| JOHANNESBURG--At
the Rio Earth Summit, ten years ago, South Africa
was not present, for political reasons. Ten years
later it is proudly hosting the biggest UN conference
ever held. Many have marveled at how the transition
from Apartheid to a black-dominated democracy took
place in such a relatively peaceful and smooth manner,
whereas a lot of people had predicted that rivers
of blood would flow, with blacks avenging themselves
against the whites. A key reason why the transition
was so smooth is that, despite the odds, quite a
few black Africans put aside bitterness strove to
build an economically strong and democratically vibrant
South Africa. Among them was a journalist, Thami
Mazwai.
Jailed
twice by the Apartheid regime, between 1963-65 and
again between 1981-83, for refusing the cooperate
with the police, after several years in journalism,
in 1996, he decided to set up his own independent
publishing company. But for that he needed to know
something about management. So, he took an MBA degree,
by correspondence, from the Henley Management College.
"I put in 250,000 Rand ($25,000), which
was my entire life's savings," related
Mazwai to the Earth Times, with a touch of
pride. "Today, we have a turnover of 26
million Rand ($2.6 million) and are the second
largest black-owned and controlled publishing
house in the country." He has a staff
of 34 and though he is both publisher and major
shareholder, continues to write regularly, "to
reduce costs."
His
publishing company, Mafube, of which he is
the CEO,
brings out three award-winning
magazines and has a five-year contract to bring
out "Sawubona", the inflight magazine
of South African Airways. The latest issue
of "Sawubona" is a massive 240 pages,
devoted largely to the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD).
"When I decided to become an entrepreneur,
there was a widespread feeling that black Africans
could not do business," he admits. "This
Afro-pessimism is still prevalent, because
Africans do not have confidence in themselves
for the simple reason that they have not been
given responsibility in the past."
Mazwai,
through example, is clearly bucking that
feeling
and restoring confidence in the
ability of blacks to start and run a business
successfully. "One of my pet subjects
is small business enterprises because if we
have more such black enterprises, we will have
stronger economic growth, thereby addressing
the problems of poverty, unemployment and also
be able to develop different skills," he
says. "But we have a long way to go because
of weak management systems and due to the lack
of education in the past."
What
about the crime situation in South Africa? "Crime
in South Africa is at the same level as the
rest of the world," he replies with a
touch of anger. "New York and London are
both worse than Johannesburg and people get
robbed outside the gates of the Vatican in
Rome. People from the West have no business
pointing fingers at us."
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