Two South African businessmen — one big, one small — show the gap in expectations of the new South Africa. Ann Eveleth reports
Ahmed-Sadek Vahed can’t stop smiling when he talks about the new South Africa.
Executive officer of what is probably South Africa’s largest family-owned business outside the JSE, the Durban-based AM Moola Group, Vahed’s business has flourished with the opening of international trade links and he betrays the enthusiasm of one who is on top of the new situation.
Even the few minor worries he had before the election have dissipated, the ambitious clothing manufacturer professes as he proudly hands over a newly printed business card bearing the name of his latest expansion project — an export division called New South Africa Garment Manufacturers.
“Exactly what I was forecasting before the election … it has turned out even better than I predicted,” beams Vahed (60) from the plush receiving room of his headquarters nestled deceptively behind the bustle of street hawkers in the old “Indian” section of Durban.
The one-time economic adviser to former state president PW Botha now says he is most impressed by the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) leaders in government.
“Arch-socialists and trade union leaders now in government are behaving far better than any National Party (NP) minister ever did.” Although Vahed said before the election he was worried about the Cosatu side of the tripartite alliance, he now rests secure in the knowledge that the demands the unions have put forth are just “growing pains”.
“There are strikes, I had a strike too, but that is part of the process — the expectations. From a low base, the expectations are tomorrow, but it can never happen . . . whatever the unions are putting the pressure on they have a constituency to satisfy. Some may be unreasonable but there has to be compromise. In the new South Africa, nothing will work unless you sit down, negotiate and compromise.” The director of 14 companies, Vahed was the first to take advantage of the new markets opening up in the former Soviet Union after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Chartering a plane, Vahed took a calculated risk by exporting clothing to Russia when its currency was dwindling, but made off with a handsome profit.
Now, he says, it is South Africa’s turn. “With the rationalisation of the past three years of uncertainty, suddenly east has become west.” Vahed can barely hide his excitement at the new interest in investment and the wider access to international markets.
“As much as the Americans and Europeans once hated the `Made in South Africa’ label, they suddenly love the `Made in South Africa’ label.” Vahed says he knows his enthusiasm is not shared by all, but he chides the sceptics: “Some businessmen’s expectations of this new government are also unjustified … they’re expecting miracles from people who are on a learning curve … they are definitely entitled to somewhere between 12 and 24 months.” For Vahed, standing in a queue with his wife and their two domestic workers waiting to vote was “the greatest feeling in the world — it felt like we are now free”.
“This is going to be the greatest country in Africa — if not the world.” Sipho Mlaba, the congenial grocery store owner and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) chairman in the Natal Midlands township of Mpumalanga, says he is still waiting for the new South Africa: “We don’t see anything happening yet … we don’t see much in the new South Africa so far.”
For Mlaba, whose fight to keep the peace with his ANC counterpart Meshack Hadebe in the post-1990 era made headlines and brought developmental rewards to the community, the past eight months have been a disappointment.
“People are starting to say that maybe we were saying we were fighting for freedom, but it seems we were fighting for positions. That’s what they’re saying around the township.” Mlaba blames the ANC-led government, but says he didn’t really expect much more than he is getting now.
“I think [the ANC] made big promises — that’s what I saw before the election — because I saw that they were making promises which won’t be delivered.” Now, Mlaba says, his worst fears have been realised.
“It seems now that we don’t see anything happening on the ground. So far people were expecting to have free houses, that’s what they were told — they don’t see those houses now. People are talking about RDP but we don’t see anything happening so far.” Mlaba says parents are worried because they have been told their children will no longer receive the milk rations they had previously received at school and his community is still struggling to get land allocations for the refugees who flooded to the peace oasis of Mpumalanga during the past few years.
Although Mlaba says his business, which also suffered from the uncertainty of the pre- election violence before the IFP decided to participate, is now “doing fine”. He attributes this to the continued peace in Mpumalanga. But Mlaba says his hopes for an eradication of violence have been dashed by the continued bloodletting in other areas in the province.
“I don’t see why people are continuing to fight now, because we got a black government. I don’t know what they’re even fighting for. I don’t see any objective in fighting any more.” Instead, Mlaba says the new era has brought other worries, with the split in the Zulu royal family.
“That worries me a lot really … because we were fighting for our king, only to find that our king is no more interested in us … I don’t know what is happening really … I feel really bad, (but) he’s still my king. I haven’t got another king and really I think one day he will realise what he is doing is not right, because all those people who are now talking about the king, before the election where were they? They were not around the king. We were around the king.”