Enoch Godongwana leads me to his computer to show me the title of his column for publication in the Daily Dispatch that Friday. “The rules of fairness must prevail,” he reads with a chuckle. It was the week former deputy president Jacob Zuma had been charged with rape, and Godongwana wanted his say: rape must be condemned but Zuma shouldn’t be castigated until proven guilty.
There is nothing new in this opinion, but he is one of a handful of African National Congress national executive committee members bold enough to state it publicly. His weekly columns, generally designed to rile and rouse, encapsulate the vigour he brings to his new job as principal officer of the Financial Sector Charter Council.
When we meet, he has been at the helm of the newly formed body for less than a month. But his dedication to dusting the cobwebs off the economics degree he obtained from the University of London more than 20 years ago (but which he shelved almost immediately when he hit the streets as a trade union organiser in the late 1970s) is tangible.
Far from the grey-suited sector he represents in his new position, Godongwana still has the firebrand flicker in his eye from his heady days as a unionist. He was general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers South Africa from 1994 to 1997 and, before that, its national organiser.
This is critical to his new position. He brings to the table an acute understanding of labour, which felt bitterly sidelined during the drafting of the Financial Sector Charter, combined with business empathy after his stint as the Eastern Cape’s finance minister.
Godongwana’s negotiating skills were put to the test immediately in the dispute in the retirement fund industry between the Institute of Retirement Funds (which represents insurance associations) and the country’s trade union federations (which represent the trustees of the retirement fund industry), that has delayed the commitment of this R1trillion industry to the charter.
The disagreement arose when the institute signed the financial sector charter in 2003 without the consent of the retirement fund industry trustees. They felt the overseeing of their assets was being remote controlled by a body that represented only industry. As a result, the parties have agreed that a trustee forum will be launched before May this year to represent the workers’ retirement assets. With their consent, it is hoped the retirement industry will be brought on board the charter process.
“Labour was not concerned about committing to the charter, they were concerned about the ability of these people [Institute of Retirement Funds] to contract on their behalf — which, for me, is a political question. The money belongs to labour, so it is correct that they should be part of the process,” says Godongwana.
The charter council was established in 2004 as a representative body. Its mandate is to oversee and monitor the implementation of the Financial Sector Charter.
Godongwana’s appointment means that a milestone for the two-year-old charter will be reached this month, when companies that have signed up to the charter begin to submit reports on their performance for the first time.
With the 21-member council established with a principal officer, the council is ready for the first round of reports. About 200 companies are expected to report, before the end of March, on how they are doing on all six aspects of the charter: ownership and control; procurement and enterprise development; access to financial services; empower-ment finance; employment equity; and corporate social investment.
Godongwana is unperturbed about the fact that the first phase of the Department of Trade and Industry’s black economic empowerment codes of good practice contain some definitions and targets that are very different from those set out in the finance charter, raising concerns among industry players that empowerment deals already struck would need renegotiating.
The codes call for 25% direct black ownership, but most deals in the financial sector have fallen in line with the council’s requirement of a 10% direct black shareholding and a 15% indirect holding by black investors.
“There is no difference between the codes and the charter as far as I am concerned,” says Godongwana. “The ownership target is 25%. We can raise an eyebrow at the fact some companies only have 10% ownership, but we’re not even at 2010 yet [when compliance will be reviewed].”
Godongwana, currently the deputy provincial chairperson in the Eastern Cape, is gatvol with poli-tics. In 2004, he was part of a purge of individuals close to former premier Makhenkesi Stofile, when he inexplicably lost his job as provincial finance minister. This year he is quitting his leadership positions in the province to focus his attention on transformation through economic transfer.
“I think the debate about investment is to what extent wealth created is distributed — are ownership patterns changing? We need to make sure the people down there benefit.”