Business Update Issue 16 by Yes Media

BUSINESS

A publication for progressive business

SA CHAMPIONS INCLUSIVE MACROECONOMIC POLICIES DR PULANE MOLOKWANE The nuclear physicist leading the way in the energy and water sectors

A NEW FRAMEWORK Infrastructure: the cement industry’s direct link to economic development

CANNABIS REPORT South Africa gets the green light with the emerging cannabis industry

I he beneﬁts and busts of being connected in the age of technology

Issue 16 | 2019

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EDITOR’S MESSAGE

MARSHALLING A NATIONAL COMPACT In this edition of Business Update we focus on South Africa’s macroeconomic policies, moreover, on seeking solutions to lift the country out of its current quagmire. Despite very good macroeconomic policies, somehow, as a nation, we continue to wrestle the stagnation. What is lacking is focus and a concerted effort by all sectors – public, private, labour and civil – to desist from being sucked in by the sideissues that draw attention away from

the fundamental actions that are needed to turn our economy around. Maybe now is the time to agree a national compact, a marshal plan so to speak, that binds in the public, private, civil and labour sectors into a national action to revive our economy. The current state of the economy is unfortunate, in that South Africa has the talent, the know-how, the expertise and the plans to build a hugely successful African economy. This edition showcases a sampling of what is available. In reading the articles, one comes to realise that, should we enable ourselves to rise above the negativity that so often consumes us, the

groundwork is in place. We simply need to seize the moment – carpe diem! We trust that in reading this edition of the magazine, you too will grasp the huge potential that underlies the current, seemingly lingering slump, realising that with the right leadership, commitment and determination, it could be passing in nature. Enjoy the read!

Daryl Swanepoel

Editor Daryl Swanepoel

Managing Editors Alwyn Marx and Olivia Main

Chief Albert Luthuli House 54 Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Street Johannesburg

Art Director Kamiela Abrahams

Contributors Marthie Claassen, Chantelle Gladwin-Wood, William Gumede, Kgomotso Madi, Thapelo Masilela, Fhumulani Mbedzi, Frank Mokgoloboto, Dr Pulane Molokwane, Divina Naidoo, Bryan Perrie, Jenny Retief, Mapula Sedutla, Wandile Sihlobo, Des Squire, Romeo Tsusi

Images Shutterstock.com Business Update is published by Yes Media. Opinions expressed in Business Update are not necessarily those of Yes Media, the ANC or Progressive Business Forum. No responsibility can be accepted for errors, as all information is believed to be correct at the time of going to print. Copyright subsists in all work in this magazine. Any reproduction or adaptation, in whole or in part, without written permission of the publishers is strictly prohibited and is an act of copyright infringement which may, in certain circumstances, constitute a criminal offence.

Publisher Yes!Media Suite 20-301B Waverley Business Park, Kotzee Road, Mowbray, Cape Town PO Box 44383, Claremont 7735 Tel: +27 21 447 6467 www.yesmedia.co.za Printed by CTP Printers Project Sales Managers Christa Nel, Crosby Moruthane Project Sales Reginald Motsoahae and Tatenda Musonza Production Coordinator Ursula Munnik

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Lengwati Electrical was established on March 2000 as a black Economic Empowered Engineering company. We have various branches all over the country such as in KZN, Gauteng, and Mpumalanga with divisional heads to master our projects in accordance with industry standards. Lengwati Electrical as a company is qualified in Electrical Engineering & Financial Professional Discipline and have in-house capabilities. Our vision is to be a world class leading electrical services company in SA and beyond and a reputable player in the transformation of the South African Industry. Our mission; we will substantially take customer service to an unprecedented level by putting the customer first.

The services we offer: ELECTRICAL: • Termination and joining of cables up to 22 kV • Network reticulation on LV and HT Overhead and underground • LV and HT termination and jointing • Electrification design and electrical load analysis • Load calculation, volt drop calculation and load balancing • New service connections – from 1KVA to 10MVA • House, commercial and industrial new electrical installations • 24 hours repair and maintenance – (zonal) • Backup generator installation, repair and maintenance • 1KVA to 600KVA UPS installation repair, service and maintenance • Inverter installation service and maintenance • Communication mast installation and maintenance • Traffic signals maintenance and new intersections construction • Verifications, testing, commissioning and C.O.C Issue • Cable fault location HV and LV network • Infrared Scan • Oil sampling and purification • 1kV up to 22KV Transformer and switchgear repair, service & maintenance • Transformer and switchgear comprehensive testing e.g. turns ratio test, etc • Supply all electrical and mechanical materials. • Telephone system (PABX) installation maintenance and installation • Fire detection system installation, repair and maintenance • Crane load transportation • CCTV camera Design, installation and Maintenance • Radio network maintenance • Communications Radio network Repeater installation and

• •

maintenance Access control system installation repair and maintenance Plant Hire

BUILDING (AD-HOC) • General building • Painting • Partitioning • Plumbing • Plastering • Glazing • Joinery • Paving • Motor gate installation and Maintenance • Electric fence installation and maintenance MECHANICAL • Plant and Machinery maintenance and general engineering works • High protection CNC cutting and profiling • Hydraulics and Pneumatics works:- Design and manufacture of cylinders and pistons including the maintenance thereof • Metal Fabrication: - Design and construction of steel structures as per drawing or requirement Support Services: - Our professional support services include: a) On-site support b) Help desk c) Post-implementation Support Our Company offers services, material and equipment that are approved by SABS. All work is done in accordance with SABS 0142 standard and as specified by the industry standards.

Contact Details: Office: +27(0)11 310 3008 • Company Email: info@lengwatielectrical.co.za • Physical address: 518 Dane Rd, Glen Austin • Postal address: P.O.Box 11735, Die Hoewes 1, Midrand, 0163 • Mpumalanga Office: 123 Hurst Street, Clewer, Emalahleni, 1036 • KwaZulu Natal Office: 135 Beach roads, Amanzimtoti, Thekwini, 0163

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6 Cover story Inclusive macroeconomic policy is complex, but vital to the upward swing of South Africa’s economy. By William Gumede

38 Small business Advice from the Small Business Site on the perfect location, the ideal staff positions and how to turn failure into business success.

12 Construction The government’s ‘New Deal’ has given infrastructure a boost because without it, development is blocked. By Bryan Perrie

42 Entrepreneurship Talent alone will only take you so far as a developing entrepreneur, then it’s down to business sense. By Jenny Retief

16 Human rights All human rights are fundamental, but here we hone in on the right to just administrative action. By Fhumulani Mbedzi

46 SMMEs Few companies are overnight successes – slow and steady wins the race when it comes to building your SMME. By Thapelo Masilela

18 Contents

18 Business leader Meet Dr Pulane Molokwane, SA’s only black female nuclear physicist.

22 Agriculture A legal perspective on where we stand with the emerging cannabis industry, which is coming to a head. By Romeo Tsusi 24 Agribusiness Climate change poses a challenge to agribusiness in SA and to global trade markets. By Wandile Sihlobo 28 Property law A checklist of the seven most common (and costly) mistakes with sale of land agreements. By Chantelle Gladwin-Wood and Divina Naidoo

48 Leadership Even if you only act as a director, by law the full responsibilities and risks could still rest on your shoulders. By Marthie Claassen 52 Business coaching Hiring a Personal Business Trainer could be the right move to propel you to the next level of your career. By Des Squire 54 Legacies How we choose to build our businesses today will be the legacy we are known for tomorrow. By Kgomotso Madi 56 Healthcare Get sun protection in a snap with EezySun’s new product.

30 Technology A possible cure for our ailing health industry lies in an innovative healthcare system that’s tapping into the 4IR. By Frank Mokgoloboto

58 Travel We take to the sky with Comair’s star airlines: stylish British Airways and fun-loving kulula.

34 Insurance Get up to speed with the latest in cyber liability insurance to make sure your business is safe from cybercrime. By Mapula Sedutla

60 Book review Labour Landmines: 99 Ways to Succeed at the CCMA by Ivan Israelstam is a must-have guide to labour law dispensation in South Africa.

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TG MESSAGE

TRADING ON WIN-WIN SOLUTIONS PAUL MASHATILE, Treasurer General of the African National Congress, addressed the 2019 China-South Africa Business Forum on Mandela Day about mutually bene cial trade

n 1998, then President Mandela was instrumental in setting up the diplomatic relations between South Africa and China. From there we have seen our cooperation blossom. South Africa at the invitation of China became a member of BRICS, President Ramaphosa co-chaired the Forum for China Cooperation summit in Beijing last year, and South Africa is increasingly involving itself in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI is about creating a more open world trade system. It recognises the interconnectivity of the new global economy and building the infrastructure needed, therefore. Cooperation should be about creating win-win solutions and mutually beneficial development. The BR aims at extending market access, and we are therefore encouraged by President Xi’s

view that China is not seeking a trade surplus, but is in fact introducing new government policies and initiatives aimed at encouraging imports from its trade partners. Since 2009 China has become South Africa’s main trading partner. Similarly, South Africa is China’s main trading partner in Africa. Bilateral trade has grown from US$1.8-billion in 1998 to US$39-billion in 2017. All of this is very good, but as partners seeking mutually beneficial outcomes, there is a need to change the structure of the trade between our two countries. We need to give serious attention to the next phase of our economic cooperation, and that is to improve the downstream beneficiation of the raw materials in South Africa, prior to it being shipped to China. This should be embraced as an

opportunity by Chinese enterprises. Furthermore, I would endorse projects that deepen the relationship between the CCPIT and the PBF, which was forged through a cooperation agreement in 2011. The business promotion efforts of both sides are commendable. Both sides regularly send trade missions to each other’s countries and regularly participate in each other’s (and jointly organised) events. This work must be kept up. I would also like to see them work together on facilitating economic policies from the perspective of enterprises, so as to take full advantage of the initiatives that I have touched on here: China-Africa economic cooperation, the BRI, how to promote winwin solutions through beneficiation in Africa, and how to best advance trade and investment in the context of the new African economic architecture.

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SA CHAMPIONS

INCLUSIVE MACROECONOMIC POLICIES

WILLIAM GUMEDE, Associate Professor at University of the Witwatersrand, sheds light on the comple ities of developmental scal and monetary policy and reveals the lessons South Africa can learn from the successes and failures of Japan, Brazil, Sweden and Botswanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s macroeconomic (mis)management

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COVER STORY

rudent macroeconomic policies, especially the management of monetary, fiscal and public debt is more crucial in developing countries. Indeed, in the postcolonial period many developing countries that genuinely pushed broad-based development fell short when they neglected fiscal and monetary discipline, undoing their best efforts. Let’s take a moment to unpack these terms: ‘Fiscal policy’ is the coordination of the aggregate demand – the total demand for goods and services in an economy – and price stability and full employment. ‘Monetary policy’ is the coordination of the supply of money in the economy to influence infl ation, the value of the currency and employment. Most developing countries put little focus on curbing infl ation, keeping exchange rates stable or managing public debt levels. Furthermore, they often allow large budget deficits, where expenses exceed revenue by huge margins. Milton Keynes in his General Theory made an argument for functional finance’ – the use of deficit spending to overcome cyclical fluctuations in the economy’. However, scores of emergent nations by the 1960s onwards pursued persistent deficit spending which over time just ballooned into large national debts. CHRONIC BALANCE OF PAYMENTS CRISES UNDERMINE DEVELOPMENT Developing countries also tend to mismanage their balance of payments situations – the balance of payments being the record of all transactions between the residents, firms and government of a country and the rest of the world. This can be broken down into three parts current account, capital account and o cial financing or balancing account.

When talking about the current account, we are referring to the balance of trade, which includes both government and private sector payments and the earnings on foreign investments, excluding payments made to foreign investors and cash transfers. Whereas with the capital account, we are looking at sales and transfers of contracts, ownership of fixed assets and patents. Then there is the financial account, which is the transfers of financial assets and liabilities between residents and non-residents, including banking flows – hot money, portfolio flows – debt and equity, foreign investment flows, and o cial reserves. Emergent nations tend to struggle to manage their budget deficits, current accounts and their exchange rates. Moreover, public spending is often not disciplined. And the result is that these countries pay the price in rising levels of poverty, underdevelopment and financial instability. Naturally then, when these nations pursue expansionary fiscal policies – whereby they increase public spending to stimulate aggregate demand in the economy – issues arise with regards to these policies. This in turn leads to unchecked government spending, which may cause harm including rising infl ation and crowding out private investment. Developing countries often increase public spending to levels where they increase the budget deficits – government spends more than it collects in revenue and grants, runs a budget deficit, resulting in macroeconomic imbalances. nless the budget deficit is covered by private savings, it creates a current-account deficit with the rest of the world, obliging the country to borrow to finance their deficits. f the government cannot finance the deficit by borrowing, pressure builds to

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COVER STORY

finance it through depreciation of the national currency. Depreciation leads to greater exports and, hence, reduces the current-account deficit. The problem with this is firstly that the majority of these countries export single commodities only, with prices dependent on demand in buying countries. Secondly, depreciation may lead to inflation, which cuts purchasing power. Another issue is that developing countries frequently hold their currency at too high a rate for the state of the economy, meaning the country’s exports are more expensive than its imports. The predicament here is that during periods of low growth an overvalued currency becomes bad for the economy. POST SECON OR AR MACROECONOMIC MANAGEMENT SUCCESS IN JAPAN n the post-war period apan focused its monetary policy on promoting exportand investment-led growth’. n the immediate post-war, apan’s external current account had large deficits, financed by S aid. The country also experienced hyperinflation. apan proceeded to roll out a massive infrastructure rehabilitation and expansion programme. The government provided subsidies to crucial sectors, called the ‘priority production system’, which were financed by the Bank of apan, and also increased inflation. The government until the 1950s managed to maintain a balance of payments equilibrium, retaining similar levels of investments abroad to foreign investments locally. During this period infant industries became competitive and apan pursued a strategy of export manufacturing and investment-led’ growth. apan’s monetary policy supported this industrialisation strategy by keeping the value of the currency low. Then, from the 19 0s the focus became currency stability, and so the government regularly intervened in the market to either buy or sell dollars, to gain that stability. Furthermore, the government regulated capital flows. Stepping back in time again, from 1949

until 196 the apanese government implemented a balanced budget principal, which resulted in apan’s current account being in surplus since 196 . The country accumulated large foreign reserves and the country’s citizens were encouraged to save. n 196 , the apanese economy experienced a recession. The government for the first time introduced an expansionary fiscal policy, financing a budget deficit with a national bond. The government maintained price stability – targeting inflation at . per year. The export growth focus provided a surplus in the country’s balance of payments with the world, and foreign investment was introduced selectively in targeted industries, though capital liberalisation – whereby foreign companies could enter unencumbered – was only introduced in 1973. From 1966 to 19 , the apanese government financed a deficit on the capital accounts, through the issuing of a national construction bond. apan also built up foreign exchange reserves, which by the early 1990s totalled over S 100billion – a record amount for the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Lastly, the Bank of apan (BO ) Law of 191 made the bank accountable to government, but in 19 the independence of the BO was entrenched. PERSISTENT BALANCE OF PAYMENT CRISIS UN ERMINE BRA I S POST SECON OR AR E E OPMENT n Bra il, the military took power in 1964. According to oao Ayres et al in their book about the monetary and fiscal history of Bra il, from 1960 to 19 0 Bra il saw high economic growth rates, but with high inflation and budget deficits; from 19 1 to 1994 growth slowed down, but with hyperinflation and large deficits. Throughout that whole period, from 1960 to 1994, Bra il’s central bank was not independent. Bra il fell into a balance of payments crisis in the early 19 0s, as global demand for its commodities slumped because of slowdowns in industrial country economies buying its commodities.

