Paul Janisch

Black South Africans need an AfriForum and Broederbond - Max du Preez

There are clearly parallels between the Broederbond strategies to enrich themselves and give jobs and tenders to their pals and the ANC policies of black economic empowerment, crony capitalism and cadre deployment. One big difference is that the Broederbond invested heavily in education, training, conferences and workshops to enhance skills in order to prepare their “deployees” to do their jobs properly. “Superb organisation, strict discipline and determination” were key.

But perhaps the biggest difference is that volkskapitalisme had a genuine aim to benefit more than just the few that got very rich. Unlike BEE, it spread the wealth a little.

via www.moneyweb.co.za

Something that one Kevin Lester spoke to me about years ago. The Volkskapitalisme model focused on education, and then built it up from there.  A paragraph from this Wiki page does show common pitfalls of both Volkskapitalisme and BEE.  

Volkskapitalisme strived to improve the economic conditions of the Afrikaners who in general at the time were less well-off than the English-speaking whites in South Africa. In practice the program consisted of utilising the Afrikaner capital into new and existing Afrikaner businesses. Although volkskapitalisme managed to develop some Afrikaner businesses, such as Sanlam and Volkskas into corporate giants that still have a central role in South African economy, in the end the economic benefits for the majority of the poor Afrikaners were slim.

But, as du Preez observes, the results of Volkskapitalisme were far more significant than BEE

By the 1970s, Afrikaners owned a substantial chunk of the South African economy with successful companies like Sanlam, General Mining, Rembrandt, Perskor and Nasionale Pers, all dominated by Broeders. The civil service (and the SABC) was run and staffed mostly by Afrikaners and the South African Railways was used to provide employment to unskilled and uneducated Afrikaners. By the 1980s, Afrikaner capital was dominant and the overwhelming majority of their number were members of the comfortable middle class.

 

 

 

 

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Tick box BEE has barely started

(O) bservers point to a significant lack of clarity over the new codes.

They also say the deadlines for implementing sector-specific changes may be too ambitious.

"Without adjustment to these requirements, (construction) companies are at risk of losing their government contracts. The tick-box approach to BEE is over," Murray Chabant, CEO of empowerment consultancy Signa, said last week

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If there is one statement that really pisses me off it's Murray's "The tick-box approach to BEE is over."  The new codes are going to push fronting through the stratosphere.  Ticking boxes is about the only way to get through these shambolic codes.  The issue here is going to be the cost of verificaton.   In order to verify to the extent that the codes appear to prescribe you'll need to expend huge amounts of time and people.  For a company the size of FNB this could take as long as an audit.  The problem is that with the increased number of verification agencies the price per verification has come down substantially.  There were stories that before the accreditation of the first VAs, when EmpowerDex was all the rage, costs of R500k could be levied.  Those days have gone, I would suggest a very expensive verification would be between R50k and R100k.  These prices are going to have to stay at similar prices because our already over-stretched private sector cannot afford to pay more.  Corners are going to have to be cut to keep the verification viable.  The VA will check to see whether what you did is true.  They won't go into the substance of it, like Rob wants them to.  They can't because they'll lose money.

Murray get your facts straight, unless of course you were quoted out of context.

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F’N Bollocks – FNB, FICA and ruining a 6 year old’s banking experience

There comes a time in many a young man's life when they accompany their father to their local bank and open an account. The joy of this thing called the internet is that the account had already been opened, it was just a matter of getting the card – that thing that allows the 6 year old to have a connection with the money in his bank account. In order to get this card you need to demonstrate proof of residence. The easiest way to do this is to present a rates bill that comes to your house. But not all of us have any of our bills or post sent to our home address, in fact we don't even have a postbox on our wall. I explained this to the lady on the phone when I opened the bank account. She advised me to go off to the police station and get a document that is signed by the police confirming my physical address. I did this and Oliver and I went off to the Rosebank branch of FNB to collect his bank card. The first queue we stood in was called "CARD COLLECTIONS". We waited in that one for five minutes and were told that this was the WRONG QUEUE. No problem, we went and sat on that tatty furniture in the banking hall and waited another 20 minutes. The lady was very friendly and brought out the card and the pin document. Oliver was very impressed with the card and how the light reflects off it. She then disappears for about 15 minutes and comes back and tells me that they can't accept the police document. At this point I was very pissed off and used language my old Sgt Major would have been very impressed with. I insisted that I speak to her supervisor who arrived and told me the same story – again in a very friendly manner. I stormed out without a bank card and a distraught 6 year old. Before I left they gave me proforma document that I could use.

Let's cut to the chase here. This was an incredibly humiliating experience for me and my child. Instead of introducing him to the world of saving and money we were sent packing because their own systems gave me the wrong information. Right FNB this is what I think

1. I have been a customer at that branch for close to 30 years – I'm not a fly by night
2. If you have issues with people who don't receive bills at their residential address then either put the proforma document on the website – or if you have refer me to it; or email the document to me
3. Don't humiliate a loyal customer in front of his child
4. Don't advertise that it's easy to do business with you when it isn't. It was very easy to open the account and put money in it, but to get a bank card out of you is impossible.
5. Reimburse me the R8 that it costs me to park there every time I have to come in and be sent back – because I need to go back again with the right document and hope to hell that it actually is acceptable.

However – if you value me as a customer who has been with you for thirty years or so, why don't you send the CEO of FNB Banking or the Rosebank branch manager down to my house, which is five minutes away from your offices, along with a commissioner of oaths who can make me swear on Peter Green's grave that I live where I do and then deliver the card. I promise I will not charge you for the parking.

I do know that you've got me over a barrel here – all the banks are the same. So I'm not going to move my accounts, but I will be sure to pepper @Rbjacobs with my comments.

A very unpleasant experience

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