DIRTY BUSINESS

IT would appear that a violent form of etiquette is settling in the business sector.

This is a serious cause for concern. Businessmen have been hogging headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past few weeks by resorting to bypass the courts and employng mafia tendencies when seeking settlements for services rendered.

It becomes most worrying when these incidents rise to the levels of kidnapping and threats of murder. Recently, a businessman drove his van into a school and grabbed computers and other equipment from offices before loading them onto the vehicle. He was threatening anybody who dared question or disrupt his actions.

Apparently he had supplied the school with equipment but payment was not forthcoming. There was no indication of available legal processes being exhausted where the courts would have granted an attachment order.

Not long after, another businessman called for back-up after his attempt to have a debt settled by a school was unsuccessful. He was locked out the gates only for him and his group of associates to jump over the fence and demand payment before police were called.
In a similar incident, an attempt to seek a debt settlement ended in a brawl at another school between a school chairperson and headteacher when confronted by a service provider for payment.

These shenanigans were preceded by an alleged kidnapping of a businessman who allegedly bought a shop but failed to settle the balance of the agreed price. This matter is now before the courts but all for the wrong reasons.

We have also been witnessing rising incidents of violence involving foreign businesspeople, but sadly these have been dismissed as a ‘foreign culture’ yet they have the potential of finding a new home locally.

Some have chosen to blame the loopholes in the immigration system for the influx of foreigners who have literally taken over the SMME sector and are running corner shops and retail outlets of all kinds.

Although many of the businessmen involved in these incidents may not be affiliated to local business associations such as the Federation of Swaziland Business Community (FESBC) or the Federation of Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce (FSE&CC), they do business in the country nonetheless. These organisations have a duty to protect business etiquette, particularly when the businessmen engage practices that are dragging the name of the industry through the mud.

We are well aware that the business environment is going through a rough patch, with consumers  struggling to purchase bare essentials while schools are finding it hard to sustain themselves under the Free Primary Education fee structure, but this is no reason for businesspeople to adopt a militant stance in settling disputes.

The bigger picture here is that the business sector is creating a profile of itself that is being sold to the rest of the world. The country’s marketing slogan speaks to the fact that we have a very peaceful and orderly investment climate. This gives credence to issues of the rule of law that is paramount guaranteeing the safety of an investor and his/her property.

The environment cannot create itself. The active players are entirely responsible for this so ignoring violent squabbles between small businesses and clients and dismissing them as disputes best left between two parties becomes dangerous when one incident leads to another without caution.
The FSE&CC Chief Executive Officer, Bonisiwe Ntando has  recently alluded to the fact that there is weak business confidence in our local environment, citing drought, significant currency and uncertainty on the sustainable access of some of the countries key exports into major international markets.

Adding a violent business culture to it can only make it harder to turn our economy around for the better.  The country has enough violence to deal with at a domestic level but everything needs to be done to ensure that it is curbed before it permeates the little we have left of what we call our peaceful investment climate. 

SIHLANGU OUR PRIDE.
Despite a humiliating 5-1 defeat to Bafana Bafana, one must commend our national team Sihlangu for the gallant performance at the COSAFA tournament in Namibia. We say well done to all parties involved in the preparations and to the players for reaching the semi-final spot yet again. Don’t despair but build on this experience for better results in future tournaments.

The best team won on the day. Let us remember that Bafana Bafana is coached by one of the most criticised coaches in South African football history. What is admirable about him is that he takes it on the chin and gets down to business to produce the results.
We should learn from him not to use newspaper reports to apportion blame for bad results because scapegoats don’t make men, but taking full responsibility for ones actions do.

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