The word racism is cropping up everywhere. Jimmy Manyi maintains that racism is behind the poor employment equity results. And now Brian Molefe brings up the word again. The story was reported in this morning's Business Day and it goes like this.
Barloworld have appointed Dumisa Ntsebeza as their executive chairman. This comes after Molefe revved them earlier this year about their executive team - who were sorely lacking black representation. The story gets a little more complicated because Trevor Munday was appointed as deputy chairman at the same time, a post that has not been required for the last 10 years. The suggestion seems to be that the board is not so confident in Ntsebeza and they have appointed Munday to help him along.
Molefe maintains that the latter appointment is “racist and patronising, because it would appear that the company believes the first black person to become chairman in its 105-year history needs a white deputy to look over his shoulder.”
One cannot deny that Munday's appointment seems to hint at him "nannying" Ntsebeza, but to call it racist is plain ridiculous. And this is what concerns me, by bandying a blanket term like racism about you are losing sight of issues that might pertain to the person. Can you imagine two people arguing about a superfluous issue (rugby for instance) and when the non-black person disagrees with the black person on an issue he is accused of racism. How on earth are we ever to get on with living in this country if this is going to get in the way.
Back to Barloworld, I cannot see how this issue can be reduced to racism. A company of the stature of Barloworld would surely never do anything or condone any form of behaviour that would be construed as racist. Especially with its PIC shareholding and the presence of Brian Molefe.
Perhaps the time has come for our country to insist that people who allege racism prove it. And prove it in a public forum. These allegations are just dragging us back into the past.
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