Who Controls South Africa’s Finances?
By Vusi Moloi © 2009
The African National Congress Youth League President the firebrand Mr. Julius Malema rocked the boat two weeks ago when he questioned why “minorities” controlled the “strategic positions” of Ministries of Finance, Economics, Trade and Industry, and Public Enterprise, among others, while the African majority were confined to the security related portfolios like Ministries of Police, Intelligence Justice and Home Affairs as if they were destined to be security guards or omantshingilani.
The minorities refer to the non-African natives like Indians, the colonial descendents and others. Mr. Malema underscored the fact that it was important to build confidence in the markets that the Africans were capable of handling strategic positions in the finance and economic sector otherwise this would undermine the belief of the Black youths that they could someday “work in the strategic economic positions”. The highly regarded African scholar and Minister of Higher Education Dr. Blade Nzimande fired back by dismissing Malema’s remarks as a form of “narrow African chauvinism”.
The response from the great Dr. Blade Nzimande was disappointing as it offered a religious/ideological answer vis-à-vis an analytical/substantive reasoning which Mr. Malema was looking for with regards to why the African natives were not occupying these strategic positions of economic transformation in the first place. The reaction was not different from an African child who typically got chastised for rightfully raising the issues that concerned his or her destiny. The ideological response of Dr. Nzimande provoked a sobering reaction from Sipho Ngcobo in his article South Africa is Full of Ideological Hypocrites published in Money Web website in which he said the following:
“Hello! This is about destiny. The Africans want to shape their own destiny for themselves and their children. They never want their children to go through what they went through irrespective of the ANC's ideological definition of race.
That is where Malema is coming from. He is not questioning the ‘minorities’’ credentials. He is simply saying: ‘What about Africans? How do we explain this to our children?’”
The Issue in Question
Mr. Julius Malema made an astute observation when he pointed out that when Mr. Trevor Manual became the Minister of Finance he was not liked by the markets. This is true because when the Finance Minister Mr. Chris Liebenberg was replaced by the new non-White Finance Minister Mr. Trevor Manual in August of 1996 the Rand suffered a sudden drop from the dizzying heights of R3.82 to the punishing lows of R4.58 with respect to the US dollar a sudden drop of 20% in one day!
Mr. Malema tells us that Trevor Manuel worked hard to endear himself to the markets. Indeed Trevor Manuel seemingly became the darling of the markets. Did he really? The Rand continued to drop afterwards in spite of being embraced by the markets. If markets ever accepted the increasingly popular Manuel as the right man in charge of the country’s finances the trading history of the Rand did not register that because the Rand had dropped by nearly twice what it was by the time Trevor Manuel stepped down to take a new position in the Presidency of the great Msholozi Mr. Jacob Zuma.
They may have accepted Trevor Manuel with press releases and nice comments but not in terms of the value of the Rand which is a reliable barometer of what the investors think of the country. In fact investors and analysts made some funny comments to the fact that the Rand was overvalued and needed to have its wings clipped whereas under a White Minister of Finance the Rand was correctly valued. Interesting, isn’t it?
Are the Africans Kept Out of Finance Departments?
Do the facts support Mr. Malema’s point of contention that the African natives are kept out of the strategic Ministries? Decide for yourself as we present the Ministries in charge of Finance, Trade, Public Enterprise and Economics which Mr. Malema was referring to:
• Minister of Economic Development: Ebrahim Patel (not an African native)
• Minister of Finance: Pravin Gordhan (not an African native)
• Minister of Public Enterprises: Barbara Hogan (not an African native)
• Minister of Trade and Industry: Rob Davies (not an African native)
I have also taken a sample of the South African Government strategic parastatals to see who is in charge of the finances and here are the results:
• Transnet Chief Financial Officer: Mr. A. Singh (not an African native)
• Sasol Chief Financial Officer: Ms. Christine Ramon - (not an African native)
• Spoornet Chief Financial Officer: Mr. Nick Thomson (not an African native) and the list goes on and on.
We have established that the finances and the disbursements thereof in facilitating the economic emancipation of the African natives are controlled by the non-African natives despite the fact that African natives comprise nearly 80% of the population. This economic exclusion makes it easy to reject an African mother who presents a project designed to lift her out of poverty because a non-African native who does not have or feel her painful experience of being economically disenfranchised in the land of the ancestors is more likely to say no because of being far removed from the personal pain and the indignity of the arresting chains of economic oppression. Essentially this is what Malema is trying to draw our attention to.
