I take it that we all are of the same mind that business executives belong among the foremost thought-leaders of our country, and as such thought-leaders, they are duty-bound robustly to participate in the public discourse about all issues that are pertinent to the lives of our people and destiny of our democracy.

This discourse to which I refer is about what bold steps we must take in order to bring about an economic miracle that matches, if it does not better, the political miracle we achieved in 1994.

It is our fortune that South Africa is gifted with an abundance of leadership, both black and white, in all spheres – political, corporate and others – all of whom bear a collective responsibility towards the monumental task of the creation of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.

For close to a century that it has existed, the ANC has had as one of its central tasks the defeat and elimination of racism in our country and the resolution of the national question.

Even though our country might have made such enormous and impressive progress during the last seventeen years, none of us who is black can avoid the daily recognition that racism continues to be a defining feature of what we justly call the new South Africa.

There is a lot of truth in what I have just boldly asserted, even as it might offend some and bring home discomfiting truths about what some might have chosen to or wished that we forget.

Now, the challenge before South Africa is much more complex because objective historical conditions have determined that both black and white people should find themselves settled in the same territory known as South Africa on the southern-most tip of the African continent.

For that reason, we have to forge a common nationhood and destiny, based on a common history with all its strife and pains, which we need to acknowledge and together to deconstruct, and a common humanity.
Because of the struggle we waged to bring about the New South Africa, black South Africans were able through their own efforts to transform themselves from victims to masters of their own destiny.

We are called upon by history itself and our abiding humanity to shed our anger and harness our common past of pain and strife into a movement for the forging of a common humanity, a common destiny and social cohesion.

The founding principle of being a master of your own destiny is that you must first recognise yourself as a human being and hence you do not need the permission of your victimiser to liberate yourself from victimhood.

As masters of our own destiny we are expected, unapologetically, to have our own opinions and to participate in the battle of ideas as thought-leaders.

This issue of thought-leadership and the creation of a non-racial society is critically related to the matter of economic transformation, the deracialisation of the ownership of productive property in our country.

As part of the pursuit of this objective to eradicate racism in our country, we must zealously assert our opinions about how we think this transformation should take place without seeking affirmation from those who seek the derailment of and recoil from the agenda for fundamental social transformation.

This is important because at the heart of the public discourse in our country is the question, how will the New South Africa look like! One of the achievements of the post-apartheid dispensation is that the opponents of freedom and non-racialism have also adopted the very same institutions of democracy to contest the ideas of the liberation movement and put forward alternative ideas that entrench the economic status-quo where the owners of property remain predominantly white and the black majority retain their position as workers, whilst a few among them are recruited to join the table of privilege, albeit on a limited scale.

In this regard, the beneficiaries of the system of racism are the ones who choose the winners among the hitherto victims. Accordingly, they have continued to dominate the realm of ideas and to seek to dictate how the battle of ideas should take place.

Those who argue or have argued that black intellectuals need to be independent and critical thinkers and engage in critical and free speech about matters of public discourse, have used this argument as a trick to coax black intellectuals into organising and positioning themselves as opponents of the ANC as the ruling party.

Accordingly, everyone who has been opposed to the ANC, or differed with it on even a single item, is dubbed an “independent thinker” as if to oppose the ANC is the gauge of independence and the ultimate prize in public discourse. This title of “independent thinker” does not apply to white South Africans because I suppose it is presumed that if you are white you are already anti-ANC and independent and if you are black you are pro-ANC and not independent.

Nowhere are the “independents” more arrogant than in their abuse of both the public discourse and the institutions of democracy to pursue their anti-transformation agenda.

They abuse the sacred institutions of our democracy as platforms to oppose the democratic government, sometimes to portray themselves as alternative governments, sometimes to seek to co-govern and sometimes just obstinately to block government as though it must seek the consent of the unelected to execute its mandate.

The abuse and insults hurled at the Chief Justice nominee is unprecedented in its scale as it is extraordinary in its arrogance. Never has such united show of force been directed at any nominee for any position on the bench as has been witnessed in this singular display of terrorism on a grand scale intended to intimidate not just the nominee, but our government and all those that support both the government and the nominee to cower and cringe in front of unelected groupings that are hell-bent to replace and dictate to our elected government and representatives.

So vast and so vicious is the campaign that none of even the peers of the nominee has dared to stand up and vouch for him and correct all the untruths and falsifications that have been peddled about it. It is this dictatorship that is a threat to our democracy!

Similarly, black success has erroneously, although not fortuitously, been viewed negatively, often as though it transpired from corrupt practices.
I say not fortuitously because those that have furiously sought to apportion black success to corruption or favours have done so knowingly that they are blemishing not just a phenomenon, but a people themselves, still to deny us our national pride.

Black success needs to be hailed and celebrated, and must resolutely be defended in public as in private.

After all, apartheid-colonialism was racist affirmative action on the largest ever and most brazen scale. It consisted in the deprivation and expropriation of one racial group and the privileging and empowerment of another in a manner that was as brutal as it was depraved.

There is an urgent need for social dialogue around how we are going to achieve long-term and sustainable growth that can place our economy in a position to be able to address unemployment, inequality and poverty, and the New Growth Path attempts to achieve exactly that.