Most developing countries put little focus on curbing inflation, keeping exchange rates stable or managing public debt levels In an attempt to remedy this the government pursued an import substitution, industrialisation, economic diversification and self-su ciency, and the import of products that were already locally produced was restricted. The costs of this conversion were paid by foreign loans. The plan being that over time a structure in the economy would materialise, whereby more local products would be produced for export, and the foreign earnings would pay for the accumulated debt. The Bra il government ran a large current-account deficit in 19 , the deficit was S 1. -billion and by 19 0 it had risen to S 12. -billion. Adding to that, foreign debt became more expensive to repay because of higher interest rates charged by lenders. By the mid-60s until the early 19 0s, the government increased taxes to plug deficit holes, including introducing value added tax (VAT). ntil 1964, Bra il had no o cial central bank. Consequently, the Treasury implemented monetary policy through the Bank of Bra il, which was a state-owned bank, while at the same time being a commercial bank. n addition the government had in 194 established a Superintendency of Money and Credit (SUMOC) committee, with powers over monetary policy. And the Bank of Bra il had majority seats on the S MOC, which meant it had a controlling say over monetary policy. Eventually, in 1964, the government created the Central Bank of Bra il (CBB). At the same time it restructured the SUMOC into a National Monetary Council (CM ), which oversaw the central bank. Since then the CBB has been nominally independent – in 1994 the bank was given

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formal independence and put fully in charge of monetary policy. By 19 Bra il had the largest foreign debt of any country in the world – standing at a staggering S 92-billion. The government responded by hiking interest rates to record levels. Bra il’s terms of trade – the ratio between a country’s export prices and import prices – deteriorated by 10 between 19 1 and 1979. The 19 oil crisis hit the economy badly. Concurrently, the S ran up large budget deficits in the early 19 0s of S 200billion annually, which forced its main trading partners to increase interest rates. To makes matters worse, Bra il imported large numbers of products, from machinery to components and raw materials. The second oil crisis, in 1979, gave the Bra ilian economy another knock, increasing foreign debt, as interest on repayments of foreign loans rose further, lowering the terms of trade and worsening the balance of payments crisis. ntil the early 19 0s the government maintained its strategy to lift growth. However, as the debt accumulated, it changed tack to foster trade surpluses, by pushing exports and using the income to pay off debt. The International Monetary Fund and Western commercial banks put pressure on the Bra ilian government to introduce a

structural adjustment programme, adopted by the country’s legislature in 19 , which included reducing inflation, cutting wage increases and privatisation of state-owned entities. n 1994, Fernando Henrique Cardoso was elected president and introduced a stabilisation programme – the Real Plan – with a new currency. Monetary policy was tightened, the new currency was anchored to the US dollar, and inflation was reigned in. PRUDENT MACROECONOMIC MANAGEMENT UN ER S E EN S REHN MEIDNER ECONOMIC MODEL Left of centre governments in industrial countries, such as Sweden, which were governed by the Social Democratic arty, maintained prudent monetary and fiscal policies to finance the welfare state. n 1951, Swedish trade union economists Gosta Rehn and Rudolf Meidner, at the Swedish Trade Union Congress, designed the Rehn-Meidner economic model, which was grounded on high growth, low inflation, full employment and income equality. The model was based on a third way’ between Keynesian, central planning and neoclassical economics. At the heart of the model was a growth policy, built on disciplined macroeconomics, with price stability, but still advocating for fair wages through using an active labour market

policy. Immediately after the Second World War, a number of Western European Social Democratic Parties implemented Keynesian policies – counter-cyclical’ fiscal policies – by reducing spending and raising taxes during boom times, and increasing spending and reducing taxes during downtimes. These governments pursued expansive macroeconomic policies. They used expansionary fiscal policy by using their budgets to increase spending or cut taxes; and expansionary monetary policy through expanding the money supply through lowering reserve requirements, lowering interest rates and lowering the currency. In the Swedish model, applied during the country’s gold growth period from the late 1940s to the late 19 0s, the expansionary macroeconomic policy measures are combined with selective fiscal measures and with regulation to conquer inflation’. Sweden used restrictive fiscal policy, particularly indirect taxes, to hold inflation. t introduced consumption taxes – taxing people when they spent money on goods and services, rather than on income or profits. t also devaluated the currency in 1949, and in the 19 0s to the 19 0s began to coordinate wage bargaining, to protect weak industries and to manage inflation. To prevent inflation, the government was prudent with public

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COVER STORY

finance management. t pursued strict fiscal policy, focusing on generating budget surpluses. Through effective coordination of the economy, the government continually shifted employees from low-growth to highgrowth sectors. The Swedish government managed an active labour market policy comprehensive industrial skills, training, education, life-long adult-education programmes cushioned the ‘losers’. But Sweden was also hit by the 19 and 19 9 oil crises. The Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates, with the S dollar’s value fixed to gold was ended in 19 1, essentially collapsing the fixed currency system. Sweden struggled in the new conditions to stabilise the value of its currency. The rise of apan and East Asian developmental states now also provided competition to Swedish global manufacturing. Furthermore, the global recessions sparked by the oil and currency crises meant diminished markets for Swedish products. The Swedish economy faced headwinds and the Swedish Social Democratic Party lost power in the 1976 elections; only to return to power in 19 2. BOTS ANA S PRU ENT MACROECONOMIC MANAGEMENT IS AN A RICAN POST CO ONIA E CEPTION Botswana is one of the few African countries since colonialism that has pursued prudent macroeconomic policy, especially the management of monetary, fiscal and public debt. When Botswana became independent in 1966 it was among the poorest countries in the world. But because of prudent economic management, the country achieved real D growth averaging 9 between 196 66 and 200 06. Immediately after independence it borrowed from abroad, like many African countries. However, the foreign loans were used for infrastructure, unlike in most African countries. Botswana also promptly went searching for foreign investment. The government was also tougher on corruption than most African countries. In 1976, it enacted a law, the Finance and Audit Act, which held accounting and

project o cers personally liable for waste, misuse and stealing of public funds. mpressively, the Botswanian government ran budget surpluses for 16 years from 19 2; and only in 199 99 ran up a budget deficit. t judiciously accumulated foreign reserves and used the savings from these to finance the budget deficits of the 199 99 and 2002 0 financial years. The government has a National Employment, Manpower and Income Council over and above that, which annually determines public service wage increases by taking into consideration the overall macroeconomic targets. And during budget deficit years, the government has capped public salary increases. However, like many other African countries, Botswana relied on a single or two interests – in the case of Botswana, commodities and beef. This often causes boom and bust’ cycles, with revenue depending on the price and uptake of the commodity. Another saving grace is that the Bank of Botswana has been one of the most independent central banks in Africa, where central banks are often appendages of the governing party or used by the leader as a private bank. t has been pivotal to consistent exchange rate stability, low infl ation and sustainable current account levels. The ula has been consistently under-evaluated to a level below the perceived equilibrium’, to promote exports. By 199 Botswana had the highest domestic savings rate in Africa at 4 of D ; up from 16 in 19 . By 19 4 all gross fixed capital formation – the acquisition of new fixed assets, minus disposals, by government, business and households – was financed by local savings. The government built up large foreign exchange reserves to boot. DEVELOPMENTAL FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICY LESSONS FOR SOUTH AFRICA Developmental fiscal and monetary policy must be done in partnership with social partners, in the public interest, and be part

of an overarching national industrial plan. Bra il during its period of high growth with infl ation, balance of payments crises were run by dictatorship – and alternative policy voices were snubbed out. Botswana was more inclusive in economic policymaking, bringing in government and business to cobble together macroeconomic policies. In Sweden, there was a partnership between government, labour and business to jointly strike developmental fiscal and monetary policies. apan, Asia’s most democratic nation, struck partnership agreements over economic policy between governing and opposition parties; and with business and labour. Macroeconomic developmental policy needs fiscal and monetary discipline. This means keeping infl ation at low levels, keeping exchange rates stable and sustainably managing public debt levels. t is complicated, sophisticated and complex – which intimates the institutions that oversee fiscal and monetary policy must be staffed by competent people. There has to be the policy sophistication to deliberate on the appropriate policy solution, to correctly analyse the environment and to change tactics, when there are economic shifts. All of this demands coordination between the private sector, government and local and global markets. And for government to be trusted by the markets, private sector and implementing government entities, it must be seen as credible, honest and competent.

I IAM GUME E Questions? William.Gumede@wits.ac.za

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CEMENTING THE FUTURE OF SAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

Business Update spoke to TCI CEO BRYAN PERRIE about the future of the cement industry and its direct link to the economy

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CONSTRUCTION

eferring to cement and concrete as if they were synonyms is a common mistake. Anyone walking past a building site or undertaking a home renovation project would recognise the bags of cement used in construction work in an instant. But this material is easily confused with what we see around us embodied in most buildings in any city or freeway flyover. Cement is, in fact, the magical substance that, when mixed with other crucial components – crushed stone, sand, secondary materials (extenders) and water – sets and hardens (a process called hydration) into that durable and versatile substance we know so well: concrete. Another way of looking at it is like this: cement is to concrete what infrastructure is to development. nfrastructure, a term also often wrongly interchanged with development, is the cement in the metaphor. ow, looking at the components of development (the concrete) in a nation – sustainable social and economic improvement – you can see how infrastructure acts in a similar way to cement. It binds together the necessary aggregates that make for an improved society. You can’t achieve economic growth without access to markets – roads, bridges, airports and harbours. n turn, you can’t have markets without factories, and factories need power stations. All concrete development stems from the combination of these infrastructural elements. Cement is used in so many objects we

take for granted, from roof tiles to countertops to every brick wall of your home. But it is concrete with which we are most familiar. As the writer David Owen penned in an article for The New Yorker, it’s the most widely used man-made building material, and without it modern life would be inconceivable”. The same may be said of infrastructure: without it, development is inconceivable. n September 201 , resident Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking on the economic recovery plan, announced the launch of an nfrastructure Execution Team. Comprising public and private sector representatives and chaired by the residency, it would be tasked with administering a ‘mega fund’ to boost infrastructural growth in the country. The residency stressed the need to engage in extensive consultation with representatives from various sectors, including engineers, executives and labour unions. From the perspective of the funding members of South Africa’s major cement producers, The Concrete nstitute (TC ) – including Afrisam, C, Lafarge, Sephaku, and atal ortland Cement – this was a positive step in the right direction.

(roads, pavements, sewerage, power, etc.). o hard figure has been set on the amount allocated, or needed, but estimates vary from R 0-billion (the amount set aside in the 201 Budget) to R400-billion (the amount prioritised over three years). utting figures aside for a moment, we also value that the government has always recognised its commitment to the nation’s social and economic development through investment in infrastructure projects. In turn, TC has welcomed this and consistently sought to work closely with the government in ensuring its success. During his recent 2019 State of the ation Address (So A), resident Ramaphosa reiterated the government’s commitment to infrastructure spend and said that R250-billion worth of projects have entered implementation phase . n addition to this is the importance of the support received for the ublic- rivate Growth Initiative. The private sector, he said, has committed to invest in 4 projects worth R 40-billion, creating 1 000 jobs over the next five years. This is good news for the country and for the cement sector.

THE NEW DEAL The five pillars of the government’s ew Deal’ are charged with stimulating economic growth through prioritising public spending on education and health (more schools and hospitals as well as personnel) and municipality infrastructure

UPSKILLING: THE BUILDING BLOCK OF GROWTH The sector, for which TC speaks, already employs many thousands of people. Its members have also initiated skills training courses and workshops to ensure that the industry can match the planned

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infrastructure growth. C, for example, is conducting free brickmaking workshops to develop the skills of existing brickmakers and to help young people learn a trade. C lant Manager Boitumelo Mnisi told the media that apart from contributing to the creation of a skilled labour force, the workshops were essential to ensure the quality and safety of bricks being used. This was especially necessary in the construction of local housing. TC Managing Director Bryan errie said that the Institute was also crucial to the development and implementation of improved concrete manufacturing and its use at an advanced level. TC ’s School of Concrete Technology (SCT), therefore, plays a major role in imparting sound concrete technology knowledge at the supervisory level to ensure concrete operations run smoothly. TC recognises that the entities

entrusted with infrastructural and building developments – municipalities and other state bodies – often need to develop their understanding of concrete technology, said errie. Civil and construction projects use concrete extensively. f the correct concrete practices are not followed, concrete will not be durable, costs will escalate, unnecessarily adding to our country’s economic woes. Without proper training in concrete technology, many things could go wrong on site.” Maintenance and repair are major contributors to the overall cost in a lifecycle analysis of a structure. A detailed knowledge of concrete technology means being able to design cost-effective, durable and low-maintenance structures, and avoiding huge maintenance demands in the future. And so, access to professionals with extensive concrete technology knowledge, such as offered by

TC , has a distinct advantage when it comes to lifetime costing. Spotting potential problems at an early stage, facilitating good concrete practice, and producing a quality concrete product results from comprehensive concrete technology training, such as supplied by SCT, said errie. errie pointed out that over 0 years, TC has accumulated the largest collection of cement- and concrete-related reference works on the African continent, housed in the nformation Centre at TC o ces in Midrand. We provide essential information for the concrete industry and have access to global information resources, to save clients valuable time and money, he added. THE COMPETITIVE EDGE errie believes that a sector that plays such a crucial role in the country’s future development should be given the time and

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During his recent 2019 State of the Nation Address (SoNA), President Ramaphosa reiterated the government’s commitment to infrastructure spend and said that R250-billion worth of projects have “entered implementation phase”

space to advance. The government’s commitment to infrastructure development coupled with the support of the private sector is a major step to ensuring this happens. However, other factors such as cheap imports must also be recognised for the threat they pose. Some may argue that duty increases weaken and, ultimately, will destroy local manufacturing because it makes the industry less competitive. The data on ‘market forces’ and ‘free trade’ indicate, in theory, that this may be the case, but the facts speak otherwise. Such data-driven arguments are, at best, disingenuous and, at worst, obvious scaremongering. A competitive industry cannot be measured on the cost to consumers alone. The days of measuring a company’s performance only by the bottom line are no longer feasible or desirable. Our cement manufacturing processes are

regulated, from environmental impact assessments to strict quality controls, and from labour and employment regulations to sustainability requirements – South Africa is a signatory of the Paris Accord on CO2 emissions. These processes, however, are not always required with products manufactured elsewhere. Data aside, the fact is that South Africa’s cement manufacturing sector is pivotal to in the future development of South Africa’s economy. Chairman of The Concrete Institute Rob Rein, who is also PPC Group Executive of Sales and Marketing, said cement was a vital industry for the country and needed the government’s support at this critical survival stage in the construction sector. Apart from the number of people employed directly in the mining of limestone and the processing plants, and indirectly through the construction, haulage, energy and building-related sectors, the industry is an essential component of the government’s infrastructure strategy. Local manufacturers currently produce approximately 12.5 million tons of cement a year. They have the capacity to produce an additional five million tons. When the infrastructure programme kicks in, the sector will be pushed to its limits; it needs to grow along with the country if it is to keep pace with development. Major investors recognise this: the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which invests the assets of the Government Employees Pension Fund, has a substantial stake in Afrisam as well as PPC. Pension funds invariably are invested for long-term gains. Similarly, Dangote has a 64% stake in

Sephaku Cement. These investments run into billions of rand and go a long way to helping create a sustainable and vibrant sector. Tomorrow’s successful companies have made the paradigm shift from a firmcentric view of the world – in which the firm’s purpose is to make money for itself – to a customer-centric view of the world, in which the purpose is to add value for customers. Such a sustainability approach to construction (and development) incorporates a holistic strategy to the nation’s long-term growth. The upshot is that companies must be innovative, agile and flexible if they are to survive. The key to future growth, therefore, lies in achieving greater e ciencies within the country’s relevant manufacturing sectors. Of all the measures of a nation’s development, infrastructure may be the most underestimated term. When really, it is the cement that binds the nation – socially, economically and governmentally.

