Submitted by Paul Deppe
Discrimination in the workplace in some or other form has plagued South Africa since the early settlers inhabited the Cape in the 1600s. Colonialism ensured that the white population enriched themselves while depriving the indigenous population of social, political and economic power. At the turn of the 20th century the English enforced the ideology of territorial, political, educational and work-place segregation. Work-place segregation entailed both labour repression and discrimination. Practices such as the compound system, job reservation and wage discrimination where all designed to protect the white working class. During this period black people and the Afrikaner experienced domination by the English, as a result the English community prospered at the expense of others. In the late 1940s Afrikaner dissatisfaction about job and wage security led to National Party victory in 1948 and the beginning of apartheid. This event signalled the end of segregation and the start of apartheid. The National Party restructured the economy to free the Afrikaner from foreign, predominantly English capitalism. During this period not only did the social, political and economic exclusion of blacks worsen, but so did that of English-speaking South Africans. And so began the period of Afrikaner domination. The National Party ensured that government was made up mostly of Afrikaners, it created large parastatal organisations such as Iscor, Sasol and Eskom to provide employment for poor Afrikaners. When the ANC came to power in 1994 South Africans experienced another shift in domination, that by black people. The ANC has implemented a number of policies to advance the cause of black people. Policies of affirmative action, employment equity (EE) and broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) all sought to achieve the advancement of black people. This has created insecurity among white people and resulted in a large exodus of whites to other countries creating a huge skills shortage.
The purpose of BBBEE is to create a broad base, encompassing large numbers of previously disadvantaged individuals, actively functioning in the mainstream economy in South Africa. Through this process the lives of the vast majority of black people who have been disenfranchised would improve. Wealth would be created and the vast majority of black people would formally enter the economy. The concept is noble except that over the last 14 years this is not what has happened. The fruits of this process have landed in the palms of a lucky few black people who have been able to create enormous wealth for themselves. A process that should have been in place for 10 years has yielded little wealth for the masses after 14. A process that should have been inclusive of all previously disadvantaged South Africans has become a black elitist wealth creator.
The demand for EE candidates has far outstripped supply. The education system is just not able to deliver enough quality candidates to feed industry. As a result and out of desperation many organisations have employed black professionals that are either not suitably qualified or lack the work experience to make a meaningful contribution toward the success of the company. Young people require both time and work experience to develop emotional intelligence and emotional maturity. The gathering of information at a learning institution is called knowledge. Young people leave their institution of learning with knowledge. Wisdom is the power of being able to use the knowledge gained in a practical work environment. One requires work experience to convert knowledge into wisdom and without wisdom one has the potential to fail. Given an environment where an individual is placed in a situation where the wisdom required is at a level higher than that of the individual, the individual will experience negative feelings of inadequacy, anxiety and often depression. This negativity makes people want to protect themselves, which results in not telling the truth, cover up and withdrawal from the situation and environment. The seeds of failure have been sown.
All too soon a young black manager or black professional is caught up in the heady spiral of BBBEE. The individual is placed in a position not for their knowledge and wisdom but rather because of the colour of their skin. Black individuals are often placed in positions where they find themselves out of their depth. The result is an individual who eventually fails with disastrous consequences. The amount of psychological trauma and damage creates scars for life. The confidence of a once confident individual is shattered. Often as a token appointment an individual is ridiculed and humiliated again causing emotional trauma. Tokenism helps nobody.
The zebra effect is common in South African organisations. This is where the very senior management, typically the board, and the shop floor workers are black. Sandwiched in between these two layers is white middle management. This is where the real intellectual capability of the organisation lies. This level is the engine room of the organisation. It is here where work is done and intellectual capacity becomes so critical. It is at middle management where knowledge and wisdom become critical. Failure through fast tracking black people or making token appointments creates far greater impact than doing the same at board level. The age-old adage, “you are only as strong as your weakest link” becomes so relevant. If fast tracking and tokenism is applied to the middle management level, this is where the greatest harm can be done placing the organisation at huge risk. It is at this level in the organisation where morale is impacted most. A black person fast tracked or sitting at this level as a result of tokenism will experience all the negative emotions and feelings of inadequacy and anxiety leading to the failure contemplated earlier. White managers on the other hand also transform into a negative state of mind with the very same feelings. The solution for a white professional or white manager is, however, very different. They will look at exiting the organisation leaving huge gaps of knowledge and wisdom. They will begin to develop negative feelings towards the country with the ultimate outcome being emigration to a country where their knowledge and wisdom will be valued for what they can contribute towards an organisation rather then on the colour of their skin.
