Business leaders were too quiet for too long during the Zuma years, and it has now "absolutely become incumbent" on them "to stand up and be counted" when they see things going wrong, says outgoing Woolworths chair Simon Susman. Woolworths announced last week that Susman, 68, would be stepping down after its 2019 AGM. After 10 years as CEO, he became chair in 2010. In 2017, he lambasted president Jacob Zuma for his lack of leadership and for putting personal interests above those of SA. He says he should have done it sooner. South African business leaders have always taken too long to call out the government for ruinous, immoral policies and behaviour, he says. "Going back to apartheid, business, with some brave exceptions, just acceded to what was going on." And it kept quiet for too long while Zuma and his supporters in the ANC ruined SA. "We should have spoken out earlier and stronger," he says. It's a lesson business cannot afford to forget. "Where we see things that are wrong w...
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