claiming to be

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A CUT ABOVE THE REST

CLASS, RACE, ELITISM AND HYPOCRISY are Alive and Well in the African Business School Sector _________________________________ Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core. Hannah Arendt

Dhiru Soni Mark Hay

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1.

Introduction

There is a claim of indignation pervading this country despite the fact that South Africa has seen the back of colonialism and apartheid for some time. In this paper indignation comes largely from two sectors. On the one hand we have the multitude of indigent black youth who seek and are denied access to university education on an annual basis. They are restless in anticipation of promises made by the ‘elite’ and politicians. On the other hand there are those (the minority) who in open fora profess to be champions of social cohesion in a country which was and still is being ravaged by racism, elitism and bigotry. “They were and still are”, as Andre du Toit (2000) so aptly submits, “the enemy is within the gates all the time', and that they are significant threats to the flowering of ideas and scholarship”. The reconfiguring of rightly earned black privileges in higher education has unleashed the anger of bigots who are threatened by what they see as the invasion of their ‘elitist spaces’. It is what sociologist Nirmal Puwar (2004) refers to as ‘space invaders’. In her book, she interrogates the “pernicious, subtle but nonetheless widely held view that certain bodies are naturally entitled to certain spaces, while others are not”. Furthermore, she uncovers the hidden processes that undermine racialised bodies in spaces marked by masculinity and whiteness. In effect these chameleons pay lip service to new post-apartheid policies which prescribe and support greater equity and redress in enrolments, outlawing racial discrimination, affirmative action, alternative admissions tests and recognition of prior learning, for poor students. Relatively new expressions such as ‘neocolonialists’, ‘imperialists ‘or ‘racialists’, likewise, do not seem to adequately describe these offenders. They have simply mystified their racial persona and actions. The architects of this phenomenon have developed a new mask of bigotry which contrary to expectation shapes itself to fit the face of the perpetrator who insidiously parades as an intellectual and progressive - the arch libertarian. Instead of upholding the public good and social responsibility tenets of the South African higher education mission and contributing towards the creation of institutional cultures that genuinely respect and appreciate difference and diversity, creating spaces for the flowering of aspirant youth and future leaders, these zealots continue supporting insidious pacts that have long been the outlawed hegemonic discourse of this country. The racial and elitist legacy lingers on. The specific indignation which is referred to in this paper is that of the contents of an article which appeared in the form of an interview of the Dean of the Business School at Cape Town University (Professor Walter Baets) in the latest edition of the Insights Newsletter of the Association of African Business Schools (AABS). In order to bring to light the ‘portrait of a genius’ and to exemplify the hypocrisy embedded in Professor Baet’s various discourses, this paper provides a broad canvas against which his rhetoric in the form of academic and professional articles and speeches including the contents of an interview in the AABS Insights Newsletter

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are sketched and critically analysed. The paper then moves on to theoretically contextualise the essence of the ‘broad canvas’ within the paradigms of ‘Power Relationships’ and ‘Elitism’ as spawned by the new forms of racism. Finally, this paper uses Noam Chomsky’s (1967) exhortation to the academic community to “act as responsible intellectuals” to assert that Professor Baets needs to formally apologise to the South African nation at large and specifically to the aspiring indigent black students struggling to access university education and provide real and equal opportunities for access and equity in his ‘ivory tower’ business school.

2.

The Canvas of Evidence: Episodic Moments in Baets’ Counter Transformatory Academic Thoughts and Deeds (Please be informed that there is no logical sequence to these episodes – they represent the outcomes of a distorted elitist history of false promises)

Episode I: Baet’s and his Blog: The Paradigm of the Emergent Economy In his electronic blog, Baets makes the following comments about the recent global financial crisis and the need for business schools to realign themselves. “Considering critically the causes of the last financial crisis, one can say that "business as usual" is no longer the way to achieve sustainable success. The classical approach to business that we have seen over the last few decades does not appear to work”. “Managers need an expanded skill set that creates new models of business. This means that in their turn, business schools need to be autocritical and rethink what they offer to the world”.

The responses (presumably from his students) lauded Baets for his critical insights, especially in terms of the previous global financial crisis and the need to transform business practices to achieve sustainability. The authors of this article fully agree with Baet’s insightful commentary regarding the financial crisis. In fact it was the stakeholders at Harvard Business School that took a firm stance against global business education and how it contributed to the global financial crisis. Harvard was tacitly accused by various responsible governments and other interested parties throughout the world for having educated and nurtured CEOs of the major companies that unethically precipitated the global financial crisis; ENRON being one of them.