What about coloured and Indian people? These people experienced some economic participation during the apartheid years and who, by law are now fully enfranchised. They are often discriminated against by both black and white managers. I have heard coloureds and Indians say that they are not black enough to be black or white enough to be white. These feelings once again manifest in negative emotions, which only serve to harden their points of view. Our society is creating a boiling pot that is destined to explode. A society is being created where racism is becoming the focal point and centre stage. Exactly the opposite of what the ANC fought for during the apartheid years.
The classification of BBBEE is also contentious. The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act defines broad-based black economic empowerment to mean the economic empowerment of all black people including women, workers, youth, people with disabilities and people living in rural areas through diverse but integrated socio-economic strategies. The word, black people, is a generic term which means Africans, coloureds and Indians. The intention of the act is to provide economic wealth to people who have been historically disadvantaged, this implies “black people”.
Today not all black people are disadvantaged. Consider the example of a young black boy who is educated at St John’s College, one of the top and most expensive private schools in Johannesburg. This child can hardly be considered to be disadvantaged. He has had all the benefits if not more than most other South African children, black or white. It would be inappropriate for this child to benefit from BBBEE sometime in the future, just as it is inappropriate for a wealthy black business man to benefit from BBBEE now. There are many white South Africans who today are disadvantaged. Fourteen years after South Africa’s first democratic election, just like many black people, these white people, for varying reasons, have not had the opportunity to participate in the formal economy. It would therefore be racist to exclude these poor white people based only on the colour of their skin. The definition of broad-based black economic empowerment must be reconsidered to include all disadvantaged citizens.
The level of skills in South Africa is probably the most important stumbling block for the successful implementation of BBBEE. If the skills do not exist it is simply not possible to place wise black people in beneficial positions because they are not available. A comprehensive strategy is required from government to address the skills gap in South Africa. This would need to consist of two thrusts, the first, to provide a sound education to every single South African regardless of the colour of their skin or their demographic distribution. The second thrust would be to provide scholarships for educational advancement of the poor. Education will increase the skills of existing employees. Education will create a workforce that is already empowered when they enter the economy. Education will allow individuals a greater amount of choice when making a career decision. Education will allow an individual to climb the corporate ladder quicker or become a successful entrepreneur quicker. A sound education will enable a greater degree of BBBEE at a quicker rate. Without the necessary skills base, empowerment will progress at a much slower pace than desired.
Thus, I contend that the current structure of broad-based black economic empowerment is ineffective and will not create the desired effect of providing empowerment for disadvantaged citizens. BBBEE is chasing away scarce resources from the country, which we can ill-afford. It is creating a small group of immensely wealthy black elitists.
What South Africa needs is to provide a sound education for every single citizen. This will empower people to make choices. We need to educate all our citizens to accept diversity, different values and different cultures. We need to preach tolerance in every form of the word. We need to create an environment where each and every citizen is embraced and feels wanted. Then and only then will we have created a rainbow nation where all South Africans will prosper regardless of their race, colour or creed.
I look forward to that day!
Deppe is the managing director of Concor Technicrete, a subsidiary of Murray & Roberts
There would still have been a huge skills shortage even if the whites who left had stayed. Almost 5million whites are resident in SA today and less than 5% of their working force have the needed technical skills. Just like blacks, the majority of white proffessionals have “soft skills”. One thing you also forgot to mention is that white priviledge has been perpetuated post-Apartheid. The Mbeki-led administration failed black South Africans dismally in that it advanced white capitalist interests. Soon after Mbeki’s outsting, BBC News reported that whites had benefited the most from democracy as Mbeki’s policies of economic transformation could only reach a few blacks. Whites are still priviledged in SA, and blacks are still largely poor.
Your logical reasoning is faultless, Paul Deppe.
One point you failed to raise is the issue of Mentorship. In any institution the knowledge integral to business continuity is housed in humans. The situations you describe above leading to loss of confidence in new staff is usually avoided through mentorship of newbies by oldies.
However, if you have massive loss of mentors (as in Eskom’s axed greybeards, and the retrenchment of 130,000 long-serving teachers from schools) then all newbies, whatever their colour, battle to gain institutional knowledge. And if the old mentors are replaced by AA candidates then poor mentorship results, exacerbating the battle-of-the-newbies.
