NOBODY is feigning surprise that some of the black economic empowerment companies that won tenders for the R700m Ushaka Marine World in Durban have been fingered as fronts.

It simply had to be too good to be true the construction sector had already transformed so rapidly black companies could undertake such major projects.

It is proper to investigate closely the shareholding agreements of black economic empowerment firms to identify the white faces behind them.

However, why should the inspection stop there? While we are at it, I think we should pay special attention to widespread concerns that politicians are creating their own front firms which are being awarded lucrative government contracts.

Of course, it does not help that in Durban, as elsewhere in the country, the same circle of people seems to do especially well with government jobs.

The same grouping is also connected to parastatals and their subsidiaries, which will often form part of a joint venture to which this or that, worth millions, has been outsourced.

The eThekwini municipality does not hide that it wants to create the city's own Cyril Ramaphosas and we are starting to get a sense of who would be our equivalents.

There is nothing wrong with the creation of a rich class of blacks if they are adding value to the businesses they are involved in and their prosperity is a true barometer of changing economic power relations between blacks and whites in SA .

There is no doubt that the white people involved in black empowerment companies which are fronts do not only add value to the business, they actually drive it. However, I doubt if the politicians who are said to have substantial business interests add any value to its growth, other than by ensuring that lucrative deals are steered in a particular direction.

A distant relative with hardly a suitable background in a particular field suddenly emerges as a director in a high-profile black empowerment deal and no eyebrows are raised initially. However, as is the nature of these things, stories later start to do the rounds.

As people in Durban speculate about which other black economic companies are most likely to be white fronts, talk invariably drifts towards which politician has shares in which bus firm, and which mayor has an interest in which firm that was awarded an Ushaka Marine World tender.

However, there is another debate going on among the newly empowered elite.

It is about whether it is fair to penalise relatives, friends, spouses or cousins of politicians merely because they happen to be close to somebody in government.

The suggestion is that they would have been awarded those deals on their own steam that is, regardless of their connection with politically influential people.

That could be true. Yet, as stated earlier, the problem is that the same people seem to be particularly lucky.

The other side of the debate is whether it is morally proper for politicians to "facilitate" the entry of their friends or their relatives into the business world.

One view is that politicians have limited and unpredictable careers , and that they should make provision for the future by setting themselves up while they have the influence to do so.

Indeed, examples are cited of many top national politicians who moved straight into business after politics. Nobody thinks their days in political office have counted for nothing in the career choices they have made subsequently.

And so eThekwini city manager Mike Sutcliffe is correct when he says we need a closer inspection of the shareholding agreements of black economic empowerment and to expose those purporting to be what they are not. However, it is not only the whites who should be exposed.

We should be as vigorous in investigating which of our political leaders have used their positions of influence to ensure that their relatives or friends are awarded lucrative contracts.

For too long now there have been rumours about very senior political leaders in KwaZulu-Natal allegedly owning businesses indirectly or getting kickbacks from business people who win government contracts.

Let us get to the bottom of it once and for all.

It is not good for their image and it is not fair that there should be speculation about them if there is no basis for such concerns.

I presume all of us in KwaZulu-Natal cannot wait to be pleasantly surprised to hear that there is not one politician here who is involved in underhand business activities.

After all, don't we all abhor fronting?

Madlala is the editor and publisher of UmAfrika.