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More Sights and Sounds of Cape Town

South Africa is a country of multiple paradoxes, brought about in large part by its diverse racial and socio-economic history. Unlike its cousin Johannesburg to the north west, Cape Town has a centuries old history as it was established as a convenient pit stop for the seafaring Dutch traders who were en route to the Far East to trade in spices. On my second visit there this past Easter, I took the time to revel in the predictable and well-trodden touristy excursions.  But this time I chose to experience them through the lens of a visitor from an East African country, more specifically a Kenyan lens.

 

You see, in this beloved sun kissed country of ours, historical partiality has ensured that access to the sea front along the coast line is reserved for the favored few land and hotel owners. One can only see the beautiful beaches in the North and South Coast by entering one of the hotels, visiting a beach front private property or gaining access to the slivers of public beaches that would appear to have been begrudgingly provided to stifle the potential noise of the pedestrian proletariat.  As we weaved our way south, out of the city towards Cape Point, we drove along a road that neatly divided the beach to the right which broke the crashing Atlantic sea waves and beautiful, expensive residences and shopping districts to the left. The beach and the sea have been democratized to enable everyone to enjoy what is a public utility. There were public parks along the way, the most notable one being Moui Point, with playgrounds, benches and public sculptures while ordinary citizens cycled or jogged along the made for purpose paths.

 

Our driver Ali had lived in Cape Town for the last twelve years. He is originally from Bukavu in eastern Congo. It only took a few minutes of him listening to our Kenglish before he cottoned on that he could speak to us in fluent Swahili, creating an instant bond. His guided tour was thereafter centred on showing us the million dollar homes of the people who have transformed Cape Town into a playground of the globally sourced rich and sometimes famous. The moneyed suburbs of Clifton and Camps Bay were nestled on the foothills of the stunning 12 Apostles mountain range. At the base of Camps Bay peninsula was a public beach where we found mainly colored families barbecuing up a storm in the name of Sunday lunch, each in their own little space but taking scenic advantage of the Atlantic vista in front of them and the public facilities that the Western Cape provincial government had provided for them.

 

We snaked further south, driving along the stunning ocean drive which cuts a meandering path along the jutting rocky mountain range that makes up much of the Western Cape coastal line. As we crested yet another cliff, a breathtaking settlement appeared down in a valley, bordered by a rock filled beach that provided a natural breakwater to the giant waves that crashed around them.

“That’s Llandudno town down there,” Ali said in hushed tones. The houses were enormous architectural masterpieces and skillfully built into the rocky foundations that made up much of the area. “Only celebrities and rich people live there. There are no schools and no shops there. Nothing that can attract the ordinary person,” snorted Ali.  I had to scribble down the odd name of the town as we zipped past a signpost with the Welsh name. According to Wikipedia the last census in 2011 revealed that the population is largely 86.9% white, 10.3% black and then the rest. Memo to self: devolution comes in all shapes and sizes.

 

The Western Cape is home to the South African wine industry and its tourist sites such as Table Mountain, Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent most of his imprisoned years as well as the Cape of Good Hope ensures that there is a steady stream of tourists all year round. But it is the large African diaspora that lives and works in this very cosmopolitan city that draws on its nectar like attraction to economic promise. As I wrote earlier in the year about Mtwapa’s multi-tribal substrata that ensures non-violent episodes during each Kenyan election cycle, Cape Town similarly remains removed from the occasional xenophobic incursions that flare up in South Africa. “Why is that?” I asked Ali. “The people here are very mixed,” was his quick response. “There’s lots of coloreds here, more than the blacks so no fighting.” As Cape Town to the south and Mtwapa, on Kenya’s coastline demonstrate, the more you mix up a population from a racial and tribal perspective the more tolerance you find. That’s some food for thought.

 

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Twitter: @carolmusyoka

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Black Economic Empowerment in the Kenyan Context

“Each of us is as intimately attached to thesoil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world” Nelson Mandela 1994

With a 2017 estimated population of 56 million who call the place home, it is not hard to see why Mandela referred to his country as the “Rainbow Nation”. The 2011 South African national census found that 79.2% of the population was of African extraction, 8.9% were categorized as White, 8.9% were Coloured and Asian were at 2.5% of the population. A category called “Other/Unspecified” was found to occupy 0.5%.