In our endeavours to right the wrongs of the past, what must guide us is a revolutionary desire to achieve fundamental social transformation. Indeed, the very strength of our ANC-led national liberation movement has lay in the consistency of its policies and strategies. Furthermore, it lies in its ability persistently to pursue and achieve consensus on all major questions before our nation.

The ANC has led South Africa through persuasion and seeking consensus. When it took up arms against the system of racial tyranny, it was not with the intention to force a settlement upon South Africans, but it sought to create conducive conditions for a political settlement that eventually came to be called a miracle.

Such consensus-seeking leadership must be harnessed, conserved and promoted in every sphere where we are involved. This is particularly opportune in the context of the current turbulent global economic environment and the renewed focus on emerging economies. It is also opportune in the context of the prevailing perception of a lack of quality black business leadership.

Key among the challenges of our democracy is the joblessness, poverty and inequality.

Accordingly, at the core of all our urgent strategic interventions and actions, should be a focus on addressing the above challenges. Our channel for intervention as government therefore remains the strengthening of the role of the SOEs as viable vehicles for the delivery of our key growth objectives.

From the outset, I must make bold to say that contrary to some opinion, often peddled for ideological reasons, the SOEs are not inherently inefficient and characterised by incompetency and corruption.

According to this line of thinking, to solve this malaise, SOEs must be privatised as if to argue that the private sector is inherently competent, efficient and not corrupt.

Yes, some of our SOEs might have suffered from a leadership lacuna which might have led to some of these tendencies emerging, but we are determined to disprove this lie and to prove that SOEs can be centres of excellence.

The SOEs contributed enormously in the delivery of the backbone infrastructure that made us proud hosts of the World Cup last year. That is a clear demonstration that we do have the capacity to deliver. What did not happen in the 2010 process, though, was a focused effort in the value chain of delivery to ensure that there is sustainability built into the job creation efforts and that we could have used the opportunity to strengthen our manufacturing sector.

Our economy cannot remain resource-intensive. We have to be deliberate in the process of developing the diversity that is necessary to be a global player.

The challenge then remains our ability to structure our entities in a manner that they compete and perform at a World Class level. With the turbulent global economic environment, the attractiveness of the emerging economies from an investment destination perspective implies that we should get our house in order with regard to ensuring competitiveness and sound policy framework that is able to attract and support the investment inflows. It also implies that the economic and social infrastructure must also be able to rise up to the occasion.

From a Global Perspective, SA competes well in 7 of the 12 pillars. However the following 5 in which we do not perform well are key to sustainability:

• Infrastructure 63/139
• Health and Primary Education 129/139
• Higher Education 75/139
• Labour Market Efficiency 97/139
• Technological Readiness 76/139

These challenges are fixable through the efficient utilisation of SOEs as vehicles for economic growth, industrialisation and skills development.
South Africa’s competitiveness in comparison with the BRICS league still needs a fair amount of improvement and the areas of greatest impact are in this room. We need to adopt a different paradigm to leadership. It cannot be business as usual.

In the past we have relied on our advantaged position as entry point and favourite destination as head office for Africa Trade. We are fast losing that position and our attractiveness even in the African context is sliding backwards.

This therefore builds up the argument that I put forward recently that we must build and position SOEs as World Class players that serve as the backbone of our economic performance and growth.

What we need to develop though is a delivery model that enables a concurrent delivery of the socio-economic objectives of our country. Currently, the global economic scenario has been that of uncertainty and rapid change and the focus is beginning to be directed towards the emerging economies even though they too face enormous challenges.

The implication for South Africa is therefore to galvanise its leadership and competitiveness relative to the Emerging Economy peer group. Furthermore, these evil triplets of joblessness, poverty and inequality pose an immense challenge to the options we have in the economic development pathway.

The creation of opportunities and enabling access to the economy by our youth, and the focus on the Black business agenda whilst balancing the need to ensure that the SOEs play a meaningful role in economic growth is indeed vital.

Success lies in the manner in which we leverage the state enterprises to deliver the most pressing challenges in our country.

The BEE agenda requires that we design and put to action the most innovative procurement policy framework and practices whilst promoting entrepreneurship.

Creating an empowered delivery machinery with a developmental mandate will facilitate an approach that ensures that whilst we prioritise the creation of World Class organisations, we do not lose focus of the domestic challenges facing our country.

Our competitive advantages relative to our emerging markets peers have to be greatly enhanced through best practice in SOEs.

I therefore wish to take advantage of this gathering of leaders to challenge you to contribute towards the building of strong and unified black business organisational structures.

This is important to enrol and enable the unified voice of black business in Government. It also is critically important in influencing the above possibilities, again in a process of constructive engagement.

We need to engage at the level of seeking joint solutions to build a sustainable and mutually-beneficial relationship.

It is not acceptable that the black participation in the JSE still lingers at a mere 3.8%. It is not acceptable that even the organisations that are black-led are not showing any marked differentiation in their operations and contribution to public discourse. It will be very difficult to deliver growth if we fail to ensure that we are competitive as a nation and indeed as an economy, collectively.

By Mr Malusi Gigaba,

Minister of Public Enterprises.