Sunday Times Empowerment: December 2020

DECEMBER 2020

IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE BLACK MANAGEMENT FORUM

www.businessmediamags.co.za

Andile Nomlala

Tasneem Fredericks

Bonang Mohale

Thoko Didiza

Jonathan Jansen

Takalani Netshitenzhe

Why empowerment, social justice and the economy are intrinsically linked

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F ROM T HE EDI T OR

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE

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he pandemic has shown that empowerment is key to the transformation of our economy.

The huge inequalities in our society are unsustainable, and it is in no one’s interest to have an economy where so few have so much and so many have so little.

In this issue of Empowerment, we grapple with some of the key features that impact on transformation, such as unemployment, which has grown out of control, and we try to find the positives, for instance in the agricultural sector.

We have a long road to travel to get to where we need to be, but empowerment needs to be top of mind throughout this journey.

BLACK MANAGEMENT FORUM 8 What we need now is a robust fiscal policy, says Andile Nomlala 9 Tasneem Fredericks highlights gender issues ECONOMY 12 SA’s state of economic disarray 13 Social justice first AGRICULTURE 18 The emerging female farmer 19 Food gardens and food security

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EDITORIAL

Editor: Ryland Fisher Content Manager: Raina Julies rainaj@picasso.co.za Contributors: Trevor Crighton, Gareth Griffiths, Duma Gqubule, Jonathan D Jansen, Denise Mhlanga, Bonang Mohale, Puseletso Mompei, Thando Pato Copy Editor: Brenda Bryden Content Co-ordinator: Vanessa Payne Digital Editor: Stacey Visser vissers@businessmediamags.co.za

DESIGN

Ryland Fisher

CONTENTS

EMPOWERMENT

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TECHNOLOGY 31 Is universal broadband realistic for SA? OPINION 34 Prof Jonathan Jansen on education 44 Ryland Fisher on diversity and inclusion

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A DV ER T ORI A L

EMPOWERING RURAL COMMUNITIES Maluta Netshaulu

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ransforming the agriculture sector requires a commitment to doing the hard work in laying the foundation before reaping the rewards, says Gloria Serobe, pioneering founder and executive director of Wiphold, whose groundbreaking farming initiative has already changed the lives of many.

Acknowledged as a leader in the South African business world, Serobe speaks with passion – and pride – about the transformative effect of a long-standing partnership in the agricultural sector that has evolved into an inspiring role model for transformation in the Eastern Cape.

Nedbank, committed to doing good, has walked this journey with Wiphold in two of the poorest rural areas in the country. They are Centane, a town forming part of the Mnquma Local Municipality, and the adjoining district of Mbashe, with its municipal offi ce in Dutywa, best known as the birthplace of former President Thabo Mbeki and also the home and resting place Gloria Serobe of one of South Africa’s top investigative journalists, Simpiwe Piliso, who died in 2016.

Piliso always championed the claims of his hometown as a place ripe for tourism, but Mbeki’s seminal speech as deputy president in the National Assembly on 29 May 1998 highlighted the economic disparities between black and white.

An inspiring farming initiative in the Eastern Cape between Wiphold and Nedbank is changing lives daily, writes Maluta Netshaulu, senior manager, Agriculture Client Value Proposition at Nedbank.

Against this backdrop, Wiphold began working in Centane and Mbashe in 2006 – initially through a fi nancial inclusion initiative called Imbizo. With Nedbank, Old Mutual and Mutual & Federal (now Old Mutual Insure), they focused on small-scale enterprise (including smallscale agriculture) support. Through imbizos, the community expressed their need for a bank, and so branches were opened in Centane, Mount Frere, Lusikisiki and Dutywa.

TRANSFORMATIVE AND SUSTAINABLE INITIATIVE Serobe says the Centane and Mbashe agricultural initiative focused on the development of a model for the profitable and sustainable farming of communally owned land. Since its inception in 2012, the initiative has cultivated 2 500 hectares of land across 34 villages in the Eastern Cape.

Wiphold runs the farming operation and community members help in ways such as erecting and maintaining fencing, guarding the fields, monitoring the crops and helping with harvesting.

Each season, participating landowners each receive ten 40 kg bags of maize in the form of a land use fee. Every project member receives cash and training in areas such as basic bookkeeping,

enterprise development, farming and equipment management. Thus far, the project has created 1 486 permanent and seasonal jobs.

To date it has paid R28,5 million to participating community shareholders, says Serobe, ‘contributing, towards lifting people out of poverty’. What makes this initiative stand out as a blueprint for transformation is that, underpinned by financial services funding, it is a partnership between 2 318 communal landowners from 34 villages and Wiphold as part of the BBP Legacy Programme.

The programme has delivered steadily improving results, with growth in farm size, improvements in soil quality and a steady improvement in crop yields.

‘The ultimate goal is for the people in Centane and Mbashe to run the operation on their own, they do not need Wiphold to do this,’ says Serobe.

She hopes that the partnership between Wiphold and Nedbank – and Old Mutual – inspires transformation in general, but specifi cally in agriculture so that the inspiring story of what is happening in the Eastern Cape will spread throughout the country.

For more information: agriculture@nedbank.co.za www.nedbank.co.za

What makes this initiative stand out as a blueprint for transformation is that, underpinned by financial services funding, it is a partnership between 2 318 communal landowners from 34 villages and Wiphold as part of the BBP Legacy Programme.

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BL ACK M A N AGEMEN T F ORUM

CHANGING OUR ECONOMIC TRAJECTORY

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he South African economy is underperforming along with government finances and households stretched to the limit.

Load shedding continues to wreak havoc and thousands of job cuts are set to worsen unemployment with the expanded unemployment rate currently sitting at 42 per cent as reported by the recent Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the second quarter of 2020.

Thus the 2020 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) and the strategic framework that informs it has been presented amid a very grim economy. Pressure on the country’s fiscus is increasingly growing, and key priorities based not only on the review of the 2020 MTBPS by Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni, but also other preceding fiscal policy pronouncements, need to be more adequately addressed.

STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES (SOEs) Government needs to seriously consider measures to redirect expenditure to productive spend.

The current trajectory of expenditure is showing movement in servicing debt that has been allocated to bail out SOEs. The servicing of debt for productive spend is a better position to be in. Through productive spending, you will inevitably increase tax revenue as new money will be created in the system through a multiplier effect.

Raising debt for economic development of the country should be of greater priority than raising debt to bail out SOEs. It becomes difficult to say we are going to be prudent

if we keep giving more money to SOEs that are struggling. Especially when much of this continued struggle stems from corruption and incapacitated leaders who have led SOEs into the current crisis they find themselves in. And continued funding of SOEs without insisting on pre-conditions such as clean audits as a requirement for emergency funding, are detrimental to government’s goal of consolidating fiscal spending.

CURBING EXPENDITURE AND REDIRECTING FUNDS TO INVESTMENT Wasteful expenditure should be shifted to investment spending.

Key to curbing wasteful expenditure will be to review the whole political system from the ground up. The local government layer is crucial for delivering services to both business and civil society. Tighter measures ought to be introduced to ensure that these basic services are delivered in line with the economic goals of the country.

Overall, a critical foundation to change South Africa’s economic trajectory lies in a robust and reformed macroeconomic and fiscal policy. Minister Mboweni mentioned in his 2020 MTBPS that “we are at a moment today not too dissimilar to 1994 and we must recover. As we rose to that fiscal challenge then, so will we rise to this one”. But the government’s current response to the largest depression in a century is inadequate.

Raising debt for economic development of the country should be of greater priority than raising debt to bail out SOEs.

THE NEED TO FORGE A NEW ECONOMIC MODEL South Africans need to discard old ways of thinking about the economy.

The failed neoliberal economic policies of the past 26 years including inflation targets, inapt structural reforms and austerity measures have not catapulted South Africa into a promising and progressive economic dispensation. Andile Nomlala Innovation and the development of new institutional arrangements are key in establishing a new economic settlement that takes South Africa and its people forward post-COVID-19. Efforts must

Innovation and the development of new institutional arrangements are key in establishing a new economic settlement that takes South Africa and its people forward.

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be made to create a sustainable and prosperous economic future for all South Africans. The key pillars that should be included in a robust macroeconomic policy framework for South Africa are education, health, infrastructure, transformation, and sustainable development.

As Minister Mboweni aptly mentioned in his address, government cannot change South Africa’s economic trajectory on its own: a robust social compact between government, business, labour, and civil society is required to catapult South Africa into better socioeconomic prospects.

However, we need a robust foundation lest we continue on our current stagnant path.

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We need a robust and reformed macroeconomic and fiscal policy, writes Andile Nomlala, president of the Black Management Forum

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A CALL FOR GENDER REFORM South Africa needs to apply a robust gender lens to its policy framework, writes Tasneem Fredericks, deputy president of the Black Management Forum

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video doing the rounds on social media at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic moved me to both a deep sense of despair and anger. The video showed how a self-employed woman of a respectable age was loaded into the back of a police van with her goods.

Her street food was confiscated by a male police officer for transgressing the level 5 lockdown regulations.

It stays with me as a stark reminder of the deep social divide and lack of protection for vulnerable women in the informal sector.

This cuts across other sectors for women in general who similarly endure little to no protection in a world that remains largely patriarchal, racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQI+, anti-poor and conducive to the thriving of gender-based violence.

THE GENDER LENS

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Important to note is that a gender lens does not exclude men. The focus remains on empowering women and girls, however, the conversation is extended to include men as enablers to change and to challenge socially constructed roles.

Society constantly peddles these constructs of male toxicity, unconscious bias and the power dynamic and vertical employment relations between women and men, which are reinforced through channels of education, politics, economics and cultural systems. Reform demands that we advocate for a complete overhaul of the financial, social and political system to make a real dent in the scourge of femicide and, ultimately, put cash in the hands of women.

A gender lens approach to South Africa’s policy framework will ensure that decisions around how women overcome structural barriers will bolster the success of a greater number of women participating in the economy. Women face specific challenges

Tasneem Fredericks

around entry to male-dominated industries.

Entry to these areas will unlock an expanded range of products and novel services previously unimagined.

TIME TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND MAKE A SEISMIC SHIFT The time has come to do the right and logical thing and link a strategy that supports both profit and purpose. Achieving both the bottom line and equality is not mutually exclusive, and embracing this concept should be the start of a new beginning. Reshaping the system

Reform demands that we advocate for a complete overhaul of the financial, social and political system to make a real dent in the scourge of femicide and, ultimately, put cash in the hands of women.

to incorporate the women’s agenda is a seismic shift from the rampant and common devaluation and disenfranchisement of women to one that promotes and includes the much-needed growth during and after any pandemic.

Time poverty has been an added burden for many women during COVID-19 as a consequence of working from home. This added strain has guaranteed the further exploitation of women who now had to balance work with the unpaid responsibility of teaching children now learning from home during turbulent economic times.

It was a wonderous and momentous moment when President Ramaphosa announced on 9 August 2020 that government would reserve 40 per cent of public procurement for women-owned businesses. The tone and message that this stimulus package sends are important in the fight for economic justice for women. In a country where women constantly have to defend and justify their right to a slice of the economic pie, this deliberate intervention in response to the evils of triple oppression heralds a much-needed vote of confidence from the highest office in the country.

There are many ways to transform the foundations of the existing system and the Black Management Forum recommends the following: • The implementation of deliberate measures such as set-asides, quota systems to ensure women representation in corporate South Africa.

• Access to capital and debt relief with repayment schedules offered to the largely informal self-employed sector.

• Training in financial literacy and industryspecific technical assistance.

• Investment in infrastructure that ensures a safe and protected space for women to take public transport, trade, live and breathe.

• Extending social networks, mentorship, and enhanced digitisation efforts to scale women-owned small businesses.

• Lastly, there can be no delegation of agency and limits on self-determination for women.

