NATIONAL NEWS - Black academic and consultant Dr Bheki Shongwe has issued a statement in which he appears to come up for Chris Hart, the Standard Bank economist who was suspended after his Tweets about the state of the economy was perceived to have racist undertones.


The Chris Hart tweets: Observations and what from here?

While it is understandable that the tweets that were alleged to have been made by Chris Hart may be perceived to have racial undertones, I would like to state on record that this does not represent the Chris Hart I know. This is because I have the rare honour and privilege of working with a number of well-meaning South Africans who want to make a difference in our country, and that includes Chris Hart.

When talking about the issue of the South African economy, without any doubt, Chris Hart is perceived as a guru in this field, and almost any media organization in South Africa wants a piece of him and to hear his views on the local or global economy. Chris Hart, in his own right, has become a powerful brand in our country on economic issues.

I had the privilege to hear Chris Hart’s views in our normal interactions when he is addressing people. He speaks passionately about what it would take to make the South African economy strong, the creation of opportunities for more people to become players in the South African economy, and creating employment opportunities in the country. He describes Apartheid as a national scar for the country and that we can overcome by prioritizing economic policies that will create jobs in the country and he is of the view that a strong economy will diminish most of the country’s problems.

Such is the background that I have of Chris Hart’s views on economic matters in the context of our national politics.

Twitter, like Facebook, as a social media platform, depending on how it is used, is limited in providing context or explanations on what has been communicated. It is easy for anyone to take what is said at face value, and there is always a danger that what is communicated is given different interpretations by different people and for various reasons. Unlike in face-to-face communication, where a person has the chance to explain, this hardly happens in social media platforms. In the context of our past history that is still with us, and the challenges that we face as a country, it is very easy for many of us to be overly sensitive on any topic that involves race. This is what I suspect has caused the misinterpretation of Chris Hart’s tweets as racist, when this was not the intention.

Without passing judgment on how Standard Bank has chosen to deal with Chris Hart’s tweets, and based on the time I spent lecturing at business schools and as a former business consultant, the challenge to every company or organization is to ensure that education on business ethics is provided to every employee on a yearly basis, and that this should also be part of the induction process to every new employee in a company or organization. It is one thing to have business ethics information which exists as written documents and another when that information is communicated. Nothing should be left to chance.

As a country, the time has come for us as a nation to have a social dialogue platform that will help to remove misconceptions about each other, and that will bring us together as a country.

Being the deeply racially divided society that we are, there are lessons for us as a country to learn about the racial problems in America and that have led to the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement in that country. The issue of race is not something that can be legislated or simply mentioned in written documents; it should be a priority issue in our national dialogue platforms.