HRI
courage under fire
The business must go on HR leaders unpacked the riots and looting in South Africa in July, and the reality of dealing with another crisis in the midst of the pandemic.
I
BY CHUMA MXO
n July this year, more than 300 people died in just a few days, thousands of people lost their jobs and are feeling the full brunt of a lack of income, and many families are struggling to find the supplies they previously got from local shops – all as a result of unrest and looting that took place mainly in KwaZulu-Natal, but also in parts of Gauteng. At an HR Indaba Conversation titled Brick by brick: Fixing what the looters broke, sponsored by Workday, Palesa Phili, CEO of the Durban Chamber of Commerce, recalled contacting the provincial police commissioner when the rioting broke out and saying: “I don’t know what is happening, but the videos we saw of looting going around were scary, so what are you going
60
to do about it?” “He was very honest with me and said they didn’t have the capability to deal with it, and the advice he was giving me, the politicians, and everyone else was to declare the province [KwaZulu-Natal] as a state of emergency,” she said. Palesa says it was very unfortunate that the advice of the commissioner was not adhered to, because the situation escalated quickly. She noted they had never felt so neglected as a province. “It was the most devastating, horrible experience, and it taught us as a business community that if we don’t work together and if we don’t all have one voice and be part of one particular group, we are absolutely going to fail.”
