'What is the heaviest load in life?'
BUSINESS INTELLECTUALS: I spoke to Ebbe Dommisse, author of 'Anton Rupert: The Life of a Business Icon', about one of South Africa's most famous entrepreneurs
This is the sixth interview on Our Long Walk, my blog about the past, present, and future of South Africa. I'll be talking with South African business leaders to gain their perspectives on the lessons from history. Previous interviews were with André de Ruyter, Herman Mashaba, Jannie Durand, Paul Clüver and Magda Wierzycka. Please consider a paid subscription to access the full interview and all of my twice-weekly content, including columns, guest essays, and summaries of the latest relevant research.
Ebbe Dommisse is a former newspaper editor and author of several books, including ‘Anton Rupert: The Life of a Business Icon’.
1. Why a second issue? Why now?
The present edition is actually the third, after several reprints. The publisher became enthusiastic about an updated version after requests from concerned South Africans that Anton Rupert’s life story would be strongly relevant to the current situation in South Africa because decay, corruption, and political and bureaucratic incompetence have reached alarming proportions after the hopeful transition of 1994. Ironically, Rupert was a pioneer of black economic empowerment, demonstrating long ago how misguided populist politicians were with their London-inspired slogans against ‘white monopoly capital’. Another groundbreaking initiative entailed involving women in the economy – he established the first South African company owned and run by women, First National Tea and Coffee Factories Limited, in 1955, a decade before activists like Germaine Greer started the campaign for equal rights for women. His legacy furthermore includes making entrepreneurship possible for all South Africans. Also, he took a leading role in demonstrating that businesses should not only chase profits but have a responsibility to the community at large, not to their employees and shareholders alone.
2. Black Economic Empowerment is a cornerstone of South Africa's economic policy over the last thirty years. Many Afrikaners are critical of this policy. Was Anton Rupert not just an example of Afrikaner economic empowerment half a century earlier?
Rupert indeed started by working for the Reddingsdaadbond, the movement to mobilise Afrikaner capital in response to the renowned ‘Father’ Kestell’s clarion call: ‘A people saves itself.’ He believed that once Afrikaners stood on their own feet, building bridges to others could follow. Very early on he expressed his forward-thinking by pleading for the upliftment of black people. This culminated in 1979 when, at the instigation of his son Johann, who believed that small businesses are the true creators of jobs, he established the Small Business Development Corporation (later Business Partners) to assist and develop black entrepreneurs. Thousands were empowered in this way – but the Rupert model differs markedly from the present government’s policy. Basically, the ANC believes the party controls the state, and the state the economy. Verily the same state is the root cause of the jobs catastrophe of South Africa, which reaches in its expanded form of the inclusion of discouraged work seekers an unemployment rate of 42%. The figures are truly astounding, according to a recent article by Ann Bernstein of the Centre for Development & Enterprise. From January 2008 to December 2023 the number of working-age adults rose by almost 9.5 million, while the number of people in employment rose by only 2.3 million. This resulted in an increase of 7.2 million in the nonworking population to 24 million. She concluded: ‘What the country needs most is a competent government … that understands jobs are created by private firms and actively attempts to create a better environment within which firms do business. By getting the economy moving and getting more people into jobs, it would be making progress that a government of crooks and scoundrels never will.’
3. You briefly refer to Rupert’s first meeting with Hendrik Verwoerd in 1937, just after Verwoerd became the editor of the new newspaper Die Transvaler. Rupert interviewed for a job at the newspaper, but declined the offer. I wonder: given your knowledge of journalism, do you think Rupert would have been a good journalist?
I have no doubt that Rupert would have been an exceptional journalist. Not only because of his lateral thinking, but he also had an inquiring mind, great attention to detail, and a broad worldview. If he had chosen a political career rather than business, an opportunity he turned down several times, South Africa would have been a very different country. Rupert’s belief in the ability of private initiative to create employment and prosperity probably would have achieved much better results than the outdated model of centralisation of power and social engineering with which the ruling party has persisted, apart from its descent into pervasive corruption.
4. You refer to a conversation between Rupert and a physics lecturer, one JS van der Lingen, shortly after the outbreak of World War II. Van der Lingen predicted that Germany would lose the war 'because the Germans always want to improve a product, instead of mass-producing war equipment which is crucial in a wartime situation'. What does this teach us about the possible conflict between America and China today?
Decidedly that we live in dangerous times, much more worrisome than the Chinese curse of living in interesting times. A full-scale war between two of the biggest of the nine countries that possess nuclear weapons could be horrendous, with China’s proven ability of mass-production making Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) a distinct possibility. Today’s nuclear weapons, which can be delivered over great distances with intercontinental ballistic missiles, are vastly more powerful than the first atomic bomb used in wartime at Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. That nuclear explosion had a profound influence on Rupert’s life. He realised that henceforth mankind had to co-exist ‘like scorpions in a bottle’ (this phrase also appears in the recent Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer). Co-existence along with partnership became the basis of Rupert’s business philosophy.
5. In a recent interview with me on Our Long Walk, Jannie Durand, CEO of Remgro, says that Johann Rupert, Anton's son, often refers to three characteristics (besides intelligence) that are important for any employee: empathy, curiosity, and emotional intelligence. Would you say these are also traits that characterized Anton?
Yes, to a considerable degree – though regarding ‘curiosity’ in Afrikaans there is a fine distinction between ‘weetgierig’ (eager to learn) and the less praiseworthy ‘nuuskierig’ (eager to know; nosy). Rupert also maintained that honesty is indeed the best policy and that a good reputation and trustworthiness are only proved over time. He prized one quality of character above all others: loyalty, ‘one of the finest assets in life – the one quality that cannot be bought with money and has to be earned’. Loyalty of his employees was indeed a core characteristic of his companies.
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