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In another incident, a group of students refused to enter a Harvard University class in economics because they believed that the Professor was responsible for the theories, policies and strategies which also contributed to the financial crisis. Harvard implicitly apologised for its role in precipitating the financial crisis. There is now a clarion call from all stakeholders at Harvard for the professionalisation of MBAs in the hope that graduates can take the Hippocratic Oath to be ethical in their future business dealings. As an aside, and this is not a commercial, the Harvard brand is regarded as one of the best (or the best) business school(s) in the world and admitted (though reluctantly) its complicity in the financial crisis – whether by omission or commission). For purposes of erudition, Baets urgently needs to read this information carefully. It emanates from another ‘prestigious’ business school. Harvard has finally seen the light and acknowledges the virtue of increasing access to business schools, primarily because of the new phenomena sweeping through the world – it’s called Distance Education or Online Education. A leading Professor at Harvard (Clay Christensen) predicted that the concept of ‘disruption innovation’ would one day contribute towards the widening of access to higher education. I wonder if Baets understands this new terminology called ‘disruption innovation’. Professor Christenson states that “The threat to universities comes on multiple fronts: Online education is dramatically less expensive; it gives the best professors (our emphasis) the ability to reach hundreds of thousands of people, instead of a couple hundred a semester; and the actual student experience is getting better all the time”. An URL pointing Baets to this revealing information is attached below:http://www.businessinsider.com/harvardbusiness-school-online-courses-2013-10.

Episode II: Baets the Braggadocio and Serial ‘Social [Mis] Entrepreneur’ Below is an article which was published in Bloomberg business by Ellen Groves March 17, 2010

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“Cape Town B-School Embraces Social Entrepreneurship” “South Africa's oldest and most prestigious business school helps underprivileged students get ahead and teaches entrepreneurship for a continent in transition”. “Tinashe Chinyanga describes his childhood in Zimbabwe as fairly standard, working in the fields every morning before walking to school in a nearby village. But the rest of his education has been a world away from his village friends: boarding school, then a medical degree, and now the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (GSB). Education was his ticket out of an early grave, says 28-year-old Chinyanga. "Most of my peers have HIV, if they're not already dead." Chinyanga owes his more fortunate path in part to his father, who was a teacher and pushed him to succeed. But he also had the brains and the drive to get into Cape Town's GSB. The 46-year-old school is the only graduate business program in Africa to be included in the annual Financial Times global MBA rankings, and one of only two in South Africa to boast Equis accreditation, the European quality stamp for international business schools. Cape Town's GSB also is ranked by the FT as the second-best value for money among MBA programs worldwide. (No. 1 is Coppead in Rio de Janeiro.) Students like Chinyanga from anywhere in Africa pay about $15,000 for a full-time MBA, the same rate as local South Africans. Non-African students pay $32,000. Even so, Chinyanga had to sell his car to pay for the GSB because the school has very limited resources for financial aid”. “Providing opportunities to underprivileged students like Chinyanga is a core premise of Cape Town's GSB. Instead of trying to compete with other MBA programs across the full spectrum of business disciplines, the school is carving out a niche by focusing on the world just outside its doorstep: a continent of emerging markets, desperately in need of managers and entrepreneurs. The student body is equally split among South Africans, other Africans, and non-Africans. The GSB also sees as its mission to nurture social entrepreneurship. "Just as much as we have a responsibility for the education of top managers, I feel we have an equal responsibility to contribute to the alleviation of poverty, solving social problems via entrepreneurship," says Walter Baets, the school's director. Chinyanga, for instance, is hoping to leverage his GSB degree to set up a low-cost health insurance business in South Africa after graduation. The teaching at the GSB is focused on understanding emerging-market economies, which usually exhibit high levels of uncertainty, complexity, inequality, and poverty. Baets, who left Euromed Management School in Marseille, France, to become the GSB's director last July, says he is especially pleased that the vast majority of GSB alumni stay in Africa rather than disappearing overseas. South Africa's sky-high unemployment (as much as 40% among 18- to 24-year-olds) won't be solved by waiting for outside investment, he argues. "The only way of doing it is to support people in the townships to develop their own economic businesses and help them to sustain that economic growth."