Worse, loss of mentorship means institutional knowledge is lost, and eventually the institution or business will fail. Eskom, our state schools, municipalities, home affairs, police services, Transnet, SAA are all prime examples of failure through massive loss of mentors.
I think the ANC and the government and everybody who passed the BEE and AA laws missed the point altogether. This discussion should not even be taking place at all. We are supposed to be talking about getting the demographics of the country represented accordingly throughout the economy of South Africa. That would mean that the workplace represent the demographics and we will have per equal percentage, poor blacks, poor whites, middle class black and white and rich blacks and whites etc.
The author says that this process should have taken only 10 years but still 14 years down the line it hasn’t achieved its goals and he forget to mention that in that 10 to 14 years that it has been in place, the white companies of corporate SA have been on a passive mode towards the implementation of this.
And once again you say the education system is just not able to deliver enough quality candidates to feed industry. How do you expect that in 14 years you can get people educated enough to can fill positions in the workplace? Yes a certain percentage maybe 10% of the next generation of black youngsters will be on par with their whites counterparts but not right away. At the moment we have black people with a lot of potential and in some instances more potential than their white counterparts but they are not afforded the same opportunities as their white counterparts or colleagues.
You say a black person fast tracked or sitting at the middle management level as a result of tokenism will experience all the negative emotions and feelings of inadequacy and anxiety leading to the failure contemplated earlier. And I disagree as most of the times you find that this particular black person doesn’t get the same support that his other white colleagues gets from each other or from senior management. Vital information is withheld, meetings are held after hours after the official meeting is done, meeting about meeting official meetings are held behind other people’s back etc.
You say the definition of broad-based black economic empowerment must be reconsidered to include all disadvantaged citizens. You see the problem with this is that whites goes and hire their own whites and refuse to include blacks in the economy again. You forget that these laws were passed because corporate SA was not willing to absorb blacks into the economy in the first place.
Good essay – I’ve left recently – its been tough – but no regrets. I’m full of confidence and feel valued for my skills and wisdom. Recession – its a snip in comparison to life in SA. Social engineering as a politicial policy has a poor history in terms of outcomes. Especially throughout the African continent. Regretfully SA will continue to slide down the economic wastepipe, in particular if the past decade is a barometer of what is to come in the next decade.
There are very few people, black or white, in SA who at the moment can change a plug, I am so glad I am a time served, and colledge educated spark, I am making a fortune out of fixing up cockups of the newly released/ amansipated (spelling) electricians, all I can say is bring em on
Wow Mr Deppe, you should be a Thoughtleader with M&G, such a lucid and intuitive article. How I pray our countries leaders will read it.
Thank you.
The notion of mentorship does not work and I am talking from experience. I was once supposed to be trained by an experienced white guy and believe me when I say he used every trick to make sure I learnt as little as possible. We need EE policies because some whites mentalities will never change.
While I am a firm believer of affirmative action to redress the injustices of the past, I believe BEE has overall done a lot more harm than good to South Africa. In fact it has backfired conveying the wrong values to our society. One simple example that shows how corrupt and crazy the BEE system became was the Jun 2008 proclamation that Chinese were now black! What an insult to all Coloureds and Indians who also suffered and fought for freedom.
The recklessness in which the BEE Codes have been implemented inadvertently created the equivalent of sheiks and oligarchs in SA who have done very little to uplift the morale of previously disadvantaged communities or create jobs. Instead of incorporating measures into the system to gauge the effectiveness of BEE Codes they rushed headlong into full implementation. The Mbeki regime known for its lack of accountability and being out of touch with the ordinary South Africans where more concerned with short term objectives. They lacked the vision positioning South African industry and society to capitalize on it three key strengths – its educated workforce, the abundance of natural resources and modern infrastructure.
I’ll focus on the educated workforce since this is the resource that been hardest hit by emigration and the deterioration of the education system. If BEE were to be implemented gradually over a longer period with more accountability, this would have provided the opportunities to have better qualified candidates. The educational imbalance in South Africa is a sad and tragic result of apartheid government’s steadfast refusal to integrate schools in spite of the change they could see change on the horizon during the 80s.
Cultural sensitivity training for whites should have been mandated by BEE to create more harmony in the workplace. The generations of apartheid education that instilled racial superiority in whites and hampered blacks with a second rate education cannot be undone in a few years. Blacks should also be coached regularly on how to cope with their white counterparts since many whites, some from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, also struggle with justifying affirmative action programs.