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BEING RELEVANT What does it mean for a profession – particularly the accountancy profession – to be relevant? Chantyl Mulder CA(SA), Executive Director: Nation Building at SAICA, weighs in

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very professional, regardless of whether they are an engineer, lawyer, doctor or an accountant, exists to serve society.

From the onset, we believe that professionals have a duty to serve society. This stems from the fact that they are part of the elite class and in the very top echelons of leadership. And, by the nature of their positions and knowledge, it is beneficial for society to invest in their value. It may sound altruistic, but it is something I truly believe: all professionals have a noble cause to bring to bear, a noble obligation to serve society; one that does not warrant nonpayment of servitude.

For accounting professionals, particularly Chartered Accountants, this mandate goes even deeper.

In its constitution, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) stipulates that its mission is to serve the public’s interest.

This sometimes gets forgotten. The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) is an institution that serves its members and regulates their behaviour, delivers talent to the economy and society and upholds standards. But, ultimately, it serves and supports members in fulfilling their duty of serving society.

SERVING OUR SOCIETY

We have united around the SDGs to deepen the country’s understanding of the challenges, opportunities and dynamics that can be leveraged to accelerate and prioritise the delivery of the SDGs. Serving society informs my sense of what SAICA should always be: inside that sweet spot of relevance where the organisation finds itself helping its members become more accustomed to what it means to serve the public interest, while also offering support SAICA, therefore, must continue to create platforms for members to collaborate on delivering that value needed by society. It must be about dealing with the pertinent questions of our time. We are not going to be relevant if we don’t assist our members to understand their public interest responsibilities. I don’t think it is helpful for SAICA and the profession to have a narrow view of what society expects of its membership.

Ultimately, we should be aware that the profession doesn’t exist for itself – it exists to serve society.

Whenever we think about the theme “a profession of national value”, the UN SDGs or nation-building, we are reminded that it is imperative to find a way to anchor all of this good work in the idea that the profession needs to be able to solve some of society’s most pressing problems. We are not going to do that by ourselves as SAICA. We can achieve this by ensuring that our members understand their public interest. Of course, making sure that they have the technical competencies they need is also important.

As the leading accountancy body in South Africa, SAICA has been calling on its members not only to “adopt” one of the SDGs, but also to show the work that our members do – in their personal and business capacity – to assist the world in reaching the SDGs by 2030. SAICA has undertaken to track how its members are contributing to a better world and showcase this in a special annual report.

As Goal 17 outlines, it is the partnershipsbased approach underpinned by collective actions that will truly see us reach the targets set in the 2030 Agenda. We are encouraged by our profession’s commitment to the SDGs. However, the commitment and actions of individuals alone are not enough to see us deliver on the global goals.

As SAICA, we have united around the SDGs to deepen the country’s understanding of the challenges, opportunities and dynamics that can be leveraged to accelerate and prioritise the delivery of the SDGs. It should be incumbent on all professionals – not just those in the accountancy profession – to rally behind these goals for the greater good of our country and our planet.

COMMITTED TO DELIVERING GLOBAL GOALS In 2015, world leaders gathered at the United Nations to adopt an ambitious framework of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 associated targets to address the full range of social and economic development issues facing people around the world. These goals included finding solutions for poverty, hunger, health, education, climate change, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, environment and social justice. When bunched up, these goals provide governments, businesses and civil society with a universal roadmap to tackle urgent challenges, to meaningfully engage with emerging risks, and discover new opportunities for creating value.

For more about SAICA and the work of its members as well as that of the greater profession in helping to achieve the SDGs by 2030, please visit www.saicasdg.co.za

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If SAICA and its members do not serve society, the profession will lose its relevance.

Some query, for example, if it’s reasonable for an accountant to serve as a chief financial officer (CFO) and have the same obligation and public duty as a public auditor? While the public auditor might certify accounts, this brings a different responsibility. In the same way as a CFO who provides information for decision-making supports the entity they serve so that it meets its responsibilities. Therefore, the entity has a responsibility to society. It has a responsibility to deliver financial or commercial returns to investors, but also must act as a responsible corporate citizen.

Speaking of responsibility, every time a financial scandal breaks, audit becomes the more visible aspect and it affects the entire profession. People always default to audit, advisory and other services.

While auditors are not part of the full SAICA membership, it is central to and where we craft our profession. It’s where all internal auditors are trained and from where all the audit committee members originate. It is the last point of defence. Whenever there is a problem

in audit, we must all rally to fix it, because it is the foundation and centre of our profession.

If we lose credibility, it affects everyone and we can’t distance ourselves from it. If we fix this, it will benefit all of us while providing the necessary assurance to society.

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ECONOM Y

THE SORRY STATE OF

SA’S ECONOMY Duma Gqubule takes a look at the dismal performance of the economy, particularly over the period 2009-2019

SLIPPERY DOWNWARD SLOPE Between 2009 and 2019, South Africa had a “lost decade” during which GDP per capita did not grow. Between 2015 and 2019, there were five consecutive years of declining GDP per capita. The country had two recessions in two consecutive years (2018 and 2019).

Since the start of 2018, there have been seven out of ten quarters of declining GDP and eight out of ten quarters of declining investment. There have been three consecutive quarters of declining GDP before the start of the lockdown at the end of March 2020. The country was heading for its third recession in three consecutive years.

Since the lockdown, 2.2 million people lost their jobs. The expanded unemployment rate is 42 per cent.

There cannot be an infrastructure-led recovery within the context of austerity budgets, which make deep cuts to public investment.

GDP per capita will decline by about 10 per cent during 2020. By the end of 2020, South Africans will, on average, be only 15 per cent richer than they were in 1994.

The government’s response to the crisis has been far less impactful than the actual shock to the economy.

The real stimulus to the economy was far less than the R500-billion package that was announced in April. For example, the R200-billion loan guarantee scheme has only disbursed R16-billion. The government only contributed an extra R36-billion in noninterest expenditure. The Unemployment Insurance Fund paid R47.4-billion to people who were temporarily retrenched during the crisis.

government’s INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN BARELY ADEQUATE Announcing his infrastructure-led recovery plan to Parliament in October, Rampahosa said: “To ensure that there is active implementation of our infrastructure build programme, we have established Infrastructure SA and the Infrastructure Fund with the capacity to prepare and package projects. The Infrastructure Fund will provide R100-billion in catalytic finance over the next decade, leveraging as much as R10-trillion in new investment for strategic infrastructure projects.”

However, the president first announced the establishment of a R400-billion infrastructure fund in September 2018. In the February

Between 2009 and 2019, South Africa had a “lost decade” during which GDP per capita did not grow. Between 2015 and 2019, there were five consecutive years of declining GDP per capita.

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2019 budget, National Treasury reduced government’s commitment to this fund to R100bn over 10 years. Government has yet to make an allocation to the fund, which is not a new initiative.

The government infrastructure plan does not address two issues. First, a public sector investment strike is the main reason for the collapse of total investment over the past five years. Between 2015 and 2019, public investment collapsed by 22 per cent. Government has not explained how it will reverse this trend and mend the broken balance sheets of state-owned companies (SOCs), which account for about half of public investment. National Treasury says there will be further declines in total investment during 2020 and 2021, despite government plans. Second, there cannot be an infrastructure-led recovery within the context of austerity budgets, which make deep cuts to public investment.

In his speech to Parliament in October, Ramaphosa said: “According to modelling done by National Treasury, the implementation of this plan will raise growth to around three per cent on average over the next 10 years.” However, Pali Lehohla, the former statistician-general says: “At annual growth of three per cent over the next 10 years, never, in one’s wildest dreams, will jobs be created that will be different from the pre-COVID-19 scenario. A 30 per cent unemployment rate will continue to dog South Africa.”

South Africa needs a plan that can achieve far more than three per cent growth.

*Duma Gqubule is founding director at the Centre for Economic Development and Transformation.

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resident Cyril Ramaphosa’s reconstruction and recovery plan is an inadequate response to the country’s once-in-a-century pandemic and economic depression that could eviscerate the dreams of our country’s liberation. It repackages old ideas that were developed before the crisis and presents them as part of a new plan.

Lest we forget about the crisis before the crisis, South Africa’s economy has performed dismally since the dawn of democracy in 1994. Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, an international benchmark of average living standards that takes into account the growth of a country’s population, has increased by only 28 per cent between 1994 and 2019. By comparison, “per capita incomes in India and China are now 300 and 760 per cent of what they were in 1995”, says Hendrik Du Toit, CEO of Ninety One.

Duma Gqubule

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ECONOM Y

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND THE ECONOMY

We cannot hope to revive the country’s economy if we don’t first examine and fix social injustice, writes Bonang Mohale

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he #BlackLivesMatter movement that started in the United States and quickly spread throughout the world has shown once again that we cannot fix the problems of economic justice in this country without first addressing racial justice. Addressing racial injustice must form an important part of rebuilding South Africa’s economy.

The deck has always been stacked against poor people – this is the same in South Africa as it is in countries worldwide.

Despite government attempts to deal with youth unemployment through initiatives such as employment tax incentives, the Jobs Fund and Expanded Public Works Programme, Statistics SA data consistently shows that young people remain discouraged. Only about a third of employable young people have jobs. Almost half remain economically inactive.

The #BlackLivesMatter movement is a reminder of how social injustice cannot be viewed separately from economic injustice.

WIDE WEALTH GAP A recent report from a pair of Harvard academics has found that “just being in a poor neighbourhood virtually ensures that you’ll never make it up the socioeconomic ladder”.

Boys from poor households who grow up in beleaguered, mostly black neighbourhoods, will earn roughly 25 per cent less than their peers who moved to better neighbourhoods as children.

As Thomas Piketty demonstrated in his best-selling book on inequality, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, “creating a system of capitalism that more equitably distributes wealth is our biggest challenge now”. As a growing body of research from outfits such as the Brookings Institute has shown, “more inequality means less opportunity”.

The wealth gap between whites and blacks is far worse than most people would guess. One reason for the difference is that a disproportionate number of blacks have little or no access to formal retirement savings plans. The majority of whites keep most of their wealth in housing. Most blacks live in rural areas and many in the townships do not own the houses they have always lived in and, therefore, can never use these as collateral. This is bad news for both the economy and our country, which has always been majority black.

The #BlackLivesMatter movement is a reminder of how social injustice cannot be

viewed separately from economic injustice.

Most black people in America are poor, just as most black people in South Africa are poor. Access to justice is often denied to poor people.

The problem in South Africa has never been coloured people or Indian people. All of us have been systematically excluded on the basis that we are not white.

The single most important reason why apartheid survived for 350 years is because of the “divide and rule” strategy, which ensured that blacks only fight for the crumbs that fall from the master’s table. Our biggest challenge is the concentration of poverty – the 10 per cent of the population that still occupy about 80 per cent of leadership positions and own about 70 per cent of large agricultural land.

It has never been easy for black people.

The things that happen to us daily in real life, are not exactly a surprise to us. The depth and frequency of recent incidents against black people give expression to the old James Baldwin observation that “to be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time”. Baldwin’s observation is about America, but it could easily have been about South Africa.

Economic justice and racial fairness have always been the same thing. We will not be able to sort out many of the problems with inequality in our country if we do not make social justice one of the key issues when rebuilding our country’s economy. *Bonang Mohale is chancellor of the University of the Free State, professor of practice at the Johannesburg Business School College of Business and Economics, chairman of The Bidvest Group Limited and past president of the BMF. He is the author of Lift As You Rise.

The single most important reason why apartheid survived for 350 years is because of the “divide and rule” strategy.

Bonang Mohale

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A DV ER T ORI A L

EQUIPPING WOMEN FARMERS FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS UN Women and Standard Bank have joined forces to equip women farmers in Africa with the skills and resources needed to grow their businesses and succeed over the long-term

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n October 2019, Standard Bank and UN Women partnered to empower more than 50 000 women farmers in Malawi, Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa through the use of modern and environmentally-friendly farming technologies that increase productivity and incomes.

