"deracialise business ownership and control." As suggested by this phrase, early stages of BEE focused on promoting black ownership of large businesses. So-called BEE transactions aimed to diversify the demographics of company shareholders. However, White-owned companies entered into these transactions only voluntarily. Moreover, in the absence of organised sources of capital, many of the black participants relied on highly-geared financing structures and special-purpose vehicles. Several BEE deals thus collapsed during the Asian financial crisis of the late-1990s. According to estimates, Black control of business had risen to about 10% of shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange by 1998, but, following the financial crisis, fell dramatically to between 1% and 3.8% by 2000. Meanwhile, the promotion of black empowerment in areas other than ownership was pursued piecemeal, especially through a series of laws including the 1998 Skills Development Act and 1998 Employment Equity Act. Expansion Amid dissatisfaction with the progress of existing initiatives, in May 1998 the Black Business Council appointed future President Cyril Ramaphosa to chair a BEE Commission. The Commission proposed a broad definition of BEE: It is an integrated and coherent socio-economic process. It is located within the context of the country’s national transformation programme, namely the RDP. It is aimed at redressing the imbalances of the past by seeking to substantially and equitably transfer and confer the ownership, management and control of South Africa’s financial and economic resources to the majority of its citizens. It seeks to ensure broader and meaningful participation in the economy by black people to achieve sustainable development and prosperity. The Commission also proposed the passage of focused BEE legislation and the adoption of an integrated national strategy on BEE, comprising a set of simplified and coordinated guidelines and regulations applicable across the economy, to be implemented by an oversight body reporting to the cabinet. On some views, the Commission was influential in bolstering support for the broader approach ultimately taken by the government to BEE. This is what sociologist Roger Southall called the "maximalist" (now the "broad-based") approach to BEE, envisaging a more dramatic transformation of the South African economy, with redistributive objectives going beyond black ownership. According to Southall, a major force behind this shift in strategy was the growing popular perception that BEE had thus far worked to benefit only a tiny black elite, a criticism prominently voiced by the influential Congress of South African Trade Unions. The stage for