Big black ownership deals get the headlines, but the most heavily contested issue during the financial services charter (FSC) talks was not ownership. It was targets for black management, in particular black women managers. (See table on Management.)
Banking industry representatives insisted at the talks that it was not realistic in the near future to expect black women to exceed 4% of executive management, given the historical context of a severe shortage of qualified and experienced black people.
And there was suspicion. Association of Black Securities & Investment Professionals president Modise Motlaba says: "One of the most ridiculous issues was the industry saying that when women get to senior management they want to go away and have babies."
The talks did lead, in time, to greater mutual understanding, but the hard realities remain.
At present, blacks make up less than 10% of top management at banks. The charter provides that by 2008 at least 33% of directors and 25% of executive management must be black. The same deadline applies to the minimum proportion of blacks at senior (20%-25%), middle (30%) and junior (40%-50%) management levels.
An economy-wide problem, according to some black critics, is that there is not enough emphasis on line management, with few senior black appointments at the top level of businesses. But there are various reasons for the slow pace. In complex industries, where experience is seen as indispensable at senior operational level, most black professionals with the appropriate skills and career history are still gaining that experience.
At the lower levels, with deliberate recruitment of black talent and more time to develop it, the targets should be easier to reach. But even there, the shortage of black matriculants who have mathematics - the passport to most professions - is identified as a systemic obstacle for which there is no quick fix.
However, there are sensitivities that go beyond objective criteria such as qualifications, training and experience. There is a perception that whites will have to be pushed out to make room for black managers. Says one white CEO: "You can't mess around with people. If you handle transformation wrongly, you can ruin your business."
The logical conclusion is that if a company manages transformation well, it will attract and retain black as well as white staff. But it is a fine balancing act.
There is a perception among many black managers, though, that white staff are given the chance to mess up, to learn on the job.
A black executive says: "I've been in a position where we were considering the merits of giving a white male a stab at something. He was not quite ready and we were considering the risks. Whereas when a black male isn't quite ready, there is much more reluctance to take a gamble on him."
When blacks fail, it is often not seen as an individual issue but a failure of employment equity, leading to racist generalisations. The point is that any senior management appointment is a risk. Whether the person has support from above is important.
Companies may also need to revise traditional views of ideal career paths. Many CEOs and senior executives in our economy are engineers or chartered accountants (CAs). Unfortunately, there are still relatively few black SA engineers and even fewer CAs.
An MBA tends to be a necessary but not sufficient entrance ticket to the highest levels. One reason for the bias is that SA companies, especially blue chips, have tended to focus more on operations than strategy. In many parts of the world the emphasis is not as skewed.
A top consultant believes that management transformation occurs only in areas where government has a strong regulatory role. What of the charters and scorecards, then? Will these help?
She does not think so: "On the surface, government strategy is good. However, when you dig, there are serious problems. The scorecards are easy to manipulate. There is too much self-regulation." She also argues that when 80% of the people who are regulating themselves are white, they will be soft on themselves.
Whatever the difficulties and perceptions, the challenges of employment equity, especially at senior management level, will only go away when they have been solved.
