Desperate times, but it is not as serious as Russia, Brazil or Rwanda
SO SOMEONE SAID ‘GO AND SPEND A WEEK THERE’, AND WITHIN 24 HOURS I KNEW I COULD LIVE IN THIS COUNTRY AND RUN A BUSINESS
PERHAPS SOUTH AFRICANS DON ’ T HAVE THE FULL GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE OF HOW PRIVILEGED THEY ARE
There have been more than 60 governments in Italy since World War 2, a point lovingly made in London by whichever junior was manning the Lex column turret at the FT that weekend.
“Desperate, but not serious,” the journo wrote, quoting La
Dolce Vita screenwriter Ennio Flaiano’s observation of Roman politics in the 1960s.
There has been a similarly smug tone in SA to some of the commentary, noting how unhinged things are turning out to be elsewhere — and this time not in Trump’s “sh**holes” (though Zimbabwe is putting up a fair display of bad craziness), but in the sandstone temples of Washington, Whitehall, Paris and Berlin.
Now here we are at home: desperate, but not serious. Not serious, because this country of ours bumbles along on two cylinders, leaking fumes, but still gets to a version of “somewhere”. It hasn’t stopped outright, despite having many a rogue take a leak into its petrol tank along the way.
It has been nice to see Tito Mboweni put some ideas on the table, and to hear all sorts of arguments about it. It’s the way it should be. Every week Mark Barnes has workable ideas; I hope people in power are taking notes.
In this vaguely optimistic state of mind, I dug out an unpublished interview I did in 2016 with Leon Ayo, at the time boss of head-hunting firm Odgers Berndtson in subSaharan Africa.
Ayo’s motivation to take the job in Joburg, and what he said about working amid Jacob Zuma’s necropolis, was in its own little way quite enlightening for where we are now — particularly now everybody and his dog has a desperate idea for fixing Eskom and the rest of the crocked state-owned enterprises.
His first job was to find a new leader for the Joburg Ballet Company — a nongovernmental organisation with the same kind of “people problem” at the top as any number of government utilities. How do you galvanise the right technocrats to fix them?
“As a black Londoner,” said Ayo, “my views of SA were taken from my dad being politically active throughout the apartheid years, and subsequently through looking at the crime and HIV/Aids statistics. Three-and-a-half years ago the opportunity to run our SA business was presented to me. I was not interested.
“So someone said ‘go and spend a week there’, and within 24 hours I knew I could live in this country and run a business here. Perhaps South Africans don’t have the full global perspective of how privileged they are, how the problems they have are replicated in virtually every other country in the world.
“Not to say there aren’t issues in SA, but I’d rather be here than in Russia, Brazil, Syria, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Germany, France or England right now. SA is still growing at 1%, which is greater than many others.”
Ayo said understanding the commercial imperative of any organisation will ensure it is sustainable. “I have always hated the ‘not-for-profit’ description. Hospitals, universities and schools will talk about ‘achieving spend ’– if they don’t spend their budget they won’t get it next year.
“So how do you incentivise them? How do you bring the best out of them and lose this not-for-profit angle?
“How do you get them to achieve something instead of not doing something?”
The solution, said Ayo, is to bring in someone with strong financial management skills. You are less likely to spend money you don’t have, and you’re likely to attract more money, if you’re being run efficiently.
“In his budget speech, the finance minister [Pravin Gordhan at the time] said we need to do more with less. This requires a cultural change from the top. The government must create conditions where socially responsible organisations can come in with the minimum amount of bureaucracy and provide mentoring, microfinance investment and workshops giving basic skills to run businesses.
“A lot of people do that in their own time anyway. They just don’t shout about it.”