SO President Jacob Zuma made it fairly clear at his last pre-election speech that the ANC’s doctrine of non-racism is merely words on paper and the government is hell bent on taking what white people have or have built up over their lives.
What he omits to say is that a business does not run itself but requires constant dedication and care – just like raising a child. Most businessmen understand this and put hours of effort into ensuring that their operations run properly. Herman Mashaba is a wonderful example of this.
With all these threats of taking over white businesses – the 51 percent rule, broad-based black economic empowerment, a raft of labour laws, and so on – I have taken a conscious decision to shrink my business. This means reducing staff, which translates into less stress coping with labour legislation; reduced turnover, which translates into less value-added tax and being content with just meeting expenses with no profit component. Less staff means less tax to pay and fund the gravy train.
I see no purpose in trying to create employment, with all the accompanying stress and pressure while our government treats business as an enemy.
Nobody gave me my business. I bought it years ago and grew it consistently, often at the expense of my private life, and I am certainly not going to give control of it to some lazy individual who just wishes to reap the cream.
Six million jobs is a pipe dream given the poor performance of our economy.
Tony Ball
Durban