Meanwhile the silent acceleration of emigration during Mbeki’s autocratic rule was largely ignored since the economy was humming along nicely and property values were skyrocketing. Of course the real catalyst for emigration was the crime situation spinning out of control. There are countless examples over the last decade of the ANC leadership paying mere lip service to crime. Another reason was BEE and affirmative action left people wondering about the future of their kids. The true cost of emigration however is a double whammy for the South African economy. Firstly, the SA taxpayers shoulder the burden of educating these emigrants. Secondly, in order to emigrate they usually possess highly sought after skills -skills that that SA itself needs for its long-term progress! Some emigration is inevitable, but the present day trend is equivalent to a brain drain. A stark difference from 15 years ago.
I do predict however, that the days of BEE are numbered since its implementation has been reckless and the next election will hopefully generate leadership that can devise an empowerment system that is more inclusive and gives everyone hope for a better future. With the world economy in a free fall SA needs to hold on to its most valuable resource – its talented people!
Belle on February 19th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
You see Belle, there is no doubt that maybe the way these laws were implemented in Parastatals was wrong and maybe to a certain extent that is why the private sector has been on a passive resistance towards the implementation of them. Reality is as a young black South African who works in the private sector I get to see just how white South African’s who are supposed to mentor us are on a passive resistance and a lot of time information is withheld from us, but when the same applies to a white person they are quick to upskill that person and before you know that particular new white person is more clued up about things than you. And maybe this is all due to the cultural difference and at time the communication barriers between different races.
A brilliant piece Paul! Hit the nail right on the head.
Mokgalaka you generalise too broadly regarding ‘white companies’ resistance to BEE. I have practical experience of two big companies (one SA owned and the other an overseas mutli national) and both pushed BEE very assertively (before 1994 and stronger after) mainly at lower and middle management level.
The problem from the Govt side was to push exclusively at the ‘racial’ solution and not include or focus on the skills/training/education side of Black advancement. That R40 billion (and the other billions wasted) of the arms deal; imagine what it could have done to improve and uplift Black education/skills/training????
Brent
Good one Mr Deppe. Philippa & Mokgalaka take your racist hats off and stop making excuses. Philippa, please define and prove “white capital interests”/ Tell me the colour of who owns Anglo American (or is a majority shareholder). The people who’ve benfitted from BEE are not “lucky”, they are politically well connected. These black diamonds own huge companies and still employ whites. Why?
A ‘level playing field’ will result in the broadest ‘base’ of opportunity.
Tilting the playing field (in any direction) has predictable results.
There is a mad rush to exploit the new ‘breaks’ offered by the government ( financed with tax and ‘borrowing’, i.e. other peoples money) to subsidies ones enterprise.
In this scramble, there are the usual few winners, with the majority losing out or having no part.
Tilting the playing field narrows the base of opportunity.
Our astute socialist leaning commentators are quick to point out (quite correctly) that inequalities have grown since the introduction of policy designed to ‘redress imbalances’ in a pro active manner, i.e. the strategy does not work.
If we are to make any headway, we must stop creating policy which creates and supports elites.
If one creates State mandated business subsidies they result in protected monopolies…you cannot ‘broaden the base’ by trying to specify the entrants.
The danger is that the failure of intervention suggests to some that even more intensive intervention is the solution… if drinking ¼ cup of diesel worsens ones illness but does not kill, maybe 3 cups will cure.
Our social engineering protagonists claim that ‘the free market’ has failed us, refusing to accept that neither a vague semblance of a free market nor a level playing field has ever been permitted.
Obviously interventionist economic and labour policies impact negatively upon investment, whilst not achieving their ostensible purpose.
What an excellent, well balanced and thoughtful article.
Take heart from the fact that many of the senior people in ruling structures probably agree with every word you have said. However, the impending election requires them to make all the right noises for now.
I suspect that over the next few years we will probably see increasing acceptance of the realities which you have raised.
I wish that more senior corporate executives would demonstrate your levels of courage. Well done!
Hey Paul. You and I have the same education, we graduated at the same time, come from the same side of town and we are good friends. But we differ. Viva South Africa.
You have included a huge amount of stuff in your blog but I will respond to only two or three of your points.
To kick things off, another perspective. In 14 years, white businesses have failed to transform themselves. It is not an issue with EE or BBBEE. It is not a black problem, it is a white challenge. When a white (or black person) takes your position, one automatically finds too few qualified blacks. We find fault with definitions. We highlight the black guys in the beemers and point out how there are still so many poor people. The codes aren’t wrong or inadequate. We are.
