Mr. Tinashe Mpasiri says Mr. Manyi is wrong on fact and the law that fair discrimination is allowed

Mr. Tinashe Mpasiri, a member of the Banking on Africa’s Future’s (BOAF) – 10,000 Points of Light (POL) Justice Under Rule of Law (JUROL) initiative’s Director of Public Policy who participated in the JJ Thabane’s show last night said that s2 of the Constitution provides a framework to test that constitutional validity of any administrative action including the validity of s9(5) that Manyi boldly asserted provides a constitutional basis for the divisibility of human beings contracted to provide services to a company like Dis-Chem.

“It was unfortunate that Manyi and others were allocated by the host with more time that was available to me.

If I was Manyi, I would boldly claim that I got more time because I am an exceptional South African simply on account of history and birth place-centric identity and entitlement.

If Manyi’s assertions are accepted, then a black South African born on 27 April 1994 and a white-skinned South African born on the same day, would enjoy an unequal relationship with the juristic entity called, Dis-Chem, and the white-skinned South Africa would be divested and deprived of the right entrenched in the constitution to benefit from the supremacy of the constitution founded on the doctrine of equality, a fundamental tenet of the rule of law.

Unfortunately, I did not get an opportunity to whisper to JJ Thabane, the host, that the apartheid he openly practiced of giving preferential treatment to persons like Manyi, is inimical to the rule of law and undermines the supremacy of the constitution.

Had I been afforded an opportunity to share my worldview on the implications of the moratorium issued by the CEO of Dis-Chem, I would have said that Dis-Chem is a 44 year old proudly SA corporate citizen.

It started as an idea and was incorporated by 2 SA citizens who shared a believe that they could use this platform to reduce the cost of medicines to the end customers without any limitations.

I would have told the world that the Dis-Chem corporate journey is pregnant with lessons that may lost in the confusion that always follows a lack of shared understanding on what commerce is and is not.

Being a member of BOAF, I can confidently state a self-evident truth that any value-centric transaction must necessarily involve two parties i.e. a buyer and a seller.

In the case of Dis-Chem, the buyer is a person with an instruction or script authored by a licensed doctor to dispense what is on the script for an equivalent value acceptable to the seller.

It would be common cause even to Manyi that any value chain actor who is a volume player, the unit price of anything of value will be lower than small volume players.

What is unmistakable is that Dis-Chem focused on the supply side to provide an uber-like platform that delivers value to a sovereign consumer whose voluntary choices has seen an idea grow to a 44 year old company with turnover of R20 billion per year that is under threat by the prosecution of a law that is subordinate to the supremacy of the constitution based on non-market agitation that the proceeds of commerce between willing and able participants must be regulated and the workplace must be transformed administratively using legislation as the motive force in the mix?

I listened to Manyi yesterday and the host, JJ Thabane, and could not help but pause to reflect on what is in store for Africa to the extent that what happens in South Africa ought to shape and define the character and personality of the Africa that we want.

No record was relied upon to support the allegation that the growth and development of Dis-Chem was enabled by apartheid-like policies. The reality of 28 years of the 44-year old life of Dis-Chem under the stewardship of black public office bearers would have exposed the hypocrisy and fallacy of the construction that what freedom enabled in relation to the affairs of Dis-Chem could be subjected to non-market forces like legislation to reverse or transform using administrative measures.

If Dis-Chem could be incorporated and used to build a formidable business juggernaut, what has it not been possible for black people to do the same for the last 28 years of freedom?

Regrettably, JJ Thabane appeared to be obsessed by the question – why has transformation not taken place in respect of workplace democracy since 1994 – rather than focus on Dis-Chem’s own remarkable journey that would have exposed the facts as they were in 1994 and the character of the company in 2022.

This analytical exercise would have exposed a true fact that in as much as a flower can blossom without any human intervention, the role of legislation in changing the lives of living human beings must be interrogated with honesty and integrity lest legislation would be weaponized to undermine that which did not require legislation to build.

I recently read the book entitled – Bridge to a Prosperous Africa – the role of the mobile phone network companies in building a prosperous, progressive and forward leaning Africa and the instructive message is that in relation to South Africa, two companies were granted licenses i.e. MTN and Vodacom.

It is not in dispute that a mobile license granted to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) like MTN was like a seed whose harvest has seen the idea manifest itself in more than 22 countries including Nigeria where about 50% of the gross revenues are generated.

If living examples exist on what is possible and exists in relation to corporate stories, I am convinced that the role of media actors in diverting attention to race rather than to what is possible when freedom reigns could possibly be a clue to unlocking the hidden potential that is undermined when the supremacy of ideas and ideologies is celebrated more than the power of the human spirit to dream and act on dreams like the Saltzman family did.

I am sure that a person like Mr. Saltzman many not be alone in wondering what crime he committed by daring to establish a platform like Dis-Chem to solve market-related imperfections so that consumers can pay less for more value only to be congratulated by attention seeking interlopers.”