Professor Armand Bam is the Head of Social Impact and PGDip NPO Leadership Development at Stellenbosch Business School.
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Professor Armand Bam
South Africa does not lack capability. It operates within a system, designed, governed, and sustained, that produces inequality as an outcome. The issue is not whether it can change, but whether there is the will to do so.
We can send human beings around the far side of the moon and bring them safely home. But we still cannot guarantee safe, dignified work for millions of people here on Earth. Let’s be clear as we mark Workers’ Day on 1 May: This is not a contradiction. It is a choice. In April 2026, Artemis II showed what happens when intelligence, capital, and coordination are aligned around a clear objective. The mission succeeded because failure was not built into the system. South Africa’s economy is also structured. It simply produces different outcomes.
Designed inequality
We are often told that unemployment and inequality are the by-products of a complex economy. But according to Statistics South Africa, unemployment remains above 32%, rising beyond 40% when discouraged workers are included. Youth unemployment exceeds 60%. Median monthly earnings sit at roughly R5,400–R6,500, while a modest living wage is estimated between R8,000 and R12,000. This is not economic noise. People are working, and still not earning enough to live.
Corporate South Africa’s deliberate choices
Corporate South Africa presents itself as operating within market constraints. But markets do not determine outcomes. Decisions do. Boards approve executive pay. Remuneration committees benchmark and escalate. Strategy teams prioritise cost efficiency, often through wage restraint, outsourcing, and automation. These are choices, made repeatedly and at scale. The results are clear:
Executive compensation tells the same story. CEO pay routinely reaches into the tens of millions, while median wages fall below what is required for a basic standard of living. Ratios of 100:1 or more are normalised through governance processes that present them as justified.This is not the invisible hand of the market. It is the visible hand of approval.
And in a country where millions are either unemployed or earning below a living wage, these decisions do not simply reflect inequality. They produce it.
Transformation as compliance
Corporate South Africa will point to transformation, scorecards, reports, compliance. But transformation designed for measurement rather than experience produces legitimacy without change.
Inside organisations:
The system adapts. But it does not redistribute.
Efficiency for whom?
Efficiency has become the dominant corporate language. But efficiency for whom? For shareholders, it delivers returns. For executives, it drives incentives. For workers, it increasingly means doing more with less – less security, less stability, and less margin for error. Efficiency is not neutral. It redistributes risk.
Convenient narrowing of BBBEE
The backlash against Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) is often framed as principled opposition. But the critique is selective. BBBEE is reduced to race, despite explicitly targeting designated groups, including women and people with disabilities. If the concern were truly about fairness, the debate would bebroader. It is not. There is little sustained urgency around:
This is not neutral critique. It is a narrowing of the conversation.
What we have chosen to accept
Systems endure through what becomes normal. In South Africa, we have normalised:
We have normalised a system where work does not guarantee dignity.
What we design, we defend
The success of Artemis II shows what happens when systems are built to deliver outcomes. Nothing is left to chance. Failure is not absorbed. Conditions are controlled. The South African economy is also producing outcomes, but here, the outcomes look different. Workers show up and still cannot make ends meet. They carry long commutes, insecure contracts, and wages that do not meet the cost of living. They absorb risks the system has chosen not to carry. And we accept this as normal. We know how to do better. We know how to align incentives, allocate resources, and enforce accountability when something matters. We have simply not decided that dignity at work matters enough.
So the burden shifts. From system to worker. From design to survival. From accountability to endurance.The system does not fail workers. It is built on their ability to endure it.
*Bam is the Head of Social Impact and PGDip NPO Leadership Development at Stellenbosch Business School at Stellenbosch University.