Black people constitute 87% of the economically active population, yet just 9% of CEOs are people of colour. Sixteen years ago the country was liberated through a protracted negotiations process that began way before political prisoners were released in 1989. The people of South Africa gained political freedom, both black and white. Unfortunately economic liberty was not so readily available for millions, but for the political elite it was. They were in perfect positions to take advantage of the situation. No one should blame them for it.
Nelson Mandela once said, “We do not want freedom without bread, nor do we want bread without freedom.” Unfortunately millions have freedom without bread. A select few have freedom and bread in abundance. Having said that we cannot overlook the fact that with liberation we also gained the right to make our own bread, sell it and run the bakery. However the man running the bakery and making the bread is still white. I can already imagine someone calling me anti-white, implying that I am saying white people have no business running businesses. That is not true, as the Freedom Charter says, “The people shall share in the wealth of the land.” It doesn’t say the blacks.
There is no denying that the economy is in white hands. Given the choice to give up political power instead of economic power, most would give up the former. The politics of today are controlled by money. He who has the money can buy politics.
One cannot fault the white CEO for not wanting to relinquish his position to a person of colour. He too worked for many years to ascend to that position. While this CEO was working hard to make his way to the top there were other equally ambitious white people who were working just as hard to be the chief in charge. What does that mean? It means that there was a larger pool of well-qualified white people to run large corporations. In the meantime black people were studying Bachelor of Arts, and were teachers and nurses and doctors. Black people were not exposed nor allowed to study certain professions. Yes, I’m blaming apartheid, sue me.
Suddenly liberation was won. Men and women who had worked hard all their lives to run companies started hearing murmurs about affirmative action, they were fearful of losing their jobs. Some hired black talent but never really transferred skills because of the natural human instinct of fear — if I teach him everything I know he is going to push me out and I will no longer be needed because I am a white male. This means people of colour don’t ascend as quickly. They feel sidelined, disgruntled and, demotivated, quit and become Tenderpreneurs. Tired of fighting what they think is a losing battle, they leave what they see as racist corporate South Africa behind. These are just some of the reasons we are in this position.
If we take a look at the Freedom Charter which is the basis of our much-praised Constitution. We read the following, “We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: that our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities.” The truth is we do all enjoy equal opportunities since liberation but some have to fight ten times harder than others to even have a sniff at the opportunities.
In 1998, then Deputy President Thabo Mbeki opened a debate in the National Assembly on “Reconciliation and Nation Building”. He delivered a speech that made many people angry. He said, “A major component part of the issue of reconciliation and nation building is defined by and derives from the material conditions in our society which have divided our country into two nations, the one black and the other white. We therefore make bold to say that South Africa is a country of two nations.
“One of these nations is white, relatively prosperous, regardless of gender or geographic dispersal. It has ready access to a developed economic, physical, educational, communication and other infrastructure…
“The second and larger nation of South Africa is black and poor, with the worst affected being women in the rural areas, the black rural population in general and the disabled. This nation lives under conditions of a grossly underdeveloped economic, physical, educational, communication and other infrastructure. It has virtually no possibility to exercise what in reality amounts to a theoretical right to equal opportunity, with that right being equal within this black nation only to the extent that it is equally incapable of realisation.”
It has been twelve years since Thabo Mbeki said those words. Twelve years later 91% of CEOs of some of the largest and most influential companies in the country are white. Many saw the speech as being divisive, as opposed to constructive. It made many uncomfortable.
I read an article that slapped me in the face yesterday. A survey conducted by Business Unity South Africa found that among the upper management echelons of all 295 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), 91% had white CEOs. Nobody can truly say this is right — after all it has been more than fifteen years since we were liberated. Some say that precisely the reason that 91% of these companies have white CEOs is because we have ONLY had sixteen years of liberation. There aren’t qualified people of colour because of the time frame.
Therefore there hasn’t been enough time to develop nor groom black talent in that space of time. A reasonable comment. Saying that the ANC had no experience running a country and needed a lot of time before it would be allowed to run a country made common sense. We didn’t listen to what would have been “common sense”. Sometimes common sense slows things down. Had we taken what Dr Martin Luther King Junior called, “the tranquilizing drug of gradualism” the black person would still have no vote today.
Nobody is saying that incompetent people of colour should be made CEOs because that would prove those who want to say blacks cannot run large corporations right, and would defeat the purpose. We have competent black CEOs to speak of right now; the Sizwe Nxasanas and the Phuthuma Nhlekos of this world running multi billion rand corporations. More needs to be added to their number.
This issue of white corporate South Africa needs to be discussed; it can’t continue to be swept under the rug. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “Our strongest weapon is dialogue.” Let’s talk, and once we’re done talking let’s act.
163 Responses to “91% of CEOs are white. Shocking.”
Fair points Khaya - your last point is critical - making sure there is open dialogue.
While 16 years isn’t even one generation, it would be nice to know that we’re making progress. There’s no doubt this is a problem, but using JSE statistics is not representative since there are far more smaller private companies that contribute a whole lot to our economy [and therefore to society]. Do you know what the ratio is for private companies and cc’s? I would hope those look a bit better.
One failing that needs to be addressed now is education as we are moving backwards rather than forwards. This is a big problem for many countries so we’re not alone in it. But we’re definitely need more success in this area to change circumstances.
The other key area is creating new businesses [and more value for the whole economy] by encouraging and facilitating entrepreneurship - something I hope that employment equity isn’t discouraging by offering big salary packages that possibly incentivise talented youngsters to take comfortable jobs instead of creating them. We need to set up our best people [of every race] to do amazing things! If they do amazing things, I believe we’ll see amazing changes in SA.
You express your outrage at the fact that 91% of CEOs are white, then concede that it’s reasonable to believe that this is because 16 years is too short to groom black CEOs. So then what exactly are you trying to say? Where do you propose we find ‘people of colour’ with the experience required to run a JSE-listed company?
And your statement that whites somehow withhold training from blacks out of fear is completely unsubstantiated. Please explain where you get this from.
I really didn’t expect someone of your calibre to spout this kind of racist crap. Very disappointed.
It takes boldness and courage to rise such issue in a white dominated media. I wonder how did you manage to get this article to be published. Many blacks writers for thoughtleaders are so confortable in their privilaged positions blasting everything black to please the white master to such an extend that they forget the real plight of the black people.
I’m glad that at least you finally came to your senses and realise that after 16 years of freedom the career progression of black people is not advancing. Why? because of whites resistance to change.
I don’t believe again that the failure of public sector is due to the incompetency of black people. I place the blame squarely on whites relactance to be involve and assist to build and improve the public service to better serve the people of South Africa. Their main wish is to see this sector fail so that they can boldy say yes we told you so, blacks can’t manage. How would you explain a situation where whites form associations and pay for their municipal rates in private trust accounts? Isn’t part of the strategy to make municipality bankrupt?
The situation in public sector is different to that prior 1994. The pool the sector is suppose to service has almost tripled and the cake is still the same. Contrary to apartheid era where the cake was large and the beneficiaries few.
The words of Stephen Grootes are quite instructive, you’ll find:
“One of the problems with our current employment situation is that if you’re black and not progressing as quickly as you would like, you will blame the fact you’re black. If you’re white and in the same situation, you’ll blame affirmative action. The real answer is that you’re just crap and you should get off your arse and do some work. Race is used too often as an excuse, as a headline-grabber, as a shield, as a sword and as a card.”
That being said, I do wish the dialogue would move away from “representitivity” to “opportunities”. The former leads too easily to meaningless tokenism. The latter lends itself towards a more permanent solution.
One of the reasons is reaping the rewards of “liberation before education” that was shoved down the throats of most Blacks. Sixteen years after liberation most blacks still receive an inferior education to most whites, what happens at the bottom filters up to the top - this is true everywhere on earth.
Black pupils/learners started the liberation of the country in the 70’s, were used by the ANC/SACP as the shock troops that then eventually blew Apartheid away in the 80’s. Thus the ANC/SACP owes the past generation of black students big time and the current ones just as big.
Every massive journey starts with the first step (which should have been in 1994) but must start now in terms of what should be done to lift black education to levels equal to all other groups.
Get moving to morrow and at least save this generation of black students for the better of the whole of SA in the future.
Isn’t it interesting that after the “2 Nations” speech by Mbeki in 1998 not much as changed? Isn’t’ it interesting that after the article “The Invisible black professional” by Wiseman Magagula not much has really changed corporate SA?
Khaya you say “Some say that precisely the reason that 91% of these companies have white CEOs is because we have ONLY had 16 years of liberation. There aren’t qualified people of colour because of the time frame.” And I don’t agree, most comments I get to read and the sentiments shared by whites South Africans and some coconuts is “It has been 16 years already and we should get on with it and stop trying to regulate the corporate world”
And wow I respect your closing paragraph, it is very true, but as always some people will say it is devisive. Let the talks begin….
i was waiting for this. and i knew it would be you that would bring it up.
it’s funny that you read the business report article regarding the lack of black and female executives in jse-listed companies. did you also read the article related to length of time someone stays at big companies?
on another website, people were complaining about how white senior managers should be mentoring black underlings who arrive in their companies. but if they want to, with the caveat that they must be in the company for x amount of time before being groomed for bigger and better things?
my father used to complain all the time about that. he’d bring someone in who he thought would be a good fit to groom, only to see this guy bolt [or woman have a kid and then decide not to come back]. and then he’d have to start all over again.
i think of my friend, headhunted to be the cfo for a company. between the time he finished university in 2000 and the time he started his cfo job on 1 march, he has worked for exactly ONE company. ONE. it was a major reason why he was headhunted for the job, actually.
besides, 15 years is long enough for black entrepreneurs to have brought their companies from scratch to the jse table. that’s the *real* shocking thing, not the “whitey hasn’t advanced us” bit.
Khaya, its not just “shocking” its %$#^@& disgusting!
“Yes, I’m blaming apartheid, sue me.”
I cannot understand why some of us continue to walk on eggshells meekly around apartheid apologists and denialists. Are we so indoctrinated? We should learn to speak out directly against injustices of the past - the effects of which are STILL with us today and will be for generations to come.
The facts point to the previously advantaged have been running rings around AA since 1994. Remember, unlike the Nazis, they had plenty of time to put in place strategies and organizations to protect their wealth and privileges, so don’t be too surprised that transformation is moving at such a snails pace!
