THE PERFECTED LIES ON NATIONALISATION (LADY NATIONALISATION ON TRIAL)

Lady nationalization of mines as a means to both economic and social emancipation for the masses of South Africans has been on trial in the court of public opinion in recent months, the court room has been the media space, both print and electronic.

Lady nationalization's defense counsel is the ANC YL, her prosecutors are many, but just to mention a few, the political analysts, economic analysts, the private sector and some journalists and the honorable judge in this regard is the general public.

The ANC YL as defense counsel sought to bring the court of public opinion as its witness, the ANC and its alliance partners to testify in defense of this nationalization principle as they believed that these witnesses will save this clause of the freedom charter from total persecution.

This the ANC YL sought to do in a bid to obtain corroborative evidence from the ANC and its allies, on the understanding and appreciation of the historical fact that nationalization of mines amongst others is a policy of the ANC derived and adopted from the resolutions of the congress of the people held in Klip Town in 1955.

However the testimony of the defense witnesses did not offer any hope to lady nationalization, in fact one would be forgiven for thinking that the defense counsel witnesses are actually the prosecutor's witnesses (ala Glen Agliotti). Their evidence left her destined for persecution and punishment by death unless the ANC YL can find an ace somewhere to save her to live to see another day now or in the future.

The ANC has distanced itself from nationalization and denounced it as its policy in what the ANC YL described as sheer ill discipline by the leaders of the ANC and claiming amnesia on the history of the organization they lead. The ANC YL did not get any luck either from the SACP, which dismissed the call for nationalization as ill advised and intended for narrow selfish interests by young stars only obsessed with the bling life. Lady nationalization did not get any luck from the government either, with the minister of minerals and energy stating that such nonsense will not see a day of light in her lifetime.

 At least some comfort to lady nationalization came from COSATU which appreciated the need to debate the matter and look at appropriate implementation, this comfort was further consolidated by COSATU affiliated NUM which although differed with some approaches proposed by the ANC YL did offer support to the principle of nationalization.

Whilst the public opinion court drama continues and I'm sure it will for some time, in this piece, I will focus on clarifying the misconceptions about nationalization peddled by the role players and shed some light on the hidden truth the court room drama players do not want you to know for reasons better known by them.

I'm of the view that the judge (you the public) in this courtroom drama is not being supplied with appropriate, sufficient, complete, accurate and valid evidence to make an informed decision by the players in the courtroom for reasons better known by them which I can only speculate on, which I will as a matter of course not do.

A quick look at some distorted and exaggerated negatives, misconceptions and lies about nationalization (at least in my view) are amongst others: Nationalization is not the policy of the ANC, Nationalization will scare investors, The state does not have capacity and skills to run mines, Nationalization is intended to benefit the selected few political elites and The ANC YL wants to bail out struggling mining tycoons.

All these exaggerations and lies are intended to confuse and hide the truth, about the origin of nationalization in the South African context, the ability of the democratic government to effectively and successfully implement nationalization and the benefits of nationalization to the broader society all this in a bid to protect and safe guard the status quo at the expense of the majority.

To clarify this, I will deal with the myths above, coupled with providing what the courtroom drama players are not screaming out loud to you in the interest of the truth and a fair trial of Lady Nationalization, this I will do such that the whole truth and nothing else about lady nationalization is put before you the general public to enable you to hand down judgment correctly on the fate of lady nationalization, after all, this is about you, your children and their children and many generations to come.

1. Nationalisation is not ANC policy

In 1956, a leader of the ANC, Nelson Mandela said, "It is true that in demanding the nationalization of the banks, the gold mines and the land the Charter strikes a fatal blow at the financial and gold-mining monopolies and farming interests that have for centuries plundered the country and condemned its people to servitude. But such a step is absolutely imperative and necessary because the realization of the Charter is inconceivable, in fact impossible, unless and until these monopolies are first smashed up and the national wealth of the country turned over to the people".

The strategy and tactics document of the ANC as adopted by the 52nd national conference held in Polokwane in December 2007 states in the section titled "Steps towards the vision: Program of national Democratic Transformation, on the question of what steps needs to be taken to achieve this: "In broad terms, our approach is informed by the ideals contained in the Freedom Charter, adopted at the Congress of the People in 1955."

Surely the ANC is a bit economical with the truth when it says nationalization is not its policy, but I will not cast stones, I will leave it to you the general public to be the judge.

2. Nationalization will scare off investors

The players in the court room will have you believe that investors only invest in countries where there is peace and stability and where they are given a free role to do business without interference from the state or anyone. However I'm here to tell you that, that is a misleading fact, as investors are capitalists who by nature are greedy and are in business for profits whichever way they achieve it.

