The Black Management Forum (BMF) came out with guns firing after reports that its president, Jimmy Manyi, had gate-crashed a recent Business Unity SA (Busa) meeting.
A statement released yesterday by Nomhle Nkumbi-Ndopu, the managing director, said the BMF wanted to “place on record” that media reports of “our president Jimmy Manyi gate-crushing (sic)” the recent Busa meeting “are a pure fabrication and must be dismissed with contempt”.
Nkumbi-Ndopu explained that in April, Manyi “on request by Tembakazi Mnyaka, the BMF deputy president, who was abroad at the time… went to convey a specific message from the black business caucus at a Busa management committee meeting which had been brought forward”.
The BMF further argued that Manyi “made a very brief appearance and the rest of the meeting was attended by” Nkumbi-Ndopu. The statement issued yesterday also explained that the black business caucus was a structure made up of a number of members of the Confederation of Black Business Organisations.
“The message conveyed at that meeting with the Busa management committee was premised on the fact that… now that both the Busa president Futhi Mtoba and the chairman Andre Lamprecht were members of established business, the black caucus must be given the responsibility to field candidates for the chief executive position as a compromise, so that the so-called unity could be anchored by some concrete structure that shows intent to transform,” said Nkumbi-Ndopu.
This follows reports that Manyi objected to the selection of Mtoba as president, but Nkumbi-Ndopu also objected to the man whom Mtoba wanted as Busa chief executive, current vice-president Mthunzi Mdwaba. The BMF effectively derailed his selection through objecting to him writing up the “job specs” for the post.
All these intrigues at Busa show that just being black is not necessarily good enough. It is career limiting – not to mention gate-crushing – to be an “established business person”, even if you are black.
Alexkor
If trying to get hold of officials from the parastatals is any indication of the efficiency of putting big business organisations in the hands of the state is anything to go by, then South Africa should be moving in the opposite direction.
News filtering through from Alexander Bay’s Alexkor diamond mine indicate that it is not a happy ship. In fact it is a bit of a rusty one. This is the firm that provided most of the Richtersveld community with food, housing and health care in the apartheid era. After democracy the community took the state to court and won a big settlement, of land, access to diamonds and housing. But the R200 million settlement has not caused much happiness.
Alexkor, which runs a joint venture for the land diamond operations with Richtersveld community representatives, was shut down last week by inspectors who declared equipment unsafe. A similar thing happened in April and last December.
Chief executive Khetiwe Maseko-McClain is an unaccustomed sight on the mine, while acting mine manager Wiaan Basson graces the operation twice a week. Acting chief financial officer Berno Lategan was not available. Officials tasked with overseeing Alexkor in the departments of mineral resources and public enterprises were not available for comment, including ministerial spokespeople.
Coincidentally the presidential review committee on state-owned entities yesterday called on the public to make submissions that contribute to the process of reviewing state-owned enterprises. Its chair, Riah Phiyega, called on citizens, departments, parastatals, business, labour, political parties, civil society, professional bodies, institutions and associations to make submissions “which will (provide) input into the review process”.
The committee should visit Alexkor to get a first-hand view of what happens when you put the state in charge. page 4
Pharmaceuticals
Realising that the National Health Insurance (NHI) is imminent, the independent pharmacy sector has chosen not to be negative about the proposed health funding plan but instead it is highlighting the role it could play in the system.
Since talk about the NHI gained momentum a few years ago, most comments from the private health-care sector on the available information have criticised what the government is trying to do. Others have questioned the wisdom of even considering an NHI in a country that has more people on social grants than taxpayers.
Last week the independent pharmacy sector, with 4 000 pharmacists and 20 000 auxiliary health-care personnel, formed a new organisation called the Independent Community Pharmacy Association (ICPA).
ICPA amalgamated two trade bodies, the United SA Pharmacies and the SA Progressive Pharmacy Association and other owners of independent pharmacies not aligned to these groups.
Through this group, ICPA has created a united front and mouthpiece for this sector of 1 500 independently-owned pharmacies.
Sham Moodley, ICPA’s chairman, said the sector was undervalued as a viable resource by the government and if properly used, it could alleviate the health-care burden facing the state by up to 40 percent.
“Currently serving more than 10 million patients a month, the independently owned community pharmacies are suitably rendered to manage not only an influx of patients but also the availability and management of prescriptions,” Moodley said.
“Services such as patient counselling, stock control and reporting systems… with access to primary health-care services and management of normal day-to-day acute conditions can all easily be provided by (these) pharmacies,” Moodley said.
The ICPA is obviously looking out for its members’ interests. A positive attitude is likely to make it easier to adjust to the NHI.
Edited by Ellis Mnyandu. With contributions by Donwald Pressly and Slindile Khanyile.