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In this article which seems to be a commissioned editorial piece, Ellen Groves emphatically claims that the business school at the University of Cape Town is the oldest and ‘most prestigious’ and ‘helps’ underprivileged students. How noble! For those who are unaware, higher education institutions in South Africa are obliged by statutory prescription to assist ‘less privileged’ students. The issues of access and equity, with quality, have become the central pillars of the new higher education policy framework in South Africa. The fact that Baets’ business school empowered one student and that too without any monetary assistance, is no major deed. The majority of higher education institutions (public and private) have centralised the issue of access in their mission and practice. They empower less privileged students, continually on an annual basis. The article then goes on to ‘brag’, once more about the age of the business school and its ‘prestigious standing’ in European rankings of business schools. The article then admits that in order for Chinyanga to study at Baets’ business school, he had to sell his car because the institution could not provide any financial assistance. A comparative analysis of fee structures at business schools in South Africa, and perhaps Africa, will reveal that the Graduate Business School at the University of Cape Town charges one of the highest fees for its MBA programme. In essence, it makes it almost impossible for financially less-privileged students to enrol at Baets’ business school. The less-privileged are mainly black students. Is this not an exclusionary racially-based elitist ploy to keep students of colour (the new space invaders in Baets’ space) from Baets’ racial enclave (guarded space) referred to as a ‘prestigious’ and elitist business school? Is this Baets’ metaphor or model of Social Entrepreneurship as he so ‘elegantly’ propounds? Baets continually boasts about the global ranking of his business school and disingenuously correlates this to the ‘prestigious’ standing of his school. The international ranking system of business schools seems to favour those schools that have the financial means to support their applications. The system says little about the quality of scholarship that emanates from these so called ‘ranked’ schools. The system also supports these business schools in creating an ambience of ‘being the best’ and in consequence assists in luring those candidates who are able to pay the higher fees that ‘elitist schools’ demand. The article proceeds to glorify, through a kind of advert or ‘commercial’, Baets’ academic credentials and his standing in the European context. Baets is then quoted as saying “I feel we have an equal responsibility to contribute to the alleviation of poverty, solving social problems via entrepreneurship,". What social entrepreneurship and what social responsibility? Effectively, the fee structure prevents the majority of poor black students, and other working and lower middle class students from enrolling at his business school! From the preceding analysis it is quite clear that Baets is using the rubric of social entrepreneurship to entertain his own alter ego about empowerment of the less-

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privileged in Africa. In a sense it is almost as if Baets is projecting himself as a ‘saviour’ of less-fortunate people through the metaphor of Chinyanga. This is tenuous to say the least. In fact his actions are nothing but self-aggrandising and at times border on narcissism.

Episode III: Baets makes a Remarkable Volte-face and through Academic Contortion puts the Proverbial ‘Foot in his Mouth’ This article in the form of an interview appeared in the Insights Newsletter of the African Business Schools Association – 22.01.2015. Although the interview solicited six responses to an equal number of questions, this episode will only critically analyse three of the six responses, primarily because they assist in exposing the counter transformatory tendencies displayed by Baets.

“The African Business School Model: Prof. Walter Baets”

1. What would you describe as the traditional business school business model? Difficult to say, but I guess a traditional business school model is the North American model. It is reasonably rational in its orientation, with a strong theoretical backing, very often clearly organised in functional areas. The focus is on knowledge and in best bases towards application. It is much less in the “being” and “becoming” of what in my understanding an MBA should be. We try to train “leaders”, people that can make the needed difference. If you go into the European model of a MBA, which is often less mainstream, you will see in some MBAs a copy of the North American model, and in others you will see more of the people oriented courses (personal development, responsibility, ethics, and values based leadership), etc.

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2. What changes could business schools make to their business models to remain relevant and successful in 2015-16? In the next 5 years? In the next 10+ years? The business models of all business schools would benefit for some business model innovation. The MBA will only keep its value, if it can guarantee to the graduant a job at a level of salary that justifies the investment. The price of a good MBA is high, hence the return needs to be in line. The less good MBAs might do more harm than good. A student pays still an important amount of money for something that does not necessarily have the quality, but does not give them employment either. Without employment and without intellectual development, the result becomes very thin. The business model that I see prevailing in the future is much more in company learning, action learning, learning while doing, where theory is a welcome input for a job to be done. Management degrees should concentrate much more on what I would like to call values based leadership. We will need to give our students a much more holistic understanding of reality, in comparison to the functional one in the prevailing model. Some functional knowledge will be necessary, but business model innovation should rise high on the agenda. We will have to move away from our prevailing focus on “knowing” and some “doing”, much more into “being” and “becoming”. And that is not just easily done with some more courses. 3. If business schools could improve only one area in the short term, what should that area be? Why? Deliver a much more integrated, holistic learning experience to the students. Since the world is highly interconnected, and though we always say that, we don’t adapt our programs to it. So we put people on the market, who might be technically skilled (or not), but who have no understanding of the bigger picture. And while solving the smaller picture, they create themselves the problems elsewhere 4. Have you tried innovative ways of recruiting and retaining faculty? Did your experiments work? What lessons did you learn in the process? No I did not really. We are all fishing in a limited pool of good quality faculty. If on top of that, you want to have faculty with a systemic understanding of things, the pool becomes even smaller. But as long as on needs the faculty profiles that accreditors want (if you want to be or remain accredited), one does not have a lot of ways to be creative. Either accreditors should maybe change their view on quality of faculty, or one should maybe choose not to be accredited, but the latter is a tricky one.

