Mteto Nyati
BETTING
on a
DARKIE
Lifting the corporate game
KWELA BOOKS
To those born in difficult circumstances,
dealt a bad hand, or perceived as outsiders: in the end
what makes you are your choices.
Acronyms
ANC – African National Congress
AP – Asia Pacific
AZASO – Azanian Students’ Organisation
BEE – Black Economic Empowerment
BLSA – Business Leadership South Africa
BMF – Black Management Forum
BOLD – Building Organisational Leadership Depth
CBD – Central Business District
CEMA – Central Europe, Middle East and Africa
CEO – Chief Executive Officer
CFO – Chief Financial Officer
CIO – Chief Information Officer
COO – Chief Operations Officer
COSATU – Congress of South African Trade Unions
CSIR – Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
CWU – Communication Workers’ Union
CXO – C-level executives, such as CEO, CFO etc.
DG – Director-General
DTI – Department of Trade and Industry
EFF – Economic Freedom Fighters
EMEA – Europe, Middle East and Africa
EXCO – Executive Committee
GM – General Manager
HQ – Headquarters
HR – Human Resources
ICT – Information and Communication Technology
IITPSA – Institute of Information Technology Professionals of South Africa
ISO – International Science Olympiad
IT – Information Technology
JSE – Johannesburg Stock Exchange
LTE – Long Term Evolution
MBA – Master of Business Administration
MD – Managing Director
MK – Umkhonto we Sizwe
NDP – National Development Plan
NERSA – National Energy Regulator of South Africa
OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer
PRISM – Priority Setting Meeting
SALGA – South African Local Government Association
SITA – State Information Technology Agency
SMB – Small and Medium Business
STB – Set Top Box
TPS – Total Production Systems
USAASA – Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa
Company Names
Afrox – African Oxygen Limited
Altron – Allied Electronics Limited
Altech UEC – division of Altron
BCX – Business Connexion
Brait – investment holding company
Cell-C – SA mobile company
Cisco – Technology company
CRF – A company that accredits best employers
Dimension Data – IT company
Divpac – Diversified Packaging, division of Nampak
Eskom – Electricity Supply Commission
FNB – First National Bank
IBM – International Business Machines
Investec – specialist banking and asset management group
Microsoft – multinational technology company
MTN – Mobile Telephone Network
Nampak – packaging company
Nedbank – financial services group
Rain – mobile data-only network
SAB – South African Breweries
SAP – multinational software corporation
SAPPI – South African Pulp and Paper Industry
Standard Bank – financial services group
Tiger Brands – packaged goods company
Tastic Rice Corporation – division of Tiger Brands
TCM – Technology Corporate Management
Telkom – South African telecommunications provider
VCP – Value Capital Partners
Vodacom – mobile communications group
WBS – Wireless Business Solutions
Foreword
I am very pleased that Mteto Nyati decided to write this book and that Kwela Books agreed to publish it.
Towards the end of the book, the author refers to an opinion piece he wrote for the South African Sunday Times newspaper in November 2018, in which he said:
I had felt constrained during the Zuma years and, like many, had found it difficult to express an unequivocal position. Now I felt free to convey the importance of leaving positive footprints – of managing assets for future generations and preserving a legacy of values and ethics. And I wasn’t referring to business only. Government needed proper vision.
What Nyati meant by his emphasis on vision, values and ethics was elucidated by his insertion of a particular citation: the Preamble to our National Constitution, which begins, as we know – ‘We, the people of South Africa …’, and thus binds all of us to an agreed vision and a set of agreed values, ethics and objectives.
A re-reading of that Preamble tells us much about what has gone wrong during the last 25 years of our democracy. It is also a timely reminder of how much better our country will be when, together, we act in earnest and in a sustained manner to realise the objectives set out in that Preamble.
Nyati reminds us of the challenge we face: ‘The political space is a cacophony these days … Missing are voices of reason calling on South Africans to embrace their Constitution. We need leaders who can put forward a case for diversity and inclusion. It is not an easy message.’
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, ‘cacophony’ means ‘a harsh discordant mixture of sounds’. Indeed, emerging out of that cacophony are charges such as that ‘the negotiated 1994 settlement, obviously including the Constitution, was a betrayal of black people by Nelson Mandela and others’.
It speaks to his courage, honesty and depth of understanding that, despite this, and even in 2019, Nyati is still calling for the reconstruction and development of South Africa on the basis of ‘diversity and inclusion’.
Almost twenty years ago, in 2000, speaking in Port Elizabeth at that year’s National General Council (NGC) of the ANC as President of the organisation, I commented on the theme of the Council, which was about developing the kind of cadre our organisation and country needed.