Black Business Council rolls with times
It is the spring of 2016 and there are growing calls for President Jacob Zuma to step down, but there is one big problem: he is still the ANC president and wields enormous political power.
On the weekend of Sunday September 11, the Sunday Times splash screams: “Don’t go! Black business pleads with Zuma to stay.”
At the time, the newspaper reported that then-Black Business Council (BBC) president Ndaba Ntsele had held an audience with Zuma, during which he had apparently expressed the council’s support for the president to see out his full term.
Ntsele, reported the Sunday Times, cited Zuma’s backing when the BBC broke away from Business Unity SA, the establishment of the Department of Small Business and the black industrialist programme among the reasons why the council thought the president should remain.
The BBC had also lobbied the president to reverse the decision to house the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) at the Industrial Development Corporation, saying the move would stifle transformation and starve black business of muchneeded funding.
The BBC also threw in a request for the fund to be recapitalised to the tune of R1bn.
A week later BBC affiliates expressed dismay at the council’s pronouncement regarding Zuma, saying they had not been consulted and did not support the position. Fast forward to February 2018 and council insiders will tell you that episode caused much embarrassment to the black business lobby group because the BBC came across as a political party, and most would rather forget that the event even took place.
There also seems to be amnesia among some council members concerning that meeting with Zuma.
So what happens to radical economic transformation, the black industrialist programme and calls for the NEF to go back to being a standalone entity now that Zuma is in the departure lounge? The short answer is, nothing.
In fact, the mood among black business appears to be that ANC policy does not revolve around one individual (read, Zuma), so the president’s impending removal from office is neither here nor there. It’s business as usual.
The overarching sentiment is that the ANC has to make decisions that are good for the economy and business, whether black or white, is guided by the macroeconomic environment, which determines success or failure.
The logic here is that if the ANC makes a decision that benefits the country in totality, then responsible decisions have to be made. A careful reading between the lines says that Zuma is on his own.
It has to be stated that the BBC has been careful to steer clear of the conversation around Zuma’s future this time, and that the group has been at pains to make its lobbying work over government policies the central focus of its messaging.
One of its delegates was part of the team led by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to the World Economic Forum in Davos recently. And there is no concern at the council of a shift in policy now that Ramaphosa is at the helm of the ANC. On the contrary, insiders at the BBC are quick to point out that Ramaphosa has been consistent in his support for radical economic transformation. He was, after all, a guest of honour at a BBC gala dinner in early 2017, talking up the initiative.
If anything, the BBC looks set to crank up its involvement in the black industrialists programme and has scheduled meetings with the Department of Trade and Industry to discuss ways in which the council can co-manage the initiative to ensure better co-ordination.
In short, Zuma is the furthest thing from black business’s mind, while the spectre of improved economic fortunes is the topic du jour.