A STELLENBOSCH university professor once said the ANC lacked a coherent system or philosophy that was designed to transform the South African society and economy for the benefit of the black majority in a similar fashion as the Afrikaners in the 1940s. I agree.
When Afrikaners took over the reins of power in 1948, they ensured that the Afrikaner nationalism ideology permeated and drove every government policy instrument and programme at the time.
The ultimate goal was to uplift the standard of living for poor Afrikaners and build institutions and economic powerhouses that served as bastions of Afrikaner nationalism and dominance in all facets of the South African society.
Using the state machinery in a well-orchestrated harmony with sympathetic leading lights in the Afrikaner community – top academics, entrepreneurs, the clergy and others – saw the intensification of efforts to entrench the position of the Afrikaner as a leader in society.
This saw the rise of Afrikaner capitalism that led to the formation of successful enterprises such as Sanlam and many other JSE-listed entities today.
United by their common dislike of the English, these various strands of the Afrikaner community did everything in their power to oppress the black man and outmanoeuvre the English from pole position in the South African economy, which had become entrenched since the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 with companies such as Anglo American and Old Mutual representing the English dominance in the economy.
Little Change
Fast forward to today, 21 years into a democratic dispensation and 60 years since the adoption of the Freedom Charter, South Africa is yet to speak and implement a clear ideology and a coherent socio-economic system that is designed to skew, in a fundamental way, the broader South African society and economy in favour of the black majority.
The broad church nature of the ANC has also not helped the socio-economic transformation project of the post-1994 dispensation.
The competing ideologies within it have sought to weaken rather than strengthen its resolve to totally transform the country’s society for the benefit of its traditional constituency – the black working class and the poor.
Sadly, what one has been accustomed to since 1994, is the “tinkering” and “tweaking” of a system that was originally designed for the benefit of the Afrikaners in the 1930s and 1940s – resulting in a sprinkling of black people in the upper classes of society and paraded as examples of black success in the new dispensation.
For example, the black economic empowerment (BEE) policies of the government of the day, are essentially about the assimilation of black people into an already existing system, to reinforce rather than fundamentally change the status quo.
The notion that black people must change the system from within has run its course and quite frankly was flawed right from the onset, as this new class of “house negroes” act as gatekeepers of the system they are supposed to be changing.
Arguably, BEE has nothing to do with the economic advancement of black people but more about the maintenance of the status quo and to demonstrate, to all and sundry, that Afrikaner capitalism is a workable system that deserves its continued existence in our body politic.
The success of the system is tangibly showcased by the likes of Patrice Motsepe, whose R200 million investment in the Sanlam Ubuntu-Botho BEE transaction in 2004 made him R8 billion 10 years later – a whopping 45 percent return a year.
I would imagine, faced with these kinds of stories as hard evidence of a workable economic system, the mandarins at Luthuli House must be scratching their heads for an alternative system or, even better, leaning over Motsepe and asking for tips of cashing in as well from our Afrikaner compatriots from the vineyards of the northern suburbs of Cape Town.
Shrewd Entrepreneurs
Boosted by the success of their peers in Bellville, shrewd Afrikaner entrepreneurs from Stellenbosch have added Capitec Bank and Curro Schools in a long list of successful entities on the JSE and the irony is that the bulk of customers of these two enterprises are black households.
From the Reconstruction and Development Programme of 1996 to the Growth Employment and Redistribution, to the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of SA, the National Development Plan, and the now much-vaunted Black Industrialists Programme, nothing beats Afrikaner nationalism in terms of oneness of mind, the singleness of purpose, clarity, and vigour with which the Afrikaners, under the leadership of a secret organisation, the Afrikaner Broederbond, pursued the ideals of a prosperous Afrikaner.
This begs the question: what the hell has the ANC been doing with its political power since 1994?
Khaya Buthelesi is a communications professional and entrepreneur based in Pretoria writing in his personal capacity.
– IOL