Through the Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) project, women farmers, authorities, local farmer organisations and cooperatives are addressing structural inequalities in rural economies in Africa, including access to quality farmland.

Standard Bank has provided funding worth US$3-million as well as ongoing support through financial literacy and other programmes.

“The CSA project supports Standard Bank’s drive to create a gender-equal Africa and aligns with our purpose of driving the continent’s growth,” says Sola David-Borha, chief executive of Africa Regions at Standard Bank Group.

“We believe it will meaningfully contribute to the upliftment of communities and the achievement of sustainable economic growth across Africa.”

“This project is closely aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly when it comes to gender equality, access to decent work, and economic growth,” says Dr Vera Songwe, UN under-secretary-general and executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

In South Africa, the project delivered agricultural inputs to 2 753 women farmers in the first half of 2020. The inputs include drought-resistant seeds of various crops, organic manure, farming equipment, and training on climate-smart agriculture.

In addition to critical farming skills and tools, the beneficiaries receive training on key technical skills including financial literacy.

This is an important component of the project as it will help to ensure the farmers’ long-term success.

About 950 women farmers in South Africa received training in business management and digital and financial literacy in the first half of 2020.

The UN Women office in the country has continued to work throughout the national lockdown, and Standard Bank has remained fully operational as a designated essential services provider. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technology is being used to conduct meetings where possible.

Besides teaching business skills, the programme is designed to increase productivity, facilitate access to higher-value markets and supply chains, and yield high-quality produce.

“By the end of the programme, we want to ensure that women farmers are well equipped to thrive in a changing climate,” says Keneilwe Nailana, senior manager of agribusiness at Standard Bank South Africa. “They will also be better placed to move up the value chain and access new markets and finance, and, ultimately, to grow their businesses.”

For more information: www.standardbank.co.za

“By the end of the programme, we want to ensure that women farmers are well equipped to thrive in a changing climate.” – Keneilwe Nailana, senior manager, Agribusiness, Standard Bank South Africa EMPOWERMENT

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CHANGING THE

LANDSCAPE FOR WOMEN FARMERS

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omen, on average, make up 43 per cent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, yet they receive only a fraction of the resources, agricultural training and information compared to men, claims the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

Agriculture is a knowledge-intensive field with new technologies, and emerging women farmers need to develop the skills to take advantage of the economic benefits offered by the digital revolution.

This is why South African Women in Farming (SAWIF), the Vodacom Foundation and UN Women joined forces and launched the Women Farmers Programme. The programme aims to provide women farmers across South Africa with digital literacy training.

“Since the successful pilot programme in Limpopo held in 2018, Vodacom has invested over R6.3-million in digital literacy training and extended the programme to four more provinces, including the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and the North West.

“The number of women farmers trained through the programme has more than doubled. Currently, more than 1 300 women farmers from rural areas have been trained in digital literacy, up from 600 last August,” says Takalani Netshitenzhe, external affairs director for Vodacom South Africa.

“The Connected Farmer app provides real-time information on what farmers are producing in which regions.” – Takalani netshitenzhe

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THE CONNECTED FARMER APP Deborah Matuku, SAWIF’s president, says the programme offers its 5 000 members training in the intricacies of using a smartphone, using apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp and email to help them grow their businesses.

“This basic training empowers our members, who are mostly rural women with small farms that have limited access to bigger supply chains.

“It opens doors because we can now network with each other and share information. The most exciting part of this programme is the Connected Farmer app being developing by Vodacom.

This will change the way we do business because it will

Takalani Netshitenzhe

REALISING THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN FARMING

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n August, the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, announced that government would be prioritising farming as one of the sectors to rebuild the economy and concentrating on increasing the role of women in agriculture.

Through research, the department has learnt that women in the sector face numerous issues such as access to land, financial services, marketing and trade requirements and mechanisation to commercialise their farming activity.

One of the biggest issues Thoko is the lack of statistical data Didiza on the number of women in the sector and what commodities they trade in.

The Minister said that, after consultations with stakeholders, government now has

The SAWIF fresh produce stand at the launch event last August.

a plan on how to mobilise and organise women farmers so they have a more prominent role in the sector across farming, production, procurement and agribusiness.

This would be done through several measures including releasing up to 50 per cent of state land to female farmers, introducing additional land reform measures, developing a targeted programme for female entrepreneurs and farmers and introducing a 40 per cent procurement process for female-led busineses.

IMAGE: SUPPLIED

The Women in Farmers Programme is hoping to change the landscape for small-scale farmers in South Africa.

Thando Pato finds out how

advertise our members’ services and expose them to potential suppliers outside their current supply chains.”

Netshitenzhe says that Connected Farmer is the third phase of the Women in Farming project. “The Connected Farmer app provides real-time information on what farmers are producing in which regions. It also helps to ensure that small-scale women farmers participating in the programme have access to input and output markets – a key requirement for the transformation of smallholder farmers to commercial production – and can meet the conditions of retailers.”

Connected Farmer is currently being developed to include financial services and enterprise business offerings as the fourth phase of the project. Netshitenzhe explains that a farmer can use any mobile device on any network to access the Connected Farmer’s platform and, through SMS, can receive valuable information, including weather forecasts and market prices. “In addition, the agribusiness and even third-party providers can issue farmers with vouchers that can be exchanged at participating dealers for requirements such as seeds, fertiliser and access to mechanisation.”

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F OOD SECURI T Y

FEEDING GARDENS Gareth Griffiths talks to community volunteers about growing sustainable food feeding schemes

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efore lockdown, 80 per cent of the Cape’s Ocean View community were already living under the poverty breadline, says community volunteer Rashid Davids. “The Noorul Islam Mosque started a weekly feeding scheme in 2014, but at the beginning of lockdown earlier this year, we saw the need for largerscale programmes.

The feedourvalley.org “Kitchen Godesses”.

“We encouraged community members to set up satellite soup kitchens. There are now 72 food kitchens across Ocean View.”

The working model established by the Ocean View team in distributing to satellite food kitchens has worked so well that it is being replicated by the City of Cape Town in other communities including Delft, Lavender Hill, Atlantis and Masiphumelele.

Sally Berg, the founder of www.feedourvalley.org, which creates and supports feeding schemes in Cape Town’s

FOOD FORWARD SA

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ver the past few months, there has been a significant rise in community feeding schemes. Organisations such as FoodForward SA, which acts as a food bank, has seen a great countrywide increase in demand for their surplus food offerings.

The organisation has distributed 5 600 tonnes of food since March this year, compared with the 5 115 tonnes distributed during the 2019 financial year.

Andy du Plessis, MD of FoodForward SA, confirms: “In the past seven months we have almost doubled our operations – we

are now in all nine provinces, previously we were only in six.

“We’ve also moved to larger premises in Port Elizabeth and Durban to accommodate the increased operational demand.

“We have now set up 12 mobile rural depots that get food to more than 120 beneficiary organisations reaching over 62 000 vulnerable people in underserved rural communities.

“FoodForward SA now supports a total of 1 005 organisations, reaching 475 000 vulnerable people, and we continue to receive applications to serve even more,” says du Plessis.

FOODFORWARD SA’s MEASURABLE IMPACT Andy du Plessis

MASI CREATIVE HUB

IMAGES: SUPPLIED

southernmost townships via a network of “Kitchen Goddesses”, says the answer to our food security issues is empowerment.

“The charity mode is the old colonial way – it disempowers people and keeps them in victim mode. First prize is if you can start building programme or scheme sustainability and then empower the community with skills training, education and provide resources to create community hubs so that people can flourish and begin building microbusinesses and creating employment.”

Masi Creative Hub provides meals across Masiphumelele township.

When South Africa’s national lockdown began, the Masi Creative Hub was already running a feeding scheme for young children up to grade 5 in the Masiphumelele township. Founded by Yandiswa Mazwana, the hub has seven feeding stations spread across Masiphumelele and provides about 1 100 meals per day.

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A DV ER T ORI A L

THE SA WINE INDUSTRY’S TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY Transformation in the wine industry is being driven by the SA Wine Industry Transformation Unit which, among other objectives, aims to develop partnerships to maximise its efforts

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SAWITU has partnered with well-matched stakeholders that provide the same drive and support to black-owned enterprises, black-owned farms and farm worker programmes.

STRATEGIC PILLARS SAWITU identified its strategic pillars as ownership, enterprise development, skills development, management control and social development.

A key objective of SAWITU’s strategic vision is to develop partnerships and collaboration between various stakeholders.

The goal is to identify areas of partnership where different role players in the sector can collaborate to maximise support and leverage limited funding. SAWITU has partnered with well-matched stakeholders that provide the same drive and support to black-owned enterprises, black-owned farms and farmworker programmes.

By way of enterprise development, SAWITU has made great strides for black-owned entities including financial grant assistance, opportunities for market access, marketing and promotional activity support and mentorship support programmes. To maximise black participation in the sector, SAWITU has compiled and shared a database of Level 1 and 2 B-BBEE enterprises to ensure preferential procurement.

Furthermore, targeted initiatives have contributed to improving support by offering a more focused method that will ensure greater impact for both local and international markets. In 2019, following engagement with its stakeholders, SAWITU committed to working in a more focused manner, ensuring maximum impact for its efforts.

SAWITU has identified the key challenges facing these farms and is running a technical support programme and mentorship support programme in parallel with financial support.

Most of the black-owned farms are in the early stages of development, so it is important that significant steps are taken to ensure sustainable growth and that empowerment with business mentorship is achieved, especially with the worker trust schemes.

A specific focus on skills development, learnership training, employment equity targets, management initiatives and ownership support initiatives regarding land reform and the acquisition of land by black businesses evokes a new dynamic in the transformation journey.

Acutely aware of the plight of the farmworkers when the coronavirus pandemic broke, SAWITU immediately mobilised its resources to provide food hampers and other support to thousands of farmworkers in the Western Cape, many of whom were without employment or remuneration during the hard lockdown.

Aside from this, SAWITU has been involved in various philanthropic activities, since its inception and continues to make great strides in its transformation work.

For more information: info@witu.co.za/www.witu.co.za

IMAGES: SUPPLIED

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he South African wine industry has grown into a significant, internationallyrecognised global player. A 2015 study concluded that the industry contributed R36-billion to South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP), employing more than 300 000 people in its value chain.

Historically, the country’s wine industry has been almost exclusively the preserve of white stakeholders. Despite playing a significant role in ensuring the industry operates optimally, people of colour were excluded from meaningful participation in the industry.

It is for this reason that the SA Wine Industry Transformation Unit (SAWITU) was established.

The organisation’s key goal is to drive transformation in the wine value chain focusing on the following objectives: • to generate and promote equitable access and participation within the wine value chain • to strengthen and accelerate the development of the operational and financial capacity of wine farms and businesses owned by black people throughout the value chain • to increase the representation of black people, with a specific focus on black women, at management level in wine cellars, wine businesses and industry organisations through industry programmes for human development in and for the wine industry • to promote ethical practices within its community of stakeholders (including workers) through the implementation of well-integrated ethical trade programmes throughout the wine industry • to become proactively involved in the upliftment and empowerment of workers and communities comprising black people within the wine industry • to promote socially responsible consumption of the produce of the vine • to assist in the facilitation of an all-inclusive social compact for the wine industry.

A black-owned brands information session was held in September 2019 at Diemersfontei/Thokozani Wine Estate, Wellington.

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Two of the many sector graduates who benefitted from bursary funding by the Vinpro Foundation.

VINPRO FOUNDATION TACKLES INEQUALITY The Vinpro Foundation seeks to address the inequalities in the farming communities, promote human development and provide support in the wine industry

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A DV ER T ORI A L

he Vinpro Foundation aims to support and grow farming communities, focusing particularly on the youth, to elevate families out of the ever-deepening cycle of poverty. Its efforts are concentrated on the Western and Northern Cape and surrounding areas with a footprint in 11 designated areas of operation – Stellenbosch, Paarl, Wellington, Robertson, Breedekloof, Overberg, Swartland, Worcester, Vredendal, Slanghoek Valley, Ebenaeser and Pappendorp.

