SA had ambitions to be a big player in global affairs, but was not mature enough, says Mamphela Ramphele.
|||SA had ambitions to be a big player in global affairs, but was not mature enough to earn its stripes, leading academic and businesswoman Mamphela Ramphele said at the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s 156th annual dinner on Thursday night.
She said SA needed more active citizenship to hold those in power to account and that when people like Nedbank chief Reuel Khoza spoke out, more people needed to stand up and voice their support.
“We have pretensions to be a global player. We have signed up as part of Brics (the Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA economic bloc). We want to be a major player in African and global affairs. That requires a level of maturity we have yet to demonstrate,” she said.
Ramphele cited SA’s “ambivalent relationships” with the rest of the African continent and the business sector’s indecisiveness in taking a stand against xenophobia.
“We also have to ask about the extent to which the private sector, which has such strong muscle, has exercised its corporate citizenship. During apartheid, the private sector played the role of a compliant partner with the government until the very end. When it attempted to push for reforms, they were too little, too late.”
Lessons from SA’s past meant the private sector needed to play a bigger role in transformation. SA had failed to use Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment to promote broader economic participation, she said.
The winners of the Alec Rogoff Broad-Based BEE Awards were announced at the dinner. Splendid Marketing, a firm wholly owned and managed by black women, won the small business of the year award. Suncoast Casino and Entertainment World won the large business category award.
The Economic Development and Tourism Department received the BEE project of the year award for its initiative in having all KZN government departments and public entities verified and rated for BEE.
This saw KZN becoming the first province to have annual BEE verification of provincial government entities.
The Durban Chamber initiated the awards together with BEE rating agency AQRate KZN and The Mercury to recognise KZN efforts at promoting BEE and transformation of the economy. - The Mercury