Time for business to start acting on radical economic transformation
Never underestimate the power of a good cause used for selfish aims. A classic strategy in winning over opponents is to get them to agree with you about the broad values of your cause. After they do, you walk them back in your reasoning until they feel compelled to agree with you.
This strategy works well when your cause is just, moral and right. It goes something like this: “Do you believe human rights should apply equally to all human beings?” Yes. I do. “Do you believe that everyone has the right to determine their own fate, without interference?” Yes. I do. “Do you believe that the state should guarantee these rights to ensure its protection?” Yes. I do “Then why don’t you agree that same-sex couples have the right to marry? You agreed rights should be applied equally. Which means that you agree people should determine their own fate as a matter of principle. You also agreed that the state should protect those rights.”
Case closed. The moral high ground wins.
For a good cause, this tactic is priceless. In the hands of the unethical, it is downright dangerous. Radical economic transformation is a good thing and has to happen. The economy is skewed along race lines following centuries of colonialism and apartheid, resulting in a minority of rich white people and a majority of poor black people. The equality gap is the biggest in the world — according to the UN and the World Bank, not only an EFF election pamphlet.
But telling people how unequal society is as a rallying cry without offering any solution will only infuriate the poor.
Those who have been excluded from the economy have to be brought into it as quickly as possible. But the silence on the other side of this debate gives those with the most volume the loudest voice.
It is right that those who brought us to junk status leave SA’s politics as fast as possible. The current custodians of the state have failed economics 101 and should be expelled.
The banks, mining houses and opposition political parties want them to go. They are willing to print posters, march and toyi-toyi to get that done.
Yet, they are mute to the fact SA’s economy — not only its ruling politicians — needs to be changed in a radical way. Thus those with the most questionable motives have moral authority over those happy to be backing the status quo.
People with economic power in SA have to realise that the game is up. It is not good enough to replace the train driver of the economy when it is going in the wrong direction. A whole new set of tracks have to be laid to carry all — including those who have been left behind — to a common destination.
Radical economic transformation is a good slogan, but little substance has been provided by many who are calling for it.
How is it different from current economic transformation? They don’t know. How does it manifest in policy? They don’t know.
How is it measured and assessed? We don’t know.
Business controls the narrative and the sloganeers will be exposed as empty vessels. There are models of more integrated forms of capitalism across the world. The German model of co-determination in which workers have a say in the running of their companies, has been successful for 60 years. Conservative British Prime Minister Theresa May is particularly fond of worker-owned businesses like retailer John Lewis.
South African business needs not be inspired by countries that planted colonial flags in African soil, they can look to the small business development ministry and offer to get its longawaited co-operative programme off the ground.
For far too long business has sat quietly, hoping the bullyboys who wield political power will ignore it. They forgot that bullies like to pick on the quiet ones who will not scream too loudly when attacked.
SA’s business community is no longer a coward, but it has to develop and disseminate its vision of the future. It is not good enough to say someone must go without providing an alternative narrative.
This means business has to find champions willing to risk their futures, fortunes and reputations for something that is bigger than them. They need to provide tangible substance to radical economic transformation and they need to invest heavily in it. They need to commit to SA’s future, not add transformation as an optional extra cost of doing business.
Business leaders across the world have cottoned onto this. General Electric’s Jeff Immelt opposed US President Donald Trump on climate change in a memo to his staff, saying that climate change is real and the company will not stop its internal initiatives.
Nestle, the world’s biggest food producer, realised that the way it was sourcing chocolate was unsustainable and opted for a humane supply chain because it made business sense. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich pledged to make the company fully diverse on gender and race by 2020.
SA needs an Economic Freedom Charter that defines business’s commitment to transforming the country.
It has to have clear targets that are measurable and evaluation mechanisms.
Failure to define a vision will only give power to the empty vessels with a just cause.
BUSINESS HAS TO FIND CHAMPIONS WILLING TO RISK THEIR FUTURES … FOR SOMETHING THAT IS BIGGER THAN THEM