14 JULY 1999
Issued by: Gauteng Provincial Government
Ladies and Gentlemen I have never regarded myself as an authority on matters pertaining to the economy. Nor have I seen myself as a representative of black business.
This has nothing to do with my trade union background. It has more to do with my acceptance that black business, which bore the brunt of denial of resources, career pathing and exclusion from the mainstream of economic activity has a better understanding of what needs to be done. However, according to Michelle Williams, I am supposed to be the leader of some misguided black yuppies who are all products of black economic empowerment. While the article is itself not worthy of comment, it sheds light to some of the self created perceptions, that we have to deal with as we confront the challenges of transforming the skewed economic and ownership patters of our country. For many years, but especially since the unbanning of the liberation movement, one has been disturbed by voices that seek to perpetuate the notion that black economic empowerment is about giving a black face to the ever white and unchanging business enterprises in our country. Of late this to a greater extent been widened to mean the acquisition by a few individuals of equity in companies previously owned exclusively by whites.
To us though, the empowerment of Blacks in general and of Africans in particular has always been at the centre of our struggle. We must therefore denounce the notion that economic empowerment is achieved when a few blacks are co-opted into what was previously a white boy's club. What this notion suggests, is that blacks are used as fronts to legitimise the current skewed patterns of ownership, representivity and involvement by the black majority in economic activity. If we allow this wrong theory, to gain ground and legitimacy, the rules of the economic game will remain fundamentally the same. If we leave it unchallenged, then we must know that we will have played a direct role towards sabotaging the process to transform the unequal patterns of ownership in our economy. We will have missed an opportunity to take our rightful place in a society we helped create. Were this to happen, we must know that history and generations to come will judge us harshly.
Let me state here once and for all that the above theory does not represent our understanding and approach to economic empowerment. It can not be the case because it suggest that the government and black business have a conspiracy to confine the masses of our people to continued poverty, joblessness, homelessness and without any meaningful change in their lives.
Our experience in post- colonial Africa provides us with valuable empirical lessons and things we need to avoid if we are to create this better life for all our people. All of us here know more than anyone else about the problems of broken promises, compradorism, corrupt elites and betrayal of the people's mandate. Robert and Anne Seidman has the following to say on post-colonial Africa: "At the end of World War 11, everyone knew what caused third world poverty and oppression: colonialism. Then, the empire crumbled. Hope blossomed everywhere. New technologies held the promise of plenty for all. Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, preached a text for the third world's new leaders: 'seek ye first the political kingdom, and all else will follow'.
Outside the wall, trumpets sounded glad tidings of political freedom and material comfort. Thirty years later, across the third world, nationals had taken over the political kingdom. Yet not the walls, but hope itself had tumbled. Nearly every third world country lay burdened by accumulated debt, mounting unemployment and falling real incomes. War and famine forced millions into squalid refugee camps. Repeated crises tore at the third world's social fabric, in some countries, it all but unravelled. Instead of development for the many, there came riches and power for a greedy few.
Gaining State power whether through elections, coups or prolonged military struggle proved no magic detour around the rocky obstacles strewn along the development road. Why did the longed for nationalist capture of State power now appear so futile? " While I do not agree with this depiction of all of Africa and the third world as having failed the masses, there are lessons that we can draw from the above. We must therefore consider ourselves fortunate that we are engaged in this challenge of economic empowerment at a time when many lessons have occurred in our continent. Even if the above were to be a true representation of the story of the majority of postcolonial societies, we are better placed to deal with the great challenges that this would pose. Chairperson, I am encouraged by the fact that debates about black economic empowerment and affirmative action are beginning to leave the boardrooms into the public domain. In this regard, I think it is imperative that we shape the agenda on these matters and together chart a way forward in all our areas of work and engagement. We must redefine the terms of the debate and of our participation in the mainstream of our economy. This must be at the centre of our agenda for transformation. Together we must disarm those who seek to portray all black economic empowerment as a cosmetic attempt to dress up old apartheid structures of power and privilege by co-opting selected individuals. We should join hands and ensure that it is viewed as a programme to genuinely empower millions who have previously been disempowered. All of us know that empowerment of the majority who have been economically dispossessed to participate meaningfully in the mainstream of the economy at all levels remains at the core of our agenda for transformation. This poses a challenge to us to unleash the previously stifled human potential of the masses of South African people in ways, which benefit them and their communities. The challenge lies with you therefore as Black business and us as government to create the infrastructure necessary for viable economic activity and robust productivity. This will also require the involvement of the people we seek to empower. Some have sought to project involvement of black business as relevant only in small business. We are aware of the fact that in the recent past we have witnessed a spate of take-overs, deals and launches of new companies by black entrepreneurs. To the extent that this represents a challenge to the existing white monopolies, and a move into the direction of socially responsible business, the government is fully committed to such ventures.
