How is it possible that people have battled with a simple economic concept (Black Economic Empowerment) for such a long time?
We have defined it clearly in black and white. We have debated it emotionally and argued about it for nearly two decades.
But, all things considered, it’s evident we are failing dismally.
Even though we say we know what we want to achieve, we seem to forget or get confused with what it is that we want or how to go about achieving it. BEE in its current form and practice does not create new jobs. It does not alleviate poverty amongst the historically disadvantaged (HDIs). In fact poverty is getting worse among this segment of the population.
We cannot mobilise capital to start our businesses from Ground Zero. We don’t know how to. In fact we have no enthusiasm to do so.
We seem to be shooting in the dark. And in fact we have turned on our own noble idea, pouring scorn on and ridiculing it at every turn. In short it’s become a joke. But also we do not want to learn from history.
Black people must start their organisations from Ground Zero, which the Afrikaner did before the War (II).
So, in fact, there is a solution.
And the solution is to be learnt from the Afrikaaner, for those who are interested. They have the template.
Before World War II, the Afrikaner systematically and methodically embarked on a project to educate, employ and empower their people. The project worked wonders for the ordinary Afrikaner folk.
In this, one organisation made the difference. That organisation is, or was, the Broederbond. I know this subject will elicit fear and loathing among some readers. But it shouldn’t. Just adopt an eclectic approach. Take out of it what is useful and leave what you dislike. This information is readily available. What is key is how you use it.
So, here it goes:
Once the Bond was in full control of the Afrikaans cultural sphere in the 1930s, it decided it could concentrate its attention on the economic plight of the Afrikaner.
At the time, the Bond leadership could describe how the Afrikaner had been humiliated in society. “It was more oppressive in our daily existence as members of an all-embracing socio-economic whole. We were the poor of the poor whites, the Boers without markets and without capital – the lowly paid and unskilled workers in the mines and the factories. We were the civil servants in the inferior jobs, on the railways, in the post office, in the police.
“When the drought came, we were the first who toiled merely to live and when the Great Depression came, we were the first unemployed . . .” said one Bond leader a Dr Meyer, quoted by ex-journalist Hennie Serfontein.
On November 14, 1931, an extra-ordinary Bondsraad, later to be known as the Economic Bondsraad, was held in Johannesburg. Up for discussion was the establishment of an Afrikaner commercial bank because the banks of the time exercised a power grip, especially over the farmers. So, after a series of investigations by various commissions, Volkskas (Kooperatief) Beperk, the first Afrikaans commercial bank, was established on April 3, 1934.
Now the capital of the Afrikaner could be mobilized to provide financial backing for Afrikaner business undertakings.
In 1938 the Broederbond capitalized on the enthusiasm generated by the Afrikaner Voortrekker centenary festival, to build on the economic interests of the Afrikaner. As a result, the Economic Volkskongres on October 3, 1939 was held in Bloemfontein.
One of the most important organisations to emerge from the conference was the Economic Institute. The Economic Institute gave birth to the Redingsdaadbond (RDB), an organisation which raised funds to assist Afrikaners in economic difficulty, and also to assist with the financing of Afrikaans business undertakings. By 1943, the RDB had more than 50 000 members across the country. The congress also led to the establishment of Federale Volksbeleggings Beperk (FVB), whose aim was to weld together in one company, a portion of Afrikaner capital and to make it available for the establishment or take-overs of commercial and industrial enterprises.
A lot happened thereafter, including the all-famous Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut, whose main objective was to promote the interests of Afrikaner businesses.
So, whoever you are, whatever your cynicism, your skepticism, your hypocrisy, your dishonesty, trust me when I say that Afrikaners have the template nobody else has.
Don’t tell me how shady, how ruthless and how brutal the Bond was. Don’t tell me how it plotted apartheid . . . I already know that. I should know that.
From this, it is clear that the Bond played a major role in the mobilisation of Afrikaner capital and enterprise to start Afrikaner-owned companies from Ground Zero. Some of these companies can only be described as the country’s economic monuments employing thousands of people. These enterprises have turned some Afrikaner families and individuals into billionaires. What blacks have done in this context pales into insignificance. Just look around you and tell me what you see.
Afrikaners mobilised Afrikaner capital to empower themselves and turn around the economic fortunes of a poor nation of people. Their drive and commitment carried them forward.
Everything is connected. You cannot invest without capital. Blacks need their own bank to be able to spread capital and start businesses. The broad-based approach is a mirage.
Don’t whinge and whine.
At first Afrikaners didn’t even have a government to support them. They just had themselves.
Certainly, there are excellent lessons to learn from this. There must be.