In 1985 when I joined Arthur Andersen and Associates (RIP) there was a huge shortage of IT professionals. So what did we do? We hired teachers, engineers and doctors and turned them into respected IT professionals. Now, when white business is looking for black skills we don’t find them and use it as an excuse for maintaining the status quo.
Don’t find fault with what our black brothers and sisters have put together. Don’t refer to the failure of BEE in the context of 14 years of change. You are seen to be pushing for another system. A new system will take another 5 years to develop and 5 more years to implement. Let’s make it work.
It pains me that our families and friends are now spread across the planet. As we discussed last year, there are more people from our class of 85 living in the USA and Australia than in South Africa. I have no doubt that there are a few who are victims of affirmative action. But many more are victims of our own doing.
I think that we need to take a different view to the one you have taken. I think we must look internally. We must figure out how we are going to change our communities. We cannot keep complaining that South Africa is not like the “good old days”. There is too much talk about the “good old days”. We need to define the future and actively work towards it.
I know you are a committed South African and I believe you are here to stay. So am I.
@Isaak Hunt
We -as independent management consultants- have a similar experience. We love BEE.
You have your history a bit wrong. There were no blacks in the Cape Colony in the 1600s – white (moving up the coast) and blacks (moving down the coast) only met at the Kei river in the 1770s.
The interesting thing to me is that the DA, who apply advancement only on merit and ability, have MORE women leaders than any other party. Why?
@Lyndall Beddy
You mean its not who you know rather than what you know. You gotta be kidding me!
“There were no blacks in the Cape Colony in the 1600s..”
I suspect you might me reading a page from one of our old apartheid era history textbooks. Remember history is written by the winners, so expect this “historical fact” to be revised in the coming years.
“..the DA, who apply advancement only on merit and ability..”
OMG…what is politics coming to?
@Mokgalaka
“..maybe this is all due to the cultural difference and at time the communication barriers between different races”
Absolutely correct! This is why continuous education is required on both the part of blacks and whites to bridge this great cultural divide. I think both whites and blacks want to succeed but they just don’t know how.
@japes
You imply that “black diamonds” own Anglo American.
Can you please tell us how you arrived at this conclusion and provide us with concrete evidence (company filings indicating individual majority ownership etc.) to support your claims? Don’t point me to some website or tell me its because you oom says so. Anglo American is listed on all three major world exchanges, the JSE, NYSE, and LSE and headquartered in London. If you can figure out its ownership, they should award you with the Nobel Prize in economics. Your claim that it is primarily black owned is total BS.
No-one will mentor another if the mentor faces loosing his job. It has nothing to do with colour. I had a brilliant claims clerk who NEVER trained anyone else in case she lost her own job. Colour had nothing to do with it.
Phillipa
Do you understand the difference between capitalism and free trade; or between socialism and communism?
Mbeki complains he opened the markets for free trade, but the investments did not come.
Of course they did not – because AA/BEE is NOT free trade. Why should an investor have to worry about the colour of his workforce and management, instead of their competancy? There is the rest of the world to invest in, where you are not dictated to about whom you employ.
The money that came in was to buy shares in existing companies, and to buy land for holiday homes or the tourism business (not reliant on BEE/AA ). NO new factories, and NO new jobs.
So how do you suggest SA attracts investors?
Allow me to take this opportunity to beat my own drum – in reference to a point that Paul made, but not nearly forcefully enough. It is the requirement for tolerance.
In my daily experience I still see enormous racism from whites towards blacks. The attitude seems to be: “I know I am going to be frustrated or disappointed by this encounter with someone from another colour, and therefore I am going to be rude and objectionable right from the start.”
I see this in the way the book-borrowers in my upmarket suburb address the black librarian, the way that my neighbours speak to their domestic staff (when I remonstrated with one for calling her gardener and maid ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ respectively, she replied that she had been brought up that way. I don’t see that as an excuse.)
I see it in the way that white employers speak denigratingly of their employees (often in their hearing!), of the way ordinary citizens speak of their black municipal officials, like policemen or traffic cops – referring to them as ‘baboons’ or such like.
We whites have double standards. We long for the ‘good old days’, conveniently forgetting that those days were based on corruption and mismanagement – the brunt of which was borne by the ‘previously disadvantaged’. But we get apoplectic about current corruption and mismanagement. Not that I am excusing the current situation, but we must not glorify the past as some ‘golden age’ – it wasn’t.
