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Don't hate the player

I DON'T like journalists very much.
 
They are scruffy, ill-mannered and, as some of our readers point out on a regular basis, don't have a real job or much in the way of a career path.

Most of them are also not very funny either, and apparently a lot of them go out of their way to try and sleep with Julius Malema and his friends.
 
In the interests of self-preservation and keeping my options open down the line, I need to jump to the defence of one of my colleagues in the industry.
 
Sipho Ngcobo recently wrote a piece on another internet site - the name escapes me right now, but it has something to do with money - entitled SA's richest man, in which he talked a bit about the entrepreneurial success of Patrice Motsepe.
 
One paragraph from his article jumped out at me. "Guided by his pure entrepreneurial spirit, instincts and sheer guts, he (Motsepe) embarked on a journey that a couple of years later saw the cynics eating humble pie.

"With the listing of ARM (African Rainbow Minerals [JSE:ARM]) he became a billionaire pretty soon after he started. The guts, the instincts and the calculation were in the right place, whilst the timing was spot on."
 
That of course set the cat among the pigeons. "Behind every rich black South African is the ANC... and a white family who lent him money," comments one poster. Another adds: "Patrice Motsepe could not stand on his own two legs if it were not for BEE (black economic empowerment)."
 
And so it goes on, with boring predictability. White people can't make money in South Africa because of BEE, and black people only make money in South Africa because of BEE.
 
Maybe the article itself wasn't the strongest, but I think you are missing Sipho's point. Motsepe is an inspiration to a generation of young entrepreneurs.

I'm willing to take a bet that if you walk into a classroom of 16-year-old South Africans and ask them who Motsepe is, at least half of them will respond that he is the guy who made a stack of money and was rich enough to buy Sundowns Football Club.

They might not be able to tell you how he made his fortune, but they can almost definitely be inspired by him.
 
I have two observations to make on the fallout from the article.
 
Firstly, the comments about BEE being a loaded deck for all black South Africans. Go back and look at the Competition Commission investigations over the last two years.

White is alright too

How many "great" South African businesses were founded on anticompetitive landscapes? We roll out all the usual big name suspects when we need to write books about great South African entrepreneurs; how many of them made their money at a time when 80% of the population was excluded from even being on the playing field?
 
Move on. The longer you live in a bitter past, the more disenchanted you will become.
 
The second thing I take issue with is the assertion that white people can't make money in South Africa. If another person tells me that, I'm going to slap them over the head.
 
Tell me what you define as "money".
 
Is it the half billion rand execs will have when the listed entity which will house Outsurance joins the JSE? Last time I checked, Willem Roos was quite white and he founded his business in 1998 - so the playing field was level.
 
Or is it the R54m that executives will make in three months from the listing of Clover? Think Booysen, Vorster, Roode...
 
What about a look at the deals backed by venture capital funders in the tech sector in South Africa, like Motribe, FireID, AD Dynamo, ChessCube, BetTech and Evly? I'm pretty sure the entrepreneurs behind those businesses are white.
 
No offence to all the naysayers, but there are plenty of opportunities for people from all backgrounds and we need inspirational role models to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.
 
While you're taking time out of your busy day to try and tear down other people's successes, those who actually can or want to do something about it are going out there to make entrepreneurial ventures work.

Maybe bear that in mind before you post that next comment online.
 
Don't hate the player, hate the game.
 
- Fin24

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