Imraan Valodia’s solution to our social problems and his imploring business to repent is not going to help (Business must repent for past role and start campaign to repair SA, July 19). First, on a matter of principle, shareholders are entitled to pay their CEOs whatever they like, albeit at the risk of upsetting the rest of their labour force. There is evidence to suggest that SA’s executive salaries climbed to global levels after our emancipation of 1994. It is simplistic to suggest that boards and shareholders sit dumb while they have their own money stolen from them. We should therefore tread carefully when looking at executive pay being a "social problem". Second, as Valodia points out, this is really a nonproblem in the scheme of things because even if a CEO’s gain was to be distributed among the other staff, it would only have a marginal effect. Third, while I understand his sentiment for "business" to come clean, business is not a moral agent. The people in business who may ...
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