Democracy is an ecosystem. Its survival is dependent on many things: a sound legislative framework, an independent judiciary, a vibrant parliament and a responsive government. Beyond this, it also needs a vigilant, proactive civil society, engaged voters and a free media: three elements that ensure government is held accountable for its actions, transparent about what it does and goaded into serving the best of interests of the people – not of those in power.
The Protection of Information Bill is one of the gravest threats to this ecosystem. It will critically undermine the ability for parliament, the media and civil society to ensure accountability and transparency in government. The ANC claims this law is to protect state security but, as many before me have pointed out, its wide-ranging mandate means it can easily be used to cover up wrongdoing, severely punishing those who dare to expose it.
Earlier this week, Pick n Pay’s chairperson, Gareth Ackerman, spoke out against the bill. He provided a calm and clear explanation of its potential to damage the economy and deter foreign investment. Financial information could be concealed, as could corruption – thereby severely stymieing the economic freedom needed to foster entrepreneurship and attract investors – both essential ingredients required to combat poverty and narrow the vast gulf between rich and poor.
While the dangers of the info bill seem self-evident, it is startling that so far Ackerman is the only significant businessman who has criticised it. The silence from the rest of business is as deafening as it is inexcusable.
When the prosperity of our economy, our democracy and our country’s future is being put at risk, you would have thought there would have been a cacophony of outrage from businesses – it is in their interest that the bill does not become law, after all. But no. Two of our biggest and most important business groupings, Business Leadership South Africa and Business Unity South Africa have not said a word. Neither have our largest companies.
What can explain this gutless behaviour: is business hoping this is a battle that will be fought by others? Or that the ANC will suddenly override its totalitarian instincts and dump the legislation at the last minute?
Perhaps a more plausible explanation is that many businesses are simply too afraid to stand up to government because they are reliant upon political goodwill to operate freely. Many businesses unquestioningly and sycophantically signed up to black economic empowerment. This was despite them knowing that BEE had little to with empowering blacks and everything to do with consolidating the ANC’s economic clout: a system designed to massively enrich a tiny yet powerful elite.
Big business thought it would get an easy ride if it cosied up to the ANC. And indeed, with loyal ANC cadres dotting the boards of some of South Africa’s largest companies, business has largely been left alone to get on with making money.
Now they’re really caught in a fix. Even if they are conscious of the long-term dangers of a law like the info bill, they are too entrenched in the ANC’s patronage network to speak out about it lest they incur the wrath of the party’s titans and lose business deals and political support as a result.
Our nation’s corporations should have been more careful when they made this Faustian pact with the ANC in the Nineties. In the afterglow of the first democratic elections it must have seemed pragmatic and sensible to cuddle up to the new snouts at the trough. But with the ANC’s non-racial values long squandered by the craven despots that call the shots in the movement now, the folly of such an approach has been exposed.
If the info bill is thwarted, it will certainly not be thanks to big business. It will be in spite of it: in spite of a group of companies that have cosily conspired with the ANC to maintain a status quo of wealth in the hands of a few, at the expense of the countless millions who remain economically oppressed.
I think you’re mistaken about who was behind that ‘Faustian pact’. Big Business did not sell out to the ANC. The ANC sold out to Big Business.
It suits Big Business to have access to foreign markets and capital, something that was limited under Apartheid. Handing over a small share of the vastly increased profits to the new BEE elite was a small price to pay.
“Many businesses unquestioningly and sycophantically signed up to black economic empowerment. This was despite them knowing that BEE had little to with empowering blacks and everything to do with consolidating the ANC’s economic clout: a system designed to massively enrich a tiny yet powerful elite.”
This hits the problem squarely on the head. BUSA and BLSA have not guts when it comes to confronting government.
Hear! hear!
Come on BB. Do you want to be known as Big Business or Betraying Bastards.
The Protection of Information Bill (POI) is long overdue and exactly the kind security reform we need to strengthen our democracy, our transparency in government and be part of the global community of nations.
Our media conglomerate has bankrolled Right2Know who sadly attempts to generate hysteria over a perfectly normal evolution of our laws. Laws designed for the protection of the state’s classified information, something EVERY democracy on the planet needs to maintain on a regular basis since:
1. The evolution of our nascent democracy, as SA takes its rightful place on the world stage after its pariah status under apartheid.
2. The recent rise of world wide terrorism, when every progressive democracy has found immense value in reviewing and evolving their security laws under this democratic processes.
3. These laws also end up strengthening our democracy by improving transparency, since it will be easier for the state establish efficient processes to de-classify information rather than being too conservative in the absence of POI.
Big business understand that to operate on a global basis, they need to have basic security policies in place because overall security is like a chain – only as strong as the weakest link.
“Democracy is an ecosystem”
Hilarious! Try organising a democracy in the dessert with no water or food resources!!
