In 2008 and 2009 I travelled around the country as part of the Eyethu Sonke campaign to understand the views of the people at grassroots level on transformation.
The answers were heart-wrenching in terms of the pain that people experienced. One of the stark realisations is that most of the pain is sometimes caused by the organs of state. The most common is that of intellectual property theft, followed by patronage and corruption.
What came up was that there is a lack of trust in the organs of state by some black entrepreneurs who now strive to diversify their businesses to include the private sector. The irony is that the organs of state were instrumental in making sure that black entrepreneurs got a headstart by providing them with opportunities in the late 1990s.
Somewhere along the way when these black entrepreneurs succeeded in getting government business, some of the officials probably thought: “Hang on, why is this guy progressing faster than me? I must have a piece of the action.”
This is when the element of envy, coupled with traces of greed started creeping in. Also, the outward progress of these black entrepreneurs who started buying expensive houses, clothes and cars exacerbated the resentment which leads to some people thinking that it must be somebody else’s turn to benefit from the organs of state’s largesse.
The elaborate structures of benefiting from the organs of state started mushrooming, where companies owned by the friends and relatives of government officials would be getting the procurement deals. Opportunities for your classical entrepreneurs started to dwindle because they would be channelled to the companies owned by the parties related to the officials. The common theme across the provinces was that it was a waste for real entrepreneurs to actually participate in the tender processes because all they were doing was to give credibility to a corrupt procurement process.
I recently chatted with a young black entrepreneur who came up with an idea which would assist one of the SOEs to get revenue from the use of their waste material which they would have discarded for nothing. So he approached them and proposed an idea which was not on their radar.
They engaged with him and asked him to provide them with a business plan and a feasibility study which he willingly did. After months of engagement they said this had to go to tender.
So this SOE went to tender based on the young entrepreneur’s idea which three years later was not adjudicated upon. In fact it was only a few weeks ago that the tender was withdrawn with no clear reasons provided.
The bottom line is that the entrepreneur’s idea is not out in the open for his competitors to devour. Furthermore, his business plan and unique business model is with the SOE which means that they may pursue the idea by themselves without the young entrepreneur.
This means you run the risk of having your competitors get hold of your idea through the tendering process. And if you are not connected or have a famous “name” you stand no chance of seeing your idea develop and flourish.
This is the message that confronts young classical black entrepreneurs. And this is why they don’t trust the organs of state.
The erosion of trust between entrepreneurs, in general, and the organs of state needs to be confronted and tackled.
This is why an Economic Codesa can be the platform to engage in a meaningful way to recreate that trust, which is an important currency in our economy. - Vuyo Jack
