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Mission challenge
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Thebe Mabanga
Financial Mail
Friday, March 26, 2010
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Black Management Forum (BMF) MD Gaba Tabane will have to use his position to articulate the BMF’s identity.
As the BMF is widely regarded as a body that is driven by the private sector, it seemed odd when, last week, he hit out at what he called “hefty” pay packets for executives.
This, he said, “flies in the face of poverty”.
He singled out AngloPlat CEO Kevin Nicolau’s pay package of R5m in 2008, when the company shed almost 19000 jobs.
The BMF is a lobby body that will speak out against anyone who hinders its objectives of advancing socioeconomic transformation or the development of management and leadership, Tabane explains. The organisation has 90% private-sector membership, with the balance drawn from the public sector.
Tabane says the BMF would like to change this mix, but does not say what he would consider the right combination.
A strong advocate of the appointment of black executives at top companies, the BMF was noticeably silent recently when the ANC Youth league attacked AngloGold Ashanti for “co-opting” former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni by appointing him chairman.
Last October at its AGM, the BMF re- elected labour department DG Jimmy Manyi as its president, overlooking concerns of a possible conflict of interest. Tabane says it has thus far presented no problems. He says in instances where Manyi has declared possible conflict — for example when he leads the BMF at Business Unity SA — his deputy, T embakazi Mnyaka, can step in.
Tabane (35) was born in Hebron, near Garankuwa, just outside Pretoria. He was educated at a Catholic school in Mmakau, near Brits. He credits the school, as well as his Anglican priest father and retired college lecturer mother, with instilling the discipline and “sense of purpose” that he says are crucial to his success. In 1995, he obtained his BCom from the University of the North West, where he took his first job, as a lecturer. He then worked for the North West government before joining Accenture in 2000. From 2003, he was the deputy CEO of the North West investment promotion agency, the post he left last August to take up his current position. In that period, he completed his MBA from Clark Atlanta University in the US.
Tabane is also chairman of Ditirelo Holdings, which has investments in logistics, mining and ICT. He is married and has three daughters.
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