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It is time for ordinary citizens to become shareholder activists

07 December 2012 Gareth Stokes
Gareth Stokes, FAnews Online Editor

Gareth Stokes, FAnews Online Editor

We live in a wonderful country; but we still have to learn how to love it. This was the sentiment expressed by Dr Mamphela Ramphele during her address at the recent ‘unveiling’ of Alexander Forbes’ new premises at 115 West Street, Sandton. Ramphele is a l

Ramphele asked three questions of the financial services industry stakeholders gathered for the event: “As an insurer, how would your price the risk of South Africa Inc. As a shareholder, how would you rate the country’s prospects? And as a turnaround strategist, how would you tackle the challenges the country faces? Her musings around each of these questions provide food for thought for both ordinary and corporate citizens.

You must choose to be a ‘good’ student

2012 has been a tough year economically and will go down in history as a year during which South Africa’s credit rating was downgraded by all of the major ratings agencies. Our future hinges on how we respond to this ‘lesson’. Ramphele pointed out that the country had been praised and accommodated for so long over the 18 years since democracy that it was difficult to receive the message that our ‘grades’ were no longer good enough. Just like a student who is told they are failing a course, there are two ways we might respond...

In the case of the ‘bad’ student the initial feeling of shock quickly gives way to excuses or denials. “I have heard from some of my paid employees – government – the voices of bad students,” said Ramphele. Instead of accepting the message and righting the proverbial ‘ship’ many government officials have chosen to condemn or deflect the poor ratings performance. The challenge is for South Africa to behave like a ‘good’ student. “Good students will consider: Where have we gone wrong, what can we do to address what has gone wrong and what lessons are there for future performance,” she said. “The good student is likely to be rewarded by a rerating, whereas a bad student will go into decline – and perhaps even terminal decline”.

A world class constitution

South Africa has huge potential. Ramphele singled out our second-to-none constitution, creative and capable citizenry and wealth of mineral and natural resources as examples. “As an investor or shareholder in this country you would measure your investment performance in terms of this potential greatness,” she said. Unfortunately there is a wide gap between the potential for greatness and actual performance. There are five reasons for this ‘gap’.

“The first is the huge continuing underestimation of the challenges of the journey from the legacy we come from, to be functional as citizens, government and private sector in a constitutional democracy,” observed Ramphele. We cannot walk from one cultural dynamic to the next without some teething problems. A second glaring problem is that of native intelligence versus technical know-how. “The world does not work only on native intelligence,” she said. “You have to have evidence-based policy making and be able to implement in a logical fashion along with a scientific basis for the monitoring and evaluation of the changes you make”. We cannot make something work simply by “pushing harder”.

A third reason for our poor track record is that South Africans have underestimated the complexity of managing a modern democracy in the 21st Century. “Ours is a complex constitutional democracy paying out in an environment where global competition is merciless – nobody is going to cut you any slack – and we are entirely on our own,” she said. “We cannot rely on prayer and hope to get by”. Ramphele’s fourth concern is that South Africans are content with being members of a herd and are too afraid to make choices that philosophers describe as the choices that represent the birth of selfhood. “The fear of the unknown is obstructing the radical restructuring which is needed in our society,” she said. “But you cannot take a society shaped and engineered by socialism and Apartheid and suddenly emerge as if nothing has happened”.

The fifth and final point is that we refuse to face up to the lessons that history has taught us. Not one liberation organisation has transformed into a successful democratic government… “It is possible to radically change the socio-economic system into one which is more inclusive, but you must do that by understanding what makes for success and what makes for failure, and then apply what is relevant to your unique situation,” said Ramphele.

How to fix South Africa

The solution lies in each and every citizen – whether private or corporate – becoming a shareholder activist. “South Africans have not even begun to understand that they own South Africa – they are shareholders of this democracy – and if shareholders remain inactive then management will run away with the company,” she said. “We have nobody else to blame for the lack of accountability in our public services but ourselves – because we are not active!”

To right the ‘ship’ SA must call a shareholder meeting and make sure that each shareholder understands that they are the owners of the company… “It is not good enough to simply go and vote from time to time… You have to hold management accountable, keep a beady eye on their performance and insist on a scientific way to measure this”. South Africans need to engage in an active and open dialogue to chart the path towards a fundamental restructuring of their socio-economic landscape. The private sector has to move from being a spectator to becoming a central player in this change… And the “climate of confidence” required for investment must be provided by both the individual and corporate citizen.

“Greatness is there for South Africa to own,” concluded Ramphele. “We need to think and rethink our attitude to being citizens in a constitutional democracy. We need to educate ourselves about those rights and responsibilities and exercise them. We need to be active agents wherever we are in the socio-economic transformation (something that did not happen at the time it should have – in our transition to democracy). And we need to actively engage in making sure that SA takes its rightful place in the world and in Africa. Each one of us has a role to play. And it is only when we transform the image of ourselves as citizens, from active to passive, that we can make sure this country realises its full potential”.

Editor’s thoughts: South Africans are quick to complain when things are not going smoothly. We tend to focus on the negative and become overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problems we perceive in society. The solution is for each of us to adopt a positive attitude and make a difference wherever we can. Are you ready for active citizenship? Please add your comment below, or send it to gareth@fanews.co.za

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