By Annisa Essack
27:07:2021

The Commission for Employment Equity has released its 21st Report, highlighting the statistics around progress on equitable movement in the workplace. Corporate transformation in South Africa remains one of the most significant challenges in unlocking the true potential of our human capital and economy. Monde Ndlovu, Head of advocacy and Thought Leadership at the Black Management Forum, spoke to Radio Islam International, explaining firstly what corporate transformation was and the main findings of the Report.

The Black Management Forum has been focusing on developing and advocating for creating a critical mass of black managers and leaders who will utilise their talent to lead complex business environments and strive for economic inclusion, leading to economic growth.

This year’s Report again continues to see white men still dominating top echelons of leadership. Ndlovu also discusses how disadvantaged groups in the contract were not allowed to express their talent in managing skills and leadership to effectively unlock their potential.

He further expresses that this potential has never been utilised by the country before, thereby marginalising the businesses themselves. They are not availing themselves to the pool of skills and talent, nor are they developing them.

Ndlovu tackles “corporate guerrillas”, or how Black managers survive within a hostile corporate environment. Dr Blade Nzimande, based his thesis on the subject, left the corporate space for academia.

According to Ndlovu, the primary beneficiary of transformation is the organisation. When the organisation begins to transform and begins to look like the society it benefits, it attracts more customers.

Another finding in the Report showed that Whites and Indians in the top management level were getting deliberate training and promotions. The picture was the same regarding promotions, recruitment and training, which was skewed towards white people,

Ndlovu points out that business thinking is still old order and still trying to maintain their social power. He added that in time the small pool of leadership and developing from a small provision means that if these numbers don’t move significantly in the private sector, in the top four and management levels, some of these businesses won’t have managerial skills,

According to Ndlovu, to embrace transformation for what it means will see a change in performance in businesses which will further affect the economy.

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