What a week it has been. I got to deliver a keynote at Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London. I was asked to stand-in at the last minute for Sir Jan du Plessis, the former chairman of SABMiller, Rio Tinto, BT, RHM and British American Tobacco whose family had suffered an awful bereavement. The Lord Mayor’s theme this year is: “Connect to Prosper.” The annual gala dinner of the South African Chamber of Commerce in the UK coincided with the inauguration of President Cyril Ramaphosa. It was a night of reflection, relief and a chance to reignite a mutually beneficial relationship between the business communities of the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Here is what I said:
“Lord Mayor, in a world where people see what they believe rather than believe what they see, it’s possible to see your “Connect and Prosper” theme from various angles…
The Gupta’s took one particular view on that statement.
THEY connected and THEY prospered.
Until it was stopped.
South Africa has chosen a new path over the past week in/for a country where the research shows vast majority of people want a chance to connect and prosper – not watch a small handful fill their pockets at their expense…
I may have been guilty of harping on about the rugby earlier…but we do also excel at our other very specific national sports
- Football…mostly scoring own goals
- Tap-dancing…on the abyss of our own potential self-destruction
- Shooting…ourselves in the foot
We hope and trust we will play fewer of those games into the future….
For those of you who have had children – you know that by the third trimester, you need to have a grab bag stored close to the front door…
Ideally you might also have done a few test runs at different times of the day so that you have a good idea of the best routes to get to the hospital should the baby arrive sooner rather than later.
I was wondering whether in the diplomatic corps there is a similar practice in the case of uncertain election outcomes?
Whether there is a grab bag and whether the High Commissioner tested the quickest route to Heathrow.
Now I have no evidence of this being the case at all – but the South African High Commissioner Kingsley Mamabolo sends his apologies as he has been called away on urgent business.
It’s a great pity – because tonight is in many respects the most perfectly timed celebration of a country which has once again lived up to my favourite Brand South Africa tagline: “Alive with possibility.”
South Africaso elegantly demonstrated what was possible in the first 15 years of ANC government as the country was welcomed back into the international fold, as investors flooded into the country and growth rates of around 5% became common and saw millions of jobs created bringing that commodity which became so scarce in the subsequent 15 years – HOPE…
If the price of the High Commissioner’s absence here tonight is the amplification of the possible. Then we should accept that as a higher calling.
Tonight is a celebration of that: Connect and Prosper.
And the continuation of a long, and sometimes fractious relationship between our countries.
We have plenty of evidence which shows our collaboration has delivered more for humanity than our periods of conflict.
I was walking through parliament square the other day and saw four/twelve statues there have a direct connection to South Africa.
There is Nelson Mandela of course.
There is Mahatma Ghandi who practiced law in Johannesburg before becoming instrumental in India’s struggle for independence.
He’d served as a stretcher bearer at the battle of Spionkop where another of the figures immortalized in that square, Winston Churchill, had been as a young reporter.
And the fourth figure in parliament square is Jan Smuts.
Smuts who’d been Attorney General to the ZAR during the South African war of 1899-1902,which left deep scars in in its wake.
But it was a sense of something bigger than themselves that would see Boer leaders like Smuts and General Louis Botha, who while absent from parliament square was also present with Churchill and Ghandi at the battle of Spionkop in January 1900.
Together Botha and Smuts did something that seemed unlikely just 12 years after that bloody war ended – they led a divided South Africa into a collaborative relationship with Britain, a country which many still regarded as the enemy.
There was an armed rebellion –it was not easy.
Their decision was not universally supported, but they held firm. They did the right thing and South Africans would play a critical role in Africa and the battle fields of Europe pushing back against German imperialism.
Smuts and Churchill would go on to become fast friends and crucial collaborators in Britain’s Darkest Hour as it stood alone for a while against European fascism.
Tonight we join together in a spirit of unity for the love of a country that has to contend with deep and painful divisions.
Where economic growth has barely been above 1% over the past decade.
Where per capita incomes have shrunk over that time.
A country possessed with a creative and robust private sector which could do so much more to drive growth and hope for the future.
A country led by a billionaire often accused of being far removed from the daily reality of their citizens who struggle to make ends meet.
A country desperate to rebuild a broken health system, where public transport is fraying at the edges, where roads are crumbling and even water supplies are at risk.
A country obsessed with politics, but low on engagement at the ballot box
A country where until recently leaders have become more interested in the party they serve than the country which needs them…
Why?
Because they know their party can fire them at any point.
Their party’s recent history has shown it will remove leaders which no longer serve the short-term needs of the party…
As not only Theresa Maybut also Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have learned to their cost.
Oh.
Sorry.
That is my introduction for the British Chamber next week.
But that does demonstrate that we have many, many things in common.
Both countries need fresh and innovative thinking to apply to seemingly intractable problems, both will learn that it is better to connect and prosper – than descend to petty politicking.
This era will be remembered for change.
Based on Liz Truss’s book sales, I don’t expected too many new UK political biographies for a while.
However, I have no doubt the books are already being written about the backroom dealings over the past month as the ANC fell below 50% and the battle for the soul of South Africa took place.
The realization that you cannot have high a functioning economy and thriving business sector in a perpetually dysfunctional political environment became increasingly apparent in the Zuma years.
If you missed it I urge you to read Tim Cohen’s wonderful take on the Daily Maverick website on the negotiations of the past ten days, drawing from his favourite TV series Succession where the patriarch of a family media dynasty tells his children who try to gang up on him that he will not budge because “they are not serious people…”
Cyril Ramaphosa, for all of the frustration many feel about his ability to be decisive, invited all parties with support to discuss the future – MK did not turn up – the EFF made outlandish demands and refused to share government with the DA.
Tim writes that this was the time for serious people to stand up and be counted…the ANC found itself able to do business with the DA and the IFP and you are seeing provincial governments being structured along the lines of what is likely to play out at national level.
I dropped a message to Tony Leon this week and said: “Now the hard work begins…”
His reply: “That’s what I just told JS….John Steenhuizen.
Nothing is certain.
Other than South Africa has been given yet another opportunity to take itself away from tap dancing on the edge, shooting ourselves in the foot and scoring own goals.
In recent years we have seen belated but brave and increasingly successful efforts by public and private sector players to work together to put back together the pieces of critical state-owned infrastructure…
Unlike Humpty Dumpty, there are some very encouraging signs that it IS being put back together again.
The biggest upside in the recent South African elections is that no party got what it wanted.
And that has forced a realignment that few would have thought possible – certainly ten years ago it would have seemed impossible.
South Africa is indeed Alive with Possibility..
Friday’s parliamentary sitting at which MP’s were sworn in and key posts filled, plus the broad agreement by the ANC, DA and IFP to work together in the public interest is courageous.
They are not collaborating because they want to.
They are doing it because they have no choice.
They are like the married couple who live in a beautiful home that’s mortgaged to the hilt with two SUV’s on a lease in the garage and while they cannot stand the sight of one another they stay because they stand to lose more by being apart than tolerating each other’s presence.
That makes it tetchy.
There will be occasional loud outbursts.
Times of sullen silence.
Family photos are likely to exhibit obvious tensions.
Especially if another party looks like they might be on their best behaviour to woo one of those in the relationship away and form a new co-habitation agreement.
For now at least, they are grinning and bearing it, knowing they are doing it for the kids.
It was a quote I was assured was by Jan Smuts, but his most recent biographer tells me it might have been in a letter to Smuts where a correspondent said something along the lines of “South Africa is that frustrating place where things are seldom as bad as they could be, but never as good as they should be.”
Maybe…just maybe…80 something years later…this time it’s different.”