By Alec Hogg
LONDON – The difference between leading and lagging societies is encapsulated in how they heed from the mistakes of others.
In this respect, nations are a lot like people. Humanity’s smart and foolish are divided by the openness of their minds. Those who flourish possess an ability to adapt their lives after seeing or reading the lessons of others. The unfortunate among us only change through personal experience.
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I couldn’t help pondering this after reading Monday night’s speech delivered by British Prime Minister Theresa May in London’s Guildhall. It provided a contrasting jolt between the approach of those running the show in our company’s two geographical bases.
The thrust of her message was sophisticated, yet simple.
For decades now, Liberalism and Globalisation have served the world very well in broad measures of poverty eradication and higher living standards. But the fruits have been unevenly divided, especially within rich countries. And unless these imbalances can be addressed, the entire project could be derailed by angry voters.
Mrs May’s summation is shared in pretty much every civilised society. The recent shock votes for Brexit and Trump provide appropriate reminders.
It is in the way that nations address the challenge of growing inequality that will determine tomorrow’s winning and losing nations.
For South Africa, the portents are ominous.
The country’s ruling political leadership is deeply mired in the past with an ethos centred on retribution. This is increasingly being promoted, Zimbabwe-style, by populist leaders against the easiest of targets, the light skinned population group which accounts for just 8% of the nation.
To this end, ANC loyalists keep adding to a raft of laws that discriminate against white South Africans. The approach is self-righteously justified through a simplistic narrative that all whites benefitted from the unjust system of Government which ended in 1994.
Ownership and employment laws are especially harsh against whites who possess the rare entrepreneurial gene – a job-creating quality highly prized elsewhere in the world, but badly neglected in SA.
Apart from a legislative landscape that is heavily weighted against them, white entrepreneurs also face fresh competition from a Government determined to throw billions at a new cadre of black industrialists. Such worthies qualify solely through their proximity to those governing, heightening suspicion about the true agenda.
Under Mrs May, the UK is implementing a new industrial policy which focuses on supporting entrepreneurs. It aims to “get Britain firing on all cylinders by creating conditions where (business) winners can emerge and grow across all sectors, across the whole country.”
The Prime Minister talks of recognising the untapped potential of fast growing start-ups, brilliant inventions and its great universities. The State is proactively targeting clusters of dynamic young businesses focused on industries of the future.
Her team will “do everything to make the UK outside the EU the most attractive place for businesses to invest and grow. The Government I lead is unequivocally and unashamedly pro-business.”
Given the ANC’s official policy of cadre deployment and the unofficial one of State Capture by crony capitalists like the Gupta family, the contrast could hardly be greater.
To be fair, South Africa is a very young democracy while Mrs May enjoys the decided advantage of history.
For instance, the 2016 banquet where she delivered Monday’s keynote was the latest in over 600 such annual Guildhall gatherings hosted by the city’s “liveries” – trade and professional associations which stretch back to medieval times.
She can also draw on the UK’s own long experience of what economic policies work and avoid destructive experimentation.
But that should only make us pay even greater attention to the stark difference in her approach and the one followed by Jacob Zuma’s ANC.
And realise there is no mystery why so many South African entrepreneurs invest outside rather than within their homeland’s borders.
