BizNews editor Alec Hogg provides context and narrates his Boardroom Talk missives of the past week, which featured new talent in parliament; Motsoalediâs âutter rubbishâ trash-talk about white SAs; the value of FU money; and todayâs asymmetry which gives Davids advantage over Goliaths.
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Watch here
Script for Boardroom Talk Friday 6 September
MONDAY
Among the many new personalities in Parliament, the PAâs Gayton McKenzie has surely been the biggest surprise. Although thatâs nothing new to our tribe, given the manâs filter-free BizNewsTV interviews and riveting BNC presentations over the past few years.
The nation is cheering its new Minister of Sport. They love his natural exuberance, something that was on public display during the formalities ahead of last weekendâs epic Springboks/All Blacks test at Ellis Park. For instance, which other politician would have given that bear hug to SAâs Golden Girl, SA flagbearer Tatjana Smith?
Gayton is not alone in Parlyâs new-broom thinking. Earlier today, I had a long-overdue interview with Rise Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi. Watch it on BizNews TV (click here), and youâll quickly see why those who know him rate the man so highly.
One of the most interesting things emerging from our discussion was how Zibi is applying skills absorbed during his corporate career. First, in producing term sheets and presentations which helped raise capital for his start-up political party. Now, through initiating merger discussions with other smaller parties.
With McKenzie, Zibi and a host of others of their ilk now in the fray, SA politics is getting really interesting. And maturing fast.
TUESDAY
I am of the generation that remembers 1994 rather well. For most South Africans, it was the exciting dawn of a new era. It was two years after White South Africans voted overwhelmingly (69% to 31%) to end Apartheid. People started reinvesting in their homes again, and the world opened up for our sportsmen and businesses.
So I was taken aback by Health Minister Aaron Motsoalediâs statement to a global conference of pharmacists that resistance to his unaffordable NHI proposals was akin to the âswart gevaarâ that existed around the 1994 election when White South Africans supposedly hoarded groceries and candles.
What utter rubbish.
In 1994, we lived in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg, a traditionally lower-middle-class area. At the time, I worked at the SABC. Both âpocketsâ would be prime candidates for the kind of behavior Motsoaledi claims happened. Yet not a single person I know, not one, was among the candles and cans brigade.
Somewhere in the country, perhaps in outlying areas where the â31 percentersâ lived, there may well have been people who acted this way. But it is pure fiction to brand âWhitesâ as loony right-wingers who believed âthe darkness would come when a black man ascended to the throne.â
Motsoaledi should know better than to believe urban myths. Then again, if he believes resource-poor South Africa can magic up R500bn a year to afford his idealistic NHI, then itâs not the only fiction he has swallowed.
WEDNESDAY
It has been three months since Rob Hersov last shared his thoughts with the tribe. We set that right earlier today. Have a feeling youâll agree it was worth the wait.
He has a characteristic that I havenât seen since Danie CronjĂ©, the former Absa CEO and chairman, who was my boss and mentor. During one of our long chatsâhe was exceedingly generous to me with his timeâDanie explained how it was only when he had accumulated enough wealth to retire that he truly came into his own as a CEO.
He called it FU money. Enough wealth, he said, to always speak with absolute honesty, no matter who was at the other end of the conversation. And, he said, if he were ever ordered to do something that clashed with his integrity, FU money meant he was able to stand on his principles, no matter what the implications for his job.
Hersov also has FU money. That gives him the freedom to speak absolute truth to power. A Harvard MBA and successful global entrepreneur in his own right, he is also the scion of the Hersovs of Anglovaal, a family that was initially in mining and whose legacy lives on in one of South Africaâs leading industrial conglomerates, AVI.
Today we spoke about Hersovâs views on the longevity of the GNU (positive); the performance of his favoUrite politician, Gayton McKenzie (positive); South Africaâs investability (negative); Tshwane (hopeful); and more. Click here or on the image above to watch.
THURSDAYâŠ.
Tshwane executive mayor Cilliers Brink is about as far from a Russian general as youâre likely to find. Yet listening to his recent adventures during our interview today (click above) got me thinking these polar opposites share one big challenge: the disproportional power of smaller opponents.
For the past 17 months, Brink has worked hard at fixing the mess in Tshwane, heading a coalition of the DA, FF+ Action SA and smaller parties with one or two seats, that squeaked over 108 in the 214-seat Tshwane council. He has kept everyone happy and says the alliance is rock solid. In the chamber, that is.
Now imagine a Russian general sent to invade Ukraine on February 22, 2022. He led part of a massing of troops, tanks and trucks stretching 40km – a scale of ground offensive not seen since World War 2. Our general, like his boss in the Kremlin, could justifiably expect this gigantic force to capture Kyiv in days.
Except, as both Brink and the Russian general discovered, the world has changed. Dramatically.
For Brink, his coalition is being threatened by someone who doesnât even live in the Metro. His emerging nemesis is Herman Mashaba, the successful entrepreneur who founded Action SA, and is now apparently determined to implode Tshwaneâs coalition.
ActionSAâs 19 Tshwane councillors are being instructed to cut ties with natural allies (free enterprise, honest government, anti-graft) and join the âenemyâ (socialists; record of dishonesty and deep corruption). In this way, Mashabaâs single voice could determine the immediate future of an entire city of millions.
Our Russian general would relate. A unit of just 30 Ukrainians stopped the Kremlinâs massive invading force with night vision goggles, quad bikes and jerry-rigged drones equipped with small explosives. These drones took out a handful of the lead Russian vehicles grinding the massive column to a halt.
With surrounding fields muddy and impassable and broken vehicles blocking the road, the Russians ran out of supplies. Goliathâs military muscle instantly atrophied, the column retreating in disarray to Belarus. Two and a half years later, the Kremlinâs knockout blow is yet to land.
That tiny Ukrainian unit of ragtag volunteers – drone hobbyists, software engineers, management consultants and the odd soldier – called Aerorozvidka humbled the mighty Russian military. It shouldnât have happened. But it did. Welcome to the new world.
My first exposure to this small-beats-big playbook came via Moises Naimâs excellent book The End of Power where he explains the concept of asymmetry. Itâs a state where smaller units enjoy disproportionate power. Weâve seen this in Ukraine. And increasingly in South Africaâs body politic. It is actually everywhere you look.
Best we all learn from this. Humanity has entered an era where the old rule of might-is-right, my-way-or-the-highway no longer applies. By his actions, SA president Cyril Ramaphosa is well ahead on the game. His rivals, DA and ActionSA included, are still learning that collaboration rocks, control less.
Letâs hope for Tshwaneâs sake that Herman Mashaba gets past his real or imagined slight and lets the Brink-led coalition continue with their excellent work. He may deeply regret not doing so. With power comes responsibility. Especially today.
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