BRYAN PERRIE Questions? bryanp@theconcreteinstitute.org.za 15

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THE RIGHT TO JUST ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION FHUMULANI MBEDZI, African Law Review Researcher, believes that all rights are fundamental, including the right to challenge how the government treats us

outh Africa has emerged from a dark history of systematic human rights violations. It has gallantly risen from its shameful past to establish itself as a sovereign state founded on democratic values such as supremacy of the Constitution and the Rule of Law. Informed by our past, the Constitution proclaims our collective resolve to reconstruct a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights. Before the dawn of the democratic dispensation, all rights mentioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments were directly or

indirectly violated. The right to just administrative action was no exception. Administrative decisions which adversely affected black people were taken without due regard for their rights, as no law sanctioned this transparent and democratic move. South Africa now has a justiciable Bill of Rights in its Constitution â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a unique feature in contemporary constitutional law. Each right in the Bill of Rights is fundamental and this includes the right to just administrative action. Section 33(1) and (2) of the Constitution provides that everyone has the right to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair. It further

states that anyone whose rights have been adversely affected by administrative action has the right to be given written reasons. The Legislature, acting pursuant to S33 (3) of the Constitution enacted the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 (PAJA). This Act was enacted to give effect to the right to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair and to the right to written reasons for administrative action as contemplated in section 33 of the Constitution; and to provide for matters incidental thereto. Human rights are often characterised as political or socio-economic in nature.

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implications and why it is so important in a constitutional democracy.

This distinction is often also attributed to the inherent notion of significance attached to these rights. My view is that all rights are fundamental, and none should be denied on the basis of a narrow and imagined sense of their varied significance. Bearing in mind that South Africans visited their polling stations in May 2019, one may argue that the right to vote is the most important, but how about the right to life, the right to food and water, the right to adequate housing, education and dignity? How about fair labour practice and lawful administrative action? However, for the purposes of this article, I will focus solely on the right to just administrative action, its

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS The right to just administrative action is a fundamental human right. It allows citizens to challenge the manner in which their government treats them. Judicial review is also recognised as a mechanism in which government’s decisions may be subjected to judicial scrutiny. This right allows a court to review administrative action to ensure it is lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair. The court can also set aside an administrative decision that does not surpass the lawfulness, reasonableness and procedural fairness threshold. PAJA is the Act that seeks to make the administration effective and accountable to people for its actions. Together, S33 of the Constitution and PAJA ensure that people have the right to ask for written reasons when administrative action has a negative impact on them. Since state organs make many decisions on a daily basis that could affect the lives of citi ens adversely, these decisions must comply with the prescripts of PAJA. It is therefore critical that state organs understand PAJA in its entirety. The citizens must also know their S33 right and how they can utilise PAJA to enforce it. It bears emphasis that state organs must follow the prescripts of PAJA at all costs. By so doing, they will effectively give meaning and practical expression to the constitutional right to just administrative action. It is through the S33 constitutional right that individual citizens play a role in the decision-making process of those they have elected to govern. The reality of our constitutional dispensation is that the government is elected by the people. This means that the governors must account to the public and must act transparently. The Constitutional Court has authoritatively reminded elected representatives as to why they must account to the people, in the following terms: “Amandla awethu, mannda ndiashu, maatla ke a rona or matimba ya hina

(power belongs to us) and mayibuye iAfrika (restore Africa and its wealth) are much more than mere excitement-generating slogans. They convey a very profound reality that state power, the land and its wealth all belong to ‘we the people’, united in our diversity.” The section 33 right essentially protects citizens against the possible arbitrary use of power by state o cials. t requires public o cials to thoughtfully and deliberately consider the impact of their decisions and listen to those likely to be affected before the decision is taken, which is in accordance with the dictates of fairness and justice. This right is essential as it demands of government to promote participatory democracy; it promotes an e cient administration and good governance. It creates a culture of accountability, openness and transparency in the public administration or in the exercise of a public power or the performance of a public function. It is through this right that government is required to respect and observe democratic decision-making processes. It is through this right that the governed have a right to influence the decisions of those with governmental power. This right nurtures good democracy and good governance. It is important as we now have a functional judiciary and a vibrant civil society that assists the governed in reviewing irrational and unlawful governmental decisions. Judicial review is a vital tool available in the enforcement process of this right. It is also critical for the entrenchment of the Rule of Law. Gone are the days wherein the whims of the governors routinely superseded human rights and other legitimate considerations. Administrative action needs to be taken in a lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair manner. Failure to do so will result in decisions being set aside by the courts.

*This article was first published in African Law

Review and is reprinted with the permission of the writer.

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DR PULANE MOLOKWANE BLAZING A TRAIL FOR BLACK FEMALE NUCLEAR PHYSICISTS IN SA Business Update invited innovative Nuclear Physicist, Environmental Specialist and business oman, r ulane olok ane, to share her vie s on the future e ects of climate change on SA businesses and about the role of women in STEMI

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ITH 15 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE SPANNING THE SCIENCE SPACE, WHAT AREAS HAVE YOU BECOME MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT, AND WHY? My first love will always be uclear Science – uclear hysics to be precise. t has technically helped me to get to where am today; the field exposed me to an environment in which identified opportunities to grow and study further. Which followed with studying the subject of waste minimisation in general. have grown to appreciate my work in the water sector, which landed up getting involved in purely by accident, through my hD project. To date have published 0 peer reviewed papers and two book chapters in these fields. have also managed to learn and grow in the governance space. On the whole, gaining the practical skills and publishing my writing has been an enjoyable ride – not without its challenges though. believe being able to blend one’s technical skills with corporate governance is exactly what the business space needs, and probably speaks to the kind of directors we need too. WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND HOW IT WILL AFFECT SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESSES IN THE FUTURE? The rise in average temperatures and frequency of high category natural’ disasters has increased – these occurrences are real. And those are just two examples of what is to come. lobal warming is happening because of

the use of fossil fuels, and carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere – and other activities which disturb the ecosystem. There is a dire need to conserve and restore the ecosystems and biodiversity as a whole, and therefore, for businesses to play their part and adapt. There is, however, a need to make this transition just it should not be at the cost of lives or the economy or the ecosystem. This will be a fine balancing act but is certainly doable. And the contribution of the coal and mining sector to the economy cannot be disregarded. WHAT STEPS HAVE THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESSES TAKEN TO MITIGATE CLIMATE CHANGE? The government has made the right moves in trying to address this, through emission tax, the carbon tax bill, and many waste and environmental actions that have been taken. The failure has been in enforcing most of these actions. do not think major polluters are doing enough to mitigate the effects of climate change, and the state has not been punitive enough for them to feel it financially. DROUGHT HAS BECOME A COMMON THEME IN AREAS AROUND SOUTH AFRICA. HOW DO YOU SEE THIS CRISIS P A ING OUT O ER THE NE T 5 YEARS? There will be no new water in the future; the weather patterns have demonstrated that. The country is going to experience less rain going forward. We therefore need

a paradigm shift in the way we manage our water resources. A wholistic source-to-sea management of our water resources is urgently required. This includes a coordinated approach to how investments in infrastructure are made. There is also a need to appreciate the true value of water and how water can be an economic driver. ( am currently leading the work paper that is looking at Water Security within the C – the paper is out for consultation with stakeholders.) WHAT REMEDIAL ACTION NEEDS TO BE TAKEN TO ADDRESS SOUTH AFRICA’S URGENT ENERGY CONCERNS? This is a complicated one; it needs a multipronged approach. We need to bring in alternative energy sources, a phased-in cost-effective clean nuclear energy, to assist our state-owned companies (SOCs) to get out of the ditch they find themselves in, so that they can fulfill their developmental mandate as envisioned by the D . There is plenty of scope for different technologies to contribute to the energy space. WHY DO YOU BELIEVE IT’S IMPORTANT TO ENCOURAGE MORE WOMEN TO GET INVOLVED IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS AND INNO ATION STEMI Diversity leads to better products and results, as found in a study done by M T. The field is dominated by men, and mostly older men, and less by women and people of colour. This picture has to change. Studying in the STEM field opens up a

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If you educate a woman, you educate a nation. After all, we make up more than 50% of the population

world of opportunities for women. t will assist in reshaping the workforce by providing a pipeline of women who can perform highly technical and functioning roles across multiple industries. Lastly, if you educate a woman, you educate a nation. After all, we make up more than 0 of the population. WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF ADDING INNOVATION TO THE STEM MIX? Most, if not all, businesses want to be more innovative. believe the importance of innovation is increasing – and increasing significantly. One of the keys to any successful business is being able to come up with new ideas to keep operations, products and services fresh. Businesses then need to make those ideas a reality innovation. IT TOOK AN EXTRAORDINARY AMOUNT OF GRIT AND DETERMINATION TO ACHIEVE WHAT YOU HAVE. ARE THERE KEY LESSONS YOU LEARNT ALONG THE A THAT UP AN COMING OMEN IN STEMI COULD TAKE ON BOARD? t can be a trying journey Studying in this field requires much tenacity, investment and sacrifice. What didn’t know when started out was that would constantly have to prove myself in a male-dominated space. Most male counterparts ignore your ideas, only for a similar idea to be brought up by a man and taken on board as a great idea. ou are continuously boxed in, expected to conform and be grateful even for being mistreated, as though you’ve been done a favour. The worst is when you have to put up with the same breaking down from fellow women. All this is meant to make you stronger and more focused. n response, all you need to do is let your work do the loud talking, not you. ou will have a few failures; it is part of the training (at times harsh training). es, one gets tired but giving up is not an option. o matter what happens od will always place good people strategically in your path to assist you to reach the next step and eventually your goal.

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CANNABIS:

A HIGH NOTE FOR THE SA MARKET

S S , Associate at Herold ie Attorneys, lls us in on the latest in legislation regarding the emerging cannabis industry in South Africa

annabis is on everyone’s lips these days. The legalisation of cannabis in South Africa has come as a big surprise to the naysayers and a cause for celebration to those who use it recreationally and medicinally. But mostly this controversial decision by the Constitutional Court has sparked the imaginations of governments and businesspeople globally, with visions of revenues and profits and market shares aplenty – and rightly so. The March 2019 African Cannabis Report by Prohibition Partners estimated that in 2023 the total market value of the South African cannabis industry will be roughly US$1.8-billion (assuming there is wholesale legislation and regulation of the industry). Furthermore, the global legal cannabis market is estimated to reach US$146billion by the end of 2025. And South Africa’s progressive stance towards the green plant sets it up nicely to become a major player in the international market, says South African Economist, Jee-A van der Linde.

It cannot be denied that the cannabis business is proving to be an emerging market and South Africa has the potential to be a serious competitor in the exciting new growth sector, if well-regulated. The Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, in his Budget Speech, opined on policy changes in the cannabis industry which could result in a potential source of revenue for South Africa. It therefore did not come as a surprise when the City of Cape Town along with Wesgro recently announced the release of vacant land for the production of medical cannabis, which will set the foundation to unlock Cape Town’s potential in this untapped sector. It is said that the facility will bring with it investment to the value of R638-million in capital expenditure during the construction phase and an additional R1.5-billion will be invested during phase two. Likewise, Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane recently stated that he wants to make the Eastern Cape home to South Africa’s first cannabis industry. Our neighbouring African countries like

Lesotho and Zimbabwe have already made significant changes to their laws and policies on legalising cannabis for medical and research purposes. In 2017, Lesotho became the first African nation to grant a license for the cultivation of medical cannabis. SA’S LEGISLATION ON CANNABIS South Africa has maintained a firm stance against illicit drugs since 1961, when it became a signatory to the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs: an international treaty that prohibits the production and supply of specific narcotics – including cannabis – except under license for specific purposes, such as medical treatment and research. The government also put in place two Acts in its fight against drugs. Drugs and Drug Traﬃcking Act 140 of 1992 (Drugs Act) The Drugs Act was enacted to outlaw the production, possession and supply of drugs – including cannabis. The Act prescribes and imposes criminal penalties

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for the production, possession and supply of cannabis, listed as an ‘undesirable dependence-producing substance’. Medicinal and Related Substances Act 101 of 1995 (Medicines Act) The Medicines Act regulates the use of cannabis, among other substances. The Act prohibits the acquisition, use, possession, manufacture, supply, sale or administration of cannabis unless it is done for medicinal or research purposes (section 22A(9)(a)(i) and section 22A(10) read with schedule 7 of the Medicines Act). CONSTITUTIONAL COURT JUDGEMENT In September 2018, the Constitutional Court delivered a landmark judgment on the constitutionality of cannabis use and cultivation: in the case of Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and Others v Prince; National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others v Rubin; National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others v Acton and Others [2018] ZACC 30 (Constitutional Court Judgment). It was held that: (a) the provisions of section 4(b) of the Drugs Act was inconsistent with the right to privacy entrenched in section 14 of the Constitution and, therefore, invalid to the extent that it makes the use or possession of cannabis in

‘private’ by an ‘adult person’ for his or her ‘own consumption’. (b) the provisions of section 5(b) of the Drugs Act was inconsistent with the right to privacy entrenched in section 14 of the Constitution and, therefore, constitutionally invalid to the extent that it prohibits the ‘cultivation of cannabis by an adult’ in a ‘private place’ for his or her ‘personal consumption’. (c) the provisions of section 22A(9)(a)(i) read with schedule 7 of the Medicines Act was inconsistent with the right to privacy entrenched in section 14 of the Constitution and, therefore, invalid to the extent that it makes the ‘use or possession of cannabis in private’ by an ‘adult person’ for his or her ‘own consumption in private’ a criminal offence. The Constitutional Court held that the right to privacy extends beyond the boundaries of a home. Parliament was given 24 months, until September 2020, to cure the constitutional defect in the stated provisions and to decriminalise the ‘cultivation’, ‘use’ or ‘possession’ of cannabis by an adult in a private place for his or her personal consumption. SOUTH AFRICAN HEALTH PRODUCTS REGU ATOR AUTHORIT SAHPRA SAHPRA, formerly known as the Medicines Control Council (MCC), was formed by the South African government to oversee the regulation of health products. SAHPRA regulates the licence application under section 22C(1)(b) of the Medicines Act and provides guidelines and licence requirements for any commercial enterprise that wishes to cultivate, extract and/or test cannabis and cannabis resin, including the manufacture, import, export and/or distribution of cannabinoidcontaining products. The two main objectives of the cannabis cultivation license application can be crystallised as follows firstly, the legitimacy of the cannabis must not be compromised, and secondly, all necessary steps must be taken to prevent the deviation of cannabis for illegal purposes.