There were many things seriously wrong with South Africa before 1994, we just tend to forget them because we can now conveniently blame them on the post-1994 government.
We whites have to make a fundamental shift in attitude – we are not a first-world country on the way down, we are a third-world country on the way up. If you can begin to think like that, then a lot of things fall into place and you suddenly start to feel very differently about South Africa.
I am not suggesting for one minute that I am a Pollyanna who just looks on the bright side – I am fully aware of the current shortcomings of the ruling party and hope along with everyone else that they will get a hiding at the polls. I am keenly aware of the challenges of crime and grime and corruption and mismanagement and the application of short-sighted and racist policies. Oh, and I get involved. I join the community crime forum, I support the ratepayers association, I manage an environmental forum, I mentor journalism students. All of these things, instead of being a drag and a time-waster, are tremendously fulfilling and (amazingly) a lot of fun. It is about working together to change the country for the good. I don’t know about all the ex-South Africans who let us know smugly about their wonderful lives in their new country: can THEY put ‘nation-building’ on their CV?
So – I have decided to change my thinking and embrace all South Africans as fellow-travellers along this road. I make a point of talking to people of all races, colours and creeds and looking for the humanity in all of them (yes, even taxi drivers!). The amazing discovery is that all people – black, coloured and Indian – all have pretty much the same dreams and goals as I do. I have discovered that we, as whites, are unconsciously angry about the fact that we have lost our superiority and therefore we take every problem as proof that ‘the blacks can’t govern.’
In the last 15 years in the workplace I have come across exceptionally incompetent whites and exceptionally competent blacks. But we tend to excuse white incompetence and focus on black incompetence.
So, I have changed my attitude. When I encounter any person, but especially one who speaks a different language or who is from a different race, I treat this person as if I expect them to give me the very best. And – you know what? I usually get it!
Dave Harris on February 20th, 2009 at 9:59 am
You talk about a leadership that can devise an empowerment system that is more inclusive and gives everyone hope for a better future, I feel the issue in most instances is white peoples denial about the inequalities that the past has created and till such time that everyone can agree that inequalities were created, there is never going to be any form of empowerment towards the previously disadvantaged that they can accept.
Shaun Scott on February 20th, 2009 at 1:56 pm-
I agree with you Shaun 100% and I am impressed that there are still white people who can still tell the truth for the sake of making South Africa work. We all just need to come together and work towards a better SA. If BEE and AA are not working properly please by all means let’s come up with other means that will work and not refuse to accept that empowerment of the previously disadvantaged is needed for this country to move forward. So far in SA people have cried that BEE and AA is never going to work without even having given it a chance and implementing it properly.
Dave Harris on February 20th, 2009 at 11:14 pm- try not to bother yourself with the likes of Japes. He is a typical bitching South African to whom these things should not be discussed, you tell the truth in the hope of getting a solution so that we can move forward. All we want is to take this country forward and make it work. We especially myself as a black person cannot afford to have this country not working as I have got nowhere to go. The whole of Africa is stuffed and they are coming to SA and now where will I got?
Dave Harris
The Bantu all come from Central Africa and took about 3500 years of migration to meet up with the whites at the Kei River. Only Central Africa was indigeneously black. Northern and Southern Africa were brown.
There are many history books to check in. One reference is “Africa since 1800″ by Roland Oliver and Anthony Atmore; published by Cambridge University Press (page 20)
Dave,
No I don’t. You draw that silly conclusion. I am talking about Shanduka, ARM etc.
Wakey, wakey.
Hi Paul.
Your article offers some good reasons for the dilemma that South Africa faces with respect to the success and / or failure of Black economic empowerment over the past 14 years or so. I think that your suggestions to resolve these issues go much deeper than merely advancing education and skills with the solutions being much more complex than that.
In my opinion, a vital component in resolving this will only be brought about by a profound cultural shift in the country, perhaps only being possible through an aligned leadership between key government, labor, business and other institutions.
It took many years to entrench apartheid with a government and people (afrikaners) at the time who were no doubt highly focused on making it work for them. The same cannot be said for the present government who don’t appear to be making a much needed cultural shift their number one priority. The levels of corruption within government, the failure to actively sort out the crime situation (which is the primary reason I left the country), and the inability to find solutions to the education system provide just a few examples of their lack of conviction to find solutions.
Its fine to provide a broad based education for all races (which has no doubt been the intent), however until such time as a culture of learning and skills growth is instilled among the people the improvement in education and skills will remain an issue.
