In a world where accumulation and wealth are signs of success, it's not at all surprising that the economic elite is chalking up as many directorships as possible, sitting on as many boards as possible and notching up as many "fees" as possible to bankroll lifestyles and extended families.
Patronage and matronage are nothing new. South Africa's black middle classes are doing precisely what their historical counterparts did in Sanlam, Volkskas, Old Mutual and the range of Afrikaner and other white institutions to build their middle classes.
Danisa Baloyi, a former director of Absa, and a director of 71 companies, according to the Mail & Guardian, has been shown the door and her "services" have been "terminated" by the bank. This comes at a time when Gill Marcus - the former MP, former deputy governor at the Reserve Bank, the former academic at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, and former mining boss - takes over as Absa's chairman.
Marcus, a struggle veteran of note, will be squarely in the hot spot because Baloyi, the so-called queen of empowerment, has already let out that she intends to pursue legal action. Wisely, Marcus has decided to remain mum as she no doubt considers her options to steer the financial giant through the choppy waters that lie ahead.
The issue is straightforward. There is a conflict of interest because Baloyi is a director and a trustee of Fidentia.
Trustees are appointed to see that the best interests and general welfare of beneficiaries are upheld.
And of course the Fidentia imbroglio has to come to pass because Baloyi's own company, the SA Women's Investment Holdings, was J Arthur Brown's black economic empowerment partner in his personal empire that, it seems, was structured in ways that served his family, friends and fellow business cronies.
The fallout is unpredictable. Marcus has to get it right, morally and legally. Baloyi is a street fighter of note with 71 companies under her belt and is famous for a history of entrepreneurial energy and capacity.
Absa paid Baloyi about R12 000 a month as a director.
Fidentia, on the other hand, reportedly paid the multiple director and/or trustee a whopping R54 000 a month.
That leaves 69 other companies. I'd like to have a peek at her salary package.
Minister of transport Jeff Radebe was surprisingly candid in his remarks this week. Business Day quotes him: "We are still some way from realising the Freedom Charter's vision of a society in which people share in the country's wealth."
We need to remind the minister that his party and his alliance partners were elected to govern this country on the basis of the Freedom Charter and its minimum provisions on housing, welfare, health, human rights and jobs.
But it is 13 years down the road and the social-democratic platform on which the ANC mobilised and organised the electorate has been sullied by a neo-conservative economic programme that pandered to big business and especially to the energy and minerals complex.
While windfall taxes are likely to be accompanied by a collapse of secondary taxes, minister of finance Trevor Manuel has also been at the forefront of the campaign to reverse the slide of unchecked accumulation in the hands of a few at the expense of the many.
The business-friendly government that we have should realise that its reproduction over the next 20 years will mean securing the informed consent of the voters.
The majority of our electorate are black and poor.
This stubborn fact alone should be sufficient to urge the managers of our economy to address the needs of the very poor, tax the very rich and roll out a social-democratic programme that stands a chance of securing the buy-in of the people.
After all, the people shall govern means precisely what it says. And it does not refer to the executives running the Top40 companies on the stock exchange.
If the data in the Reserve Bank's Quarterly Bulletin dovetail with reality, then the country has indeed experienced a significant boost in employment.
The bank states that quarterly employment has grown at an annualised 3.9 percent in the private and public sectors in 2006. Non-agricultural employment rose by 528 000. Again, if this is the state of play in attempts to create jobs, then it must be applauded.
I do worry though that people are still begging for a R1 or R2 at robots. And I do worry though that perfectly healthy young people continue to roam aimlessly around suburbs and townships.