As business people become more vocal and engage more assertively with SA’s politics, it becomes ever more important to be precise about who speaks for "business" and which interest groups within business they speak for.
It’s an issue highlighted by the Black Business Council’s (BBC’s) news statement this week in which it claimed the partnership between "white" and "black" business at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) had been terminated after Business Unity SA (Busa) kicked out the BBC. But it is an issue that comes to the fore too when, for example, reports describe Business Leadership SA’s (BLSA’s) forthright deputy chairman, Bonang Mohale, as representing business.
The BBC doesn’t speak for "black" business any more than Mohale, whose organisation is essentially a club of about 80 big businesses, speaks for business as a whole. And Busa, which represents business in terms of Nedlac’s constitution, is anything but "white".
It may look like nitpicking, but it matters. At a time when high-profile business people and organisations have found a political voice and are speaking out on the need to protect the country’s economy and institutions from being destroyed by state capture and corruption, SA needs an honest debate about what role businesses can play and what it should be doing. Polarising that along inaccurate racial lines can only undermine and even poison such a debate.
It matters too because "business" is not homogenous and there needs to be space for different interests to have a voice in a way that finds common ground of what’s good for business and the economy without losing diversity.
The Nedlac structure was supposed to bring about that balance and the breakdown of the BBC’s relationship with Busa demonstrates how hard that can be in the rather poisonous political climate.
Four "constituencies" are the social partners in Nedlac: business, labour, government and the community. Even where Nedlac has allowed more than one organisation to be a member, they have to agree on a single convener and speak with one voice.
The BBC, which broke away from Busa in 2012, has been riding on the Busa ticket at Nedlac because it is not a member in its own right.
But the agreement had clearly become strained and that spilled over into an acrimonious attack by the BBC at Nedlac’s postbudget meeting with former finance minister Pravin Gordhan in February and further tensions at Nedlac’s special meeting with Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba.
Understandably, Busa’s board then decided it wasn’t going to offer the BBC a platform any longer, terminating the agreement and informing Nedlac of this in a letter on May 11.
The BBC, which has frequently attacked Busa president Jabu Mabuza for what it claims is his exclusion of black people from positions of power, says it will "continue participating in Nedlac as an independent voice of black people". That would mean it would have to apply in terms of Nedlac’s constitution to be a participant, and Nedlac’s executive director and executive council would have to decide. That could be interesting. And the catch is that even if the BBC’s application were to be accepted, there’s still only one convener elected by each of the four constituencies, so the BBC would have to co-operate with Busa if it wanted its voice heard.
As the BBC presents it, it’s a case of "monopoly capital" on the one side and "aspirant black entrepreneurs" on the other. The universe of SA’s business organisations is not that simple. The BBC itself comprises a range of interest groups and surely has differences of opinion within its ranks. Busa, on the other hand, is an umbrella organisation that brings together sectoral bodies such as AgriSA or the Banking Association, as well as chambers of commerce, corporate bodies and other representative organisations in which there are established and small businesses, black and white.
That Mabuza chairs Busa and BLSA, as well as the CEO Initiative, tends to blur the distinctions between the groups. But what’s been striking lately is the extent to which they have found common ground against state capture and corruption – and have been willing to speak up.
They have converged too in identifying transformation as a priority and in coming months SA can expect more from them on what transformation means and how business should be tackling it.
Perhaps ironically, Busa and the BBC’s divorce could help push both sides to be clear about what they mean when they say they want more meaningful participation by black people in shaping SA’s economy — and how they plan to effect that.
• Joffe is editor-at-large.
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