Oscar courts young black business leaders
“THE vision of the ANC becomes brighter when you elect leaders who are visionaries” was the message from ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane to young business people in Mthatha yesterday.
Mabuyane told the gathering: “It cannot be business as usual. You need to look for leaders who will be able to develop you.”
Addressing a Progressive Youth in Business (PYB) breakfast seminar at the newly-opened Mayfair Hotel, Mabuyane – who is bidding to become the ANC’s next Eastern Cape chairman – took a thinlyveiled swipe at premier Phumulo Masualle’s administration for failing to empower young people.
Masualle, the incumbent chair, is contesting for third term in office while Mabuyane has been provincial secretary for two consecutive terms.
Mabuyane’s comments in Mthatha came after he was urged by frustrated young business owners to ensure that provincial delegates going into the party’s national general council (NGC) in Gauteng this weekend should campaign for a certain percentage of municipal funds to be “ringfenced” for young people.
PYB provincial chairwoman Buhle Tonise told Mabuyane that although young business people wanted to play a role in job creation, they were often hamstrung by “internal turmoil” in municipalities.
“Politicians create a situation of dependency characterised by patronage.
“Most of our business relies on municipalities but sometimes projects are given to people with no qualifications and no knowledge of the job,” Tonise said.
Luthando Bara, the founding member of the Black Business Forum, told Mabuyane that they should advocate, during ANC’s weekend NGC, for 50% of government’s spending on goods and services to go to black businesses.
“We want to stake our claim in the economy,” he said.
Bara said the province spent around R50-billion of its budget on goods and services, “but only 10% of that actually went to blackowned businesses”.
Mabuyane said while the province had become a “construction site” due to the number of road upgrade projects taking place, it was shocking that only two locallybased companies were involved, while rest were from outside the province.
He also warned that the province “was collapsing” because so many people were migrating to other areas in search of better opportunities.
In addition, entrepreneurs found little space to thrive, he said.
Mabuyane said it was time for people to elect leaders who would be able to change their lives for the better. “To lead the ANC does not hinge on how many years you spent on Robben Island.”
Mabuyane said the much-talked about policy of radical economic transformation “was one of the most fundamental policies developed by the ANC, whose aim was to help create jobs, kill unemployment and boost the economy”.
“Radical economic transformation is about having factories working here in Mthatha, Butterworth and Dimbaza so that the state can procure goods from them,” he said. —