R ecently we participated in the 30th Anniversary and Corporate Gala Dinner of the Black Management Forum (BMF). Among other things, the distinguished participants at this Dinner convened to celebrate the establishment of the BMF 30 years ago, in 1976, the year of the Soweto Uprising.
This occasion confirmed that the BMF was established as part of the revolt of the oppressed masses of our country against apartheid, and remains, to this day, an organisation of professionals dedicated to the cause of the genuine and all-round emancipation of our people.
The BMF is therefore faced with the critical challenge to discharge its obligations as one of the central architects of the new South Africa that is striving to be born.
And yet ahead of the Gala Dinner, the founding President of the BMF, Eric Mafuna, made some critical remarks about the BMF, which all of us must take seriously. In particular he said:
Another founder member of the BMF, Reuel Khoza, said, "I submit that the challenge facing BMF, 30 years after its inception, is how to effectively combat the forces of institutional entropy that, seemingly inevitably, undermine organisational effectiveness and sap institutional vitality. We dare not allow BMF to atrophy."
A newspaper report quoted one of the former Presidents of the BMF, Bheki Sibiya, as saying that "there was a need to implement broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) properly". He said: "Economic growth is sanity, poverty alleviation is reality. For us if BBBEE does not contribute very significantly to the reduction of poverty, there are some people who will come to our graves and spit at them, however rich we may be...It is imperative we partner with people who need 'our hand up' to succeed."
The celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the establishment of the BMF draws sharp focus to the need for the national democratic revolution to pay particular attention to an important echelon of our national leadership -the Managers, (elsewhere described after the pre-democratic revolution Chinese Confucian professional, and highly educated senior public servants, as "the Mandarins").
In Chapter 10, our Constitution imposes serious obligations on our "Public Administration". These prescriptions emphasise the critical importance of 'the Mandarins' to the effort to achieve the fundamental social transformation of our country. The Constitution says that the principles that must inform the functioning of our Public Administration include:
Our Public Administration consists of more than one-and-a-quarter-million people. In terms of responsibility and skill, its members range from our Directors General, corporate CEOs and professionals, to 'span' managers and unskilled workers. The state entity described as our Public Administration is the biggest and most complex multi-task organisation in our country.
In terms of our Constitution, this Public Administration has the responsibility, among other things, to help:
Obviously, an organisation as big, varied and differentiated as our Public Administration, and charged with the task to contribute to the fulfilment of these fundamentally important tasks, requires a skilled, educated and dedicated leadership cadre.
It needs at its head its own 'Mandarins' - the skilled managerial leadership without which it cannot function as one coherent machine, loyal to the Public Administration principles specified in our Constitution - as well as the overall leadership of the national democratic revolution.
With regard to what we have just said, there are some who belong within the broad democratic movement, who see this as a threat to genuinely progressive change. Accordingly, these descry what they describe as "a powerful political-technical-managerial centre within the state, focused around the presidency with close ties to key departments, notably Treasury and Trade and Industry".
This opinion is further reinforced by the assertion that "(an unacceptably) strong presidential centre within the state...(has as) its leading cadre...a new political elite (state managers and technologically-inclined ministers) and (often overlapping with them) a new generation of black private sector BEE managers/capitalists."
The fact of the matter, however, is that the national democratic revolution will not succeed without training, developing and putting in positions of authority its own 'Mandarins', properly defined.
In this regard we must emphasise that none of these Mandarins need be members of the ANC. Indeed it is prohibited that anybody should be admitted into, or excluded from the ranks of the Public Administration, on the basis of their membership of, or attitude towards the ANC.
However, as part of the public sector "political-technical-managerial centre", our 'Mandarins' must necessarily be committed to the objectives reflected in our Constitution, to build a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa, committed to promoting the liberty, equality and human dignity of each and everyone of our citizens.
The leader of the Russian Revolution, Lenin, entitled one of his last significant writings, published in 1923, "Better fewer, but better". In this treatise, written five years after the victory of the Russian Revolution, he addressed the challenges of establishing an efficient and effective developmental state machinery, arguing that without this, the revolution would fail. Among other things he said:
We have set ourselves the task to achieve a better life for all. In this context, we have resolved that through the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative (ASGISA), we will achieve an economic growth rate of 6% and more. This will require that we continue to restructure, modernise and expand our economy, and improve its international competitiveness.
The democratic state will continue to play an important role with regard to the realisation of these objectives, to promote the goals of the reduction and eradication of unemployment, poverty and underdevelopment.
At the same time, within the context of a mixed public and private sector economy, the democratic state will continue to do everything possible to persuade and influence its social partners, business, labour and civil society, practically to engage these challenges.
In this regard, our government recognises the important reality that especially in all its ranks, covering all spheres of government, it needs a properly empowered management and professional echelon, truly committed to the fundamental social transformation of our country.
In this regard, we must agree with Reuel Khoza that an important national institution, such as the BMF, must join the struggle "effectively (to) combat the forces of institutional entropy that, seemingly inevitably, undermine organisational effectiveness and sap institutional vitality. We dare not allow BMF to atrophy."
In this context, we must respond to the challenge placed at our feet by Eric Mafuna, when he said: "We are reaping the benefits of democracy, but we have stopped planting."
Our democratic state must continue to pay attention to the challenge to develop an effective and relevant Public Administration, led by our own special 'Mandarins'.
Recognising the fact that ours is a mixed economy, our government will also continue to engage the "new generation of black private sector BEE managers/capitalists", as well as the old generation of managers and capitalists, to encourage them to contribute to the central objective of providing a better life for all our people.
In this regard, as practical revolutionaries, we will continue to work hard to produce the public and private sector 'Mandarins' we need, who "have (all the) elements of knowledge, education and training" that do not signify that "they are ridiculously inadequate compared with all other countries", to use Lenin's words.
Our congratulations to the BMF on this 30th Anniversary therefore also constitute a call both to the public and the private sectors, that our national challenges, based in good measure on building a successful economy, capable of addressing the needs of the people, requires that we put in the appropriate command positions, properly prepared 'Mandarins'.