Khaya, I like your article - I like it because you have carefully raised an important question without pointing any fingers. You haven’t said ’shame on you’ to anyone for the highly skewed CEO split. It therefore is a prime piece to start a debate.
The 295 listed companies you refer to are accountable to investors, often global players, who are incredibley sensitive to how a company is run, often to an irrational extent.
Let me tell you now that these investors are too clever to be racist / favouritist / nepotist - any type of ‘ist’. Sure, cases of these exist in pockets but ultimately - investors will see the right person in the job - not only at CEO, but in all executive positions. Watch how appointments to the board affects a share price.
Why are investors favouring white people in these positions? Because there aren’t enough better black candidates who are presenting themselves, putting themselves into the right places at the right times. Being a CEO is not about being a technical wizz, its about being a great leader. My observation is that the MANY young black people of CEO calibre do tend to go the BA route, and rock around in media / funky socialite (and perhaps somewhat counter-economic) circles…
The economy is something we need to participate in. It runs on global and local trends. It is not something we can design around our own unique SA circumstances (apartheid). We need to buck up and fit in as global players.
My contribution to the dialogue, is that in my white culture, CEOs arrive at that position by and large, through demonstrated talent, years of experience and living in a society which, by and large again, rewards demonstrated ability. see link to Charlene Smith’s column; http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/charlenesmith/2008/01/03.
“CEO of Tsogo Sun, Jabu Mabuza, last year told young accounting graduates that a human resources director told him “that HR people are spoilt for choice when they seek to appoint someone. There are so many people looking for work. He said that having a degree doesn’t mean you can do the job; all that it says is that a person can complete an assignment. There is more to work than donning a gown and saying I graduated.” Mrs Mabuza is Director at KPMG
Becoming a CEO is a long process. While the top is white dominated, the entry levels are black dominated through AA. Those that benefitted from apartheid the most are still sipping gravy (with their new buddies, the new elite, whose rich spoilt kids are the new AA benficaries). Sick of distorted-AA young whites are ramping up the economies of the US, Canada, UK, NZ. I’m happy the push happened, it’s nicer here - no bars on the windows, very little AIDS;), merit promotions with no agendas, clean beaches, economic and social stability, clean streets and the same climate.
I hear you Sipho, I wrote something similar her on Thought Leader 2 years ago. In that piece I said that blacks are suspicious of whites and whites are suspicious of blacks. Of course I said it better on the blog.
Your piece reminds me of a company in Brynston infested by old White racist males who are very against transformation and unfortunately dying without imparting the vast knowledge and skill they possess. They continuously dangled a job opportunity on me until l gave up. Here is to a Long Walk to Economic Freedom.
It’s a tricky situation. If we’re to find most black CEO’s from the set of well-connected ANC cadres…we’re in trouble, no?
I mean, the good ones are taken. Now we have the ones who were young in 94. Those ones aren’t CEO material. They have the car(s) and the Breitling, but there’s something lacking in subtance.
Tell you what - put your money where your mouth is. Invest your money only in companies where 87% of the management are black.
As a foreigner in SA, I’m baffled by the fixation on skin pigment types when it comes to economics.
By trying to promote the chances of ‘blacks’ you need to use apartheid-type classifications. Is a child of a poor white man and woman black, would he qualify for affirmative action? Indians? Chinese? Cape Malays?
I would think that it’s more important to put programmes in place that aim to educate and elevate poor people, regardless of the skin tint they happened to be born with. Measuring who is poor and who is not is a much less risky business too.
Any black man is perfectly capable and entitled to start a bakery and bake bread. Why he does not do this and prefers to be employed by the bakery owner is the issue.
But Khaya surely CEO positions should go to the best-qualified, rather than the person with the most pleasing colour to the majority? Unfortunately it’s undeniable (and unavoidable, given the skew in education prior to 1994) that whites are still in the best position to hold those top jobs.
I can’t agree with you more. Phuthuma Nhleko is simply the best CEO in SA. Why the hell aren’t there more like him? Why are the role models of black people politicians (often corrupt) rather than great CEO’s like him? Why are ALL the civil servants black and ALL the professionals white? It’s a disaster. There should be no job reservation in the civil service for blacks, and none in industry for whites. And above all - politicians must get OUT of the economy and give talented black people the chance to be the REAL leaders of tomorrow.
Khaya I think this was well written, fair and rational. I agree with you. I may be white, but if I imagine, as a white person, bringing up black kids in South Africa, then it hits home quite dramatically how hard it is for black people to thrive in South Africa still.
It seems one of the greatest challenges we face in this country is one of attitude. As long as fault is always looked for and found externally, the solution will always be elusive. The only way for more black CEO’s and leaders of Business to emerge is for people of colour to go out and grasp those opportunities. Start the companies..climb the ladder…be more ruthless, more ambitious, develop more drive. I am sure there is still a glass ceiling in the corporate world but one thing the corporate world rewards more than anything is profit and competence. Stop blaming and looking for excuses and start working. A glimpse of the A list of super achievers will reveal two overriding traits. Outright determination and hard work. Now stop sitting on your arse….
@Puzzled:Skills are still being hoarded in the corporate world. e.g i know of a company whose black/coloured employees,were of the understanding that one can only attend one company-financed short course per year. While the remainder knew that you can attend as many as you can handle, so long as they are job related.
In the words of some bright spark (probably my alter ego)
“just because i have never experienced(touched/saw/heard of/felt) it, does not mean it does not exist”
Education needed: What’s qualifies a geographical piece of land as an homeland again ?
Here’s something for you to ponder over: Most businesses do not survive for more than 10 years. South Africa has been an open society for over 16 years.
ANYBODY with a bit of initiative can register a company and become a CEO. This is how the CEO’s got there in the first place.
So please stop blaming white South Africans for the black South Africans lack of initiative.
South Africa is severely economically underdeveloped. It should really have many times the number of businesses and corporations (and CEOs) that it currently has given the size of its population. If we grew the economy by increasing the size of the pie rather than merely redistributing it, then obviously more black folks would be in positions at the top. For no matter how we divide it, there is currently still not enough pie to go around! Even if 100% of CEOs today were black, there are still not nearly enough black CEOs as we should have! This of course requires a long-term project of skilling and educating the population. If we invested in first-class education and vocational training, all the rest would eventually follow: reduced poverty, increased employment, better healthcare and housing, and even a larger % of black CEOs - for all these are symptoms of lack of education, skills, OPPORTUNITIES. It is criminal that we don’t have a better education system today, because we are underskilling and undereducating our future work force, and undermining our future economic potential. If I were president, I’d push this issue above all. In Asia, the economic “miracle” we see today is the fruit borne from half a century of pushing excellence in education. I don’t see why it couldn’t or wouldn’t be the same in SA. This kind of policy will pay dividends in the future.
I may be in the wrong business, but I have been working for 30 years and I have never seen anyone being ‘groomed’ for a position. What I have seen is people who excel in a position they are qualified for and learn by watching and listening to those with experience. Then get promoted, take up the challenge of the higher position with their own knowledge, hard work, research, creativity and initiative - and so they climb the ladder to the top. Yes, now and then people are simply favoured, but they almost always fail at the top or leave the company when they’ve messed up.
I believe we will all agree that it goes against human nature to groom someone to take over your job so that you can go on forced early retirement.
We should rather talk about loyalty. Employees should be loyal to a company which allows them to be creative and encourages and rewards their intitiative at an appropriate level and in small steps - allow them to make little mistakes and learn from that at a level where it won’t bring the company down. To the talented young black employees, stay with the company, don’t job-hop because you are chasing money.
I echo what so many have said - we have to give it time. It is happening all around us (if not, I have not idea who is driving all the expensive new cars I see on the roads!)
Firstly I thought you wrote a good article Khaya and I’m glad that you have provided a platform for this type of discussion.
Initially my reaction to your headline was somewhat negative, from my perspective as a white South African. As I’m sure most white people will see it as some form of discrimination. Sure some blacks may see that as laughable, but every person must ask themselves this question at some point in their lives: “What kind of future will my children have?”
In the US parents would say to their child: “Someday you could be president…”. But in South Africa, the political landscape looks bleak for a white person……could I honestly tell my children that they could be president of South Africa someday?
People will always fear things they don’t understand, that’s why when apartheid ended most whites feared what would happen to South Africa, we never grew up with you….we were two worlds colliding.
So when a white person hears the headline you wrote above, it becomes understandable why white people react the way we do. We fear what’s around the corner…..one day we may have to tell our children that even aiming to be a CEO will be an impossible task…….this is when the incentive of emigration comes into play.
White South Africans could one day be saying: “one day you could be the UK Prime Minister….”
How we solve this problem? I cant begin to fathom….
I took a look at Barloworld’s website. Barloworld Logistics, if you remember, caused an enormous stir by appointing a black Chairman of the Board, and then appointed Mr Trevor Munday as deputy Chair. This appointment caused a furour in the black empowerment community and after a couple of months, of this, Mr Munday resigned.
Munday joined Barloworld’s board in January 2007. He was deputy chief executive of Sasol Ltd and also chief financial officer of that company. From 1996 to 2000, he was managing director of Polifin Ltd, which was listed on the JSE before being acquired by Sasol.
Ntsebeza joined Barloworld’s board in 1999. He is a lawyer, having been admitted as an attorney in 1984 and to the bar in 2000. In 2005, he was appointed as senior counsel by the South African president. He is also chairman of the Desmond Tutu Peace Trust and a Nelson Mandela Foundation trustee.
Munday was pushed out because he was white; he was called the ‘Nanny” appointment. Look at his qualifications compared to Mr Ntsebeza who was Chair of a NGO foundation’s board, and a trustee of another’s.
And a bit more about Trevor Munday, formerly Independent Non-Executive Director: ABSA Group; Independent Non-Executive Director: ABSA Bank; Member: Exco, Sasol Group; Trevor has worked extensively overseas and has carried responsibility for businesses in the USA, Europe, China and Southeast Asia.
All that experience gone from Barloworld. Shame eh?
Usually I don’t waste time reading blogs, but I find myself reading yours on a disturbingly regular basis.
