Be patriotic and lean into the rainbow nation, urges business leader

NICOLA MILTZ

“There is no quick fix. But the new dawn begins with a partnership to end corruption in SA. With everybody putting shoulder to the wheel to invest in a better future,” he told the SA Jewish Report this week.

Coleman is one of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s go-to men when it comes to the South African economy. The inner workings of the market, politics, banking, and global capital is what makes him tick.

He has travelled a long road since his student activist days as leader of the National Union of South African Students (Nusas) when he met the young Ramaphosa, then head of trade union federation Cosatu during the crucial, politically tense mid-1980s.

Coleman has a clear picture of what a great South Africa will look like. “The South African dream is really the rainbow nation working for everyone. A nation where everyone is participating in a non-racial democracy, in a thriving economy, effectively growing a middle class that participates in the socio-economic benefits of democracy, of freedom.” Sadly he says, “We are a long way off that dream.”

He says that in 24 years of democracy, the country experienced 14 years of remarkable buoyancy. First, there was an economic recovery from a broken system, then there was significant progress, with growth on average of 3.2% through that period, with the upper end of the growth period hitting 5% at the end of the Mbeki period.

“Unemployment was not coming down as fast as one would’ve liked, but it was 21%, and moderating downwards,” he says.

Unfortunately, then the wheels came off.

“We had the double whammy of the 2008 financial crisis, where 1 million jobs were lost, and Polokwane, which effectively delivered a decade of growing institutional corruption and decay of the state.”

Unemployment is now 27.5%, narrowly defined.

Following the Zuma decade, “We now have to reform the state, modernise state-owned enterprises, create investment, and create a culture of clean democracy. We have to recapture non-racialism, because the Zuma years really polarised racial conflict.”

For the past two and a half years Coleman, former Investec Chief Executive Stephen Koseff, and other business heavy-weights have worked tirelessly to address youth unemployment.

The overwhelming majority of those who have won their political freedom remain locked out of the economy, Coleman says, with “nine million people not working who would like to, and more than 50% of those being youth”.

“For the black majority, democracy has delivered political freedom without economic benefit.”

It’s not all negative, but far from the dream, he says. Partnerships are what will get South Africa back on track, and the CEO Initiative is part of this. “Many Jewish-founded businesses are part of the CEO Initiative,” he said.

Under the leadership of Jabu Mabuza, representatives from business, labour, and the government are working together with urgency to transform the economy and stimulate inclusive and sustainable growth.

As part of the CEO Initiative, Mabuza asked Coleman and Stephen Koseff to investigate ways of addressing youth unemployment, which gave birth to the Youth Employment Service (YES) initiative, launched by Ramaphosa in March this year.

“The idea behind YES is to get one million young interns into businesses over three years, or 330 000 interns a year, doing a one year paid internship. The government has gazetted a set of incentives for businesses to take people in,” Coleman said.

He insists that the Jewish community has a vital role to play in making South Africa great.

The community, he says, should “lean into the rainbow nation” and commit to making a lasting contribution to the country.

“The community needs to participate in giving oxygen to the rainbow nation. It’s a cultural, social, economic, and political project. The community, in its economic life, needs to be inclusive of South Africans, employ people, reach out, be innovative, create consumer products which people can participate in, and help grow the economy.” 

Coleman urged the community to “create the future you want. Don’t complain about the future you won’t get.”

One of the ways the community can play its part is to get involved in YES.

“Depending on the size of the business, get your businesses to take on small, medium, or large numbers of people as part of YES.

“The best way for the Jewish community to argue its corner is to behave as patriotic citizens in the first place. The more people participate in society and government, and in partnering in various ways, the more those voices will resonate and be able to carry a voice on other issues.” 

Coleman says Ramaphosa is universally highly regarded, but the real issue isn’t Ramaphosa and his leadership, it’s whether he can create momentum and support around him to succeed with his plans.

Coleman stresses that next year’s election is “a big moment”.

“Do we stick with our historic racial voting patterns in the country, or do we get behind Ramaphosa and his party as the best hope for non-racialism in SA?” he asks.

He believes that should the ANC get more than 60% of the vote under Ramaphosa’s leadership, he will have a broad and powerful mandate to govern, to get the Cabinet of his choosing, to put in place the policies of his choosing, to effectively rid himself of corrupt people, and through that, to drive SA forward. “If he gets less than 50%, I think he is going to be in an extremely compromised position from a political point of view.”

“We’re going to go through tough times, this is not going to be seamless. The pity about the Mandela and Mbeki years is that people took the seamless transition, and the period of growth and non-racialism for granted. What unfolded in the Zuma decade revealed the ability of those who don’t participate to seize the political system to gather resources for themselves. And to be destructive.”

Now, he says, South Africans need to re-create a future with everybody participating and benefitting.

“In times of greatest fear, the Jewish community has tended to live in its own ghetto instead of embracing the challenges,” Coleman says.

“During apartheid, the community was absent. I’ve lived through it. When my family members were detained, we were shunned by the Jewish community, we weren’t embraced. I’ve seen the Jewish community retreat under pressure, and we are going to have our pressure again.

“There is going to be a lot of uncomfortable things going on. It’s important to embrace, engage, and be part of the solution. The future you want for your children is the future you have to make.”