TRANSFORMATION
XOLISA PHILLIP: Black Business Council rolls with times
It is the spring of 2016 and there are growing calls for President Jacob Zuma to step down, but there is one big problem: he is still the ANC president and wields enormous political power. On the weekend of Sunday September 11, the Sunday Times splash screams: "Don’t go! Black business pleads with Zuma to stay." At the time, the newspaper reported that then-Black Business Council (BBC) president Ndaba Ntsele had held an audience with Zuma, during which he had apparently expressed the council’s support for the president to see out his full term. Ntsele, reported the Sunday Times, cited Zuma’s backing when the BBC broke away from Business Unity SA, the establishment of the Department of Small Business and the black industrialist programme among the reasons why it the council thought the president should remain.The BBC had also lobbied the president to reverse the decision to house the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) at the Industrial Development Corporation, saying the move would stif...
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