Gift of the gab
Sandile Zungu adjusting the dial
● Sandile Zungu, the new president of the Black Business Council (BBC), says it was warned by corporate SA to get its act together or face funding cuts.
“They wanted credible leaders they can talk business with,” he says.
The 51-year-old billionaire founder and chair of Zungu Investments Company says his mandate and immediate priority is to repair the BBC’s “tattered” credibility.
He blames its battered image on the “saga” of a R5m donation from the Airports Company SA that disappeared after being given to immediate past president Danisa Baloyi.
But many believe the BBC’s problems began when Zungu, who was then secretarygeneral, took the BBC out of Business Unity SA (Busa) in 2012, accusing it of being antitransformation and pro-white monopoly capital and of ignoring the interests of black business.
Led by the silver-tongued Umlazi-born, Michaelhouse- and University of Cape Town-educated entrepreneur who bankrolled Jacob Zuma’s presidential bid and remained his most eloquent praise singer throughout the years of state capture, the BBC aligned itself closely to Zuma.
It championed “radical economic transformation”, attacked then finance minister Pravin Gordhan and the CEO Initiative and, when Gordhan was fired, called for him to be charged.
It told Zuma to ignore demands for his resignation after the scandal of Nkandla and the finding of the Constitutional Court that he had violated his oath of office.
Sipho Pityana, now president of Busa, said the BBC’s support for Zuma was a “betrayal” of transformation, and Gordhan accused it of backing state capture.
Zungu glosses over all this. What really hurt the BBC was Busa’s refusal to share its seat at Nedlac with it, thus excluding it from economic policy negotiations between the government, business and labour (Busa cited the BBC’s “rogue” behaviour).
Zungu says he will push for the act governing Nedlac to be changed to allow the BBC “back into the fold on our own”, separately from Busa.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has made it clear he wants business to speak with one voice, but Zungu says the gap between the BBC and Busa is still too wide for unity.
Where the BBC emphasises transformation and equality, Busa “just talks about growth, growth, growth”, he says.
Busa has “never been interested in talking for black business” and therefore the BBC’s existence as a separate entity remains necessary, although talks aimed at bringing them closer will be prioritised.
He says he has an “extremely close personal rapport” with Pityana and Bonang Mohale, the CEO of Business Leadership SA, which represents SA’s largest companies.
“This creates a good platform for frank discussions.”
While he claims to support Ramaphosa’s call for unity, he fears that a return to Busa will “rob us of the opportunity” to extract advantages for black business.
On the subject of robbing, he says the BBC’s shrill opposition to the Reserve Bank’s decision to put one of its members, VBS Bank, under curatorship was wrong.
He says the BBC agrees with Busa that to attract foreign investment the government needs to ensure more certainty around labour relations and property rights.
He sees no contradiction between this and its support for expropriation without compensation.
“Investors are deterred by flip-flopping, not by the absoluteness of any policy.”
The BBC and Busa also agree that the fight against corruption must not be “merely rhetorical”, he says.
“We in the BBC would like to build a much stronger relationship with ministers who are diligent and intent on protecting the public purse, and single-minded in their fight against corruption. We are dead against corruption.”
He sees no contradiction between this ringing declaration and his and the BBC’s support for Zuma.
Zungu says he still has a “good relationship” with Zuma, who he has known since the early 1990s. Does he still support him?
“I unequivocally support whatever government is led by the ANC.”
He says he was not in the Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma camp at Nasrec. But neither was he in the Ramaphosa camp. “I was completely disengaged.”
Didn’t he care who became president? “To be very honest it was neither here nor there.”
He doesn’t agree that SA would have gone over the cliff if the Zuma camp had won.
“I’m not so sure. Remember, we’re not out of the woods. Our economy is teetering on the edge of a recession.”
Does he hold Zuma responsible?
“There is no question that the issue of state capture has taken us to the brink.”
He says it would be “entirely wrong” to suggest that through his unwavering and very public support for Zuma he aided and abetted state capture.
He says he knew nothing about Zuma’s involvement in state capture.
“What we read about now is quite alarming. But a businessman like myself, there is no way I supported that. I never approved of the relationship of the president with the infamous Gupta family.”
Zungu was invited by the Guptas to lead a consortium they “facilitated” and which secured a dubious R9bn BEE deal involving a 21% stake of ArcelorMittal SA (Amsa).
Zungu says political connections had nothing to do with it, but was hard-pressed at the time to explain why else Duduzane Zuma was included.
“What’s wrong with a president’s son having ambitions to be a businessperson?” he said. “He’s an extremely industrious, hard-working fellow.”
In the event the deal was overturned when the Guptas’ attempted heist of the Amsa stake from Sishen Iron Ore was successfully challenged in court.
Zungu admits he was a visitor to the Guptas’ Saxonwold mansion, but denies he was close to them.
“They didn’t even invite me to the wedding.”
He concedes that he scored profitable BEE deals, but denies his support for Zuma had anything to do with it or that he needed such deals to succeed.
“I built a successful enterprise without needing to be propped up by BEE transactions. Having said that, I would be foolish as a businessperson to brush aside any advantages BEE might bring.”
And that, clearly, is one thing he is not.
What we read about now is quite alarming. But a businessman like myself, there is no way I supported that Sandile Zungu