Encapsulating from these objectives – the license application must address the following: • the personal information regarding the license holder, their business’ associates and their employees • training programmes for employees • security protocol • building and infrastructure • storage and distribution • equipment • record keeping and reporting • proper procedures for the harvesting and production of the cannabis. CONCLUSION For now, the manufacturing, harvesting, growing or cultivation of cannabis for commercial, research and medicinal purposes without the cannabis cultivation licence is prohibited and illegal in terms of the Drugs Act read with the Medicines Act, unless it is for private and personal consumption. Although, there are still doubts as to how the Constitutional Court ruling will be implemented in practice – including the scope that will be given to the definitions of ‘private’ and ‘personal consumption’ – and how the South African Police Service would ascertain that cannabis was for private or personal consumption. In the meantime the country awaits the coming development in legislation, keeping an eye on whether these changes will allow South Africa to tap into and capitalise on the full economic benefits and commercial opportunities that the cannabis industry has to offer.

ROMEO TSUSI uestions? rtsusi heroldgie co a

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WHAT AGRIBUSINESS CAN DO FOR SA’S ECONOMY WANDILE SIHLOBO, Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of SA (Agbiz), delivers the good and bad news about SA’s agricultural footprint on the economy

t is often said that the macroeconomic standing of the agricultural sector has diminished over time – and this argument is supported by the sector’s declining share of GDP, which fell from 4.2% in 1996 to 2.4% in 2018. What is not captured in this narrative, however, is the fact that the value of the agricultural sector has grown by almost 46%, from R50.5-billion to R74.2-billion over the same period. This means that South Africa’s primary agricultural sector is not becoming insignificant – it is only that other sectors, particularly the services sector, have grown at a faster pace. In 2018, the South African agricultural economy contracted by 4.8% year-on-year owing to a poor summer grains harvest on the back of drier weather conditions at the start of the season, and also lower horticultural harvest at the start of the year due to tail-end effects of the 201 Western Cape drought.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND TRADE Notwithstanding this, the developments on the agricultural trade front were generally positive, as South Africa’s agricultural exports grew by 7% y/y to US$10.6-billion, a record level in a dataset starting from 2001. This was underpinned by increased exports of oranges, grapes, wine, maize, apples, wool, lemons, mandarins and pears, among other products. Over the same period, imports increased marginally to US$6.7-billion. The key imported products were rice, wheat, offal, palm oil, whiskey, live cattle and oilcakes for animal feed. Overall, this subsequently led to a 21% y/y increase in South Africa’s agricultural trade balance to a record US$3.9-billion. KEY MARKETS From a destination point of view, the African continent and Europe continued to be the largest markets for South Africa’s agricultural exports, collectively absorbing

66% of total exports in 2018, measured in value terms. In more detail, Africa remained South Africa’s largest market, accounting for 39% of agricultural exports. The leading products to these markets were beverages, fruit, vegetables, wool, sugar and grains. Asia is also an important market for South Africa’s agricultural exports, demanding a 25% export share in 2018. Wool, fruit, grains, beverages, vegetables and meat were the leading products exported to this particular region. The Americas and the rest of the world accounted for 5% and 4% shares. Exports to these regions were also dominated by fruits, beverages, vegetables, tea, sugar and grains. What is also worth noting in terms of imports is that South Africa has an import substitution objective through its Industrial Policy Action Plan, but the substitution of some of the key imported agricultural products is unlikely in the foreseeable

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South Africa’s agricultural exports grew by 7% y/y to US$10.6-billion, a record level in a dataset starting from 2001 future, as South Africa does not have favourable agro-ecological conditions, specifically for the production of palm oil and rice. About 23% of the overall 2018 agricultural imports were rice, wheat, offal and palm oil. n the case of wheat and offal imports, there could be a decline in the coming years if the domestic revitalisation process of these subsectors succeeds. The most recent data from the International Grains Council suggest that South Africa’s 2019 rice imports could amount to 1.1 million tonnes, up by 10% from 2018. But the import value might not be higher than in 2018, due to comparatively lower rice prices on the back of a large global harvest of 491 million tonnes in the 2018/19 production season. PALM OIL In terms of palm oil, South Africa’s imports increased by 5% per annum over the past 17 years to a record 472 874 tonnes in 2018.

Throughout this period, the leading suppliers were Indonesia and Malaysia. The trend is unlikely to change this year due to growing domestic demand. At Agbiz, we estimate that South Africa’s palm oil imports for 2019 could reach 477 603 tonnes. From a national policy perspective, in his 2019 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa signalled that potential expansion in agricultural production would mainly be on export-oriented products. There is already a clear pathway for this initiative as South Africa is currently wellpositioned in terms of export markets, and there is clarity about products that show a growing demand in the world market. With that said, South Africa’s agricultural trade prospects for 2019 are not as positive as the previous few years, as unfavourable weather conditions in parts of the country could lead to lower production, particularly in grains. The current ban, although there are negotiations underway to lift it, on the

exports of beef is another factor that could lead to reduced exports in 2019. The expectations of a relatively smaller wine harvest could also weigh on trade in 2019. The subsector that could still show solid export performance this year is horticulture. Be that as it may, I still expect a positive trade balance for South Africa’s agriculture in 2019. Amid the uncertainty posed by domestic factors – such as policy uncertainty which is reflected by despondency in a range of Confidence ndices, climate change and policy – the country’s agricultural labour market also experienced downswings but ended 2018 on a positive footing. AGRICULTURAL LABOUR MARKET After experiencing a decline in employment in the second and third quarters of 2018, South Africa’s agricultural sector recorded a slight rebound in employment in the fourth quarter to 849 000 jobs. The quarterly uptick was boosted by increased

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The African continent and Europe continued to be the largest markets for South Africa’s agricultural exports activity in livestock, fisheries and forestry subsectors. This was mainly spread across four provinces Western Cape, Kwa ulu- atal, Mpumalanga and orth West. Meanwhile, the rest of the other provinces experienced a quarterly reduction. LOOKING AHEAD Looking ahead, over the foreseeable future, South Africa’s agricultural economy could continue to operate within the context of increasing uncertainty due to challenges posed by climate change – which remains largely unaddressed, as well as global trade developments where there is rising protectionism in some key markets – even with countries that South Africa has trade agreements with. The overall performance of the upcoming production seasons will partly depend on the interplay of the aforementioned factors.

WANDILE SIHLOBO Questions? wandile@agbiz.co.za

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CRANEFIELD COLLEGE OFFERS LIVE ONLINE DISTANCE LEARNING In the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) economy organisations collaborate with inter-organisational partners in virtual networks, focusing on their core business and competencies, while partners perform non-core tasks. n partnering they first seek candidates closest to them before moving regional, nationally or global. This stimulates growth of small and medium sized enterprises, as well as job creation in their immediate vicinity. Four aspects most affected by ndustry 4.0 are customer expectations, product and service enhancement, collaborative innovation, and organisational forms. Cranefield College’s academic qualifications and short courses are designed to master organisational leadership, management and governance

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needs to cope with the abovementioned Industry 4.0 dispensation. Students are taught how to achieve organisational performance excellence through programme-managing inter-organisational value chain activities. This includes programme-managing supply chain- and project portfolios. Our lecturers performed extensive research and published ground-breaking articles before and during the emergence of Industry 4.0, resulting in Cranefield being an educational leader in this field. The programme management acumen taught by Cranefield embeds valuable knowledge and skills in organisational mindsets for coping with Industry 4.0 aspects. It delivers a clear customer expectation focus; innovative continuous improvement with respect to product and service enhancement; a dynamic learning mindset for collaborative innovation; and the matrix methodology for managing networked virtual crossfunctional processes of new organisational forms. Cranefield offers technology enhanced distance learning with limited class contact. Classes are offered at our auditorium in Midrand, Gauteng, and simultaneously streamed live-online via the internet. This makes it possible for students to enrol from anywhere in South Africa and globally. igh definition videos of all classes are made available to students via Cranefield’s online earning Management System. A student who is unable to participate in a live session can still subsequently view a recording thereof. Increasingly, employers prefer job-relevant education and training for improving the competence of employees, and providing them with beneficial skills. What learn from Cranefield today can implement in my work tomorrow” is a student accolade often received. Cranefield offers a host of academic qualifications and short courses, including a specialised professional Master’s degree and a Ph .

2019/09/12 2019/09/12 14:13 13:05

7 COMMON MISTAKES WITH SALE OF LAND AGREEMENTS

Everybody makes mistakes, but making these seven would be particularly costly say Partner CHANTELLE GLADWIN-WOOD and Candidate Attorney DIVINA NAIDOO at Schindlers Attorneys

hat are some of the more common mistakes that crop up in practice, when sale agreements are drafted using precedents that are not properly altered by qualified professionals? Every deal is unique and proper advice should be sought, lest a silly mistake result in severe financial consequences or other unintended liability for the parties concerned. Here is a checklist for the most standard errors: 1. ALIENATION OF LAND ACT 68 OF 1981 This Act states that a sale of land must be done in writing. But many sale contracts

are badly drafted and don’t actually say that the seller sells the property to the purchaser and the purchaser purchases from the seller. Without this simple line, the agreement is worth nothing and any transfer based on a contract missing this essential allegation will be invalid in law. 2. SIGNED AND WITNESSED CORRECTLY In terms of the Alienation of Land Act, a deed of sale for land must be signed by the parties and two witnesses. Failure to sign the document properly will result in it never coming into effect in law.

3. SUSPENSIVE CONDITIONS It is not uncommon for a sale of land agreement to include a clause to the effect that the purchaser is given a time period to obtain mortgage finance (a bond), and a clause to the effect that if the bond is not obtained the sale agreement lapses ab initio (meaning that it will be ‘null and void’ as if it had never existed). Other suspensive conditions can also be created, such as the sale being suspensive on the sale/transfer of the purchaser’s existing property. What many people don’t realise is that, until the suspensive conditions have been fulfilled, there is no

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agreement at all that can regulate the relationship between the parties. In other words, if you allow early occupation of a property before the suspensive conditions have been fulfilled, you have no valid sale agreement in terms of which occupation can take place and be governed, unless your document expressly provides for part of it to come into being before the suspensive conditions are fulfilled. n that situation the common law governing occupation would kick in’ and fill that gap, especially if the sale never goes through and you need to evict the tenant, and you don’t have written lease terms to rely on in court. . CANCE ATION/BREACH C AUSES We often see lease and sale agreements that give a residential tenant/purchaser seven days to remedy a breach (normally non-payment of rent) and threaten cancellation and eviction after seven days, if the breach is not remedied. To the extent that the sale agreement/ lease is subject to the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, the law provides that a minimum of 20 business days must be given in which to remedy the breach before cancellation can take place and this cancellation period will only be operative in law where the consumer was in breach. Any premature cancellation, even if done in terms of the wording of the lease/ sale agreement itself, will be invalid if this is not complied with. You don’t want to spend six months in court to evict a tenant/purchaser who refuses to vacate after a sale is cancelled and lose because the court finds that the sale agreement lease was never properly cancelled!

Many sale contracts are badly drafted and don’t actually say that the seller sells the property to the purchaser and the purchaser purchases from the seller 5. IMME IATE E ECTMENT/E ICTION Most leases and many sale agreements provide that the tenant/purchaser must vacate the property immediately if the lease/sale agreement is cancelled, and that if the tenant/purchaser fails to do so, the landlord/seller can ‘enter the property’ and ‘eject’ the tenant/purchaser immediately. This kind of clause is contrary to the provisions of section 25 of the Constitution, which provides that everyone has the right not to be evicted from their home without an order of court, and as such, is entirely unenforceable until you have a court order. 6. ORGETTING TO ATTACH ANNE URES Often, pertinent details of the agreement between the parties are recorded in annexures to an agreement, but the annexures are accidentally left out. It might be that the wording of the agreement is precise enough to be able to identify the annexure concerned, though if that’s not the case you might end up in a fight about what document should have been attached, or which version of a particular document should have been attached. 7. INCORRECT CLAUSE REFERENCES Numerous sale agreements have been adapted from prior versions used for other clients/deals. An aspect that is often overlooked in these cases is the clause

number referencing – inaccurate clause references can cause huge prejudice to the parties (and much confusion). CONCLUSION It is clear that quite frequently the smallest mistakes, such as forgetting to include annexures in an agreement, or the incorrect use of a precedent when referencing lease-specific clauses, can be detrimental to the enforceability of the agreement and thus create prejudice for the parties. The bottom line here is to always have a professional draft or check your important documents, because the cost of not doing it right from the start will usually exceed the cost of getting the right advice from the word go.

CHANTE

EG A

Questions? gladwin-wood@schindlers.co.za

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MGIBA TECHNOLOGIES TAKES HEALTHCARE BY THE HAND FRANK MOKGOLOBOTO, Managing Director of MGIBA Technologies, speaks about the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s innovative digital healthcare system as a solution to the rising costs, longer waiting times and increasing medical errors plaguing our health industry

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TECHNOLOGY

ccording to the World Economic Forum, the rise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is adding intricacy to future economies and their employment outcomes. This new era presents an opportunity to explore growth in digitalisation and Internet connectivity, which have the ability to drive Africa forward. The number of companies in South Africa jumping on the rocket that technology has become is increasing rapidly and exponentially. MGIBA Technologies is one such company. Its belief in the capabilities of Africans to collaborate in order to enable innovation, propel new business models and improve the delivery of public services is central to its approach. By harnessing creative ingenuity and providing viable solutions tailored to the needs of the people, companies embrace the new turn of technology to achieve next-level results.