We welcome it because we think it represents a move away from the traditional image and stereotype of black business being equated with only sectors like the taxi industry, shebeens, spaza shops and so on. While these sectors remain important to our economy, I want to emphasise it unequivocally that I have no doubt that we are going to earn our respect in the mainstream economy by walking tall, by taking initiatives in ventures previously monopolised for the purposes of keeping all of us away from the means of production. It is us who have begun to challenge such boardroom conspiracies. It is us who will introduce into the economy a culture of shared wealth and equity. It will not happen by chance or some goodwill from those who have had a firm grip on the structures of economic control.
The Gauteng Provincial Government is well aware of the difficulties and challenges, which confront Black Business. We are well aware that it is upon us also as the state to create necessary conditions, which in turn will open up the economy for the participation of black business. It is for this reason that the GPG in association with GALA and many other stakeholders organised a conference on small business. While we must not equate black business with small business, we also should not be blind to the fact the majority of black businesses form a large part of the small business sector.
At the same time, I am aware that amongst you there are established business minds of profound credentials and to the extent that we as government must form strategic partnerships with those, we are fully committed.
It is at this conference that deliberations on some of the challenges were handled with great precision. This conference was able to tackle issues of skills development, training and capacity building. This conference further noted that business ventures are impossible if small businesses remain with no access to finance. This matter became subject of the conference and was tackled with issues like procurement and market access. There was great concern about women and the disabled in business. The challenge of a conducive regulatory framework remains with us as government and we accept the challenge.
We must be very clear that the problems of economic empowerment have to do with an economic agenda; they have to do with what investments serve to attain. The challenge for all of us is how to translate our profits into meaningful economic empowerment for the majority of people.
While it is wrong to say that only black business should engage in social responsibility, I think that what should distinguish us from the rest of business, is our social duty to the historically disempowered. Together we must take initiatives to empower all sections of our communities to start their business ventures. It is us who must show even those already established in the economic mainstream that we are committed to labour standards and basic rights of working people. We must become the pioneers of new relationships in the workplace. Our responsibility lies with the full understanding that we have urban and rural poverty and that such social problems should be tackled by all of us as a patriotic partnership against socio-economic maladies.
But it is also upon us to take the challenge of real economic empowerment with seriousness. It is upon us to ensure that we set the agenda for ourselves and pursue it with determination. It is therefore imperative that black business is united with purpose and must not allow agendas of self-interest and greed to overtake our noble course, for if this happens we are all doomed.
We therefore have a responsibility to create a viable social sector, a sector that is the engine of our economic transformation agenda, genuine manifestation of the longed-for dream of economic independence. Together we can make such objectives a reality.
For as long as there is abject poverty and the majority of people still eke a living in the dumps of our province, our ventures will always be relevant.
For as long as the means of robust economic performance remain in the hands of a few that have always had them, our task remains more relevant than ever. It is us who must give economic growth a developmental meaning. A meaning that says, there is no growth if the fruits of a blossoming economy are enjoyed by a few and the rest become slaves to the advancement of the already wealthy.
It is us who have known poverty who can give economy such a moral culture; a culture of people-centredness; a culture that says we are not empowered if the majority still worry about just getting a job. As President Mbeki said, we will always have sleepless nights if the majority are still bondage to humiliating poverty and their existence has been reduced to television images of hungry children in the hands of their famished and lifeless mothers. We who understand poverty must take up the challenge. Remember the legendary song, "He who feels it, knows it!" We must also acknowledge that the challenge of determining the agenda remains with all of us. From this we must not be deterred. The GPG is still fully committed to the resolutions of that conference and we hope constant engagements with you will bear fruit.
I hope this gathering will be able to engage with some of these challenges not just as part of fashionable sloganeering, but will be able to pay particular attention to detail and then come up with innovative ways of truly liberating ourselves.
You should raise issues with the government on issues where you feel we become an impediment. We will do the same to you where we feel your programmes reinforce the wrong notion that ours is only to reproduce elitism and greed.