Panacea for SA ills
ARE you just as tired of the offensive notion that if - sorry when - Julius Malema finally buggers off under whatever rock he crawled from, poor people will be the losers because he "speaks" for the poor?
MASS ACTION: ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema leads a march through the streets of Johannesburg for 'economic freedom'. The marchers later held a vigil in Pretoria before marching on the Union Buildings the following day. Picture by Veli NhlapoIt is such a stupid thing to think and say that you wouldn't think there are many people out there willing to sign up for it.
But a small unscientific survey I've conducted - chiefly by watching the coverage from e.tv and the SABC last Saturday - has led me to the conclusion that there are in fact people willing to suspend thinking in favour of this analysis.
Anyway, whatever one thinks of the idea, the narrative seems to go something like this: Malema and his youth league declared an "economic freedom in our lifetime" campaign; therefore they are fighters for "economic freedom". Second, they adopted a conference resolution calling for "nationalisation of the mines".
In this narrative, "nationalisation" is obviously a good thing for the poor and thus those calling for it are champions of the poor. Again, there is no attempt to explain what the league means when referring to "nationalisation".
Therefore the fact that Malema and his comrades have been disciplined and to one extent or another booted out of the ANC means these debates about economic policy will be "silenced" and poor people pushed into the margins of our national debate.
Personally I find that there are two types of people who indulge in this myopic thinking: the committed and the lazy. There are those, on the one hand, who have some personal commitment to Malema, the league, or their politics. They are the committed.
Then there are those who are curiously willing to take Malema at his own insincere word, accepting that he cares deeply for the plight of the poor. These types are just intellectually lazy.
A state of the nation speech is not meant to fulfil such a purpose, but on Thursday night President Jacob Zuma delivered an inadvertent but powerful riposte to two of the premises of this lazy narrative.
These are the belief in nationalisation as a panacea, assuming the league's idea of nationalisation would be something recognisable, and that nationalisation and other pro-poor policy choices would have no champions in the public domain in the absence of the "economic freedom" campaigners.
First, the speech debunks the notion of nationalisation as the only - or even key - tool for progressive action to uplift the poor. South Africa has a number of powerful parastatals in key sectors of the economy, some of them with healthy balance sheets that can and are being leveraged for increased state spending to improve the lives of poor South Africans.
On the economic front, this expenditure will be rolled out through one of the world's largest continuous infrastructure building projects. On the social policy front, the expenditure will be seen in the expansion of the public health sector through the massive amounts being allocated to National Health Insurance.
The housing initiatives announced will pull millions of the "mid-level poor" into the ranks of the property-owning middle classes by guaranteeing their loans from the private sector.
Second, it is clearly untrue that the path of nationalisation or any other progressive policy choice will be abandoned in the wake of the demise of its latter-day prophets. Both Cosatu and the SACP have for years called for the re-nationalisation of Arcelor-Mittal (formerly the state steel manufacturer Iscor) and Sasol, which pioneered coal-to-liquids technology through state investment.
The call for this re-nationalisation is based not only on a careful consideration of the two sectors' strategic role in economic growth, but also relies on the economic impact of the companies' privatisation as evidence.
These long-standing progressive campaigns, as well as the bold, expansionist steps being taken by the ANC government, are not quixotic or sexy.
They cannot be easily translated into belligerent slogans or primetime bulletin sound bites.
So people who really ought to know better ignore them. You'll know exactly what I mean if you've caught sight of the ANC's State Intervention in the Minerals Sector report. It's comprehensively researched and thorough.
Moya2006
Comrade its clear that your writing lacks intellectual sense, you have failed to analyse and explore the intentions of the Youth League, in the policy of 'nationalisation. You have failed to explain to the readers what by nationalisation' the youth meant the economic benefit sharing of natural resources, which at the moment are only taken by a few hands out of a population of over 50 million pple. You seem not to understand anything that is put on a table for negotiations.You have clearly shown that your writing was guided by one elite, who dictated to you what to write word for word, dismissing the idea of Malema. You have again stated your ignorance when you say 'nationalisation' is a policy of one man, Malema, whereas its advocated by the Youth league and the public at large, through Julius Malema.
Your narrow interpretation, attacks this policy to be as of no benefit to the poor at large, maybe you live in a hole full of all the goodies of the world given to you by the land and mine owners. Comrade people are dying mining these minerals which are of no benefit to them, they catch all sorts of diseases without given any medical care, they work under immense pressure, in inhuman conditions and yet they do not benefit from their sweat. They mine a diamond and only get R2500 whereas the mine owner will get millions of rands just by a small little diamond stone. Mr writer, you clearly missed the point in your article and showed some level of ignorance about the realities of South Africa.
You are an African and surely you know the conditions which Africans live under due to the fact that land and minerals were stolen from them without compensation by the whites
Comrade, I would advise you to go back to the drawing board and analyse your facts before publishing tja tjarag information on a respected media house