However, do you realise that listed companies are effectively governed by its shareholders. With the massive BEE schemes of most listed companies, the black contingent has a significant vote. Your 91% of CEOs are effectively at the disposal of their shareholders - so where does the economic power exactly lie…
oh, and nother thing: if the anc would stop destroying the country for a few minutes, maybe blacks would be a bit more credible as people who can be trusted to actually organise something.
just look at the state of the roads, hospitals, home affairs, sabc, eveything.
you are destroying the place but you want to destroy it even more ? with my tax money then used to make lavish lifestyles for the destroyers?
but the ideological stance of the black man, as per this article, remains, even when the facts on the ground stay the same. no ability to learn whatsoever. vote anc and destroy everything. it i happening right now !!!
rather use your writing energy to encourage blacks to become educated, work hard, learn from existing structures: i personally teach, employ, assist as many previously disadvantaged as possible. they love it and are grateful. they are on the ground, not in the clouds like journalists whose currency is ideology.
True analysis and if we do not deal with this situation now I fear for worse, when people become impatient with the situation and riot. Most liberals black and white would have us believe that the few BEE’s are the real problem to black economic situation. They take/use money meant for all of us mainly for themselves yet hear we are talking about cents that drops from white man’s pocket whenever he gets back his change.
A white man’s position in SA economy is the most powerful 91%, do we honestly believe that these very people who stood to oppose our liberation could suddenly find within themselves some courage to share, I doubt it. They keep it to themselves, their generations. Until we bend their hands like we did politically nothing will happen.
Since the 1960s - even at the so-called ‘bush universities’ (Zululand, etc) students had free choice with regards to the subjects they could take.
They chose (get this) sociology, political science, law, economics) A mere handful went for the natural sciences. Now why would that be?
The whites who started their own businesses on the subcontinent of Africa didn’t worm themselves into existing ’structures’ and ‘demanded’ a share of the pie. They built their own damn pies!
Get off your butts, folks, and show the world that you’ve got what it takes. After all, a communist is someone who has abandoned all hope of ever becoming a capitalist.
@Sipho: Well said! Tokenism + political apppointments are the reason why we see the country still burning due to lack of service delivery. Shareholders have moved up a generation and as much as we want them to remember what the Madiba generation went through to acquire freedom, let’s be realistic! They want to make money! Socialism / Communism never added any wealth (never mind service delivery) to a majority. In fact it never even contributed to their welfare!
Fair point, how ever you argument that white woman are prosperous is a load of rot, woman across the board earn a whole pile less that there male counterpart of the same qualification and experience. and no offence i honesly think 16 years is not really long enough time for a person to accent to the head of a multi national company anywhere be they of any colour. lest assume for a person who desided in 1994 to studdy something buisness related. thats 5 years if you inclued, an honour or masters, which i do, and then an nba which say a working father would take 2 to three years to complete . that’s like 7 years study. and then you still need to gain experience, exposure, learning. I’ve currently got 5 years learning in 2 years i’m no where nearly ready to run a large firm of anything. i’ve bearly mastered the basics of the job.
The problem with your thinking still lies with the fact that “somebody owes somebody something for nothing” and the duly elected government continue along the same line. Although they have had ample opportunity to prove via Transnet, ACSA, Eskom etcetera that they can appoint the good black CEO’s, it has proven exactly the opposite. So forget about the “somebody owes me something syndrome” and then the focus of all black people will be on themselves and they will be able bodied CEO’s. Until this happens the black CEO percentage may increase but only to the detrement of all people in RSA. Focus people, Focus!
Unfortunately for us darkies, we shoot ourselves in the foot. The few black people that hold positions of power simply do not perform. If you complain you are told that you are not patriotic. The service levels at black owned companies compared to white owned companies speaks for it self. The houses that we build for our own people put us to shame and don’t start me on the schools, simply nousiating. While you have a point and you are correct in your assesments, we must also take responsibility for the ills that we are inflicting to our poor.
When people do get those positions, the corruption is unbelievable and they don’t even have the sense to hide it. They just throw it in our faces as if we are stupid and the sad part is that they are sure we will vote them back to power to continue the business of the day. I am truelly sad at the children who have to go to the township schools!! The children!! We have lost it completely
Why all the fuss? Beat the white man at his own game! Don’t wait for hand outs because they will never come. The only place that you will find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm. There is no colour to being an entrepreneur as the only things needed are the ideas, the willingness to risk all that you have, the drive and the need to work your butt off. Some are lucky and they inherit, others build from nothing but very few get 70% shares in companies that they know nothing about. Gary Player once said “Its funny how, the harder your work, the luckier you get”.
Extra ordinary people - ‘entrepreneurs’ work from 5 to 9 whereas ordinary people work for 9 to 5 and they get their unions to reduce that work ‘load’ even further. Never ever compare a 9 to 5 wage, 5 days a week, to a 5 to 9 wage, 6 to 7 days a week.
Work extra ordinary hours and expect to receive extraordinary wages/pay. Today people want to start at the top and stay there. It’s only like that for a very few ANC fat cats. The rest of us have to climb the mountain.
Fabulously unemployed on March 5th, 2010 at 9:03 am
@Khaya and Jumbo Jet
We have a “mixed” economy, and the JSE listed companies operate in an ostensibly free market economy.
The person who becomes CEO needs to be the best available for the job, and if he does not perorm, the shareholders will vote him off the board at the AGM.
The world of corporate business is a cold and unforgiving place.
The public sector is entirely different - there is effectively “job reservation for blacks” in place.
I have no doubt that there are plenty of capable, skilled and qualified black people that could successfully run these SOE’s. The problem is,most of them will never get the opportunity - the top positions are reserved for party loyalists that lack the neccessary skills, experience and qualifications.
The argument that the apartheid era public service only catered for 4 million whites, not 47 million South Africans is rubbish - this could only possibly be true for one or two departments.
The cliche that says that the first step in solving a problem is to acknowledge its existence is true in this case - denialism may make you feel better, but it is not going to solve the problems - er, sorry - “challenges”.
The public service is hampered by many underqualified dishonest and incompetent managers and leaders.
A major part of the solution to our countries “challenges” is to vastly improve access to and the quality of education.
I fully support COSATU’s call for much improved access to quality education.
What is a CEO? Very often, it is someone who is supposedly in charge of a holding company which is actually under the control of a larger company.
The grim fact is that your figures probably understate reality. People who are often represented as black business leaders, like Sexwale, are ultimately taking their orders from the people who really own their companies and who are white people abroad.
Then again, while it’s shocking, it’s also not surprising. The deal was that blacks could get to vote for the government (and thus be blamed for anything that went wrong) while the whites who controlled the economy would continue to control it.
Note, by the way, that this doesn’t mean that South African whites are in charge of the economy. Most South African whites aren’t in charge of anything except their fantasies.
The 91% statistic is of itself highly misleading; would it help the debate to say that 100% of the leaders in the public broadly business and economic sector are black? Would it add nuance to the debate if we were to further add that almost all, and certainly all of the large entities in the public sector are so poorly run that they have had to run cap in hand to the taxpayers for over R260 billion over the past few years.
Statistics then are a very poor start for a rational debate.
A better starting point would be that any deviation from the appointment of ANYONE on other than the grounds of merit carries cost implications for that entity, and for the country as a whole. We need to think very long and hard where we advantage one individual at the greater cost of all employees of that entity and the broad mass of taxpayers.
Axiomatic to the argument is that the views of taxpayers, the backstop payers of last resort, should be paramount.
The 91% statistic is of itself highly misleading; would it help the debate to say that 100% of the leaders in the public broadly business and economic sector are black? Would it add nuance to the debate if we were to further add that almost all, and certainly all of the large entities in the public sector are so poorly run that they have had to run cap in hand to the taxpayers for over R260 billion over the past few years.
Statistics then are a very poor start for a rational debate.
A better starting point would be that any deviation from the appointment of ANYONE on other than the grounds of merit carries cost implications for that entity, and for the country as a whole. We need to think very long and hard where we advantage one individual at the greater cost of all employees of that entity and the broad mass of taxpayers.
Axiomatic to the argument is that the views of taxpayers, the backstop payers of last resort, should be paramount, for both the public and private sectors.
The real miracle here is that we have 9% people of colour running big companies with only 16 years of proper experience. Not only does that indicate progress but also the ability of white corporate to take a long term view.
If you want the short term view that radical change brings, just look north. As impatient as you may be, the gradual slow transition is the only way to do this without strife, war and economic collapse. Government knows this as does big business and that is why we have BEE instead of some wholesale swap of white for black. It happened in the parastatals. Eskom, SABC and the rest are a hive of curruption and maladministration because of this radical change in short time and collapse of structure.
So, while I truly do understand the impatience and urgency, this article is basically sensationalist and emotional. Were you able to remove your emotion, you would see quite clearly that things are progressing really well indeed and that in 50 - 100 years, with some care and good governance, the utopian society you envisage will prevail. The price for that future society is extreme patience for black South Africans and disenfranchisement and racial, apartheid-style restrictions for white. Not pretty for either side so just before you start whining because of you victim status, realise this affects both of us and you trivialise this at your peril.
Who cares what the silly whities are doing. Go out there are start your own company! Do you think all those huge corporations in Zimbabwe, the Congo and Sudan were set up by whites!
The biggest obstacle to Black corporate advancement in post-apartheid SA has been affirmative action. Rather than a system whereby previously disadvantaged people have been offered preferential training opportunities, the current system of AA forces corporate “transformation” based largely on race and numbers, completely undermining the basic principles that underlie fair success and advancement in a corporate, social, or any other environment. It was always destined to fail in the long term.
While many previously advantaged people in various economic spheres were initially well-prepared to contribute to training programs designed to overcome to education and training deficit that previously disadvantaged people faced, the manner in which AA has been implemented - threatening the job and business security of the previously advantaged rather than encouraging them to train others - has resulted in their first reaction being one of defense. 16 years is more than enough time to train business and other leaders. If the past 16 years had been spent *training* previously disadvantaged people, rather than *placing* them in positions they are not emotionally or technically prepared for, they would be far more capable contenders in the corporate world.
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Promote fisherman training and you empower and uplift the whole society. The powers behind affirmative action need to focus on the latter if they hope to bridge the great divide between social, economic and corporate classes in South Africa.
OK. So now the tertiary institutions are open to all race groups to choose whatever careers the want to pursue. Remember, the post Boer War Afrikaners suffered the same ‘apartheid’ in business when the majority of CEOs in those days were predominantly English. If today’s students, irrespective of race, stop their bickering (strikes)
at a drop of a hat and concentrate on achieving their tertiary goals, then just maybe they can find themselves in CEO positions. No learn, no earn.
