Cosatus business arm aims to seize economic power for the majority, writes Sechaba kaNkosi
Tumelo Motsisi passionately dismisses any notion that he is a capitalist in a socialist movement. He sees no contradiction between the Congress of South African Trade Unions confessed ideology of socialism and his role as head of the federations business arm, Kopano ke Matla Investment Company.
The driving objective within Cosatu is the ultimate seizure of economic power from a few powerhouses to the majority. This we share in common. But what Kopano does differently is to use a different avenue to ensure that there is significantly more capital circulating in the underprivileged areas of our country, states Motsisi. Kopano ke matla means unity is strength in Sotho. It is this strength that Motsisi hopes to harness to bridge the gaps between Cosatus richer and poorer affiliates. When the company was launched at the end of last year, the idea was to bring uniformity to the affiliates investment strategies, and more importantly, to conduct investment in a socially responsible manner that would benefit Cosatu members, their families and communities.
Only nine months after Kopano was formally registered, the company has already made investments in strategic areas such as financial services, health, manufacturing, construction, tourism and media and communications to the value of more than R160-million. Motsisi says they hope to double that by next year.
The ventures include a R150-million stake in the health sector through Netcare, which will be boosted by another R100-million in the next few weeks. There is also a 40% stake in Tshepo Development Company, which will focus on housing, and a R21-million stake in an information technology company.
The latest move is Vuyo Hampers, a joint venture valued at tens of millions of rands with international food hamper giant Park Food Group. Vuyo is expected to become one of the biggest food hamper suppliers during the Christmas period to Cosatus 1,7- million members in particular and the public in general. Next on the cards is a bid for a slice of Aventura, the state- owned resort company that is being sold to the private sector.
The underlying mandate I have is to identify investment areas that can give value to our members. If you take housing and health care, they are not only critical for our members but for the communities that our members live in as well. So whatever we do will have to be in line with the governments social development programme.
For example, on health care we want to align ourselves with [Minister of Health] Dr Nkosazana Zumas policy. We want to bring value to public hospitals so that they are able to offer our members a service similar to the one that is being offered in private clinics, says Motsisi.
Kopano ke Matla is a wholly owned investment company of a trust whose sole beneficiary is Cosatu. Apart from the three trustees who come from outside the union movement, the company has four senior union officials as trustees to ensure that the investment strategy and philosophy do not contradict Cosatus ideology. Motsisi says Cosatu sees a need to broaden the scope of black economic empowerment to include direct participation of the working class. This means workers controlling the means of production in a way that will benefit them.
Motsisi says in all their ventures, they have been careful not to use their members retirement funds as these represent the only savings of blue-collar workers. Investment in itself is a risky business, warns Motsisi, there is no guarantee that if we use the retirement funds the workers will be able to get them back. So although I cannot say we will never use such funds for investments, we will try as much as we can to avoid that.
The 35-year-old father of two is well placed to understand investment risks. As a postgraduate law student in Australia, Motsisi went on to do a masters degree in business administration after completing his law degree. On his return, he joined the auditing company Alexander Forbes as an adviser to labour on retirement funds. Through this interaction and encouragement from Alexander Forbess joint deputy managing director and Kopano chair Maxwell Maisela, he ended up taking on the position as chief executive of the investment company.
But investment is not his only concern. He says with a smile: What I would really like to see is a day when blue-collar workers are able to take their families for a holiday.