Its programmes, offered to farmworkers, their families and surrounding communities, focus on business, community and education.

The foundation believes that the only way for the South African wine industry to be sustainable is to invest in the upliftment and develop the capacity of its people to meet ever-changing industry demands.

Programmes are targeted at creating capacity and learning in the workplace, the community and the family. This holistic approach ensures a more sustainable outcome and a greater chance for change as the system, rather than just the underlying problem, is addressed.

The Vinpro Foundation also aims to assist businesses to allocate their B-BBEE funds to meet their B-BBEE targets, focusing

on the socioeconomic development, skills development and enterprise development elements. The foundation offers a centralised transformation investment channel that is aligned with the wine industries’ strategic exercise targets.

The foundation believes in positive change and would like to encourage and assist businesses within the industry to reinvest their B-BBEE spend into the transformation and development of the wine industry. Social change can never be driven by one organisation, it requires all organisations to pull together to ensure long-term sustainable change.

The driving motto behind the Vinpro Foundation is “We do what we do because people matter!”

AWARE AMBASSADOR PROJECT The Vinpro Foundation’s Aware Ambassador Project (AA Project) focuses on: • Growing thought leadership and change agents from within the local rural communities.

Through the AA project, the foundation aims to equip women in rural farming communities with skills that will enable them to gain self-confidence, value themselves and think out of the box regarding bringing about sustainable change within their communities.

They should be able to be forward-thinking and solution-driven, and transfer these skills to their communities. These women represent the capacity that already exists within the community.

• Addressing gender equality in the agriculture sector.

• Lack of skills development; wage disparity and perceptions around the role of women in the sector. In the agriculture sector, very often men are employed on a permanent basis and women are used on an ad-hoc basis, when needed. This culminates in women in farming communities being unemployed indefinitely.

The AA Project focuses on employing these women in farming communities and training and mentoring them to develop their skills and open their minds to the opportunities available for women in agriculture and any other areas regardless of their gender. The project aims to equip the Aware Ambassadors to, one day, start their own NGOs and bring about the change that is needed in their communities.

• Transformation; mentorship and skills capacity building to adapt to the new normal working environment. Aware Ambassadors are mentored, coached and supported by project specialist teams consisting of a social worker, a trained legal expert with sound ethical trade knowledge and a community development expert with extensive experience in the agricultural space. Individual mentoring sessions are done, based on the Aware Ambassador’s Personal Development Plan.

For more information: info@vinprofoundation.org.za/ vinprofoundation.org.za

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A DV ER T ORI A L

tEFLA GROUP MULTIDIMENTIONAL

SOLUTIONS Formerly Gau Flora cc, is a multidimensional greening and civil engineering solutions company

WHO WE ARE Tefla Group is a black-owned, B-bBEE level 1 company with a majority black women ownership. Headquartered in Gauteng, its operations are, however, at a national scale with satellite offices in Cape Town, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Free State, North West and KwaZulu-Natal.

• With a CIDB grading of 8SH in landscape installations and maintenance, the group is a proud pioneer of several “smart parks” in the Western Cape and Gauteng.

• It is responsible for the design and construction of several major turnkey civils and construction projects in South Africa.

• It has won multiple gold awards (SALI) for landscape maintenance work done at various high end estates and corporate spaces.

ENGINEERING Tefl a Group has an ever-expanding civil engineering portfolio with a comprehensive national footprint. The organisation’s wide commitment to civil engineering solutions is evident in the magnitude and intensely thought-out construction activities for which its young, passionate and dedicated qualifi ed professionals are directly responsible.

Tefla Group also prides itself on delivering top-notch mechanical, general building construction and electrical engineering solutions for both the public and private sectors. The company has strategically positioned Safety, Health, Environment and

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Quality (SHEQ) at the core of all its operations.

It has entrenched the concept of a triple bottom line management culture, which has been pivotal in delivering quality and sustainable products to its clients.

LANDSCAPING The group’s landscaping services are all-encompassing with both installations and maintenance works. The goal is to create and maintain beautiful spaces in corporate, commercial, retail and industrial complexes all-year-round.

Every project is unique in scope and the group strives to bring its customers’ visions to life, whether that is maintaining a pre-existing landscape or designing one from scratch.

When undertaking a new design project, the team likes to get involved in the early design phase so that they can not only manage the project more efficiently, but also maintain it with pride. Landscaping services are managed by a highly-skilled team that includes experienced landscapers, qualified horticulturists and skilled irrigation technicians.

FACILITIES MANAGEMENT Tefl a Facilities Management is a multidisciplinary service that pursues an integrated approach to managing facilities.

It has established strategic partnerships with other service providers that are specialists in specifi c fi elds to create a consolidated integrated facilities management team. Tefl a is a proud platinum member of SAFMA (South African Facilities Management Association).

Our Facilities Management integrated approach focuses on: Soft Services • Cleaning and hygiene • Waste management • Gardening • Occupational hygiene services • Office churning management • Pest and wildlife control • Furniture management • Bush clearing for fire prevention • Workplace planning • Security services Hard Services • Nonessential power systems • Plant management • Emergency power maintenance • Lighting maintenance • Infrastructure maintenance services • Security equipment maintenance • Alternative power supply and maintenance • Lifts and hoists • HVAC supply and maintenance • Pressure equipment • Fire detection and suppression systems • Uninterrupted power supply maintenance.

For more information: +27 (0) 11 394 2132 info@tefla.co.za www.tefla.co.za IMAGES: SUPPLIED

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proudly South African company, now ISO 9001:20015 and ISO 45001:2018 certified, the Tefla Group has blossomed into a multidimensional greening and engineering company from humble beginnings as a streetside plant stall.

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SMME S

SMALL BUSINESSES AND JOB CREATION Government has to do more to ensure small business owners are supported.

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Faced with an unemployment crisis and a depressed economy, South Africa is looking to small business to drive job growth, reports Denise Mhlanga

CUE SMALL BUSINESS The Small Enterprise Development Agency shows that there are around 2.55 million small, micro enterprise (SME) owners in South Africa. These currently contribute below 28 per cent of jobs.

Dylan Baxter, head of sales at Raizcorp, says this is far removed from government’s

“SMEs have the ability to drive innovation and job growth.

If there is a dent in the unemployment rate, smaller businesses are the ones who are going to deliver the knockout blow.”– Dylan Baxter

GIVE THE YOUTH A CHANCE, SAY YES

Y IMAGES: SUPPLIED

Without a doubt, unemployment is a hindrance to economic participation and issues around transformation and equality. “COVID-19 continues to drive the unemployment numbers up, this has the potential to create social exclusion by creating negative effects on the subjective perception of social integration, life satisfaction and access to economic resources,” Baxter says.

And small businesses are in no better position, he adds. “They battle with finding customers and late payments, which negatively impact cashflow and creates a knock-on effect on the SME’s ability to retain or hire more staff.”

However, the pandemic has created an opportunity for businesses to revaluate their core offerings and to adjust their direction.

“Government should do more to ensure that SMEs have the means to take advantage of opportunities that are currently available and in the future.”

target of 90 per cent, hence there is an opportunity for small businesses. “SMEs have the ability to drive innovation and job growth.

If there is a dent in the unemployment rate, smaller businesses are the ones who are going to deliver the knockout blow.”

He says if government addresses key challenges facing SMEs, the sector’s growth will spiral and employment creation contribution will increase. Some of these challenges include: • access to adequate infrastructure, business support and development of entrepreneurial skills • access to markets, quality research and development, funding and credit to support growth • a need for redefined labour laws for SMEs. “If ongoing improvements are made in these areas, SMEs certainly have the potential to grow and drive employment in this country,” Baxter says.

outh Africa’s unemployment rate fell to 23.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2020 from 30.1 per cent in the previous quarter, according to Statistics South Africa (StatsSA).

StatsSA noted in September that this was the lowest jobless rate since Q3 2009 – the strict lockdown distorted labour force numbers with fewer people actively looking for employment. The number of people who have stopped looking for work reached 42 per cent from 39.7 per cent in the previous quarter.

Total employment dropped across all of the 10 industries, StatsSA reports. The largest decreases were recorded in community and social services (-515 000), followed by trade (-373 000), private households (-311 000), finance (-283), construction (-278), manufacturing (-250 000) and transport (-110 000).

outh unemployment was over 58 per cent in some provinces in South Africa, according to Statistics SA’s Q2 2020 survey.

Dr Tashmia Ismail-Saville, Youth Employment Services (YES) chief executive, says challenges preventing youth from finding work include low economic growth and lack of experience, exacerbated by the current health crisis.

A solution to these challenges is for corporates

to invest in YES to create youth jobs and gain B-bBEE points.

“This investment provides youth with the critical first work experience to develop and grow their skills and join South Africa’s base of taxpayers.”

YES provides 12-month quality work experiences to unemployed youth

between the ages of 18 to 35. Youth are given a mobile phone for continuous learning and development, a CV and a reference letter at the end.

“Within 21 months of operation, YES has proven to be a leading innovator in South Africa, generating over R2.2-billion in youth salaries and more than 40 260 quality work experiences with 1 177 registered corporate partners.”

“Challenges preventing youth from finding work include low economic growth and lack of experience, exacerbated by the current health crisis.”

– Dr tashmia ismail-saville Dr Tashmia Ismail-Saville

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“South Africa still has significant mineral potential, which can be unlocked with the right policies and an enabling environment.” – Roger baxter

Anglo American Platinum, Modikwa

IS RECOVERY ON THE CARDS? Roger Baxter, CEO of the Minerals Council South Africa, shares his views on whether the mining sector will recover after years of steady decline. By Ryland Fisher

T

he man at the helm of the Minerals Council South Africa, CEO Roger Baxter, feels that the sector can regain its lustre and play a significant role in reviving our economy.

“South Africa still has significant mineral potential, which can be unlocked with the right policies and an enabling environment. In our view, mining can get back to above 10 per cent of GDP and lead the economic revival of the economy,” says Baxter.

“To do so requires an unlocking of investment in the sector (which, in turn, requires a more competitive investment environment). Mining can grow employment, GDP, exports, taxes and transformation, with the right enabling framework. There is progress being made. The current health crisis has acted as a catalyst for all of us to realise that by working together we can change the environment in a positive way.”

FAST FACT

Mining went from contributing 14,7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1994 to about 8 per cent in 2019.

Source: Statistics SA

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MINING’S PROBLEMS LINKED TO ECONOMIC WOES Baxter links the problems in the mining industry to South Africa’s own economic woes combined with lost opportunities, mainly due to bad policy and expenditure decisions by government.

“South Africa’s economy decoupled from other emerging economies, from a growth rate perspective back in 2009 after the global financial crisis. In the past decade, South Africa grew a paltry 1.5 per cent per annum versus 4 per cent for other developing countries. In that same period, South Africa’s government lived totally beyond its means with gross public debt rising from 24 per cent of GDP in 2008 to 81 per cent now.

“South Africa has lost ground down the global competitiveness ranking falling to 60th in the World Economic Forum rankings and 84th in the World Bank Ease of Doing business rankings. Even before the pandemic, the South African economy was in an economic crisis with a record number of people unemployed, and rising poverty and inequality, among others.

“Over the past 10 years, the South African mining sector went sideways, missing out on the 2011/12 boom. In 2019, South Africa

Northern Platinum, Booysendal

accounted for a paltry 1 per cent of global exploration expenditure and only 0.1 per cent of global greenfields exploration. With limited exploration activity, the new projects pipeline has been weak; very few large-scale new mines have been developed (most have been brownfields expansion of existing ops),” says Baxter.

Some of the challenges faced by the mining sector over this period, says Baxter, include a more than 500 per cent increase in the electricity price (which has had a huge cost impact on electricity-intensive mines and smelters), load shedding (the sector lost three per cent of production in 2019 due to load shedding), and “regulatory uncertainty created by former minister Mosebenzi Zwane when he published a damaging charter in 2017. The result has been wasted potential in mining”.

