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Bobby Godsell drives a new plan for South AfricaHe is a unique South African phenomenon – a white “big business” captain who is trusted and respected by black labour.
He helped revolutionise labour relations in the country while working for Anglo American, the company that at the time – more than any other – represented white control of South Africa’s wealth.
He played a pivotal role in South Africa’s constitutional negotiations and was instrumental in the creation of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
In between, he created one of the largest gold-mining companies in the world.
Yet, philosophy is the thing that really gets him going.
Now Bobby Godsell, philosopher-businessman extraordinaire, is driving a new plan for South Africa. Called “Vision 2040”, it seeks to transform South Africa rapidly from a developing to a developed nation over the next three decades.
The plan came about after President Jacob Zuma expressed his desire for a meeting of business and labour leaders for South Africa to become a developed nation. The chief executive officers of the 70 largest South African business organisations – who together comprise the organisation Business Leadership SA or BLSA (the former South Africa Foundation), of which Godsell is the chairperson – seized the idea.
From it came what now is loosely referred to as Vision 2040.
A word of warning to the pessimists who might say that it would be impossible: Few gave Godsell any chance back in the 1980s of achieving in labour relations what he did with a militant black labour movement from the disadvantaged position of being a white man working for the ultimate symbol of white capitalism under the hawkish rule of PW Botha’s white government.
Yet, he is loathe to claim any such credit or talk about himself, seeming far more at ease talking about the vision or the role of others in bringing it to fruition.
Godsell and his fellow business leaders believe that to achieve developed nation status within 25 to 30 years, it is necessary to set a target of doubling gross domestic product per person in tandem with the aims for reducing poverty and inequality.
He says there is nothing magical about a period of 30 years: the “timescale is important, as we are talking about a generation, 25 to 30 years”. Shorter timescales of up to five or 10 years, he says, are not long enough to do anything really important. Change mostly comes during the course of a generation.
“To change education, you need to train new teachers. It takes agnation. To change the skills base of any economy requires a generation. To build new institutions in a society or an economy takes a generation. So anything shorter will be unrealistic,” he says.
“It’s time to renew the South African dream. It’s been 20 years since we were in a time of transition, a time of enormous danger and great achievements. We did not destroy the country, and indeed, over the last 20 years, enormous progress has been made in all sorts of areas.
“But we did not arrive at the promised land where all South Africans can have a good life,” Godsell adds.
“For a society to dream is a collective and communal dream. You cannot merely look at one person or one institution. We came up with a collective vision during the transition. Now we need to do it again. Like the Dinokeng Scenarios suggest, we should be working together.
“But there is much waiting going in South Africa: waiting for the government, for this or that. We should be following through, doing things. But that is just one strand. A society in change is a much more organic thing,” he says.
“Labour is another strand. The faith-based communities are too. To have a healthy society, every piece of the puzzle needs to be healthy.
“So it is something we all have to do together. Nobody, least of all the business community, can claim to renew the dream on its own,” Godsell adds.
Another aim of the BLSA’s vision is to provide a unifying theme beyond the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup, and to counter the sense of cynicism and defeatism prevailing in many quarters.
“It is a giant vision of a South Africa with a US$20 000 GDP per capita,” says Godsell. “If we achieve that, it means in aggregate we would have twice as much wealth; and secondly, it will mean that wealth has been shared much more equitably.”
Vision 2040, however, is not a document or a blueprint of any kind. “It is a conversation that we have started with ourselves,” says Godsell. “Now we need to talk to other sectors of our society.”
But just how does BLSA go about its activities? Godsell explains that once every six weeks, BLSA has a meeting attended typically by about 50 out of the 70 CEOs. Discussed are national issues of a social, political and economic kind which affect the environment in which businesses operate.
Working groups are created around specific issues. Each major issue is allocated to one CEO, who then champions thought and action on that particular issue.
In this way, Jayendra Naidoo – who sits on various boards – is championing the energy issue.
In the case of healthcare, it is Mark Cutifani, current CEO of AngloGold Ashanti.
Massmart’s Mark Lamberti chairs Business Against Crime, which was set up specifically to tackle the issue of crime.
Skills development is being led by Pat Davies of Sasol.
BLSA also sponsors research from time to time and will engage with the government on issues.
In the Millennium Labour Council, it is engaged in debates with labour.
Godsell envisages that he and Michael Spicer, another former Anglo executive who now is the CEO of BLSA, will spend the rest of this year and part of next year talking to successful South African businesspeople and ask them the question: What made you successful in the past, and what will it require to double your business in the future?
Godsell and Spicer have come a long way together, working as a team at Anglo in the 1980s. Godsell says he attributes the strength of BLSA largely to Spicer’s leadership.
Asked who else is or has been on the Godsell team, he names those serving on the executive committee of BLSA.
He pauses and gives his trademark little chuckle and says: “There is a joke about God creating Brazil, and other Latin American countries complaining of the too much beauty which had been given to that one land. ‘But wait until you see the people’, is God’s punch line.
