The tie-up with Kagiso Invesment Trust does not mean overnight changes at Perskor. The process of transformation will take time, Eric Molobi tells Madeleine Wackernagel
Eric Molobi, head of Kagiso Trust Investments, is not about to upset nine months of delicate negotiations with strong-arm tactics: “We have no immediate plans to change the existing management at The Citizen,” he assures me, “or at Perksor for that matter.
“We cannot hold a gun to Perskor’s heads and force them to transform overnight. By doing so we would just be shooting ourselves in the foot. I don’t believe in turning everything upside-down for the sake of it. We have to tread carefully, but purposefully.”
Perskor and Kagiso may strike some as strange bedfellows, but to Molobi it made perfect sense.
“The writing is on the wall,” says Molobi. “The government has made its position clear; no doubt there are many companies that turn away the opportunity of linking up with a black partnership, but that attitude is very short-sighted in this environment.
“In a time of transition, as South Africa is experiencing at present, one can either run away from the reality or engage it. We chose to do the latter. We must work together to close the gap between the polarised elements of our society.”
But Rome — and the new South Africa — – was not built in a day. The pace of change has been slow but not frustratingly so. “Africans and Afrikaners are very similar — much more than is generally believed. Take the extended family and our love of culture … It’s just that one was the underdog.
“So the process of engagement is a slow one, but we will get there.”
Certainly, that approach has worked well at Kagiso’s other investments. Take the publishing group De Jager-HAUM. A very conservative instititution, the company changed, slowly, after Kagiso took over in 1994. Today, the managements work very well together, building on their respective strengths.
In Perskor’s case, Kagiso will be represented by three members of a nine- person board, and its influence will be restricted to board level.
“We will not be involved in the day-to-day management,” says Molobi. “That is a recipe for chaos. We must leave the management to do what they do best. We can’t just tell them what to do; we must learn to understand the business, and from there develop a strategy for change.”
There is no doubt in his mind that Perskor has to reposition itself and he has firm ideas on how to make it happen. “We will set up management committees, overseeing human resources, for example, as we have done, very successfully, at our other partnerships.
“But you cannot change a newspaper overnight. Repositioning the Citizen will have to be done cautiously and thoughtfully. It still has the image of being a bastion of right-wing thinking, but if you change a brand too drastically, you could end up killing it. The paper has a strong black readership — maybe not for the news content — but we have to consider that when debating potential changes.”
‘We will be canvassing other editors, marketing and advertising experts to come up with a feasible, workable solution — and it will take time.”
Editorial independence, however, is assured — unless the editor is completely outrageous and “writes a lot of nonsense”, he jokes. But over the years Kagiso Trust has lent financial assistance to many a struggling newspaper, including this one, and never attempted to get involved. “It is the best way,” says Molobi.
Ever since the tie-up was announced, speculation has been rife that the Citizen will soon get a black editor. Molobi is keen to quash such rumours.
“Affirmative action for the sake of it is not productive. When it first became fashionable, people were being poached all over the place, earning more and more but not staying in any one job for long. I would question whether anybody really benefited — the individual didn’t stick around long enough to learn loyalty, to the company or the position, and the economy lost out because training costs money.
“But by the same token, one cannot ignore the need for positive discrimination. Companies will have to take the lead to defuse the argument for government legislation. Already we are seeing a bit of a backlash, with old mind-sets taking hold again.”
Molobi reiterates the need for patience. “Training is a long-term undertaking and we need to emphasise skills and competency before colour when making appointments. But at the same time there is no room for complacency.”
Kagiso, for one, is not resting on its laurels. It is actively looking around for other synergistic investments, but Molobi will not be drawn on specifics. “Shouting our plans from the roof-tops helps only to push up the price,” he says. “We prefer to go about our business quietly.” And assuredly, he might have added.