The Economic Freedom Fighters statement on the gullible articulations of ANC Treasurer General on the South African Reserve Bank

16 September 2020

The Economic Freedom Fighters rejects the shallow and gullible articulations of the ANC Treasurer-General Paul Mashatile on the South African Reserve Bank. Typical of the selling out tradition of the ANC. its TG Paul Mashatile is quoted as having said, " The central bank's shareholders may seek a pay-out based on its total assets. including the $56 billion of gold and foreign reserves it holds on the country's behalf" and due to this false alarm, he advised that the ANC must retreat in its Conference resolution and not pursue the correct and revolutionary path of nationalising the South African Reserve Bank.

While we know that it is in the ANC's DNA to renege from its policy positions contained in the Freedom Charter, we will not allow ANC politicians to mislead the people of South Africa on the Nationalisation of the Reserve Bank by spreading false alarms. If anything. Paul Mashatile's articulations reveal he and the ANC are ideologically spineless. economically illiterate and gullible to neo-liberal false alarms.

The call for nationalisation of the South African Reserve Bank is politically and morally justifiable. There are more than 240 central banks in the world. and the majority are owned by the state. Even in instances wherein the private sector has ownership in a central bank, most states remain majority shareholders. Almost all central banks that were established post-colonisation were established by the states. and those that were in private hands were nationalised.

According to the latest Bank shareholder index of July 2020, there are more than 800 shareholders. These include the current finance minister Tito Mboweni who hold maximum 10 000 shares permissible per shareholder, DA shadow minister of finance Geordin Hill-Lewis, Anton Rupert Trust, ABSA Limited, Discovery Limited, FirstRand Bank, Nedcor Limited, foreign shareholders in England, Switzerland, Australia, Norway and Zimbabwe and dead white people whose shares are held in estate trusts. Admittedly, there are no massive financial benefits that these shareholders stand to benefit. That is why we argue strongly that nationalisation of the Bank should happen without compensation to the current shareholders. As said earlier, there is a political and moral justification for expropriating these shares without compensation in terms of Section 25 of the Constitution. It is in the public interest that an institution such as the Bank that has control over our lives in a highly financialised society as ours is owned and controlled by people as a whole and not just a few minorities.

There is no evidence to suggest that it will cost South Africa billions of Rands to nationalise the Bank. Currently, each share of the 2 million shares is all worth the nominal value of R20 million. The highest dividends paid to each shareholder annually is R1000 per shareholder, and this is capped by legislation. Even if you pay each current shareholder for the rest of their lives, it will never be massive financial benefits. Anyone who claims billions as a shareholder is delusional or simply want to degenerate the debate.

The reality is that, for true sovereignty and autonomy as a nation, the Bank must be transferred into the custody of a democratically elected state on behalf of people as a whole. This is an important legislative milestone in the journey towards the transfer of ownership of South Africa's economy for people to share in the wealth. A liberal Prime Minister of Canada McKenzie King said in 1935 that;

"Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes the nation's laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until you control the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognised as the most sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of parliament and democracy is idle and futile".

The Economic Freedom Fighters calls on the progressive members of parliament from all political parties. not those captured by the white capitalist establishment to reject Paul Mashatile's false alarms and engage on the SARB bill introduced by the EFF with utmost clarity and determination to reverse the colonial and apartheid paid.

Issued by the EFF, 16 September 2020