Why surprised !!??…The bounty which resulted from the exploitation of black labour as a means of production over the last 75 years are still sustaining white dominance in SA society in all spheres…What’s new?….We should ask the question are we doing enough to facilitate change..
I did put in another response which seemingly has been “censored”.
I did express my disgust at this kind of perpetuating
(1) the perpetuating black/white counts,
(2) using these counts to suggest that the “previous disadvantaged” (=black) have still not managed to get ahead despite all legislation in their advantage.
(3) insinuations that whites are keeping out blacks on racial grounds only.
(4) ignoring the fact that many public companies have been run into the ground by their black CEO’s and management.
I have begun to stop feeling sorry for the “previously disadvantaged” as many do not pull up their socks and get to work on their own advantage. Luckily I did meet many PA’s who are equally p’d off by being thrown into the same pot of poor victims of history.
Khaya it is difficult to understand what you are getting at. Why is so important for blacks being in one of the 295 ceo positions, what about joining a company and working your way up. Why! Or why not start a new company, surely 16 years some thru ANC education should have produced some new ideas. Tell me rather why Eskom, Telkom and the parastatals are 97% black. You do not like sharing. Lastly, on your question of whites not sharing information. Come on man, use your logic, it works like this; if i am a white man and i teach a black man the job i will lose my job. Now why will i have my family suffer so that you can sit pretty. I think this article is racist and you have a very big chip on your shoulder I think that you are unable to cut it in the business world. The only way you will grow is with AA.
Your comments are so tipical. it fits the sterotypes perfectly! You have AA,EE,BEE and a host of other protections. Your children have almost automatic acceptance to tertiary education, while my son, who made the grade and then some, could not go to study Engineering. Do you people want everything on a platter? Clearly so, if I look at the latest spate of campus roits.
Becoming a CEO takes hard work, dedication, business accumen, leadership, drive and vission. The title is not given to you mahala! There is a reason why Mr. Ramaphosa, Sexwale and Motshepe made it big, they have what it takes.
Stop standing with cupped hands, get of your backsides and start working! I deal with many tallented youngsters daily, who have potential. Only the handful that dropped the chip of the shoulder will reach the achievements in 20 - 30 years time.
The reason that the world just went through a crisis is due to poor ledership. Your “concerns” will only ensure a next crisis.
The transformation [or lack thereof] to date has been about the white upper class buying black political elites to keep things the same. It is more of a class issue than a race issue.
Your comments are condescending - what about the black elite that has also forgotten the real plight of the black people?
Just how long do you want for black people to advance? Another 16 years? I’m asking, as my 2 kids will be leaving school in 16 years, and if there’s no future for them in SA, then it’s better for me (and my family) to leave SA now…
I do believe that the failure of public sector is due to the incompetence of black people - even Minister Shiceka said as much when he mentioned cadre deployment to the municipalities was the last dregs that couldn’t cope on national level!
White rate payers only started withholding their rates and taxes when delivery fell apart, not before… It’s a response to the problem, not the reason for the problem!
Their strategy isn’t to make municipalities bankrupt - they already are! They just want to fix the potholes, streetlights, etc, etc that the municipality should be doing, but isn’t because of corruption, nepotism and theft…
And your analogy is more apt than you think - the cake has remained the same size - as the people paying rates and taxes are the same, yet they want to roll out services to 3 times the people! Even basic math skills will say that isn’t possible. More people should pay, so more people can get!
And at least this form of protest action does not involve destruction of property!
nationalisation is the only weapon of uplifting the black people. opening new business will require another 7 decades and the quation to be ask is by who?by what? and where? in my big eyes, natioonalisation should be the key area for black people to utilize on.we must remember that every natural resources belongs to the people & it should utiles by way of nationalisation.thats my views!!!!!!!
Demographically, more than 90% of suitably qualified people are white and less than 10% of suitably qualified people are black. So the demographics fit perfectly. Your argument is based on false or misleading statistics.
A good white CEO will do more for black executives (and for the majority of the black population) than a bad black one. He will create wealth for the country and drive profitable and efficient companies, where black (and white) professionals can prosper and be groomed. The fact of having a black CEO only benefits 1 person in the world - that same CEO. The only people with vested interest to make a media fuss about this this are the few ones that aim to grab these CEO jobs by reasons other than merit. They are a minority.
Also, white CEOs does not mean lack of transfer of economic power. That is ignorance. Look at a country like Angola where all the whites left in 1975, when their lands and companies were confiscated and given to black Generals and politicians. Nowadays, Angola is back to probably 90% white CEOs there, many of them hired by these same generals and potiticians to run their multimilion dollar companies as the best recruitment alternative. CEO’s, like any technical professional, is about competence and education.
Dear Mr. Khaya Dlanga, if you really think it is about colour, you should prove it in your real life when such choices realy affect you: would you take your dying child to the best doctor you can find (even if he is white) or the the best black doctor you can find? If it is option 1, please be consistent in your writting.
The only way of addressing the issue of systematic exclusion of black people in the mainstream economy is through legislation. The current BEE has drawbacks, so we need to refine it in order to can realise the objectives it purports to achieve. I am however not puzzled by the resistance by white people of this country to prevent blacks from penetrating the economic landscape, these whites are the very people who abused us 16 Years ago. For their thought process to shift, it will take time. all of these can be achieved if they show firm commitment and that other black people stop sucking up to the whites as its disgusting, i really dont understand why blacks are too apologetic.
I believe blacks should have been encouraged to start up their own companies - oh wait that happened, and I see them delisting all the time. Why cause you cant just put someone at the helm and say…’run a company do a job’.
An interesting survey might be to find out how many black empowered companies have survived?
Nice one Khaya. What a terrible shame Mandela’s words have become something akin to the sayings of Confucious … only appreciated for their wisdom long long after the time has passed.
@Khaya - fair enough, but only if you can please give me an accurate definition of “blacks” and “whites”
In a free market, those who aspire and work will achieve, given equal opportunity to do so. I do not believe that the current CEO’s owe anything but education to the next gen CEO’s. Pass on the knowledge of how, the rest must come from the next generation. No-one appreciates and looks after things that was acquired too easily. Metrorail, Eskom, SABC are stunning points in case.
I actually expected more of you.
If 91% of the people of colour did the hard work and absorbed the knowledge and experience, there would be almost no white CEOs. It stands to reason…
Only about (and I haven’t checked the stats) 60+% of Matriculants pass. Find out the proportions of Indians, whites, coloureds and blacks. That’s the starting gate. The Indians mainly fly to the top.
And don’t give me this apartheid crap. I’m tired of it!
Nelson Mandela was a lawyer, way back when. He was allowed. At about 19 (1970), I worked with a black chap who was doing law at the University of the North. He was allowed.
These are two men who worked hard enough to make their dreams come true.
Why are there so few black estate agents? Not because black people can’t get there, but because black people often prefer to lease their old home rather than sell.
Why so few black insurance brokers? Because black people generally forgo insuring their bling.
Black people have always been allowed. White people started their businesses and made them grow. Go ahead! Proved your value or start your own. You aren’t short of a market!
PS: a suggestion to Mr. Dlanga on a more interesting and useful research and corresponding article title: “__% of the CEO’s have not been competent. Shocking.”
I don’t think 9% Black CEO representation should come as a shock. Let’s look at the profile of a typical JSE-listed company CEO.
He is between age 45 and 55, a graduate of Wits or UCT, has professional training as a CA or engineer, and has a career spanning 20 years in various positions at other blue-chip companies.
How many Black people you know fit that profile? Maybe 5% of the population? Okay, so the 9% doesn’t defy logic.
Question is: what are we doing about it? Do we have a crop of Black CEOs in the making who will fit the profile by 2020?
I would love to know whether the statistics are more representative among smaller non-JSE companies.
The bottom line is Lyndall’s point - transformation will be achieved when Blacks own, run and grow businesses, thus creating jobs.
Um Lyndall honey, Botswana was never a homeland. Besides, I don’t see the relevance of homelands to this topic.
Firstly I would like to say, I have been waiting for you (Khaya) to write an article. And I had anticipated a light and fluffy artictle. But glad that you wrote about this issue.
I work for a JSE listed Company, and I am the only black persob in my department. When we have transfer knowledge sesions they are conducted in Afrikaans or people go gather in the smoking area to go go discuss strategies. So I realsied that I would never even be a team leader in this place, and not because I lack ambition, but because I will never be upskilled to a level beyond where they want to keep me.
And I am sure people wonder what am I still doing there?
The black elite is as much to blame as their white counterparts. It shows that BEE does not work. If we had no BEE every appointment would have been on merit, not jobs for unskilled blacks. Public companies have shareholders to satisfy and strangely enough Khaya does not even mention the word. How many blacks are shareholders in those 250 companies? Without shareholders there are no companies, white or black CEO.
It would only be shocking if these white CEO’s were appointed above a better black candidate solely on the basis of race.
Unfortunately there is none of that. Companies see in a non-racial colour - the colour of money. The colour of the CEO is irrelevant to the board who votes him/her in. There is no opportunity for a non-state enterprize to mess about with “letting a CEO grow into the position.”
What you’re seeing the logical result of Apartheid. Whites have more experience than blacks and it will take time for blacks to catch up en mass. What doesn’t help aspirant blacks is the chronic job-hopping as Tito Mboweni pointed out. In general, it is very difficult for companies to hold on to excellent black talent. The companies know this so become reluctant to invest in them because experience tells the company that it will be lost when the head-hunters arrive.
The whites in general are more static and stick around for years in a company. That’s why most CEO’s are white.
Nothing to do with keeping blacks out of the economy, just finding the best way to make money. It would be best for blacks to stop complaining and prove white detractors wrong - and there’s only one way to do that, and that’s the long, long, hard way.
By the way, your statement about the economy being in white hands is wrong. You forget the State…
I will not learn or pass wodworking 101, I will simply await my turn and when the time comes make my “disadvantaged” status known, flash the race card and demand the CEO`s position. If i don`t get it i`ll get everyone to strike and/or maybe light a few fires until such time as I do. Then i`ll embezzel a few million, while giving my friends all the contracts they need. Once the company`s collapsed, i`ll move on to the next one, he he he
I don’t have the answer to this - SA’s most pressing problem. Make no mistake, we must not only TRANSFORM the economy we also need to GROW it a point that most ignore. However it saddens me to see that many of the actions taken by the current government are so similar to the actions taken by the apartheid NP in 1948 - packing the public sector with one’s ‘own’ ethnic group, preferencing people based on race not individual disadvantage, valuing loyalty over competence, a culture of collectivism rather than individuality, and growing a costly, inefficient and burdensome state which crowds out any space for entrepreneurs and small businesses, and is a drain on the economy ensuring low growth for ever and ever. There must be a better answer than simply to repeat the mistakes of the past.