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5. How can business schools strengthen their links with business? What should be the first step for business schools who currently have no links to business? Be involved with interesting and relevant things, which by definition are relevant to business. If business would see the use to get involved with the School, due to their relevance and what they could mean for the company, that is a good start for a discussion. It is not just blindly doing what they have done for years. Since business schools are not necessarily very relevant for business today. If business would see the value added they would see a benefit in cooperation. 6. Please propose and answer a more profound question(s) of your choice: I think I would like to question the purpose of an MBA and management education in general, provided we would like it to move away from teaching technical skills, towards allowing people to learn to become more impactful managers and leaders that can make a difference out there. That should be a central question to all business school strategies. Business schools should actively start making a difference between specialising degrees (in finance, accounting, marketing, to whatever) and then general management degrees. What we for instance deliver in the GSB are general management and leadership degrees, rather than specialising degrees in anything. And then those degrees should have much more focus on the being and the becoming, and less so on the knowing and doing. Once should presume the participants have that basic knowledge or acquire it elsewhere. Prof. Walter Baets, UCT Graduate School of Business Dean and AABS Chairperson

Content Analysis of Question 1 In response to the first question posed to him by the interviewer, Baets prescribes the traditional ‘American’ model of the MBA. Yet in his earlier blog he states that it is important for business schools to be ‘auto critical’ and make strategic paradigm shifts, especially given that it was the ‘traditional’ model that was largely responsible for the previous global financial crisis. In what sense is this being ‘auto critical? Perhaps more importantly one would have lauded Baets if he suggested that there was a need for a ‘radical makeover’ of the traditional MBA. The need for a new epistemology, ontology, and teaching and learning paradigms are clearly wanting for the contextual realities of the African scenario. How, for example, does the traditional

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MBA inform the graduate to conduct business in Africa? The politico-cultural setting is very different to the Eurocentric model. It is quite obvious that in rhetoric Baets champions the need for a paradigm shift in the curricula of the MBA programme, yet in reality he continues to prescribe and emulate the American model in his business school. To boot, this is clearly evinced in his relentless ‘bragging’ about the ‘prestigious’ nature of his business school. Prestigious for whom? Is this not misleading the most important stakeholders in higher education – the aspirant students? Is this not hypocrisy at its worst, especially when one changes ones academic mask to suit the prevailing circumstance? Content Analysis of Question 2 It is the second question and the response that goes to the heart of this paper. Baets’ response to this question clearly identifies him as an academic opportunist who vacillates between rhetoric and reality and between theory and practice. On the one hand he pontificates about the virtues of social entrepreneurship and how his ‘generosity’ saved the life of a student from Zimbabwe, and on the other suggests that the MBA should only be accessible to those who can afford the highest price in terms of fees. For Baets, it’s simply a matter of studying at his school or no business school, at all. For the ‘space’ in which he operates and conducts these questionable practices, Baets is regarded as a ‘noble’ man and is praised for protecting that ‘forbidden space’. It entitles him to many rewards; chief amongst which is the fact that he can assume the position of a self-proclaimed messiah of business schools in Africa. It is important to remember that there is a fundamental difference between being an elected officer of an organisation and pretending to be leader who has the monopoly over knowledge. This is not all; Baets even has the impudence to assume the responsibility of judging other business schools and the quality of their MBAs. What utter claptrap! Who appointed him and who gave him the authority or the ‘international franchise’ to take on this responsibility? How dare he make pronouncements of this nature on other MBA offerings without scientific proof? Is Baets not a ‘misfit’ in the new democratic South Africa? Certainly, he cannot claim to be an academic or researcher of note nor a leader! Baets then has the overconfidence to judge potential candidates to enrol on the MBA degree. He is of the self-righteous opinion that those students who cannot afford to enrol at his institution should shed any idea of enrolling at a ‘less good type’ (Baets’ nomenclature) of business school because these schools only produce graduates who are ‘misguided’ and ‘misfits’ in society – “they could do more harm than good” and cannot contribute to the development of their country. It would seem that Baets even has the mysterious ability to judge the intellectual capacity of students in South Africa based on what appears to be his own prejudices. Given South Africa’s new higher education objectives, is this not an exclusionary practice? Is this not surreptitious elitism? Is Baets being real? Does he understand the management skills requirement for an emergent Africa? Does he understand the fundamentals of being

