There are many illustrations of how much things have changed in the New South Africa. But seldom does the transformation equal that at what used to be called the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut, but is now plain old AHI. As a young  reporter in the 1980s I attended AHI press conferences and annual conventions where no English was allowed. Membership of the Broederbond was virtually a prerequisite for officer bearers. Government policy, no matter how twisted its logic, was to be supporter. As was White Supremacy. Meeting the man who now runs it, Christo van der Rheede in the CNBC Africa studio today shattered any lingering preconceptions. For one thing, he’s Black. For another, the AHI is a committed citizen of the New SA and trying its best to make a contribution. Van der Rheede says his priority is to help bring organised business together. Despite years of unity talks being derailed by egos and vested interests, listening to him, you can actually believe it’s possible. – AHÂ
ALEC HOGG: Governments create the rules and frameworks in which businesses are able to compete against each other. When government chooses to change these rules, businesses have to change the way they operate. Joining us now to discuss the importance of the role between business and government labour legislations, is Christo van der Rheede, Chief Executive of Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut. It’s really good to have you in the studio, Christo.
CHRISTO VAN DER RHEEDE:Â Thank you.
ALEC HOGG: We’ve been doing some interesting interviews recently with people from various business angles, and the one that springs to mind immediately was last week when we had the Chairman of the Free Market Foundation in the studio – Herman Mashaba. He said he’s not getting much support from other business bodies on his attack or his challenge on the labour legislation. I would have thought that the AHI could have weighed in and assisted. Is there a reason why not?
CHRISTO VAN DER RHEEDE: If you look at our track record, we’ve been hammering government all the time on Fin24, in the articles we write, we had an article in Sunday’s newspaper where we exposed this disjuncture between the National Development Plan on the one hand, and what is happening in practice. What we are saying is, if these are the outcomes of the National Development Plan, how the heck is it possible that, at the same time, you create policies, which are contradicting those outcomes and undermining those outcomes? What we said last week is that there’s a toxic mix of business policies and business laws and regulations. However, – on a very spirited note – I heard today that apparently, there’s a Bill on the way, which will stop all kinds of anti-business laws. I don’t know whether this is an April fool’s joke or not.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: One certainly wonders, but you mentioned that you published many letters and you’re very vocal about the complaints you see. Is your voice perhaps being heard, and is this a positive indicator that you can see the change…
ALEC HOGG: Gugu, it’s an April fool’s joke. Come on, man. I mean, government starting pro-business laws: are we in Nigeria? No, come on. You’re having us on there. You’re having us on, Christo.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: But is it an April fool’s joke? Maybe that’s what we need to clarify.
CHRISTO VAN DER RHEEDE:Â Yes.
ALEC HOGG: I wish it wasn’t. In fact, it just shows you how serious the situation is when, with something like that, we think ‘well, it has to be an April fool’s joke’ even if it were true.
CHRISTO VAN DER RHEEDE: No, I’ve been wondering about a very good joke all day long, and when I entered this room, I discovered that I have something to put on the table, so that was the one. You know, it’s businesses’ own fault. I think businesses, especially organised businesses, do not understand their exact role in this country. I discussed this issue with somebody this morning and I said ‘the role of organised business is the politics of the economy and the politics of businesses, and we are not unified. We are not unified. We are so fragmented. Here, we still have an Afrikaans Handelsinstituut, we have Sakkie, we have BUSA, and we have BBC etcetera. We need to get all business formation into one room and say ‘let’s sit down and clarify our role’. Our role is the politics of the economy. What do I mean by that? We must make sure that business policies and business regulations are in favour of a conducive business environment. That’s our key role.
ALEC HOGG: But Christo, you’ve been talking that a long time – not you, but organised business. Why has nothing ever happened?
CHRISTO VAN DER RHEEDE: I think bad leadership…
ALEC HOGG: Egos, maybe a couple of egos…
CHRISTO VAN DER RHEEDE: In Afrikaans, we say ‘elke haan wil sy eie mishoop hê (every rooster wants his own pile of manure). I think we’re in a corner at this point in time. There are talks between Sakkie and AHI, looking at how we’re going to take this thing forward. We’ve cleaned house within BUSA – I’m a member of BUSA – so hopefully, we will start moving in the right direction. AHI is also engaging BBC (Black Business Council), as well as BMF in saying ‘what is this nonsense, this divide between black and white and between Afrikaans and English’. We’re in the business of business and we must ensure that we take business forward in this country. It’s no wonder the business environment is so unstable and so fragile. It’s because – exactly – we are the cause of our own downfall.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: The lack of leadership or poor leadership you mentioned in these organised business structures, it reminds me of a concept, which Alec introduced me to regarding Drift with Russell Loubser. How do we avoid that where we move into a position of mediocrity?
CHRISTO VAN DER RHEEDE: You see, people who are appointed in business leadership positions…they must not be involved in businesses. What is happening in many of the organisations is that when I’m appointed as a CEO or when I’m appointed as the President, I start rearranging the furniture within that room to suit my personal agenda. That’s the downfall of most of our organised business movements in South Africa. You need to have a very solid management team and a very solid governance team, but the management team must be focused entirely on the business of business, in other words, making sure that we promote the agenda of that particular business movement. The moment my agenda is divided between the collective and what I can get from it personally – the personal enrichment – then it’s down and out.
ALEC HOGG: Well, you might as well just pass that on to politics as well, because if you’re a politician, you should be serving. You’re a public servant. If you’re in the business leadership position, you should be serving business. I’m glad to hear that you are confident that there will be progress in this regard and that you will be able to get to a point where business does speak with one voice. However, if we put you on the spot and we talk to you in a year’s time, two years’ time, or five years’ time, when will you be able to come to us and confidently say ‘you see, I told you it worked’?
CHRISTO VAN DER RHEEDE: Alec, I’m one person sitting here. I am absolutely committed to business unity in this country. I’ve been striving for a non-racial society since the day I opened my eyes because I was neither here nor there, and it makes it very easy for me to move around in all business spheres. I always emphasise within the AHI…the AHI is not a cultural organisation. There, we don’t focus on Afrikaner interest. Our focus should be on business interest because the colour of business isn’t white and money isn’t yellow, green, or whatever. I focus on that.
ALEC HOGG: This Free Market Foundation challenge that it’s having on Section 32 of the Labour Relations Act: can’t you assist them in some way? Poor Herman Mashaba was sitting there. He doesn’t have much hair left because he’s pulled most of it out, he tells us, but he feels he’s not getting support.
CHRISTO VAN DER RHEEDE: Certainly, I think it’s very important that Herman and BUSA should engage on this issue because we are all affiliated to BUSA. BUSA focuses on a macroeconomic level. That is a macroeconomic issue. It has to do with a very particular piece of legislation, so at BUSA level certainly, that is something he can liaise with me, and something I will take up with the leadership of BUSA, and take it from there onwards. All of us, at the end of the day, suffer as a result of wrong policy choices.
ALEC HOGG: Well hopefully, he won’t have to wade through treacle to get something done when you take it up with BUSA because you’ll be able to swing them around, won’t you?