These things take time, you can’t expect most CEO positions in SA to be occupied by black people in what is a relatively short period of time, 16 years is nothing! It will happen, just give it time. My dad studied part time at university for 6 years, eventually graduating cum laude in Engineering, he then had 20 years of work experience before becoming a CEO. Years of very hard work and experience led him to that position, it didn’t just fall in his lap!
A white person or any race other than black Africans ascend and pull theirs with them but a black African ascends and blocks his brothers. Now tell me how you expect the numbers to increase with such mentality?
I have read the BBBEE Act and the glossary where I am still to find this EE code whereby if you are a black African via naturalisation post 1994, you do not qualify as an EE. I guess it must be taken then that BBBEE has a shelf life whereby the kids born post 1994 should not qualify and hence the time needed to train really becomes irrelevant because the status quo shall be maintained.
I think when policies are being implemented, people should ensure it aint shot in the foot! How can it be justified that a black African who was not allowed to immigrate into South Africa pre-1994 due to apartheid now becomes a citizen because his soul is South African being told by the whites that you aint white and by the blacks that you aint black either because you became one of us after freedom?
In the mainwhile, the whites hire and promote their brothers from wherever no matter when they became brothers.
Yeah lets talk but why looking at the big picture…Xenophobia must die. Maybe those who were in exile should speak up more in defense of their brothers” rights!
@Maphoko, I think the author should be concerned about in black Africa, only .5 of one per cent of all the world goods are produced in black Africa. In SA, since 1994, the food production is going down and not up. African leader are asking white to come to their countries to farm because the black Africans refused to farm. If I start a business and want to be the head of my business why can’t I be the head of my business. The author of this article should be asking why there haven’t been one bank founded by blacks in SA since 1994 or other businesses. Not those BEE deal that’s all BS.
Instead of these silly soapies that teach only fantasy, why not make educational soapies that actually teach how and how not to run a business? (SADTU would probably strike because children would actually be educated.”
Also, those out there who says anyone can start a business, bollocks, you forget the capital and daddy’s business contacts that make it easy for some to do so. When you are a woman, forget about borrowing the capital unless you actually have influential friends and family. “It’s not what you know but who you know” (and are prepared to brown nose) I’m afraid counts as much today as it did 20 years back. The whole race issue is just to distract the have nots into missing the big picture.
An interesting article. Thank you. I think there are many factors which are not taken into account here. Firstly these CEO’s come from a very long culture of learning etc. One could say that they brought this with them to SA. Learning a new culture is much better when the people who are doing the learning is in the minority which was sadly not the case in Africa. he people whom we see as the 9% are the heirs of those of the majority whose ancestors embraced this new culture, way back then. Many ANC members refer to them rather scathingly as coconuts. One of the greatest problems is in the numbers. Education is key but the learner must want to learn. In SA one must realise that the numbers of colonists who were teaching the local people was very small because they were not called to teach. The number of those who were taught was therefore reduced by that factor as well as the reluctance of the vast majority to change their culture i.e. Zuma. This problem still exists and apartheid exacerbated it as did the liberation before education mantra.The ANC govt also made the education problem worse by dispensing with the services of any white educators from the apartheid era virtually bankrupting the EDucation dept and then replacing the good educators with less qualified people than during Bantu Education days. Other factors like technology, urbanisation all add to this as does the jobs:people ratio.
300 odd companies on the JSE. So we need to find 290 suitable candidates to become the CEO’s. Amazing that the problem facing SA right now today is not even mentioned. We have many millions of unemployed people in this country of which the majority are black, and these people must be put on top of the list of most important issues to fix. Bugger the poxy 300 jobs you are talking about. The potential candidates for those jobs are employed. Stop concentrating on replacing a miserable 300 white CEO’s and address the big picture, and do it with some urgency.
While I agree that 91% white CEO’s shows that there is a problem, and a very long walk to freedom, but this year ESKOM will cost me R12000 per year more than in 2007, so I am not so excited about the idea of affirmative action for CEO’s. Not every aspirant manager has what it takes, so we need fair, acccurate and unbiased selection criteria. In an ideal world, appointments should be on merit, but in SA life,there is a real possibility that black talent can be dismissed or not recognised. The challenge is how to fix biased racial perceptions and stereotypes - but affirmative action is not very useful for achieving that. The irony is that until we have fixed that, we are stuck with affirmative action. Whatever happened the vision of non-racialism?
Employing family in our business was always frowned upon because of the obvious conflict that is causes.
But today we ignore this policy and employ our own kids.
We have to, they cannot get employment on the open market because of AA.
Who cares about CEO’s anyway, they are a vast minority.
(Sorry couldn’t resist.) Perhaps Khaya Dlanga, the next topic should be what % of a CEO’s package should be fair pay for a minimum wage? .0001% ?, .00001% ? Perhaps that is a better take, not what colour controls the pie but how it could be shared more fairly amongst all South Africans.
If blacks have the skill to be CEOSs of companies than surely they have the talent necessary to start their own businesses; why dont they do this instead of waiting for handouts from whites?
Entitlement on top of ignorance is a dangerous thing. Adv Hoffman wrote in the Business Day 9th Feb “Only 42000 of the black matriculants in 2007 were able to pass a basic functional literacy test. They went on to tertiary education or were snapped up by the private sector. But 278000 black students passed matric that year. At a briefing last week Professor Jonathan Jansen said that 75% of university education is fraudulent or below acceptable standard. There are law graduates who can barely read. Is it any wonder that black SA’s cannot make progress? The state education system has been destroyed by the unions and incompetent/corrupt government administration. The first thing to teach children is that the world owes them nothing and affirmative action is simply an acknowledgement of inferiority. Upliftment will only happen when a decent education system is in place and sure as hell that won’t come from government.
Most of the comments here claim the CEO’s probably started the companies, which could not be further from the truth, and why is this a factor when we are talking about the advancement of black people, but it’s okay for a young why guy to aspire to the CEO of a company he did not start. Could it be because “we do not want these blacks in our companies”?
@Jon all likelihood points to you being delusional, whites make-up less than 10% of the total population of SA, but then you didn’t know because you probably work for a corporation where there are 90% white employees, right?
I will agree some blacks in SA still suffer from entitlement syndrome. the fact is there are also many incompetent white people in govt. My experience shows that there are many top black managers who really want to make a change and are hardworking. But the cake is now small. The economy was build pre1994 to serve 4m whites and now it has to serve 48m. Whites can cry about small things e.g Ministers’ cars and perks. They are CEO level and they should be entitled to these benefits which a Barloworld Head of Section would get. But its a small percentage of blacks. These are diversionary tactics so that people do not look at the pace they are accumulating wealth. In 75% of the cases of tenderpreneur you will find that the backers are white. Cries in newspapres by white(incl DA) are also not based on rational thought.Where do yu want the cash to come from to elevate all the municipalities in the country? Zuma’s ass? You will never hear white people talk about the improvements made since 1994. Its all negative
The poor service demonstrations are the start. Come 10years we will see the Zimbabwe route if attitude of not sharing the cake continues . Most of the problems are historical(e.g. Eskom, and other parastatals. The government has not recapitalised these countries as it looked to invest in social areas like hospitals, RDP to serve the 40m blacks who were economically marginalised pre1994. In 10years The Mandelas and Tutus will gone and the demos will continue to pick the pace and the POLITIANS WILL SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. THEY WILL POINT TO THE WHITES AND THEIR COMPANIES, FARMS AND ESTATES. WHITES need to tread careful. The earlier you act to put blacks in positions of power the beter. Be warned, the precedent has already been set in Africa.
This is about economics turned racism. To get the people in economic power takes time, not the esteemed Robert Mugabe. The powerful in China are changing with the economic times (with the exception of the richest corporation in the world, their military). Here, there is black and white, and very old economic system, but the contrast is too obvious. Zulu men feel out of place with women taking the jobs, how do they feel about Mr. Whity that with a stroke of a pen is persona non grata in SA. The battle to take economic power in the US by women and minorities is skyrocketing, but poor SA, well, cannot wait, nor see what is happening on the world seen, nor the doubling of the population of poor in SA in our lifetime. Give it to me now. To hell with JZ screaming in the headlines of the Cape Times: “Whites (young), don’t flee!”. Give it to me now, to hell if we become greater Zimbabwe. Indeed tear down the houses built by NGO’s in the Cape, “because why should they get one and not me”.
“NGOs out of SA!” With stick and beer it is preferable to tear down all. http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-03-04-zuma-in-uk-a-royal-welcome-but-dont-mention-the-press
but don’t mention the machine gun in any CEO interview, unless it is a Malema affiliate….don’t pretend shock.
In 2007, Nedbank’s research showed only 8 women CEOs out of the 318 companies surveyed. In 2006, another study showed 7 female CEOs out of the 343 companies surveyed. In the case of the Fortune 500 list from the US, the women CEOs account for 3%.
Now let’s look at education trends. BBC News in the UK reported a study showing that UK female students are ahead of men in almost every measure of UK university achievement (and also in numbers). The same is true in SA. In fact, the success of female students is a global trend. So you guys, rule out education or lack thereof. That cannot be the reason for a lack of black CEOs.
So what is it then? Are women and black men too comfortable/lazy to work 20 hours a day? I have been personal assistant both to a CEO and to a Cabinet Minister. I do not want that job even if I could do it or get it. It is not a life. One must be a very specific type of person.
Why should we care about the fact that white people are dominant at executive level. why should we as black professionals care?
I am currently at the Industrial Development Corporation, and seeing some of our black professionals experience victimisation at the hands of an organisation led by black executives (including CEO).
Its not a black or white ideal now - its about our people’s rights. BMF is there for the executives, and who is there for all other employees.
We are currently seeing good people who simply wanted IDC to be unionised being driven out of the IDC. We are worse off than during apartheid because the oppression is not at all open - its covert. Some of our leaders only care about their financial standing, not about the rights of employees.
Black Professionals on March 5th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
The qustion is not why 91% of CEO’s are white but why 87% of the population has not risen to the challenge?