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a social activist, especially in partnering with and empowering the less-fortunate of the world? By inference Baets also suggests that those students who pay a lower price for their fees receive a poorer quality MBA degree. How dare he judge our students’ intellectual capacity on the basis of finance! Unwittingly, through his high and mighty misguided utterances, Baets has clearly demystified his innermost belief about indigent students. On the one hand he patronises Tinashe Chinyanga, his exemplar of the thousands of young and aspirant minds seeking access to higher education, and on the other, he is of the misplaced opinion that if students cannot afford the MBA education at his business school then they should not even try. After all, Baets knows what is best for the multitude of black youth seeking access to higher education – if you cannot afford to be at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, then do not bother – you will become a ‘ burden’ to society. So much so for social cohesion on the part of Baets! We wonder how the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) or the Human Rights Commission would react to such a posture which appears to have racist and elitist undertones, particularly coming from an individual who unashamedly masquerades as the saviour and defender of the basic human rights of the poor of the world? Shame on you, Baets! Baets assumes the role of the ‘gatekeeper’, par excellence. He decides who has the intellectual ability to be a MBA graduate! Did it not occur to Baets that poor students, analogous to students all over the world – if they had their choice they would prefer to go to the best higher education institution? Moreover, when finance becomes the defining factor, students, similar to all human beings will prioritise and make a choice based on their financial capacity and other more important precedence? This is basic economics, Professor Baets! The kind of stuff taught in Economics 101. Surely Baets should know more than anyone else about the economics of poverty? Or are we being presumptuous? He simply does not care! By deduction is Baets statement not a form of racism, particularly when one considers that students who chose the so called ‘cheaper’ MBA are mainly black? Why does he assume (falsely) that financially poorer MBA graduates cannot procure senior leadership positions in the business sector? Or does he know the answer to this question, given that he is the supreme ‘gatekeeper’. Baets needs to read about entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg (USA) and Patrice Motsepe (RSA) – they were not part of an ‘elite’ group when they commenced their entrepreneurial journeys. By conjecture, we would assume that if Baets had his way, the above-mentioned icons of entrepreneurship would have been condemned to the backwaters of society. Fortunately for them, he could not pronounce on their intellectual abilities! How could he? They are intellectual giants and comparatively, by virtue of the above-mentioned analysis he seems to emerge as person who is morally, socially and academically bankrupt. We sincerely hope that Baets does not teach a course in ‘ethics’. Beware South African students aspiring to enrol for an MBA. There is a new edict prevailing in the business school sector of Africa. If you cannot secure a place at

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Baets’ ‘prestigious’ business school, you will be condemned to obscurity – by order of the “Protector and Exclusivist Supremo” of Apartheid-based doctrine – “live and do not let live”. Before a conclusion is drawn on the ‘episodic moments’ in Baets’ misguided philosophy and rhetoric, further and perhaps more important and pertinent questions need to be posed. Given that Baets is the ‘supreme commander’ of his business school (with powers unbeknown bestowed upon him) why would he want to reduce the number of students in the MBA programme? How, for example does he account for the financial viability of his business unit to university authorities? Could it be that the university authorities are also not interested in the financial viability of Baets’ business unit and they accept Baets’ ‘truth’ that “exclusitivity and prestige are more important virtues”? Given the counter-transformatory charges levelled at the University by Iqbal Surve is does cause one to wonder about what is going through the minds of the University leadership and its academy (see http://mg.co.za/article/2015-01-22-iqbal-surve-dumps-uct-over-lip-service. Or is there a remote possibility that Baets’ is a ‘genius’ and uses the MBA programme as a ‘lost leader’ to procure greater income for his business unit through the Executive Education activities? This latter rhetorical question seems to elicit the more plausible response, particularly because through the process of gate-keeping Baets is able to strategically structure a class (pun on the word) composed mainly of CEOs of major companies – they are probably the only ones that could afford the fees at Baets’ ‘prestigious ‘business school, in any case. In such a scenario Baets would hold power over the ‘rites of passage’ to riches in terms of educating the workforce at some of the major companies in South Africa! This is the classical entrepreneur’s (not a social entrepreneur’s) dream. Eureka! Having struggled, stabbed, pierced, peeled, torn and broken through the opaque cloud of mystification, it becomes transparent that Baets and his convoluted ‘elitist plot’ has far-reaching consequences, especially in terms of the manipulation of the cardinal principles of demand and supply in economics. Indeed, if this is the case, then Baets is also the ‘illusionist supremo’. He has not only used the proverbial ‘pulling of the wool over ones eyes’ strategy to ‘blind all his victim-stakeholders within the higher education sector, but has also taken his ‘merry flock’ of Board members at AABS for a ‘joy ride’. Finally, the man called Baets is exposed for what he really is! As a further thought, the contents of this paper could lend themselves to a ‘hypothesis’ for a study entitled “The Financial Transformation of an MBA Programme: The Baets’ Way”. In order to test the veracity of this hypothesis, the researcher could use the Information Act to procure vital information and data sets from Baet’s Public University (in terms of the Act, a citizen of South Africa has the constitutional right to access information from a public institution or organisation). Indeed, if the hypothesis is accepted, then it would prove ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ that Baets is the master of illusion and mystification, and that he craftily uses the cloak of social entrepreneurship to mislead the public.

