ANC stunts black growth

It was saddening to read Edna Molewa being as absurd as Johann Rupert. Arguably, however, Rupert’s inflammatory statement had a ring of truth in that the depredations of our president, his Gupta associates and ANC apparatchiks are indeed participating in theft in the guise of economic transformation.

What Molewa does not understand about “volkskapitalisme” is that it was a concerted effort by the then underdogs of South African European society, the Afrikaners, to lift themselves out of poverty and powerlessness. Great stress was placed on improvement in educational and technical spheres by the “volk” to enable them to play a full role in society alongside the English.

It is the failure of the ANC to concentrate on education and technical skills training from the time it took power, and the failure to limit rampant corruption and inefficiency in the government, that has limited the economic progress of black people. White people have consistently invested in education and in productive use of their capital resources, and so reap its benefits. The ANC has invested in the Guptas, corruption, failed state enterprises and the dissipation of national wealth.

Its focus is on redistribution, not on economic growth. As long as this attitude drives ANC policy, the black people it purports to serve will lag when it comes to prosperity.

Robert Stone Linden