Apartheid is gone and votes for the black majority have arrived in South Africa, but the country's business and bureaucracy remains under the control of a tiny minority of white men. Gemini News Service reports on the controversy arising from Pretoria's affirmative action drive.

TSH1DI Mokgabudi's career sounds like a South African success story. One of the country's few black female chartered accountants, she is besieged almost daily by recruitment agencies offering her astronomical salaries to leave her senior position at the regional development bank.

Yet Mokgabudi is frustrated rather than flattered. "Yes. 1 can name my price.'' she says, "but while most of the offers mean a lot of money, they don't give me sufficient responsibility for what I've proved I'm capable of doing."

Mokgabudi's concerns are not unique. South Africa's re-

markable political iransforma-tfon may have ended apartheid and brought the vote to the black majority, but business and bureaucracy remain firmly under the control of a tiny minority of white men.

In the civil service, less . than 10 per cent of dlrectors-general are black and women hold less than one per cent of senior posts.

In the corporate world, a recent survey of 70 companies by the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business found that — in a country where 76 per cent of the population is black — 93 per cent of managers were while and a mere 2.5 per cent black. Only seven per cent were women.

Both President Nelson Mandela and business leaders realise these imbalances have to be addressed. So affirmative action programmes have be-come one of the highest and moat sensitive priorities in a society trying to recreate Itself after centuries of white domination.

A survey carried out last November by a firm of management consultants found 59 per cent of 118 companies surveyed had an affirmative action programme: academic selection committees in at least one respected English-Ian guage university have to offer special justification If they hire _ white men and the country s biggest weekly financial magazine carries a special sec tion under the heading affirmative action." Vacancies range from highly-paid post tlons in corporate banking to posts for qualified accountants

Predictably, these measures have around fierce controversy Unlike other affirmative action programmes around the world, the South African version has to accommodate a majority rather than a minority Even the most sympathetic ob servers acknowledge it could take generations rather than years to correct historical dts tort ions

Perhaps more importantly for the spirit of national unity desired by Mandela, the debate also Introduces a racial dlinen slon in a society ostensibly striving to be colour blind.

Christine Micklem. for ex ample, found herself on the

wrong side of the colour "line when she applied for a job as an air hostess with South African Airways. An energetic 24-year-old white university graduate, ednversant in five languages, she seemed well qualified for the position Yet the airline refused even to in vite her for an Interview Instead, she received a curt letter saying her application "could not be considered be cause the airline was "busy ap plying affirmative action

"I was obviously very disap pointed. " Micklem told Gemini News Service. The impression I got was that, I wouldn t be able to get a job here because of my colour and that I may as

well emigrate.

The publicity generated bv Micklem's case prompted th< airline — whose staff is 79 pe: cent white and 13 per cent black — to reconsider her ap plication. But many other young whites claim slmilai dll ficulties in penetrating the employment market ■

For blacks the debate is more complex

Qualified blacks, poised to benefit from the corporate scramble to make their board rooms more representative ot the country's demography have mixed feelings about t’ip introduction of affirmative ar tion programmes Those like Johannesburg based Mokgabudi. wary of tokenism and being used as window dressing by white-controlled companies anxious to present a politically correct Image are starting to consider "affirmative action" a dirty world.

"1 hate the term, she said In an interview "It's become a Joke among black people Everyone thinks ft's a game through which whites will con tinue to hold economic power for themselves

Mary-Jane Morifi. national public affairs manager for British Petroleum Southern Africa lm« different reserve tfons Tm the only woman among the top mauaeemvui warn and I certainlv haven i felt (hat I m bring awlefinrd shr said in Cape town ' ’eel that I'm m iking a mntrlhutton bringing a iH-wpotni tli.it hasnt been hr .nd txtutv

Ncvertheh-ss Morifi •« dis satisfied with Uh .ippltr ilion of many focal alllnnulhc non programmes

1 would like to see it done tn a different way. she says A lot. of companies are falling all over their Iket and making terrible mistakes They shoukln t talk about black peo pie without getting Input from black people

"One problem Is that bust ness does not know how to find and nurture black talent Companies that say they can t find competent blacks need to be mors creative In the way they look lor peqple savs Morifi. "They can t Just rrlv on the old boys network

Another difficulty, she be

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