Shop around, but you won’t find much diversity
It took Steinhoff less than two weeks to appoint Heather Sonn as acting chair in December after news of accounting irregularities emerged. By replacing the group’s largest shareholder, Christo Wiese, as chair, the board was desperately looking to instil a sense of independence.
For the first time in the company’s 54-year history — and also at the worst time in its history — it had a black woman at the helm, shouldering the burden. But it seems transformation is being used to paper over the failures of executive teams.
Retail in South Africa remains the least transformed sector in terms of ownership, despite its 59.97% contribution to GDP through consumer spending.
At an executive level, Woolworths is the only retailer that has a black woman as its CEO. Since 2015 Zyda Rylands has spearheaded the South African unit’s food and clothing division, which has outperformed the group’s Australian operations.
A Boston Consulting Group study last year showed that diversity among executives leads to innovation and improved financial results. And most South African retailers need help.
The Department of Trade and Industry recognises that the retail sector should not be dominated by only a few players, saying “new players should emerge, especially those owned by black people”.
Like other sectors, retail is obliged to implement the broad-based BEE codes, although it sometimes seems unwilling to do so.
The Department of Trade and Industry said there should be a transformation framework for all retailers to implement, which would take into account key initiatives such as the black industrialist programme and localisation.
The central aspects of transformation — access to markets for black-owned enterprises and supplier development — are the two main interventions at the top of the government’s agenda for the retail sector.
But South African retailers are blasé when it comes to racial inclusivity.
According to Empowerdex’s 2017 Most Empowered Companies list, grocery chain Spar Group has black ownership of 6.35% and its black-woman ownership is 2.35%.
Africa’s largest retailer, Shoprite, has black ownership of 8.65%, with female black ownership of 4.29%.
Clicks’s black ownership stands at 18.5%, with an 8.75% representation for black women, while Woolworths, perhaps the most transformed, has 37.2% black ownership, with black women making up 16.02%.
Nomzamo Xaba, the research and advisory executive at Empowerdex, said the retail sector generally comes out at the bottom of the list, because it is driven by consumers who seldom apply any real pressure on it to transform.
“Customers such as you and me are unlikely to inquire about our supplier’s contributions to BBBEE before we buy bread and milk . . . and so there is little pressure for this sector to transform.”
Customers such as you and me are unlikely to inquire about contributions to BBBEE