What is real change in the financial services sector?
Ownership of the financial services sector is not enough; its organisational culture needs to be more in tune with everyday lives of South Africans, writes Hanna Ziady
The recent departures of Liberty’s Thabo Dloti and Barclays Africa’s Phakamani Hadebe from senior positions at these companies is a setback. SA needs more, not fewer, black people in leadership roles at insurance companies and banks — because they must reflect the country in which they operate. Transformation is not only about employment equity or ownership. Arguably, it is more important that the financial services sector effects real economic transformation in the country by meeting the financial needs of all South Africans. As Khulekani Mathe, who heads financial inclusion at the Banking Association SA, puts it: "It is possible to have 100% black ownership [of the financial services sector], but this will not make every black South African feel rich. I’m not saying that it is not important that we get [ownership] right, but we should not pin our hopes on it. "Transforming this economy is about more than ownership." There have been heated hearings in Parliament on transformation, ...
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