South Africa's GNU: Where to from here for HR?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past month or so, you would have noticed that we now have a Government of National Unity (GNU) in South Africa. As it transpired, we did not have a government at all for 31 days.

It took that long for the various political parties making up the GNU to jouster for their slice of the pie, and to arm wrestle for the ministerial portfolios they were desirous of securing. It took a month for Cyril Ramaphosa to announce his Cabinet. Contrasting sharply with this was the 24 hours it took for the Conservatives to hand over the baton of power to Labour in the UK last week.  

The inordinate length of time it took for Ramaphosa to arrive at a decision regarding his Cabinet and ministerial appointments does not bode well I’m afraid. If it took that amount of time for consensus to be reached on which bums to be placed in which ministerial seats, heaven help us when it comes to reaching consensus on the really important challenges the country faces, like creating jobs, addressing the socio-economic imbalances, articulating coherent foreign policies, attracting foreign investment, rebuilding our nation, and restoring pride and confidence again in our beloved country.

This article is not intended to dwell on past and prevailing political wranglings, nor the individual ministerial appointments announced on 30 June, however, it would be remiss of me if I did not single out the appointment of our new Deputy President, Paul Mashatile.

Mashatile has been embroiled in controversy over the past two decades, culminating in the DA formally laying criminal charges against him in February of this year.  This followed severe allegations of corruption including nepotism and family patronage of which, it is alleged, he is the ultimate beneficiary.

The optics of Mashatile’s appointment as Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa do not look good. Indeed, it sends a foreboding message to those amongst us wanting to see the eradication of corruption in our country.

If Ramaphosa was desirous of sending a clear and unambiguous message of wanting to address the systemic levels of corruption in the county, his appointment of Mashatile has done his cause more harm than good. 

My interest is, of course, not so much in politics per se, but how political decisions, or should I say, decisions made by politicians, will influence the framework for the turn around socio-economic development and growth strategy urgently required at this critical time in our country’s history.

It is common cause that South Africa has the highest unemployment rate in the world, has one of the highest murder rates in the world, has four times the number of people reliant on social grants than the number of taxpayers funding these grants, and has 60% of its population living in poverty, many of whom living in abject poverty.

This inexcusable and entirely avoidable situation becomes even more unfathomable when one considers South Africa’s wealth of raw minerals and natural resources. In addition to its gold and diamond reserves, South Africa has vast reserves of iron ore, platinum, manganese, chromium, copper, uranium, silver, beryllium and titanium.

The country’s natural resources include vast tracts of arable land, water, oil, natural gas, forests and wildlife. It goes without saying that South Africa’s economy should be the healthiest on the African continent, if not within the top ten economies globally.

As I write this, South Africa is at a social, economic, and political crossroads. Political objectives must not be allowed to supersede the socio-economic imperatives of the country. We have an opportunity to make this country great again (MSAGA).

We need, indeed have to restore international confidence, attract foreign investment, invest in infrastructure, create an environment conducive to the creation of jobs, and eradicate the spectre of corruption that has prevailed in the country for way too long.

Addressing these challenges with integrity, transparency, diligence, conscientiousness (a difficult word for some of our Ministers to pronounce), and professionalism will go a long way to ensure South Africa’s much-needed economic reconstruction and recovery.

Government’s socio-economic reconstruction and recovery strategy must include dramatically reducing actual and potential large-scale black unemployment levels, providing opportunities conducive for job creation, addressing the shortage of skilled and semi-skilled labour, addressing the shortage of supervisory and middle-management, and developing leadership capacity.

These strategic imperatives will only succeed when the Government and the private sector symbiotically align. The public/private sectors have a joint responsibility to ensure socio-economic reform, reconstruction and resurgence. 

So how will the outcome of the recent elections impact the HR landscape in South Africa going forward?

HR’s role will be to align HR strategy with that of the overarching public/private strategy, and to facilitate reducing the unacceptably high unemployment levels, create jobs, skill and upskill the county’s labour force, source and retain competent supervisory and middle management personnel, create leadership capacity, and stem the tide of professionals leaving the country.

HR will be required to implement new world of work recruitment, selection and retention policies; implement progressive remote, hybrid and flexible working hour policies and procedures; inculcate cultures of diversity, equity and inclusion; foster healthy work/life balance environments; create environments conducive to continued learning and development; implement well-articulated, transparent succession plans; introduce progressive employee mental health policies; embrace change and become more change agile; appoint authentic, professional change management agents; implement HR and organisational effectiveness measures; and ensure leadership development programmes are in place.

The winds of change are blowing. Let’s seize the opportunity and work together to rebuild our country and to make it great again. Let’s MSAGA! 

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