“It’s important that we ‘Africanise’ the Fourth Industrial Revolution and find our own way of interpreting it to have the greatest understanding and impact on our communities”

DIGITAL HEALTHCARE MGIBA Technologies is the brainchild of seasoned professionals with a combined experience of over 20 years across diverse spheres within the IT sector. And their innovation is certainly leading them places. Through a common vision of improving the circumstances of the places we come from, remaining aligned to the Fourth Industrial Revolution Pan African goal and providing African-tailored solutions engineered by Africans, they have identified the dire need for a digitised automated healthcare system. At present, with all its bureaucracy, the South African healthcare system has isolated its most important stakeholder: the patient. The ine ciency and complexity of the underlying IT solutions has contributed to inflated health services costs through duplication of services, unpleasant patient experience through redundant processes and workflows, as well as reactive healthcare service

provision due to a lack of insight required to make proactive and preventative decisions. The major concern is that the proportion of South Africans living in rural areas has fallen by about 10% since 1994 – today, about 60% of the population live in urban areas. In line with global trends, the movement of people from rural areas to urban cities is expected to continue, and by 2030 about 70% of the population will live in urban areas. This will pose serious infrastructural issues, with an influx of patients further straining the current state of development in the health sector. General Manager for Research at BrandSA, Dr Petrus de Kock, said it was important to safeguard the human development agenda in the digital age. “We need to create our society. Transformation of our society relies on two things: digital transformation and human development.” Elsie Kanza, Head of WEF Africa, spoke on the significance of bringing the African continent on board digital transformation. “It’s important that we ‘Africanise’ the Fourth ndustrial Revolution and find our own way of interpreting it to have the greatest understanding and impact on our communities.” Global references demonstrate that information technology has the ability to assist in this regard through the automation of processes, thus reducing the ine ciencies of manually-driven processes and lowering transaction costs. The impact of automation in terms of cost and strategic value in public sector hospitals is shown to have yielded positive outcomes with regard to patient experience (86% of stakeholders – nurses, doctors and patients – stated that patient waiting times had decreased), hospital staff workflow enhancements and overall morale in the workplace. Data also reveals a trend across stakeholders that the cost of learning the new system was worth the benefits. Although, measures should be taken to

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TECHNOLOGY

ensure that security and privacy of information are included in the system’s security and design architecture in accordance with the hospital risk management function. Overall, the key reasons that influence the investment of automated systems within a hospital are the ability to reduce administrative workload associated with data capture; the optimisation of workflow; the potential to enhance patient data security; and the potential for lower overall costs. There is an opportunity here to include the T value proposition specific to cost reduction in the change management process during system implementation. Executing digitally-orientated solutions in the health sector proves to be far more beneficial than the financial implications attached to digitisation of the system. Benefits include better data tracking over time, which is directly impacted by patient charts being more complete and clear due to the clarity of text. This, in turn, eliminates the constraints that result from poor interpretation of doctor’s notes and prescriptions. Furthermore, unlimited access to tools that providers can use for decision-making streamlines the sharing of updated, real-time information, which will fundamentally reduce duplicate testing. The bottom line: it saves patients and providers time, money and trouble. With fast, accurate and updated information, medical errors are reduced and healthcare is improved. Improved information access also makes prescribing medication safer and more reliable. As we know, encouraging patient participation can lead to healthier lifestyle choices and more frequent use of preventative care. In this case, a complete medical history of the patient, from allergies and radiology images to lab results will be on hand and patients will be digitally notified about their screening and preventative checkup dates. MGIBA is honing in on a home grown, world-class healthcare solution which seeks to digitally capture the journey of a patient throughout their consumption of healthcare services and so, supporting healthcare service providers in tackling and simplifying the way they provide those services – to be e cient yet economical –

to the marginalised masses of the continent and the country. MGIBA Technologies’ ‘People 1st’ ethos is at the heart of what drives the company to build software solutions that will have a positive contribution to society and create an ecosystem where we as Africans can say with pride that we have dug deep to find the much-needed answers to our inevitable stumbling blocks – solutions that are sustainable. EMP O ING THE TECHNO SA MI ENNIA S According to Stats SA, millennial South Africans between the ages of 15 and 34 years old make up 20.6 million people; that’s 35.7% of the total population. And the youth unemployment rate sits at a grave 55%. MGIBA believes its innovative project is scalable enough to be part of the solution to reduce this rate. In fact, the company sees a profound opportunity to harness the skills of this techno-savvy population by piloting an innovation that mobilises digital transformation, with the upshot of helping to tackle the issue of youth unemployment through job creation and teaching fundamental skills that will be needed in the future. By 2035, sub-Saharan Africa’s population will still be the youngest in the world. At the same time, the share of working-age individuals (aged 15 to 64) relative to the

non-working-age population will continue to increase, in what is the fastest-growing population in the world. It is expected to increase by roughly 50% over the next 18 years, growing from 1.2 billion people today to over 1.8 billion in 2035. MGIBA Technology is preparing for this eventuality. With its proven track record of full IT project management and technology services, you’ll want them on your rocket at blast-off time. Especially if it means being part of an innovation such as the development of a fully integrated digital hospital management solution at Ongwediva Medipark in Namibia, which it is currently rolling out in a bid to enable functional hospital operation and improved patient experience.

FRANK MOKGOLOBOTO Questions? frank@mgibagroup.com

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DO YOU HAVE INSURANCE FOR CYBERCRIME? Conducting business electronically carries signi cant bene ts, but a hole ne level of risks too A AS A alerts legal practitioners to the critical need for cyber liability insurance

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INSURANCE

According to the LPIIF, cybercrime is not a professional indemnity risk, but rather a business risk faced by all business enterprises and individuals

he Legal Practitioners’ Indemnity Insurance Fund NPC (LPIIF) – previously named the Attorneys Insurance Indemnity Fund NPC – has since 1 July 2016 excluded insurance cover for cybercrime-related claims. This has raised many concerns from legal practitioners. In essence, the profession is concerned that public funds are insured for intentional misappropriation or theft and not insured for instances when theft arises due to the negligence associated with cybercrime. The LPIIF provides a level of professional indemnity insurance cover to all practitioners in possession of a valid Fidelity Fund Certificate on the date that the cause of action arose. According to the LPIIF, cybercrime is not a professional indemnity risk, but rather a business risk faced by all business enterprises and individuals – the risk is not unique to the practice of law or any other profession. The LPIIF has further stated that this is a business commercial risk that can be covered under various cyber risk and commercial crime products available on the market. The current L F Master olicy defines cybercrime as: “Cybercrime: Any criminal or other offence that is facilitated by or involves the use of electronic communications or information systems, including any device or the Internet or any one or more of them. (The device may be the agent, the

facilitator or the target of the crime or offence) . Under the exclusions, clause 16, the LPIIF Master Policy states: “16. This policy does not cover any liability for compensation: … c) which is insured or could more appropriately have been insured under any other valid and collectible insurance available to the Insured, covering a loss arising out of the normal course and conduct of the business or where the risk has been guaranteed by a person or entity, either in general or in respect of a particular transaction, to the extent to which it is covered by the guarantee. This includes but is not limited to Misappropriation of Trust Funds, Personal Injury, Commercial and Cybercrime insurance policies; … o) arising out of Cybercrime . Answering a question as to why the LPIIF decided to exclude cover for cybercrime, the LPIIF stated: “Clause 16(o) of the LPIIF policy excludes claims arising from cybercrime and also excludes risks (such as cybercrime) that are more appropriately insured under another policy (clause 16(c)). Cybercrime is thus not a risk that falls within the ambit of the cover intended under the LPIIF professional indemnity policy. “The LPIIF has warned the profession of the risks associated with cybercrime since

2010. Since 2015, the profession and the [provincial] law societies were warned of the impending amendments to the LPIIF policy to exclude cybercrime from the Master Policy – the exclusion only came into effect on 1 uly 2016. The draft policy including the cybercrime exclusion was published in February 2016 informing the profession that the amended policy would be implemented from 1 July 2019. “Since the cybercrime exclusion came into effect on 1 uly 2016, 12 such claims have been notified. The total value of the excluded cybercrime claims is R 0 94 146, . This figure excludes the investigation and defence costs that would have been expended in respect of these claims, as well as any interest that would have been payable. “The LPIIF is funded by way of single annual [payment] received from the Legal Practitioners’ Fidelity Fund. The current premium is R14 4 2 06,96. Had the cybercrime claims been covered, 55% of the annual premium would have been used to pay claims arising out of just this one risk. This would pose a serious risk to the long-term sustainability of the company. “The Solvency Assessment and Management (SAM) regulatory regime for insurance companies (which also applies to the LPIIF) prescribes that insurance companies must proactively manage their risks. The exclusion of cybercrime was part of the LPIIF’s risk management

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INSURANCE

The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) has set up a Cybersecurity Helpdesk with the view of assisting legal practitioners on matters related to cybersecurity and cyber liability insurance process and a measure aimed at protecting the long-term sustainability of the company and ensuring that the company meets the prescribed minimum solvency requirements for insurers. “The practitioners who have fallen victim to cybercrime have failed to comply with the Rules with regards to the implementation of internal controls and the verification of banking details before making payments as prescribed by Rule 54.13 in particular.” The legal profession exists in a world where digital communication, the use of electronic gadgets and the Internet in business makes life easier. All this then brings all the risks associated with conducting business electronically.

The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) has set up a Cybersecurity Helpdesk with the view of assisting legal practitioners on matters related to cybersecurity and cyber liability insurance. In the near future, a list of underwriters providing cyber liability insurance (listed by the South African nsurance Association) will be published on the LSSA website. This will provide contact information of underwriters or their accredited brokers, who legal professionals may approach in addressing this critical aspect of legal professional’s cybersecurity management (see www.lssa.org. a). *This article first appeared in De Rebus in April 2019

MAPULA SEDUTLA Questions? mapula@derebus.org.za

and is published with the kind permission of the writer.

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Daniel Tau Phalane, Owner

Tau halane ncorporated Attorneys

Tell us about your company I founded the company in 1992, after graduating with two degrees: B.Com Law and LLB. The company has offices in retoria, elspruit, Middleburg, olokwane, Bloemfontein and Mafikeng, with a staff of about 0. Current clients include municipalities, parastatals, government departments and individuals. Areas of legal practice

Tau Phalane Incorporated Attorneys

include litigation in the High Courts, Labour Court and Constitutional Court; negotiation, mediation and arbitration in commercial, labour, land reform and family disputes; forensic investigation, prosecution in disciplinary enquiries and presiding over disciplinary enquiries; liquidations, sequestration and debt collection.

What challenges do you face in the industry? Continuous innovation and adaptation to an ever-changing and competitive environment.

The firm strives to render excellent service at competitive prices. This excellent service is achieved through recruitment of competent legal personnel, good infrastructure and reliable supporting staff who are justly rewarded for their work.

What words of wisdom do you have for other business leaders? We will turn this country into a nation of winners when each of us earnestly strives towards discharging all our individual responsibilities before laying a claim to our right.

What is the best business lesson you have ever learnt? Life is a lifelong learning experience.

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Progressive Leader is the official magazine of the ANC Progressive Business Forum (PBF). The magazine has been in existence since 2008 and is an important platform to promote dialogue between the ANC, the business community and South Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s progressive citizenry.

Progressive Leader is the primary communication channel between the PBF and the leaders of companies that are members of the PBF, as well as members of the ANC Progressive Citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Forum (PCF).

TO ADVERTISE IN UPCOMING

It is the ideal vehicle for companies to speak to these members directly.

Christa Nel | 021 447 6467 Crosby Moruthane | 067 053 0189

EDITIONS CONTACT

PUBLISHED FOR THE PBF BY Publication of the ANC Progressive Business Forum

Publication of the ANC Progressive Business Forum | Issue 19

Issue 20 | July 2019

R39,95 INCL VAT

R39,95 INCL VAT ISSUE 19

ISSUE 20

SOUTH AFRICA IS RISING

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AN ERA OF OPTIMISM 2018/12/07 18:23

Suite 20-301B Waverley Business Park, Kotzee Road, Mowbray, Cape Town Tel | +27 21 447 6467 info@yesmedia.co.za www.yesmedia.co.za

2019/09/12 2019/09/12 14:13 14:12

3 Big small business ideas THE SMALL BUSINESS SITE shares some key insights into choosing the perfect business location, the six most important positions for any small business to have, and using failure as a positive tool for future success

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SMALL BUSINESS

The importance of choosing the right business location

As a business starting off, finding the perfect location is very important. Whether yours is a restaurant or a manufacturing company, where you locate your business plays a pivotal role in the chances of it succeeding. Location may not feature in the top five to-do list items of a new business, because seemingly more important things may be on the forefront. But being in a bad location can be disastrous for many enterprises; it can cause an otherwise great business and management to be suffocated and fail from the start. With proper research, however, you can maximise the chances of selecting a location that is spot-on for your business. Start by taking note of these six points below in your quest for the perfect location: • Are the businesses around your chosen location competing with your business or complementing it? t is preferred that you select a location with businesses that complement yours; meaning if you sell hair products, your neighbours should ideally be hair salons. • What is your proximity to your target market? our customers should find it easy to access your business. This is also determined by the type of business you run, as some customers may be willing to travel far to access your services or products, such as a spa retreat in the countryside or mountains. • Does the location match your brand? If you are a high-end supplier of beauty products, it would make sense that your business be located in a more upmarket area of town. • How safe is the area? ou want it to be safe for employees and customers to travel to your business without fear of crime. n addition, you want to be able to keep business property, such as computers and inventory, safe. • What are the local zoning regulations? Some areas may be strictly residential and so, it may not be legal for you to set up your business there. Contact the local city council to find out which locations are designated for businesses – or how to go about rezoning or attaining applicable consent and licenses to operate your

business in a particular location of choice. • What is the cost of running a business from the location? The cost of rent or mortgages, as well as distances from suppliers can and should influence your decision to choose a particular location. This presents cost, logistical, operational, service and various other considerations. The location of your business (with a very few exceptions) plays a substantial role in increasing its chances of success. Being near your customers is not enough. There are various factors to keep in mind such as property prices, safety of the area and accessibility for customers, suppliers and

so forth. Start with the above pointers to guide you in the right direction, while looking for the right business location.

6 Key positions every small business needs Starting a business is an exciting and daunting experience. You may believe you are a jack of all trades but this may mean that you are master of none. t is important to know what your strengths are in the business and hire staff members who can fulfil the positions where you are weak.