In the decades before South Africa achieved democracy in 1994, the apartheid government systematically excluded African, Indian and Colored people from meaningful participation in the country’s economy. The Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act of 2003 (B-BBEE) was created to “situate black economic empowerment within the context of a broader national empowerment strategy, focused on historically disadvantaged people and particularly black people, women, youth, the disabled and rural communities.”

Institutional mechanisms were later set up for the monitoring and evaluation of B-BBEE in the entire economy including independent verification agencies that would issue certificates of compliance. In 2007 new Codes of Good Practice were gazzetted by the South African government to definitively establish ownership, management and control, employment equity, skills development, preferential procurement, enterprise development as well as socioeconomic development.

The unintended consequence of the B-BBEE program has been to create “black privilege”. As much as “black” was anathema in the apartheid regime, not having enough“black” in the current regime presents an economic disadvantage to companies looking to do business with government agencies or get licenses in regulated sectors like mining, banking and telecoms. The beauty of the B-BBEE program is that it is far reaching beyond just the companies that do business directly with the government. It looks at the wider planet, capturing not only the owners but also the employees, suppliers and service providers of those companies to ensure that the economic benefit envisaged cascades beyond just the boardroom to other stakeholders that would ordinarily not have the opportunity to be employed or to participate in the procurement process.

To be considered black, one has to be a black African, Indian or Colored and have been a citizen of South Africa before 1994. Consequently, non South African African professionals working in South Africa, whether male or female, are given the same ranking as white male South Africans due to the provisions of the Employment Equity Act of 1998. This act requires firms that employ more than 50 people to annually report on their progress towards having “blacks” as identified by the B-BBEEframework at every level of the organization and face financial penalties for not meeting set targets.
The result of that black privilege has been a brain drain of skilled South African white professionals who now face undisguised glass ceilings in the work place as the legislative regime rewards a decision to hire or promote a black person, where black means black African, Colored or Indian, than a white person, where white means South African white or non South African professional.
In Kenya, the recent calls for secession of some counties who have not enjoyed the economic benefits of past political regimes needs some sober rumination. Beyond the rabble rousing antics of politicians lies a significant group of Kenyans who do feel excluded from basic employment and procurement opportunities, notwithstanding the programs to push for youth, women and persons with disabilities. The question is: Can legislation on the manner in which corporate Kenya hires workers and procures from its suppliers and service providers jumpstart the equilibrium that is being sought? The definition of corporate Kenya could be extended to any entity within the public and private sector that employs more than 50 people. The challenge to applying such a legislative regimehowever, would be twofold: first we would have to ensure a strong, independent verification and certification mechanism. Secondly we would haveto take into account existing demographics around actual tribal numbers that will set a basis for determining what our workforce should reflect from a representation perspective, and then permit a phased approach to achieving those goals in the medium to long term. The last thing such a legislative regime should do is to create a “minority privilege” that eventually shuts out the “majorities” from employment and doing business in Kenya.
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A Bulgarian’s Unlikely Success Story in South Africa

I recently went to South Africa on a work assignment and was met at Johannesburg’s Oliver Tambo Airport by a gentleman called George for the transfer to my hotel.George is a Bulgarian who came to South Africa in 1994 aged twenty-eight years with just $500 dollars in his pocket. He had just left the army after being tired of the growing sense of helplessness and poverty in a struggling economy following the collapse of the Soviet Eastern Bloc at the tail end of the last decade. He landed at Johannesburg’s airport and asked the first taxi driver to take him to the cheapest hotel he knew. That hotel ended up being in Hillbrow, a rough, crime ridden Johannesburg suburb where his was the only white face for miles around. Armed with his $500 and ten or so words of English which included “cheap hotel” he walked around the neighborhood and bought a map so that he could get a lay of the land, as he wanted to figure out what he could do to earn a living. After walking for several blocks that took him beyond the confines of the dangerous Hillbrow zone, he found a butcher’s shop owned by a Serbian. Speaking Russian, which was a secondary language for former Eastern Bloc countries, George was able to find that therewere other Bulgarians who were working as food delivery riders for Nandos.

