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Using B-BBEE to minimise the risk of socio-political instability
Background
Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe Party missed the window for power-sharing talks, and he’s not happy. Many think Zuma could incite unrest among South Africans to get his way now, just as his supporters instigated looting and violence in response to his sentencing in 2021.
The threat to democracy isn’t that his supporters have the numbers to bring the country to its knees for political reasons (for then they would have won elections) but that, as before, they have access to crowds that are economically alienated enough to loot again. As before, potential looters have little to lose; frankly, many got away with it the first time around.
But where journalism is accessible and understood, members of the general public can’t be easily incited to loot — they know that the instigators don’t have their best interests at heart; they know they’re being used as pawns. They know that the short-term gains of joining a chaotic looting mob are outweighed by the loss of investor confidence and how that affects their own finances in the long run. Journalism, then, deters its consumers’ unwitting participation in sociopolitical instability. An informed public is a smart public.
To protect democracy and social stability, it’s crucial for the business community to consider making journalism and news sources beneficiaries of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) spending. A stable, informed society benefits the business community through a more predictable economic environment and a reduction in the risks associated with social unrest. This is beside potential PR, B-BBEE compliance and tax benefits.
More importantly, the serious use of B-BBEE and similar policy to empower people to participate in democracy, in knowledge-sharing, in the preservation of the rule of law, will take the wind out of the sail of populist politicians who say the business community and the markets don’t care about the poverty facing many black South Africans.
At Quanta Consulting Services, we’re forming relationships with different media houses so that your B-BBEE spends can be allocated to them, and the points (and possibly tax benefits) to your business. Fill out the form below or contact us today for more information.
+27 (62) 196-9184
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