Africans come together to
build a new future
During the early hours of Wednesday, October 8, the Government of Burundi
and the main armed rebel group in that country, CNDD-FDD, signed agreements
that will enable the latter fully to participate in the transitional
processes that will lead to the restoration of democracy in Burundi,
about twelve months from now.
At the conclusion of the signing ceremony, both President Ndayizeye
and the Legal Representative of the CNDD-FDD, Pierre Nkurunziza, solemnly
called on their armed formations to cease all hostilities.
All this marked an important moment in the advance of the people of
Burundi, the Great Lakes Region and Africa as a whole, towards peace,
stability and democracy.
Accordingly, we must extend a warm word of thanks
to President Domitién
Ndayizeye and the Government of Burundi, as well as Pierre Nkurunziza
and the CNDD-FDD, for the courage and patriotism they demonstrated when
they entered into compromises that opened the way to the conclusion of
their historic agreement.
The people of Burundi still face the challenge of bringing into the
peace process Palipehutu-FNL, the last remaining armed group outside
this process. However, this self-exclusion will not impede Burundi's
progress towards its renewal.
We are also certain that the combined forces of the government and the
rebel movements that have signed ceasefire agreements, will together
ensure that, at last, the people of Burundi live in conditions of peace.
The Arusha and Pretoria Agreements entered into by the political and
armed formations of Burundi are based on the critically important principle
that the people of Burundi must work together to bring peace to their
country, achieve national reconciliation, restore democracy, and, together,
address the challenges of poverty and underdevelopment, which have been
exacerbated by the protracted armed conflict.
The task ahead for the leaders of Burundi is to implement the agreements
they have entered into, inspired by their obligation to serve the masses
of the people. Our country will do its best to support the people of
Burundi both during the transitional period and beyond.
We must also take this occasion once more to salute the members of the
South African National Defence Force for the outstanding work they are
doing to contribute to the Burundi Peace Process. They have now been
joined by sister forces from Ethiopia and Mozambique, together to do
the necessary peacekeeping work. We are proud to be working side by side
with these fellow African forces to contribute in action to the realisation
of the African Renaissance.
Far away from Burundi, at Sun City in our own country, an important
meeting will take place over the weekend, just four days after the leaders
of Burundi signed their agreement in Pretoria in Tshwane. This is the
meeting of the black and white business organisations of our country.
After a long process of negotiations, there will be born at Sun City
two new business organisations, the Chambers of Commerce and Industry
SA (CHAMSA), and Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), these being the
united representatives of the entirety of our nation's business community.
Our business leaders, both black and white, have recognised the reality
that they face common challenges. They fully appreciate the fact that
they have a direct and immediate interest in the transformation of ours
into a non-racial country.
They fully understand that they share a common interest to end poverty
and underdevelopment in our country, and promote a better life for all.
This is good for business as business, but it is also good for business
as corporate citizens who need and benefit from conditions of peace and
social cohesion and stability.
Our business leadership has also understood the fact that it will be
better able to meet these goals if it acts together in unity, on the
basis of agreed principles and programmes. It is to give concrete expression
to this understanding that the Chambers of Commerce and Industry SA (CHAMSA),
and Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), will be formally launched at
Sun City, this weekend.
The formation of these organisations is an indication of the progress
our country has made away from its colonial and apartheid past. It is
not so long ago that it was difficult to imagine such a development in
the business sector, given our history, and its impact on the evolution
of our ideas, as well as the gross material inequalities between black
and white business.
Since black business was very much at the periphery of our economy,
concentrated mainly in the retail sector, and even unable to compete
against the white-owned supermarket chains in this sector, it seemed
clear that objectively, black and white business could not share the
same interests. It therefore seemed obvious that there was no basis for
them to come together in common organisations.
This was compounded by the fact that, historically, the business organisations
responded differently to the apartheid system. This was exemplified,
for instance, by the responses of NAFCOC on the one hand, and the South
African Foundation of the apartheid years, on the other.
In the years following the defeat of the apartheid system, levels of
optimism about the future among black business people have remained at
high levels. Fundamentally, this is for the obvious reason that the national
democratic revolution could not but benefit these black business people.
Every time they have spoken, at home and abroad, these have communicated
positive messages about our country.
On the other hand, some white business people
have been fearful of a democratic and non-racial South Africa. These
seemed to thrive on any
negative news that was broadcast or published. Any reported negative,
whether about crime, health, corruption, threats to media freedom, rape,
or anything at all, became the very essence of their "perception" about
our country. To them, the "miracle" of our transition from
white minority domination to democratic rule was too good to be true.
They convinced themselves that sooner rather than later, the country
would descend into a calamitous and violent collapse. Companies maintained
higher liquidity levels than were normal in other countries, keen to
keep high cash reserves in case they had to run. To escape the impending
catastrophe, some resettled elsewhere in the world. Some of these business
people seemed to think that they had a duty actively to communicate to
the rest of the world the most negative messages about our country they
could think of.
