Imperative for inquiry into ‘state capture’ claims – Ramaphosa
IT WAS necessary to give real content and meaning to the imperative of radical economic transformation to achieve inclusive growth, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said yesterday.
Delivering the Moses Kotane memorial lecture in Rustenburg, he said it was the transformation that should be radical, “not the words we use, not the loudness with which we shout them”.
There was widespread acknowledgement, including from bodies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund ( IMF), that the problems of the South African economy were essentially structural, he said.
“It is these structural issues that are responsible for the extraordinarily high levels of unemployment and racialised inequality and poverty. This means radical transformation must be about addressing these deeply embedded, structural issues.”
These problems included extremely high levels of mon- opoly concentration in the economy. This opened the door to collusion, anti-competitive behaviour, poor policy choices, and the stifling of small and medium-size enterprises.
Ownership and management of major private corporations in South Africa remained racially skewed, he said.
“But if we simply produce greater racial representivity without changing the structural problems of excessive monopoly concentration, we will just replace one elite with another.”
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Turning to land reform, he said if South Africa was to learn anything from other countries, then it was necessary to realise that land reform needed to achieve an effective balance between food security and the imperative of social justice.
“Land reform without adequate numbers of extension officers; without suitable irrigation, fencing, and other relevant infrastructure; without assistance in terms of inputs and marketing, is liable to end in disappointment and failure,” Ramaphosa said.
He also said it should be acknowledged that in the public mind the ANC and its government were increasingly associated – fairly or unfairly – with rampant corruption and narrow personal enrichment.
“This past week, the South African Council of Churches – a moral mainstay throughout the Struggle for democracy – warned that we were on the brink of becoming a ‘mafia state’. If we are to counter this grave threat, if the ANC is to recover its leadership role in society, it is absolutely imperative we act with urgency and purpose. It is critical that an independent judicial commission be established to thoroughly investigate all allegations of ‘state capture’,” he said.
“Our formations, especially the ANC, must implement lifestyle audits of all in leadership structures. We must introduce, as has been proposed by the ANC this week, transparency into party political funding. All of these steps must be implemented without fear or favour,” Ramaphosa said.