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Why Are South Africans so Arrogant?

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With reference to our doing business in Africa – on three occasions this week I heard this sentiment expressed; “When we deal with other African countries we need to dial down the arrogance!”

The first speaker was Dave Coffey, speaking at the Exporters EC AGM on Thursday evening. Coffey is CEO of AAAM – African Association of Automotive Manufacturers.

Coffey said that South Africans need to be less ‘arrogant’ when dealing with business from other African countries. He highlighted just how far ahead certain countries are when it comes to enabling and doing business in their individual countries. Possibly our automotive industries biggest threat is from Morocco who have an exemplary automotive supply chain business exporting just 14 km to European OEMs.

I am doing an interview with an SA based business that has uplifted lock stock and barrel and moved to Rwanda. Their MD said that being humble and looking for meaningful partnerships among the locals was the best thing they could have ever done for their business.

The third commentator has an early history of being on the ‘wrong side of apartheid’, worked for the security police in the bad old days and is now doing consulting work for a multi-national in Africa and his words were revealing to say the least; “Alan, you know my background and I really would like to share with you the incredibly positive experiences I had in Africa – the people open up to you when you are humble and NOT arrogant. The sad thing about my epiphany is that I still have peers who are in that old apartheid mindset.”

The harsh reality of our South African lives is that pre-1994 we received support against the Nationalist Apartheid government from all of our brothers in Africa and we failed to thank them for their ‘bystand’. Now we only hear about chasing foreigners out. We need to learn from our brothers and sisters in Africa, share our expertise and then benefit from doing business in Africa with humility and Ubuntu.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.