The mining bosses, represented by the Chamber of Mines and then the Minerals Council, have consistently opposed this Mining Charter. However, since then, there has been greater co-operation and understanding between government and business, including the mining industry.

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MINING

Implats, Impala 11C Shaft

WORKING MORE CLOSELY WITH GOVERNMENT

IMAGE: SUPPLIED

Baxter says that the mining industry has been working closely with government over the past few months and most of its suggestions have been included in the Reconstruction and Recovery Plan announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa recently.

In his announcement, Ramaphosa said it was “imperative that South Africa restored investment and exploration levels in the mining sector as mining and mineral beneficiation activities have significant potential to drive long-term growth, exports and job growth”.

Baxter feels that one of our biggest achievements is government’s acknowledgement that it needs to reduce red tape for the industry, which could potentially open up new opportunities.

“The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has committed publicly to develop a new exploration strategy within three months; there is a commitment to halve licensing times for prospecting and mining rights; and there is a commitment to enabling greater investment in electricity for self-generation for the mines,” says Baxter.

While he is generally happy with the recovery plan announced by the president, Baxter feels that it “does not focus on the critical issue of becoming a greater competitive country (we need to improve

up the competitiveness rankings), because investment (local and foreign) will only happen if we are far more competitive.

“To improve our competitiveness we need a much more aggressive programme of structural and institutional reforms that unlock far greater private sector investment and competition in key areas – electricity, rail, ports, which are all areas currently constraining economic growth,” he explains.

“The President’s 7-a-side leadership team agrees that there will be a more detailed conversation on the critical structural reforms shortly.”

Baxter believes that “without the critical structural and institutional reforms and improving global competitiveness, South Africa will not be able to attract the necessary investment to grow its way out of this crisis.

“Our view is that the current plan, while a step in the right direction, does not focus enough on the real reforms that will unlock the economy. It appears to be more of a stabilisation plan. Even with fiscal consolidation, in the absence of much higher investment and growth, South Africa will remain in an ongoing fiscal crisis. To reiterate – it is now critical to focus on the structural and institutional reforms that will drive competitiveness, lift investment and enable much higher inclusive growth,” he concludes.

The mining industry has been working closely with government over the past few months and most of its suggestions have been included in the reconstruction and recovery plan announced

by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

MINING’S RESPONSE TO THE CURRENT HEALTH CRISIS Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter believes that the mining sector handled the COVID-19 pandemic well and quickly implemented a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) with preventative and mitigating measures.

“Our aim was to save lives and save livelihood.

“Over the past two months, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and Minerals Council have engaged extensively on a range of measures to revive mining in this new period (we are not calling it a post-pandemic period – because coronavirus remains a material challenge).”

Six areas are being focused on, including: • creating a broader social economic leadership compact that includes communities • developing a new exploration strategy for the country • improving policy and regulatory certainty and reducing red tape • driving investment and growth in network industries (especially electricity and rail) • promoting greater localisation and beneficiation • promoting investment in mining and exploration.

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2020/11/27 4:02 PM

Delivering Real Value Through True Transformation For us transformation means taking intentional actions to address previous inequalities and providing opportunities for sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

Transformation is about enabling our country to realise its full potential across employment equity, diversity and inclusion. Our company views transformation as broader than just complying with the B-bBEE Act, EE Act and the Amended ICT Sector Codes.

Nearly all of our representation metrics exceed the benchmarks – but we know we could always do better.

We have focussed plans in place to ensure that all of our B-bBEE pillars specifically Employment Equity, Skills Development, Enterprise, Supplier and Socio-Economic Development are just that – pillars that underpin the way we think about doing business and how we empower our people.

For us sustainable transformation is about making a positive long-term impact on our key stakeholders – our employees, clients, shareholders, partners, the governments, and the communities in which we operate.

Our purpose is to give people the power to do more and, given that intention, we have made a commitment to our communities to support what we call the creators of tomorrow in building their aspirations to become more. At Dimension Data enabling our country to realise its full potential through diversity and inclusion, is key to delivering on making tangible change. As we make changes with one person at a time, we are aware that the knock-on effects of the individual changes have a far-reaching impact as they reach entire communities. ›

In 2019, Dimension Data’s Saturday School Programme won Best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Practice: Social Contribution’ award at the NTT CSR conference in Tokyo.

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A DV ER T ORI A L

We employ over 10 000 people who make a dierence in the lives of the societies within which they operate.

dimensiondata.com

Empowerment_Dimesion .indd 27

EMPOWERMENT

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B-bBEE Drivers

Dimension Data has off ered two successful B-bBEE schemes, with a third currently a year into its life cycle. The fi rst scheme came into eff ect in 2004 and vested in 2012, benefi tting thousands of employees and broad-based groups and transferring a total of R1.26-billion to its benefi ciaries. This was immediately followed by an ESOP scheme, which was concluded in 2017 and has been unwound and its benefi ciaries were paid out at the end of August 2019.

In December 2019, we announced a 15% employee ownership scheme, giving our staff ownership in the company, without any personal investment fi nanced by the company at a discounted rate. The purpose of this off er is to further engage employees in the development of our business by allowing them to become shareholders of our company.

The units will vest in three years and they will be paid out in seven years’ time. That transaction, together with the sale of The Campus precinct, lifted the company’s black ownership recognition to 51%.

Education and Personal Development

A key pillar in contributing to social progress is the investment in education at every stage of the learner’s journey. Over 2million learners walk more than 10 km to get to school every day. To support a better transition into the classroom we’ve partnered with Qhubeka to provide bicycles to those in need.

Because we believe technology off ers a better future in education, we’ve incorporated coding and robotics as part of our Saturday School Programme. For the past 25 years and into the future we’re committed to invest in the futures of children from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve excellent results in matric, many of whom will acquir great careers here and abroad.

The key to achieving this remarkable potential which we all know is inherent in South Africa, is the development of a sustainable transformation environment. Dimension Data is an action orientated brand and we can demonstrate our commitment through our partnership with Global Computing and Telecoms that began in 2016.

At that time MD Sello Mbuli, joined our enterprise and supplier development programme to deliver sustainable business development for his company.

Mbuli says that the training which entailed business skills, finance and self-mastery, allowed him to endure the sustained pressure of running a business with all it’s day to day challenges. The programme also provides office space that enabled Mbuli to scale up, and nationally he now has offices in Limpopo, without the additional costs of establishing a regional office.

In 2020, Mbuli was recognised as the Microsoft Managing Director of the Year, an accolade that makes us proud to have been a part of this remarkable business’ success.

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We recently celebrated 25 years of our Saturday School Programme, which has helped 100% of its learners from disadvantaged backgrounds pass matric – with 93% of them gaining university exemption in 2019.

At the Dimension Data Saturday School Programme, we off er learners a safe, distraction free environment where they show up and focus on STEM education, starting with the foundations and building iteratively from there.

In addition to the grassroots impact programme, we also run two graduate programmes: • The Graduate Accelerate Programme (GAP) off ers new graduates the chance to build their personal network inside the company, deliberately exposing them to functions across the business, giving them the runway to work on a variety of projects to help them discover where they fi t the best.

• The Technical Accelerate Programme (TAP) develops future technical leaders and subject matter experts, exposing graduates to technical related training in partnership with UiPath Academy and global technical resources.

Sello Mbuli, MD, Global Computing and Telecoms

2020/11/27 8:54 PM

Beyond the graduate programmes, we continue to invest in our staff, and off er a Fast Track Management Programme aimed at developing black staff members across the business.

In 2019 we invested over R100-million in learning and development, 18% of which was spent specifi cally on advancing black women, who have historically been left out of the mainstream economy.

We also pay particular attention to people living with disabilities, the youth and the unemployed.

Building an Inclusive Economy

We are committed to supporting existing female and black-owned small, medium, and micro enterprises to drive transformation in the SME’s sector. We are furthering our transformation journey and pursuing a sustainable South Africa. We believe that transformation is crucial in providing equal opportunities for employment in an inclusive environment.

Recognising the critical role that SME’s play in the sustainable development of the country, we started the Business Accelerator Programme (BAP) in 2009, a 10-month programme specifi cally designed to develop emerging black businesses and provide entrepreneurs with tools to help grow their businesses.

BAP is rooted in our own business strategy, with the aim of integrating SMMEs into our core business operations. Supported by a proactive procurement policy, the value of procurement under the programme has grown to over R100-million in just three years.

Addressing common business challenges, the BAP takes entrepreneurs from across the country through a ten-month programme to improve their business and management skills. The

100% Saturday School Programme pass rate achieved every year and over 2000 young people have benefitted.

programme draws from our principal areas of operations, namely Gauteng, Western Cape, and KwaZulu Natal and reaches, on average, 60 companies a year. We understand that every company is diff erent and the assistance we provide is tailored to the specifi c needs of each company.

Our Supplier Development Programme is rooted in our own business strategy and aims to integrate SMEs into our core business operations. Supported by a proactive procurement policy, the value of procurement under the programme has grown to over R100-million in just three years. We would never have been successful 37 years ago if others hadn’t given us a chance and we’re committed to help today’s small businesses succeed and do more.

Management Control and Employment Equity

As of FY20, Dimension Data’s board comprises of six directors. Three of the directors are African individuals, two of whom are women.

While we are an equal opportunity employer and continue to off er opportunities for development and advancement to all our employees, we recognise that focus must be given to improving inclusivity in terms of race, gender and people

living with disabilities. To this end, we have consistently seen a steady improvement in the diversity of our staff profi le at all levels. In recognition of the need to further accelerate diversity, particularly at senior levels, the Dimension Data board and executive team have approved specifi c measures to attract, engage, develop and retain black staff, as well as people living with disabilities.

We are committed to creating a transformed, inclusive and diverse workforce, which provides equal opportunities for all our people, whilst giving special consideration to employees from designated groups.

We aim to remain a Top Employer; to continually consider, develop and empower black people and women for top management positions within Dimension Data.

Transformation never stops, but we’re proud of where we’ve invested our resources and the impact these eff orts continue to make. We believe our role as a business in South Africa is not only to build the economy, but to build a better South Africa.

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SK IL L S DE V EL OPMEN T

DO LEARNERSHIPS FULFIL THEIR PROMISE?

DEBUNKING THE NUMBERS

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n the first quarter of 2020, South Africa’s current youth unemployment rate was sitting at 59 per cent, according to Stats SA. This is expected to rise due to the economic decline on the back of COVID-19.

Reana Rossouw, founder of Next Generation and creator of the Investment Impact Index, says there are no hard figures on exactly how many learnerships lead to long-term work. She says this is because gathering this data will require longer-term

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Learnerships are sold as a worthy path into the workplace, but what’s the real story?

Puseletso Mompei reports further their studies in a second and/or third year, as it will increase their chances of being employed. Then they will truly be beneficial to an organisation.”

WHAT ARE THE PITFALLS AND ALTERNATIVES? Reana Rossouw, founder of Next Generation and creator of the Investment Impact Index, says corporate learnerships aren’t always widely available because the cost and resources required to implement and manage the process is high.

“Most companies cannot absorb the learners due to the level of experience and specialisation that is required. Many corporates don’t know what to do with young inexperienced, unqualified people or how to deploy or manage them. Therefore, for some sectors, apprenticeships rather than learnerships are the preferred process.”

monitoring and evaluation, tracking their income over time and observing how they applied their newly acquired skills.

One of the industries that has attempted to take a snapshot of this is retail. In 2016, the Wholesale and Retail Sector Education Training Authority (W&RSETA) ran a survey of its participants.

The results revealed that 73.6 per cent considered the theoretical teaching as “very relevant” to workplace practical learning and exposure. Also, 77.3 per cent of the learners described the overall training programme as “very useful and relevant” for entry into the wholesale and retail industry.

