 Godsell set to take on the youth league Bobby Godsell, who as a senior Anglo American executive was close to the social upheavals of the '80s when SA hovered on the brink of disaster, says we could be approaching another precipice moment. Godsell is now chairman of Business Leadership SA, which has announced that it will be more "proactive" in its opposition to the ANC Youth League's bid to force nationalisation and expropriation without compensation on the country. He said there was "a challenge at this time" for South Africans in business, civil society, the churches and government itself to be "courageous and forthright and candid in our views about how to secure our future". In addition to the noise about nationalisation and expropriation, he said the growing use of "racially charged rhetoric" was a threat that was being taken too lightly. "From time to time South Africans are warned that the progress we have made is fragile, it is not guaranteed and we could move into reverse gear," he said. "I think it is one of those times." He admitted that business leaders had been too quiet. Too many were too afraid of upsetting government and were "poor businessmen and even poorer citizens". "Those who remain quiet shouldn't complain when bad things happen." The most important lesson business had learned from the past was that "when you leave politics to the politicians you get into trouble. In a democracy you need to make your voice heard, protect your interests and help define what is in the public interest so that the public interest becomes not only that of politicians." Business Leadership SA, which represents 85 of the largest companies in SA, has decided to counter the ANC Youth League's nationalisation and expropriation rhetoric by putting into the public arena information which exposes the paucity of their arguments. Godsell said it was time to take the fight to the youth league. The point has been made that the youth league has an agenda that will not be altered by any information or arguments business may care to put on the table. These have been made before and the youth league is well aware of them. League spokesman Floyd Shivambu made clear last week that such efforts will not change anything. "The business community must accept that nationalisation is going to happen in SA ," said Shivambu. Is BLSA wasting its breath then? "Our most important interlocutor is not the youth league, it's the people of SA," retorted Godsell. "It's the citizens who ultimately will chart the direction of this society, so we're talking to a much broader audience. "There were 5300 people at the youth league congress. There are considerably more young people in SA. We need to engage with all of them." He admitted that so far business had failed miserably to do so. Every day he encountered a mountain of ignorance among people about basic economic realities. "In any number of conversations with other South Africans I come across this idea of business as one big pot of money available for lots of other people to use. "The idea that the mining industry, for example, requires huge amounts of annual investment simply to keep going seems to elude a lot of people. "It's very interesting that if you look at the youth league's discussion document, they suggest that nationalising the mines will increase taxes, increase jobs, increase wages. We need to engage them on that and say, 'How will it do this?' "In our view it's going to lead to less revenue for the government because they're going to be paying for building the mines and rebuilding the mines, rehabilitating the mines, exploring for new mines." True enough, but how can BLSA persuade millions of young people that it is right and Julius Malema is wrong? "Young people are not the captive constituency of anybody," said Godsell. BLSA and other business organisations are reaching thousands of young people through apprenticeship programmes, expanding workplace experiences, further education, fixing schools, and so on. "In all of these we have one-on-one contact with young people and we start to open doors which, of course, young people have to walk through, they've got to make the effort. Nobody gives anybody anything in the real world, but you can create opportunities." Meanwhile, government failure to resolve the nationalisation issue damages the economy by the day. "Every day that we give investors, domestic and foreign, a reason not to invest, so we take a little bit of growth away from the economy, so we lose the opportunity to employ more people, pay better wages, invest more in skills training. "Talk about expropriating without compensating feeds into an Afro-pessimism which obviously can only reduce the willingness of rich people and pension funds to put their money in SA." The threats facing the country now, in terms not only of nationalisation and expropriation, but unemployment, corruption and the government's determination to pass a law that will stifle the exposure of corruption, are profound. "Do I despair about the future of my country from time to time? Yes, I do. I have moments of despair. But more moments of what I'd call a hesitant, contingent optimism." South Africans loved going "right to the brink of disaster", he said. "We lean over and look into the abyss and then decide, well, probably not today." If we went over the edge and became the banana republic that Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi has warned about, would we be justified in turning to business and saying, "you could have done more"? "Absolutely yes," said Godsell. "But not only business. I think the future of this country is as much in the hands of the business community as of the politicians, labour and civil society. We will all be co-responsible." From: http://www.businesslive.co.za/Feeds/businesstimes/2011/06/25/godsell-set-to-take-on-the-youth-league You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . |
