/ 23 December 2010

Blacks are pawns in a white game

The epic failure of black empowerment policies have paved the way for a new kind of apartheid in South Africa which seeks to maintain the status quo at all costs and perpetually keep black people at the lowest rung of the social and economic hierarchy.

The introduction of black empowerment policies — such as black economic empowerment (BEE) and employment equity (EE) — sought to right the wrongs of the past. However, when one looks around the business world today, white power still rules the roost. Decisions that matter are still made by white executives and black professionals are sheepishly overwhelmed by the white corporate juggernaut. Unfortunately, there is nothing much they can do about it, except for the random rants from Jimmy Manyi and Julius Malema.

Employment equity reports, one after the other, show a disturbing trend of whites getting the lion’s share of training and promotions at the expense of blacks (African, Indian and coloured), 16 years into the new dispensation.What is more worrying now is the emergence of a new kind of apartheid, here Africans from the north of the Limpopo River are used as pawns in the white man’s power game, south of the Limpopo.

To illustrate this, a white Zimbabwean chief executive, at the helm of a local company, cursed the ANC government when he was told his black Zimbabwean protégé did not quality to be classified as an EE candidate. “What the fuck is wrong with this government, this guy is competent,” he said. By just a random headcount of black faces in various professional teams, whether accountants, auditors, equity analysts, computer programmers and even marketers, the trend is that there will be only one black African (local) in a team of, say, 10 members.

If they really have to hire another black African, they will cross the borders and recruit a Zimbabwean, Zambian, Kenyan. It’s very rare to find two or three local black Africans working in the same team. I guess white bosses are still haunted by the past, fearing that too many local blacks will conspire and cause trouble. So, the solution is to hire a foreign African, who’s in South Africa to better his or her life and not interested in advancing the country’s transformation agenda.

I have nothing against my Indian and coloured compatriots but they, too, are used as pawns in the white man’s power game. Generally, they are not interested in the bigger agenda of transformation, except advancing their careers and hence are less of a threat to the white establishment and susceptible to manipulation by white power. Those who believe the corporate world is an extension of the liberation struggle trenches to advance the goals of a more equitable society are considered as a bunch of “misfits”.

Dear reader, this new of kind of apartheid is so effective that the acronyms EE and BEE have, at worst, been cursed, and at best, relegated to an admin “pain in the butt” of the corporate world. Any mention of these acronyms in a conversation, except at a mandatory EE forum meeting, is tantamount to career suicide hence the silence of many a black professional.

The feeling among many is: “Mfwethu (my brother), I’m just here for a stint to learn the ropes before I venture into my own thing.” Meanwhile, their white counterparts are being encouraged to socialise with the brokers of power — the ones who decide who to hire and fire, how much performance bonus to pay to whom, who to promote, over a game of golf, touch rugby or over a round of drinks after hours. This is how corrupt the system is.

I have often wondered why these corrupt practices of white corporate bosses do not make newspaper headlines. Thanks to the Competition Commission, some of the sleaze in corporate South Africa is beginning to come out. But what the commission has uncovered is just the tip of the iceberg. The politics of dishing out patronage is not the sole preserve of the ANC, as some newspaper columnists and the Democratic Alliance would like us to believe.

You would often be told: “It’s not about what you do, but who you know.” If you are not connected to the brokers of power, climbing the corporate ladder will be a perpetually deferred dream or, as a consolation, do what most black professionals do — hop to another job, even if it offers just a pittance more. In terms of black African executives the less said about this lot, the better. With a few exceptions of black excellence, many African executives have become whiter than their white masters.

I recall sitting in a meeting addressed by a black chief executive. A colleague of mine remarked that it was quite refreshing to hear Bra Tee (not his real name) talk about BEE for the first time in his five-year tenure as chief executive. Another colleague expressed shock when invited to Bra Tee’s house party in Sandton. The whole house was teeming with white people, with not a single black face, except for Bra Tee.

I thought to myself: How do you confidently talk about BEE and expect to see real transformation taking place when you have surrounded yourself with whiteness? It is as if black chief executives have been bewitched with whiteness. They are too scared to affirm and empower people from their own backyards. They, too, are the pawns in a white man’s power game.

I guess they like to see abelungu (whites) stroking their slave egos, every now and then, and abelungu are expert suckers. Just as it is difficult to talk with your mouth full, the same goes for our black executives — they cannot imagine themselves opening their share options full mouths and be humiliated with all this EE, BEE stuff. This is a classic case of slave mentality and self loathing in the extreme. Steve Biko must be turning in his grave.

Khaya Buthelezi is a blogger and communications specialist in the financial services sector.