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Consider hiring slow and before the need arises so that your staff member will be ready and the best fit for your business There are six key positions every small business should have fulfilled 1. GENERAL MANAGER This is the person who oversees the whole business and works on the strategies to improve the various aspects within your business. They are in control of your staff, operations, and customer care. 2. BOOKKEEPER/ACCOUNTANT Cash flow is one of the critical points of keeping a company afloat. ou need to know how you are getting money in and how much money you are spending. By having an accountant, they can help you with your financial strategy and they can assist with you being tax compliant. 3. MARKETING GURU When you start hiring a marketing employee, it is important to look for someone who is comfortable with all aspects of marketing. ou want someone who can look after all your marketing needs. As you grow you can look into getting different people for the different aspects of marketing. 4. ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Admin sometimes stands in the way of entrepreneurs focusing on getting more business or streamlining their products. By hiring an admin assistant or virtual assistant, you will be able to delegate tasks which take your time away from more critical parts of your business. 5. IT TECHNICIAN ot everyone is a computer whi . When your systems are down then you will struggle to run your business. Therefore, if you have a tech company or computers are critical to the operation of your business, you may consider having an T technician on staff.

6. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER Hiring and managing people can be complicated. t is important that you know the ins and out of local legislation and that you are on top of your payroll. When considering hiring for these positions there are four questions to ask yourself: • Is my company ready for expansion? It is important to analyse your current growth and see if it is sustainable or a seasonal boost. If it is sustainable growth, then you should look into hiring a full-time employee. f it is a seasonal boost, then you should see where you can get seasonal help from during those times. • Which skills are my weaknesses? ou need to become self-aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Those areas where you are weak are the first areas you should hire employees in. By hiring employees who complement your strengths, you will be less frustrated and save money from not doing things which are not within your primary skill set.

• Does the new potential employee complement my company’s culture? When hiring employees, it is important to consider their personality as well as their skills. They may be experts in their field but if they cause the rest of your staff to feel inadequate it could be a problem further down the line. • Does the employee raise the IQ of my business? When considering to employ a person for your business, you need to hire excellence. ou want someone who will help you to do better not bring your business down. Sometimes these employees will be more knowledgeable about their field than you are and that’s OK. ou should not be intimidated by the intelligence of your fellow employees. By answering these questions, you will be well on your way to hiring premium staff for your business. n conclusion, when your business begins to grow, you need to seriously consider the six positions highlighted above and who will fulfil them. t is also important to consider hiring slow and before the need arises so that your staff member will be ready and the best fit for your business.

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SMALL BUSINESS

Failure is

SUCCESS in progress

It is what you do right now that will determine your future By Mike Anderson, NSBC Founder & CEO

n order to succeed we need to embrace failure positively and at the same time learn from the experience. My ongoing obsession is to turn every negative into a positive. n this way failures and obstacles becomes a way of life on my success path. Don’t lose opportunities due to the fear of failure. A temporary failure is a big step towards success. One small failure or obstacle can give you many positive lessons. t will increase your level of selfconfidence and make you more determined and resilient. ou will be more ready for the next risk. Those that snub failure have adopted a life of mediocrity. Life goes by in a flash. Let’s exit with substance. would rather fail a thousand times than never try. t’s a vital ingredient for success. Will a life of mediocrity satisfy you, or will you opt to leave a legacy when you depart lanet Earth What becomes important, and what is very important to me, is not how long you live, but how you live your years. Franklin D. Roosevelt said, ’ll do what fear and fear will disappear. nderstand this people experience the fear of failure because it is what is happening in their minds. The failure itself is not fatal – it is the fear of failure that causes most people to fail. The reason you feel the fear is that you are uncertain about something. However, if you are fully prepared or have done something hundreds of times, do you think you will still feel the fear The answer is obvious. The main reason why we don’t challenge the status quo is probably because the unknown is riskier and therefore our fear

of failure kicks in. This is the seesaw of success and failure – or worse, living an existence of mediocrity. Most ideas never get off the ground because people are afraid to take a risk and fail. Those who have achieved real success have overcome the fear of failure and often risked the most to get there. There is nothing you can do about your past and you can’t change what has already happened. But extract whatever you can, learn from all you have encountered and gain better experience. Whatever you do right now will determine your future. ou have the choice of doing what you want, and you must learn to make good use of the power of making choices. t is what you do right now that will determine your future. ou have to be willing to risk failure and put yourself out there if you going to achieve anything of significance. Few have what it takes to embrace failure, but those who do will find opportunity and reward. ow that you are willing to take risks and embrace failure, you have to also move out of your comfort zone and innovate. Do things differently, walk on the wrong side of the road, swim upstream, challenge the status quo and always keep looking for the next big thing. Winners always look at the bigger picture while losers cannot go beyond the way things are at the time. nnovation is about new ideas, new processes and new ways of doing things. Step outside of your comfort zone and experiment. Try something different in life. ut your ideas to the test. nnovation relies on trial and error. f it doesn’t work, bank it as experience. This will allow you to move forward and try again. ohn Maxwell asks why so many people work so hard without ever achieving or making an impact, while fewer who don’t seem to work hard achieve so much. The reason is simple – it is because of conformity. Research has shown that only five percent of the people in the world are able to achieve their life goals. Why Because, the remaining ninety-five percent are blind conformists who go through life accepting the way things are. Doing things differently is one of the keys to success. You also need to listen to Albert Einstein

who said, Doing things the way we have always done them and expecting different results is one of the definitions of insanity. f you want to experience a change, you must do things differently. Stop following the crowd and you can be among the top five percent. f you want to live an impactful life, you must break the mould. Stop being a blind conformist who just keeps to tradition. Challenging the status quo gives you the seeds of vision and opportunity. There are always better ways of doing things. Strive to be the one who will discover the better way. When you do this, windows of opportunity and abundant wealth will open widely for you.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs

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CREATING ONRAMPS FOR

ENTREPRENEURSHIP JENNY RETIEF, CEO of Riversands Incubation Hub, on how to identify and develop entrepreneurs for sustainable success

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

here is no shortage of talented black entrepreneurs. But, talent alone is not enough for sustainable success. With any small business it is a race to survive and gain traction – before the money runs out. Black-owned businesses are especially vulnerable. They often start from a lower base in terms of start-up and investment capital and possess little or no collateral security. Riversands Incubation Hub has the solution. Situated North of Johannesburg, adjacent to Steyn City and a stone’s throw from Diepsloot, Riversands Incubation Hub was catalysed by a partnership between

Century Property Developments and National Treasury’s Jobs Fund to create the infrastructure needed to provide a platform for commercial and light industrial business in the area. After years of planning and construction, the Hub opened its doors in September 2015. Its 40 000m² campus is home to 157 businesses. And over 1 000 permanent and more than 2 000 short-term new jobs have been created on the campus and within the precinct. The genius behind the Hub is that it offers rentals from 0 to 200m as o ce and manufacturing space – at a fraction of commercial letting costs. Just as important as reduced cost, the leases are also flexible. An entrepreneur can scale up their space requirements or scale down or move out with less than one month’s notice. In this way de-risking the inherently risky venture of entrepreneurship. Lots of businesses don’t make it. But there are also many good news stories of entrepreneurs on the brink of major success and new hires. The impact of a new job is immense: overnight, a jobless person is transformed into a productive contributor to society. After over four years in the industry, the hub offers six tips on what it takes to identify and develop entrepreneurs. 1. YOU CANNOT CREATE ENTREPRENEURS There are many programmes that offer entrepreneurship education and many corporates have also tried to turn their best employees into owner operators. While there is some value in these efforts, entrepreneurs need to self-select entrepreneurship. You cannot create dependency relationships between entrepreneurs and support providers. Ultimately, the driving force behind any small business is the entrepreneur themselves. You need to use an investor mindset when selecting the entrepreneurs you

engage with more deeply. This means not prejudging who will be successful – but do watch out for those entrepreneurial behaviours that indicate the range of skills that are almost guaranteed to lead to sustainable success. 2. MARKETS MATTER MORE THAN FUNDING Yes, there needs to be funding available for small businesses. However, the focus should not be on funding alone. There needs to be significant support in helping entrepreneurs understand their market’s needs and expected market standards. One of the initiatives the Hub has taken is to make customer feedback visible to entrepreneurs in a structured and useful form. People are inherently polite; a vague brush-off as to why there is no follow-on deal is easier than a detailed explanation and tough talk on what was lacking in a proposal or interaction. The Hub has facilitated a number of deals between Century Property Developments and the entrepreneurs in its programmes. Having a potential customer reveal their inner decision-making is incredibly valuable to entrepreneurs. 3. TECHNOLOGY MUST BE HARNESSED Technology is one of the main ways to leapfrog or solve the intractable problems that traditional ways have not been able to solve. The Hub has spent a year developing a tech solution to improve its interactions with entrepreneurs and, in time, allow it to interact with many more entrepreneurs beyond its campus. amed Lynx’ after the tenacious African caracal, early signs are hugely exciting. The data the Hub gathers will allow it to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to help identify patterns of the biggest needs and the interventions most powerful in boosting positive results. In general, entrepreneurs do not embrace technology enough, when there is so

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

integrates small emerging businesses with large established ones. Having 24-hour security also makes a difference. As does a formal address. Once fully developed, being at the heart of a larger business park will connect SMEs to even more extensive markets and a whole range of business opportunities.

much value to be unlocked through the proper use of it. Both for sophisticated small businesses tapping into the services provided by major cloud players like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, and for the entrepreneur who develops a website and learns how to promote online through Google AdWords. We are entering a time when great technology solutions are now accessible to the SME sector. 4. THE HUMAN TOUCH While technology will enable us to operate at scale, there is no replacing the human touch. Entrepreneurs are humans, with all the ego, insecurity and sensitivity that goes with that. It can be an incredibly lonely journey; they need to be heard and listened to. At the same time, if you don’t hold a tough line and demand world-class behaviour and standards, any help will rapidly turn into a business form of social grant and fall far short of transforming our economy. This year, the Hub has employed a team of service coordinators and assigned each of them a small portfolio of entrepreneurs.

And it has seen engagement skyrocket by this ‘personal banker’ type of attention. 5. INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDES AN ECONOMIC BACKBONE Good quality infrastructure is important not only for faster economic growth but also to ensure inclusive growth. Apartheid spatial planning created deep structural infrastructure disadvantages for township residents. In neighbouring Diepsloot, the road widths, power availability and size of stands makes manufacturing at any scale near impossible. Until now there were no nearby industrial developments to Diepsloot and typically residents could spend half their salaries commuting to work. Of course, there may be thriving township businesses, but these struggle to attract customers from beyond the township’s borders. The Hub, based within the Riversands Commercial ark, is redefining those spatial boundaries. Within walking distance of Diepsloot, it puts world-class business park infrastructure within reach of employees and entrepreneurs and

6. ECOSYSTEMS There are many initiatives in the small business space, and this is vital as one size definitely does not fit all across the diversity of small businesses and industries in South Africa. But the ecosystem is still fragmented. So much more can be achieved by working in sync, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel every time. Riversands is a platform. It does not provide a full solution to unlocking SME growth, but actively seeks to collaborate. The idea is that other partners – government agencies, corporates, academics, civil society and individuals – can leverage its platform to support small businesses. The Hub has enjoyed many successful partnerships with corporates such as CocaCola South Africa, edbank and Metrofibre. These partners lend their skills and financial sponsorship and provide access to supply chain opportunities. The corporates’ investments into the Hub qualifies in terms of their BEE scorecard requirements, while also giving small businesses a fighting chance of making it through those crucial first years.

JENNY RETIEF Questions? jennyr@riversandsihub.co.za

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NSRI.indd 1

2019/07/17 09:47

KEYS TO GROWING SMMES THAT SURVIVE

Slow progress is lasting progress, says THAPELO MASILELA, who shares how businesses can still grow in these lean economic times

rowing your business is in everyone’s best interests – yes, even your competition’s. In fact it increases competition, but that increases innovation and growth, so in the end everyone wins, especially the unemployed youth. In South Africa, due to our current challenge of improving the economy and creating jobs, it is a particularly stressful time to be an entrepreneur or businessperson; to know how to grow your business. With low expectations of the economy making an upswing any time

soon, business growth is going to be more di cult, but it’s going to be vital for our economy. It is becoming evermore apparent that the economy of the country rests in the hands of small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs). Let’s look at how you can tap into that potential and grow your business despite the current economic climate. A COMPETITIVE MARKET Firstly, your product or service needs to have a competitive market and it needs to

relate to that market well. Without going into detail about what your product should and shouldn’t be, the bottom line is that it needs to be the best product out there to gain a competitive market share. In the case where your product is homogenous or cannot compete with the asking price of your competitor, you need to create additional value – to not only get customers to choose your goods over your competitor’s goods, but to also get customers to pay more for them.

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SMME DEVELOPMENT

A BRAND Which brings me to my second point: the brand. By creating a brand that speaks to your target market, you will be able to harness additional profits and market share without increasing or changing the product. You can do this by creating an experience; by making a customer feel special and important. For example, take the difference between i hone and its competitors. The competitors have better specs and are cheaper, however, Apple still has a huge share of the market. There are two reasons for this: the phone has a recognisable logo – you can spot an Apple product from a mile away – and i hone users refer to their i hone by name rather than just as a cell phone. The second reason has to do with the experience – from the clean and elegant feel when you walk into an Apple store, to the presentable, friendly consultant who is well informed about the offerings and experience around owning the latest version of the i hone. So, increasing the value of your brand requires you to invest in conformation costs: quality assurance costs which prevent external cost failures. The focus here should be on training, recruitment, quality checks, e cient service and good presentation – all of which prevent or reduce the chance of external failures such as products being returned due to defect or customers getting bad service. A MARKETING STRATEGY Thirdly, building on a brand involves a marketing strategy. Given modern-day technological developments, digital marketing costs are much less – these days the cost of not being on the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and other mainstream social media is far higher than the cost of being on them. Being present on these platforms allows for interaction with customers while they are at work, school and even in the comfort of their own home, 24/7. It also allows you to

take advantage of opportunities as they arise. A good example is how Nandos is able to market based on current affairs as they happen. Increase your digital media presence; you cannot afford not to. TRIMMING THE FAT Generally speaking, the best place to trim the fat and create a competitive advantage is through the supply chain and logistics of the business. With ongoing globalisation and technological progress the demand for quicker, tailored service has become the new norm. The beauty of these developments is that they can be done virtually; you don’t need to trek all the way to China to make a deal. A more day-to-day life example is Uber, which is the biggest taxi company in the world, however, they do not own a single taxi. They have been able to create a virtual platform that connects drivers and passengers, facilitating deals that are managed remotely. The point I am highlighting is that with technology, solutions and innovations are only limited to the imagination, so be as innovative as possible in conducting your business or service. BUILDING A WORKFORCE One of the biggest challenges is the issue of labour and minimum wage. In the beginning your business may be cashstrapped, making it di cult to even pay the required R20 per hour minimum required, and it may limit the rate at which your enterprise grows. The best way to maximise this is to develop your workforce: build it from the ground up. Gather students from varsities and technical colleges, recommended by lecturers. Then build and groom your labour force through on-the-job training, internships, scholarships, and so on. With this approach, though the R20 per hour may initially seem high, in the long run the productivity and output of the person will increase at a faster rate than the cost, making it seem like a bargain. However, this requires

training, a productive environment, patience, good management and clever recruiting. A SOLID FOUNDATION Lastly, the major challenge is that small, medium and micro-sized enterprises do not have the access to capital needed to grow at the desired rate. As the saying goes, ‘slow progress is lasting progress’. You do not need to grow your business overnight; very few companies have become a success overnight, and even then overnight means 10 years. Build your business from scratch, brick by brick, gaining a thorough understanding of it so that the foundation is solid. Expand slowly: exploit a gap in the market, a need, and do not rely on government tenders. Try being a subcontractor first, before going the government tender route. The ANC-led government has signed in the referential rocurement olicy Framework Act ( FA), which essentially ensures 0 of all government tenders must be outsourced to SMMEs. Build slowly; leverage your capital and debt to grow steadily. Remember when starting your business that funding comes at the end; you need to first have all your ducks in a row. Only then do you open yourself up to luck, where preparation meets opportunity. And with the promise of a new dawn of growing opportunity, now is the time to be prepared.

