South African business is standing at the brink of a new era, with the unification of black and white formations imminent. But black business organisations are riven by internal battles, among them conflicts over legitimacy.
This weekend, the annual general meeting of the black National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) is taking place at Sun City. Nafcoc is due to announce its unification with Federated African Business and Consumer Services, the white South African Chamber of Commerce and the Afrikanse Handelsinstituut. These bodies will come together to form the Chamber Association of South Africa (Chamsa).
The individual organisations will continue to function independently, with Chamsa being the umbrella body. The Black Business Council and the white Business South Africa will cease to exist as separate organisations. After this weekend, they will be known as Business Unity of South Africa.
But, for some black business leaders, the unity process is a top-down imposition driven mainly by the desire of Nafcoc president Patrice Motsepe to assume control — and, with it, the glory of being the person to achieve a united business body in South Africa.
Some Nafcoc affiliates said business unity talks had not originally been on the agenda. Some said they had received invitations to attend the conference, but were not given the agenda on time. Others said there has not been suffcient consultation.
Nafcoc secretary general Buhle Mthethwa denied that. ”Nafcoc is made up of nine provincial structures — they form the national federal council …We had road shows in all the provinces and they are all fully supportive [of unity].
”There are no divisions within Nafcoc,” she said. ”If one or two individuals go out and say things about Nafcoc, that does not mean there are divisions.”
Mthethwa said she had sent the invitations more than 30 days before the conference. ”If anybody says they did not get an invitation, it means they are not council members.” She said the national office had overseen the elections in its provincial structures to determine true Nafcoc representatives in those areas.
The organisation would be taking legal action against anyone purporting falsely to represent Nafcoc, she said. In the Western Cape there are three competing Nafcoc structures, with three separate presidents.
Bellford Ntlantsana, one of the three Nafcoc Western Cape presidents, said the organisation’s national office had a ”funny attitude” towards its structures. ”We are not involved with that Sun City thing. It is for the people in the north [of the country]. It is their own indaba.
”The way they are consulting us is an insult. They sidelined the whole province and handpicked some people who agree with them,” said Ntlantsane. He said only one of the three Western Cape Nafcoc branches was invited to the Sun City conference, and it wasn’t his.
Nafcoc Eastern Cape secretary general Yolisa Mzamo-Kashe said Nafcoc Eastern Cape was not ”formally consulted” about the Sun City process, and they would adopt a ”wait and see” approach.
”We appreciate what Motsepe is doing, meeting with the president [Thabo Mbeki] and all that, but he has left the masses behind. It is now the Nafcoc of the elite, not for the people on the ground.
”We are not disgruntled, but we believe that people, and not money, should talk. We want a black business voice not a black rent-a-crowd,” said Mzamo-Kashe.
SA Liquor Traders Association president Saint Madlala said it was unfair to criticise Motsepe for problems that had existed longer than his term of office. ”There is no leader in the world who is 100%. You can’t expect him to wave a magic wand and all the problems disappear,” said Madlala.
But he agreed that ”broad consultation up to the grassroots” had not happened satisfactorily.