Maponya Mall may be the place where the vibrant and trendy from Soweto gather to shop, socialise, see and be seen. It may also be the first black-owned mega shopping centre in SA. Yet despite the fact that the black middle class fuelled the economic boom that drove retail profits over the past two years, there are no large black-owned retailers in the mall.
Instead it's the usual collection of Edgars, Pick n Pay and Sportsmans Warehouse stores that dominate - along with a handful of black-owned boutiques and service stores.
This prompted Empowerdex CEO Vuyo Jack to wonder what happened to the black entrepreneurs who were once channelled by the apartheid government into running their spaza shops, on a small scale, and general dealers, on a bigger scale, within the townships.
With the transfer of political power in 1994, one would have expected that these entrepreneurs would blossom. But aside from the tenacious Richard Maponya, who once resorted to the legal services of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo to force the previous government to give him a licence to trade, these entrepreneurs have withered in the face of the established retail industry.
Few blacks own equity in existing retailers and fewer participate in the sector at a meaningful level of management. That's partly because consumers do not discriminate who they buy from - they want to buy the right goods at the right price in the most convenient way. As a result retailers have been a little slow to transform their businesses.
"There is no sector charter, so there has been little pressure on the retailers," says Kgau Gelo, a researcher with Empowerdex. There is also no direct economic leverage that government can use to drive transformation in the sector.
But after five years of the same story, there are now signs of progress, she says. It's mainly in the areas of enterprise development and socioeconomic development. Most companies score full or high marks in these categories. Then comes employment equity and skills development. The areas where most retailers still score poorly are ownership and management.
Some limited ownership deals have been struck, with most favouring their own staff or the local communities with which the companies interact.
Last year ceramic tile retailer Italtile concluded a transaction that transferred 10,7% of the ordinary share capital of the company into the hands of black-owned entities. The deal was worth more than R400m and involved a variety of BEE groupings as well as Italtile staff.
And in 2005 building materials retailer Cashbuild established the Cashbuild Empowerment Trust. The trust acquired 10% of the company's equity and its beneficiaries are its black staff. Massmart also has a deal whereby its staff own 10% of the company and receive regular dividend payouts.
Foschini has said that 2008 is its year to focus on BEE ownership issues. Pick n Pay is also working on a deal and Woolworths has said an announcement of a BEE share ownership scheme is imminent.
Certain companies stand out in other areas, says Gelo. Pick n Pay has recently set aside R38m for enterprise development; Foschini is doing well with respect to employment equity and skills development; Woolworths has accelerated its transformation efforts and has set 2012 as the deadline to become a level four BEE contributor; and Massmart's enterprise development project - Hot Dog Café - has resulted in the development of a number of wealthy hot dog vendors.
And lest we forget Edgars, which has done huge work in terms of staff development, among other areas, would have featured in the rankings had it still been listed on the JSE, says Gelo.
The one area with huge potential for black economic development is procurement.
With billion rand procurement budgets in hand, there should be an opportunity for small black suppliers to come to the fore. Yet it's an area that retailers say they find particularly difficult. It's either there are no black suppliers for certain products or small suppliers battle to regularly supply the high volumes required by retailers.
Woolworths is doing a lot of work on this front, particularly with small emerging farmers. The company has also gone to the extent of helping black farmers establish the only two organic cotton farms in the country. Lewis too has been proactive and during the year 40% of its furniture purchases were from BEE suppliers; most of its vehicles purchased were from a black vehicle dealership; and about 30% of its rental premises are owned or controlled by blacks.
