Academics and activists speak out
ACADEMICS, activists and businessmen have said Indian South Africans should not be begrudged for empowering themselves and for many making a success out of adversity.
Veteran political activists Swaminathan Gounden and Kay Moonsamy said Indians had also been affected by apartheid, perhaps to a lesser degree than Africans, but believed they should not be excluded from black economic empowerment policies.
Moonsamy said the Group Areas Act had uprooted Indians from their homes, and while this had caused tremendous harm to their well-being, they managed to make great strides since the advent of democracy. “There are still a majority of Indians who are very poor. Remember, unemployment affects Africans as well as Indians.”
Gounden said: “How on earth could one even think Indians benefited from a racist regime? During apartheid, Indians did not sit back. They started the passive resistance campaign to fight unjust laws. Why did we do this if we benefited from apartheid?
“It is true that among us Indians, some became a little better off than others, but you cannot compare them to the thousands of working-class people who, for instance, work in factories.”
He said Indians were “certainly not privileged” and should not be excluded from BEE polices.
Economist, businessman and financial advisor Professor Dilip Garach said while Indians were oppressed, they had placed much emphasis on education.
“In general, the Indian community is enterprising. They are industrious and are constantly looking for business opportunities. Many of them come from families who operated small businesses in the Grey Street complex, Chatsworth and Phoenix in KwaZulu-Natal, and in areas such as Fordsburg and Lenasia in Gauteng.
“During the apartheid era these small businesses were constrained because of the Group Areas Act and the restrictions placed on non-white businesses. With the advent of democracy, the Indian community has shown entrepreneurial flare and spirit and has taken advantage of the so-called gaps in the business sector,” he said.
“The Indian community has excelled in all sectors, which include farming, manufacture, retail, transport, information technology, communication media and property development, just to name a few of the major sectors. In addition, many Indian community members have become professionals, specialists and super-specialists in the various professional sectors such as engineering, medicine, actuarial science, chartered accountancy, business management and so on.”
Garach added that several residential property developments have been undertaken by entrepreneurs in the Indian community, who have been marketing these projects in their own community.
“Many Indian builders have teamed up with Indian architects, engineers and quantity surveyors, and have made up a formidable professional team of property developers who are developing properties. The property market has boomed as a result the Indian community being passionate about owning their own homes.”
Businessman Mickey Chetty, the president of the International Movement for Tamil Culture, said: “We have worked hard for what we have and were not given hand-outs. It’s disgusting to think this way. We got to where we are because of hard work, nothing else.”
The leader of the Minority Front, Shameen Thakur- said that if economics was the queen of the social sciences, then politics must be the king.
“We were brought here as one colony, brought by another to build the economy of a cashstrapped Natal. Today, when the province has mushroomed and every race group is reaping the fruits of the hard-earned Indian labour, you say Indians must be excluded?
“For an economist to say you should uproot your foundation, it is like pulling the carpet from under the feet of the very same people who built this economy. The easiest way to crumble an economy is to take away the Indian factor. They should read books on why nations fail before they blurt out irresponsible statements.”
Neeshan Balton of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation said the Standard Bank report drew one’s attention to increasing levels of inequality and poverty in South Africa. But he said the interpretation and comment that Indians should not be considered for empowerment was ill considered.
“What the report does indicate is that there is a need to review who has benefited from empowerment and whether the existing criteria need to be reviewed. I would argue that the data suggest that perhaps those in the highest LSM category, which is made up of 49% white and 30% African, 9% coloured and 12% Indian, should be excluded from the empowerment category purely on the basis they are in the highest income category already.
“For the Indian community, the report as well as the census data refutes an impression that its well-being has not improved in post-apartheid South Africa and that it has been the main victim of empowerment and affirmative action.”
Balton said the report was but one of many that confirmed the need to tackle the growing inequality and poverty in South Africa.
“If there is no serious dialogue and action on this issue by all South Africans we face the risk of greater social upheaval. There is an urgent need for radical proposals to be made to tackle these issues.”