Laying the blame at others feet is becoming an all too common African trait that finds us prostrate at the same feet.
I’ve heard figures like this before,this is why it makes me smile sadly when you hear priveledged whites south africans with persecution complexes whining about B.E.E and the like.Get over yourselves,not every black person in a good job was overpromoted and not every white person who doesn’t get the job was deserving and oh so cruelly denied.
As these figures,and a walk into any South African workplace,office or shop will show,your fears are muchly exaggerated.
If this is you,do a good deed for today;stop your fallacious whining.
Khaya is absolutely correct ! The most important issue facing us now is getting rid of 300 or so white faces - not education, crime or lack of jobs, let alone the principle of the best person for the job.
The fact that this will create a loss of more jobs and render South Africa less palatable for foreign investment is irrelevant !
Why not choose them by lottery ? Or employ people such as our dear friend Julius? After all, he’s already got the salary for doing nothing !
As a non-CEO, I am appalled… But then some people have nothing to do except whinge…
Khaya, did you ever think of growing the cake rather than redistriuting it ? Perhaps a policy that provides extra education to those who need it most? You make a mockery of those ads to SA citizens abroad that say “Come back to SA - we need you”…
Zimbabwe 10 years after independance boasted the highest education in Africa. Where do we stand? Did you ever think that we could do that - and follow it up with preferential loans to those who could prove they had been disadvantaged ?
Oops - sorry - I forgot that’s already ANC policy for Government Ministers and their friends…
When a government robs Peter to pay Paul, it can always rely on the unfaltering support of Paul. The government also promises a better life from this robbery so Paul just sits back and waits. Job reservation all over again.
Let me see if I get this. First we lost the “liberation now education latee” generation. Then the ANC betrayed the “born free generation” with an dysfunctional education sytem, that it is now, belatedly, trying to repair. So two generations lose out on a decent education and you are shocked that so few black people make it to the top ?
Hogwash man. Get the nation working. Change the attitude. The white CEO worked his / her butt off. Try it for a change….so what if you got screwed over by Apartheid. Black people showed amazing courage and fortitude to overcome that…climbing the corporate ladder should be easy. Building your own ladder will be even easier.
Whitey has put it into perspective. It takes a special type of person to hold down a position that effectively is all that they live for.
That takes many years of toil in a high pressure environment. These guys are unknowingly groomed for this; they become slaves to their jobs and consequently they are top of their professions.
You cannot take a highly qualified individual and promote him or her into this league without the necessary experience. No disrespect intended but unless they have run the treadmill for many years, they are not going to cut it.
“Buthelezi remained a trenchant critic of school boycotts, describing the ANC’s call for ‘Liberation Now, Education Later’ as ‘an insane slogan’ which would turn black youngsters into ‘ a generation of illiterates’.”
“People’s War” by Anthea Jeffrey of the South African Institute of Race Relations (pg 149)
And the ANC then made it worse by introducing an education system scrapped as unworkable in other parts of the world (like Australia)- Outcomes Based Education
While I have some sympathy with your views, please just realise that entitlement does not = competence. More important by far is history has demonstrated that there are no political / idealogical solutions to economic disparity - only economic common sense - which starts with education. (Please go to bed repeating that because its rejection by native leaders is the main cause of the massive economic failure of post colonial Africa.)
I would have hoped that you might have realised this from the universal socio-economic failure of Marxist central planning - but then, as a product of Nationalist Christian Apartheid education where Marx =’d the Devil, perhaps I am expecting too much.
I do not mean this as an insult but as a sad truth. Ignorance is at the root of the failed Africa Renaissance, not colonialism.
You are only free when you put aside all racist thinking, permanently.
An economy consists of both producers and consumers. As a consumer I personally could not care what race a person providing a service or product is. My only concern is that the service or product actually does what is claimed for it. I guess this is true for all of us consumers.
Race has absolutely nothing to do with economic effectiveness. Bringing race into economic decision making as if it was a relevant criterion is actually disastrous.
If politicians insist on doing this, as sadly they historically have done and still do right up until the present in SA, economic development is seriously throttled if not stifled and everybody loses out as a result.
@ Mark Robinson
The unending comparison of the Nats and the ANC putting their pals into government jobs and saying ‘nothing has changed’ ignores one HUGE difference: things worked, there was service delivery.
What are you complaining about? Formal business isn’t part of black culture. There are probably more CEO’s in South Africa than the rest of Africa combined.
The better the CEO, the more profitable a company should be,and the more taxes it will pay, which should be distributed via social services to the poor majority (theoretically, anyway, in spite of tenderpreneurs). The CEO should be in his position because of ability. Rather benefit the many than benefit one black CEO. As many have mentioned in the replies; where are the black entrepeneurs? How much does it take to say, become a plumber, eventually buy a bakkie and get into business? What it does take is hard work, vasbyt, sleepless nights, frustration but eventually one can be proud of the achievemnt of supporting oneself without hand outs and being in control of one’s destiny.
I’m a black CEO. I interact with black CEOs on a day-to-day basis. All of us are looking for people to train as deputies. The problem is that black youngsters are job-hoppers because people dangle fat salaries to meet EE requirements. No company wants a CEO who is likely to leave next month for a higher pay cheque.
The result is that fewer black people get into real managerial positions which are stepping stones to the CEO position (such as CFO or COO or CTO) but are instead assigned to tasks like “new business development” or CSI.
My immediate management team: Finance - black woman, Marketing - black woman; Technical - white man, Sales - white man, HR - black man, Programming - black man, News - black man, Strategy and regulatory affairs - white man.
Find me black creatives who understand a bottom line and I will rule the world…
@Sipho Hlongwane
I like the way you reconciled your contribution to the points raised in the article.I don’t think that using the fact that “there are 91% of White Ceo’s ” as an argument will take us beyond a racist debate.It has been 16 years and our comrades have spent much of their creative energy and time setting themselves up politically and economically. Hence we have the Malemas of SA rich and politically mobile.
The ANC has failed the masses by not creating aspirations in people that best serves SA.The pursuit of a “bling culture” and a qualifications in “Tenderpreneurship” is all that was encouraged.For SA to move forward we must move away from the “cancerous thoughts” of ” measuring Black aspirations and success against prevailing White statistics” Don’t we have the depth of contextualizing issues around policies and strategies that speak to all SAns,while we ensure we address pressing outcomes.
Dear Mr Nguni,
I can’t agree that under the old NP ‘things worked, there was service delivery’. Maybe for some. The reality is that under the old regime the townships had very little service delivery, and for the majority things did not work. Let’s be fair here. The new government has done several things far better - housing, access to water and electricity have improved vastly for the majority. Hence my sadness that things could be so much better if the worst aspects of the old NP had not been copied. The old ’swart and rooi gevaar’ have been replaced by minority baiting and a patronage culture which is unfortunate, as it allows the new elite to ride roughshod over the poor whilst pretending to be ‘representing’ them. However I am noticing a new maturing of our political environment in which questions are being asked about leadership and governance. My hope is that history will NOT repeat itself but SA will break out of its past of ethnic nationalism and choose the high road of broad South Africanism and putting the people above the government, not the other way around.
oh come off it ,so bloody what ..91 percent white CEO employing thousands of people of all colours ,that is what its all about ,my black brothers get off your arse and start your own companies,we all have ideas now put yours into practice you will be surprised as to how many people out there , that are very willing to help.
Here’s a thought…
There are thousands of consultant business mentors and advisors out there who have no full-time jobs and are simply dying to impart their knowledge to promising young men and women to help them get the jobs they want and do those jobs well.
They are white. They have no jobs because they were forced, one way or another, into early retirement, which, for one reason or another, has been around since the mid-80s.
Because petrol costs, bonds cost and their children’s education costs, they cannot help you for nothing. They will work with anyone who will pay them.
Want to be a CEO? Find someone to pay, or pay yourself. That’s the only way to get past a lack of experience and know that you will be valuable in the position you seek.
16 years would not be enough time anyhow. The last 2 CEOs of Pick n Pay worked their was up FROM THE BOTTOM and had worked for the company for 20 years(AFTER having got their degrees) before becoming CEO. You can’t condense 40 years into 16 years!
the person called “Cynical” is just that - cynical! your comment assumes that black people cannot be trusted. i wish that your true identity could be revealed and all those black people you know could be aware that every smile you share with them is fake and that you’d love nothing more than for them to disappear
Fair comments but let us not be naive. Competent blacks are not promoted they are suppressed. I have seen it in africa and abroad. Whites in executive or expatriate positions form networks where they support mediocre submissive blacks and put spanners even manipulated evaluations for competent assertive ones. Ever heard of institutionalised racism?
That is what happens when you engage in half freedom and you do not address all aspects of our Liberation objectives. That it why we in the Pan Africanist Youth Congress of Azania (PAYCO) consider this govenment a mockery and further more it has no solutions to problems of this country due to lack of ideological clarity and direction.
The electorate must reverve this and vote for an Africanist state that must be represented by the PAC of Azania.
The comments on this article gives one a clear idea of exactly how divided the South Africa is. You just have to do a quick look through the comments and you will clearly see the division between black and white South Africans.
@Zoo Keeper on March 5th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
I love the way you saw the logical result of Apartheid, but you mention that blacks have a chronice job-hopping problem, but that is not the whole story. Majority of blacks job hop because they get frustrated by their white colleagues. No straight thinking person would leave a well paying job with massive growth potential. Notice the “well paying” bit of my comment there. I said it because in most cases blacks are given fancy “job titles” but get paid less and get less support from their white counterparts and this in turn frustrates them and they end up leaving. Classic example of this is Miss H on March 5th, 2010 at 1:03 pm’s comment above.
Also it interesting that everyone above is comment on the CEO issues and not transformation as a whole in SA. This is where the stats come from. That is the issue that needs to be addressed, a way forward in the transformation of this country.
Some would argue that he is not black. He is from a minority Indian South African group, and a CEO of a company. What percentage of the 9% ‘black’ CEO’s are ‘African’ South African and are other non-white race groups, or was Kantham Pillay included in the count?
@Lyndall Beddy
Surely you are capable of articulating your thoughts better.Refrain from making judgemnets based solely on race and how the “Black dominated Government” has failed and you will realise that the “Corporate Garden ” should be full of budding CEO,s after 16 years of Democracy. This is not the case and we must agree that we haven’t pursued this outcome vigourously.Introspection is needed.Look at the Man/Woman in the mirror.