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The AABS Newsletter has also alerted the authors of this article to another research possibility. AABS has issued an alert about a ‘Case Study Writing’ competition. Is it possible that this article could be converted to a case study for the competition? Although there is immense possibility, the authors have decided to stick with the old adage ‘discretion is the better part of valour’. Options are open to send this article in a form of a case study (How not to be a leader, in one easy lesson) to other publishing agencies for consideration. It is only through critical review, that the truth is revealed and Baets’ illusion is demystified. Baets’ illusions and ‘exclusivist’ activities cannot last forever. Further academic ‘investigation’ and action is required. If Baets is allowed to continue with his questionable activities then more harm may be done to business education and the aspirant youth leaders of South Africa, Once again, if these allegations are upheld then Baets needs to be severely sanctioned and apologise to the nation and Africa, at large. If Baets fails to do so then he has no ‘space’ in Africa and must ‘Be Gone! - as Shakespeare would have said Finally, in order to give real meaning and expression to the rhetoric and deeds of Baets, the penultimate section of this paper, titled “the theoretical underpinnings.....” will attempt to show how Baets, the self-appointed archetypical ‘gatekeeper’ has ingeniously learnt to play the game of exclusion through the practice of what is sociologically termed covert racism. Content Analysis of Question 4. With reference to the fourth question, we reluctantly agree with Baets. There is definitely need for more ‘practical and inclusive training’ in our MBA programmes. Yet, Baets believes that the ability to hire experienced personnel is limited given the small pool of possibilities and the prescription of the accreditation authority in South Africa (the Council on Higher Education). On the contrary this is not a crisis. Where is Baets’ innovative cap? Or does he have one? He needs to refer to the case of Warwick University and how through disruption innovation it has become one of the most successful higher education institutions in Britain. For Baets’ information, he should ‘Google’ the name of Sir Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharya of Warwick University and it will alert him to the true meaning of innovation. Basically realising the shortage of engineering faculty at most higher education institutions in the United Kingdom, he offered ‘adjunct professorships’ to professional engineers for them to become ‘academics’ and teach at Warwick. This is Social Innovation at its best! A true leader sees opportunity in a crisis. Perhaps, Baets meant a limited pool of elitist academics to assist in his agenda of keeping and protecting his ‘motherland’ – the elitist enclave which he calls a ‘prestigious’ business school. If Baets wishes to learn about real social entrepreneurship and social innovation, then he urgently needs to visit the attached URL. The article reveals how business schools can empower (in the true sense of the word) local communities in terms of entrepreneurship:

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http://www.academia.edu/3305679/Business_Schools_as_Change_Agents_in_Low_ Income_Communities_Rotman_School_of_Management_and_Toronto_s_Regent_P ark_Neighbourhood

3.

The Theoretical Underpinnings of a Global Knowledge Economy, Hegemony, Race, Class, Elitism and Walter Baets’ Counter Transformatory Tactics

Having offered a caveat of an archetypical elitist and manipulator, it is still reasonable, and indeed necessary, to consider the contemporary South African political economy of higher education in order to show how problems and challenges of issues such as access and equity are compounded and convoluted through the intervention of ‘elitist institutions and actors. The prime purpose is to show through theoretical underpinnings how racism and elitism continue to prevail in this country, though in a more ‘veiled’ form. The perpetrators of this ‘concealed’ elitism and racism, thus, become the agents of a new pernicious form of racial bigotry. In short, these new agents of racial prejudice have now become ‘illusionists’, but nevertheless they remain “within our gates”. We need to peel away at their masks to expose and demystify their real being. This section of the paper, therefore, proceeds on the understanding that despite the fact that apartheid officially ended in 1994 in South Africa, new forms of racism and elitism continue to linger on and they are grounded in enduring asymmetries of power relationships. Such power relations continue to serve the interests of elites whilst marginalising, as a corollary, millions of indigent people in the country. The point of departure, though, is that covert elitism and racism is shrouded in mystification and is inordinately difficult to identify and define, unless one makes a concerted effort to peel off the various layers that embalm the nefarious creature which sociologists refer to as ‘racism’. As Bonilla-Silva (1996) states, “the new racism exists without racists”. “Today, racial segregation and division often result from habits, policies, and institutions that are not explicitly designed to discriminate. Contrary to popular belief, discrimination or segregation do not require animus. They thrive even in the absence of prejudice or ill will. It’s common to have racism without racists”. Unlike the discriminatory racism of the past, the new racism is discrete”. As evidenced by the rhetoric and deeds of Baets, the new ‘elitism’ excludes rather than oppresses. It’s stealthy and gentle in appearance, but brutal and steadfast in its mission. It is only when we peel away the ‘gentle ‘surface that our sensory organs begin to see and feel the rancid core – the rot is clearly evident – it is like a cancerous cell which left unchecked can spread and become cumulatively destructive . It stinks in every sense of the word. In a broader sense racism and elitism includes support for and cooperation with laws, policies and practices that puts groups at a disadvantage because of their

