I'm sure we've all heard many arguments for and against BEE, some of the things that we hear more regularly (at least us whities) go along these lines,

Government strategy has created a tiny black elite! Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) favours rampant crony capitalism! BEE is just corporate trickle down to the black middle class! Black empowerment is no more broad-based than Jacob Zuma’s bank balance!
Those are the opening lines of the M&G article, "The uneasy logic of black empowerment," by Roger Southall.

There are two things that I think are worth highlighting, firstly,

But the logic of BEE also has a considerable downside. ANC theory envisaged a growing black capitalist stratum as “patriotic capitalists”, marching unselfishly to the party drum and spreading their wealth around their historically impoverished communities. Yet upwardly mobile capitalist classes don’t act like that, particularly within a consumerist culture which emphasises ostentatious display and the virtues of getting rich quickly.
Essentially the theory is that we are all patriots and will use out money/power/time/etc. to empower out communities. Put black people in positions of power and the natural flow will result in broad-based empowerment.

Secondly,

BEE remains a necessary political project. Leaving white capital to transform itself is like asking the devil to convert to Catholicism. But the challenges are immense: can a well-intentioned but under-capacitated state shape a socially responsible capitalism, or is BEE creating an avaricious class of black capitalists tied to the coattails of international capital?
I have to agree on that comment about white capital transforming itself - without external pressure would it have ever happened?

So here are some of my own random thoughts and questions....

If black people are at the top, are they more likely to appoint black people underneath them? In a way that is what is implied, but in reality, does a black entrepreneur appoint another black person, or just the best person?

What incentive is there for the business owner to be "patriotic"? There are tax benefits for certain training actions, and donations to certain PBOs. In reality, how many people make use of those?

If you had the opportunity to reform the BEE setup in South Africa, how would you do it?

Assume that we want to move towards a country were each person has equal opportunity, and that not everyone has had equal opportunity (as is the reality of where we currently are). Why would people be motivated to follow your scheme more than the current one?