CBN ARCHIVE - November '2000:
South Africa - November '2000 - Neo-apartheid is coming to get you

T was tough, but our economy has survived the institutionalised racism of our previous rulers. Most of us joined in a combined sigh of relief when that era came to an end as we looked forward to doing business without the constraints of apartheid.

But by now, sadly, we have to face the question: How long will the economy survive the institutionalised racism of our present rulers?

No sooner did we get rid of the discrimination the Nats entered onto our statute books, but the ANC entered its own set of statutory discrimination. I'm referring to the racism poorly hidden under disguises such as 'affirmative' action and employment 'equity'.

What is intended, of course, is the opposite of equity -defined in my copy of Chambers inter alia as "moral justice, of which laws are the imperfect expression: the spirit of justice which enables us to interpret laws rightly: fairness". What is intended, is discrimination against members of a minority group on the grounds of their skin colour.

This is a trick of nomenclature they learned from their undistinguished predecessors, who, among others, named the bureaucracy responsible for administering discriminatory laws against black South Africans the "Department of Co-operation and Development".

The perpetrators of this neo-apartheid argue (repeatedly and loudly) that their actions are just, fair and that, in fact, only a racist would argue against such angelic schemes.

This is a very effective way of pre-empting an objective assessment of the country's current race policies. After all, racism counts among the last things of which any decent person would want to be accused. In this country the sensitivity is particularly acute, given our history.

The protagonists of neo-apartheid argue that, because they were the victims of vicious discrimination under apartheid, it is simply right that they put laws in place to discriminate 'fairly' so as to 'level the playing fields'. And of course, every decent-minded person is in favour of level playing fields. That is what we said when we voted for change and that is what we hoped we would get.

But that is not what is happening and that is not, as it turns out, what was intended.

What we are seeing, instead, is crude and offensive racism. For instance, when the head of a specialist accountancy department in a state enterprise - with professional qualifications as a chartered accountant and invaluable experience as a senior banker - is retrenched by e-mail and replaced by someone with no relevant qualifications or any comparable experience.

When young professionals at the beginning of their careers see this happening and realise the implications for their own prospects, and then seek and get jobs in New York and other foreign cities, who can rightly blame them?

In this manner, we are losing the very people we need to build this economy into a fast-growing engine creating jobs and wealth. By alienating and under-utilising some of our best and our brightest, we are writing our own economic suicide note.

In addition to the evidence we see with our own eyes - note the recent performance of the Minister of Health as a fairly representative example of the embarrassing level of competence in Government - we get the occasional glimpse of the thinking behind the neo-apartheid vision.

Regular examples are provided by Christine Qunta, an under-qualified lawyer and sloppy thinker who writes a column for a business daily. There she entertains readers on novel ideas for economic growth, such as:

"Africans, constituting as they do the majority, should be in control of the economy ..."

And, in propagating statutorily enforced racial discrimination in procurement: "African women and men cannot be dealt with in the same manner as white women, although white women would enjoy preferences over white males."

The real economy, of course, works in ways far removed from Ms Qunta's ignorant racism.

Private enterprise is the result of initiative and risk. It requires innovation and hard, disciplined work. It can only succeed if it is productive. In producing the goods and services for which customers and clients are willing to pay, it must add value. And it does so in a competitive environment where other enterprises are trying to attract the same customers and clients by working harder to add more value.

If it does not show a profit, it dies.

It has nothing to do with race or gender. Nothing is as colour blind as the profit motive.

Enforce statutory racism and you interfere with the quest for maximum efficiency and profit. In so doing, you will kill off marginal businesses and reduce the profitability of others, thereby crippling their capability to expand and create jobs and wealth.

And by telling entrepreneurs that you will limit their success because of their skin colour, they will either take their talents elsewhere or play golf instead of risking their capital. The end result is a stagnant economy in a country with growing unemployment and poverty.

Nothing stands in the way of black people in business today, on the contrary. And thank heavens for those black people who go out and do it, with innovation, hard work and discipline. They gain business by competing against the best and providing better goods or services.

Such are the business people, of whatever race or gender, who create a growing economy, jobs and wealth.

Those who petulantly wish to confiscate what others have achieved or campaign jealously for racist laws to limit competition, will create nothing beyond ill-gotten gains for a few cronies. For the country and the vast majority of its people, they will create only poverty.

Government cannot create wealth; it is a consumer of wealth. The best it can do for South Africa, is to create an environment where business confidence can blossom - where anybody with initiative and capital will be keen to start or expand a business.

It would be easy to ignore Ms Qunta's folly, but much of what she says is government policy. So we cannot ignore it. We have to fight the neo-apartheid that is threatening our economy and our country's future.

And we don't have the five decades it took to defeat the old apartheid.