Large multinationals in Zimbabwe have been criticised for not putting blacks in top spots, reports Iden Wetherell
Sixteen years after Zimbabwe’s independence, company chairmen may be black but chief executives are still mostly white.
This is so even in companies where the government has a majority share. Skewed recruitment patterns which overlook local talent led the National Manpower Advisory Council last week to set up a taskforce to lay the groundwork for a clear policy on expatriate recruitment.
The government is under increasing pressure, in a period of liberalisation and expansion, to allow companies to bring in skilled personnel.
Blacks are climbing the corporate ladder, says Danny Dube, chief economist at the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe. But after years of command-economy certainties, they have little exposure to managing change in a rapidly evolving environment. “It is a different context,” Dube says. “We are in a trial- and-error situation. Multi-nationals could be jittery about how new opportunities are exploited.”
But the absence of black faces at the top of multi- national companies operating in Zimbabwe is providing ammunition for President Robert Mugabe’s attacks on white domination of the country’s economy — a problem underlined by the imminent arrival of an expatriate to head Zimbabwe’s largest banking group.
Mugabe recently took corporate giants Anglo American and Lonrho to task for preserving the lily-white complexion of their top management. He said correspondence he had seen from Anglo American indicated black empowerment in Zimbabwe was not a corporate priority.
“Instead of appointing a black executive, they chose to appoint a white man from South Africa when in South Africa they are doing all in their power to include blacks as partners,” the president told reporters in May.
Mugabe was thought to be referring to the arrival last year of Jonathan Oppenheimer (26), son of Anglo American deputy chairman Nicky Oppenheimer. Although ostensibly a management trainee, Jonathan Oppenheimer has been attending board meetings of Anglo-owned companies and there is speculation he is being groomed to succeed current chief executive Roy Lander (60).
The United Kingdom-based Standard Chartered Bank is also currently in the firing line, for imposing a new chief executive on the Zimbabwe company. Barry Hamilton will replace fellow Briton Jim McKenna, whose contract has expired after a turbulent tenure at the company’s helm.
Workers took to the streets last year when management raided a profit-sharing scheme to cover a bad debt. And a controversial Zim$20 charge on third-party cheques fuelled customer discontent with what were seen as opportunist imposts.
Hamilton, who takes up his appointment on August 8, faces a fiery welcome from black empowerment lobbyists who have threatened to make his life a “nightmare”.
The Indigenous Business Development Centre has described Hamilton’s appointment as “an affront to the people of Zimbabwe” while the president of the Affirmative Action Group, Phillip Chiyangwa, has promised that the new chief executive “will regret ever coming to Zimbabwe”.
Reports suggest Standard Chartered has applied to the Immigration Department for permission to bring in a further 26 expatriates.
In a full-page advertisement this week, Standard Chartered stated that its chairman and five out of eight senior executives are black. But this doesn’t impress Chiyangwa who refuses to believe there are no blacks capable of occupying the top job.
One candidate for the post, Nkosana Moyo, announced his resignation from Standard Chartered last week. Although he declined to give reasons, it is thought he is dissatisfied with being sidelined to senior posts in London and Tanzania.
A black board member of an Anglo-owned company offered another view. The company’s chief executive would need to combine both technical skills and the right corporate image. Very few black corporate heads, he said, found time for school boards or charities and similar bodies. “Their careers end at 5pm on Friday and resume at 8am on Monday,” he said. “The good all-rounder is hard to find.”
More to the point, Anglo accords extensive managerial autonomy to its chief executives and there may be a reluctance to appoint individuals — -black or white — susceptible to importunities from ministers in Mugabe’s government. Critics say Mugabe is ignoring the company’s contribution to training and development and pressing instead for the appointment of cronies who would complement the ruling party’s elaborate patronage network.
Meanwhile, Anglo insiders say the company has built up a strong second tier of black managers from which a future chief executive may well be drawn.