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race, ethnicity, class or culture. In the post-apartheid era in South Africa, racism and elitism have more to do with power relationships within groups in society. The power association, almost equivalent to that of a master and slave relationship allows the dominant group to wield power to such an extent that it prescribes who makes decisions and who accedes to these demands. It allows a member of the dominant group to take on responsibility when it is not democratically acquired. Baets, assumed that he had the power to decide on the fate of others including disadvantage black students, presumably because he believes that he has the monopoly over power and knowledge. The power relationship allows these protagonists to get away with many things – chief amongst them is their beliefs that they have the right to demeaningfully pronounce on others, especially those who are vulnerable and in invidious social positions. Generally relationships of power imbued with a deep sense of racism can be overt or covert. In the case of apartheid it was overt because the laws of South Africa at that time sanctioned it. In a post-apartheid period, the relationship of power and racism has become covert. Despite the fact that it is now some twenty years into a post-apartheid dispensation, racial elitists continue to prey on race-based social inequality in South Africa. McKinney (2007:216) notes that continuing race-based social inequality largely precludes South Africans to “‘exit race’ or even from being able to think about ‘race’ differently”. As such, race not only continues to play a significant role in how South Africans use it as an identity marker, but racial categorising remains a common basis of self and other-identification in social interaction in South Africa (Collier, 2005). Within this convoluted system, racial lines are socially constructed and those who have the ‘social power’ falsely act as the sole purveyors of knowledge and insidiously pretend to hold the monopoly over decision-making. Thus racism and elitism are not seen as a phenomenon operating at the individual level, but are regarded as systemic conditions that structure institutional relationships. The case of Baets clearly indicates that the system of power relations in the new South Africa are still determined inter alia by control over social and cultural structures such as higher education institutions in order to systematise and ensure an unequal distribution of privilege, resources and power. In this regard, BonillaSilva’s (1996) theory goes a long way in contributing to an understanding of the social and systemic nature of elitism and racism. It also informs the conceptualisation of the structured nature of white privilege, in a more nuanced way. Hence, according to Van den Berg et al (2011), current educational outcomes, such as issues of access and equity in higher education reflect a perpetuation and reinforcement of the inequalities of the apartheid legacy. In terms of Baets’ ‘secured’ place and authority in institutional settings, vis-a-vis his position as the Dean of the Business School and his leadership at AABS, Van Dijk (1992) offers an insightful analysis about the ways in which elitists structure and reproduce their whiteness and the inferior status of ‘non-whites’. Van Dijk's provocative analysis reminds us of the subtle and embedded forms of racism that often gets ignored due to the ways in which perpetrators of elitism and racism are

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able to deflect cause and effect through their privileged status and resources. His observations have much to offer in terms of how elites create and reproduce racial inequality and how this can provide, in terms of theoretical explanation, the paradigms of the less powerful classes as well as for major institutional forms. Van Dijk reminds the reader about the need to understand how racialist and elitist discourse produces racialist class structures that deeply mark the stratification and social organisational character of race-centred societies. Racism informs and is informed by its very actions. Indeed, complaints of racism in higher education are increasing throughout the world. For instance Tracy McVeigh (2002), writing in the Guardian Sustainable Business notes that in the UK there have been several high-profile cases of racist incidents in the past few months. Particularly there is the case of the controversy over the University of Sussex's decision not to sack Professor Geoffrey Sampson, who wrote an article on his website entitled 'There's nothing wrong with racism', and said there was evidence that blacks were less intelligent than whites. In more recent years, it would seem that racist and elitists have found new ways in which to absolve them from any racist actions. Herein is a strange contradiction, as Albert Memmi (1999) quotes, “There is a strange kind of enigma associated with the problem of racism. No one, or almost no one, wishes to see themselves as racist; still, racism persists, real and tenacious”. It would seem these perpetrators find ‘new explanations’ which in a sense become ‘justifications for racial prejudice. It is what Bonilla-Silva (2008) refers to as the new racial ideology commonly referred to as ‘colour blind racism ‘and explains the contemporary racial inequality as the outcomes of non racial dynamics; contemporary racial inequality is reproduced through ‘‘New Racism’’ practices that are subtle, institutional, and apparently non-racial. Today racial practices operate in ‘‘now you see it, now you don’t’’ fashion”. Finally, the new ‘colour blind’ racism serves today as the ideological armour for a covert and institutionalised system of elitism and racism in the post-apartheid era. Yet this new ideology has become a formidable political tool for the maintenance of the new ‘racial order’. In effect this new ‘colour blind’ ideology assists in the maintenance of white privilege without much commotion. In a sense it enshrouds the architects of these new racist and elitist acts, to the extent that it becomes very difficult to recognise. As a white person of ‘authority’ one, for example, could become a self-appointed ‘gatekeeper’ without proper democratic sanction. Sounds familiar? 4.

