Turning adversity into advantage
HAVE attended 12 World Economic Forums in its 25 years of existence in Africa. One of the most memorable moments would be the 1992 WEF in Davos, Switzerland.
President Nelson Mandela chose the Davos meeting of international business leaders and world presidents to make his first speech on South Africa’s economic future under the ANC.
He later credited this occasion for inspiring his reversal on the ANC policy on nationalisation of the mining industry.
Many people would understandably ask – What is the World Economic Forum all about in the context of South Africa’s development and how would it benefit us?
This WEF in Durban, which takes place this week, will help to position South Africa as the “Gateway to the Continent” and a hub for regional investment.
Further benefits would include high-profile business persons, who would undoubtedly be looking at South Africa, and especially Durban as a destination for foreign direct investment, hence KwaZulu-Natal and Durban have laid out the red carpet for these possible future investors.
To further explore the question of what is the WEF and how it will benefit us, the starting premise would have to be the recognition that we are what can loosely be termed as a developmental economy.
Simply explained – this premise recognises that we have only recently emerged from a period of debilitating discrimination and political and economic subjugation.
While we do not want to dwell on the ravages of apartheid, it must be factored in because this backdrop sets the tone for the perspectives and direction that will map out the future success of this country.
In this developmental economy scenario, we have to play catch-up.
We have to redress numerous apartheid wrongs and we have to devise and execute massive infrastructure development in the areas of healthcare, education, water and electricity.
The WEF is effectively a conglomeration and gathering of world experts in various fields of infrastructure and economic development whopossess immense expertise and experience on how to grow and develop relatively struggling economies.
They bring with them the experiences of similar scenarios around the world and successes they have achieved in addressing the challenges of developing economies.
In doing so, they then provide guidelines for development, benchmarked against similar world scenarios and successes.
That, in a nutshell, is the broad value they present to South Africa.
Why does South Africa need this kind of input and recipe for growth and further development?
Certainly, one solution that would contribute to rapid and accelerated growth would be if all those big businesses with a cash pile of tens of billions decided to expand and invest that money in the South African economy. Ordinary South Africans will see this not only as a great act of patriotism, but also as a sincere commitment and faith in this beautiful country.
We have to find ways of stemming the outflow of capital and employing them in our country to everyone’s mutual advantage.
However, this will depend on the great commitment of multi-nationals and conglomerates and this should not present the only solution for our development.
Here, I can take a leaf out of my own book whereby my Edison Property Group has demonstrated its leap of faith in our country’s future through its engagement of almost R10 billion in property development throughout the country, including the almost sold-out global award-winning Oceans Umhlanga Mixed-Use Development at R3.8bn.
At a more personal level, and in my humble view, in our country today, there are many, many people who may be described in terms of a rags to riches story.
For me this description is too simplistic.
I would prefer to describe it in terms of how these people slogged, persevered and succeeded in “turning adversity into advantage”.
It does not take a rocketscience brain to understand that pivotal in this pursuit to turn adversity into advantage is the strategy to develop, nurture and sustain the creative capital within the younger generation and growing entrepreneurs to meet the country’s needs.
Sadly, among the current generation of youth and younger adults, this ethos of our past survival and existence is mostly discounted and almost nonexistent.
In many scenarios, we have unfortunately developed a generation of what I call “the children of rich parents syndrome”.
We have spawned a generation of what many call tenderpreneurs, who heavily rely on their ability to call in favours and we have succoured a generation of younger adults who are imbued with an attitude of “entitlement” and who expect that the country and the ruling political party now owe them a living.
This therefore renders the need for developing entrepreneurs even more critical and crucial to the survival and sustaining of the economic and social fabric of our beloved country.
Critically absent in all these scenarios is the talent to be creative, to be resourceful, to be enterprising and to be visionaries.
What is lacking is the resolve to put your shoulders to the wheel, take an idea, germinate it into a concept, water it with your own sweat and grow it into a successful business.
It is these qualities that need to be instilled and nurtured in the younger generation if we are determined to grow our country into the African continent powerhouse it should be.
So how do we address these challenges of instilling in them the ethos that will spawn entrepreneurs, visionaries and trailblazers?
In my view, it must start with a focused educational process wherein the curricula in secondary schools should include subjects that encourages creativity, that encourages reliance on one’s own intrinsic talents and abilities and an education that encourages resourcefulness within a constructive socioeconomic framework.
The educational process in schools should be accentuated in tertiary or further education facilities, which should not only focus on theoretical frameworks and academic treatises.
For example, when pharmacists are trained at universities, they should not only be schooled in the technical appreciation and orientation of their profession.
They should also be trained to develop an enquiring and creative mind, which should explore areas of potential molecular development for new products and be resourced with a toolkit and framework for manufacturing of pharmaceutical products.
Have we ever interrogated why South Africa has never been at the forefront of any molecular development in the world and we are totally reliant on American and European regimes?
While we cannot argue against the partial impact on international sentiment on our political dynamics, and the Ministry of Finance in particular, the underlying fundamentals for such volatility go far deeper into international currency manipulation and manoeuvrings among other dynamics.
There is no doubt that the overwhelming impact stems from being victims of the strong dollar, the weakening Chinese and Russian economies and the international meltdown of commodity prices and the financial crises in oil producing nations.
Almost every emerging country currency has been impacted.
And yet they did not blame it on political processes and dynamics.
My parting advice is “don’t stress about things you cannot change – change the things you can and just get on with your life as if they do not exist”.
I believe that most South African businesses are far better off now than they were in 1994.
Remember that all problems, even ephemeral, are not permanent.
We must take solace from the lessons of the sub-prime American crisis that brought the US to its knees just a few years ago and yet that country now once again reigns supreme.
It’s the attitude and patriotism of the business people of the US that saw the country overcome its economic crisis.
They did not wait for the government to do things. They went out and acted to make a positive contribution to their country’s economic wealth.
Therefore, the WEF staged in Durban is a boon in many ways. It will provide direction and proposals for growth combined with an injection of expertise on how we could achieve them. We have an inherent wealth in this country that spans the entire spectrum from international life-blood mineral wealth and agricultural diversity to supremely talented human resources.
The challenge we all face is to find that elusive formula of how we dovetail all these ingredients to once again restore our waning reputation as the powerhouse of Africa.