S'THEMBISO MSOMI | Only by deracialising SA’s economy can the collective future of all South Africans be secured

Alan Knott-Craig, the entrepreneur who owns, among other businesses, Fibretime, and not his father, the former CEO of Vodacom with whom he shares the name, was one of the key panellists at a recent Black Business Council summit.

At one point during the panel discussion, the young Knott-Craig told his audience, almost exclusively black, that he runs his Fibretime business, which rolls out fibre in under-serviced townships, primarily for selfish reasons. Among them, he said frankly: “Well, I can get rich, which is always a good reason.”

Though this might have sounded a bit crude to the ears of a social-democrat-leaning journalist, it was not controversial at all to this audience, whose primary reason for waking up each morning is to generate wealth.

Then Knott-Craig mentioned that rolling out fibre in the townships – hence enabling the availability of fast and cheaper internet to households and small and medium-sized businesses – was going to grow the economy of those areas and contribute to the country’s GDP. Again, all practical stuff that any entrepreneur should consider when choosing a market to operate in.

But what captivated the audience was the reason he gave out last: “I would like to live in SA for the rest of my life. I’d like my daughters to live here for the rest of their lives. But it is not possible that a country can carry on with this [level of] inequality forever.

“At some point, there’s going to be a revolution. It can be a peaceful one, it can be a violent one ... We need the economy to grow, but if the racial profile of that economy doesn’t change ... people will be unhappy and we will reach a boiling point ... People like me, if they can, would leave the country. So, for my personal selfish interest, the way to live in SA is to have less inequality.”

He wasn’t revealing anything new; many before him in government, the private sector, civil society and academia have said the same.

But given the context of renewed attacks on the economic transformation agenda, mainly by groups purporting to be speaking on behalf of the white section of the South African population, it was refreshing to hear a white and relatively young businessman laying out what is at stake for the South African society as a collective.

As a privileged white South African, one whose father wasn’t just among the founders of Vodacom but went on to become one of the richest corporate executives due to the telcos roaring success, Knott-Craig Jnr could have easily joined those of his peers who complain that policies such as affirmative action, employment equity and BEE “punish” them for apartheid crimes that were committed “when we were not even born”.

He could have joined others who, while acknowledging SA as the country of their birth, have decided to settle abroad while saying that post-apartheid SA has no place for them.

Instead, he chose a different path and, from what he is saying, committed to using his access and skills to help make this a better country.

His insistence that SA's future as a prosperous country is dependant on its ability to bring about true economic inclusion for the majority and changing the racial profile of the economy, reminded me of one thing my father said to me during my recent visit to Durban.

It was at the height of the controversy surrounding US President Donald Trump’s claims that the government was expropriating white Afrikaner farms and denying the white minority’s right to teach their children in their mother tongue.

Like most of us South Africans, my father saw in Trump’s statement – as well as those of AfriForum and other organisations credited with lobbying the US president to adopt the stance – an attempt to derail the deracialisation of South African society.

Msomi senior then wondered about the point of resistance, on the side of transformation’s opponents, given that history teaches us that you cannot put a lid on a people’s aspirations forever. The majority will eventually grow impatient of the peripheral role it plays in the economy, he said, and demand its fair share.

Listening to many of the speakers at the Black Business Council summit – most of them middle-class folks with little appetite for revolutionary sloganeering – it is clear that patience is running thin. They say a society is really in trouble when even its middle-class and intelligentsia become restless. Something has got to give.

Hopefully, the upcoming national dialogue process reveals more Knott-Craigs – men and women from privileged backgrounds not seeking to protect their interests by maintaining the economic status quo, but who realise that their selfish interests can best be served by economic deracialisation.

Only then can our collective future be secured.

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