South Africans 'resent black success'

"When people see a successful black, they come to [the] conclusion to say that black should be corrupt or is connected to the ANC," Mantashe told delegates attending a Black Management Forum Conference in Johannesburg yesterday.

Successful entrepreneurs were undermined and smeared, he said.

He gave the example of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa's Shanduka company.

The company owned a small portion of platinum miner Lonmin but when things went badly at the mine, he got most of the blame.

"Shanduka, the company where Cyril is a shareholder owns nine percent of Lonmin but when things go bad at that company, it is that nine percent [which] is to blame. What about the 91 percent of the white shareholders? That is our attitudes towards black success," he said.

As long as there was such an attitude, the country would not go far.

He also lashed out at black business people saying they were concerned about preserving their positions and not allowing others to learn from them.

"Black executives don't network. They are cushioned against interacting with others. Instead they fight about who should go to the next level among themselves instead of networking and having an impact on what should happen in society," he said.

Zaba wants to know: have you ever been in a situation where people attribute your success to anything else but your hard work?

(File photo: Gallo Images)