Reflecting on 13 years as PCB CEO

Andrew Layman

When this article appears, I will be approaching my last day at the Pietermaritzburg Chamber which thirteen years ago offered me a new career.    I remain very conscious of the fact that the President at the time, Brenda Eckstein (who was the first female President of the Chamber) and the other leaders who appointed me, stuck their necks out to appoint someone who had no business background at all.   I subsequently heard of members who were most unhappy at the time.    Like most teachers, I had recognised the value of business people on a governing body only insofar as they could either advise on financial matters, about which most teachers know next to nothing, or provide much needed sponsorship.    In the chamber environment I soon found that business people were not especially interested in education and my early attempts to establish a forum where educational issues could be discussed came to nought.   Sadly, it remains a weakness of the business community.    Business peoples’ interest in education seldom extends beyond their own children and the schools they attend.   This is such a pity in South Africa, particularly, where we need a sound curriculum that balances general academic objectives with vocational realities.    As long as it is left to educational theorists alone to shape curricula we will not overcome the flaws in our school education.   The reality is, however, that Business shows very scant interest in making the sort of contribution that reflects economic and vocational needs which would add the required dimensions to what children learn at school.    In common with some others, I deplore the failure of the ANC’s original education and training policies which encompassed integration.    Readers may remember that the first Minister in 1994 held the portfolio of Education and Training.   This was soon undermined by precious educationists on the one hand and, possibly, the fear of empires being dismantled on the other.    Surely a way could have been found to preserve the excellence of some, if not all, of the training boards and very successful systems such as apprenticeship while also satisfying the academic aspirations of parents and pedagogues.

Members of the Chamber allowed me to entertain this ideal while they became accustomed to the fact that I had had considerable experience in administration and, as a result of my active participation in a teacher organisation, understood voluntary associations and the peculiar ways in which they work.  At the same time, they accommodated my ignorance about economic and business matters, indulging me no doubt when I expressed uninformed opinions.   I remain extremely grateful to the business people of Maritzburg for their willingness to give me a chance and to prove that I could manage their chamber successfully.

As I reflect on the early years I recognise how times have changed.   When BEE was first discussed in the Chamber there was strong resistance from traditional business people.   Over time this has changed.   It would be nice to believe that attitudes have changed because the economic emancipation of disadvantaged South Africans is the right thing to do, but this is naïve.   In no small measure, people have either bowed to the inevitable or recognised that the policy when it became broad-based was a route to more profitability.   Kicking and screaming at first, Business has saved Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment from abject failure.   Government has still not brought its procurement policies into line while companies, though not all admittedly, are verifying their status and playing the game.   It is unfortunate, I believe, that the private sector, as a consequence of its capitalist and largely traditional western mores, is too frequently identified as a scapegoat for transformational deficiencies.   Some companies have embraced the country’s transformation agenda with enthusiasm, but receive little credit for doing so.

The high point of my tenure was the unification of the former PCCI the Sakekamer and the Midlands Black Business Chamber.   It took a year to negotiate and finalise a constitution for a new organisation, but this was time well-spent as trust had to be, and was, built among people who were really very suspicious of one another.   In the end, the PCB was constituted with wide support and very little residual fallout.    It was always worth noting that the merger of Commerce and Industries that had taken place ten years earlier had been fraught with trauma.    Those of us who were involved in this process were pleased to give the city something worthwhile to boast about.   It was a time when we were on the verge of a spurt of local economic growth, the Council had begun to realise the importance of economic development as a precursor to poverty alleviation and the management of the city was improving steadily.    We did not expect this trend to be reversed during the same decade when self-servers came to power.    The dire straits of the Msunduzi Municipality do not bear further comment, but the Chamber, and I, remain hopeful that good sense and administrative efficiency will prevail in the longer term.   This is the capital city of the province after all, and it has not completely lost its considerable potential to fill this role in fact as well as in name.           

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