By Deon Swanepoel
Biznews community member Gideon Wynand Swanepoel matriculated from High School Belfast in 1971, did one year military training in 1972 and obtained a BA degree, Psychology and Afrikaans from the University of Pretoria in 1975. In service of Edgars Stores Ltd from 1974, he left retailing as manager of Edgars Sunnypark, Pretoria in 1979. He enjoyed a successful career as an Insurance Broker from 1979 and left the Industry in February 1987 to follow a Spiritual Call towards a destiny unknown to him…Without any financial backing, he says his family and himself were brutally introduced to the plight of the ‘have-nots’.
My Vision
- This resulted in the development of a comprehensive Socio-economic Upliftment Programme to address inequality and adequately prosper the masses through aggressive economic growth, registered as Equal Opportunity Foundation Jhb 89/01709/08 and to be funded via membership contributions.
- Its Vision is to prosper the ‘nebulous’ masses as advised by the Freedom Charter through economic reform of a) Ownership structures and b) Employee benefits at national level, and c) form a sustainable, prosperous economy at municipal level.
- The Programme correctly prioritises the elements of upliftment and through a national awareness campaign ‘Rediscover Your Greater Self’ to be implemented, help people at all levels of society to welcome change with ‘New Thinking’, rediscover forgotten inner values, restore dignified behaviour, create value driven societies and reap the rewards of respectful co-existence…
- a) to prosper employees with reform of Ownership structures, Government as largest employer sets the pace and transfer 30%-50% of State Owned Companies and Municipal Service Delivery Units to collectively owned employee share trusts, employing employees ‘sweat equity’ and company debts to fund these transactions…
- The increased spending power of a stronger society of ‘haves’ thus created will prosper economic growth and kick-start a New Economic Partnership Model we believe the Private Sector, realising the inherited economic model is maiming their own growth by keeping the poor, poor, will eagerly copy in the interest of growing wealth in general…
- b) to prosper employees with reform of Employee benefits, starting with around 2m permanently employed civil servants and their families, with a view of expanding it to include around 15m Private Sector Employees and families, Government as largest employer implements an ‘Employee Wealth Builder’ that adds cash benefits to prosper wise claimants, to 100% equal health benefits, developed and registered as Gromed Pty Ltd Universal Health Coverage Model… as a result set a process in motion that will raise revenue from (as much as R140bn annually) and shift the Medical Scheme Industry towards National Health Insurance/ Universal Health Coverage for all. Fully utilising the private health system to provide in the needs of also the working poor…
- c) forming a sustainable, prosperous economy at municipal level, serving the interests of the poor not absorbed above, realising the effect the costs of retail shelf-space has on product prices, we developed an alternative method of distribution from the producer/manufacturer, directly to households… cutting product prices, growing municipal revenue and delivering a more job oriented education system in the process.
Our Reason to Act Differently…Set up and live as examples to Africa and the rest of the World
South Africa will be wise to accept that Africa, over the past decades, underwent major political transformation but continued Economic activity on inherited models…This created an unacceptable imbalance. An imbalance that corrected itself by either destroying or drastically reducing economic activity on the continent. In South Africa, until a properly orchestrated process of economic reform is implemented to reflect changes to society brought about by political democratisation, we believe this imbalance will continue to correct itself by eventually destroying itself.
- I believe this Vision of Innovative Partnerships can change all that. It is the “African Dream”…. It’s the dream to follow. (Vicky Sampson).
- It does not rest on nicely balanced reasons of strategic consequence, but rather recognise we are a developed people with a certain moral grandeur…
- We share a disdain for what is weak and in itself wrong: oppression, discrimination, keeping the poor, poor – maiming our own profitability in the process.
- We refuse to do unto others what we do not want for ourselves.
- Politically we proved to ourselves we are a people who welcome positive, active change.
- Economic follow-through will be a breeze…
