BMF provincial chairperson Kaiser Khoza
Black Management Forum (BMF) is a non-racial thought leadership organisation in South Africa, formed in 1976 with the purpose to influence socio-economic transformation in the country.
The Free State chapter of the association held its elective conference in Bloemfontein last Saturday. In a wide ranging interview with The Weekly’s Thapelo Molebatsi the newly elected provincial chairperson of the BMF, Kaizer Khoza, a professional lawyer and former head of litigation in the office of the presidency, discusses the economic challenges confronting the province and how the situation can be turned around.
Khoza also touches on government’s role in building the provincial economy. Excerpts:
What are the challenges that have been identified by the Black Management Forum, that we can expect it to be focussing on as the new leadership begins its term?
Helping government re-invigorate the economy of this province is a key focus for us.
You would know very well that the economy of our province was all along based solely on mining and agriculture, which have dwindled considerably over the years, resulting in the emergence of illegal mining in disused mines in the mining district of Lejweleputswa. So our mission is to work hand in hand with both government and other stakeholders in this regard.
But what then becomes the starting point in this very important process?
We cannot begin to talk about the economy without white people accepting that they have benefited from the previous system, and that should be the starting point. The reality is that you cannot come into my house to apologise for what you have stolen from me and expect me to say all is well.
That’s not how it’s done. You first have to acknowledge that you have stolen from me, give back what is rightful mine and only then can we talk about how best we can work together going forward. This is a very important conversation that we need to have and begin to implement.
Earlier you mentioned illegal miners, otherwise known as ‘zama zamas’. What is your take on the issue of zama zamas seeing that this has clearly become a never-ending headache for the municipality and law enforcement agencies here?
My personal view is that, instead of criminalising small-time mining, government must look into regularizing it. When you understand the intricacies of mining, you would know that government owns the mines, while all these big companies get is a permit to mine for a certain period.
Now, once those big companies lose interest because the costs of mining have become too high and the mine does not make a profit, government should then give it to small scale miners because, as long as we continue criminalising it, we will not win the war. It’s high time we revisited the laws and regulations to see how best they can benefit the country instead of creating bottlenecks that don’t benefit the country.
So you reckon the matter is not adequately being dealt with by the responsible parties, or rather key stakeholders, in this particular sector?
Absolutely true. Because most of the resources are spent on police chasing after zama zamas when government is supposed to be thinking up best how to they make this kind of mining beneficial. Government would even get taxes out of it and the economy of Lejweleputswa would grow to benefit the people in that district.
By issuing permits to these small scale miners and allowing government to extract money from the process, it is a win-win situation. As long as poverty is a factor, these former miners will keep going back there regardless of the risks involved.
On the whole, how would you describe the state of the Free State economy?
Our economy is not growing, compared to other provinces, because the two key sectors which the province heavily relies on have shrunken. The Free State is geographically located in the centre of the country, hence deliberations on how best we can improve our logistics.
We have six national roads that pass through the province and the question now is, how best do we build our economy around issues of redistribution, warehousing and logistics, because that is what we are good at since everyone passes through us from all facets. For this to be achieved we need to look at regulations around special planning and zoning where we can have big companies put up warehouses.
If you look at Midrand, it specializes exactly in logistics and warehousing; but if you look at where it is located and where we are located, you can see the Free State can play a much bigger role. All we need is the political will to do so.
Growing the economy is something that the provincial government deliberated on in the past, but we have never exactly been able to identify a particular sector that can lead this growth. Is there any sector, in your opinion, that can help grow the economy of the province?
We have one of the most beautiful provinces in the country, but it’s not doing as well as it should and is yielding very little. As BMF, our core brief is to develop managerial leadership because only when you have developed best leaders can you be in a position to influence the course of transformation in the country. This process requires clever blacks to help government think outside the box.
The government has over the years met with investors in a bid to lure them into the province to man the manufacturing sector, but this has borne little fruit if any at all. As BMF what is your take on the matter and what needs to be done to achieve this objective?
We need to start putting in place those platforms where all these key stakeholders – labour, government, civil society and business – engage on a number of issues including how best to tackle the economy and what interventions are needed in the Free State to build the economy.
And who exactly is this economy that we are building going to benefit?
This economy that we must build should not benefit white people. That is why BMF started what is called the ‘buy black campaign’ whereby we encourage black people to start supporting one another so that money circulates within black business.
This is no ordinary campaign, I must say. What exactly is the inspiration behind the campaign? Surely by building an economy, South Africans should all benefit from it and not only blacks?
Our study on ownership of business in Bloemfontein has shown that there is only one mini Pick n’ Pay owned by a black person who is actually coloured and is located at the show grounds. You have three gas stations owned by black people and four restaurants owned by black people.
Now how much grocery are people buying daily from shops owned by white people?
We can complain all we want about lack of transformation and the fact that the economy is still in the hands of white people, but it’s our people who are supporting them every single day. That is why the money still resides in white hands 22 years after freedom.
But do we have enough black people who have been able to identify these opportunities in the private sector? I’m referring to the ownership of petrol stations, restaurants and other businesses. Is it not unfair to blame lack of resourcefulness on the part of black South Africans on their white counterparts?
There’s a number of challenges pertaining to that, such as capital funding because a lot of people who want to own their own businesses are confronted with the problem of capital funding.
An up and coming businessman from the township can’t unfortunately give out his/her house as collateral for a loan. And if you look at the developmental finance institutions (DFI) that government has put in place such as FDC and NEF, there’s a lot of red tape that makes it difficult for our people to access funding no matter how brilliant your business plan may be. So the whole structure does not favour our people and it’s in this regard that white people possess an advantage over our people.
The reality is that every time government makes an announcement of a new firm being opened, our people are more concerned about being employees and not owners of the business. What is the cause of this phenomenon?
That is correct and that is a serious handicap that black people have in this country. This takes you back to the Bible where we are called drawers of water and cutters of wood. If there is going to be any development or investment in the province, the first question that government must ask is ‘what is your BBB stake?’.
Remember government is very important in this because they give land and environmental authorisation; it’s also government that agrees on zoning. Now, until government begins to ask these difficult questions, you will forever not be in a position to influence any investment so you then have black people being beggars in their own country, and this we cannot allow.
President Jacob Zuma announced that government is going to do away with the current preferential procurement policy framework and introduce a new one. What is your take on that?
We’re excited because this is something that we’ve previously spoken against because it has never been in favour of people. We held countless discussions with treasury and we were beginning to suspect it had gate-keepers, because of its reluctance to deal with the matter.
The PPPFA has not yielded the transformation results it set out to achieve. In fact, it has more shortcomings than anything else. This empowered more whites than it did blacks. There’s absolutely nothing that black business owners benefitted from it because during the awarding of the tender, all that treasury is looking at is cost effectiveness while overlooking other aspects of the Act. So we welcome the president’s announcement. It’s long overdue.