“I only knew two things: the map of Johannesburg and how to ride a motorcycle,” he said with a chuckle as he proceeded to tell me how he found that his country mates, ten in number, all lived in one house and welcomed him with open arms. They told him that all he had to do was buy a motorcycle and they would introduce him to the owner of the Nandos restaurant so that he could get a job as a delivery guy, which didn’t require much English. He spent his few remaining dollars to buy a second hand motorcycle and began working. After a few yearshe moved to work at another Bulgarian’s coffee shop, who eventually sold the restaurant to him which he ran successfully and subsequently sold in 2002.

A random chat he had with an acquaintance led him to discover that hotels in Johannesburg’s commercial district of Sandton were looking for clean, executive vehicles to transfer their guests to the airport. He bought a Mercedes Benz, “I incentivized the concierges in the hotels to call me whenever a guest wanted to go to the airport,” he said. George now has over 30 luxury vehicles and, according to him, he’s made a lot of money from the transport business as he has a few blue chip South African companies on retainer to transfer their executives.

“What are your key lessons?” I asked him as we approached my hotel. He looked straight ahead, lost in deep thought and I almost thought he hadn’t heard my question. Sighing loudly he answered after about a minute. “I’ve never taken my family on holiday ever,” he said. The intensity of the business has never permitted him to take a day off. “To get one really good and responsible driver, I have to endure almost fifty recruits,” he said. George speaks good English now and his two children are playing competitive tennis, with his eldest son representing South Africa at junior global tennis meets. But he is well aware that the tenuous socio-economic threads that bind the rainbow nation can easily become undone. His family fell victim to armed robbers at their home a few years ago. “I want my children to finish school and then will see where to go from here,” he summarized as we pulled up at the entrance to my hotel.

George’s story is one of sheer gumption, hard work and the power of drawing on traditional social networks to grow himself into a successful business owner. But that growth, as he ruefully ruminates, has come at great personal cost to the quality of life with his family, children in particular as they only have a few more years before they move on to university. Time, particularly quality family time, is a precious commodity that absolutely no money can buy was my conclusion as I stepped out of that interesting discourse.

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Twitter: @carolmusyoka

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Credit Reference Bureaus Destroy rather than support credit

[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Two weeks ago, I published an opinion on this page highlighting my experience with an erroneous report that was submitted by my bank to the credit reference bureaus (CRBs). The article generated some interesting feedback from some kindred spirits. Augustine M shared as follows: “I have also experienced a similar issue like yours. A standing order that I had closed 5 years ago, but apparently the bank continued to surcharge and penalize for 4 dark years, only came to my attention when I needed that CRB Credit Report. What made me mad was why my bank, which I understand has rights of set-off to enable them recover from your other accounts with them and clear you, goes ahead to issue a damning report. Yet I had all along another well performing loan with the same bank.”
Well dear Augustine, a major assumption that you are making is that your bank has a universal view of your accounts. Whereas you have a universal view of the bank in terms of all the products and services that you are consuming from them, your bank may have as many separate records of you, as there are services you are consuming. These records are in different databases that don’t talk to each other because they are in different departments. Asking your bank to set off from one account to another, well…that’s just asking for too much efficiency. I mean do you know how many internal approvals have to be sought to get that process approved? You’ve got to be kidding man! Now your bank might be a manyanga bank, meaning it has a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 21st century operating system and therefore your national identity card number can generate a universal view of your accounts. But then it requires someone to initiate that query. And there’s hundreds of thousands of other retail clients like you. Moreover that would require a rather high level of efficiency. So hang tough bro, they’re just not that into you. One more thing: can you imagine the number of negative reports that the CRBs have of ordinary wananchi who have minor charges on accounts that have failed to be closed? And are now dragging a millstone around their creditworthy necks in the name of credit reporting? Another writer Andrew F had this to say:

