Someone had better tell Dischem’s top management that a need for a new type of reporting to the JSE is imminent. It’s called sustainable reporting – the non-financial kind. The stock exchange has been reminding listed companies about this global shift writes Gasant Abarder.
Abarder, who recently launched his book, Hack with a Grenade, is among the country’s most influential media voices. Catch his weekly column here, exclusive to Cape {town} Etc.
The pharmacy chain’s CEO Ivan Saltzman’s recent leaked memo to staff about a moratorium on hiring white managers betrays his poor leadership. Dischem should have had an employment equity plan instead of treating B-BBEE as a grudge purchase.
A moratorium is a panic measure because it failed to do the right thing and is now facing penalties for non-compliance. To be clear, creating a diverse and transformed organisation is good for business and in line with global good practice.
Although not yet mandatory, the JSE has issued guidance documents to help companies like Dischem with sustainability reporting, or what is known among listed companies as environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting. Simply put it is reporting on the role companies play in ‘people, planet and prosperity’.
ESG reporting is already becoming mandatory with stock exchanges in the rest of the world and it won’t be long before the JSE follows suit. It’s not just a nice-to-have because shareholders are going to make investment decisions on how you treat people and the world around you in the context of increasing consciousness around climate change, fair trade and humane labour relations.
It is so significant that South African and globally renowned corporate governance guru, Judge Mervyn King, has created a non-profit called ESG Exchange to assist companies around the world with a baseline for compliance.
Being shoved into compliance isn’t good governance, Dischem. Consumers are shopping with a heightened level of consciousness. The Abarder household stopped shopping at Dischem in 2020 when Saltzman’s letter to a customer on why its stores would continue selling Israeli products was leaked. In the letter, he attempted to soft-serve Israel’s human rights atrocities against Palestinians and went on to victim blame.
That letter had the same begrudging tone as his recently leaked memo about his moratorium. The net effect may hurt Dischem’s bottom line as white South Africans threaten a boycott. Had Saltzman embraced diversity the business would’ve been thriving.
Look at the Springboks in the Rassie Erasmus era who won the World Cup and a British and Irish Lions Series. It is the most representative Bok side since the dawn of democracy and the diversity indeed makes the team ‘Stronger Together’. No one held a gun to Rassie’s head to field more players of colour or to appoint a black captain in Siya Kolisi.
I dare you to tell me which player of colour isn’t there on merit.
I’m personally relieved we don’t shop at Dischem. Apart from Saltzman’s warped worldview, it was a real pain. Standing in a snaking queue about 100 metres long and flanked by an assortment of tempting treats and items you don’t need when you were just running in to get headache tablets.
To get to the queue, you have to pass that guy with the bulging biceps, wearing his little brother’s shirt and trying to flog a chemically-tainted brand of exercise supplement and other assortments of nasty products to you. Yuck!
It’s not just white South Africans and those who stand in solidarity with Palestine who can feel rightly aggrieved. Black, coloured and Indian South Africans should also be outraged that it came to this point that in 2022 a company should be painted into a corner rather than making diversity part of its strategy like our all-conquering Springboks.
I’m not a fan of boycotts. In the long run, they often hurt the very people the consumer action is trying to support. A loss of revenue for Dischem could mean job losses among the thousands of rank-and-file employees. My choice not to shop at Dischem is rather a personal one as a discerning consumer who cares about people, planet and prosperity. There are a lot more of us these days.
If Dischem isn’t even considering being a more responsible corporate citizen, it will only have itself to blame for consumer backlash.
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Picture: Blue Route Mall