Try organising a democracy on a raft in the middle of the ocean with enough water and food for 5 days!!
You think a democracy can survive when it ignores the reality that without a commitment to sustainabile breeding and carrying capacity it can sustaint itself?
dream on… you are in la la land…
Maybe you wanna give yourself some Tragedy of the Commons; and Social Trap education ecological systems thinking additions to your ‘duhmockery’ education!
God are you people the most stupid people on earth.You watch Africa fall apart and you all stand back and watch.What a bunch of idiots.
Its not a fight its a partnership. Local big business will now be able to collude and fix prices in peace. The real winners are going to be be the foreign multinationals like shell who will be able to plunder resources without opposition.
“Democracy is an ecosystem”. so is (big) business. buysiness is an ecosystem that aims to make a profit, mostly at all costs. They cannot afford to byte the hand that feeds them for at least 50% of their required turnover. Instead, may fill the hand that feeds them (called corruption).
) or catch 22??
As in natures ecosystem, there are always parasites who live on other cpecies.
Big business today is also “nomadic” through globalisation. They move where the profit can be maximised and will be welcomed by those governments.
How we, consumers, can influence the decisions of big businesses? Try minimising your consumption level and demands to an absolute minimum.
The threat of massive unemployment will be thrown at you….but…..if you do not consume, you do not need employment do you??
Back to Adam and Eve
Matthews does not go far enough in his observations. Big business is to blame for many other things in our country, all of which affect the economy..
The lack of big business opposition to Affirmative Action, Black Economic Empowerment and the Equity Bill, (all discriminatory and based on colour – in much the same manner that the Nats. imposed their will on the people), is another reason our economy is suffering.
Big business, especially in the food wholesale and retail sectors, suffer from a disease known as “corporate greed”.
One has only to study the balance sheets of Pick ‘n Pay, Checkers and other corporate entitites to see that profits have increased, whilst the economy is in recession. (And it is not over yet!) Which is indicative of overpricing.
As to AA – what other country in the world has a programme which “protects” the majority from the minority?
How much has BEE cost our country?
And what has the Equity Bill done to the service efficiency and cost effectiveness of big business? But it does not matter. Pass the costs on to the consumer.
This is impacting on our economy and slowly eroding the wealth and well-being of our country. As we will find out in the not to distant future.
An affix makes all the difference. The rules for a sustainable eco-system & a profitable economy do not correlate. Big Business is by nature oligarchic; it espouses democracy as a strategy not an ideology. WW2 films tell of USSR coal supplies leaving for Nazi Germany days before BARBAROSSA. A highly competitive global village with distinct yet ‘legally’ malleable economic blocks requires the selective protection & not the broad based dissemination of information. On top of this our ‘Liberation’ Government still views the free press as either antagonistic or having recessive colonial influences. When Gareth Ackerman speaks of concealment harming investment he surely brushes over the subtle nepotisms factored into Pick N Pay’s own procurements & as apposed to questioning Big Business’s silence one could just as easily question Pick N Pay’s own vocalist. As for the common man a cynic would say that the information bill refines & sanitizes an already picked clean skeleton.
@Dave Harris
In theory, you and Sarah Palin should get on really well. You share similar views on the evil liberal media, getting in the way of the state protecting its citizens from themselves.
You won’t agree with her pro-capital policies, but you share her logic. A draconian bill designed to prevent the free flow of information will help transparency in much the same way as further deregulation of the oil industry will help prevent incidents like the Gulf of Mexico spill.
You both have bright futures in the Ministry of Truth.
Democracy is not business’ business, profits are. I believe that several businesses are straddling more than one continent at the moment, not merely to expand their markets, but to be able to lift the ‘South African’ foot if needs be. Have a look at Anglo’s list of assets…there were more in South America than here when I last checked. Don’t underestimate the power of JM’s words, JZ’s dithering and the ANC’s divisive policies. Mugabe’s just around the corner, with a loud, clear voice and business just wants to be left alone to follow its core function. In fact, the most likely place for them to play hardball is in the employment stakes. Why would they bankrupt themselves employing more people until they can find new markets?
I’d happily be proved totally wrong.
The answer is clear: Thanks to BEE, big business is already in the pockets of the government. Why shoot off your own foot?
Big business is itself not organised democratically. Thus support for democracy is not inherent in its nature so it is hardly surprising that it is not doing much to support democracy in society as a whole.
You cannot blame big business for remaining silent in this one party state, that is fast becoming a totalitarian nightmare. Ackerman loves face time, and being argumentative. He holds no sway, his business is almost immune to ANC punishment, and has very little to lose in the grand scheme of things. New start-ups, those attempting to leave the pit silently, and businesses already hamstrung with AA, BEE and other useless, counterproductive acronymic policies know what’s best.
