Whatever the reasons for his departure, it is sad to see BCX founder Isaac Mophatlane leave the corporate scene, especially following the well-documented acquisition of the company by Telkom.
In my conversation with him on Power Perspective last week, I got a sense of someone who is passionate about what they do. Mophatlane’s love of computers led to him founding a business at age 12. He then steered it to become a giant in the information technology industry, turning over billions, spreading its wings across the continent and employing more than 9,000 people.
It is a story of a business that started from nothing, with nothing — except the hard work of its passionate founders.
It is a story that should inspire and indeed help propel the reindustrialisation of SA into the giant it should be in Africa.
This is how SA could take the country’s economic trajectory out of its slumber and attend to the low levels of entrepreneurship bedevilling our economic landscape.
What stands out about the story of the Mophatlane twins is the link between skills, passion and vision.
It is the alignment of these, coupled with pure hard work and determination, that differentiated them from their competitors. There was nothing in their story about affirmative action or handouts.
Their story tells of how they overcame hurdles, not how legislation shielded them
There was nothing about anyone doing them favours or giving them a better deal because they were black or young.
The twins tell of a good foundation in basic education, and when they ventured into business, banks imposed the same strict terms to which other players in the industry were subjected.
Their story tells of how they overcame hurdles, not how legislation or policies of the new era shielded them from hurdles and challenges.
Contrast this to the government’s stated intention to somehow create industrialists from nothing and make them create jobs. This is surely an incorrect path. No wonder there have been so few takers in the government’s so-called industrialisation programme.
The trade and industry minister has yet to account to the public about how this programme is meant to succeed, given the very ambitious targets that have been set.
This should send a strong message that three years after the fanfare of its launch, this fanciful programme has little to show.
Certainly, there is little on the department’s website to encourage those who may have a genuine appetite for entrepreneurship.
A story such as that of Mophatlane cannot be socially engineered. It has to develop organically, taking into account certain principles that should guide our quest to build entrepreneurs.
In the context of the so-called radical economic transformation, it is insulting to see the government dragging its feet after creating what amounts to false hopes of building industrialists from scratch. It is shaping up to be another chapter of the dismal failure of black economic empowerment.
However, it is clear from the Mophatlane story that one of the lessons for becoming a success is to keep reliance on government business to a minimum and rather position yourself to compete in the open market, where you can go toe-to-toe with other entrepreneurs.
It is clear that genuine entrepreneurship has to be at the heart of inclusive economic growth.
The first step is surely to come back to earth about what is achievable in the industrial space in SA and support those who have dirtied their own hands creating value and generating sustainable jobs.
The Mophatlane story shows the government can find examples that can be used to inspire others to do the things that result in real economic growth.
• Tabane is author of Let’s Talk Frankly and anchor
of Power Perspective on Power 98.7.
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