THAPELO MASILELA Questions? thapelomasilela@hotmail.com

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BEING A DIRECTOR IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK A

C AASS

says that it is vital in the business space to be informed about the title ‘director’ or you may land up in serious hot water

f you are reading this article the chances are high that you are in business, in some shape or form. But are you a director? You may think that because you are not registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), your answer is clearly a ‘no’. Interestingly, you may be wrong. Here’s why… In law there are two concepts to be aware of regarding this topic: de jure directors, being those registered with the CIPC and de facto directors, being people who make decisions and act as if they are directors. But South Africa’s new

Companies Act does not distinguish between the two – whether you are a director or you just act as a director, all the responsibilities and risks associated with taking on this position of trust still apply to you. Before we get into what exactly these duties entail, let’s first clarify another important aspect: directors must always act in the best interests of the entity they serve and not the stakeholder grouping who appointed them to the governing body. The use here of the term ‘governing body’ rather than ‘board of directors’ is

ho uali es for

deliberate, as it encapsulates a wider audience including the public sector and entities that are not companies such as charities, municipalities and other institutions used for specific humanitarian, social or service delivery causes. So when referring to ‘director’, it includes people who serve on the governing bodies of all these entities. GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS It has always been part of South Africa’s common law that, as stated above, directors will act in the best interests of the

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LEADERSHIP

Whether you are a director or you just act as a director, all the responsibilities and risks associated with taking on this position of trust still apply to you

entities on whose governing bodies they serve, and not in the best interests of the shareholders. Although shareholders have historically claimed a certain element of ‘shareholder primacy’, this has been proven time and again to not exist in law. Shareholders are not owners of the business and directors are not servants to shareholders. Directors are there to service the legal entity. And shareholders have limited rights – the most notable being the right to vote, the right to appoint and remove directors, and the right to reserves after all creditors have been paid upon winding up of a company. A shareholder

does not even have the right to profits; they only become entitled to profits after the directors have declared a dividend from profits. A director’s core duty is to remain loyal to the company and avoid conflicts of interest. They are expected to display a high standard of care, skill and diligence, to the degree that can be reasonably expected of someone holding the position of director, and must act in good faith to promote the success of the corporation. Furthermore, a director may never act in his or her best interests or in the interests of another person or stakeholder, when this action is not in the best interests of the company. This group of duties is known as the duties of ‘Care and Skill’. The second group is the ‘Fiduciary Duties’, which all relate to the position of trust held by directors. Fiduciary relationships are primarily that of service, whereby the entrusted power is exclusively to serve the entrustor loyally. Although there is a belief that you cannot legislate good behaviour, when a country’s laws and courts enforce compliance with fiduciary duties by codification, investor confidence increases. Unfortunately, for many years directors’ duties have not been codified (written into law), but our new Companies Act 2008 follows the amendments to the

British Companies Act, which codified directors’ duties. The duties that fall into this group are that directors: • May not act ultra vires • Must not exercise their powers for an improper or collateral purpose • Must act bona fide in the best interests of the company • Must exercise an independent and unfettered discretion Must avoid conflict between their personal interests and those of the company Must account for profits, and not to make secret or incidental profits • Act transparent • Not take certain economic opportunities for themselves • Not compete with the company ot misuse confidential information. IN CASE OF ERROR All directors, alternate directors and members of board committees (whether they are directors or not) are bound by common law and statutory duties. But mistakes happen; business is inherently risky, and it is impossible to mitigate every risk and foresee the future. To this end the Companies Act codified the ‘business judgment rule’. In making a

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LEADERSHIP

An essential principle underlying directors’ duties is that they disclose their personal financial interests decision, a director will not be held liable if the director can prove that they: (1) Took reasonable diligent steps to become informed about the subject matter (2) Did not have a personal financial interest (or declared such a conflicting interest) (3) Had a rational basis to believe that the decision was in the best interests of the company at the time. An essential principle underlying directors’ duties is that they disclose their personal financial interests in any matter to be decided by the Board. A director is even required to disclose the financial interests of a second company or CC in which they or their relation is a member. They are required to disclose all known (or ought to have known of) personal financial

interests, whether or not significant to the company and including any interests they know of that a person related to them might have in the transaction or agreement. Directors are therefore, in practice, even meant to disclose not only their own, but also their spouse’s, father’s, brother’s or child’s personal financial interests in any matter before the Board (within two degrees of natural or adopted consanguinity or a nity). WHO QUALIFIES? Strangely there are no minimum qualifications for directors, but rather a list of what you should not be: • A juristic person (a ‘person’ that exists only in law, like a company, a trust or a close corporation) • An unemancipated minor • An unrehabilitated insolvent • Someone that has been precluded by the court to act as a director • A person that has been removed from an o ce of trust, on the grounds of misconduct involving dishonesty; or has been convicted, in the Republic or elsewhere, and imprisoned without the option of a fine, or fined more than the prescribed amount, for theft, fraud, forgery, perjury or an offence involving fraud, misrepresentation or dishonesty.

Maybe it’s time for the law to start specifying what a director is supposed to be, rather than what they are not – if only to enhance the quality of governing bodies in the public and private sectors. In closing, some people believe being a director is glamorous and financially beneficial. believe directors should, before they accept the appointment, ask themselves: ‘Do I need this money?’ If the answer is in the a rmative, they may well find themselves in a position where their silence might constitute a breach of directors’ duties, with ramifications that far outweigh their board and committee fees.

MARTHIE CLAASSEN Questions? marthie@protectadirector.co.za

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TECH COMPANIES LEARNERS BENEFITS • Scarce skills qualification • Entrepreneurship opportunities • Real-life work experience • Professional skills • Employable • Soft skills TECH COMPANIES BENEFITS • Subsidised skills development spend • Utilize skills development as a pipeline that leads to scarce skills within the organisation • Participate in scarce skills training • Increase B-BBEE points • Non-monetary enterprise development benefits • Tax rebates DYNAMIC DNA • Provides theoretical and practical training for disadvantaged learners • Placement within participating companies for workplace experience • Coaching and Mentorship • Entrepreneurship Programme • Tailor-made training solutions • Scarce skills / 4IR training • 51% Black female-owned business COMMUNITY • Community upliftment • Social empowerment • Involvement in the community economy

Enquiries

Dynamic.indd 38

EXECUTIVE ROLES • Managing Director and Co-founder - Dynamic DNA Director - Pan African Chamber of Commerce (Women Entrepreneurship Centre) • Board Member

DYNAMIC DNA OFFERINGS

@dynamic_dna

dynamicdna

SUMMARY • Advocate for true and meaningful empowerment • 4IR Ambassador • B-BBEE Professional Member • Entrepreneur • Speaker and Panelist

International Courses • Microsoft • Comptia • AWS • Oracle and Java

Dynamic DNA

Prudence believes that change can be done through changing one person at a time. She is currently campaigning to drive more females into the ICT industry using the 4IR4Her platform. To find out more and to be part of this campaign visit: https://www.dynamicdna.co.za/4ir4her

NOMINATIONS • 2019 Young Executive of the year award - under 40 • 2019 Business of the year award

ECONOMY • Entrepreneurship • Contribution to tax revenue • Skilled workforce

prudence@dynamicdna.co.za

PRUDENCE MABITSELA Believes in empowering and developing the youth to ensure that they have the right skills for the future. The right skills will drive them to be more creative in solving social challenges through entrepreneurship and be gainfully employed in the ICT sector. She provides true empowerment through various skills development programmes.

SETA Accredited Qualifications • Systems Development - NQF Level 4 • Systems Development - NQF Level 5 • Software Testing - NQF Level 5 • Business Analysis - NQF Level 6

T: 011 759 59 4 0

E: enquiries@dynamicdna.co. za

W: w w w.dynamicdna.co. za

2019/09/17 19:42

GET CAREER FIT DES SQUIRE, Managing Member of AMSI and ASSOCIATES cc, details the what, why and how of skyrocketing your career with a Personal Business Trainer

rogression in your career, like anything else in life, can always benefit from the wise advice of someone in the know. From the personal trainer at the gym to the spiritual advisor and the various doctors we consult, we rely on a network of experts in their field to show us the way. So, why not bring a ersonal Business Trainer ( BT) on board to hone our business and work skills Mentoring in business is not a new concept. n fact, it is common practice for companies to contract mentors to coach

employees, managers and even directors about work-related issues. This style of hands-on training â&#x20AC;&#x201C; often referred to these days as personal business coaching â&#x20AC;&#x201C; is a growing trend. And one that could give you that extra edge as you reach for the next rung on the career ladder. WHAT IS A PERSONAL BUSINESS TRAINER? Simply put, personal business training involves a one-to-one relationship between a person with much experience and a less

experienced person. What you gain, as the less experienced person, is an opportunity to share in vast professional and personal skills and experiences that are not available to you in your normal work setup, and, thereby, speed up your career growth and development in the process. Aside from your personal career needs and aspirations, there are most likely many issues that crop up in your day-to-day business where a second opinion, or even just a sounding board, would help a great deal. And, of course, you should be able to

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BUSINESS COACHING

talk to your manager or supervisor but, as it goes, this is not always the case – they may be inexperienced themselves, incapable of assisting or just plain unwilling. This is where a erson Business Trainer comes in, offering support and a strategy. WHY USE A PBT? rrespective of your level in an organisation, if you are serious about your career, you should think seriously about taking on a business coach – investing in yourself is always a good move. Think of those moments when you are feeling burdened by the endless tasks and meetings and decisions, and you are feeling out of your depth with a particularly challenging piece of work or person. n these moments, a coach is there to lean on, to bounce ideas off, to boost morale. At the core of your relationship with your coach is mutual trust, openness and respect. This develops over time. But once established, the coach’s function will be to encourage you, to be there to assist you, to offer their professional opinion and constructive comments, and to share their wealth of business experience. And this career development all happens independently of your normal managersubordinate relationship, ensuring objectivity – and no ramifications regarding confidentiality. Although mentoring and coaching is not an entirely new construct within the business world, companies only introduced formal mentoring programmes for key employees over the past few years. So being, this is a company initiative and the employee usually does not get to choose who the mentor or coach will be. With growing demand, clearly there is a need for ersonal Business Trainers in the workspace. eople are fast turning on to the major benefits of an arrangement such as this – from top level to the workforce. ormally at the expense of the individual

employee who has a desire for career progression, companies would be wise to consider subsidising the cost of these worthwhile services. After all, a more productive employee means a more productive company. HOW DOES IT WORK? The bottom line This will be a personal relationship between you and your trainer. nitially, there will be one or two face-toface meetings to establish and develop the relationship, but from there the sessions are normally on a distance learning basis. During the initial meetings you will agree the terms of the association and how future contact will be made. There should be a formal agreement to clarify the respective roles, costs involved and expectations. The agreement will also determine the framework of the relationship and the terms for termination of the relationship. ou should only enter into an agreement for an initial six- to 12-month period, so you can be sure you do not end up wasting time and money dealing with someone who cannot meet your requirements or who does not have the necessary experience and business acumen to take you further along your career path. CHOOSING THE RIGHT PBT t is crucial that the person must have greater experience and knowledge than you – the whole point of having a coach is to gain more than you had. Look for someone that has a good understanding of management, particularly people management. The person must be trustworthy, ethical and be able to maintain confidentiality. They should enjoy helping others and be willing to share their knowledge and experiences freely, and should be prepared to act as your counsellor, consultant, coach, and personal advisor and confidant. Above all, choose a coach who will be willing to consistently be

Share in vast professional and personal skills and experiences that are not available to you in your normal work setup there for you when you need them, who is prepared to respond to your queries and help you find solutions to your problems within an agreed time frame. Support in the first two months is highly important; this is the foundation period, a time in which the relationship and trust are cemented. hone contact during this period is essential. And expect the agreed programme to change as the personal business trainer gets to know you and your specific needs. The programme will become more effective as it matures and with ongoing evaluation. Lastly, to reiterate, one of the biggest advantages of a personal business training programme is that it takes place outside of a structured business system, giving you the advantage of unbiased opinions and independent, unique advice. This kind of back-up and potential for rapid advancement is priceless – a career no-brainer.

DES SQUIRE Questions? des@amsiandassociates.co.za

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INVESTING THE E T

GENERATION

KGOMOTSO MADI believes we need to change the ‘poor Africa’ narrative by generating ideas and building sustainable businesses that innovate and last for many generations to come

n a world of instant gratification, where what is breaking news today is old news tomorrow and trends change as quickly as the weather, it can seem insurmountable to build a business. t takes a considerable amount of time and a mountain of input before a business yields the desired benefits and wealth that could last more than one lifetime. Cambridge dictionary defines the word legacy’ as money or property that you receive from someone after they die’ and something that is part of your history or that remains from an earlier time’. n short, a legacy is either something you inherit or what you are known for. n the context of this article a legacy is what your business will be known for and the wealth it will leave behind or continue to build long after you have left this world. Especially if you grew up in a township or some other financially unstable environment you will have noticed the things that separate the haves’ from the have-nots’. These issues are often beyond

your control the inferior education your parents received and the restricted opportunities imposed on racial groups made it di cult for them to pursue certain careers and jobs which would afford them wealth. This meant living hand to mouth, with little or nothing to leave behind for you and your siblings to kick-start a life with a brighter future. t was for this very reason that as a young girl in Mamelodi, retoria, started to really think about how this predicament could be changed. decided to pursue business opportunities that would allow me to build a legacy, something to leave behind for those who will come after me; a business that not only builds generational wealth but brings a sense of pride to those who come across it. As Africans living in the aftermath of apartheid, we need to create a new legacy for ourselves and our continent, one that restores our dignity and changes our narrative from poor Africa’ to majestic Africa’ once more. believe that one of the most effective ways to do so is to generate

Consider what value your business is adding not just to you but to your children, your community, your country and your environment ideas and build sustainable businesses – ones that are constantly evolving and innovative enough to last for generations to come. Businesses that serve the community and country they operate in. Looking back in time, there were many nations and communities who struggled to build a legacy but won through eventually the great pyramids in Egypt, the stone structure of the great city of imbabwe, the

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LEGACIES

formidable architecture of The reat Mosque of Djenne in Mali. All three of these structures remain standing today. The secret to their success is firstly that they were not overnight projects; they took years and even decades to build, meaning it took a lot of planning, time and patience to create them. Secondly, the execution of these plans had to be right from the get-go. The design had to fit the environment they were in, the foundations had to be strong, the best available materials had to be used, which probably means a lot of research had to be done. Thirdly, the right team had to be assembled to breathe life into the project. Workers who took pride in their work, who didn’t build just to get the job done, but rather to get the job done in the best way possible, had to be sourced. Lastly, and most importantly, a leader and a group of people sharing a common vision had to imagine and intend that these structures would last for centuries, and create a space in which this could be clearly articulated and expressed to all those involved in the project. Although am at the beginning of my journey in the business world, this is my intention – to build a legacy through my business that has a longer lifespan than physically do. When started my company, Madi Lucent – a premium leather goods and lifestyle company – it was with this legacy in mind. The company has at its core a team that not only understands my vision and shares it but is also passionate about what they do. t is because of having a committed team that we managed to secure our first client, Leopard Creek Country Club, in the Kruger ational ark. specifically chose leather as the primary medium to manufacture our products as it is durable and has a long lifespan, which means the chances are greater that our products will

be passed on to the next generation. And as a team we are invested in creating high quality products and providing the best possible service – we understand that our reputation also affects our legacy, so everything is carefully thought through and made. believe it is crucial that as business owners, professionals and service providers we consider carefully the legacy we are leaving behind. Consider what value your business is adding not just to you but to your children, your community, your country and your environment. Because how we choose to build our businesses today will be the legacy we are known for tomorrow.

