So-called ‘black economic empowerment’ (BEE) is a misnomer in all respects. It is not about black people in general, but rather about a small black elite, it is profoundly uneconomic, and it is not about empowerment, but rather rentseeking. This is why the Institute of Race Relations, South Africa’s oldest, most consistent voice of non-racialism, has rightly taken to calling it ‘blatant elite enrichment’.