This debate will rage on and the only conclusion is a failing state. Why do I say this? Look north, and look at the steps taken by the other African countries- SA is taking the same steps, and failing for the same reasons. ANY form of preferential employment/treatment is doomed to fail - and so is BEE and SA with it.
Why are 90 odd % of CEO’s white, because companies want to succeed. Black management does not fail because they are nessasarily worse than whites, they fail because their jobs are guaranteed by BEE so they dont bother to do a thing. They job hop to increase their salaries ( cant blame them ), but this gives a company no continuity.
The state aparatus is failing because most state managers are incompetent, and simply do not care; why should they care? their skin colour guarantees their jobs.
ANY system of preferential employment would have the same effect.
I left SA 2 years ago because I could not get work, never mind that I am very good at what I do. In that time I had one interview, and they made a mistake; they thought I was coloured.
So I left SA to be able to feed my family. I found a job in the UK within 1 week. I have headhunters after me all the time.
AND as a bonus no crime and everything works - even the electricity.
@Kanthan Pillay on March 7th, 2010 at 10:21 am
But Kanthan, you are not black remember? You are running YFM a station that has 90% plus black listenership and you are Indian, and you….. Ok, away from all these racist crap.
You are really making some bold statements by saying that you and your other “black CEO’s” are looking for black people to train and you don’t find them or they are never there because of job hopping. I have already stated some of the reasons why people job hop on one of my comments above. And no I don’t believe any of what you are saying. If that is the case then why not raise it and say that blacks job hop a lot and in turn frustrates you guys when you are supposed to train them? Did you have to wait for an article like this before addressing these issues of not enough blacks to train?
i guess that by tlanch tau’s opinion, i don’t count either. i mean, my father grew up in a country under legalised racism and when the laws let up, created a company that was not able to attract that much black talent — and he owned it.
It’s 2050 a generation of Zimbabweans in SA have finally won a constitutional battle that has been raging for years. According to the court ruling, the xenophobic treatment of Zimbos in SA left them disempowered and unable to advance themselves. Now the rich black majority have to give up 25% of their wealth to ex-Zim citizens and 30% of all senior positions must be from previous mistreated groups.
If this scenario kicked in, how many black Mzansians will rush to give up their hard earned wealth to Zimbos for whatever happened good or bad. It will be very difficult to ask?
Khumbuza, spot on. And I have to wonder how many of the ‘Previously Mistreated Zimbos’ in your scenario who then get top jobs will bother to do any work; after all the courts guaranteed their jobs; not because they are competent but because they are PMZ’s.
It is natural for any human being to take the path of least resistance. BEE has provided a path of less resistance for young potential future black CEOs.
However, it is resistance training which makes a CEO.
Until BEE is destroyed, it will only be the exceptional few black candidates that grow towards company leadership in spite of prefential treatment.
It takes a long time to groom a black CEO in this country, what may take a white professional with same qualifications as his black counterpart to climb the hierarchy you can’t even match that .I totally agree with you when you say we do all enjoy equal opportunities since liberation but some have to fight ten times harder than others to even have a sniff at the opportunities. Even in universities black people have to work ten times harder than their fellow white students in fields that are economically sound such as CA,Engineering,architect,IT specialist etc only white people who pass their degrees with cum-laude’s so that they can be employable. Economy and higher education is still in the hands of white extremist, making sure that they drag black back to teaching and nursing professions. In matters like this it is rite for white people to blame the ANC government on everything, but when you blame apartheid you are suddenly a racecist. White people blame affirmative action saying it deprives them on their rightful positions, that’s utter nonsense they are still given good paying jobs because of their skin color. How many white graduates who are struggling to get work as opposed to their black fellow countryman?Its a joke, Khaya I salute you in the name of truth brother.
Education in SA is deteriorating under ANC rule (not improving) and many Black children are losing out on a decent education. What future for them? Consider this: In 1991 (under apartheid) more black pupils passed Matric than in 2007 (after 13 yrs of ANC rule). In 1991, functional literacy was 51%, in 2007 it was 15%.
The % of Black children at school in SA in the last years of apartheid was 65%–against 64% in Eqypt, 57% in Nigeria, 52% in Ghana, 50% in Tanzania and 29% in Ethiopia. Would the figure in SA have been higher at the time under ANC rule? Current trends say no.
In 1989, under Nationalist rule, 65% of black SA adults (non-rural) could read and write, compared to 47% in Kenia, 34% in Nigeria and 26% in Mocambique. Of ALL primary school teachers in Africa, 70% were in SA. If the ANC were ruling at the time, would SA % have been higher?
Bantu education was good enough for Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Mathews Phosa, Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and others to fare quite well in life. They do not seem to be badly educated people, do they? All raised on Bantu education!!
Nkululeko, have you ever considered that just maybe whites do well in business because of their work ethic, rather than their skin colour. BEE is affecting the work ethic of blacks.
Sorry to be blunt but your claim that black people has to work harder at University than whites is crap. I have been to University and it is HARD work to pass. Tests are not subjective. You either have it right or wrong.
BEE has created an unreasonable expectation of automatic success amongst blacks.
BEE has NEVER worked ANYWHERE in the world.
I agree with you that being successful at work is probably more difficult for blacks than for whites; the reason is BEE, not apartheid. When I make a mistake, it is just that. When a black person makes a mistake, it is ‘because he is just a BEE appointee, and what does he know’. That is of course wrong, but while BEE is a factor, expect it to work for as well as against you.
I now live in the UK because I could not find a decent paying job in SA because I am white and middle aged. Here, we Saffers are in GREAT demand because of our work ethic.
Apartheid was WRONG! just as BEE is , but it seems Apartheid has given blacks a convenient excuse for their own failings. Of corse not all blacks are failing, but those who do, hide behind Apartheid. Forget Apartheid, it is over, gone, now get on your with life.
For How Long will we continue to blame apartheid for the many legacies of apartheid before we can start blaming the new government for not having done anything about them?
What is so shocking is that the article identifies all the things that are wrong, but places the cause of them on old stuff better forgotten. Perpetuation of that state of affairs is in no other hands but the government of the day.
We all have to work hard. And if we want to be CEO’s and we are all so clever, we’d all be registering our close corporations and sole propietorships and building our own ships to steer. There is a difference between those that Work so hard and those that Think so hard.
It’s not a racial thing. It’s a thoughtful think.
No I meant Botswana - Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho were all originally SA Homelands.
The Brits would not agree to allowing them to become part of the Union in 1910.
Later the remaining Homelands became Bantustans under apartheid.
And while on the subject when the Nats took over from Smuts they did not have AA to get Afrikaners into existing English businesses - they started their own like Volkskas etc
@Lyndall Beddy
Botswana - a protectorate is not exactly a ‘homeland’/bantustan - which bantustans were initially protectorates, and what was the legal justification/encoding of their existence, under British rule?
As for AA under apartheid, there is a huge difference in context - before the apartheid AA programs, there was the great depression, strong social democratic movements, and as a result, public works programs that with the depression caused a great deal of saving. These savings provided the client basis of the post-war boom, much as in North America. My one grandfather worked in highway construction during the 30s, and had joined the prison service before the war started, and even then was fairly poor by the standards of the time, yet people like him made the boom possible, and this was in the context of the Keynesian system.
Who are to be the customers of these black businessmen? Whites? It is a possibility, but then we are back to Biko - “White man, for us to rise, you must come down” or some such - which is roughly correct, if we take the completed extraction of economically extractable minerals into account (inflations…). We Afrikaners (although that grandfather was half coloured, half German, but passed as white and was freely accepted as an Afrikaner) could only rise by further exploitation of the rest of the population - the flip side of “capitalism produces wealth, socialism spread poverty” is that capitalism segregates poverty from wealth - Venezuela and Columbia were shitholes long before Chavez.
Ever heard of the Anglo Boer War - where the Afikaner farms were destroyed and half their children died in the concentration camps - that is when they became poor?
Since 80% of SA is black (unlike 60% of 9% which is Afrikaner) I should imagine most customers are black, especilly since 79% of the civil service (now the biggest employer) is black.
What justification did the Brits have for allowing black tribes to keep most of the land? I haven’t a clue - especially since they were not even indigeneous and had been killing off the indigeneous Khoisan and each other when the whites arrived to stop the sport.
The justification is how the law encoded it - I’m not talking about a moral justification, although the mass killing claims are rather interesting - Khoisan mDNA is common among RSA Nguni groups, which suggests intermarriage, and far more common than among RSA whites (about 6% for whites) - how many were killed, percentage wise per year?
The Afrikaner poverty was in part from scorched earth policies, but also in part from an international economic collapse - without the scorched earth, Afrikaners would simply have been poor by western standards, but be well fed - perhaps a better model.
I’m really not sure how your logic works with regards to income. If one is to have large scale improvement through business, then the majority will have to obtain a substantial income - not some small ‘civil’ ’servant’ minority. Then we have a problem - we can give everyone money, but even if everyone were working to give value to that money (extracting and working raw materials to create commodities to avoid inflation from the money creation/changed use from redistribution), it is not obvious that we could avoid hyperinflation - market socialism for everyone causes problems, unlike market socialism for minorities.
Giving preference to any group or body based on something other than skill and ability is looking for trouble. Affirmative Action has never worked anywhere. It just erodes the skill level.
Redistribution of wealth ALWAYS ends up as redistribution of poverty.
Wealthy people are wealthy for a reason; they know how to make money, and then they employ, and make others wealthy. Exclude them from the economy, or restrict their ability to make money, and they leave. Same goes for skilled people; that is why I left SA.
America has the largest gap between rich and poor in the world, but even their poor are not too bad off.
The funny thing is that now that I am operating as a UK company, I am again able to do business in SA; when I lived there I was excluded because of being white and so called ‘not previously disadvantaged’. To show you how messed up the system is; now that I am a ‘foreigner’ I have even managed to get 2 separate meetings with two different Cabinet Ministers. Something I never achieves as a Saffer.
My smallest deal in SA so far as a ‘foreigner’ has been more than double my largest deal as a citizen. And in case you wonder; I don’t do bribes.
Nationalization as per Melema is going to be the final nail in the SA coffin. Already Aussie mining companies are starting to pull investments in SA.