What Are the Demographic Ratios?
What are the ratios in terms of the South African population with respect to the new cabinet? The South African demographics according to the 2001 census figures are as follows:
The African natives 79%, colonial descendents 9.6%, racially mixed 8.9%, and Indian and others 2.5%. The African natives in the current cabinet comprise 73%, the Indians 6%, the colonial descendents 16% and the racially mixed 5%.
These numbers tell us that both the African natives and the racially mixed are under-represented with respect to their demographic ratios and that the Indians and colonial descendents are over-represented. This is another source of unease among the African natives who elected an overwhelming majority of their representatives to soar high like an African eagle intent on making bread and butter on their behalf. Instead they see their powerful African eagle’s wings getting clipped along the way even before she could get ahead in her mission. What effect will the clipping of the wings have on the flight speed and the flight path of the African eagle? Will the giant bird correctly achieve her mission? We have already seen the many great moves being made by the great Msholozi including the normalization of relations with Angola and the signing of trade agreements and hopefully the eagle will grow new wings.
Is Economic Transformation Important?
The answer depends on the premise of the apartheid system and what you believe to be the case. What was the modus operandi of apartheid? Was it its sole purpose to institute racism and discriminate against the African natives? The answer is no. The purpose of apartheid was never exclusively about racism and that has not changed even today. The premise of apartheid was about economic control designed to keep the African natives out of the mainstay of the economy and permanently deny them the bread and butter.
We know this because when the African worker in Bloemfontein finished working for die baas a vicious dog (trained to bite a Black person) was unleashed upon him to run as far as he could so that he didn’t even think twice about coming back to collect the money he had worked hard for. He arrived at his home empty handed with his tail between his legs. How was he able to explain to them why he didn’t have the bread he had promised to bring? Even if he tried to return another day to fetch the bread he would be met by the brutal apartheid police who were ready to throw him in jail or brutalize him even more. Only the White South Africans were supposed to enjoy the wealth of South Africa.
The institutionalization of racism was just a political infrastructure designed to make it easy to keep the Africans out of the finances and economics of the land. Racism was used as a painfully effective device of distraction and destruction. Unfortunately the African natives became fixated around the distraction of racism and developed a misguided view that the only reason apartheid existed was racism and if they abolished racism then everybody would live happily ever after.
Fifteen years after 1994 we have now learnt the hard way that apartheid was really about economics and racism was just a smokescreen. Mr. Malema has caught on to that concept of voodoo economics which is why he is intellectually challenging us to the debate of ideas around the issue of who controls the finances and economics of the land. This is not to say that the ANC leadership is oblivious to the fact. They have their strategy of dealing with the issue but the people on the ground are getting dazzled by the glaring light of discrepancy in terms of the control of the finances and economics.
The real apartheid is the economic apartheid which was never outlawed. It’s legal in South Africa today to keep an African native out of a finance department by spooking the African natives with such sorcery like “you are not qualified for the job” when in fact there are many African natives who are overqualified but are unemployed. Voodoo economics is used to keep an African native out of an economics department whereas this is where the bread and butter are. If they keep you out of the bread and butter then how are you going to explain to your children why you are not able to produce bread on the table?
Conclusion
Mr. Malema has drawn attention to the most fundamental issues of economic transformation and the need for the African natives to control their economic destiny. Right now that destiny is determined by others on their behalf and the constituency of Mr. Malema does not derive comfort out of that.
About the Author
A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.
The African National Congress Youth League President the firebrand Mr. Julius Malema rocked the boat two weeks ago when he questioned why “minorities” controlled the “strategic positions” of Ministries of Finance, Economics, Trade and Industry, and Public Enterprise, among others, while the African majority were confined to the security related portfolios like Ministries of Police, Intelligence Justice and Home Affairs as if they were destined to be security guards or omantshingilani.
The minorities refer to the non-African natives like Indians, the colonial descendents and others. Mr. Malema underscored the fact that it was important to build confidence in the markets that the Africans were capable of handling strategic positions in the finance and economic sector otherwise this would undermine the belief of the Black youths that they could someday “work in the strategic economic positions”. The highly regarded African scholar and Minister of Higher Education Dr. Blade Nzimande fired back by dismissing Malema’s remarks as a form of “narrow African chauvinism”.
