Thinking about Thami Mtshali: Bra Thami, the BPIan and Trailblazer

      Some people live for themselves, and there are those who live because of others. And some would make it their business to create things only to advance humanity. Similarly, there are business persons who get into enterprises because they want to make good of the world of fellow men. 

In a world that Thami also lived in, he found that there are people who write because they need to make sense of the world they live in; to them, he argued, writing is a way to clarify, interpret, to reinvent. He often said they generally want their work to be recognised, but that is not why they write. They do not write because they must; in fact, they always have a choice, either way. 

Thami believed the same about black business. He saw them as authors of their lives without the benefit of sticking to the pen, but what any good pen in the hand of a good writer should, in fact be about. He decried the lack of biographical stories about black business with which we can construct a thread we could proudly call black business history. An ardent reader with an impeccable command of his vernacular in as much as he was in English, Thami understood that it is in the grammar of being black business that the vocabulary required for its success will find traction. He decried Black Economic Empowerment as the correct grammar to use for the deployment of economic transformation vocabulary. The syntax of transformation will always yield errors in programming he argued. 

In his parlance, black business should write its story through practice. It should protect the proper black business language to keep a hold on black business life and the competitiveness of South Africa. With the annual performance reports of profitability, black business should experience their deepest understanding of what it means to be intimate about economic transformation. In our successes, we must communicate how to connect and create resilient ecosystems that demonstrate our knowledge of our communities as a natural base market. 

Thami also praised the silence of entrepreneurs that suffer and survive the wrath of the onslaught by the shopping malls in the townships on their natural market. Representing development to an otherwise political economy innocent consuming public, and an opportunity to cut ribbons from an economic visionless political elite, the shopping mall economy could only generate its formalisation in legislation as Township Economy. He asked, Mathebula, Is there a theses of what a township economy is in the context of what has already been argued in literature as a regional economy and other theses on corridor economics. 

Thami praised the old NAFCOC 'toppies' who have decided to sit silently and watch the unfolding business world around them since the dawn of Black Economic Empowerment. It has taken them almost a lifetime to learn silence. It seemed to him that only the old can sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient will always break the silence, creating unproductive and necessary noise. Getting into the noises of trying to introduce an entitlement-based capitalism has always been seen by these toppies as waste, for in these contexts, silence is pure. Silence with an alternative plan can only be holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking but doing. This is one of the greatest paradoxes of our time.  

Clearly, Thami, with these thoughts, would have not lived a fulfilled life if he did not bring iBurst to South Africa; if he did not do the business safaris, he tried, failed, and succeeded. Very few would know that Thami believed in the energy sovereignty of South Africa. Upon realising the looting of SASOL away from South Africa, Thami was part of a group that approached President Zuma, yes, Jacob Zuma, and intimated on the extension of the patent rights of SASOL to a new black group that would have built a SASOL-type plant in Northern Natal en route to the Richards Bay terminal. Yes, he understood the true meaning of RET without belonging to its factional encumbrances. Faced with a family ailment, including his health challenges, he invested in research on an essential oil that would be an immune booster. Galela Oil, a Iess celebrated breakthrough with which many were facing COVID death, were saved. In his accounts, which were later corroborated by a Padi Lehotla statistical study on the efficacy of Galela Oil as an immune booster, Galela, in fact, contributed to the healing of other immune system-related diseases. He never wanted to claim that Galela improved the CD count of HIV and AIDS patients but confirmed they bought it and were never the same.

As a BPIan, Thami touched many; he was a member of the advisory committee who was not inside it. He directed many engagements between individuals with impacts only those involved can account for and share. He commanded a network whose influence defined the BPI in spaces it might have taken us years and decades. He created ecosystems this country is yet to experience their explosion. Thami understood the grass that BPI is, the Gikuyu lawn it has become. He understood the significance of continuously cutting it to ensure its growth, beauty, resilience, and strength. He understood how the tall trees, the individuals in the BPI, cannot enjoy the coolness of the shadows they create unless there is the BPI grass underneath them. He understood the hold on the soil, the grass that the BPI is becoming to the nation. Yes, cut well, the Gikuyu becomes one of the shortest plants covering the widest ground and creating the coolest environment. 

Thami lived, sat, watered and cut the BPI as his grass. We are proud to have lived with him in the BPI. He was one of amagrootman we BPI. Thank you for your life. Thank you.