@Leon
Businessmen know how to obtain money, and how to make a profit. Short of counterfeiting, they cannot make money, and only by taking a lone (fractional reserve banking) can they cause money to be made. Some of the greatest economic failures are countries that lacked either the capital base at independence, or the necessary skilled population, to accumulate at other countries’ expense. USA from WWII on to the present has been a socialist country, in that the state financed the population, e.g. through the pentagon military spending programs. The USA-system has lots of poverty, especially in those regions where it extracts its resources, both inside and outside its national borders (but very much within its operations zone) - it wasn’t the FARC that made Columbia a shit-hole, and the Columbian military and right-wing paramilitaries control most of the drug trade, for example.
What makes your business success possible is precisely the socialism for minorities model: other people have money (and businesses) that are possible due to the underpayment of others.
The matter is obvious when one takes a thermodynamic approach - the system in which you operate removes negative entropy from others, and supplies others with positive entropy. Another example: 50 years ago, there was 10x more fish in the sea. Without this plunder, USA, Europe, Japan and China would not have been possible.
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
@Johan Meyer - you say “Some of the greatest economic failures are countries that lacked either the capital base at independence, or the necessary skilled population,”
And that is precisely my point. SA HAD the opportunity to be different. At ‘independence’, despite ANC instigated sanctions, the economy was healthy with a massive skills base.
With the stupid antiquated notion of Affirmative Action, the blacks have eroded that skills base and through their insatiable GREED they have leeched and stolen the money out of the economy and government.
The insane labour laws has forced many companies to automate or to move their manufacturing off-shore. A friend used to employ 30 people in a pottery business. Due to labour problems he now imports this potery from China. Better quality at a fraction of the price, but 30 people are out of jobs. My sister-in law’s company closed their latex factory and import their product from France. Over 3000 people lost their jobs, including her. They increased their profits, but SA is losing money ( forex ) and jobs.
Now farmers are leaving in droves - I hear even Gadaffi is after SA farmers as they know their business.
What is left of the economy after the World Cup? At the moment most employment is in construction. After the World cup there will be no driver for further construction. What then?
An economic collapse is unavoidable.
Dont worry Khaya, soon there will not be any listed companies about whose black % you can worry about….
@Johan: Einstein once said: “we cannot create matter, we can only re-arrange it”.
The same is true for “wealth”. We cannot create wealth, we can only redistribute it.
Prof Tinbergen, (Nobel price winner) in the 60’s, developed an economic model that showed how the first world was becoming richer and the third world poorer. I think it is the time-bomb we are sitting on today.
The French revolution was carried by the poor who were fed up being poor while the elite had a “royal” time. Poverty by itself is not always the issue, it is the gap in wealth (and often the injustice behind it) that creates the desire.
@Leon
The problem that citizens have with meeting state officials is common throughout Africa, and parts of east Asia (although the latter is changing now), and I suspect that this ties into corruption - state officials have no trust, no respect and no belief in the competence of their citizens, except to the limited extent that these citizens have obtained foreign degrees (and citizenship, apparently - interesting, if disgusting). The irony of this is that third world university degrees are often much harder (in terms of intellectual effort) to obtain. (I’m a bit old fashioned, and date RSA’s independence to 1910… We certainly in 1994 had, and to a large extent still have good educational institutions). Perhaps part of a continental solution is to propagandize the educational and business successes both of citizens and of people who have left, to impress on corrupt politicians that they might do better investing their loot in their countries than collecting interest in a Swiss account.
There were over 1000 tribes in Africa, all different. The Xhosa intermarried with both Khoisan and Whites (shipwrecks. Some of Mandela’s family are descended from Bess, a white shipwrecked girl who became the only wife of a tribal chief (who thought so highly of her he took no other wife).
Other tribes killed the Khoisan - especially Shaka who wiped out a number of tribes in his genocide, including John Dube’s tribe.
Souhern African white settlers are almost the only European settlers in history who protected the locals and their customns, and did not reduce them to a minority and THEN introduce democracy.
How often do you see an American or Canadian Indian, or an Australian aborigine on their TV?
@Lyndall Beddy
The relationships between linguistically Bantu ethnic groups and linguistically ‘Khoisan’ ethnic groups varied with time as well; likewise the intermarriage was not exactly from an equal relationship - mDNA passes from mother to children, so we know Khoisan women could be absorbed into Bantu society, but we don’t see much Khoisan (A-group) y-chromosomes among RSA Bantu groups, which suggest that men couldn’t. The relevant question is then still ambiguous - to what extent was their relationship genocidal, and deliberately so? Bantu groups generally to my understanding did freely incorporate willing Europeans - part of Winnie’s hatred for whites from what I’ve heard comes from her one white grandfather, who with his wife raised her, but would beat his wife (and probably Winnie as well) repeatedly.
As for whites, it depends on where - certainly we were much less genocidal than in the Americas or Australasia, but many of the ethnic groups we were in contact with had at least bronze age technology (including several Khoisan related groups - the Dutch settlers would trade north for copper), and the Zulus worked iron. Moreover, repeated slave raids by various groups had led to a fairly strong martial tradition, which made genocidal campaigns more difficult. But there were some (mainly Khoisan related) groups that were destroyed or reduced substantially, or destroyed as a group through intermarriage, by whites. Another example: the wars between the Dutch/Afrikaans and Xhosa due to mutual cattle theft - again, the Xhosa could effectively resist…
Even with white shipwrecked survivors, like with the Khoisan, the Xhosa would kill the men and incorporate the women and children.
However there are men who survived - almost always when they were not in a group but split off and survived by appearing in a village as one sole man. Two men from the Grovenor made it that way - the others were killed.
However the Khoisan were protected by law from the second British occupation. Farmers had to kill game to feed them, and they were not imprisoned for stocktheft but placed in house arrest (which is how their customns got recorded).
Not that everyone on the frontiers obeyed those laws then, just like not everyone obeys the law now.
Interesting discussion, but off-topic. However - it is probably a symptom of the problem in SA - we keep on harping on the past. The ANC is blaming all their mistakes on ‘apartheid’.
Everyone agrees and accept -our past is BAD, bloody and not very pretty.
Similar things happened to all nations across the ages, but there is no point harping on the past.
If SA wants to move forward, we need to look at the past to learn a lesson from it, BUT we cannot keep harping on the past and looking at who to balme for what. Those people who messed up are all dead, and we are left with the mess.
The only way forward is to LOOK forward, not back.
@Lyndall Beddy
I said that some groups (perhaps tribes or villages would be better terms - the Khoisan macro-ethnicity certainly still exists) were destroyed - we can rely for instance on the diaries of the perpetrators, although it would take some effort for me to gather the references - expect a month’s wait, at least (work…).
@Leon
What Beddy and I (in opposition) are trying to do is to place RSA history in the international context, and see how we can understand it to allow for new possibilities. But to bring it back to what you were saying, we have several options, if RSA is to be a success:
1. We can have a super-enriched class, but ethnically more representative of the populace, at the expense of the rest of the populace (what Khaya Dlanga is effectively suggesting, whether he intends to or not),
2. we can subjugate other African countries, and have USA-style socialism for ourselves, or
3. we can subjugate (with some luck) the industrialised countries, and have USA-style socialism perhaps for the continent.
If we do not want to have a huge portion of the human race subjugated, we have to abandon the market system - the industrialised countries had their wealth at the expense of some of their citizens, and at the expense of other countries. I show the outline of the reasoning on a blog post… Also, right now, there is a dire need to stop international fishing and rebuild soils, etc.
@Lyndall,
That is what I am saying - we need to learn from the past, not harp on it. The ANC still blaming Apartheid is not solving anything;
Look at Zim; what happened - the infrastructure started collapsing because it was not being maintained. This was because inexperience people via Affirmative Action took over government.
Towards the turn of the century their electricity grid started failing, then the sewerage systems which poisoned the water supply which caused cholera outbreaks from which they still suffer. The roads started falling into disrepair. This affected the economy so Mugabe started taking farms. Their currency went from being as strong as the US dollar to nothing in 10 years.
In SA in 2008 the electricity problems started, the Duzi that year was plagued with diarrhoea because a sewerage pipe was spilling into the river, in March 2008 the vaal dam was full of dead fish. Same problem. Hartebeespoort dam is totally rotten. The roads in SA are getting worse and worse. In October 2008 the govt passed the land grab law. Go figure..
What concerns me most is the effect of the WorldCup. These events are always run at a loss. The Greek economy is in collapse – they never recovered from the cost of the Olympics. You CANNOT recover 4 years of spend in 2 weeks. I predict a huge drop in the value of the Rand after the WorldCup.
Talking of a change in history; its now taught that the the Boere lost at Bloodriver…
Can you give me the exact details of which book reflects the boers as having lost at Blood River? I have heard from another source that racist history is in the new school text books,and I wish to pass the information on to Afriforum.
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Khaya Dlanga* By day he perpetuates the evils of capitalism by making consumers feel insecure (he makes ads). For this he has been rewarded with numerous Loerie awards, Cannes Gold, several Eagle awards and a Black Eagle.
Khaya has an ego-crushing bank balance but an ego-boosting 6.5 million views on the popular video-sharing website YouTube.
Africa's top Digital Citizen Journalist in 2008 for innovative use of the internet, at the Highway Africa conference, the largest gathering of African journalists in the world.
Jeremy Maggs' "The Annual - Advertising, Media & Marketing 2008" listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in Advertising, Media & Marketing.
Winner of Financial Mail's Adfocus New Broom award 2009. He has listed these accolades to make you think more highly of him than you ought to.
* The views expressed in this or any future post are not necessarily his own (unless of course you agree with them).
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Fair points Khaya - your last point is critical - making sure there is open dialogue.
While 16 years isn’t even one generation, it would be nice to know that we’re making progress. There’s no doubt this is a problem, but using JSE statistics is not representative since there are far more smaller private companies that contribute a whole lot to our economy [and therefore to society]. Do you know what the ratio is for private companies and cc’s? I would hope those look a bit better.
One failing that needs to be addressed now is education as we are moving backwards rather than forwards. This is a big problem for many countries so we’re not alone in it. But we’re definitely need more success in this area to change circumstances.
The other key area is creating new businesses [and more value for the whole economy] by encouraging and facilitating entrepreneurship - something I hope that employment equity isn’t discouraging by offering big salary packages that possibly incentivise talented youngsters to take comfortable jobs instead of creating them. We need to set up our best people [of every race] to do amazing things! If they do amazing things, I believe we’ll see amazing changes in SA.
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