By Alec Hogg
In October, London-based Geoff Johnson told me how Nelson Mandela was intrigued by his idea of tapping into the South African diaspora as the country’s “10th province”.
The potency of this hidden asset was emphasised in Washington yesterday when Pretoria-born Elon Musk was among a dozen heavy hitting tech bosses invited to a pow-wow with US President-elect Donald Trump. As it happens Musk had other commitments – but has scheduled a one-on-one with Trump for next week.
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The invitation was extended to leaders who control companies worth over $2-trillion (five times SA’s GDP). Others at the table included Apple CEO Tim Cook; Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and the bosses of Intel, IBM, Oracle and Cisco.
Elon Musk, whose strong South African accent hasn’t stopped him being rated by Americans as one of their greatest entrepreneurs, has never been invited to meet SA President Jacob Zuma. The ANC’s numerically challenged leader seeks counsel, instead, from the Gupta brothers and others with a similarly dysfunctional view of capitalism.
Trump’s tech summit was instigated by Peter Thiel, cofounder of Musk’s first big success, PayPal, and an investor in Musk’s revolutionary SpaceX. Thiel is a Silicon Valley heavyweight and a key member of the President-elect’s “transition” team charged with identifying candidates for the 4 000 political appointments any new US Administration has to make.
The critical role given this openly gay entrepreneur should dispel claims of Trump’s supposed homophobia. It certainly kills any lingering doubts about how the US will approach international trade and globalisation where Thiel is equally outspoken as Trump.
In his bestselling Zero To One, Thiel waves a number of flags at the relentless pursuit of greater integration. He champions new technology as the only way to combat the inevitable stagflation he believes results from copycats like China destroying the value of innovation. He also calls for a different approach to “free trade” and more stimulation of business.
As mentioned in yesterday’s WORLDVIEW, whatever his other faults, Donald Trump is proving an astute recruiter. Drawing on patriotic emotion and old loyalties he has been able to recruit talent from well outside public sector pay scales. Admittedly, he also has the advantage of an American ethos where many conservatives break their lives into three distinct stages: learning (age 0 – 30); earning (30-60); and serving (60 plus).
Trump has applied another leadership secret of always trying to hire people smarter than yourself. That’s plainly apparent with the gifted Thiel and some of the senior cabinet appointments. Zuma is the obvious contrast – surrounding himself with half-wits like Zwane, Van Rooyen, Nkoana-Mashabane and the seriously disadvantaged Bathabile Dlamini.
The upside is that as South Africa normalises, the enlightened leadership which must eventually break through will realise it can draw on an outrageously talented 10th province. Including one Elon Musk.