“Hello Carol, as soon the CRBs were authorized commercial banks submitted 800,000 negative credit reports! Needless to say, the commercial banks neglected to comply with the new law by notifying the 800,000 account holders who were having their credit histories trashed! Too expensive? It really makes no difference; our commercial banks are out of control and our friends and associates **** (edited out as this is a family newspaper) us royally in plain sight. You knew who to contact which only leaves 799,999 others being trashed without legally required notice.”
Dear Andrew: Are you aware of how many Kenyans must have been temporarily employed during the process of issuing 800,000 negative credit reports? During that period, the unemployment levels for the country took a significant dip and the banks were awarded with the highest Pay As You Earn award from our veritable tax collectors. In fact the bigger issue for me is that by ignoring Section 50 (1) (b) of the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) Regulations 2013, which requires banks to “notify each customer, within thirty days of the first listing, that his name has been submitted to all licensed Bureaus,” the banking industry deliberately scuttled efforts by Postal Corporation of Kenya to grow its profits through sale of regular postage stamps on the 800,000+ reports that should have been mailed out.
Finally, JK weighed in with these words: “Just thought I would point out great article today in Business Daily, the system is absolutely flawed. In South Africa they forced all bureaus to delete all their information and have all banks resubmit because almost the entire country was listed for one reason or another. I was listed because I owed a bank Kshs 200 for not closing my account with them. I’m surprised a class action has taken this long in Kenya.” Dear JK, thanks very much for reaching out to this pained sister. I have tried to research your point about what happened in South Africa and actually found that in 2005 the South Africans published a National Credit Act which stipulates the type of information that credit bureaus can keep on consumers, how the information is obtained, used, and for how long that information may be kept on their records. More importantly, the Act aims to ensure that credit bureaus keep accurate records on consumers. In a bid to cure the mischief of erroneous credit reporting, the Act in Section 72 gives consumers the right to access and challenge information held by a credit bureau. A key extract of that section provides that a consumer can challenge and request proof of the accuracy of information held by a credit bureau. Should a credit bureau fail to provide the consumer with proof of accuracy of information that the consumer disputes, it is compelled to remove the disputed information from its records. The same section also gives the consumer the right to be advised by a credit provider before certain adverse information about that consumer is passed onto a credit bureau and to receive a copy of that information on request. As we often say in Kenya, it’s not a dearth of laws that we suffer from; rather it is the enforcement of existing law that is the problem. The Credit Reference Bureau regulations in Kenya do protect the consumers, but the protection mechanisms are not being enforced by the banks, either through sheer laziness and ineptitude or utter contempt for the impact of their actions. I like that the South African legislation puts the burden of proof for veracity of information on the credit bureau, which means that a layer has been added for ensuring that consumers are protected from lazy bank processes.

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Twitter: @carolmusyoka[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Gentrification in Johannesburg

[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]A few weeks ago, a work assignment took me on a tour of the Maboneng Precinct in Johannesburg’s Central Business District (CBD). Now if you are a frequent traveller to Johannesburg, it is quite likely that there is little, if anything, that will take you into the city’s CBD which features tall, imposing skyscrapers grounded in streets teeming with bustling retail spaces and some rough thoroughfares that even locals fear venturing into. Most visitors tend to focus on the more glitzy shopping districts of Rosebank and Sandton rather than the dated and down market offerings to be found in the CBD, which has notoriety for high criminal incidence. To get to Maboneng, we drove past the financial district that has the distinct campuses of two of South Africa’s big four banks: Standard Bank and Absa. The two banks have multiple towers in close proximity that are linked via underground tunnels and air bridges which reduce the need to walk the streets. Getting off the ramp from the highway we entered streets that had clear evidence of time decay: broken windows, graffiti walls and heaps of uncollected garbage. The shops were kindred spirits to Nairobi’s Kirinyaga road with automobile industry players like “Camara Car Parts” and “Onyechi Auto Repair” dotting the scene nestled next to “Al Hakim Super Store” that seemed to sell just about anything, “Omega Fire Ministry” which hinted at the promise of spiritual redemption and “Cash For Scrap” that had an equally compelling promise for disposers of scrap metal. Meanwhile the city’s skyscrapers cast long shadows less than 400 meters away.

