The call of small business South Africa
by Fred Roed on 04/12/06 at 9:03 am
1 comment
The Sunday Times yesterday ran their cover story on a 300 page report on crime released three weeks ago.
It goes in direct conflict with the statements by the ANC that crime is being defeated.
I don’t want to argue the report or comment on it (you can read about it here), but some statements are relevant to our small business focus.
The report lists 15 key threats to South Africa’s stability, among which I think 3 are worth commenting on here:
1. Black economic empowerment (BEE, a kind of affirmative action strategy), which enriches too few people too much and encourages politicians to go into business.
2. The critical shortage of skills, which is not being addressed by an expensive education system that is not producing results.
3. The immense gap between the rich and the poor and the division of society by race and class.
These points underline some pretty important truths:
- BEE doesn’t work.
- BEE frustrates people, especially skilled people and poor people who see a precious few getting enriched by it.
- The current education system, Outcomes Based Education or OBE, doesn’t work. It didn’t work elsewhere in the world (it was used in the States, failed and was scrapped).
- The rich are not focusing on enriching the poor.
- Leaders in this country are either leaving or being lured into business, rather than taking influential positions in politics
So, what can we do about crime?
I think we, as small businesses, have to seek opportunities wherever we can. We have to look around us, examine at our sphere of influence and see where we can contribute – whether by our time (sharing of skills), or money. We must aim to educate and empower the people around us who may not be as far down the business road. Of course we must not lose focus from our own business survival, but as soon as we achieve the first modicum of success, then it is our duty to look a little further than our own bank balance.
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. Fred is the CEO of web marketing company World Wide Creative and the co-founder of online learning portal Heavy Chef. Fred loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. Follow Fred on Twitter here. View more articles by Fred Roed.
Lola Richards
Dec 10th, 2006
OBE is in the process of failing spectacularly in Western Australia.
The OBE-inspired “courses of study” have undergone extreme changes (away from the OBE philosophy) to a more syllabus based arrangement.
Two experts in assessment have found that levelling (the OBE system of grading) is essentially meaningless and is purely politically driven.
It is a shame Australia did not learn from the South African or American OBE experience and has now wasted millions of dollars in trying to implement this demented ideaology.
Most teachers in WA now agree that OBE = Obviously Bad Education