Sanlam/Santam, Absa, Naspers, BHP Billiton, Pepkor, Venfin, Remgro and KWV: these companies are examples of highly successful businesses started by Afrikaner entrepreneurs during the time of Afrikaner nationalism.
Afrikaner empowerment history makes for interesting reading. It reminds one that it is possible to turn around the economic fortunes of the previously marginalised.
Afrikaners obtained political momentum when the Nationalist Party came into power in 1948. At the time, more than 70 percent of Afrikaners were rural and involved in agriculture. Commerce and industry were dominated by English-speaking white people and the Indian and Jewish communities.
The Afrikaner concentration in farming resulted in the government providing financial incentives to bolster that sector's performance, ensuring Afrikaners had access to significant amounts of capital.
When they started moving into commerce and industry, there was also a fairly significant "toenadering" (drawing together) by the Afrikaner community, which involved setting up the financing institutions that funded many successful Afrikaner entrepreneurial ventures.
All these efforts were bolstered by the 1939 National Economic Conference, of which one key outcome was the decision to launch an economic movement that would harness the Afrikaner community's resources to develop an Afrikaner capitalist class. The driving force was the desire to raise the economic level of Afrikaners as a community.
The conference decided on several measures to improve Afrikaners' economic positions. Among these were the provision of commercial and technical training for Afrikaner youth; the mobilisation of Afrikaner capital and savings for investment; and the setting up of agricultural and commercial co-operatives as well as Afrikaans cultural organisations.
The Afrikaners were unapologetic in pursuing a capitalist objective.
This unrelenting stance led to the community's prominence in the local economy. The Afrikaners amassed their resources to dominate the economy - helped by the government in putting pressure on English-dominated corporate South Africa.
An example was the pressure placed on Anglo American to sell some of its gold mining assets to what was then called Federale Mynbou, which later became BHP Billiton. This catapulted the Afrikaner stake in gold mining from 1 percent to 9 percent. When Federale Mynbou was established, a large portion of its shares were bought by Federale Beleggings, one of the first financial bodies set up after the 1939 conference.
When the Afrikaners decided to change their economic fortunes, they chose to go the route of entrepreneurship. They deliberately sought to achieve control of productive assets. They did not spend much time chasing minority stakes in existing corporate entities. Of course, one can't discount the fact that they had the backing of financial institutions run by their own people.
For various reasons, when it was time for the South African economy to more appropriately reflect the demographics of its population, we settled for transferring a 25 percent stake of the economy to black people. This does not give them control, but merely gives them a significant say in the companies they own.
This assumes there is an alignment of views or interests among the members of black consortiums. Media reports about infighting among black consortium members shows the vulnerability of black shareholders in these deals.
A typical black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction allocates 40 percent (of the 25 percent share) to the so-called black entrepreneurs, 30 percent to an employee share ownership scheme and 30 percent to a broad-based ownership scheme.
This means that real entrepreneurs obtain 10 percent in the target company. On top of this, such initial shareholding is significantly diluted over time, as a result of the funding structures. We should forget about seeing any significant level of black-owned entities coming out of this process.
In instances where black people decide to go the classic entrepreneurial route and start up businesses, they are often faced with an unsympathetic financial services sector. Federale Beleggings was set up to advance Afrikaner entrepreneurship and therefore understood the needs of its clients. It seems obvious to me that we must establish financial institutions that understand the needs of black entrepreneurs.
The codes of good practice on broad-based BEE present an interesting proposition: they say that companies should spend 3 percent of net profit after tax on enterprise development. Money from this provision can help establish a financial institution catering to black entrepreneurs.
Judging from the level of participation in public retail offers in ownership transactions, there is a yearning among the black public to find investment homes for their money. Most, if not all, of these offerings have been oversubscribed.
This suggests there could be a very healthy appetite for a collective investment scheme for black investors to fund black entrepreneurship.
Another important lesson from the Afrikaans empowerment model: when they made investments, they always ensured that when they exited, the shareholding would stay in Afrikaans hands.
In the BEE landscape today, some of the deals have clauses suggesting that at the end of the funding period, some - and in some instances, all - of the shares will revert to the company. Effectively this means that the status quo will be maintained.
Another thing the Afrikaners got right was education and training. The government of the time placed a great deal of resources in education and training of the young Afrikaner, particularly in financial and technical skills.
This equipped them to become productive employees. The job preservation policies for Afrikaners were successful because the jobs were filled by appropriately skilled young Afrikaners.
In the case of BEE, the lack of skills is much more challenging, as it affects the majority of the population; in the Afrikaner scenario, it affected only a minority.
In the case of BEE, much greater resources are needed to effectively address this challenge. Co-operation between the private and public sector will be critical if significant inroads are to be made.
While the Afrikaner government didn't overtly legislate preferential procurement, it was through such conduct that opportunities were made available to Afrikaner entrepreneurs. This is seen by the continued dominance of Afrikaner service providers in both the public and the private sectors.
The public and private sectors worked together to ensure Afrikaans entrepreneurs had procurement opportunities. Some of South Africa's biggest law firms were beneficiaries of such treatment.
When we reflect on BEE, it is important to note the monumental advances made by Afrikaners, from economic marginalisation to economic dominance, and to consider whether black people will be able to achieve those great strides within the current transformation framework.
Is a black-controlled Absa feasible or a pipe dream? What about creating another BHP Billiton? Is there a black Anton Rupert out there? Black people need to stop being apologetic about the need for transformation and become unrelenting in the bid to control the South African economy.
Polo Radebe is Identity Development Fund's chief executive and a co-founder of Identity Partners