Boy, reading Nicky’s comments really made my day! Here is one South African we cannot afford to lose.
@Mokgalaka
We certainly can make South Africa work. It has many unique strengths compared to the rest of Africa. One the main strengths is its diversity. Mandela embraced this and tried to be inclusive while Mbeki’s policies should that he did not care or lacked the vision to see this. Germany, the economic engine of Europe has been frantically trying to foster diversity in its workforce, with limited success – it is not an easy road. Here in SA we just have to learn how to harness this strength efficiently instead of losing our talent to other countries.
“..as a black person cannot afford to have this country not working as I have got nowhere to go”
Many of our White, Coloured and Indian brothers and sisters are in the same boat – we can sink or swim.
@Lyndall Beddy
I’m getting a little tired of asking you to question your history books. Please remember that history is written by the winners! These books from you unearth your outlandish ideas from are accessible to the “privileged” written by the “privileged” to justify their plundering and their subjugation the indigenous people. The sooner you unshackle yourself from the bonds of “history books”, the more you will be able to contribute towards making South Africa’s fledgling democracy work!
Just two questions: Does the inadequacy of the newly qualified only affect black candidates only?
What is your company doing about skills development?
How can there be employment equity if it is at the expense of another.
My feelings on this matter are well documented.
It is unacceptable, no matter the past, to exclude anyone, if we are to go forward.
Dave Harris
That history book is published by Cambridge University and written by top class historians.
Besides there are books by anthrapologists saying the same thing.
You prefer the myths to the history of Africa.
hi
Paul I find your comments very balanced and objective and I will submit another blog giving you some of my ideas
Paul
I would like to make three comments in response to your blog:
1. There are some positive aspects of the BEE program and I would like to highlight but one of them. Many well qualified people left their positions, but not all left the country. Some started their own small businesses and are today employing several people.
2. The employment equity act has done tremendous harm in several areas where competent, but inexperienced people were employed. This is particulasly true in Central, Provincial and Local Governments. I do not have to provide examples to confirm my statement. You only have to look at most government departments where the wheels are really coming off. The same applies to Provincial and Local Governments where in many instances servive is very por or non-existing. Just think about hospitals, education, health and many others. The fact that visas are today required for the UK is as a direct result of poor service and a total lack of management. I could elaborate, but believe I have made my point.
3. BEE in companies is currently posing major problems. If you think of the past Nail and National Consortium have disappeared and Mvelaphanda Resources have been warned by the JSE that after the Northern deal they are considered a pyramid company and are now busy restructuring. many BEE transactions were done before the major drop in share prices. The shares were offered to the banks as security and in many cases the companies had to provide a moving colateral. With the major drop in share prices most of these schemes are in jeopardy.
In mining companies it is a requirement that a minimum black shareholding is needed to obtain the necessary mining concessions. With the major drop in share prices, the BEE members will not be able to take up their shares and the required percentage shareholding will not be met. The question is whether these concessions will then still be valid.
Paul I can continue, but is running out of time. You have chosen a very topical subject and I like the way you are approaching it.
Henri van der Walt
Dave Harris,
It is a matter of Historical and Anthropological record that the Khoisan were the indigeneous people of Southern Africa, not the Bantu.
If you wish to have AA/BEE on a historical basis – then anyone with Khoisan blood should have first preference, based on DNA tests.
If you want to run a racist policy – do it properly and scientifically.
A recent study in the Karroo of DNA tests found that the “coloureds” in the local township were almost entirely Khoisan.
I would imagine quite a number of the “boere” will have indigeneous bloodlines.
The blacks are likely to have the least.
You want AA/BEE based on historical myths, not historical truths.
Hi,
I agree with what Paul has written but then how do we address the currest status quo for people that have been exposed to the past. That forms their values and belief systems which will be difficult to unlearn. When you theraten the basic needs of a person, you encounter resistance which then manifests itself in the actions/ behaviours/ utterences from that particular individual’s conduct that will oppose the stimulus.In theory the solutions are there but we need to re-strategise around BBBEE/AA and have a different workable approach. We need to do something and not leave it as no one will take action.
I want to respond to a comment that Deon made about ” … profound cultural shift … perhaps only being possible through an aligned leadership between key government, labor, business and other institutions.”
To align South Africans we need to embrace concepts like; recognizing the diversity of ALL South Africans, creating a national identity that we can ALL truely embrace, chosing a leader that we can ALL honour and respect. In attempting to create a unified nation we must all embrace the spirit of Ubuntu. John Kani describes ubuntu as ” the value of the human being, it is humaneness, it is kindness, UBUNTU is tolerance, sensitivity, and respect. When you put that together you find UBUNTU as the lifeblood that pumps through your veins and informs the brain to think correctly, to think emotionally correct.”