Based on the responses from surveyed learners, 44 per cent managed to get employment while 56 per cent were unemployed after the intervention.

Mike Hanly, managing director of New Leaf Technologies, a Joburg-headquartered learning software and solutions company that works extensively in the manufacturing sector, says the manufacturing industry has its own set of challenges. A report published early in 2020 by The Wall Street Journal reveals that the shift towards automation in production processes means jobs are increasingly requiring more advanced skills. This, in turn, drives up the required education level of factory workers.

“The challenge for South African manufacturers is not only a lack of tech-savvy, multiskilled workers, but also the affordability of training, especially when businesses are facing unprecedented financial pressure,” says Hanly.

Many companies are looking at moving away from learnerships and the go-to solution seems to be online training programmes. This, according to Hanly, provides companies with greater flexibility in providing for many different scenarios and training needs and enables course material to be visually appealing and more engaging.

Emmanuel Malepe

SUCCESS STORY Emmanuel Malepe secured a post-matric learnership at Nedbank in 2019 and was appointed to a permanent position within six months. He says: “The learnership provided me with experience that enhanced my discipline. I learned technical skills and how to handle pressure in a business environment.

“It also allowed me to learn from my failures and, most importantly, enhanced my resume and networks, paving the way for me to become marketable.”

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deally learnerships provide much-needed and previously unattainable qualifications to low-income individuals, allowing them to move up the income ladder and add to their qualifications, says Colette Swanepoel, a business development manager at CTU Training Solutions.

Ronel Roux, the company’s skills development facilitator and BEE specialists, says employers who are not committed to learnships, do not supply the necessary workplace experience and competency and then place learners at a disadvantage. “The interest of the learner should be at the centre of the learnership. If implemented correctly, learnerships can assist in curbing unemployment in our country by providing the correct and necessary skills to the labour market,” Roux explains.

Swanepoel adds that learnerships are ideal for school-leavers who are unemployed and do not necessarily have the funds to further their studies or even for young individuals who did not have funds for post-school studies and have been working intermittently. “However, learnerships should not just Reana Rossouw be a once-off programme, learners should be allowed to

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T ECHNOL OGY

Dr Anandini Dabas

GIG ECONOMY SKILLS

AI learning at Tshimologong Makerspace.

Is SA Connect ready?

Successful implementation of the government’s broadband strategy is dependent on infrastructure, a mixed technology approach and education, writes Trevor Crighton

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he government’s SA Connect project, aims to deliver broadband access to 90 per cent of the country’s population by the end of 2020 and access to all by 2030.

While several hundred facilities have been connected so far, the 2030 target may seem ambitious, but Professor Barry Dwolatzky, director of The Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), remains hopeful.

“The first sign that SA Connect 2 – the revised broadband strategy – will be more successful is that the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has defined infrastructure as one of its major pillars. The second is that the COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that there is a significant digital divide in SA that will amplify and widen in the ‘post-COVID-19 new normal’.”

Tshimologong Makerspace co-manager Nelson Sekgota is similarly optimistic. “The internet has become a basic need, like water, food or shelter, and government has realised this. The Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services has embraced 4IR and the fact that the internet is at the heart of this revolution and is working through state-owned company Broadband Infraco to invest in network infrastructure for remote areas,” he says. “It will take a while until we reach full coverage, but these small steps will eventually get us there.”

“A mixed technology strategy that fills in the gaps in the Barry short-term and constructs a Dwolatzky lot more fibre in the long-term is the likely answer,” says Dwolatzky. “Mobile is not the answer, given the fact that the mobile network operators work on a purely profit-centred economic model.

“A mixed technology strategy that fills in the gaps in the short-term and constructs a lot more fibre in the long-term is the likely answer.” – Barry dwolatzky

The most important gig economy skills, says Letsema consultant Dr Anandini Dabas are to: • be a relevant subject matter expert, have a unique skillset that is in demand and charge your value for it • develop an aptitude to live on contingency: companies like contract workers to aid in scaling up or scaling down at any point. Contract workers are the first to be let go during a scale-down.

• constantly upgrade your knowledge base and skillset so you do not become redundant with time.

The big challenge is last-mile connectivity.

Technologies such as fixed wireless can be used in some areas, while other technologies such as VSAT could be considered.”

“The poor will be left behind if they are not given access to the internet,” says Sekgota. “The internet offers many basic and employment skills relevant to today’s Nelson and future jobs. It also Sekgota offers an opportunity to connect and work online and to access social connections, e-commerce and gig jobs that the poor will miss if they are not connected.”

He believes that universal access to high-quality and relevant education will be the equaliser within our society. “The 41R is rapidly gaining ground with many jobs becoming automated through technologies such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things and cloud computing. Our education system needs to swiftly evolve to include courses such as coding – a basic skill necessary for many emerging technologies – in the school curriculum.”

Skilled trainers will then be required to equip newly-connected citizens to reap the benefits of connectivity.

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THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT The Broll Property Group pursues transformation and collaboration as the key focus in its property services strategies to enable greater economic stimulation

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nvestors in the commercial, industrial, and retail property space typically evaluate their properties by expected income, which, in turn, is informed by economic growth that drives demand for commercial spaces. In the current pandemic climate, this lens is skewed as all global economies are in recovery. What hasn’t changed, however, is the property sector’s multiplier effect, which underpins the economy as a whole in terms of providing other sectors with the critical means for production and economic output.

Broll Property Group views its role as the catalyst in these partnerships, yet in maintaining its own high growth rate and exceptional success is far more deeply immersed in cyclical economics.

Fay Mukaddam, shareholder and non-executive director, emphasises that Broll has evolved over the past 45-plus years – way beyond its original decree – to

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become an effective corporate citizen.

“Our larger mandate is to be an enabler: to create jobs; promote new businesses, particularly SMMEs; upskill and develop new talent; and advance gender and racial equality, all without compromising service excellence and high-performance culture.”

These attributes, among others, serve the country best during economic downturns because each has a transformative profile.

Chairman Jonathan Broll elaborates: “We recognised long ago that knowledge economies will be the foundation of every nation in Africa’s progress, which is why we have actively pursued overarching transformation as a driver in our forward-looking and ‘progressive’ property services strategies. Transformation

ADDING VALUE Broll Property Group is the largest independently owned, pan-African commercial property services company.

We offer game-changing solutions built around a culture of innovation, distinguished by service excellence and longstanding client relationships – which is why we are renowned as the ‘progressive property people’.

is an enabler that not only professionalises property markets, but also has been a differentiator for Broll because we are positively advancing change in the landscape.”

“We are agile and evolving constantly, despite and regardless of market conditions.” – Jonathan Broll, Chairman, Broll Property Group

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Adv Fay Mukaddam - Broll Property Group shareholder and non-executive director

“Our larger mandate is to be an enabler: to create jobs; promote new businesses, particularly SMMEs; upskill and develop new talent; and advance gender and racial equality.” – Fay Mukaddam,

IMAGES: SUPPLIED

shareholder and non-executive director, Broll Property Group More than 7 000 allied service providers will attest to this, as will the 1 700 SMMEs that Broll provides work to on a sustained basis. “We contribute some R4-billion annually to third-party collaborations that assist us in meeting our client mandates,” says Broll.

“We also provide systems and bespoke technologies that are independently and internationally rated to ISO standards. We are agile and evolving constantly, despite and regardless of market conditions, even launching two new service lines at the height of lockdown restrictions.”

Such agility is also risk-tolerant of economic fluctuations and, says Broll, plays a key

activator role in economic reform and sustainable job creation. Mukaddam agrees, adding: “Despite the global business world’s current need for recalibration, transformation must remain on leveraging what has been built to date, and what can be done differently in the future.

“While all Broll strategies may be about being among the best in the world, a leader in the property space, and aligning the ‘Brollie’ culture with local partnerships, we never assume superiority. These types of collaborations enable an energised growth of local talent, and have added extra kudos to our Level 1 B-bBEE status, which,

incidentally, was achieved during lockdown,” says Mukaddam.

It is important, however, to ensure that transformation doesn’t take place only in terms of race and gender. “Diversity, regardless of the form it takes, can only be amplifi ed by changing behaviours and actions. This runs in our veins; it’s the ‘Brollie’ way. If a company and its teams, and by influence its collaborators, are holistically and robustly embracing transformation, an entity or individual becomes a serious contributor to GDP.” she adds.

Mukaddam also highlights that Broll has an empathetic leadership that translates into the business being well anchored within its stakeholder ecosystem. “This has manifested in Broll being the preferred partner for mitigating risks that might otherwise be uneconomic for all.”

For more information: info@broll.com www.broll.com

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OPINION: EDUCAT ION

LEADERSHIP, IMAGINATION AND PARTNERSHIP

The future looks bleak

The arrival of COVID-19 forced the country’s education landscape to undergo a rapid transformation. Professor Jonathan Jansen looks at what this means for the future of universities

Then came COVID-19 What we observed for schools was also true for universities: the already-present digital divide became even more obvious, but this

Our default reaction in an education crisis is to play catch-up and, when the chips are down, to blame the past’s historical injustices.

we need imagination time we could not look away. The established, mainly former white universities, transitioned smoothly to remote and fully online learning while the historically black universities found themselves stranded with hopelessly inadequate technological infrastructures for teaching students at distance in the deep rural Eastern Cape or the border regions of Limpopo province.

A seldom-told perverse tale is that the more privileged universities had scaled up their investments in technologies for teaching and learning when the first ‘v’ (violence) threatened the academic year, shutting down institutions during the historic 2015–16 campus protests. When the second ‘v’ (virus) came along, these well-resourced universities were prepared to switch from one mode of teaching and learning to the next.

What is also less well known is that the black universities sat with massive new infrastructures that became white elephants overnight. Over the past five years alone, the Department of Higher Education and Training invested a staggering amount of over R11-billion on residential infrastructure on university campuses. With the lockdown, these facilities stood empty of students for much of the academic year and could not even be used as a revenue stream by outside communities during university holiday periods.

In the end, the primary challenge faced by our universities is not aggregate resources, but the educational imagination. Our default reaction in an education crisis is to play catch-up and, when the chips are down, to blame the past’s historical injustices.

We do not have a parallel stream of inventors and innovators who look to the future and ask compelling and daring new questions. How do we turn those empty campus residences into technology hotspots for future shutdowns?

What new partnerships can be forged between government, universities and the private sector (all three will need to be involved to make this work) to make available data, devices and connections for teaching and learning at a distance? Can South Africa be the locale for cutting-edge technologies that address the unresolved challenges of online learning in professional fields such as diagnoses in clinical medicine and the supervision of the teaching practicum in schools?

We can think our way out of these challenges through deliberative planning and cross-sectoral investments in next-generation technologies that support the new face of education provision in a post-COVID-19 world.

The only other thing missing is leadership to take this forward.

*Jonathan Jansen is Distinguished Professor of Education at Stellenbosch University.

The historically black universities found themselves stranded with hopelessly inadequate technological infrastructures for teaching students at distance.

IMAGE: SUPPLIED

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he most important impact of COVID-19 on universities has been the re-organisation of the teaching and learning interface; in other words, the educational space has been forced to change. This is a good thing.

Our traditional universities are conserving institutions; for the most part, teaching and learning still happens as it did a century ago when South African universities came into existence as colleges. Yes, there have been innovations on the margins such as massive open online courses (MOOCs), but as the president of a famous university in the Silicon Valley once confided, “the only problem with these MOOCs is massive and open”. Students want face-to-face teaching and lecturers are comfortable with traditional lecture routines.

The Minister of Finance in his medium-term expenditure budget just announced a R1-billion cut for higher education and training. And the private sector is highly unlikely to invest money in building technological infrastructures from scratch in the poorer universities.

The digital divide between the top 13 and the bottom 13 universities will surely get worse. But is UNISA not the answer?

With more than 400 000 students, the largest South African university has seen its administrative and technological infrastructures all but collapse even as a high-level panel investigates the demise of this once proud institution.

