COLLECTIVE CORPORATE ACTION: South Africa

In order to play a role in divided societies, business has to organise itself collectively. This does not necessarily mean that ordinary organised business bodies such as chambers of commerce can play this role. These are often seen too much to have their member companies’ vested and short-term interest at heart. It does not rule these bodies out if they can acquire the credibility with different parties in a conflict. But often it is easier and more pragmatic to create a specific body that rises above short-term business interests and one that can take specific steps to build credibility with the different parties. 

Theuns Eloff, CEO the National Business Initiative, South Africa, 1999

‘Business’ is not monolithic. There are thousands of ‘businesses’ in South Africa, ranging from big corporations such as Anglo American to the panel beater on the corner. When evaluating the role of business in the past, this must be taken into account. Individual business leaders (in their personal capacity), individual companies (as part of their policies) and business organisations have all played a greater or lesser role in the successful political transition of the past eight years. This took many forms, some of which are described here: 

Putting pressure on the apartheid government
Often without public knowledge, business pressurised the apartheid government during the late 1970s and 1980s to change its policies. Sometimes the motivation to do this was moral; more often than not it was based on enlightened self-interest. Apartheid was, in the end, not good for business. Pressure came also from organised business – sometimes in general terms (e.g. from the Federated Chamber of Industries and ASSOCOM), sometimes more specifically (e.g. from the Urban Foundation focused on influx control and housing policy). 

Facilitating contact with political leadership
In the late 1980s, when it was clear that the country’s political situation was rapidly heading for deadlock, individual business leaders and companies facilitated contact between business and political organisations clearly representing the majority of South Africans – externally, the ANC, and internally, the United Democratic Front (UDF). The aim was to build relationships between business and political leaders, including those from the Nationalist government and parties such as the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). The ultimate goal was to see whether business could play a facilitative role between the politicians – again, for moral and patriotic reasons, but also because the country’s economy was in steep decline. The Consultative Business Movement (CBM) was established in 1988 to play this role, after lengthy consultation and a ground-breaking meeting between 40 business and 40 community leaders.

Engaging in the peace process
The slow and sometimes frustrating process of relationship building paid off in the early 1990s when business (spearheaded by CBM, but later including organised business such as the South African Chamber of Business/SACOB and the Afrikaanse Handels-Institut/AHI) joined forces
with church and labour leaders to play a 

significant role in the peace process. This led to the signing of the National Peace Accord in September 1991. In implementing the Accord, business played a role in the regional and local peace committees, not only providing financial assistance, but also making available human resources and leadership (e.g. the Chairperson of the National Peace Committee, John Hall, was an executive of Barlow Rand). As the first multi-party
negotiating process since the unbanning of the country’s political movements, the peace process laid the foundation for CODESA and the multi-party negotiating process at Kempton Park. 

Supporting the multi-party negotiating process
During the constitutional negotiations, business played two important roles: through the CBM, it provided the secretariat to CODESA and all of the administration for the multi-party negotiating process. Outside the process, it continued to pressurise the political parties to reach a settlement
as soon as possible. Business also intervened and played the role of shuttle diplomat when deadlocks loomed or occurred. One of the lesser-known interventions was the production of two documents by CBM on regional competencies and finances (with the full co-operation of the parties and expertise from South African and international constitutional advisors). The first of these provided the negotiators at Kempton Park with the formulas on regional competencies for the Interim Constitution helping them overcome a potential stumbling block. 

Assisting the 1994 elections
Business played various roles in the country’s first democratic elections. It brought the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party into the election process, for example. In 1994 CBM created the Business Election Fund which mobilised nearly R50 million in cash and in- kind and ran a major media campaign on the importance of free, fair and successful elections. It also mobilised some companies to help with logistics around the elections, such as transporting ballot papers to areas where none were available. 

In the aftermath of the election, when the euphoria had worn off, business leaders realised the importance of business playing a role in the critical socio-economic transition following the political transition. Many companies focused their corporate social investment programmes on the Reconstruction and Development Programme. In 1995 business leaders also merged two business organisations in the socio-economic development field (the Urban Foundation and CBM) into the National Business Initiative (NBI). In the last four years, the NBI has enhanced the private sector's contribution to socio-economic delivery by developing nation-wide, replicable programmes in housing delivery, education quality, local economic development and local government capacity building. A few of its results are as follows:

• It assisted the National Department of Housing to design and implement a system through which capital subsidies for first-time homeowners could be awarded and converted into sub-economic housing. This has resulted in 1,000,000 subsidies awarded by mid-1999 of which 850,000 have been converted into houses.

• The NBI’s Educational Quality Improvement Programme (EQUIP) focuses on improving governance, planning and management of schools and is currently being implemented in about 300 schools, helping to improve the education of over 200,000 pupils from disadvantaged communities. It aims to reach 750 schools and almost 600,000 children by 2001.

• The NBI has started a five year programme to improve technical education, establishing a Colleges Collaboration Fund to transform the country’s 152 technical colleges, aimed at meeting world-class standards and enhancing employment opportunities.

• NBI runs a Local Government programme bringing business management principles (such as financial and strategic planning) to local authorities and a Local Economic Development programme which works with enterprising communities to create income and employment generating opportunities, especially in tourism and small enterprise development.

• NBI established Business Against Crime, now run as an independent entity (see page 101).

In 1999 NBI facilitated the establishment of The Business Trust which it now manages. This initiative is mobilising some 1 Billion Rand from over 100 South African and multinational companies to address: job creation, specifically in tourism; and education, specifically the school system. Its executive Board of Trustees comprises top business leaders and government ministers, offering an excellent model of public-private co-operation and the channelling of corporate resources to address urgent national needs.

Business can rightfully say that it has contributed substantially to the success of the political transition in South Africa. If, however, it wants to reap the fruits of this labour, it will have to continue to intervene and facilitate constructively – but this time in the field of socio-economic development and, more specifically, job creation, human capital development and institutional capacity building. As business played a facilitative role in building relationships during the political transition, so it must now engage in building constructive social relationships and partnerships between business, labour and government. This does not mean that the ‘natural’ tensions between the three groups should be wished away, but that their leadership must find a modus vivendi, in their common interest and that of the country. This is the essence of the challenge that lies ahead – one that will take longer and demand more patience and endurance than the heady few years of political transition.