While the government continues to embark on the social engineering practices of BBBEE and EE, negative emtions will continue to drive an even greater wedge between race group in South Africa.
TM Cele, I agree with you. The question remains as to how South Africans can un-think old categories of citizenship and redefine themselves as a nation.
Government and business have a huge role to play in providing diversity education to all our citizens. Cultural diversity and tolerance should be taught at school.
Work place classification of citizens based on race will just fuel old flames.
May I respond to Mokgalaka – 19th Feb.
14 years is a short time but if we had an effective education system with teachers who were properly trained we would be able to better skill our nation to take advantage of career opportunities.
Let me give you an example, in the recent past I was involved in mentoring two teenage boys form Tembisa. On one occassion I asked one of the teenagers to bring me his report. I was absolutely disgusted when he brought me a piece of plain white paper with a stamp on it indicationg the subjects chosen. Next to each subject, hand written, was a symbol. The only other piece of officialdom on the paper was a stamp from the school. There were no comments from the teachers at all to provide this young man or his parents any answers or reasons for his performance. Needless to say his marks were poor and he failed.
It is a national priority that government offer our children a substantial education regardless of their background. Our children have a right to an education. Only once we have an educated nation can we begin to redress the inequalities of the past. As I have hypothesized in my blog, when we reach this point we will probably not require any BBBEE policies at all.
Paul, thanks for a thought-provoking piece. I get really excited about living in SA when I read that there are others who are truly interested in creating a better country for all, contrary to some who have been accused of using government policies to line their pockets. In order to create a solution we need to become part of it – thanks for stimulating vital discussion.
@Lyndall Beddy – I laughed out loud when I read your comments. Let me get this straight – you’re saying that for thousands, no, millions of years, people of one colour roamed the vast continent of Africa, but stopped at a dotted line in the sand. Meanwhile on the other side of the (invisible) dotted line, people of another colour made their home? Mmmm, when I was at UCT in 1981, our first-year anthropology exam question was to debunk this myth. Give it a rest.
Here’s an interesting take on this whole question.
I (a so-called “white”) left SA just over ten years ago, to work in the UK. Partly just to get a job (this was before BEE) and partly because of being a crime victim.
Last year I was fired because my job had been outsourced to an Indian offshore IT company. No BEE laws here in the UK for white ex-South Africans! Just the law of economics, ha ha.
But the difference is that there is a thriving job market – recession or not, there are plenty of jobs going (well in IT, anyway).
Also the government paid me a jobseeker’s allowance to help me through – in Cape Town that’s not going to happen.
I say to young people: forget the race issues, just get skilled up. Then the world’s your oyster, outside of SA 99% of the world doesn’t care what colour you are, just if you can do the job properly.
Think about it
Read my post “Africa’s Two Creoles: Afrikaans and Swahili”
Good post, Paul, I think you have put your finger on the real problem facing us here in SA. I saw it all start when I was on my industry’s Standards Generating Body for Skills Act Unit Standards. We were a group of people from all walks of life in the industry, and a lot of us were white people who were energised by the Skills Act. This was and still is I believe a good piece of legislation, that was let down by poor communication between Dept of Education and Dept of Labour. AND.. Thabo Mbeki’s I Am An African speech, which happened right as we were finishing level 4 and girding our loins to do levels 5 and 6.
Straight away most of the white people said… ‘hang on, here I am passing on my skills and experience… for free… and my government is telling me I have no future, my kids have no future – all because of the colour of my skin!
As one of the people who had sweated blood to get the group together, I was gutted. So I went to the lady who was supposed to be running things in MERSETA (I won’t name names any further). I was told ‘but it’s their patriotic duty as South Africans’. I replied ‘But they’ve just been told by Thabo that they’re NOT Africans’. The reply… ‘if they don’t get with the program it’ll lead to a Zimbabwe type solution’.
BEE needs to be inforced because nothing has changed… I am a black female with a number of degrees including an MBA and more than 12 years work experience but i am currently employed in the healthcare sector and most of my co-workers are younger white males with matric…I dont understand the white anger with BEE because they still receive employment preference. If change does not occur, change has to be forced… Viva to the new amendments finally there is light at the end of the tunnel….
nice bonuses gonna try them