White males still dominate top positions in SA

[E-Deposit]

Ok, I'll admit, I'm not really a tyrant. The German person that works with me is a brilliant 28 year old female graphic designer. My wife is my partner in the business. The wife does all the book keeping n stuff and I look after the technical side. I have 3 Zimbabweans working with me, 1 x white male, 1 x black male & 1 x black female. We all work our butts off and we all get along very well. My two daughters are real little entreprenuers because they spend a lot of time with us in the workshop, talking business & trading on Bid Or Buy & Ebay. We are teaching the girls to have the same attitude as you: To be strong, indepenent, well educated and not to rely on a boyfriend or husband to make their way through life.

I believe some of the things I said are true, some not, and a lot is said simply to wind people up. We take ourselves far too seriously. :-)

Hehe see now what would you do without us women.
Yeah Independence is really important. However to be independent you have to be strong & if you can't afford education then read books etc and educate yourself There is no excuse to not be successful. Oh ja and most importantly BE & STAY POSITIVE.

[adrianh]

However to be independent you have to be strong & if you can't afford education then read books etc and educate yourself

To quote Richard Branson: "I see life almost like the university education that I never had, everyday I am learning something new".

We all love to read. The girl read lots n lots of fiction. My eldest daughter has her nose perpetually stuck in a book. The little one doesn't read as much but she still reads quite a bit. My wife reads fiction all the time. I don't read fiction anymore, it wastes too much time. There are so many useful books to read.

I am currently reading "Why we make mistakes" by Joseph T. Hallinan (the book also goes by the name Errornomics) - it explains how our minds work (or don't work) - why we crash cars, why pilots fly perfectly good aeroplanes into the ground. I am also reading another book at the same time (I find when the one gets a bit much I switch to the other) "The upside of irrationality" by Dan Ariely. He also wrote "Predictably irrational". The books go into our irrational thought processes - why we buy what we do, why paying huge bonuses doesn't work, why people need a pat on the back, etc.

Anyway, I agree wholeheartedly, read read read - there are many clever people out there who wrote their thoughts down for us to learn from.

[flaker]

Confession Time

[AndyD]

??? what are you confessing???

[Dave A]

Still waiting for the first female President of the ANC

[AndyD]

Still waiting for the first female President of the ANC

Alas, one of the more likely candidates for this passed away from liver disease recently.

[flaker]

??? what are you confessing???

Not me Andy-----the two previous posts now shaking hands

[AndyD]

the two previous posts now shaking hands

It was a beautiful thing for sure.

[Dave A]

What I really get conflicted about is we've just come out of a patch where JZ is going "see, we really are all South Africans and we can work together." We're all feeling really enthused about how we're coming along as a nation and really keen on keeping it going - well, most of us anyway. And the dinosaurs seem so pathetic.

Then along comes Membathisi Mdladlana with his confrontational tirade and stuffs up the good will. He doesn't even pause to celebrate the progress on professionals (which is really starting to look good BTW - 50% as a goal wasn't that long ago as I recall).

Didn't Membathisi catch World Cup fever? Is he really that much of a dinosaur?

Top management is apex stuff. The groundswell is coming.

[Olderwagen]

Yes I agree, women and blacks are incapable of working their way to the top, we must put them up there so that we all have somebody to laugh at.

I am a woman and in a way I agree with you. Maybe not the way you said it, but what you are trying to convey. And I get the joke. I myself laugh at the cock-ups some of these BEE placements get up to.

I don't agree with BEE for the same reason/s as everyone else don't agree with BEE. I don't want a job because I am a woman or white. I want it because my employer deems me good enough to do the job that he is expecting of me. Maybe it was just the way I was raised and that is the same values we must instill in our children. Life isn't free or easy, but if you work hard and put some effort into it, you can make a success of it.

[flaker]

I am a woman and in a way I agree with you. Maybe not the way you said it, but what you are trying to convey. And I get the joke. I myself laugh at the cock-ups some of these BEE placements get up to.

I don't agree with BEE for the same reason/s as everyone else don't agree with BEE. I don't want a job because I am a woman or white. I want it because my employer deems me good enough to do the job that he is expecting of me. Maybe it was just the way I was raised and that is the same values we must instill in our children. Life isn't free or easy, but if you work hard and put some effort into it, you can make a success of it.

No Madaame ,you got it wrong. but ,of course ,i stand to b corrected. Previous posts were suggesting that all women, WEE or BEE make the cock-ups .

[adrianh]

BEE do make many many cock-ups and very few women have the balls to lead.

Anyway, the strikers prove that they are incapable of even doing basic care-giving work, let alone manage as BEE placements.

[desA]

What I really get conflicted about is we've just come out of a patch where JZ is going "see, we really are all South Africans and we can work together." We're all feeling really enthused about how we're coming along as a nation and really keen on keeping it going - well, most of us anyway. And the dinosaurs seem so pathetic.

Then along comes Membathisi Mdladlana with his confrontational tirade and stuffs up the good will. He doesn't even pause to celebrate the progress on professionals (which is really starting to look good BTW - 50% as a goal wasn't that long ago as I recall).

Didn't Membathisi catch World Cup fever? Is he really that much of a dinosaur?

Top management is apex stuff. The groundswell is coming.

Top notch comment, Dave.

I arrived back in SA on 14th July. Have tried to settle down back here after some 12 years abroad. I fully understand reverse-culture shock & its variants. A series of small shocks serve to create a long term feeling of unease.

Well, donning my initial 'this is Africa' perspective/teeshirt/sunglasses & going with JZ's worldcup-nationalistic flow, all seemed good.

Enter the endless series of small shocks. These have really changed my long-term perspective of SA. Couple this with the recent round of senseless union strikes & dumbass dances. SA is in serious trouble folks. Seriously.

Visited one technical university - was slapped with an 'affirmative action post' wet fish. Popped off to my old uni - saw what it had slipped into - where old lecturers were called back from retirement to rescue the train-smashed department. A tragedy. These old fogies are on 1 year contracts. So, what happens when they leave - all the wheels fall off again?

Add the ongoing BEE crapola & the disaster recipe is well & truly in process.

I'm going to aim at setting up linkages between SA & SE Asia & heading back out again. ASAP!!! I'll service the SA industry as required to keep up the product flow & fly in accordingly. One simply cannot have a long-term view under current circumstances.

Stand up Jacob Zuma & prove that you are the man your mother told us you were!!!

[greghsa]

Thanks for your "external view" of our country DesA. The sadest part is the degeneration of our Universities. Added to this the cost of further education is astronomical. I have an honours degree and enquired about the cost of doing my masters. It would cost R72k.(an MBA starts at R120k) So I would rather put the money in my own business or my bond. Who suffers - the country because our population is not graduating as many people, and the people that are highly educated like doctors are poached by other countries.

[Dave A]

...very few women have the balls to lead.

Interesting comment.

My experience is that women have excellent leadership instincts, particularly as they are more we oriented than me focused. My theory is the notion that most women "lack balls" is because they're not nearly as ego driven as their male counterparts; they don't chase the spotlight as aggressively as men. Eagerness to stand up in the limelight (balls) is hardly the most important attribute to be looking for in a leader.

Fact is, leaders that got there more from ego drive than team leading talent tend to be "individuals with balls" but weak leaders. Offer a woman with similar experience the leadership post and my bet is not only will she take it, she will probably do a better job of it too.