S. African leaders come to U. for econ basics

For most Penn students, economics is about supply and demand, gross domestic product and beating the curve on the next exam. But for a delegation of South African government and business officials who spent the past three weeks on campus to participate in a custom-designed Wharton executive-education program, economics meant learning to make policy decisions that would shape their nation and people. According to Management Professor Ian MacMillan, who co-directed the South African program, top officials from the African National Congress, the South African Congress of Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party selected the 30-member delegation which came to campus. Because many of the group's members had been fighting against apartheid for more than 20 years -- some even having served time in jail throughout the struggle -- many lacked background in basic business and economics principles. "These people came out of underground, out of exile to fight a bloodless revolution against apartheid," said Management Professor Bruce Kogut, who co-directed the program with MacMillan. "Now they want to learn how to govern their economy -- they are very motivated." And Chinese and Soviet communist support during the Cold War left most of the South African leadership without a thorough understanding of today's free markets and capitalism. "We had to go back to square one," MacMillan said. "[The group] had no experience in free market economics. And you can't run an economy if you don't know how." And Kogut added, "This was really about training public bureaucrats, politicians and union people to operate in a global economy." At the University, the group studied a specially designed curriculum including courses on financial markets, health care, human resources management, welfare and education policy, interest rates, foreign-direct investment and other basic skills needed to operate in a global economy, Kogut said. "We were here to undergo courses in macro and microeconomics, leadership training, entrepreneurial development and the high technology sector," said program participant Smuts Ngonyama, president of the African National Congress -- South Africa's ruling party -- and top advisor to South African President Nelson Mandela. And Roz Cohen, the director of Wharton's Sol Snyder Entrepreneurial Management Program, said the South African delegation looked especially to the United States for a successful example of free market capitalism. "[Wharton faculty] wanted them to understand how free markets operate, understand what other emerging economies do and what [the U.S.] does," Cohen said. Wharton faculty also used case studies, lectures and discussions to present several economic models of emerging economies -- including those in Brazil and Thailand -- to identify policies and programs that might adapt to the needs South Africa. "We were given tools of analysis that can be used to influence economic policies, plans and even create changes," Ngonyama said. The delegation also met with American investors and other top executives to attract foreign investment to their country while they were on campus. "As part of the business process, we are making calls to [businesses located in] Philadelphia and others in the United States to come to South Africa and build our economy," top ANC member Darkey Africa said. About 10 years ago, ANC officials approached the South African-born MacMillan about developing a program with Wharton to teach them how to move to a free market economy when they recognized the collapse of communism. And in 1996, the first group of South Africans came to Penn's campus. According to MacMillan, more than $500,000 from Johannesburg Gold Investment -- a South African gold-mining firm -- enabled new leaders as well as many veterans of the 1996 course to return to Wharton this year. MacMillan added that the program is expected to continue with South African officials being likely to return to campus within the year.