“When you are in a bad situation, you have to envision where you want to be and then figure out how to get there. Don’t expect [an easy ride], don’t blame anyone, just figure out what you need to do to get there.”
“When you are in a bad situation, you have to envision where you want to be and then figure out how to get there. Don’t expect [an easy ride], don’t blame anyone, just figure out what you need to do to get there.”
These were the opening words of Cheryl Carolus, Executive Chair of Peotona Group Holdings and chairperson of Gold Fields Ltd, the keynote speaker at a Business Forum meeting on Monday 26 August.
Her talk commemorated the 30th anniversary of the founding of the United Democratic Front (UDF), the umbrella anti-apartheid organisation launched on 20 August 1983 in Rocklands, Mitchells Plain. Carolus’s talk focused on the “universal truth” that “good overcomes evil” and the work that is still needed to build a South Africa that previous generations fought and died for.
She challenged future managers from the audience of MBA students from Rhodes Business School to develop a spirit of ‘enoughness’ and to consider those on the bottom of the social ladder. “I believe that the biggest threat to our democracy today is poverty and inequality."
"Our country has, in recent years, earned a titled that we should be thoroughly ashamed of: we are the country that has the biggest gap between the rich and the poor,” she said.“Are we surprised then that we have such profound social problems? Are we surprised then that we have Marikana? My first appeal to all of us is, let us draw on the right side of our beloved Tata Madiba, and let us teach ourselves a culture of enough,” said Carolus.
According to Carolus many of the challenges we face today are more complex than those of the past. “It is easier to know what you hate than to know what you want in its stead. It is easier to break down what you hate than it is to build what you love and respect forever,“ said Carolus.
She believes that to build something positive that lasts, you need to plan, you need the correct tools, and you need the right people. She expressed disappointment that South Africa is still floundering in 2013. “But maybe we should just take some comfort that we have come a very, very long way from our very painful past. "And because of what we did, there is no easy walk to freedom. One has to work hard to achieve the good things in life.”