Professor Jonathan Jansen

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THE GAME-CHANGER,

MUSINA-MAKHADO

SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE The Musina‐Makhado Special Economic Zone will offer investment opportunities and job creation

Artistic Impression of MMSEZ Coking Plant

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MMSEZ BUSINESS CASE A new industrial hub in the Vhembe District Municipality, part of the Trans-Limpopo Spatial Development Initiative, is behind the formation of the MMSEZ. The hub is situated at Makhado and Musina, with each area having its own industrial focus.

The energy and metallurgical cluster (power plant, steel plant, stainless steel plant, coking plant, pig iron plant, ferromanganese plant, ferrochrome plant, chrome plant, lime plant, silicon-manganese and calcium carbide

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Lehlogonolo Masoga, CEO, MMSEZ

Besides agroprocessing there are various other opportunities in the cluster such as food processing, fresh produce handling, dry fruits packaging, food canning, timber processing and furniture manufacturing.

MANUFACTURING WITHIN THE AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR plants and vanadium-titanium magnetite plant) is located on the Makhado side while the Northern Site in Musina focuses on general manufacturing, agroprocessing and logistics.

The MMSEZ SOC is further responsible for attracting and mobilising domestic and foreign direct investment in the identified industrial activities across the value chain.

The North-South Corridor makes the Musina-Makhado location a strategic passage for trade between South Africa, the SADC region and the African continent in line with the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement. Limpopo has always enjoyed being a gateaway to the rest of the continent and home to one of the busiest ports of entry, Beit Bridge border post.

AGROPROCESSING POTENTIAL The Vhembe region is endowed with various agricultural resources sought after in lucrative world markets, providing potential for agroprocessed products for domestic and international consumption. Food production has become a multibillion dollar industry.

Over 10 per cent of the automotive vehicles manufactured in South Africa are supplied by road via Beit Bridge to the up-north markets in SADC, making the MMSEZ an ideal location for opportunities across the automotive sector value chain such as vehicle and component manufacturing, storage and distribution hub, after-care products distribution hub and tyre manufacturing distribution hub.

The manufacturing cluster of the MMSEZ will provide a platform for various original equipment manufacturers to manufacture products for both domestic and export markets.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The South African Constitution enjoins us to pursue economic development in a sustainable manner and preserve the environment for the benefit of current and future generations.

The National Environmental Management Act provides that any negative impact on the environment and people’s environmental rights must be anticipated and prevented, and where they cannot be altogether prevented, are minimised and remedied.

The North-South Corridor makes the Musina-Makhado location a strategic passage for trade between South Africa, the SADC region and the African continent.

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he Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ) is located close to the main land-based route into SADC and the continent. This, together with supporting incentives and a good logistics backbone, makes it the location of choice for investment in the mineral beneficiation, agroprocessing, manufacturing and logistics industries. The establishment of the metallurgical cluster near the source of raw materials, along with a logistics hub with access to markets, will present unique opportunities for mineral beneficiation – a key priority for national government. MMSEZ will also provide job opportunities for the people of Limpopo.

Following the enactment of the Special Economic Zones Act, the Limpopo provincial government submitted a comprehensive proposal on strategic areas to develop the province’s economy through industrialisation to the Department of Trade Industry and Competition (dtic). The dtic designated the MMSEZ, which has become the flagship of the provincial government. Subsequently, the Musina-Makhado state-owned company (SOC), a subsidiary of the Limpopo Economic Development Agency, was established. It is tasked with the responsibility of facilitating, planning and developing the MMSEZ.

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The MMSEZ has developed an enterprise development strategy to mainstream SMMEs development in the life cycle of the project.

This will be supported by an SMME incubation centre for entrepreneurship excellence, creativity, skills and technology localisation. This initiative is in partnership with the Department of Small Business Development and De Beers’ Venetia Mine. In October 2020, MMSEZ concluded a Memorandum of Agreement with the CSIR to support SMMEs in the MMSEZ and ensure technology localisation.

DEVELOPING SMALL TOWNS INTO CITIES

Catalytic projects such as the envisaged high-speed rail project will add impetus to the creation of a new smart city based on the principles of smart economy, smart mobility, smart housing, smart environment, smart governance, artificial intelligence and the internet of things.

The MMSEZ is expected to transform the spatial configuration of Musina and Makhado.

According to the external master plan report, the two towns require an investment of R133-billion in roads, rail, human settlement, schools, health facilities, ICT infrastructure, airport, electricity, water and sewerage.

Catalytic projects such as the envisaged high-speed rail project between Pretoria and Musina will add impetus to the creation of a new smart city based on the principles of smart economy, smart mobility, smart housing, smart environment, smart governance, artificial intelligence and the internet of things.

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES OUTSIDE THE ZONE

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Accordingly, MMSEZ’s application for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) was guided by these values, principles, directives and the entity’s own Environmental, Social and Governance Policy provisions.

Even though September and October 2020 were dedicated to public consultation processes for the EIA application for the South site, the Limpopo Department of Economic Development Environment and Tourism has acceded to the request for further consultations, and accordingly, additional sessions will be held in January 2021.

Thus far, the outcome of the EIA process indicates that the benefits of the MMSEZ will potentially promote justifiable economic and social development with an inevitable negative impact on the environment. The goal of the EIA process is to ensure the protection of ecologically-sensitive areas and support sustainable development and the use of natural resources while promoting justifiable socioeconomic development. The MMSEZ has also developed an environmental management plan to provide mitigation measures to ensure that the project is planned, constructed, operated, and decommissioned in an environmentally-responsible manner.

THE FAR NORTH REGION’S WATER CHALLENGE Vhembe District is an arid region with low rainfall and water scarcity, despite bordering one of the biggest rivers on the continent,

Limpopo River. Mindful of this situation, the MMSEZ SOC has commissioned studies to explore potential sources of water to guarantee security of supply for the project. Among the potential long-term water supply solutions is a cross-border water transfer scheme with the possibility to yield over 200 million cubic metres of water and the prospect of developing a new mega Musina Dam. Discussions are at an advanced stage between South Africa and Zimbabwe for the sharing of possible excess water resources.

Working in partnership with the Department of Water and Sanitation and the Vhembe District Municipality, the MMSEZ SOC is currently conducting a feasibility study to investigate the proposed engineering model for harvesting the runaway floodwater from the Limpopo River.

INTEGRATING SMMES WITHIN THE SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE Special economic zones (SEZs) are predisposed to attracting direct foreign investment, which could translate into blue-chip international enterprises locating in the zone, presenting a strategic opportunities for SMMES to partner with big businesses and receive skills and technology transfer. The integration of SMMES forms an integral part of the business model of SEZs. Likewise, in the MMSEZ, the promotion of SMMEs and integration is inherent within the SOC’s business model.

SEZ projects stimulate growth and development outside their delimited geographic space. In Musina and Makhado towns, various stimulus packages have been identified as investment opportunities for the private sector outside the confinement of the SEZ spaces. Among such opportunities are the new Musina Dam, high-speed rail project, Manaledzi mega housing project in Makhado, Musina airport, the MMSEZ human settlement, private hospital, private schools and training centres, retail property and hotels. MMSEZ CEO Lehlogonolo Masoga explains that it is for this reason that the MMSEZ offers “a world of

For more information: Mr Richard Zitha Executive: Investment Promotion R.Zitha@mmsez.co.za +27 (71) 391-8188 Mr Shavana Mushwana Manager: Marketing and Communication S.Mushwana@mmsez.co.za +27 66 173 8957 www.mmsez.co.za

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RENEWED FOCUS ON NDP IMPLEMENTATION IS NEEDED The National Planning Commission says that COVID-19 is a wake-up call and requires better and focused implementation of the National Development Plan

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he second National Planning Commission (NPC), appointed in September 2015 for a five-year tenure, has embarked on a campaign to accelerate the implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) and has identified pathways to stimulate this.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fissures of poverty, unemployment and inequality in South African society, and these require urgent attention. As the term of the second NPC was extended to March 2021, the NPC has taken advantage of this to engage with the public on the implementation of the NDP. The NPC will not only highlight the work it has done, but will also get society to play its role in the implementation of the NDP. The pathways, listed below, help society to integrate within the implementation.

and is more acute for youth. Inequality has remained stubbornly high with a Gini coefficient of 0.65. The majority of the population are not participating fully or equitably in the economic mainstream because of the continuing discriminatory structure of the economy. The economic, social and spatial legacy of apartheid continues to undermine both South Africa’s competitiveness and the potential and capabilities of its people, depriving the country of the skills it needs, and resulting in low growth, low productivity, and hence high unemployment and inequality.

A major achievement is the roll-out of social protection for poor and vulnerable citizens and communities, supported by fiscal policy.

This is done through, for example, social grants, delivery of basic services, health and education. However, service quality and reliability need improvement and fiscal constraints now pose a threat to the progress achieved.

PATHWAYS • building state capacity towards a developmental state • improving the quality of life for all • activating citizen participation in the implementation of the NDP • service delivery through a District Delivery Model (DDM) • building an inclusive economy.

Deputy chairperson of the NPC Professor Malegapuru Makgoba stresses that “the NDP is a national lodestar and not merely a government strategy. Society must play its role in the implementation of the NDP”.

Over the past five years, the NPC’s mandate focused on deepening the development of national planning priorities within government and various sectors of society, analysing implementation and resource allocation to NDP priorities, and highlighting advances, gaps and blockages. The NPC has produced more than 30 research outputs including position papers with specific focus on inclusive economy, enhancing the quality of life, and leadership and state capacity.

In the aftermath of COVID-19, the nation agrees that the pandemic has worsened South Africa’s crises of poverty, unemployment, and inequalities. COVID-19 is a set-back to the progress made to improve living standards over the past 26 years. This reality, the NPC asserts, is a sobering wake-up call, a reaffirmation of the NDP, which requires refocusing government and the nation on the plan’s goals and priorities with a strong commitment to implement these better.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE In February 2020, just before the COVID-19 outbreak, the NPC completed a review of the implementation of the NDP since its adoption eight years ago. The review considered overall performance on NDP goals, and in particular on poverty, inequality and unemployment.

There was substantial progress from 2006 to 2011 in terms of poverty reduction, which fell from 51 per cent of the population to 36.4 per cent.

But, income poverty rose to 40 per cent by 2016. Unemployment has increased, and is currently at 30.1 per cent (Q1 of 2020, QLFS),

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Since 2012, the economy barely grew; job creation has been insufficient, investment inadequate and infrastructure constrained.

The economy has since been declared junk.

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At the same time, the domestic political environment deteriorated, including governance within the state as well as institutional instability and the erosion of citizens’ confidence in the state.

These circumstances proved unconducive for implementation of the NDP. The plan envisaged a paradigm shift in implementation, including the following key prerequisites for success, among others: • focused leadership • the NDP as a plan for all, not just government • a capable and developmental state, able to transform the economy and society to prioritise execute and to mobilise required resources • agreement on trade-offs as well as a social compact.

These shifts did not fully materialise. Instead, the challenges faced by the NDP include political contestation; blurring of lines between political and administrative functions; the weakening of government’s institutions, in particular, state-owned enterprises (SOEs); and deepening fiscal constraints. Social partners have not played a strong role in promoting and implementing the plan.

COURSE CORRECTION NEEDED The NPC has thus concluded that, unless drastic and urgent measures are taken, the country is not on course to achieve the NDP’s 2030 goals, particularly regarding unemployment, poverty, inequality, and inclusive growth. Most concerning is the risk of erosion of the gains South Africa has made since 1994.

The Commission believes that, as South Africa’s lodestar, the NDP is a living document, adaptable to emerging challenges, such as the impact of COVID-19 and the lockdown on the country’s long-term prospects.

The NDP Review calls for urgent course correction to get the country back on the trajectory to 2030 as envisaged by the plan, and, most importantly, better implementation over the next 10 years to 2030.

