, and its successor, the New Development Policy (NDP), adopted in 1991, provided beneficial growth and change to Malaysia’s economy. Overall, the real GDP growth rate was 6.7% annually from 1971 to 1990 and increased to 7.0% annually from 1991 to 2000. In addition to economic growth, the country experienced a reduction in income inequality as denoted by a decrease in the Gini coefficient to 0.443 in 1999 2 Calvin W. Floyd (2019) provides an excellent summary of the Malaysian bumiputera case. for the entirety of Malaysia (Economic Planning Unit, 2004, p. 14). There also was considerable restructuring of economic involvement of the bumiputera population, a key goal of the NEP and NDP programs. Malaysia and South Africa’s affirmative action agendas differ in their implementation. While South Africa has created a legislative framework and codification through the BBBEE Act and other policies, Malaysia enacted a “discretionary, executive order” carried out by its ruling party (Lee & Mondi, 2018, p. 233). Malaysia’s process consisted of intense restructuring of state-owned enterprises and the nationalization of many foreign companies. South Africa did not follow a similar suit due to global pressures as a result of its recent emergence into the international market in 1994. Consequently, transformation in South Africa has occurred at a much slower pace than the streamlined, government-dominated transformation in Malaysia. Another key difference betweenMalaysian and South African policy is in the landscape of higher education. Malaysia “operated a highly centralized admissions system,” whereas South Africa’s was autonomous and decentralized (Lee & Mondi, 2018, p. 235). This education system paired with a stronger presence of qualified bumiputera enabled Malaysia’s more effective shifting in management roles compared to South Africa. Aside from these differences, South Africa and Malaysia both struggle with governance management of state-owned companies’ operations. When comparing the results of the varied affirmative actions in each country, the most salient difference is the rate at which change occurred. As South Africa continues to lag on its own timeline for transformation, it can look to Malaysia for potential solutions. At the same time, it would be naive to think that the transformation in Malaysia can be exactly replicated in South Africa, given the complex differences in history, global perception, and sociopolitical environments. An important aspect of affirmative action policy is the presence of an end date at which goals have been met and government action no longer is required: “Exit strategies, or transitional plans toward less overt ethnic