Conclusion

It is important for these new racist and elitists to remember, as former president Thabo Mbeki remarked, “The majority of our people understood that liberation from apartheid and colonialism must and had to mean creating the possibility for the millions of ordinary South Africans and Africans to enjoy better lives free from poverty, as well as the restoration of our full dignity as human beings.” Blacks can

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simply not be treated as ‘second class citizens in the land of their birth, especially by people who are ‘foreigners’ in our country. In a similar fashion Secretary General of the ANC, Mr Gwede Mantasha has made it known that during the apartheid years there was a determination to preserve white privilege on the ill-conceived view that whites are superior to blacks. Gradually, as our society transforms, the white minority is discovering it is not superior. The numerical minority cannot continue to be the cultural majority. Twenty years on in a post apartheid South Africa, the numerical majority is slowly beginning to take on the status of being a cultural majority. Bonilla- Silva (2008) states, correctly, that “the so called colour blind white elitists should not be allowed to claim through their ‘clever’ explanations and justifications the right to exculpate themselves from any responsibility of racism”, whether overtly or covertly. Given the insidious nature of the new veiled racism, the role of intellectuals in exposing the dastardly deeds of racists and elitists becomes imperative. In this respect, intellectuals, especially from the higher education sector need to play a cogent role in exposing the bigotry of racism that exists in their ranks and within the wider ambit of society. We cannot simply say we live in a post-apartheid society which is ‘non racialist’ and free from prejudice. Racism is real. Racism involves all who live in South Africa, and it will take a concerted effort to eradicate it. Universities promote the idea and achievement of graduate attributes by students during their time at university. Knowledge, skills and attitudes (including qualities and values) are expected to be attained by our students. It is indeed ironic that maybe we need to ask about the attainment at universities of leadership and staff attributes, particularly of shared values and human qualities that enhance the public good notion of the university and society! Within this context, how is it possible that a senior academic, a manager of an academic unit at a university and a chairperson of a business schools’ association can negatively pronounce and generalise on the quality of students in South Africa and on the academic offerings at other accredited member institutions without researched justification? Where is the collegiality in such leadership? Is this the quality of leadership that we should emulate and advocate? What can such a person teach us about the intrinsic values of leadership? In terms of leadership, Baets has alerted us to the challenges of skills needs in South Africa. This is no longer just a leadership challenge, but a major development challenge – how to grow bigger minds. It would seem that leadership development has come to a point of being too individually focused and elitist. We need to fast track a new paradigm in leadership which recommends the theory that leadership is a collective process which should be spread throughout networks of people, organisations and institutions.

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Finally, we turn to Noam Chomsky’s (1967) exhortation to intellectuals to make their mark in sustaining the hard fought freedom which South Africa realised in 1994: “Let me finally return to Dwight Macdonald and the responsibility of intellectuals. Macdonald quotes an interview with a death-camp paymaster who burst into tears when told that the Russians would hang him. "Why should they? What have I done?" he asked. Macdonald concludes: "Only those who are willing to resist authority themselves when it conflicts too intolerably with their personal moral code, only they have the right to condemn the death-camp paymaster." The question, "What have I done?" is one that we may well ask ourselves, as we read each day of fresh atrocities in Vietnam—as we create, or mouth, or tolerate the deceptions that will be used to justify the next defence of freedom.”

References Baets, W. 2009. The Paradigm of the Emergent Economy. Baets Blog 2009. Bonilla-Silva, E. 1996. Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation. American Sociological Review, 62, 465-480. Bonilla-Silva, E. 2006. Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Chomsky, N. 1967. The Responsibility of Intellectuals. The New York Review of Books. Collier, M. J. 2005. Context, Privilege, and Contingent Cultural Identifications in South African Group Interview Discourses. Western Journal of Communication, 69, 215231 du Toit 2000. From autonomy to accountability: Academic freedom under threat in South Africa. Social Dynamics, 26, 76-133. Groves, E. 2010. Cape Town B-School Embraces Social Entrepreneurship. Bloomberg Business. Macfarlane, D. 2015. Iqbal Surve dumps UCT over 'lip service'. Mail & Guardian. Mckinney, C. 2007. Caught between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’? Talking about ‘race’ in a post‐apartheid university classroom. Race Ethnicity and Education, 10. Memmi, A. 1999. Racism. Minnesota Books, Minnesota USA. Nisen, M. 2013. Now Even Harvard Business School Is Working On Online Courses. Business Insider. Puwar, N. 2004. Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place Bloomsbury Academic.

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Sengupta. et al. (undated). Business Schools as Change Agents in LowIncome Communities. Rotman School of Management and Toronto’s Regent Park Neighbourhood: Research Gate van-Dijk, T. A. 1992. Elite Discourse and Racism SAGE Publications: Sage Series on Race and Ethnic Relations, 6.

Dhiru Soni was formerly head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research at the erstwhile University of Durban Westville, Executive Director of Outreach at the University of KwaZulu Natal and currently is a Consultant to the Higher Education Sector. He can be contacted at: [email protected]

Mark Hay former Executive Director of the Council of Higher Education (CHE), Higher Education Consultant in Quality Assurance for past ten years and currently Consultant to the higher education sector in South Africa