I started out this year like everyone else, feeling very optimistic. And I think that this year would have started with an incredible bang had there not been any load-shedding. Load-shedding seems to have been the catalyst that has thrown us all into the deepest doldrums. For every one positive article there are 25 negative ones, ranging from recessions to the braindrain. And to add to our woes there appears to be a new wave of people who are contemplating leaving. Every single one of my friends, business associates and even a few sworn enemies are considering their options.
I can't say I blame them. My mother was held up at gun point in her house last week and my mind is saying "how much longer before these hoodlums (believe me this is not the word I use in my own company) before get to me and my family". She wasn't hurt at all thank goodness, unfortunately this is the exception and not the rule.
But having bemoaned my insecure existence here in South Africa I can honestly say that I don't want to leave. I like South Africa, I like the life I lead here, I like the weather and most of my friends and family still live here. I believe that we can make it work, it just takes work. I took a look around the room at Thami Mazwai's farewell function, there were three white people amongst a group of black people. Everyone who made a speech made it absolutely clear that they were going to stay. My friend Joseph Nkadimeng is going nowhere (he's never really amounted to much anyway). And we all know that they are no less susceptible to crime than any other white person living here. So if they are optimistic they must have some insight that many of us are missing - and I plan to discover this insight.
They are not alone in their sentiments. To me, the Jewish population of South Africa are a good barometer of our situation. I cannot be sure of the statistics but I believe that we have lost about 120,000 from that community in the last 30 years. This is a huge loss, and coincidentally enough First National Bank chief economist Cees Bruggemans was quoted in the Business Report this morning saying
Every 30 000 highly skilled individuals who make this step probably reduce South Africa's GDP by 1 percent or more, starving it of critical support, thereby undermining ongoing employment of double their number
But I have been speaking to Jewish friends and clients and they are not even vaguely suggesting that they will leave. Paul Koffler of Rand Plastics told me that he believes that the opportunities that South Africa presents are the best in the world.
And then there is the fastest right hand in Jo'burg (could even be South Africa), most people know him as Greg Durst. Greg is an American who fell in love with South Africa many years ago. He is acutely aware of the troubles that we face, especially the crime, but he will tell you that there is so much going on here that the USA cannot offer him.
So why did I start this post.
I wanted to talk about where BEE is going, or at least where I thought it was going.
It would seem that the DTI was left with no choice but to extend the deadline of the first year of the codes by another six months. These reasons were offered by the Financial Mail (thanks Louise for sending me this).
- The Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA) needs to be amended to allow effective use of the broad-based approach to BEE.
- The department of trade & industry (DTI) has yet to finalise the establishment of the formal BEE verification regime.
- The chaos preventing progress on the financial sector charter (FSC) has spilled over to the codes.
I don't quite know what to think of this extension, but I think that it is sending a message to the marketplace that BEE is going nowhere and that they need not worry too much about it. And I don't think that the DTI is helping matters much either. According to an Engineering News report (thanks Obed), the Minister of Trade and Industry was to publish a proclamation announcing an extension of the transitional period in the Government Gazette of Friday, February 9, 2008. He might have done so but I can't find it and it is not on the front page of the DTI's website (today being the 12th of February, 2008).
Then you have the ANC power struggle. I posted that I believed that BEE deals would all but dry up until it is known who the players in the new government will be. If News24 is anything to believe I am to be proved right - Khumalo 'forced out' and Mbeki support could cost jobs.
It is a false sense of security if you think the whole BEE thing is going to be put on hold. The need for transformation (as opposed to compliance) is greater than ever. Old apartheid wounds are starting to hurt again and the new government is going to have to find newer and more innovative ways of effecting transformation in such a way that all South Africans benefit.
This is possible.
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