Live journalism — Bruce Whitfield finds hope in abundance, exploring the 'one thing' that could save the country

17 Oct 2024

Former Money Show host Bruce Whitfield speaks to Ferial Haffajee about his latest book The One Thing, in which he taps into the wisdom of top business leaders and thinkers, asking them what ‘one thing’ they would do to spark real change in South Africa.

If South Africa was a person, they would have been written off long ago. Whether you consider the country as having more ups than downs, or downs than ups, South Africa has certainly tested its people through a never-ending series of problems and own goals, from politics and corruption to economic instability, infrastructure collapse and social upheaval.

Still, here we are, in yet another cycle of optimism, thanks in large part to the Government of National Unity, after the ANC received a snotklap in the May elections. But patience wears thin, even among a category of people who are not renowned for their pessimism: business leaders and entrepreneurs.

While the business sector has become increasingly trenchant about state failures, it has deep knowledge and views on the importance of collaboration between the government and industry, advocating for innovative solutions, strategic partnerships, and the need for effective governance to drive sustainable growth and development in the face of ongoing challenges.

Without being pollyannaish, Bruce Whitfield has tapped into that wisdom in his latest book, The One Thing, in which he asks business leaders and thinkers about what they think the “one thing” is that could spark real change and business success in South Africa.

Whitfield, who left The Money Show on 702 and Cape Talk radio earlier this year after 20 years as a broadcaster, spoke to Daily Maverick associate editor Ferial Haffajee about life after a long-term career in radio, what he’s doing with all his free time, and how he practically herded cats to collate the wisdom of South Africa’s business sages for his latest book.

“It’s that thing where you give up something that is your life — and it (The Money Show) was very much my identity. I remember my late lovely cousin, the man who ran the most successful breakfast show in South African history, Jeremy Mansfield, once telling me how about six months after leaving The Rude Awakening, he was in the queue in Pick n Pay and became aware that somebody was eyeballing him.

“So he turned and smiled at the guy behind him, and the guy said to his little girl next to him, ‘You see that guy, darling? He used to be Jeremy Mansfield! So I feel very much like I used to be Bruce Whitfield!”

3am crisis

After giving Primedia notice in April this year that he would not be renewing his contract, Whitfield had a 3am crisis when he realised he now needed to find something to do with his time. A 20-year habit is a very difficult habit to break, and it’s been liberating. While Whitfield is involved in a “very big project” that he can’t talk about yet with Professor Adrian Saville from the Gordon Institute of Business Science, he is relishing having an extra six hours in his day.

“That’s when the realisation came that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to do a project that I’ve been wanting to do since June/July 2021, when I read a speech that Lesetja Kganyago, the Reserve Bank governor, gave in Stellenbosch, when he uttered what in my mind is the immortal line, and that is ‘when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority’ — based on the fact that there are so many crises in South Africa, so many things that we have to focus on and fix, so many things that are broken and neglected and people are suffering in the real world, but if we try to fix everything all at once, there’s no way it is going to work.”

https://youtu.be/NzG-I3ofydY

Subsequent to that, Pravin Gordhan’s Project Vulindlela was created, aimed at modernising and transforming network industries, including electricity, water, transport and digital communications. It was conceived in the corridors of Davos around January 2016 — the nadir of the Jacob Zuma years, when South Africa was “on the bare bones of its backside”, when nobody was coming to South Africa’s stand, the country was considered a lost cause and Zuma had already thrown his name away for the umpteenth time.

By this stage, nobody cared about South Africa and the most melancholy people — the CEOs and government ministers — had nobody else to talk to and asked, what are we going to do? It was Gordhan who took the initiative and said let’s do something about this, by forming the CEO initiative.

“They were bored. They were tired of being lied to. They were tired of being made promises that were never being delivered on. And they were just overwhelmingly frustrated with South Africa constantly making promises, and never delivering on and then,” Whitfield says.

The lightbulb moment

Back in Cape Town, while in a barber shop, Whitfield had an epiphany, asking the barber if he was president for half an hour, and he could do one thing, what would it be? “He got so emotional, and he just said: ‘Crime.’

“He then told me what it was like living on the Cape Flats and stepping out of your door every day, getting a taxi… to the safety of De Waterkant, and then having to make the return journey home every single day.”

That moment inspired Whitfield to send 120 WhatsApps to people, asking them the same question: if you were president for half an hour, what’s the one thing you would do.

His publisher, PanMacmillan, thought he was mad, but said that if he could pull it off, they would publish it.

Within a month, he delivered the manuscript. The One Thing was published on 1 October, with insights from entrepreneurs like Adrian Gore of Discovery, Wits Chancellor and businesswoman Judy Dlamini, Michael Jordaan, former CEO of FNB, Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers, Money Show host Stephen Grootes, chairperson of the Businesswomen’s Association Mandisa Nkwanyana, and many more.

The contributions were all in their voice, with minimal editing, Whitfield said, but he was the “orchestrator”.

“We are an astonishingly enthusiastic, passionate, patriotic ideas-filled society. So much of that has been kicked out of us through the abuse of the lost years — the dark years, the wasted years — and we need to start owning that again, because the amount of entrepreneurial creativity, the amount of desire to fix a country that has got so much potential, is so strong.”

The One Thing is available at the DM168 bookshop.

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3am crisis

The lightbulb moment