Something called the Black Business Council (BBC) was reborn last week and I am still puzzled as to why. As far as I can ascertain the BBC was formed way back in 1996 and then merged in 2003 with something called Business South Africa (which was apparently run by the whiteys). The new entity was called Business Unity South Africa or BUSA, a name that turned out to be singularly inappropriate because all the organisation ever seemed to do was to indulge in puerile squabbling. Hardly the stuff business leadership should be made of.
Enter Jimmy Manyi of the Black Management Forum around 2009/2010. Mr Manyi has frequently expressed the view that there is no skills shortage in this country. The real problem, he thinks, is the whiteys who simply won't allow blacks to run anything. At this point you may feel a strong desire to point out that Eskom, Transnet and SAA contradict this accusation and to further mention that none of the three mentioned (and there are others) have been what one might term unqualified commercial successes. But it would be rude and, more importantly, not in the spirit of the new SA to accuse Mr Manyi of talking arrant nonsense. Even if he is.
I should point out by the way that Mr Manyi was on the payroll of a white owned company when he started making comments about racism in the workplace and the lack of opportunity for the ocean of black management talent. He would have been quite at liberty to start his own successful company and prove his point but he preferred to take a guaranteed regular salary from the "enemy" while nipping at the hand that fed him. Smart fellow our Jimmy.
So let's come back to the present and ask why, in a society that claims to be non racial (wasn't that what 1994 was all about?), we need something called a Black Business Council? Let's first dispel a few myths before putting the steel toe cap well and truly into the obscene idea of a Black Business Council.
Myth number 1: After eighteen years whites still control the economy and it's jolly well not fair
This pouting, sulking, whimpering, petulant whine deserves to be exposed for the nonsense it is. The truth is that the ANC have put every obstacle they could think of in the way of business. They introduced affirmative action, absurd labour laws and black economic empowerment. The cost of doing business rose to accommodate what was nothing more than social tinkering.