Much was made of the fact that we, as the Black Business Council (BBC), made the call last week that President Jacob Zuma should finish his term in office. Some of the news reports in recent days implied that we had met business leader Sipho Pityana and were simply "defending Zuma" in reaction to Pityana’s initiative to lobby business to take a position on the removal of the president.This isn’t the case. We did meet with Pityana. But we also met with ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe well before meeting the president, and he’d told us that the ANC had agreed that Zuma should finish his term. We simply agreed that the party’s internal process should be followed.Since our formation, we’ve believed there should be a strong, specific voice for black business to empower South Africans and create a better life for all. It is this imperative that drives us — not an unhealthy contestation about whether an elected president should stay in office or not.So that is why I argue that we’re n...
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