Many tales like that of Nkonki's are going to emerge in the coming years, tales of black-owned firms which have come to rely on spending by government institutions finding themselves exposed, deservedly or not, due to a change in political climate. The administration of former president Jacob Zuma will have tarnished many. Black business must be feeling a lot like Tony Trahar, the last of Anglo's old-boys club and its CEO in the early years of the century, who had the "audacity" to raise political risk as one of the negatives of operating in the country.
Through his weekly address to the nation — his open letter on the ANC Today website — former president Thabo Mbeki wrote a stinging rebuke to Trahar, questioning the commitment of the 100-year-old mining company to South Africa.
It's now about 14 years since that letter was written, and there can be little argument that the political risk spoken of by the former Anglo head has become a feature of the South African story.
— Black firms refusing to play by the new rules were pushed aside.
Along with sluggish commodity prices, the mining sector has been perhaps the biggest victim of the political uncertainty created by Zuma.
As much as mainstream business has cried foul over the political shenanigans of the past decade, it is black business that has paid, and will continue to pay, the heaviest price.
When Zuma's term began, it was supposed to usher in a period in which black industrialists such as Lazarus Zim (whatever happened to him?) and Sandile Zungu would flourish. However, we now know that Zuma's focus was elsewhere; it was a project of manipulattion suited for just one man.
Black businesses that refused to play by the new rules were pushed aside. This was a reminder of how things were done in former homelands such as KwaZulu before the dawn of democracy, where an IFP card was a pass to doing business. Without one, well, one could expect some level of harassment at the least.
With the change of political guard that's currently under way, black businesses that had found a place in the sun over the past decade of poor administration — and here I am talking about actual businesses and not post boxes or fronts for a crumbling Gupta empire — face a very uncertain future.
Regiments Capital, from which Trillian Capital emerged, is a case in point. It has already made the call to shut its doors and sell off pieces of its business in a last-ditch effort to keep at least some elements alive.
The firm's association with state capture destroyed what were noble founding principles and its long-term goal of being a bank owned and run by black people.
Now one can argue that it serves them right, they went into business with a corrupted state, they should have kept their hands clean. I agree, but given the highly competitive nature of the industry, one can't expect established players such as Rand Merchant Bank and Investec to make space for a new entrant. So they dealt with the only devil they knew, big government.
It's a similar story with Nkonki — in a highly competitive auditing space, how likely were they to win a JSE blue-chip client? Such a client that might have derisked their business from the bad politics of the past decade.
South Africa's political stage needs to mature, and fast, if it is to help black businesses develop, and allow them to prosper without needing a political membership card, or alliance to any faction.
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