A reply to Dinga Nkhwashu

Mr Nkhwashu has done a disservice to a rather interesting topic that needs honest and serious analysis. His shoddy job trying to defend the ANC is unfortunate. His weak arguments have effectively thrown this topic in a dustbin of mythology. The main aim of this article is to point out this weakness in Mr Nkhwashu's arguments. I will leave it to other energetic South Africans to test the validity of whether South African media manufactures consent.

Mr Nkhwashu argues that the underlying message peddled by the article, Blacks outshine whites, is that "blacks are more reckless with their money and spends willy nilly and are therefore hopelessly indebted". He is being mischievous or at worst, lacks reading ability.

First, according to this article, South African Black middle class has more spending power than the white middle class. It does not say black middle class spend more in a rand than white middle class. Second, the article quotes Professor Simpson as saying "despite the recession South Africa's black middle class continues to expand". This quote is far from implying any spending behavior. In contrast, the article also quotes Prof Simpson as saying "consumers are more discerning about purchases and what they do than nine years ago". I would suppose "consumers" include black South African consumers.

Mr Nkhwashu went on and misquotes a report titled "GRADUATE UNEMPLOYMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA: A much exaggerated problem",  by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE).  He says the report claims "Black Unemployed Graduates are virtually not there". This is a gross misrepresentation of the finding of this report (see here - PDF). The report says black graduates are gaining ground and this is backed by statistics. This finding does not dispute the fact that white graduates find employment quicker than Black graduates.

Mr Nkhwashu commits an own goal when he argues that the media should blame white consultants for exorbitant fees they charge government. Effectively he accepts that public sector leadership (ANC comrades) has no clue about the fair value of the services they require. Moreover, it is the Auditor General of South Africa that laments the billions of Rands spent on hiring and retaining consultants not the media. Mr Nkhwashu must understand that hiring consultants is not a bad thing but retaining them for longer periods is a problem. It highlights a deeper problem of incompetence on those who are supposed to learn from the consultants. It is this retaining of consultants for longer periods at huge costs that the Auditor General is lambasting. 

I take exception to the mischievous use of racism to cover-up the incompetence of ANC cadres deployed to leadership position. To put salt to the wound, it is the ANC that seem to mistrust the competence of black people in crucial positions.  For example, it seems the boards of state owned enterprises, which are full of ANC cadres, have taken a position that blacks are not good enough to be appointed as Chief Financial Officers (CFO) e.g Eskom, Telkom and Transnet.

In his defense of the secrecy bill, he says "the ANC was forced to backtrack on legislation to the detriment of the whole country just because a section of society subscribe to the notion that it is not in black people's nature to govern honestly". Indeed black people are in the receiving end of blatant racism in South Africa. However, to use black people's suffering to protect the ANC from criticism is disgusting. We know that COSATU was unequivocal in its opposition of the secrecy bill. Does that mean members of COSATU too believe that Black people are inherently corrupt?

Moreover if an average ANC member thinks that policy/law making is rooted on the trust of the executive to govern honestly, then South Africa is in wrong hands. By his logic, it means the doctrine of separation of powers, namely, Legislative, Executive and Judicial is offensive to ordinary members of the ANC.

Mr Nkhwashu has indeed done a disservice to his topic. He needs to overcome the edge of wanting to defend ANC failures and tackle this topic honestly. 

Linda Nobaza is a Black Professional in the field of Finance and a PhD candidate in department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics University of the Western Cape.

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