[miningmx.com] — WITH the nationalisation debate South Africa finds itself in tempestuous times, but the solution is to sit down together to find solutions to the problems of unemployment, poverty and inequality, said Bobby Godsell, who chairs Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA).
After a board meeting last week BLSA, an association of the country’s top companies, declared that it should have been more proactive with regard to the demands for nationalisation by the ANC Youth League at its congress.
“Business should not only have said more – we should have done more,’ said Godsell.
The anger and frustration expressed at the Youth League Congress, which has now become part of open debate in the country, should not be a real surprise.
The Youth League put two proposals on the table that need serious consideration: the nationalisation of mines and other sectors like banks, and amendments to the Bill of Rights that would make expropriation without compensation possible.
“Both need to be taken seriously,’ said Godsell.
Only very foolish South Africans would ignore the warning. It would be naive South Africans who showed surprise and it would be pathetic of them to let it paralyse them, said Godsell in an interview.
South Africans now have a duty to debate the issues of unemployment, poverty and inequality, as well as to actively seek solutions.
Solutions naturally reside in economic growth, but what sort of economic growth? Growth needs to absorb people, increasing the number of South Africans in the workplace, Godsell explained.
There should also be growth that increases the country’s overall productivity – in other words, every unit of capital, human resources, technology and energy needs to create high levels of wealth, he said.
For reasons that Godsell does not really understand, in the 1980s South Africa abandoned the apprenticeship system and moved away from artisans. It’s important to note is that this happened before the political change.
But in the last five to 10 years, and especially the last five years, South Africa had rediscovered the critical importance of artisanship.
Without artisans, said Godsell, we will never be anything but a powerless services economy. If South Africa wants to make anything, to correct anything or maintain anything, it needs artisans.
“This year we want to place 50 000 young people in apprenticeships. That’s about 10 times as many as those at the Youth League’s congress,” he said.
Each time a business increases employment, this needs to be celebrated. The JSE should have an employment index with a list of companies that have grown employment the most in the past year.
A mineworker from Lesotho can be enabled to work his way up to become a trainee officer and eventually a mine manager if trained by the company.
White South Africans were able to do this . Many of today’s mine managers went this route without ever attending university.
“If we get this right, our social mobility will increase. And social mobility is a way to do something about inequity. It makes inequity a mere barrier, and no longer an everlasting ghetto in which people stay trapped,’ said Godsell.
– Sake24.com