KGOMOTSO MADI

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HEALTHCARE

GO EASY ON THE SUN Proudly South African company, EezySun Sunscreen, has come up with an accessible and walletfriendly option for protecting your skin this summer

each season in South Africa has begun. The flowers are blooming and the sun is rising earlier and setting later. We emerge from winter hibernation, bikini or walking boots in tow. Off to soak up some of nature’s most generous gift: rays. But while the sun has its benefits – increased vitamin D and a boost in mood lifting serotonin – too much of it can have harmful effects. Ranging from the dreaded tell-tale sign of aging, wrinkles, to a more serious kind of dreaded after-sun effect, skin cancer. In fact, South Africa has the second highest rate of skin cancer in the world. Clearly there is an urgent need to educate people about ways to protect their skin from the sometimes life-threatening effects of the suns VA and VB rays, and to provide them with a superior product that is convenient and affordable. A company called Ee ySun Sunscreen is doing just that. Born out of this need, they have cleverly come up with a unique world-patented snap sachet delivery system. From a factory in Somerset West, Cape Town, they have developed a sunscreen product that meets and supersedes world standards – a sunscreen that comes in S F 0 and 0 factors, that

is mineral based and non-oily, and that is safe not only for humans but for the environment too. The product has been approved by the Cansa’ association of South Africa and is FDA (Federal Drug Administration) compliant – and is roudly SA to boot. After many months of research and development into various sunscreens and delivery systems, the company was formed in 201 . One of the most striking facts they found during their initial research was that sunscreen, in general, is unaffordable to most people. This has created a reluctance to applying sunscreen, which has led to significantly high rates of skin cancer in South Africa. t was also found that invariably the bottle or tube of sunscreen and the user are never in the same place at the same time, leading to multiple bottles or tubes being purchased at great expense and ending up in a cupboard at home. The bottom line standard packaging is inconvenient. Whereas the snap sachet is packaged in boxes of ten sachets as well as sixty packs, so an individual sachet can be purchased for a single application, making the product highly affordable and convenient to carry with you at all times.

Roughly the si e of a credit card, the snap sachet contains su cient sunscreen to cover face, neck, arms and legs – ideal for a day in the sun. The product is also easily accessible, retailing at popularly frequented shops such as Clicks, Spar, and many other smaller retail outlets in South Africa. ou can also find Ee ysun Sunscreen further afield, in the SA, where it is exported and distributed through a large group of retailers there. And soon to be available under an Ama on private label. rotection from the sun is close by when you need it – whether it’s a forgetful moment in a well-planned hike or a spontaneous decision to meet up with friends at the beach. So, by all means catch a few warm rays, but consider what time of day and how long you expose yourself to the sun. And in the words of Ba Lurhmann’s famous song, Everbody’s Free, don’t forget the sunscreen For more information on their product offering and unique snap sachet design, please contact their Sales and Marketing team at sales ee ysun.com or visit the website at www.ee ysun.com.

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WHERE EXCELLENCE IS THE ONLY OPTION LEADERS IN ENGINEERING TRAINING ENGINEERING STUDIES

WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING

TRADE TRAINING & TESTING

ENGINEERING TRADE TRAINING & TESTING • Welding • Electrical • Millwright • Fitting & turning • Mechanical Fitter • Instrumentation • Refrigeration and air conditioning • Information Technology TEKmation Durban Unit 3, Chamberlain Park, Huletts Street, Jacobs or 279 Balfour Road, Jacobs. Tel: 031 461 1004 Email: reception@tekmation.co.za

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MORE CHOICE MAKES TRAVEL MORE REWARDING Have you booked your ﬂight yet? Here is the scoop on one of the best, most inclusive airlines in South Africa, Comair

ith summer holidays on the horizon, it’s time to plan your trip. And these days it often means planning a year in advance so you don’t miss out on that perfect spot – by the beach and on the plane! There are many ways to get to where you’re going, but here we take to the sky with one of the best and most popular airlines in South Africa. As a proudly South African business, Comair Limited has operated successfully since 1946, offering sheduled and nonscheduled airline services across subSaharan Africa and the Indian Ocean islands, as its core business. Listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1998 the group has a level 4 B-BBEE recognition and employs over 2 100 staff within

southern Africa. In 2019 Comair was independently certified by the Top Employers Institute, as one of the top employers in South Africa. The group is deeply entrenched in the South African aviation, travel, tourism and hospitality industry, with a focus on creating a robust and holistic aviation sector in South Africa – one which will also be able to compete internationally. In line with this, Comair has embarked on a diversification strategy that includes training and upskilling South Africans to be the aviators of the future, through its Alt. Academy. The group also operates its own in-house catering operation, Food Directions, as well as a progressive information technology business, Nacelle, with the aim of delivering operations-

tested solutions for the broader airline industry. Apart from doing business in the aviation industry, Comair has and continues to focus on its social impact and bettering the lives of South Africans by supporting numerous projects in the education, health and environmental sectors. Some of these include Prime Stars, The Children’s Hospital Trust, The Sunflower Fund, and Food and Trees for Africa, to name a few. The group operates its premium offering under the British Airways livery, as part of a licence agreement, and also pioneered the low-cost airline industry in South Africa, when it launched kulula.com in 2001.

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TRAVEL

Listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1998 the group has a level 4 B-BBEE recognition and employs over 2 100 staff BRITISH AIRWAYS: TRAVEL IN STYLE British Airways – operated by Comair – offers a premium full service to its customers, with over 400 flights per week across southern Africa including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Harare, Livingstone, Mauritius, Victoria Falls and Windhoek. Customers have the choice to travel in either of two cabins: Club (Business class) and Traveller (Economy class). When travelling in Club, customers will enjoy priority boarding, allowing them a minute or two to reflect and settle in as they are welcomed with pre-drinks and a hot towel, while boarding completes. Club customers will also experience the comfort of business class seats, which offer significantly more space – ideal for doing business onboard or stretching out to relax. Further onboard hospitality includes a variety of delicious meals, to get the day off to a great start or end the trip on a tasteful note. Another feature of travelling in Club is access to the SLOW lounge before flight departure. ‘Lounge’ doesn’t do this area justice, with features such as an on-site spa, wine tasting from a monthly selection of the finest South African and international wines, a Living Library, private meeting spaces and business facilities.

Another perk of being a British Airways fan is the opportunity to join the airway’s frequent flyer programme, the Executive Club, via ba.com, which comes with its own exclusive privileges and rewards. Besides collecting Avios, which can be redeemed on flights, customers also collect Tier Points every time they travel. This allows them to progress through the different tier levels within the Executive Club: Blue, Bronze, Silver and Gold. These tier levels open up a world of possibilities and added benefits to customers – think free seat selection and saving one’s meal preferences as part of the customer’s Executive Club profile for future flights. Executive Club members from Silver Tier status and up automatically receive access to all British Airways lounges to experience a valuable and comfortable ‘moment in time’, plus access to the dedicated special services team and much more. The British Airways experience is designed to recognise and reward all passengers, ensuring every journey is exceptional and enjoyable.

looking for affordable travel options in and around South Africa. The low-cost airline was South Africa’s first airline carrier of its kind, giving South Africans the opportunity to travel more often and making air travel accessible to everyone. From being a pioneer in the low-cost airline industry within South Africa, kulula.com now operates more than 410 flights a week across 14 domestic routes including Cape Town, George, East London and Durban. The airline has active codeshare agreements with Kenya Airways, Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Etihad to provide more flexibility and choice for its customers. Kulula.com also has interline agreements with Virgin Atlantic (VS), Hahn Air and Delta Airlines to make travel in South Africa as seamless as possible. Both business and leisure travellers make use of the airline and highly rate the onboard customer experience. But with great partnerships, kulula.com offers South African’s more than just flights; holiday travel packages, hotel accommodation and car rentals could be part of the deal too. Bon voyage!

KULULA.COM: YOU GOTTA LOVE FLYING This year, 2019, is kulula’s 18th anniversary. Since its inception in 2001, kulula.com has revolutionised air travel, making it the first choice for any customer

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BOOK REVIEW

SAFE PASSAGE A valuable guide, written by IVAN ISRAELSTAM, for employers wanting to navigate the dangerous waters of South African labour law dispensation that’s fraught with complexities

he relationship between an employer and their employees is one of mutual benefit. f all is well in the relationship, the employer is given quality work, with ensuing high profits, while the hard-working employees are rewarded handsomely for their toil. But, as is the case with all relationships, things can go wrong. n South Africa, a staggering 1 6 000 cases of disputes between employers and employees end up at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) each year. As per their website, the CCMA was established in terms of the Labour Relations Act, 66 of 199 (LRA); is an independent body; does not belong to and is not controlled by any political party, trade union or business. As an arbitrator, the commission is, however, fraught with the complexities that are part and parcel of the law. n addition, South Africa’s labour relations dispensation enforces heavy restrictions on employers, tends to have fast-changing labour law statutes and often delivers conflicting case law decisions. n a nutshell, if you’re an employer and your relationship with your employees, for

whatever reason, has hit a snag, you’re faced with a number of challenges to avoid crippling legal costs and time lost on settling disputes. Launched in April this year, Labour Landmines: 99 Ways to Succeed at the CCMA by well-known Labour Law expert, van sraelstam, navigates employers through what can be a very damaging and timeconsuming process, with legal costs that could bankrupt a business. Revealing 99 key legal pointers about prevailing laws and judgements, it’s a hands-on, easy-tounderstand guide that offers practical suggestions on how to best manage your employee relations within these parameters. van sraelstam is the Chief Executive O cer of Labour Law Management Consulting. He is known as a leading practitioner in labour law and pragmatic labour relations management, with many years’ experience in corporate industrial relations management. He has an honours degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and an M diploma in ersonnel Management and in Training. Writing extensively on the subject, van is a regular labour law columnist for a

number of newspapers and journals including The Star, The South African Labour Guide and HR Pulse. Other books by the author include Walking the New Labour Law Tightrope, Labour Law for Managers Practical Handbook, Making Workplace Forums Work and The Gold Future or the Cold Future. Labour Landmines: 99 Ways to Succeed at the CCMA is written for anyone who works in the field of employer employee relations, including business owners; labour and employee relations practitioners; HR directors; HR managers; and legal advisors. ORDER INFORMATION Labour Landmines: 99 Ways to Succeed at the CCMA can be ordered from Knowledge Resources Ground Floor, Yellowwood House, Ballywoods Office Park 33 Ballyclare Drive, Bryanston Contact: tel: (+27 11) 706 6009 fax: (+27 11) 706 1127 e-mail: orders@knowres.co.za Available online at: www.kr.co.za

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WHAT WE OFFER We help liquidators, attorneys, insolvency practitioners and ﬁnancial institutions with the disposal of redundant, shop soiled, discontinued, aged, water and smoked damaged stock by means of auction. We assist in appraising & selling assets held in estates, guardianship, bankruptcies and other similar situations.

Money does not grow on trees, but in competent hands.

Call us. Reseda Oﬃce Park, Mogale Auctioneers, 7 Reseda Street, Krugersdorp, Gauteng 011 660 3254 info@mogaleauctioneers.co.za

We aim to assist our liquidators to align the need of ending bad debt & supporting a new financial venture. Auctioneering is a cost effective way to avoid complicated implications in liquidations. We offer tailor made plans to be formulated & implemented in conjunction with all relevant parties involved. Our facilities are monitored 24hours inside and outside the premises. Our aim is to ensure all our client’s needs are met under one roof to ensure convenient and cost effective storage of their assets.

www.mogaleauctioneers.co.za

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Neppa Roads and Signs (Pty) Ltd is a 100% black owned and managed South African company. The company was established in 2000 with three divisions namely: roads, energy and property development/student accommodation. Each of these divisions boasts a dynamic, innovative and highly skilled workforce that has contributed to what the NEPPA GROUP is today. NEPPA PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT/STUDENT ACCOMMODATION growing demand for student accommodation worldwide is spurring new innovations and initiatives in the field. These include an emphasis on residential learning (or living learning) communities, more mixed and flexible housing forms, a focus on safety and security, suitable and green on and off-campus developments and greater consideration for the diversity of student housing needs. NEPPA ALTERNATIVE ENERGY trading as Edcode, is a division of the Neppa Group, providing services in the energy sector.

The division offers a wide range of services which include: • Supply of electrical materials • Electrical installation • Solar Systems (Rural Schools) • Renewable Energy Projects • Electrical Maintenance • Solar Home Systems • Energy Efficiency Projects • Demand Side Management (DSM) NEPPA ROADS provides the best road-surfacing services and accounts for a significant portion of the overall NEPPA GROUP earnings. The division offers the following services: • Roads Tarring • Roads Surfacing and Rehabilitation • Segmented Pavement • Asphalt Base Surfacing • Prime Coat • Water Reticulation • Regravelling • Storm Water

Physical Address: Neppa House, 562 Verkenner Street, Willows, 0040 • Postal Address: PO Box 75231, Lynnwood, 0040 Tel: (012) 807 6915 • Fax: (012) 807 2761 • E-mail: neppa@mweb.co.za • Contact Persons: Mr Bushy Peter Napaai and Sibusiso Napaai

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