×

We've got news for you.

Register on SowetanLIVE at no cost to receive newsletters, read exclusive articles & more.
Register now

Black talent is scandalised in SA

EMBATTLED: Eskom chairman Zola Tsotsi, left, on Thursday announced the suspension of CEO Tshediso Matona, centre, and financial director Tsholofelo Molefe. This is a sign of the ANC-led government mistreating black talent among executives, says the writer Photo: Puxley Makgatho
EMBATTLED: Eskom chairman Zola Tsotsi, left, on Thursday announced the suspension of CEO Tshediso Matona, centre, and financial director Tsholofelo Molefe. This is a sign of the ANC-led government mistreating black talent among executives, says the writer Photo: Puxley Makgatho

Racism was anchored on the false notion that blacks were subhuman.

The struggle against racism in all its forms - colonialism and apartheid - was about rescinding this falsehood.

Despite the existence of a constitution that guarantees equal rights to all South Africans, irrespective of race and gender, the struggle for black people to regain their pride is far from over.

Incidents of racism that crop up from time to time show that many in our society still believe in the notion of black inferiority.

Under the current constitutional dispensation it is relatively easy to isolate white racism and deal decisively with its overt manifestation.

But we, black people, have a far bigger challenge than dealing with white racists.

We are our own enemies, doing a lot of damage to ourselves and reversing the gains of the struggle. Many blacks have emerged as the worst perpetrators of the idea that blacks lack necessary sophistication to do things the right way.

The ANC-led government, whose historic purpose is about doing everything in its power to disprove such notions, seems to be doing quite the opposite.

The manner in which black executives and other senior officials in state-owned enterprises are treated is worrying.

These companies have become slaughter houses of black integrity.

Hardly a month passes without a senior black manager in a state-owned company or government department being put to the guillotine.

Some are suspended for ridiculously lengthy periods for reasons that are unclear, if they exist at all. Some have to face the indignity of being subjected to kangaroo courts with threats of political blackmail.

Some are punished for refusing to toe the political line and dish out tenders to the "right" people.

Some have been forced to play the game of politics as a survival tactic, to the detriment of the companies they lead. Sometimes some of them are cleared of wrongdoing after their integrity has been tarnished beyond repair.

And in some cases they are kicked out and paid off under opaque contractual arrangements.

In the last decade or so a variation of this has been experienced by a number of black executives at the Land Bank, Eskom, SAA, SA Express, SABC, Transnet, Petro SA and the Post Office. Put together, all that has happened to a number of black executives in these companies leads to one unfortunate conclusion: that black people are incapable of running these complicated organisations.

Alternatively, that there are no black people well qualified to be managers. The following factors appear to be the main drivers of this unfortunate state of affairs.

First, some of the ministers under whose portfolio state companies fall, have proved that they lack the necessary supervisory acumen. This is a political problem that can be traced to the person who appoints the ministers.

The ministers have failed to perform their duties as shareholder representatives of the state.

For such ministers, political interference - dictating to CEOs who they should appoint and to what position - is the ultimate shareholder mandate.

Second, the appointments of boards of directors and chief executive officers is often not in line with the challenges faced by the companies. This leads to skills mismatch. Black executives, who would otherwise be very competent in certain areas in line with their qualifications, are appointed to sink. Thus, the unfortunate perception that they are inherently incapable is reinforced.

Third, boards of directors and senior executives are appointed in the same way a newly elected president appoints his cabinet. They are not allowed to implement independent strategies to fulfil the broad mandate of the shareholder in the long term. So the appointments are short term and subject to frequent changes, as is the president's entitlement to reshuffle his cabinet a countless times.

Since you don't need to have qualifications to be a minister, the assumption is that the board of directors posts and other positions that require qualifications are filled by people who are politically aligned but woefully lacking in skills.

What applies in the political sphere is exported to the business environment where it does not belong.

Fourth, there is the ubiquitous problem of corruption. The huge procurement budgets of the state-owned companies means the battle for the tender slice becomes intense and some black executives are tempted to enter into client-patron relationships.

A combination of these factors and more means that black talent is scandalised.

Those who are competent and who make themselves available to run the state companies have their integrity tarnished.

Those who are not qualified but take up the political appointments are part of the scheme that entrenches the perception that the best that blacks can offer is mediocrity. Those blacks who believe they are best suited but don't qualify politically stand at the outside and watch with disillusionment as the notion of black failure reproduces itself.

It's time the government reflected deeply on the way it manages state companies. If it fails to stop the carnage inflicted on black executives it would have no moral high ground to tackle racism in the private sector.

Steve Biko's black man and woman will once again be on their own - this time under a democratic dispensation.

 

 

For more stories like this one, be sure to buy the Sowetan newspaper from Mondays to Fridays