An increasing number of companies in South Africa are using poor black people as "fronts" in order to get a slice of the government's Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) contracts.
This is the view of Protas Madlala, Chief Executive Officer of the eThekwini Business Development Centre, an opinion that is shared by many, judging by the strong public reaction to a recent Wednesday Mercury expose about "fronting".
The Mercury reported that the eThekwini Municipality had cancelled a contract after accusing Durban IT company Collaboration and Knowledge Business Systems of using an employee, Africa Dube, as a front.
Several people contacted the newspaper, saying that they too had been victims of such abuse.
It emerged that BEE companies in the cleaning sector had asked KwaZulu-Natal Premier S'bu Ndebele to intervene because their more established counterparts had formed front companies.
"BEE companies are being sidelined because of corrupt individuals, and we want the government to put a stop to this practice," said Soonil Pandy, who runs a cleaning company.
A Durban woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told the story of a disabled friend in Richards Bay who was being used to secure government contracts in the construction industry.
Madlala said that, although BEE contracts were intended to be a tool to fight poverty and accelerate the integration of black people into the mainstream economic activity, affluent white companies were taking advantage of the loopholes to enrich themselves.
"Fronting is not only a problem in the informal sector, but is widespread in construction, cleaning, security and recently in the IT sector," he said.
Madlala said fronting was difficult to detect because big companies moved swiftly to cover up, by either paying the individuals big sums of money or threatening them with dismissal.
"Our experience has taught us that people who come to us to report fronting always come back to ask us not to pursue the matter, because they have been given money or threatened with dismissal," he said.