It is a well known fact that across the entire African continent, the exploiters of the minerals are in their majority investors from the western countries. These investors have for a very long time invested in war torn countries and countries run by dictators and they continue to do so and I can assure you, they are not about to stop anytime soon, some of them have even went as far as sponsoring wars in their pursuit for profits, examples are endless in this regard, the diamonds of the DRC, the oil of Angola, the oil of Nigeria, etc.

Now again I ask you, in South Africa we have democracy, we have political peace and stability and even nationalization is subjected to a public debate, unlike how the land reform program on the side of the Limpopo was implemented, do you really think they are truthful when they say, investors will disinvest?

3. The state does not have capacity and the skills to run the mines

In arguing this, the players are quick to point their fingers on the state enterprises that failed or are perceived to be failing, institutions like ESKOM and SAA are cited as examples, but what they don't want you to know is that there are successful state enterprises like Petro SA, TRANSNET and ACSA.

Equally, they don't tell you the whole truth about the nature of the call of the ANC YL, which is explicit in that, nationalization is about shareholding in these mines (and not change of management, current management of mines can continue with what they do best) so as to enable the state to have a bigger share of the mining profits which are currently only limited to taxes and royalties and to also enable the state to determine how mining profits should be utilize.

In this regard the ANC YL is on record as saying that these profits should be used to improve salaries of the mining workers, fund the education system which must be focused on producing the skills required by the economy, build infrastructure to enable economic growth, create a secondary beneficiation industry of all our minerals to maximize profits of mining within the country and grow the economy as well to create jobs for the unemployed and importantly to safe guard the sovereignty of our country.

And they will have you believe that you should worry about state involvement in mining!

4. Nationalization is intended to bail out struggling mining shareholders

This argument has been raised largely within the alliance partners, however it is important to clarify the public on this, the argument was raised and continues to be raised ignorant of what the ANC YL has put on paper, here I will lay bare naked the lie about the ANC YL bid to rescue struggling mining tycoons.

The ANC YL in its discussion document on the chapter on "Conceptual Foundation" states that, "depending on the merits of each case based on "balance of evidence", nationalization may involve expropriation with or without compensation. The manner in which nationalization will be approached will neither be generalized compensation, nor generalized expropriation without compensation. Expropriation without compensation should apply for Mines that are not profitable, laying off huge numbers of workers and in financial crisis."

This assertion by the ANC YL clearly dismisses the ill informed argument that the ANC YL is being used by struggling mining tycoons who after the global financial crisis found themselves with valueless shareholding and huge debts. This is because the principle quoted above from the ANC YL discussion document squarely puts struggling mining tycoons within the category of the mines which should be expropriated without compensation.

Yet they will confidently say in front of television cameras that the ANC YL wants nationalization to rescue its handlers who are in the mining industry! But again you be the judge.

5. Nationalization is intended to benefit a few elites

To address the so called intended self accumulation by the ANC YL leaders and their perceived handlers, should nationalization be implemented in South Africa and to test the honesty of the loud hailers in this regard, let's have a quick comparison of what the ANC YL is proposing and the current programs of empowering the previously disadvantaged in relation to their beneficiary path to the general public.

The current model of black economic empowerment encompasses BEE, BBBEE, and Affirmative action amongst others. The reality is that to date BEE and BBBEE have only benefited the selected few and it continues to provide the platform for politicians to loot for themselves and their family members, this fact is corroborated by many stories of looting through BEE and BBBEE which has become part of everyday's life for South Africans.

Affirmative action has on the other hand only managed to produce a new small section of black middle class, which is highly indebted to the banks for survival and have no market share in the main stream economy of the country.

Effectively all the interventions on the empowerment of the previously disadvantaged by the democratic government have failed to change the path of accumulation the proceeds of the South African economy as a whole.

Having established that fact about the current model and its weaknesses, let's examine the YL's proposal as stated in paragraph 85 of its discussion document on nationalization which states: "With the State as a major shareholder, then the proceeds of Mineral wealth will be directed towards development of Mining Communities and contribute to the national budget for other useful expenditures such as education, health, rural development and beneficiation of these minerals."

This clearly indicates that nationalization will result in equitable sharing of the proceeds of the minerals by all, access to a better life for all, and it will enable the state to create a national democratic society as envisaged by the strategy and tactics document as adopted by the ruling party's 52nd national conference. This will importantly bring us closer to the achievement of the dreams of our forefathers who gathered in Klip Town in 1955 and demanded a respectable, dignified and successful life for the citizens of our country.

Conclusion

Remember you are a player in the courtroom where lady nationalization is on trial and more so, her fate is in your hands as the judge. When you do pass judgment on the question of nationalization take note of all the facts, not only the facts per those with the loudest voice or the mechanism to manipulate the truth to achieve a particular end.

The future of our country depends on you, history will recall this trial and it will ask of you, what did you do, how did you judge?

Written by Ramukumba Khathu, a member of the ANC YL in Sakhisizwe Branch, Ekurhuleni Region, he writes in his personal capacity.

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