TRACK RECORD: Barbara Masekela has been hand-picked by Bill Venter ­ and follows in the footsteps of SABC boss Dali Mpofu and former Cabinet minister Penuell Maduna

'They likely thought I could open doors for them. But I am not a door opener'

'Well, the penny has dropped but whether people act or not or whether they resist is another thing'

BARBARA MASEKELA - Non-executive director: Altron

A colourful political career is culminating in seats on some select local boards, writes Chris Barron

Electronics and information technology company Altron has an unerring eye for identifying high-profile, politically connected ANC stalwarts and bringing them in-house *1.

Dali Mpofu, the head of the SABC, and former Cabinet minister Penuell Maduna are two who come to mind.

Their latest catch is Barbara Masekela, whose appointment as a non-executive director was announced last week.

Chairman Bill Venter, who played the same game under the apartheid regime when his boards always contained a useful number of Nat heavyweights, personally extended the invitation to the struggle icon, former ambassador and sister of the more famous Hugh.

She and Venter go back to the early '90s. They met when she was Nelson Mandela's chief of staff and Venter was assiduously currying favour with the about-to-be-elected president.

Then, when she was South Africa's ambassador in Paris, she "received" Venter "at the residence" and "had a luncheon for him".

During a dinner after she'd ended her stint as ambassador to Washington last year, Venter turned to her with what must be a familiar chat-up line among white CEOs and chairmen by now: "Barbara, we are transforming our company and we think that you would be an asset."

The offers must be pouring in, I suggest.

"Not really," she says. "It takes a while for people to know that you're back."

She is on the board of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. When asked about the Gary Player brouhaha, which cost the fund a rather lucrative source of money, she insists she wasn't involved.

She is also on the board of the MTN Foundation, which has a budget of more than R56-million for social responsibility projects.

In addition to Altron she might be ready to accept another two "business" board appointments, she hints. But her standards are high.

Her main criterion for acceptance of an offer is that it must come from a company with a "track record". No start-up enterprises for her.

"What is their reputation, what have they achieved, are they good business people?" These are the questions she asks before accepting a directorship.

Altron is in good company. Masekela's previous directorships include Standard Bank and De Beers, where she struggled to fit in to the "white male culture" but "learned a lot about big companies", she says.

Like what?

"That business people are just as bright as ordinary people, not brighter. It's not rocket science."

So why are they so rich?

"Because they managed to turn pieces of old stone into something rare, something that was wanted by everybody."

Masekela was head of corporate affairs at De Beers. "They wanted me to bring about a change in the thinking of the white male."

So how does one change the thinking of white males?

"By just beating them over the head over and over again," she says with peals of laughter.

She hopes she won't have to do this at Altron.

"This is four years later and a lot of changes have taken place in business.

"The penny has dropped and people realise that this is a different South Africa from when their businesses started."

Will she tell that to employment equity boss Jimmy Manye, who insists that "white" companies are still resisting transformation for all they're worth?

"Well, the penny has dropped but whether people act or not or whether they resist is another thing", she says.

Will she push for more black directors?

"And women," she says.

"All over the world women are complaining about the paucity of their gender on boards. It is very, very important that they should have more women on their boards, because women are good managers and practical thinkers."

Manye, who is chairman of the employment equity commission, and the Black Management Forum, has called for white women to be excluded from the list of employment equity beneficiaries. Masekela strongly disagrees.

"Absolutely, they should benefit," she says. "Some of the most successfully transformed businesses have come about because of co-operation between white women and black women."

Masekela, 66, was born in Johannesburg, the second of four children. She went into exile in 1963 and, after working for the ANC in Lesotho, Ghana and Britain, she spent 15 years in the US, including 10 years teaching English literature at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

While ambassador in France she arranged a meeting between then deputy president Thabo Mbeki and the French arms company Thompson CSF, now called Thales.

Mbeki, of course, was overseeing South Africa's arms procurement process at the time and Thompson CSF was a very determined bidder.

And so what Masekela still insists was a routine "courtesy call" ('there is nothing wrong with a business wanting to meet people of power') blew up into a very big political storm indeed, with her in the middle. For a long time Mbeki denied there had been such a meeting. Masekela found herself being interrogated by South African law enforcement agencies and "did not relish at all" the public attention focused on her.

She says she was uncomfortable "about suddenly being in the centre of things when what I thought had been my diplomatic duty and responsibility turned out to be something else other than what I thought it was.

"I'm not a person who likes to be in the papers. I have always kept in the background and done my work," she says.

"I am sure that when I worked as Mandela's chief of staff nobody ever saw me in a photograph with him."

There has been speculation that she might be called as a witness in the Jacob Zuma trial later this year, but she says she doesn't know anything about this.

There were also reports that Thompson-CSF had offered her shares in the company, but she denies this.

They offered her a directorship, she says, but she turned them down *2.

"In my personal book of ethics I couldn't do that," she told them.

Did she see it as an attempt to bribe her?

"I don't know. But I was uncomfortable with it.

"I think that the French ­ I was there for four years, you know ­ like influence. They likely thought I could open doors for them. But I am not a door opener."

She says she was "flattered" rather than outraged, but felt it was an offer she should not accept.

"Everybody should have an internal radar to determine whether it is correct or suitable for them to do certain things," she adds.

In brief

Marital status: Single with two sons

Personal philosophy: Nobody can succeed at anything doing it alone

Defining moment: There have been many

Current reading: Brother, I'm Dying, by Edwige Danticat

Relaxation: Gardening, listening to music and writing 'old-fashioned letters'

With acknowledgements to Chris Barron and The Times.

*1       Electronics and information technology company Altron has an unerring eye for identifying high-profile, connected Armscor stalwarts and bringing them in-house.

At the relevant time of 1997/8 Altech (which is owned by Altron) owned Altech Defence Systems (ADS) which was later sold in two tranches of 50% each in 1998 and 1999 to Thomson-CSF, who later gave 20% to Chippy Shaik's buddies Futuristic Business Solutions (FBS) and a further 20% to Chippy Shaik's brother Schabir Shaik's Nkobi Investments (which effectively had Chippy Shaik hero Jacob Zuma as a 5% occult shareholder).

The sale by Altech of ADS to Thomson-CSF for some R35 million is very fishy indeed.

Especially as another strange company called Gestilac S.A. (Societe Anononime [sp?] - not South Africa) somehoe ended up with 5% of ADS's shares.


*2      She might have declined a directorship, but she certainly did not decline doing business clandestinely with them.

In this regard she secretly met with French Pimpernel Alain Peter Thetard, sometimes along with her appointed interlocutor Jurgen Kogl, very many times during the next year or two - sometimes at the famous Michelangelo Hotel.