Engaging manner is her style

SHANDUKA’s outgoing CEO, Phuti Mahanyele, says the American Chamber of Commerce in South Africa was wrong to warn last week that new legislation was deterring foreign investment.

“I would have thought they would have been able to engage with government in a manner that is much more effective,” she says.

Mahanyele has insight into what’s needed to attract foreign investors: last year, she participated in the USAfrica Leaders Summit in Washington, where one of the topics was how Africa could attract more foreign direct investment.

“We need FDI very, very much,” she says. “We absolutely need to continue to have the interest of all these multinational organisations in South Africa for us to grow.”

She believes the government “fully understands that”.

Many businesses say their attempts to engage with the government are a waste of time.

“Shanduka has had very, very good interactions with government,” she says.

This won’t come as a surprise to people who believe it owes much of its success to its good political contacts — most notably Cyril Ramaphosa himself.

“We don’t have that type of relationship with government,” she says. “If we were a favoured organisation, we wouldn’t be amongst those being monitored so closely by the Department of Mineral Resources.”

Shanduka is platinum miner Lonmin’s empowerment partner, meant to drive transformation at the company.

Would the Marikana tragedy have happened if Shanduka had taken this role more seriously?

“Marikana could have happened with any of the mining companies,” she says. “It just happened to happen at Lonmin.”

Mahanyele’s participation in leadership summits has given her some insight into the question of leadership, and she gives President Jacob Zuma full marks.

“He is a strong leader. To walk into parliament and face what he had to deal with from the Economic Freedom Fighters and other parties and still continue with his speech shows that.” —