Old boys’ clubs in business and the ANC need shaking up

If there was to be a leitmotif of SA life, it would lie in the yawning disconnect between the rights guaranteed to SA women in our laws and constitution, and the lives they actually lead. In the business world, the dearth of women in senior management is long established. According to research outfit Business Engage, in 2021, just 6% of CEOs of JSE-listed companies and a third of nonexecutive directors were female, and less than a quarter of executive director roles were filled by women.

Yet despite this poor showing, it does in many ways represent some kind of progress. Many companies have shown improvements in gender representivity, and more are setting targets at various levels. As a result, 20% of listed companies have set and reached targets set for women on their boards.

This is a corporate approach, slow and perhaps frustrating to watch. But it is an approach that gives shareholders a clear view of a company’s planning for its executive team, protects investors and ultimately delivers more diversity at board level, which, done properly, ought to have positive outcomes for the company.

Certainly, the corporate sector has long come under political pressure to transform, with the racial and gender makeup of the workforce, management and boards under close scrutiny in law and in public debate and commentary.

Recently, pharmacy chain Dis-Chem sparked outrage in some circles when its CEO rather hamfistedly communicated the company’s plan to meet racial transformation targets by banning the hiring of white staff. That a listed company will do what it takes to remain compliant is only a surprise to those who do not know very much, and who also appeared to miss the real story — that the firm was likely having to make up for historical failures in this regard by taking such a drastic step.

In any case, it is clear to see that corporate SA, with varying degrees of success, is at least in some places attempting to grasp the nettle in the face of various headwinds, including persistent racial inequality, unequal and gendered education outcomes compounded by the shocking state of many government schools, and structural and social factors that keep women out of work.

It is therefore, perversely, somewhat affirming to see that the ANC, the political driving force behind attempts to deracialise SA’s economy and promote the inclusion of women, is unable to match its actions to its own demands of the private sector.

Out of 16 nominations for the top six roles in the party, due for election next weekend, just two are women, and both were nominated for the position of deputy secretary-general, arguably the most junior role in the top six. Additionally, the top six nominations were by no means racially diverse.

The ANC says it is alive to the issue, but in reality it is distracted by its civil war. Representatives for constituencies such as women, in the form of the ANC Women’s League, or young women via the Youth League, are regrettably reduced to being weapons in the party’s factional battles wielded by the old men contesting them.

This is not what progress looks like. It is not a new observation that the ANC has bled out its ethical authority to lead on socially transformative topics by its conduct, but it does, for now at least, have its hands on the levers of regulation. It is therefore reasonable to ask that party to get its house in order with regard to female leadership and racial diversity at the most senior level as much as it has demanded of the private sector — and to do so for the same reasons.

It is not just that it ought to be obvious that any just society we might aspire to live in will not exclude half of its population and talent. As Forbes pointed out recently, there is also a weight of research to show that where female leadership at the top level exceeds 30%, there are improvements in a company’s financial performance, there is less risk taken, more innovation and new and different skills are brought into the workplace.

The Economist recently noted research indicating that in leadership women tend to be less corrupt than men. South Africans all know that corrupt and toxic leadership can destroy everything from a stokvel to an entire country.

While acknowledging limited corporate progress on the inclusion of women, it is worth noting the distance still to go, with just 10% of listed boards reaching parity and more than 30% of boards having either none, or just one female director.

The ANC is throwing stones from a glass house though. It has an opportunity to tackle this next weekend.