The response from the great Dr. Blade Nzimande was disappointing as it offered a religious/ideological answer vis-à-vis an analytical/substantive reasoning which Mr. Malema was looking for with regards to why the African natives were not occupying these strategic positions of economic transformation in the first place. The reaction was not different from an African child who typically got chastised for rightfully raising the issues that concerned his or her destiny. The ideological response of Dr. Nzimande provoked a sobering reaction from Sipho Ngcobo in his article South Africa is Full of Ideological Hypocrites published in Money Web website in which he said the following:
“Hello! This is about destiny. The Africans want to shape their own destiny for themselves and their children. They never want their children to go through what they went through irrespective of the ANC's ideological definition of race.
That is where Malema is coming from. He is not questioning the ‘minorities’’ credentials. He is simply saying: ‘What about Africans? How do we explain this to our children?’”
The Issue in Question
Mr. Julius Malema made an astute observation when he pointed out that when Mr. Trevor Manual became the Minister of Finance he was not liked by the markets. This is true because when the Finance Minister Mr. Chris Liebenberg was replaced by the new non-White Finance Minister Mr. Trevor Manual in August of 1996 the Rand suffered a sudden drop from the dizzying heights of R3.82 to the punishing lows of R4.58 with respect to the US dollar a sudden drop of 20% in one day!
Mr. Malema tells us that Trevor Manuel worked hard to endear himself to the markets. Indeed Trevor Manuel seemingly became the darling of the markets. Did he really? The Rand continued to drop afterwards in spite of being embraced by the markets. If markets ever accepted the increasingly popular Manuel as the right man in charge of the country’s finances the trading history of the Rand did not register that because the Rand had dropped by nearly twice what it was by the time Trevor Manuel stepped down to take a new position in the Presidency of the great Msholozi Mr. Jacob Zuma.
They may have accepted Trevor Manuel with press releases and nice comments but not in terms of the value of the Rand which is a reliable barometer of what the investors think of the country. In fact investors and analysts made some funny comments to the fact that the Rand was overvalued and needed to have its wings clipped whereas under a White Minister of Finance the Rand was correctly valued. Interesting, isn’t it?
Are the Africans Kept Out of Finance Departments?
Do the facts support Mr. Malema’s point of contention that the African natives are kept out of the strategic Ministries? Decide for yourself as we present the Ministries in charge of Finance, Trade, Public Enterprise and Economics which Mr. Malema was referring to:
• Minister of Economic Development: Ebrahim Patel (not an African native)
• Minister of Finance: Pravin Gordhan (not an African native)
• Minister of Public Enterprises: Barbara Hogan (not an African native)
• Minister of Trade and Industry: Rob Davies (not an African native)
I have also taken a sample of the South African Government strategic parastatals to see who is in charge of the finances and here are the results:
• Transnet Chief Financial Officer: Mr. A. Singh (not an African native)
• Sasol Chief Financial Officer: Ms. Christine Ramon - (not an African native)
• Spoornet Chief Financial Officer: Mr. Nick Thomson (not an African native) and the list goes on and on.
We have established that the finances and the disbursements thereof in facilitating the economic emancipation of the African natives are controlled by the non-African natives despite the fact that African natives comprise nearly 80% of the population. This economic exclusion makes it easy to reject an African mother who presents a project designed to lift her out of poverty because a non-African native who does not have or feel her painful experience of being economically disenfranchised in the land of the ancestors is more likely to say no because of being far removed from the personal pain and the indignity of the arresting chains of economic oppression. Essentially this is what Malema is trying to draw our attention to.
What Are the Demographic Ratios?
What are the ratios in terms of the South African population with respect to the new cabinet? The South African demographics according to the 2001 census figures are as follows:
The African natives 79%, colonial descendents 9.6%, racially mixed 8.9%, and Indian and others 2.5%. The African natives in the current cabinet comprise 73%, the Indians 6%, the colonial descendents 16% and the racially mixed 5%.
