US President Lyndon Johnson was a bully, a crude loudmouth, and an exceptional politician who, in the 1960s, drove through much of America’s Civil Rights legislation. One of his most memorable aphorisms concerned then-FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, and whether or not Hoover, a highly dubious individual, should be fired. “It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in,” said Johnson, according to the New York Times several years later.
It’s a phrase that has stuck and I was thinking about South Africa’s version of the Johnsonian tent last week. I was invited to attend a very select and private gathering of business leaders. So private, in fact, that I can’t even tell you where it took place, let alone who was there. Suffice it to say that there were at least five business men and women in the room whose net worth is far in excess of R100m, and one or two others who are approaching that. All are active players, with three of the number intimately associated with JSE Top 40-listed companies. Heavy hitters, in other words.
Together, we spent three hours discussing democracy in South Africa over the last 20 years, and where we are now, ahead of the May election. Again, the rules of the gathering prevent me from going into a great deal more detail, but suffice it to say that there was a general disenchantment with the current leadership of the ANC government, especially with regard to things like service delivery, and the formulation of policy towards business. As you might expect, government’s involvement in parastatals like SAA, Eskom and Transnet was also sharply criticised.
A member of the ANC’s National Executive Committee present asked why business had not committed more publicly to the National Development Plan? His question was met with skeptical glances and one of the guests pointed to all of the other plans – the RDP, GEAR, ASGISA and so on – which had been trumpeted enthusiastically and then discarded.
All quite predictable and nothing that had not been said many times in other forums, so I don’t believe I’m breaking confidence by sharing this with you.
But then came an important question from the former CEO of one of those major parastatals. He began by reminding us that during the 2008 financial crisis in the US, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had worked hand-in-glove with US Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke. As you would have expected and as Bernanke himself confirmed, in person, at the Discovery Leadership Summit in Sandton some weeks back. Paulson, our questioner reminded us, prior to becoming Treasury Secretary, had been CEO of Goldman Sachs, the hugely influential US bank. As such, when the crisis started to unfold, he was able to open his contact book and find every major player in banking, not just in the US, but around the world. And when Paulson picked up the phone to talk to these bankers, he could speak their language. He was ‘one of them’, in fact.
In the US, remarked our questioner, this movement between jobs in big business and government is not at all unusual, and, in his opinion, it makes for much smoother relations and a better understanding between all concerned. He came to the point: why was it, then, that here in South Africa so few senior business leaders went into politics or government in the same way? As he posed the question, he looked directly at the business titans. They stared impassively back at him.
Fair point, I thought, and into my mind immediately leapt the image of President Johnson’s tent. We go round this again and again, and have done since 1994. If you are unhappy with the ANC’s performance in government, what, apart from voting for the opposition, are you doing to change it? What, apart from voting for an opposition party, which, given the size of the ANC’s majority, is a fairly futile exercise? What, apart perhaps from funding opposition parties, were the business leaders present at this gathering doing? (I have no idea, by the way, if they are or are not donating money to any or all of the political parties.)
Hasn’t the time come for every South African disgruntled by the ANC’s performance to join the party and change it from within? Hasn’t the time come for every business leader that wants to shape economic or fiscal policy to do the same? We’ve had 20 years of democracy, yet business and government are getting further and further apart.
Paulson was a fair example where a businessman in government performed well, at least to a point, and there are, of course, plenty of disasters – Thaksin Shinawatra in Thailand and Silvio Berlusconi in Italy are two. But to carry on as we are right now, doing and saying the same things, and to expect a different result – well, we know that’s madness.
We need to be inside the tent. All of us, business included.