By Dr. Kenosi Mosalakae
It has been suggested that “the truth hurts”, but we need to face it. The truth about minuscule ownership by Africans of equity in JSE-listed companies is simply that Africans do not start companies that grow to the level of the requirements to be listed. Whites have started and built companies, which is why they are in the majority of ownership on the JSE.
African commentators appear to view the economy as a “bag of goodies” that landed, by the grace of God, on our shores but was grabbed by white people. They perceive economic advancement as access to that “bag of goodies” and then see the barrier to getting their hands on it being whites, who are hoarding it. They call this “failure to transform” or “resistance to transformation”.
The “failure” I observe is the failure of these commentators to recognise, first, that effort is put into building a company and, second, that the buying power at the root of the success of most of these businesses actually lies with Africans themselves.
While white business continued to innovate going into 1994 and after (sometimes with African buying power in mind), African “businessmen” resorted to drafting black economic empowerment (BEE) charters, which were seen as instruments to make it easy to access the “bag of goodies”. While African business sought to influence the new power wielders with their blackness and guarantee of votes, whites saw an opportunity in BEE charters to invest in political influence by giving equity to the very power wielders needs). This is the reason African businessmen are still complaining 20 years into “freedom”.
The biggest impediment to progress in business among Africans is their inferiority complex, lack of self-belief and lack of mutual trust, which makes them doubt the capacity of their own fellow Africans and they therefore do not support their own.
Dr. Kenosi Mosalakae is a prominent media practitioner who lives in Houghton. This article is adapted from an article which was first published in the Business Day
