I was captivated by the article Allister Sparks delineated in his Business day Column: At home and abroad entitled “‘Economic Codesa’ may help SA span ideological divisions". He set forth a balanced view of what South Africans, particularly business and labour, needs to put into perspective when considering their relationship pact. His operative word in his views is “compromise” by both labour and business to craft a solution that would seek to benefit both the employers and the employees in the quest for better employment conditions, job creation, reasonable wages, and involvement of employees in the growth of the business among others. He belaboured the latter by citing an example of how local business leaders could emulate or learn from the Germany’s “social partnership” model, in which workers participate in how business decisions are made and have more of a share in the profits that accrue.
His (Allister Sparks) thrust of the article is that South Africa should consider the sequel of the political Codesa 1 & 2 in the form of Economic Codesa. He believes this ‘platform’ would deliver better results when both labour and business compromise. While I agree with his views on the compromises that both business and labour should consider for a better South Africa economically, I differ with his views on Economic Codesa as a platform to achieve or steer towards equitable economic share. What his views lack to acknowledge is, the ‘economic negotiating power’ that business possesses as a result of ownership of means of production and capital. This economic negotiating power is in the hands of White South Africans and foreign investors. BEE was the best case scenario, in the spirit of reconciliation and building of a rainbow nation, considered by the Black majority led government. There’s no better platform on which White business was presented to compromise given the political history of this country. In my belief and at worse government short itself in the foot by structuring BEE to focus on percentages of all the elements of BBB EE Score cards. That was a “unilateral compromise of economic codesa” by the black majority led government at its best, if not worse. 17 years into democracy the majority still cry foul of land ownership. White capitalists and land owners ignore their nation-building blind-spots. There’s nothing that workers (labour) and poor people would put on the table to compromise. For example, a CEO gets a 60% salary increase when the company has performed poorly, yet the employees get less than 10%, yet after a battle littered with strikes. This is tantamount and akin to professional slavery in a democracy.
It’s unfortunate that the result of the current economic landscape is the foundation of our world-wide touted and praised transition to democracy. Aluta Continua!
