Don’t align 1994 with state capture
ZIYAD Motala’s article, “State capture not new to SA” (Sunday Tribune, November 20) refers. I find it dishonest of Motala not to acknowledge the role of the world’s business community in putting pressure on the then apartheid government to free South Africa from globally unpopular practices, such as the laws that promoted segregation, through economic sanctions.
Motala would like us to believe the business community of the world used South Africa for its own profits. He conveniently undermines its role in shaking the shackles of thraldom that were embedded in apartheid policies.
The last time I checked, business has a primary responsibility to make profits. Recent history indicates it became unprofitable for business to operate in a political context that was apartheid South Africa because the ANC had over the years worked hard and succeeded to lead a morally justified war which sought to embarrass those who refused to make racism unfashionable and unacceptable.
What was wrong if the ANC rewarded or made it beneficial for the business community which supported the anti-apartheid struggle, albeit in the interest of expediency as business leaders?
It is possible the brutal and racist apartheid government could have continued to hold on to power if the ANC and its antiapartheid movement did not win the economic and cultural war against apartheid legislators at an international level.
South Africans must take the struggle forward by asking if the gains made in 1994 were adequate
To fail to recognise the importance of what happened in 1994 and reduce it to “state capture” by the elite at the majoirty’s expense is an overgeneralisation bordering on deceit.
Unfortunately, such arguments play in the hands of demagogues that have no regard for the intrinsic inter-play or connection between business and the communities.
The world is dominated by multi-nationals and it is their prerogative to use their influence to shape policy to suit their operational agenda, that is, to make maximum profit.
If multinationals are encouraged to employ local people, and outsource some of their operations to them, then there is room for social justice and cohesion.
I just find it discouraging that South Africans have not been able to find each other at Nedlac (government, labour and business negotiating chamber), hence the failure of the youth subsidy proposal which the ANC government supported as a short-term strategy or incentive to encourage business to absorb the ever growing number of unemployed youths in the country.
The world is trapped in a cash economy led by business. Even trade unions led by Cosatu begrudgingly concede that workers need capitalists as much as the latter need the former. Hence the need for compromises that promote mutual regard between the two forces, ie capital and labour.
I support the ANC government because it is pragmatic. It promotes job-creation and provides incentives for the previously marginalised to venture into business.
Anything else is academic jargon that will not change the power relations between the haves and the have nots unless we allow demagogues to take over the running of our very rich country and turn it into ashes. SIMPHIWE MKHIZE
Pietermaritzburg