”Seeryas”, as the advertisement, says. Alexander Forbes seriously expects us to believe that its recent appointment of an executive chairperson, Bruce Campbell, followed by the resignation of its talented black chief executive, Peter Moyo, and his replacement by the same Campbell, demonstrates the financial services giant’s commitment to transformation. I have battled to find anyone who concurs with this position.
Alexander Forbes is not alone in its credibility gap. Countless executives extol the virtues of their transformation plans, while at the same time privately dismissing Black Management Forum chair Jimmy Manyi as a madman.
It’s difficult to find anybody who supported apartheid and it’s difficult to find a white executive who will denounce transformation. It all happens in intransigent ways; Alexander Forbes is the tip of a resistant iceberg.
What else explains the plethora of black and female non-executive directors and only a sprinkling of executive directors?
I’ve thought hard and believe three factors will help us understand the Alexander Forbes conundrum:
- One is the apparent lack of commitment to the principle behind transformation, as well as the values that inform that principle. If we were all truly committed to creating a South Africa in which its citizens participate and share in its economic growth, transformation would be a no-brainer. But instead it’s become a legal compliance issue and everyone is obsessed about how to get ”enough blacks, females and the disabled” to avoid Jimmy’s stick in the future. Time-consuming, dedicated training steps are being skipped in favour of the quick-fix poaching of high-potential employees from elsewhere, while thousands of graduates walk the streets. I know of a 31-year-old black male from Port Elizabeth who, last time I heard, was trawling the streets with a PhD in chemistry from the University of Port Elizabeth.
- Second, despite a 13-year-old national reconciliation project, we still have not addressed the deep-seated gender and race prejudices we all have.
- Most men see the presence of women in positions that were previously their sole preserve as a break from the natural dominant position of the male in society. In the same vein, there are many whites who never imagined that they would ever report to black bosses. Some of them are determined to delay this as much as possible.
- Third, very few prominent black directors speak out on the slow pace of transformation. Granted, most of them are non-executive positions, but what’s the point of being a director if you cannot hold executive management to account, especially on a matter that goes to the heart of our nation’s chance for prosperity? Manyi has spoken often of the mock-jobs given to black executives with insulting titles like ”government affairs directors”.
Why people still accept these insulting positions is a complete mystery, because the template has become too transparent. As young black executives, we should watch for appointments to positions in the heart of business such as finance, logistics, production and human resources. Anything less is window-dressing.
In addition, is it not time to make progress on transformation a key performance indicator for every chief executive? Their bonuses should depend on achieving clear targets for people development, retention and promotion to meaningful positions and it should be made reportable by boards.
Continuous failure should lead to dismissal. I don’t buy the nonsense that ”investors don’t care about transformation, only profits”. I refuse to believe that the same investors who pulled out of South Africa during the apartheid era will be unwilling now to support a project that seeks to address the effects of this crime against humanity.
The diversity management programmes many organisations embark upon could do with a little more honesty. Why don’t they start by flushing out into the open the poisonous stereotypes many boardrooms and managements have about gender and race? It is time that the role of these deeply held but private opinions is acknowledged. Without overcoming that hurdle, we won’t get anywhere.
Last, the female and black non-executive directors of many of these companies could do well to take a long look at the mirror. Do you think you put in enough effort to represent the interests of justice, fairness and ethics in your organisation? If not, step aside for those who do. Being there and doing nothing does more harm to transformation than good because you give credibility to dubious executives and companies whose only commitment is to profiteering and nothing of the values on which our hard-won democracy is based.
Songezo Zibi is a black manager writing in his personal capacity