State‘should intervene’to give equal access to property

Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the ANC needs to create more black capitalists to eradicate the high levels of poverty and unemployment in the country.

Her department also hopes to push through the Property Practitioners’ Bill, which is intended to narrow the inequality gap between the races.

Sisulu said: “If you were to have an aerial map of South Africa, you will see all the squatter camps — that’s black areas. All the opulent areas along the sea — that’s white areas … There has to be some way in which the state can intervene to ensure there is some kind of equalisation of access to property and assets.”

She said that, 23 years into democracy, black people only own R1-trillion worth of property, whereas more than R6-trillion is in the hands of white people.

Sisulu said that the ANC wanted to create more black industrialists to address unemployment and poverty, but that this would not result in black monopoly capital replacing white monopoly capital.

Afrikaners succeeded, she said, because they used the instruments of the state to ensure that they empowered Afrikaner capital.

“Capital, for me, is capital, except that if you create a particular type of capital with a particular intention [to] redistribute the resources of the state, I would find it completely justifiable.” — Pityana, and that he was there because he was a former student of the late professor.

Sisulu said that, although the ANC has done a lot in the fight against corruption, the governing party needs to do more to restore its integrity. If she had her way, all party members would be sent to a political school and would be subjected to constant testing by the school.

This would eliminate corruption, factionalism and infighting. (The ANC took a resolution at its 2012 national conference in Mangaung to establish a political school but it has never materialised.)

Sisulu said she supported the ANC’s calls for lifestyle audits of its leaders, but cautioned that this should be done carefully.

“I am not particularly opposed to lifestyle audits but it needs to be managed in such a way that you don’t make everybody a suspect.”

Photo: David Harrison Clean record: Veteran politician Lindiwe Sisulu has widespread experience in government and she has not been connected to any scandals or corruption, her followers say.