In this situation, it was inevitable that the historically black or
white business organisations would understand that they were separated
by a wide gulf with regard to their assessment of contemporary South
Africa, with regard to whether we faced a future of hope or not, and
with regard to the projection and vision of our future. The possibility
for them to come together, to unite in action and act in unity, did not
exist.
But what will happen at Sun City will communicate the important message,
practically, that our country, and not only our business community, has,
in the last nine years, taken giant steps forward towards realising the
objective shared by the overwhelming majority of our people, of building
a South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it, black and white.
The birth of CHAMSA and BUSA will both signify that we have indeed progressed,
as well as provide the national corporate sector with the institutions
it needs to take us further forward in our quest to build a new South
Africa.
These organisations will help us together successfully to:
- confront the challenge of achieving higher levels of economic growth
and development;
- achieve black economic empowerment, employment equity and the deracialisation
of our economy;
- address the challenges of developing our "second economy" out
of its condition of poverty and underdevelopment;
- ensure that we take our rightful place within the global economy;
- strengthen the participation of business within the national social
partnership, the people's contract, that is acting together to
realise a better life
for all our people; and,
- make our contribution to the development and renewal of our continent,
Africa.
In 1993, the Tutsi-dominated army of Burundi overthrew the democratically
elected government led by Hutu President Ndadaye, and killed him. This
marked the beginning of the military struggle that has led to the death
of 300,000 baRundi and the transformation of thousands more into refugees
and displaced people.
For many years, it seemed impossible that this war could come to an
end, except through the defeat of one side by the other. It seemed impossible
that the great divide could ever be bridged, defined as it was by the
violent overthrow of an elected government and the death of the chosen
leader of the majority of the people of Burundi.
But in the early morning hours last Wednesday, in Pretoria, the Burundi
belligerents signed an agreement that will enable them to work together
in the context of their own people's contract, to lead all the people
of Burundi towards a shared future of national reconciliation, peace,
democracy and prosperity.
What happened in Pretoria and what will happen at Sun City, are part
of the same powerful African movement of renewal that is bringing the
people of our continent, within and among countries, together, to ensure
that Africa truly claims the 21st as the African Century.
Contrary to these positive developments, the future of many of our workers
seems to be threatened by the strength of the Rand. The mining and the
clothing and textile industries, in particular, seem to have taken the
lead in promising serious job losses as a result of the appreciation
of the exchange value of our currency.
On September 30, the fund manager of Here Be Dragons, Peter Major, was
quoted as saying:
"Everyone is screaming about the strong
Rand, but this country has run its finances better than anyone else,
and that's how we've ended
up with a strong currency. All this is the fundamentals coming home to
roost - we were undervalued for 10 years, and the US was overvalued."
He went on to say that much of the outcry about the stronger Rand was
undermined by the fact that the South African mining companies are now
benefiting from a higher dollar gold price than they were in 2001, while
the Rand is now trading around 50 cents stronger than its 2001 R7,50:$1
average.
A recent report by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu says
the average cash cost of production in the South African gold mining
industry is $222/oz. The
(Mining) Industry Overview 2000 says that total production costs in gold
mining in our country stood at $240/oz, "making it the world's lowest
cost major producer." In the same year, the cash operating profits/metric
ton of the gold-mining industry were R64,71, with the average dollar/oz
price averaging $279,13, and the exchange rate at about R7:$1.
As ANC TODAY went to print, the dollar gold price was just over $370/oz,
almost $100 higher than it was in 2000. With this gap between costs and
gross revenues, in dollar terms, the gold mining companies will have
to explain more clearly and convincingly why the stronger Rand obliges
them to retrench workers.
A 2002 Internet article (minesite.com) on one of the gold companies
that have decided to retrench workers, allegedly because of the strength
of the Rand, says that in the last quarter of that year, the production
costs of this company were $186/oz. In this situation it is quite possible
that the issue of the strengthening of the Rand is being used to hide
other problems that have arisen because of bad management.
We had hoped that, at least, the corporate citizens who are proposing
or acting to bring despair to thousands of our working people and their
families, through retrenchments, allegedly because of the strength of
the Rand, would have had the decency to discuss this serious matter with
our government, before they made their announcements.
Apart from anything else, this would have demonstrated that they too
have joined the people's contract to build a better future for all our
people, black and white, to help move our country away from its terrible
past.
We wish the people of Burundi and the business people of our country
success as they work together, each in their specific sectors and regions,
to give birth to a new Africa of joy and hope for the ordinary people.
The vision they share, however different their histories and circumstances,
is what will determine the future of our countries and continent.
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