“According to Statistics SA’s 2016 third quarter figures, whites account for 9.5% of the economically active population (EAP) and black Africans 78%. The commission’s 2016-17 report says whites fill 68.5% of top management jobs, six times their EAP. Africans account for 14.4%. Males fill 78% of top management jobs. Whites account for 58.1% of senior managers compared to 22.1% of Africans. At the lower levels, Africans fare better, but still don’t match their EAP figures, accounting for 60.2% of skilled technical workers and 76.1% of semi-skilled workers.
“The continued high rate at which the white group appears to be afforded
preferential treatment for recruitment, promotion and training opportunities at
[top management] level is of concern. This trend renders it highly unlikely to
achieve equitable representation at this level in the near future,” concluded
the report [by the Commission for Employment Equity]. The situation is similar
at senior management level.”
Frightening figures, when viewed
from the point of view of the Government, figures which demonstrate the same
lack of effectiveness as the Government under the ANC has shown in virtually
every other sphere of the economy in which it has been active. However, when
viewed rationally, the figures are both understandable and encouraging.
Let us look at some of the details,
and really understand them.
Whites fill 68.5% of top
management jobs, six times their EAP. Africans account for 14.4%, while Whites account
for 9.5% of the economically active population (EAP) and Black Africans 78%.
Apart from the factually
incorrect description of Blacks as ‘black Africans (which ignores the fact that
numerous Whites are descended from families that have been in South Africa as
long as most of the Black families), one must understand that a large
proportion of the economically active Black population is engaged in work which
has no potential to develop their education, knowledge and skills to the level
where they can become effective top management. The statistics of that
proportion are not presently available to the writer, but it is a safe bet to
assume that, of the 78%, at least 50% are not qualified in any way and have
little prospect of becoming qualified for a top management job, and another 20%
of the remaining 38% are not yet old enough to have gained the experience
required. Yes, top management requires many years of experience. If the Blacks
who are educationally-qualified for the top management jobs had started their
climb up the ladder in 1994 (assuming an adequate education), they would have
gained 23 years of experience. How many of the top managers of large companies
are aged less than 44 years? Again the statistics are not available, but the
answer is certainly less than a handful. Why 44 years? Assume that an aspirant
for top management completes Matric at 18, then a three-year degree, that
person started work at age 21. Add the 23 years since 1994. He or she is now
aged 44. Most of the Blacks who will become top managers of large companies are
still working their way up the ladder, after gaining a good education and years
of experience in many of the activities that are essential knowledge for the
top job. In an interview on SABC this morning, the Minister of Social Security
inadvertently confirmed this fact, when she stated that SASSA required at least
five years to establish an in-house ability to pay social grants, after having
worked on the problem since 2014 – a total of 8 years to do a project that a
competent European or American company would certainly complete within 2 years
(after all, CPS was able to develop the ability within less than a year!). She
explained that the organization of SASSA, which was set up to do only the
payment of social grants, consisted of low-level management. That statement is
one of the few believable statements by the Minister, who has become known for
obfuscation, circumlocution and even the use of Russian, in answering
embarrassing questions. The simple fact, known to all of the companies burdened
by the law requiring them to employ a certain ratio of ‘previously
disadvantaged persons’. Is that there are simply far too few competent Black
persons with the education, qualifications, skills and experience required to
perform competently in a normal economy, never mind the minefield that the
South African economy has become under ANC rule.
The situation on the ground is
that a company’s prime requirement is to earn a profit for the shareholders.
Once that is being done, the company has the freedom to comply with all the
other nice-to-have objectives, such as Black Economic Empowerment. To do that,
every top manager must perform at the peak level of performance expected from
him or her. Where the profit flow is good, there is enough surplus cash to do
the things that are required to meet the Government’s unrealistic expectation (that
every Black is born with all the skills and experience to perform excellently –
they are not, nor are Whites, Indians, Coloureds or Chinese), with a person
being appointed to do a job that he or she is not qualified or experienced to
do, supplementing his or her efforts with a skilled (probably White or Indian)
who will filter out the gross mistakes deficiencies and add some on-the-job
training in the process. That, of course, introduces managerial friction and
inefficiency, and adds a considerable burden of cost, all of which weaken the market
position of the company and detract from the attractiveness of the country as an
investment destination. If you doubt this, ask why so many ‘proudly South
African’ companies have largely withdrawn from the country (e.g. Anglo
American, S A Breweries, Gencor) and others are doing whatever they can to minimize
their exposure to South Africa. Ask why the economy is in a decline, where,
previously, it was regarded as the ‘engine of Africa. Ask why the
creditworthiness of the country has declined to the point where two of three
Ratings Agencies have rated the country as ‘junk’. Ask why every
Government-controlled business entity is in a state of collapse. Why cannot SAA
make a profit, when the non-Government airlines do, why Eskom requires an
ever-increasing tariff for the supply of the energy which, in the past, has
been a major driver of economic growth, why the SABC requires additional
funding every year, why SANRAL is rapidly approaching a fiscal cliff, even
after a questionable accounting revaluations of its assets in order to maintain
balance sheet solvency, could why PetroSA manage to deprive the country of its
strategic fuel reserve? The root cause in every case is unqualified management.
The compounding cause, corruption, is a direct result of the lack of moral honesty
that is a prime element of a competent top manager, a quality that is built
only by years of exposure to quality managers, absorbing their beliefs and
morality.
“At the lower levels, Africans
fare better, but still don’t match their EAP figures, accounting for 60.2% of
skilled technical workers and 76.1% of semi-skilled workers,” the report
continues. That again is no surprise. Although ‘Africans’ (correctly defined)
occupy all but a tiny fraction of such positions, Blacks are severely
disadvantaged in their capacity to occupy skilled or semi-skilled positions
simply because the standard of education they receive is at an abysmally low
level. The Department of Education systematically attempts to hide the real
facts of this, by lowering the pass mark so that more ‘learners’ gain their
piece of paper, but the truth is that an education at a level required to meet
the minimum standards of most sophisticated employers is not available from the
State schools. If there is any blame to be apportioned for this situation, it
lies squarely at the feet of the ANC, which disrupted a proven skills-building
system and introduced a system that had been proven elsewhere in the world to
be defective. Once again, the ANC refuses to accept the advice of people who
really know the truth, preferring to accept their ‘gut feel’ and the
universally-disproven communist doctrine that they use as a master plan.
The figures issued, if correctly
understood, are encouraging, in that they show that the Black citizens are
working their way up the system, as any intelligent observer would expect. If
we disabuse ourselves of the racist rhetoric spewed by the Government, it is
clear that employers at all levels of the economy, would be delighted to find a
qualified employee, whether at top management, skilled or semi-skilled, and
would appoint such a person to an appropriate position. They would be pleased
to provide the training, education and exposure that would maximize the value
of such a person to the company. Every employer needs good people to sustain
their growth into the future. Equally, every employer would be unconcerned that
the best candidate for the job is Black or White, or any other race. Only the
Government (and the few other Parties espousing similarly lunatic racial criteria,
rather than promoting the economic growth that will create the situation where
every person will have the job they want) would wish to push an unrealistic
policy to the extent that the country’s already fragile economy will collapse.
The best thing that the ANC could
do would be to expunge any reference to race from their lexicon, and that would
be followed by getting out of the way of the hardworking people of all races
who are working to make the country of Nelson Mandela succeed, for all its
citizens.
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