Staff Reporter
Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) president Professor Bonang Mohale has blamed the high poverty levels among black South Africans on slow transformation and urged the government to use its powers to improve people’s lives.
“When you have political power, you were not given this political power to look at it and admire it every morning and caress it,” said Mohale, who is also the chancellor of the University of the Free State.
He said this during a Business Breakfast Masterclass organised by the Department of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (DESTEA) and the Free State Black Business Chamber (BMF) in Bloemfontein on Monday.
“Do something with it (power) and that something is . . . you have to love your people to lead them,” said Mohale.
“That something means – because we were not left alone for 370 years of colonialism, 98 years of separate development and 48 years of apartheid – can I use this power to change this so that our children do not disown us . . . saying poverty still has primarily a black and feminine face,” he added.
The BUSA president anchored his keynote delivery on his latest book, Behold the Turtle.
“The Basotho say ‘behold the turtle’ . . . it only makes progress when its neck is stuck out. We all begin to die when we are silent about things that genuinely matter to us,” he said.
“When the turtle is concerned about ‘me, myself and I’, it sits in its own shell. It’s protected. It cannot be touched. It is safe, it is secure. But it will sit there, it will die there.”
The event, which drew a cross-section of people from the local business sector, was held under the theme ‘Growing the Economy of the Free State Province in 2022 – A Collaborative Approach’.
Mohale continued: “For it to move from point A to point B, it has to risk it all and take its head out of the shell.
“But when it does so, the birds of prey can swoop on it, hit it on the head and it might die.
“So, every single time it wants to make progress, it’s a dance with death.
“Therefore, in South Africa today, when so many of us dare to hope that joy and peace will prevail, we will only make progress when we are prepared to risk it all, especially now.
“In another three months, we will be 28 years into our democracy and yet poverty still has primarily a black feminine face, and yet we are in office.
“We refuse to be in power because power means you can do something about it. You can change the circumstances.”
A firm talker, Mohale warned civil servants and ordinary citizens not to look aside when there is injustice for fear of losing their jobs as it doesn’t help society.
“Therefore, when you say, but I am a public servant, if I use my voice judiciously and speak truth to power, I might lose my job, better I be quiet . . . know that you are killing not only yourself, but the entire generation that comes behind you,” he said.
“So, when you are a common citizen and state capture happens on your watch, you are silent and do not say anything, know that, that is genocide.”
He said nationally, 51 percent of the population is female and yet women representation in positions of leadership is not more than 24 percent.
The number of senior black executives, according to the BUSA boss, has just increased from 14.3 percent to 14.7 percent, but warned it could take the country another 150 years to reach the ultimate intention of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment.
“And what is that ultimate intent? It’s to ensure that this economy is broadly reflective of us,” he said.
“It must look like us . . . just like China, India and Japan. Those businesses look typically Chinese, Indian and Japanese.
“The culture . . . the language, the dress code is Chinese, Indian and Japanese, except in South Africa.”
“In fact, when you get into our boardrooms in South Africa, you’ll be forgiven to think that we are an outpost of Europe,” he pointed out, adding white males still occupy about 70 percent of the top executive positions in the corporate sector.
“Today all you have to do is to be born black and chances are you are condemned to live in the informal settlements of Alexandra.
“You just have to be born white and the chances are you are destined for the leafy suburbs of Bryanston without doing much because the economic power patterns have been set for generations to come.
“Now, the reason we have this power is so that we do something to intervene and that intervention is called transformative instruments.
“All of us, myself included, we have not succeeded in eradicating the legacy of apartheid. It’s still living with us.
“All of us have not done (enough) to make sure the black majority live better lives. Those poor living conditions were by design . . .
“Today, 28 years into democracy, out of every R100 that we spend on education, R67 is spent on a white kid, R20 on a coloured kid, R10 on a coloured kid and the balance on an African kid. You don’t need to read it. You see it . . . and we are in power. We command the budget,” he explained.
In response, DESTEA MEC Makalo Mohale said one of the weaknesses of the Free State economy is that there is very little value addition to what is produced in the province.
He said the province has mainly relied on the primary sectors where commodities are extracted and are value-added outside, coming back as finished goods to be sold.
The MEC said the province has also tried to invest in education because it understands it’s one effective way to improve people’s lives as well as the economy.
“Our approach is to make sure that we work with business to drive this vision that we have to grow the economy of the Free State,” he said.
“What we want is to ensure there is industrialisation in the province.
“Our key programme towards value addition is ‘let’s make the Free State a big factory . . .’ where all the commodities that we consume, we are able to produce.”
He also took the opportunity to explain the Free State Integrated Local Economic Development and Transformation Bill which has been put out for public comment saying it seeks to respond and integrate various interventions.
“The Bill seeks to ensure that all the things you said must happen become reality. We are using our legislative power to ensure that happens,” the MEC said.
“There are four key areas in the Bill: it recognises the sector as a key partner and creates important structures to ensure business is not left behind in the new development model.
“We envisage a situation where there is a formal business voice not the current set-up that is voluntary.”
He said the Bill also seeks, among others, to promote manufacturing in the province.
It also gives power to the MEC for economic development to designate certain commodities for enterprise development.
This means the government will only buy certain products from local producers.
It also addresses the issue of business licensing.
The MEC said some of the requirements are that only those that are lawfully in the country will be allowed to operate businesses in the province.
Other panellists included BMF chairperson Mosebetsi Dhladhla, Standard Bank behavioural economist Emile du Plessis and FEZI Auditors and Consultants chief executive officer Nthabeleng Khawe.
