Nelson Mandela Commemorative Edition

Earl ‘ Skip’ Cooper, II

Publisher’s Message

Black Business News

December 2013 – January 2014

For numerous centuries, South Africa was under siege by a falsehearted white rule apartheid government that systematically excluded African, Indian and any nonwhite person from meaningful participation in the country’s economy. Despite that despicable governmental system, with global admiration under the leadership of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, South Africa achieved legitimate democracy in 1994.  For that reason, this is the Nelson Mandela Commemorative Edition of the Black Business News, honoring how the late President Mandela dedicated his life for every countryman in order to right the centuries of socioeconomic wrongs, which affected the world of positive social change.

South Africa’s mission to positive social change was initiated with global fanfare when in 1989 the Honorable Mandela was pardoned in 27-years from a life sentence of political prisoner internment.  As you take pleasure in the following informative articles, be mindful of how South Africa’s policy of Black Economic Empowerment of 2003 (BEE) is not simply a moral initiative but a pragmatic growth strategy that has useful tools for the USA to form a more perfect union.

Correspondingly, for centuries the United States of America (USA) struggled for democratic racial and gender equality and in certain facets of the economy still undergo remedying bias management.  USA’s public and private sectors have an opportunity to learn from South Africa’s collaborative work toward full economic parity by helping to bring its black majority into the economic mainstream.

A socioeconomic parallel ignited social change in the USA when in 1963 blacks and civil right supporters demonstrated a unified March on Washington, D.C.  Accordingly, this commemorative issue allows you to think about how Mandela’s work served to eliminate entrenched racial inequality and wealth disparities that can benefit improving comparable state of affairs existing in the USA.  In particular, please note how affirmative action is used as parity tool in South Africa’s emerging parity processes, which were used in the USA that identically in no way employs taking wealth from one ethnic group in order to give it to another.

The USA’s now defunct affirmative action policies employed competitive bidding and job candidate selection as a comprehensive growth strategy that is working favorably for South African economies.  The highly needed work for Mandela’s administration understands how an economy’s growth is only as effective as the broadest inclusion of its people, whereas an economy has lesser traction from fewer levels of integration of its citizenry in a meaningful way.

Major public and private organizations can benefit from blending procedures included in South Africa’s BEE.  I am referring to benefits from higher profits from greater product sales, whereas, this broad baseline act does not have a written or veiled sunset clause, unlike what happened in the incomplete thirty-year USA Affirmative Action policy (1965 to 1995).  South Africa’s objective with employing an affirmative action strategy is for a country to reach its full potential within reasonable remedy of an appalling and morally wrong governmental regime.

South Africa practices continuous improvement processes and does not consider stopping something that is in some cases perceived as a temporary quoted program or entitlement statute.  Consequently, South Africa is staying the course to see favorable outcomes of a completely diverse workforce in economic and social sectors, which automatically broadens the economic base and therefore stimulates economic growth for the entire country.  Entitlement perceptions are minimized from South Africa’s collaborative public and private sector participation with the BEE act to ultimately achieve broader national market share, thereby reducing historically disadvantaged communities.

The Black Business News is proud of Nelson Mandela’s vision to empower more black people to own and manage business enterprises.  His adopted strategies help to achieve a substantial change in the racial composition of ownership and management structures, without excluding racial groups in the skilled occupations of existing and new enterprises is far and wide commendable.  The USA has significant room to better promote access to capital in an effort to finance black enterprise that is similar to the challenges taking place in South Africa of providing larger right of entry to economic activities, land, infrastructure, ownership and skills.

The legacy of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is immeasurable, still his work of promulgating South Africa to include enterprises owned and managed by all people is fully representative of peace and progress.  He knew precisely how to make possible for the greater number of people the more easily and straightforward manner toward democratic equality.  He fully demonstrated the power of action from taking risks on behalf of the common good that stretches universally, even to the constant demographic change of the USA, inclusive for the good of its forbearing citizens.

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