After making a few wrong turns here and there, we arrived on a street that was straight out of a European capital’s photo album. Chairs and tables filled the streets in front of cafés and restaurants offering multiple gastronomic delights. There was the fashionable Patta Patta restaurant owned by a fairly young South African gentleman called Ziggy, which had eclectic non matching chairs, burlap lampshades and brick cladded shelves that created a very warm and inviting atmosphere to taste local South African fare. Further down were more artisanal coffee shops and specialist bakeries co-located with architectural offices and electrical engineering consultants making for a very interesting mix of businesses and synergies. This was the heart of the Maboneng Precinct.

According to the official Gauteng Province website, “Maboneng” is a Sotho word meaning “place of light”. In 2008, a developer called Jonathan Liebmann bought old construction offices and warehouses dating from the 1900s and, in collaboration with an architect, he transformed the industrial space into a cultural oasis that is now Arts on Main, which is one of Maboneng’s two main building complexes. The building houses various studios which displays beautiful arts and crafts created by local South African artists. One studio was a testimony to social responsibility using creative rather than financial means. With an arresting title of “I was shot in Jo’burg”, the studio is the brainchild of South African architect Bernard Viljoen who converts Johannesburg’s street children into prolific photographers. His program started in 2009, when he picked 15 children from Twilight Children’s Shelter in the less than stellar Hillbrow neighborhood of Johannesburg. He gave them disposable cameras and met them once a week on a Monday afternoon for a workshop. Bernard says, “We learnt how to search for beauty, composition and interesting subject matter where we thought there were none.” In December 2009, they had their first exhibition at the Arts on Main and it was a runaway success. Bernard says, “the kids mingled and chatted and explained their work like they have been doing this for their whole lives. They had a voice. I wanted to create an evening these children will never forget for as long as they live. It was a great success.”

Having walked the few streets of the Precinct, I was struck by the power of gentrification, and its ability to convert previously unattractive and uninhabitable spaces to premier retail real estate in the space of a few years. Every Sunday, the Precinct hosts “Market on Main” where fresh produce, baked goods, indigenous plants, books, art and fashion are all showcased. It launched in January 2011 and has morphed into a compelling weekend destination for the Johannesburg residents as one can find Ethiopian, Moroccan, Chinese, Italian and Indian food for sale as well as local South African delicacies.

This is not pointless rambling. What I saw in Maboneng is something that is inspiringly easy to replicate. From the roller skating youth that throng the car park adjacent to Aga Khan Walk, to the countless artists and designers that showcase their wares in the rather elite confines of the annual Christmas Craft Fair Nairobi has the capacity to showcase its food and culture in an organized, cheap and vibrant manner that can provide depth to the limited public offerings in the city. A drive past the roundabout near ILRI in Uthiru’s shopping centre will reveal an amazing use of public space every Sunday. Someone was inspired to provide a bouncing castle and other forms of children’s entertainment on Sunday afternoons, resulting in an efficient and cheap use of a public space that elicits delightful use by the residents of Uthiru. Parents, children and young couples sit on the grass and make active use of the space provided, which is simply a roundabout on Naivasha road that has unkempt grass but is transformed into a public utility by an enterprising entertainer. From rough neighborhoods on Nairobi’s Quarry Road to Industrial Area there are lots of opportunities to transform streets into public entertainment spaces that can showcase our inimitable Kenyan culture. We need to deepen our perception beyond giving youth loans to do businesses and look at art and culture as a credible source of compelling youth engagement as it provides an outlet for self expression as well as a non academic based source of gainful self employment.

Food for thought on this Labor Day holiday.

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Twitter: @carolmusyoka[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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South Africa The Economic Giant But Social Dwarf

He hurriedly walked away from his stalkers as they quickly circled him, their eyes gleaming with their malevolent intent. The first stalker beat him over the head with a wrench while the three other stalkers frothed at the mouth in gruesome anticipation and unleashed long knives from their pockets. In an instant, he lay amongst plastic papers, rotting food and the rest of Alexandra’s vomit, bleeding from a 2 cm gash to his chest. One of the knives had penetrated his heart. In less than an hour he was dead. The newspaper photographers who captured the entire episode rushed him to hospital ensuring that he didn’t die nameless, as his cellphone was found intact in his pocket. At 7 a.m. on the 19th of April 2015, Emmanuel Sithole from Mozambique became the personification of the ongoing “Makwerekwere” pogrom in South Africa.

