LETTER: Business must tell what it is doing
A 'reverse Bell Pottinger' would help to make state and public aware of the positive contributions the private sector makes
In an interview with Chris Barron, Gareth Ackerman spoke strongly about making the government aware of the enormous amount of good that business is actually doing for the country and emphasised the lack of support for this from his peers. I believe it goes much further than that: we need a “reverse Bell Pottinger”. As we now know, that organisation — very unfairly but effectively — reinforced the negative image of our business world among many South Africans. A major percentage of the population still sees big business as the oppressor and the enemy, attributing no good motivation to anything business does (and big business is doing plenty of under-recognised good around the country), thus providing fertile ground for the whole white monopoly capital hogwash that was sold so divisively by Bell Pottinger in Jacob Zuma’s time. It is not just the government that needs to have its erroneous viewpoint changed. I think it would be well worthwhile for leading business organisations to take...
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