Specifically, the following is recommended:

COVID-19 must serve to concentrate minds, and from the crisis must emerge strong, collective leadership and united action by all actors and society. The prompt emergence of social solidarity and social compacting initiatives responding to the pandemic is encouraging and must be sustained and deepened. These will provide a breath of fresh air that will reinvigorate our democracy and our shared patriotism. They should be harnessed for coherent and co-ordinated multistakeholder actions for a better life for all, and, ultimately, for social cohesion, unity and peace in the country.

The NPC, therefore, welcomes the Reconstruction and Recovery Plan initiated by government and supported by all parties at NEDLAC. This initiative should be the spearhead of reinvigorating implementation of the NDP, based on strong, committed leadership, broad-based ownership – especially by critical stakeholders –accountability and better implementation going forward.

In the spirit of the NDP, the NPC is open to practical and effective partnerships to create a virtuous cycle of development – to achieve the goals of the NDP 2030. These strategic partnerships will assist to revitalise economic growth and make real inroads in education and skills development as an enabler of quality jobs and economic inclusion.

Below is the list of future NPC engagements.

Topic

Leading Commissioners

Date

Presentation to FOSAD

Commissioners Karaan, Taylor, Dooms and Landman

7 December 2020

Township and Rural economies

Dr Thami Mazwai

8 December 2020

Anti-Racism Roundtable

Mr Jabulani Sithole

9 December 2020

Social Protection Floor and Pathways to a Basic Income Grant post Covid-19

Prof Vivienne Taylor

10 December 2020

Economic Revival Post Covid19 - The core imperatives

Dr Miriam Altman

21 January 2021

Restructuring the economy – A case study on the impact of high levels of concentration

Mr Elias Masilela

28 January 2021

Roundtable on the NPC Gender Review

Prof Vivienne Taylor

4 Fabruary 2021

South Africa as a capable state – the way forward

Dr Molokwane and Ms Sue Bannister

11 Fabruary 2021

Youth Labour Transitions

Ms Tessa Dooms

18 Fabruary 2021

For inquiries on the webinars and for interaction with the NPC, please phone the NPC secretariat through Dr Mthokozisi Tshuma on 0848654002 and Sandisiwe Mapine on 0713701048.

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A DV ER T ORI A L

A TRANSFORMED

LEADERSHIP T

he role of women in South African society has never been more valued.

Since 1994, government and the private sector have been working on policies to pave the way for women to become empowered and take up leadership roles traditionally reserved for men.

EQUITY AND FAIRNESS In South Africa, there has been both increased legislative protection for consumers and additional avenues for them to register complaints against companies or entities that they feel have wronged them. The Ombudsman for Banking Services (OBS) has, for the past 20 years, been a leader in this field of dispute resolution. Experienced lawyer Reana Steyn who has headed up this office for the past three years believes it is very important that women play an increasingly influential role within these bodies.

Women are beginning to lead the change they’ve so long fought for. Reana Steyn shares how the banking ombudsman leadership team is reflective of a more gender balanced environment Steyn spent nine years at an international firm, specialising in matters as diverse as aviation and medical negligence. This was followed by a further decade specialising in insurance law. Her introduction to the credit and regulatory space came with the passing of the National Credit Act Regulations in 2006.

Four years later, she began her work in the ombudsman sphere.

EMPATHY AND KINDNESS Steyn points out that in a democracy with a history like ours, it is important to recognise that complaining and knowing your rights as a bank customer is not always as easy and accessible as people think.

“Many consumers need assistance when it comes to the complaints process. Without our help, they can feel overwhelmed and intimidated.

“It’s a privilege and an honour to be the first woman to hold the reins in this ombudsman’s office,” says Steyn. “In a world traditionally dominated by men, my appointment was a bold move. I see it as a positive sign of transformation in both the organisation and the wider banking industry. It is also a source of hope for the future.

“The complaint process is a stressful time for consumers who may feel that large corporations are bullying them. Emotions often run high and an empathetic approach is indispensable during this time. This is especially true when the consumer has lost money due to fraud. It takes special skills to calm emotions and objectively analyse the facts. We have found that women provide a soft touch that is beneficial in these situations,” says Steyn.

Women make up 62 per cent of the total staff complement at the OBS. In management positions, the ratio is four to two in favour of women. Even the independent board of executives at the OBS has a two to three ratio that favours females.

CELEBRATE STRONG WOMEN Steyn stresses that it is important that the role of women within corporate leadership roles is not only acknowledged more, but also celebrated.

At the 2020 OBS Awards, a new award was introduced by the OBS, and presented to a well-deserving designated officer, Priya Rajah from FNB, who heads the bank’s dispute resolution department. Both the long-standing awards for an employee of a bank’s dispute department who excelled in service delivery and fairness went to females: Karen Jonker from ABSA Bank and Aimee Capuzzimati from Investec were recognised for their outstanding service.

“I was fortunate enough to have strong female role models: women like my grandmother, mother and mother-in-law, who although they did not have the privilege of further education made a great success of their chosen careers through their intelligence, skills and sheer determination. They built a foundation for the next generation, but were not able to achieve the equal status they deserved.

Now, things have changed. I believe that by empowering women, we can transform both the modern workplace and society,” says Steyn.

“South Africa is redefining the meaning of power and what it means to be a leader. In the process, we are making our society more inclusive, compassionate and flexible, but still focused on success,” says Steyn.

For more information:

Reana Steyn, CEO and Ombudsman

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IMAGES: SUPPLIED

+27 860 800 900 34 Fricker Road Illovo, Sandton www.obssa.co.za

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A DV ER T ORI A L

Small-scale Grower Project Illovo’s small-scale grower project has significantly impacted the development of cane growers and contributed to the advancement of the South African national agenda for job creation, rural economic development and transformation in agriculture

IMAGE: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

T

he end of 2020 marks the completion of the R126-million Illovo Small Scale Grower Cane Development Project that has created over 860 sustainable jobs on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, empowering rural women from this area to participate in the rural economy.

In 2017, Illovo Sugar South Africa (ISSA) signed an agreement with the National Treasury’s Jobs Fund to secure a R63-million grant to plant 3 000 hectares of sugarcane on communal land over three seasons and provide support to each cane grower. ISSA matched the funding to the value of R63-million. Since then, the Illovo Small Scale Grower Cane Development Project has made significant strides and outperformed initial projections. The project used 119 local contractors, developed 1630 Growers fields to sugar cane, and increased the annual sustainable supply of sugarcane for its undersupplied Sezela factory by almost doubling the original 150 000 tonnes forecast.

The project has successfully created direct jobs in rural communities while implementing socioeconomic and enterprise development initiatives and the transfer of valuable farming and business skills.

By leveraging on the built capabilities, communities will earn upwards of R64-million in income annually.

“We could not have achieved this level of success, which has contributed to the retention of our BBBEE Level 1 status, alone. The contributions of Mamongae our industry partners, SA Mahlare Canegrowers Association

Mahlare

and SAFDA, have been integral to this multi-stakeholder project. However, it is the passion and entrepreneurial spirit of the people of the South Coast community that made it impossible to fail,” says Mamongae Mahlare, MD of Illovo Sugar South Africa.

Below are some of the stories that talk to ISSA’s purpose of building thriving communities.

MRS NGCOBO’s TRIUMPH “I took over the sugarcane-growing role from my late husband. When Illovo Sugar reached out to our community with this project, my husband’s sugarcane that had been planted years before was no longer growing.

The project came at a crucial time for us because the eMalangeni area had run out of sugarcane and many growers were struggling.

Mrs Ngcobo Sugarcane farming is our bread and butter – it allows us to pay for our children’s education. This has been a life-changing experience and we are so grateful to Illovo Sugar for empowering us and enriching our lives. “To be part of the cane grower’s community as a black woman makes me happy, especially having come from an impoverished background,” says Mrs Ngcobo, smallscale grower and current chairperson of Umgwempesi Cane Growers.

NOMVULA SHOZI’S PASSION “Farming and agriculture have always interested me. I remember asking my father how sugarcane is grown and it remained a passion of mine. After finishing school and university studies, I moved to Durban to work.

“In early 2018, I learnt about the Illovo Small Scale Grower Development Project and decided to return and try my hand at Nomavula Shozi being a contractor and grower. The training provided changed all of our perspectives about growing sugarcane as a viable business. Illovo Sugar helped us put protocols in place to ensure the sustainability of our businesses.

“This initiative also helped me to start and grow my own contracting business, which supports other growers by planting and ratooning their lands. With this project, everything has been kept local and the money we make goes back into our community. I love what I do and I am so grateful for the opportunity Illovo has given me to pursue my dreams,” says Nomvula Shozi, small-scale grower and contractor and young female entrepreneur from the eMalangeni region.

For more information: Connect with us on… www.illovosugarafrica.com www.facebook.com/IllovoSugar

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OPINION: DI V ERSI T Y

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION: WHAT’S IT REALLY ABOUT?

T

he only thing that shocks me whenever a racist incident happens is that people are shocked. It is unrealistic to expect that the basic underlying currents in our society, which enabled us to suffer more than 300 years of colonialism and 50 years of apartheid, would go away in 26 years of democracy.

Most of us were so keen to move on with rebuilding our country after years of apartheid that we never stopped to question what we should do with racist feelings, which many might have suppressed, and racist actions, which others were waiting to perform at the (in)appropriate moment.

We thought that we’d all move on happily building what Archbishop Desmond Tutu called “the Rainbow people of God”.

It does not help to be shocked by the actions or the utterances of a Penny Sparrow, or to be upset by people who do not understand why black lives matter. It does not help to get angry when someone like Julius Malema makes racial comments aimed at denigrating either whites or blacks, depending on his audience.

South Africans need to try to understand where we come from as a nation, accept the hurt that many people suffered during apartheid and, if necessary, apologise for that hurt, whether they feel responsible or not.

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The economic transformation of our society, which led to things like employment equity (EE) and affirmative action (AA), was never going to address the social transformation issues that are at the heart of racism.

Years ago, after I published my book, Race, which dealt with issues of race and racism in post-apartheid South Africa, I was called by many corporates to help them deal with racerelated issues in the workplace.

I realised very quickly that the government might be erring with its insistence on seeing transformation in only numbers and that redress requires much more than AA and EE. The insistence on AA and EE provides an easy escape for corporates not to deal with the real issue of transformation, which is changing mindsets.

After a lifetime of working in the transformation space – economic and social – here is my thinking on diversity training.

• It should not be called diversity training because diversity training often emphasises what is different among us without dealing with the issues of why this matters.

• It should rather be called race, gender and cultural sensitivity training because you would want to look at all the potential areas where ignorance could lead to intolerance and tensions in the workplace.

• This training should start before people reach the workplace. It should be taught to children at primary or, at least, high school level.

• In corporates, the first person who should volunteer for training is the CEO, MD or chairperson of the board. If the leader shows that they take it seriously, others will be inclined to follow. Otherwise, it might seem like an additional burden on the staff.

• The training needs to start with an understanding of the South African Constitution – one of the most progressive documents in the world, which clearly outlines the need for transformation in a way that will benefit everyone in society.

• Race, gender and cultural sensitivity training should be seen as a way of enhancing the potential profitability of corporates. If your employees do not understand and are intolerant towards each other, they will not be able to work together productively. If they understand each other, the chances are that they will be able to work together more productively.

• This training is not an event, but part of an ongoing process, it never stops.

Regular check-ins on the progress among employees should become part of corporate culture. Diversity training, or rather race, gender and cultural sensitivity training, can assist companies to deal with understanding the complexities of our society and could help them navigate potential political and societal problems more confidently. It should not be a nice-tohave, but a must-have.

South Africans need to try to understand where we come from as a nation, accept the hurt that many people suffered during apartheid and, if necessary, apologise for that hurt, whether they feel responsible or not.

IMAGE: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

Ryland Fisher shares his belief that social transformation needs to be addressed through gender, race and cultural sensitivity training

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