Hunt seeks gelt in the veldt.

• Author: Saunders, Barry
• Position: North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt's trade mission to South Africa

What do Gov. Jim Hunt and pop-music diva Whitney Houston have in common?

They both recently performed in South Africa.

The main difference - aside from the fact Hunt neither sang, danced nor wore a stunning blue body-hugging jumpsuit as Houston did - is that Houston's "Concert for a New South Africa" was attended by President Nelson Mandela, trumpeted by the media across the world and witnessed by millions live and on television.

News of Hunt's performance, at least in this country, was to be found mostly in the back of newspapers - buried between advertisements for trusses and nail-sculpting specials. It received even sparser broadcast coverage, and Mandela left South Africa for America the day Hunt arrived.

I think it's supposed to be a secret, so, just between you and me, Hunt and nearly 40 educators, elected officials and representatives of business and industry left for Cape Town, South Africa, on Sept. 27 for an 11-day trade mission aimed at establishing business links between a fledgling democracy and North Carolina companies. I tagged along. By becoming the first governor to visit South Africa in an official capacity since apartheid ended and Nelson Mandela was elected president, Hunt no doubt expected the trip to be a public-relations grand slam, enhancing his image as a forward-thinking, global-minded, progressive governor.

But it wasn't, and it didn't. The trip turned out to be more like a ground-rule double with nobody on and two outs: a solid hit, but what did it really accomplish?

The U.S. Department of Commerce predicts South Africa will soon become one of the world's 10 major economic centers. It already accounts for 25% of Africa's gross domestic product, despite its comprising just 3% of the population. Because of the country's vast wealth - its key exports are gold, uranium, platinum and weapons - the $65,000 in taxpayer money the trip cost could wind up a good investment, especially if Hunt helps some of the state's lumbermen, furniture makers and prefab-home builders land lucrative contracts to fill South Africa's estimated $10 billion of housing needs. "Why can't we supply lumber for those homes?" Hunt asked.

Representatives of scores of large and small North Carolina businesses and financial institutions, realizing there's a lot of rand and cents to be made in South Africa, were eager to accompany Hunt. Duke Power Co. and First Union National Bank were among those who spent about $4,000 per person to send...