Take your issue up with the real culprits here; the ANC and their sub-70 IQ voting bloc. Leave the mostly white entrepreneurial, productive business men and women out of this. They’re really doing fantastic work in very difficult conditions.
Read the ‘Dave Harris’ lies and misinformation, and blatant absurdity and illogic – censorship ‘improving transparency’. When George Orwell wrote 1984, he was thinking of someone like ‘Dave Harris’.
Dave Harris
If there is only one tree, it’s a tree, not a forest. If there’s only one fish in the sea, it’s still the sea.
Why do I tell you this, you may ask. It is to illustrate the vast holes in your logic, shamelessly displayed here over and over. Your posts make me cringe and die just a little on the occasions when I am unable to shrug it off as the blatherings of a mad fool, a lost brother.
Delusion and vapid righteousness are not virtues, no matter the turn of phrase applied.
While I’m still allowed, I want to put it out there that I sensed a cloud of shame as Orlando and the nation wept on Saturday. I can think of another day when this same shame may be too obvious and too painful to hide behind winding speeches.
Firstly, big business invented BEE and before you think it is sinister, understand that it was an emergency measure to stop a bunch of gun-toting revolutionaries that suddenly had to run a country from following through on their idiotic proposal of nationalising all business.
Secondly, a cursory reading of Miltion Friendmans seminal article to the NYT in the 70′s will highlight and important and often forgotten fact – business should be doing business and politicians should be politicking. When business starts issuing statements on politics and governments start trying to do business you get a mess. It is very clear that the two are symbiotic but their roles are clearly defined. Business needs to produce product and service with maximum efficiency to keep our economy going. Government plus opposition and civil society need to ponder legislation such as this bill.
Big business has just one purpose.
Peter Drukker was one of the saviors of Japan in the 1950s and rescued US big business in those troubled 1970s. He preached just one lesson throughout his almost 100 books. There is a nice urban legend about his death that sums it up.
A crowd of journalists were at the hospital but all were denied access. A young Stanford Student was financing his studies as a janitor at the hospital so he snuck into Drukkers room and asked him for two pieces of advice for business.
“The first rule for ALL business is survival” the great Drucker said. Drucker then explained this in some detail but unfortunately he drifted into a coma before he was finished. The student was devastated, He’d missed the second point.
He sat beside the unconscious Drucker through the night. Drucker regained continuousness at dawn. The student implored “…and what is the second rule?”
Drucker replied “If you need a second rule, you haven’t understood the first. The second rule is go back and study the first rule again REGULARLY”.
Peter Drucker died later that morning.
Pick ‘N Pay is large enough and sufficiently internationally diverse. It can challenge the state. Most other big business is more reliant on the state for their survival.
Business has enough threats under the current situation. To become an adversary of government over something that has little to do with them is foolish.
This is our fight, not businesses.
Just prior to the last General Elections, Standard Bank announced a 5 million Rand donation to the ANC. Shortly thereafter they secured the KZN Provincial account (as far as I know they may have other Provincial accounts as well from this.)
Now, Standard Bank is behaving just like the ANC miscreants by robbing its business clients with additional arbitrary fees instituted at its sole discretion.
By default then, even small business is in on the corruption, albeit against their will, while Standard Bank gets ready to retrench its next group of 1500 employees due to its internal mismanagement.
So Dave Harris is back to his old stupidities:
Terrorism is a valid excuse for cutting down on media freedom;
restricting press freedom actually improves transparency!
Sorry Dave, you are fooling no one!
Alex you are spot ons.
But the remaining old time ‘big business’ in South Africa is a handful of older Jewish retail monguls such as the Ackermans, the Susmans and some other. But in real terms they are meddling with peanuts.
The Faustian Pact bunch such as Anglo American, Old Mutual, De Beers, Investec, SAPPI, SA Breweries and many more have fled these shores.
Big Business is now the ilk of Aurora, Chancellor House, the Tenderpreneurs, BBBEE’s, beneficiaries of New Generation Mining Rights and deployed cadres.
Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!
Dave Harris on June 10th, 2011 at 6:40 pm
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Spoken like a true spin-doctor imagining his/her audience to believe in the natural goodwill and honesty of those in government (heard of Shiceka?).
Frankly, were item no.3 the case, we wouldn’t need this foolish legislation in the first place.
I had to laugh at item no. 2. Even with a fake SA passport, terrorist Fazul Abdullah Muhammed was able to enter and leave South Africa without any problem at all. Please explain how this stupid legislation will prevent a similar occurrence.
I really would love a CHANGE in BEE!. Similar to America, therefore if a Black South Africans opens a business, he get support be the local government!. And still, the majority of South Africans live in poverty, well done ANC. You have created an Apartheid between your own people, making a few rich and the rest suffer in economically oppressed. It’s a shame to be a South African