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FOREWORD
Besides the Lifetime Achievement and Mover & Shaker awards, The Little Black Book 2008-2009 edition gives recognition to 20 of SA's foremost business leaders - hence the Top 20 section.
It is instructive to note that the majority of those in the Top 20, as well as the Mover & Shaker, Lazarus Zim, are associated with mining and financial services. The situation indirectly pays tribute to the tireless efforts and sterling leadership of the political heads of two portfolios, national treasury's Trevor Manuel, and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, erstwhile deputy president and former minister of minerals & energy. Both of them vigorously drove the transformation process that ultimately created an enabling environment for the emergence of a significant number of black operators and owners of assets within these two sectors.
Therefore it is fitting that it is the mining industry that should produce the country's first black dollar billionaire, African Rainbow Minerals' Patrice Motsepe.
As time opens up a gap between April 1994 and current-day SA, there may be people who might, as they should, question the relevance of a publication like The Little Black Book. To the extent that there is a need for a legislative framework to redress the injustices of the apartheid regime - and empirical data points out that we are still a long way from the promised land - it becomes the responsibility of the fourth estate to reflect on the nuances.
Besides, the objective of this publication is not only about keeping score but about celebrating and giving due recognition to leading lights within our society. It seeks to communicate and affirm the fact that there can never be a substitute for hard work and application. Above all, the book bears testimony to the fact that education and knowledge are the enemies of bondage; it is not by coincidence that the overwhelming majority of the entrants in the book hold post matriculation qualifications.
Shavana Mushwana
Editor: Little Black Book
7 November 2008
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