“In South Africa’s case, I think the reverse is true. Our redemption is indeed our people. And not simply those who get the headlines but ordinary people.”
“We are a nation of quiet heroes. The mother who works as a domestic cleaner and puts her kids through a model C school and university.
“The township entrepreneur building a business in a very tough neighbourhood. The housewives from the leafy suburbs working in the city hospice and Aids orphanages. Business leaders like Anton Rupert, Harry Oppenheimer and many others worked together to get rid of the pass laws, and indeed to help make negotiated change possible. The Cyril Ramaphosa’s of this world, and the Jay Naidoo’s, the Tito Mboweni’s and Trevor Manuel’s all achieved positions of huge power in this new South Africa and exercised this power with wisdom and constructive effect,” he says.
The discussions that Godsell and Spicer will be having with businesspeople across the board will focus furthermore on the appropriate legislative, regulatory, infrastructure and market conditions required to achieve the goals of Vision 2040.
Godsell believes even more can be achieved if the target were expanded to include the Southern African Development Community, or even the Common Market of East African States, which would create an economy worth about $800 billion.
To achieve the vision, South Africa requires growth of 5% to 6%. But there is concern, however, that while South Africa is ready for a new vision, the debates are focusing too much on specific policy issues, such as the one around nationalisation started by ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, rather than on finding the correct vehicles for delivery.
When, a few months ago, Godsell resigned as chairperson of Eskom following the debacle around the on-off resignation of Eskom’s then CEO Jacob Maroga, it was everyone’s favourite political clown Malema and the Black Management Forum (BMF) who made unflattering remarks about the “racist” Godsell, and refused to accept that Maroga had resigned.
It was another long-time associate of Godsell’s in the business-labour arena, Zwelinzima Vavi, secretary-general of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and co-chair with Godsell of the Millennium Labour Council, who sprang to his defence and slated Malema and the BMF.
“He is definitely not a racist and he definitely supports transformation,” said an indignant Vavi at the time.
Asked about Malema, Godsell says: “I don’t want to comment on Malema in particular, but rather express a concern about a part of our public discourse in which issues are personalised and people are demonised.
“The vast majority of our people share common concerns about poverty and unemployment and crime. We also share a desire to see our country become prosperous, with the resources to offer every citizen a decent life. Our debates should be about the means to address our concerns and realise our dreams. Bully-boy language from any quarter will not get us there.”
Godsell is adamant that nationalisation should not be part of the debate and is on record as saying that nationalisation would serve absolutely no point. He asks the question why one would want to take enormous state resources to own something that already is regulated very comprehensively by the state; and that while there is not one example of a successful nationalised mining sector in the world.
Having created one of the world’s largest gold-mining companies, Godsell should know better than the man-child politician Malema – who is also a recently converted fan of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe – what successful mining is all about.
Godsell’s ‘political pedigree’ also stands out. During his time at Anglo, he played a key role in the constitutional negotiations at Kempton Park in the early ‘90s. During that time, he forged a good friendship with former trade unionist Cyril Ramaphosa, then the ANC’s chief negotiator who later became a successful businessman and is now an executive committee member of the ANC.
Godsell was able to engage business with the government and labour – at a time when all were rather skeptical of each other – in what eventually would emerged as Nedlac. It was during that time that Godsell persuaded big white business that it needed to become involved in developing appropriate legislation for South Africa’s transitional period.
It is no coincidence that all these activities in which Godsell engaged were marked always by a distinct philosophical bent – Godsell is also honorary professor at Wits Business School where he teaches Philosophy of Management courses.
“Philosophy is thinking about thinking. The near collapse of the global financial system in 2008 illustrates vividly the need for men and women in business to reflect on how to create wealth honestly and use wealth constructively.
“These are the debates I am seeking to encourage at the business school where I teach,” he says. Which ties in well with the vision he has for a future South Africa.
But how does one avoid being negative about the prospects of success for Vision 2040, given the many current obstacles?
“For much of my adult life, I have lived with both the fear and expectation of an apocalypse: a racial civil war. The apartheid project deserved such an outcome. Yet, we avoided this.
“And not only as a product of inspired national leadership – De Klerk and Mandela – but at least as much because ordinary South Africans, black and white, rose to the promise of a peaceful transition,” he says.
Stef Terblanche
Together the sa "boer" & sa Blackman can recreate a second AMERICA of Africa.Highlighting that all nations are welcome as investors,participants rights will be recognised and honoured they can report double digit returns to shareholders annually back home for decades.
However they the Chinese,Europeans,Nigerians & Americans are first and foremost guests in this county our land.
And we need to unify our efforts yesterday! to achieve the local dream.
This places a honourable and huge burden on this generation to work twice as hard and sacrifice twice as much to achieve the set objectives set out in Godsells article.
The Jewish nation did it and look how well they are doing as a "people" you can only respect the results derived from such a game plan.