The mortified and indignant noises from across the continent have been loud and predictable. The Nigerians, who have had an ongoing diplomatic lover’s tiff with the South Africans over the last two years, were the first to give strong reactions. They summoned the South African High Commissioner to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and let rip their sentiments, no doubt sending warning shots against anything happening to their nationals on the ground. I’ve been trying to connect the dots. Foreigners + hard work = Hate. I just don’t get it. I’m struggling with how hard work can generate hatred and despair. So I tried to bring it home to my own local context. In the late part of the 19th century, a number of ships docked into a fledgling seaside port that had been used for centuries by Arabs. The ships carried British nationals, keen to make a better life for themselves in new lands, as their ancestors had done in the United States centuries before.

They came, they saw and they conquered, pushing native Africans out of their homelands and taking over productive land. The natives were used for cheap labor and prevented from growing cash crops that would provide them with financial freedom. Through the work of the hands of the natives (input), the colonialists were able to produce cash crops (output) using a valuable and scarce resource called land that never belonged to them in the first place. On the sidelines were the Indians, the first group who came to provide skilled labor (input) to produce a railway line that would carry goods into the hinterland and export goods (output) to new markets. The Indian traders, who recognized opportunity when it slapped them in the face, followed the Indians laborers. The Indian traders planted roots in Kenya, bringing in capital and goods to supply (input) against which they sold and made a profit (output). The later generations of the Indian traders undertook vertical integration and used their capital (input) to establish factories to manufacture goods for the Kenyan consumers
(output). The Indians cannot be placed in the same category as the British colonialists from an input and output perspective. One came, took the land and the labor and carted off the output, while the other came, brought his own capital plus sweat and invested the output back in the country.

Hard work and sweat are intangible factors of production. A standing shop, a nice car and a nice house are the very tangible results of successful production. One needs to have the intellectual capacity of connecting the dots to see these results. In a country like ours where blood has been spilt countless times for land, a tangible factor of production, our propensity to fight has historically stemmed from land ownership and perceptions around historical injustices over that ownership.

But as Kenyans we recognize hard work. We recognize the kiosk owner, the Jua Kali furniture fundi who employs three or four artisans to help, we recognize the woman selling roast maize on the side of the road, we recognize the shop owner at a gleaming new mall and the entrepreneur manufacturing soap in industrial area. We recognize them all. The capital to begin their businesses didn’t fall off the Kisumu express train to financial freedom, it came from funds scrimped and saved over a period of time. We don’t have a sense of entitlement over what all these business owners have simply because the narrative of the political class has never been about taking output from sweat that’s not yours. (It goes without saying that the narrative of the political class has largely been about taking land however). And why is that? Is it because much of the political class is in business too? Or is it that the business constituency funds much of the political class?

Entitlement is the key differentiator here. The effect of South Africa’s long walk to freedom was to create a large number of citizens who felt entitled to enjoy the fruits of the struggle that were now constitutionally guaranteed. That has been interpreted by some to mean that hard work (intangible input) translates into good life (tangible output) that should be mine as I’m entitled to anything built in South Africa within the same community that I live in. After all, we have all been thriving in the catacombs of despair and cyclical poverty and I can’t understand why you rose up to be economically better than me.

But I, the ignorant native, cannot connect the dots between hard work and output. I cannot connect the dots between the foreign owned businesses that bring consumer goods to my neighborhood and my uplifted standard of living. I want them gone. And when they’re gone, I’ll struggle to find a place to buy those goods and services because I won’t start a business myself. And I will have to go to a more expensive provider. And then I’ll have less disposable income. And I’ll be poorer. And I’ll be angrier but still feel entitled. So I will turn to the next soft target. Who could that possibly be?

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Twitter: @carolmusyoka