The theory goes something like this: in government as well as in corporates, white managers perceive their career opportunities to be closing down because of affirmative action. For the first time they are considering starting their own businesses as a serious option. In many families they are the first generation to think this way. They leave the corporate comfort zone, struggle -- as all small business owners do in the beginning -- live frugally and plough all they have into their business just to make it survive. After a few years, their now stable businesses allow them to return to some kind of comfort zone -- this time not only earning at least what they used to in their corporate jobs, but also building up capital as the value of their businesses increases. The result is unprecedented white capital accumulation.
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Occasionally, there is an angry denial of this trend, usually from someone who perceives the question as an attack on the BEE movement, and who argues that the economy is growing so fast that corporates are employing all managerial skill -- black and white.
A placement agent in the financial services sector, who does not want to be named, strongly disagrees with this stance. “We’ve had positions where we’ve begged our clients -- I mean literally begged them -- to consider white candidates, and they will not. They say ‘well, if we can’t hire we will wait’, and they wait for nine, 10 months.â€
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Says Zuccarini: “They’re struggling. I think one of the problems with being over 40, you know, many of them had been in corporate life for 15, 20 years. They’re used to the daily continuity and assurance [of corporate life]. Their adaptability to the stress of running a small business and setting it up -- it’s a mind shift for many of them. But they’re doing it, and some guys are doing really, really well.â€
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