NUMSA STATEMENT ON SOUTH AFRICA'S RICHEST LIST BOYS CLUB!
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is concerned that massive wealth worth of billions is concerted in the hands of private individuals as reported in the Sunday Times - Rich List.
This obscene and massive wealth is being reported by the Sunday Times in the midst of the revelations that South Africa has apparently taken over Brazil as the most unequal country in the world ever. This has been confirmed by University of Cape Town, School of Economics, Professor Haroon Bhorat, that indeed South Africa is now the most unequal country in the world, with a significant increase in income inequalities. He also confirms that whilst inequalities have risen amongst Black South Africans, the growth of White South Africans salaries between 1995 and 2008 surpasses by far the growth of salaries amongst Black South Africans. He further points out that at this juncture, the salaries of Black South Africans grew on average by about 38%, and those of White South Africans salaries grew by a stinking 83%.
This quantifies the fact that income inequalities have worsen since the demise of Apartheid in our country and a tiny Black capitalist fraction has emerged, and which is dependent on both the State and established White monopoly capital for its own survival.
This absurdity has been sharply characterized by the vanguard - the South African Communist Party (SACP) as the javelin syndrome. The use of incumbency in particular positions in the State to ‘throw the javelin' (public resources) to a network of friends, family and other connections so that a comfortable personal transit can be made from the public sector to the private - where the ‘javelin', or at least the share of it, can be personally retrieved. This accumulation and obsceneness was fostered by the 1996 Class Project and deepened everywhere in the State, private sector and systematically transmitted to our society at large.
Currently, millions of jobs have been shed in the manufacturing and other sectors, the cost of basic necessities are skyrocketing, unemployment rate is escalating, massive service delivery backlogs, houses and cars are being repossessed by financial institutions and massive poverty is deepening amongst the vast sections of the workers and the poor. This can be attributed to deep seated and embedded crisis of capitalism entrenched in our economy and social sphere by the 1996 Class Project and which has reproduced a fraction of a black elites co-opted by dominant White monopoly capital. Why should such massive wealth be in the hands of private individuals?