STATE CAPTURE
HILARY JOFFE: Racialising business just poisons debate
‘There needs to be space for different interests to have a voice in a way that finds common ground without losing diversity’
As business people become more vocal and engage more assertively with SA’s politics, it becomes ever more important to be precise about who speaks for "business" and which interest groups within business they speak for. It’s an issue highlighted by the Black Business Council’s (BBC’s) news statement this week in which it claimed the partnership between "white" and "black" business at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) had been terminated after Business Unity SA (Busa) kicked out the BBC. But it is an issue that comes to the fore too when, for example, reports describe Business Leadership SA’s (BLSA’s) forthright deputy chairman, Bonang Mohale, as representing business.The BBC doesn’t speak for "black" business any more than Mohale, whose organisation is essentially a club of about 80 big businesses, speaks for business as a whole. And Busa, which represents business in terms of Nedlac’s constitution, is anything but "white". It may look like nitpicking, bu...
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