BEE Partner, South Africa Economy Watch

Research after research in the early 1980s had proved that white middle management found the term to be ‘almost tantamount to reverse racism’ in that, according to these managers, it sought to advance blacks only, possibly to the exclusion of whites. Furthermore, it was perceived to be too politically loaded, having been introduced at the time when the black political movement was under the strong influence of Steve Biko and his Black Consciousness Movement, which had triggered off the 1976 unrest. Furthermore, this emphasis on ‘black‘ was seen to have led to unrealistic expectations on the part of black management aspirants, leading to the formation of the Black Management Forum which was very vocal in decrying slow progress on black corporate upward mobility.

A perception was beginning to develop in the corporate boardrooms that, despite the pomp and fanfare with which many of these black advancement programmes had been launched, results had been less than inspiring. There was certainly consensus amongst both advocates and detractors of black economic advancement that the results were poor, although there were sharp differences amongst the two groupings on the reasons behind this poor showing. For instance, the detractors would argue that there was now more than enough evidence that blacks do not have what it takes to become good managers, whilst advocates, on the other hand, were arguing that these programmes were being sabotaged by white middle management. Nonetheless, the failure with which the label ‘black advancement‘ was being associated virtually confined the term to the shelves.

Politically there were conflicting signals from the government on how it sought to deal with the question of black socio-political and economic empowerment. This confusion was clearly illustrated by the man who had been put in charge of this process, the Minister of Constitutional Affairs, Mr Chris Heunis. In 1986, when asked to explain what the National Party’s policy on black socio-political and economic empowerment was, this was his erudite response: The whole political concept of consociationalism is predicated on the existence of groups which should be entitled to a measure of segmental autonomy.”

Corporate South Africa’s obsession with the latest management jargon from the United States of America and Europe was to manifest itself once again. It must be recalled that in the United States and the United Kingdom, this was the era of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher respectively. Conservatism on issues around the advancement of corporate minorities in these countries was rife. A new ‘politically neutral’ term was then coined by the army of management gurus from these countries, Equal Opportunity. This approach was seen to be premised on the assumption that fairness exists when people from all backgrounds are given equal opportunity to succeed or fail in society, unlike the ‘reverse discrimination’ of affirmative action and black advancement. This thinking was to find a ready audience in South Africa and it became the rage of the eighties.

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