Blacks still kept out of South African boardrooms
Jonny
AFP
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Political inequality in South Africa may be a
thing of the past but the racial and gender divide appears very much
intact when it comes to the boardroom, a new study shows.
The government of Thabo Mbeki, following the lead of his predecessor
Nelson Mandela, has consistently pushed firms to do more to ensure that
company directors reflect the make-up of a country where blacks account
for around 80 percent of the population.
However a new book that claims to be the first comprehensive study of
the nation's boardrooms since the end of apartheid in 1994 reveals that
the pace of economic transformation remains painfully slow.
"It is a hell of a slow pace ... Not much of an improvement," says
Renee Bonorchis, co-author of "Executive Pay In South Africa -- Who
Gets What And Why."
The decades before the advent of multi-racial democracy saw blacks
systematically excluded from positions of power in the economy.
Since 1994, the government has been promoting a programme of Black
Economic Empowerment (BEE) as a central plank of its growth strategy
and says deals worth 285 billion rand (38 billion dollars, 30 billion
euros) have been concluded in the last decade.
But Bonorchis said a study of 50 of some of the largest and most
influential listed companies showed little had changed in the last
dozen years.
Of a total of 697 directors, 66 percent are white and only 28 percent
were black while the rest were from other ethnic minorities.
"From what we found, there is little transformation in the boardroom.
Most of the executives are still white and male, earn on average 15
million rand a year -- more than 700 times the ground workers, who
happen to be black and/or women," Bonorchis told AFP.
In a foreword to the book, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel joined the
list of political and business leaders who have called for an overhaul
in the boardroom to emulate the country's overall transformation.
"They (businesses) must meet the transformation challenges we have set
ourselves as South Africans, working together for a non-racial and
equitable future ... There is a body of literature that suggests that
vastly unequal societies impede their own growth into the future," he
wrote.
Mbeki has said he wants a woman to succeed him as president when he
steps down in 2009, but Bonorchis and her fellow author Ann Crotty
found there were "upsettingly" few female company directors.
"If you think South Africa is doing badly when it comes to empowerment
of black people in the workplace, the statistics on women in the
workplace is even more upsetting," they write.
"Despite President Mbeki constantly pushing for the upliftment of
women, and his demonstrated commitment to this by appointing a woman as
his deputy, corporate South Africa has yet to take notice.
"While most large companies would not dare to have no black directors,
many of them (11 out of the 50) are quite happy to have no women on
their boards."
Bemoaning the profile of the average South African boardroom, Labour
Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said in September it could take half a
century before there was genuine workplace equality.
A number of black businessmen, such as Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo
Sexwale, are household names, partly thanks to earlier political
careers.
But Nick Icely, a director at the South African branch of the
accountancy firm Deloitte's, said he did not expect a dramatic
turnaround any time soon as it would take time for blacks and women to
narrow the skills gap.
"The slow pace is down to a skills shortage in the previously
disadvantaged sections of the economy," he told AFP.
Azar Jammine of the Johannesburg-based consultancy Econometrix argued
that BEE had so far failed to achieve its objective as the government
had not addressed the skills issue.
He said it was naive to expect firms to act on their own.
"The thrust has been misplaced, with too much focus on ownership and
control and too little on imparting the skills required for blacks to
fulfill executive posts or to start their own business ventures," he
said.
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