Mutumwa Mawere

In 2010, South Africa will become the first African country to host the soccer world tournament.

Why has the wait taken so long? South Africa is the youngest African state and yet boasts of the kind of infrastructure that convinced FIFA members to vote for the country to become the pioneer host of such a prestigious and national brand-building event.

With 53 countries, Africa has had to wait for the democratization of South Africa to join other continents that have hosted such events in the past.

What is so special about South Africa?

By UN classification, South Africa is a middle-income country well endowed with human and natural resources, well developed financial, communications, transport, legal, and energy sectors, a stock exchange that is world ranked and respected, a modern infrastructure supporting an efficient and dynamic supply chain and logistic industry.

It is the only country in Africa that was ranked 25th in the world in terms of the Gross Domestic Product (PPP) in 2007.

In order to better understand the foundations of modern day corporate South Africa, one is compelled to look back in history to locate the men and women who contributed to make South Africa the country it is today.

Only last week, the world watched with appreciation and satisfaction, the hosting of the draw of the qualifying soccer teams in Cape Town and yet without its complex heritage, there is no doubt that South Africa would have fallen into the basket of countries that look at the past instead of seizing current opportunities.

With respect to the industrial heritage of South Africa, the foundations was established during the pioneer phase from 1870s up to World War I when a small group of no more than 30 European adventurers and financiers gained control of the diamond industry at Kimberley, Northern Cape.

The individuals who pioneered the corporatization of South Africa were later described as Randlords for the role they played in setting up an infrastructure of financing and industrial consolidation that was instrumental in converting South Africa's hidden treasures into commodities that could be traded in the world market.

In recognition of their role in bringing a new dimension colonial expansion, many of the Randlords were recipients of awards from Queen Victoria.

This generation of entrepreneurs understood their calling so much so that the political economy of South Africa is inextricably linked to their lives.

With the discoveries of gold from 1886 in Transvaal at Witwatersrand where the term Rand is derived from, the journey that has led to South Africa standing out as a country of promise commenced.

The role that the Randlords played in packaging the African story so that capital could be mobilized for development is an important story that we must include in our daily conversations.

Who were the men who made it happen? I have been able to identify 30 individuals that qualify to be called Randlords.

What occupied their minds?

As a first generation of black corporate players, I have tried to share my philosophy on business but what is missing is that there appears to be no cohesion among Africa's new generation of corporate builders of the kind that characterized the industrial pioneers.

Such pioneers were men of great influence and the migration of people of European heritage to Africa accelerated as a consequence of the opportunities created by these men of vision.

They must have been acutely aware that there were no guarantees and nothing was inevitable in a place where the majority indigenous people were constructively carrying on their lives outside the corporate setting.

They knew that they were on their own notwithstanding the residual protection they could get from the Imperial Administration and yet were men of tremendous courage, selflessness and determination.

They had no choice but to transform their poor circumstances in foreign territories, as they stood no chance in their mother countries to become rich.

The wealth of the first generation of Randlords was seamlessly transferred to successor generations who then concentrated on the process of consolidation and corporatization that saw mining companies being listed on the JSE.

With a firm foundation, successor generations found it easier to build and scale their heights.

Equally, in 1994, when South Africa became a democratic state, blacks that moved into the corridors of state power were able to build on the legacy of those who came before them.

Most of us who grew up in the black side of Africa, we really were never part of the corporate history of the continent.

No one prepared us to appreciate the role of private citizens in building the kind of civilization we see evident in some parts of Africa.

Rarely do we pause to think about our past. It is not unusual that when we try to explain the poverty of today we have no option but to blame colonialism forgetting that the people who came to Africa to settle did so in their own interest and to better their standard of living.

History has shown that they accomplished the objective of empowerment with no direct intervention of the mother country in form of either aid or institutional and capacity building support.

Self-government was the clarion call and, therefore, the administrations that were put in place had to be self-financing from the efforts of entrepreneurs like the Randlords.

Colonial administrations had to respect their paymasters i.e. Randlords.

Many stand out as builders of corporate South Africa but no individual did more for South Africa than Cecil John Rhodes whose worldview is something that we need to interrogate with a view to better understanding of the causal link between business and politics in the construction of an Africa that works for its inhabitants.

What motivated Rhodes? We can only start to know the man through his writings or words but more importantly from the consequences of his actions and choices.

Before Rhodes accumulated his incredible wealth, he wrote a revealing ‘will' of 1877 in which he stated that he wanted to create a secret society that would bring the whole world under British rule.

He believed that: "To be born English is to win first prize in the lottery of life" and everything that he did in life was informed by this view.

He was passionate about his heritage and sought constructively to be part of the change that he wanted to see in Africa.

An extract of his first known will provides a glimpse of the mind that informed Rhodes' actions.

It states as follows: "To and for the establishment, promotion and development of a Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom, and of colonization by British subjects of all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labour and enterprise, and especially the occupation by British settlers of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Euphrates, the Island of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South Africa, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire, the inauguration of a system of Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed members of the Empire and, finally, the foundation of so great a Power as to render wars impossible, and promote the best interests of humanity."

In our generation, it would be difficult to locate an individual at the age of 24 as Rhodes was who could come up with a will that addresses issues beyond the interests and rights of one's immediate family and friends.

Rhodes understood the importance of organization and more significantly that a civilization that promotes individual creativity and freedom was a superior one and investment needed to be made to bridge the knowledge, capital and execution gaps that existed.

African industrial heritage would not be complete if it does not include the contributions of the Randlords.

We have to invest in knowledge of our journey to 2010 so that we open the debate on what kind of Africa we want to see.

We know what Rhodes stood for but we have yet to learn about what the new Randlords stand for as black people continue to remove the corporate barriers that were part of our colonial heritage.

Having located the Randlords a key part of our history, I will attempt to identify each of the 30 names that stand out as builders of corporate South Africa so that through their experiences, values, beliefs and principles we can be challenged on what we must do to advance the interests of Africa so that when we are long gone other people will know us through what we have done to make African the kind of environment that can attract excellent minds to its advantage.