These numbers tell us that both the African natives and the racially mixed are under-represented with respect to their demographic ratios and that the Indians and colonial descendents are over-represented. This is another source of unease among the African natives who elected an overwhelming majority of their representatives to soar high like an African eagle intent on making bread and butter on their behalf. Instead they see their powerful African eagle’s wings getting clipped along the way even before she could get ahead in her mission. What effect will the clipping of the wings have on the flight speed and the flight path of the African eagle? Will the giant bird correctly achieve her mission? We have already seen the many great moves being made by the great Msholozi including the normalization of relations with Angola and the signing of trade agreements and hopefully the eagle will grow new wings.
Is Economic Transformation Important?
The answer depends on the premise of the apartheid system and what you believe to be the case. What was the modus operandi of apartheid? Was it its sole purpose to institute racism and discriminate against the African natives? The answer is no. The purpose of apartheid was never exclusively about racism and that has not changed even today. The premise of apartheid was about economic control designed to keep the African natives out of the mainstay of the economy and permanently deny them the bread and butter.
We know this because when the African worker in Bloemfontein finished working for die baas a vicious dog (trained to bite a Black person) was unleashed upon him to run as far as he could so that he didn’t even think twice about coming back to collect the money he had worked hard for. He arrived at his home empty handed with his tail between his legs. How was he able to explain to them why he didn’t have the bread he had promised to bring? Even if he tried to return another day to fetch the bread he would be met by the brutal apartheid police who were ready to throw him in jail or brutalize him even more. Only the White South Africans were supposed to enjoy the wealth of South Africa.
The institutionalization of racism was just a political infrastructure designed to make it easy to keep the Africans out of the finances and economics of the land. Racism was used as a painfully effective device of distraction and destruction. Unfortunately the African natives became fixated around the distraction of racism and developed a misguided view that the only reason apartheid existed was racism and if they abolished racism then everybody would live happily ever after.
Fifteen years after 1994 we have now learnt the hard way that apartheid was really about economics and racism was just a smokescreen. Mr. Malema has caught on to that concept of voodoo economics which is why he is intellectually challenging us to the debate of ideas around the issue of who controls the finances and economics of the land. This is not to say that the ANC leadership is oblivious to the fact. They have their strategy of dealing with the issue but the people on the ground are getting dazzled by the glaring light of discrepancy in terms of the control of the finances and economics.
The real apartheid is the economic apartheid which was never outlawed. It’s legal in South Africa today to keep an African native out of a finance department by spooking the African natives with such sorcery like “you are not qualified for the job” when in fact there are many African natives who are overqualified but are unemployed. Voodoo economics is used to keep an African native out of an economics department whereas this is where the bread and butter are. If they keep you out of the bread and butter then how are you going to explain to your children why you are not able to produce bread on the table?
Conclusion
Mr. Malema has drawn attention to the most fundamental issues of economic transformation and the need for the African natives to control their economic destiny. Right now that destiny is determined by others on their behalf and the constituency of Mr. Malema does not derive comfort out of that.
About the Author
A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.
Labels: Not Yet Uhuru
posted by Vusi Moloi at
5:57 PM
1 Comments:
Dear Zulumathabo.
Although the ministries related to money and trade are controlled by people who's ancestors were Indian or European, they were all appointed by Dr. Zuma, who is a dyed-in-the-wool black South African. Instead of complaining about why the European and Indian descended South African citizens control these ministries (assuming that Ebrahim Patel, Pravin Gordhan, Barbara Hogan, Rob Davies, A. Singh, et al are full South African citizens), why did you not instead question why Dr Zuma appointed non-African descended South Africans to such economically influential posts? To an Indian descended Canadian, this is puzzling, especially since Dr Zuma could only have come to power by getting a majority of black African votes.
I agree with you that apartheid was more about economic control rather than racism. Race was just a simple way to figure out who belonged where in the economic pecking order. However the lack of empathy is something that crosses all lines of race and economic prosperity. I'll argue that Dr Zuma, by appointing these non-African descended people to these key ministries is showing the same lack of empathy to the poor African mother as the non-African descended minister who denies funding to her project.
The other possibility is that Dr Zuma had larger problems to face such as consolidation of political power, mending relations within his party and with neighbours, instituting freer trade with his neighbours, and the like. To achieve this, maybe he needed the perception of stability in other ministries to achieve his agenda. Who knows...I can only guess.
However, no matter whether the appointments were reasonable or not, the full responsibility falls on Dr Zuma, the elected president. Blaming or praising anybody else is a red herring.
Regards, Jay
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