Supervision is not Racism

During a recent panel discussion on SABC TV, one contributor stated that the Whites were racists, supporting this claim by alluding to is observation that, although White companies employed Black managers to comply with BBEEE regulations, they did not trust the Black managers, and appointed Whites to ‘supervise’ them.  He viewed this as racist.

Perhaps a brief discussion of capitalist economics will help to clarify the position.  Let us take as a basis the assertion made by this man and assume it to be correct, in the context of his business environment.  It should be noted that it is almost certainly not correct in all cases, as will be discussed later.

A business is in operation with the prime objective of earning a profit.  Profit is achieved by earning an income, from which all costs are deducted.  A  business is not there to satisfy the objectives of Government or the Trade Unions, nor to perform charitable works, to elevate the oppressed, to train workers, or any such noble aims.  They are there to earn a profit.  If they do not, they will cease to exist, and all who are dependent on them will lose out – the workers will lose their wage-earning positions, the shareholders will lose their investment and the return on that investment they intended to earn.  Any other objective is peripheral.

When a business employs a person in any capacity, it expects him or her to perform according to expectations.  Job descriptions are written, performance appraisals are conducted, rules and requirements are set and discussed with the employee.  This may be formal or informal, depending on the sophistication of the organization.  Generally, in a free society, the business will employ the person it considers best able to perform according to expectations, and the degree of supervision will be designed to cover the areas of uncertainty – more initially, and less as confidence is gained in the capabilities of the employee.  Under the rules and regulations applying in South Africa, the business is not free to employ the best person for the job.  It is obliged to employ a certain proportion of management and other staff from designated groups.  This, in itself, is a significant constraint on the economic effectiveness of the business.  Of course, in some cases, the business is fortunate in finding a Black employee who is sufficiently well-educated, sufficiently experienced and coming from an appropriate background, which enables that employee to function as effectively as the business requires.  Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and the less-perfect employee is taken on in the hope that he or she will learn the job, gain the experience and the educational requirements, and modify an inappropriate world view over time, and so become an effective employee in that position.  Until that happens, the degree of supervision must be intensified, in order to ensure that the outcomes of the work of the employee are adequate.  In some cases, this may take the form of a ‘shadow-manager’, someone with the required qualities who is able to correct what is done incorrectly, to guide the decision-making process and to ensure that the outcomes are correct.  In this way, the business is able to satisfy the BBEEE regulations and to perform the functions that it must to earn the profit that is the essential element of its existence.  It is not racist.  The BBEEE regulations that force the employment of an under-educated, under-experienced and otherwise inappropriate person are the racist elements of this situation, not the way that businesses are forced to deal with the problems that arise from them.  Those regulations presume that every person is born with the capability to be an effective manager, Director or even State President.  It needs little intelligence or understanding to realize that this is not the case.  In the same way as a child needs many years of education to be considered capable of doing most jobs, the educated child is merely a beginner when it comes to coping with the processes and decisions inherent in any management position.  Even a university graduate requires years of experience, of exposure to the real world and of guidance from a more experienced person, before he or she can be considered to be competent in a senior management role.

To revert to the prime objective of a business, the making of profit, it is clear that the BBEEE regulations inject a very large cost element into a business, unless the business is able to employ the right person for the job without any constraints.  There can be little doubt that, if a Black person stood out as the best person for a job, the business would hire him or her.  The same would apply if a White person stood out as the best.  In a situation where the Black candidate and the White candidate were equal in suitability, the compatibility of that person to the organization might become a deciding factor, a factor which might then take on racial overtones, but even then, the factor of compatibility would probably also include a consideration of the level of friction caused by the employment of a Black person in White surroundings, or vice versa, a factor relating to the efficiency and effectiveness of the business.  In the making of profit, race is certainly not a material factor.  It is very seldom, even in good business conditions, and almost never in the currently hard business operational conditions, that a business would consciously decide to impose on itself an additional, unnecessary cost factor, such as the employment of a ‘shadow manager’ to supervise a Black manager, unless it considered t to be necessary to do the job.

The man who complained that ‘White businesses do not trust Black managers’ and are therefore racist should, in fact, be grateful for the opportunity those businesses grant to the Black employee to learn how to do the job from a White, who almost certainly does not enjoy the requirements of his position.

The Black employee is not to blame for not fulfilling the job requirements, nor is the business to blame for not believing that he cannot.  If there is anyone to blame, it is the Government, for forcing the business to put him in that position in an unqualified state.  The White who might otherwise hold that position would have gained it by having acquired a good education, which the Government does not provide, by having worked his or her way up the ladder, gaining relevant experience and knowhow over a long period, and by having absorbed the culture and outlook required to put the education and experience to work.  It is well-recognised that Indian and Jewish businesspersons are generally excellent.  One of the reasons for that is that both of those races have a culture of including children in business matters from a very early age.  They absorb the thinking and understanding that will be needed in their future lives, and they are able to extract from their education and experience that which is relevant to the business problems they now face.  Unfortunately, Blacks, as well as many Whites, do not have that advantage, and have to learn it the hard way.  Many do not.  Black managers who are supervised by Whites should consider themselves to be very fortunate to have the experienced tutelage, and they should apply themselves to the learning that can come of it.  That learning will be considerably hampered by a belief that they are the victims of racism.