When Patrice Motsepe, the new president of the National Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc), closed the chamber’s Sun City congress last Sunday, he made a telling Freudian slip.
Motsepe paid homage to the 1 800 delegates, thanking everyone for work done “over the past three years”. He meant three days, but it probably felt like years.
The conference was the culmination of four intensive months of lobbying and deal-making aimed at guiding Nafcoc out of a faction-ridden morass and, in his own words, “back to ordinary members”.
As chairman of its unity committee, his personal credibility helped bring together three factions at loggerheads for the better part of the past two years.
Black Business Council chairperson David Moshapalo lauds Motsepe’s contribution as being driven by a desire to redeem an organisation he has known since childhood. “He has been generous with his time and resources,” says Moshapalo, “There is a lesson in this for all of us — that plough-back time is now.”
The committee’s consensus-seeking style was shown by its handling of the most divisive issue, the botched merger with the South African Chamber of Business (Sacob). It bought more time by signing a two-year cooperation agreement with Sacob to lay the foundation for a merger, also signing cooperation agreements with the Afrikaner Handelsinstituut and Business South Africa. Delegates voted not to pursue a court case against the Sacob merger.
The committee has also held out an olive branch to isolated dissenters, most notably one former president Simon Mathysen, who led the botched merger. “Nafcoc is for everyone,” said Motsepe, inviting disgruntled individuals or groupings to join the party.
Last week Mathysen tried to block the conference, arguing that he was still president. But on election night he was not nominated. He left, threatening court action and to “talk to my people”.
Motsepe’s strength is his ability to relate both to small entrepreneurs and captains of industry. At the conference he rubbed shoulders comfortably with representatives of hawkers and Rembrandt chairperson Johann Rupert. He was, surprisingly, a guest of honour at the South African Communist Party’s recent congress in Rustenburg.
A mining analyst noted how Motsepe’s work at Nafcoc has elicited a mixture of admiration and concern from the business community. “I admire his courage in tackling the ills of organised black business,” he says “But the investment community is concerned that recently he has not been accessible enough.”
Perhaps that is why Motsepe has agreed to no more than one two-year term as Nafcoc president. He says he has capable deputies who can run the organisation in his absence. The challenge now, he believes, is “to secure what has been won” through a “broader embrace of the black leadership and the broader community”.
The politicians certainly embraced the new Nafcoc. The congress was addressed by President Thabo Mbeki and three Cabinet ministers.
Said to be a dollar millionaire, Motsepe (41) is widely viewed as an empowerment role-model, having built his fortune by rehabilitating loss-making gold shafts. Mining is a family affair. His sister and wife of Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe, Bridgette Radebe, also has mining-related interests.
Motsepe recalls how, as a child in Garankuwa, outside Pretoria, work at his family’s bottle store brought him into regular contact with mineworkers. He entered the industry as a mining lawyer after studying at Wits.
In the industry he is admired for building African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) from nothing in 1994 to its current R5-billion valuation.
The turning-point for ARM came through a joint venture with Harmony Gold — also noted for rehabilitating ailing operations — when the two outfits put up R2,2-billion to purchase AngloGold’s Free State assets.
And then in May he rose to the big league when he successfully listed his gold interests as ARMGold.
Motsepe, who also has platinum interests, is now planning a roadshow from Cape to Canada, telling investors of what he calls “an aggressive expansion phase”. Black business has a bold new face.