Tony Ehrenreich, Cosatu provincial secretary
The present protest around state capture and the conduct of the National Prosecuting Authority is credible and legitimate and all South Africans should join it.
The reason that all South Africans should join it is because it must lead to solutions that address the real concerns of all South Africans.
The fundamental concern in South Africa is that the deepening poverty and inequalities are stopping us from becoming a united nation that can embark on a journey of transformation and prosperity. We must unite to stop the theft and looting of our country, by political and business leaders.
The poverty and inequalities that were caused by apartheid, were exacerbated by the policies that government embarked on after 1996. These policies have seen the government force companies to give politically connected BEE individuals 25 percent of the company wealth, while the workers still earned poverty wages.
The BEE beneficiaries did not raise the fact that the workers must earn decent wages, or that the company must beneficiate the minerals before they export them so that more jobs can be created.
The BEE beneficiaries, like Sipho Pityana and Cheryl Carolus, took their new earned wealth and started legitimising the apartheid ownership structure, while
they lived lavish lifestyles.
The BEE conveniently forgot about the liberation value system that was contained in the Freedom Charter.
The BEE beneficiaries sought policies that benefited the present economic ownership structure that spurned 30 percent unemployment levels and greater inequalities than under apartheid.
There was no outrage and indignation about the effect that Gear policies had on poor people. The BEE sang the praises of the conservative finance ministers who advanced a neo-liberal agenda, which benefited the old apartheid economic structure of mainly white ownership, with their black friends.
This fundamental policy and political challenge caused by the ANC government has led to black people’s unemployment and impoverishment.
The situation of the non-political elite, black people, gets worse every day, while the effect of these policies leads to the Mercedes-Benzes of the whites and BEE blacks getting bigger every day.
Of course the state capture is a problem, the corruption of institutions is a problem, the theft of money and corruption in the state is a problem. But what is also a problem is the historical grand theft of apartheid, the domination of whites of the economy,
as well as the enrichment of the new BEE elite at the cost of black workers and communities.
These develop-
ments listed above,
lead to the growing levels of poverty and inequality and social strife in South African society
Let’s fix all of these problems, now that we are aware of them and now that we are willing to act against them in a newfound unity. But remember that while we must unite in this struggle around common values, we cannot be led in this struggle by those who have benefited from the past impoverishment of our country and people.
In the squabble among the thieves, no one leads a struggle against themselves.
Let’s capture the state through democracy and use it for the benefit of all its citizens, to bring about a more just and equal South Africa.