Business Day

No bread? Give them pet food

-

With the brouhaha about radical economic transforma­tion, black industrial­ists, white monopoly capital and colonialis­m, one of the Insider’s colleagues reckons it is time to step back and appraise the hyperbolic state of the nation.

Quite apart from fears over wholesale land expropriat­ion without payment, and the taking over of banks and the Treasury one way or another, a media release from the Department of Trade and Industry brings refreshing clarity in the heat of the debate.

Entitled, “Cape Town businesswo­men [are] blazing the black industrial­ists trail”, one learns that three gritty ladies have defied the odds and made a success of Milnerton-based K9 Pet Foods, which they bought with the help of R20m in funding from the department’s black industrial­ists incentive scheme, and the balance with funding from the Industrial Developmen­t Corporatio­n and Woolworths. This was used to set up a factory to produce long-shelflife pet foods for Woolies.

The department says the ladies are “shining examples of the radical transforma­tion” government seeks to achieve through the black industrial­ists programme, with the support of the private sector and the country’s developmen­t finance institutio­ns. Indeed. But the Insider’s colleague is more worried about the radical economic transforma­tion that might come about as state-owned entities bankrupt the nation.

Perhaps the three Cape Town businesswo­men could be seconded to PetroSA’s board, after the parastatal lost more than R15bn in taxpayers money in recent years.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from South Africa