Originally published 16 May 2023.
The short answer is: “Most probably not.”
During the Future of Empowerment conference held in September 2015, the then deputy director-general of the Department of Trade and Industry, Mr Sipho Zikode, said that only approximately 10,000 Chinese people in South Africa were eligible to benefit from black economic empowerment programmes.
When South African citizens were subject to race classification during apartheid, Chinese people were classified as “coloured” and suffered the disadvantages of apartheid legislation.
As reported at the time, the relevant group consists of Chinese South Africans who were present before 1994—not people living in China generally.
Accordingly, if a person is ethnically Chinese and can prove descent from a Chinese person who was classified as coloured during the apartheid era, that person may fall within the applicable definition under the B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice.
This article provides general information only. Individual circumstances and current legislation should be assessed before relying on a classification.