Whereas prosperous white South Africans are often denigrated by the Government and the African National Congress (ANC), the new black elite are often portrayed as an example of progress in our society. That has been a peculiar distinction for the Government and the ANC to maintain. There is now some evidence to suggest that attitudes in the ruling alliance may be shifting.
Two statements were released this week that amounted to separate critiques of the black elite. Both emanated from within the ruling alliance. If the attitudes inherent in the critiques catch on within other areas of the alliance, prosperous black South Africans should be concerned.
The first statement was released by the Young Communist League (YCL) on 1 November. The statement followed an address by the treasurer general of the ANC, Mr Mathews Phosa, wherein he denied that the State would nationalise mining companies. The YCL replied via a long statement the pertinent extracts from which read as follows:
"We are aware that Cde Phosa remains a man with substantial business interests. We know that the elite fraction in the ANC co-opted by Capital are finding it difficult to implement the Freedom Charter in its progressive form, not because it is not viable, possible and noble, but because new economic interests are entrenched amongst our leaders and Cde Phosa is not immune from these interests. We are not blind to the fact that many of our leaders are mining bosses; and nationalization and socialization of the mines will deny them opportunities to be filthy rich and to rip off the poor. ... Cde Phosa's comments or utterances feeds to his new found stature of being a golden-boy of imperial and white monopoly capital dominance of our economy. We call on Cde Phosa to remember these profound words by Mao Tse-tung, "In the great leap forward movement, some will fall by the wayside, some will become revisionists. But some will join the enemy camp". We hope these words will accord Cde Phosa an opportunity to revisit his ideological orientation and understanding or ‘join the enemy camp'."
Two days later, on 3 November, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) called for the assets of the one-time politician, then businessman, and now human settlements minister, Mr Tokyo Sexwale, to be nationalised. Numsa was equally critical of the wealth accumulated by a number of other black businessmen saying that the union wanted the "nationalisation and eventually the socialisation" of private wealth. Numsa suggested that white people had "co-opt[ed] connected politicians to join exploiters" and that a failure to revise this problem would amount to auctioning the "revolution to the highest bidders in the market".
The two statements have the makings of an effective political campaign. It would be very easy for factions in the tripartite alliance to suggest to the poor that they are poor because their own people sold them out. They could suggest that black South Africans who have become prosperous did so by sidling up to ‘the whites'. They could also suggest that wealthy black South Africans got wealthy by ‘stealing' the assets that should belong to ‘the people'. They are therefore greedy and deserve political sanction.