Johannesburg — THE recent euphoria over the official launch of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of SA (Chamsa) and Business Unity SA (Busa) at Sun City may be as short-lived as the expectations of the Springboks at the Rugby World Cup in Australia.

The business unity process has been a tough one but is probably just as important as the multiparty talks at Kempton Park a decade ago.

Political democracy without economic wellbeing and meaningful participation by the majority of our people is an accident waiting to happen in our society.

The recent boycott of voter registration stations is a telling reminder of how meaningless the vote becomes when poverty engulfs a community.

The institutional and service platforms of organised business are fundamental to the transformation of our economy.

If we assume the success of transformation hinges on the fundamental change of local and regional chambers or different chapters of sectoral bodies, then one requires equal access to services for business people of all races and persuasions, despite their prior membership affiliations and the fees they can afford.

Enterprise development is vital to boosting economic growth, to broaden access to the wealth creation process.

The rubber hits the road at local chamber level, where crucial services such as trade and investment facilitation are provided.

This level also provides vital knowledge management activities that assist businesses in navigating through the morass of the regulatory environment. More importantly, business representatives can relationship and strike deals on a nonracial basis.

Inclusive training opportunities and economic policy formulation are also crucial for successful local economic development.

We need functionally integrated chambers. No half-baked measures. I have the distinct impression that the recent unity ceremony smacks of opportunism and political expediency.

It was a defining moment of opportunity for organised business to effect real transformation and directly affect the economic success of SA.

Seemingly, nothing has altered save for peaceful coexistence and co-operation.

Ordinary Nafcoc and Fabcos members will continue their miserable existence with meagre or no services at all while, metaphorically speaking, their white brethren are served by waiters clothed with white gloves and fezzes, until equitable access to the resources of organised business is made possible.

Chambers could have become inclusive community platforms for wealth creation.

The current agreement establishes Busa and Chamsa as umbrella bodies for sectoral associations and local chambers respectively while retaining their autonomy and racial alignment.

The arrangement is reminiscent of SA's 1983 constitution, with separate racial representation in a tricameral parliament different assemblies for coloureds, Indians and whites. Black people were relegated to bantustans for representation.

I suppose advocates of the current model will argue this is a migratory system, eventually resulting in total integration. If so, what are the time frames for such integration and what resources set aside for transformation?

After all, we are now in our 10th year of democracy and nonracialism. The economic status of most of our citizens has not changed; in fact it has worsened.

It is not government's sole responsibility to facilitate wealth creation; it is also the task of the private sector and other interested parties such as the labour movement. This is why transforming the platforms of organised business is so vital, to build on the political base laid in1994.

Perhaps it is in the interests of some elements to sustain the status quo. Market hegemony and monopolisation are surely good motivators. Crony capitalism is the other beneficiary.

Keep the club as small as possible lest the abundant wealth generated by nonracialism in business swamps the market place with a very new set of rules and behaviours that cause discomfort for the "fez and white gloves" brigade.