South Africa’s economy is still largely under the control of whites who held power under apartheid, President Jacob Zuma has said calling for a “dramatic shift” to redress the wealth balance more evenly in favour of the black majority.
Zuma, speaking at the start of a major policy meeting of his ruling African National Congress, said the challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality posed long-term risks for Africa’s richest country 18 years after the end of apartheid.
Without giving details, he called for a “dramatic shift and giant leap” in coming years to spread the country’s wealth more equitably, mentioning the distribution of mineral resources and land ownership as areas which needed to be overhauled. Zuma said the proposed “second transition” was necessary to complement the negotiated end of apartheid in 1994, when he said “certain compromises” over economic ownership had been made to ensure a smooth political transition from white minority rule.
The ANC has drafted a raft of policy documents that call on mining firms to pay more to the state to help finance welfare spending.The proposals also advocate relying on state-owned enterprises to be engines of job creation and growth. Zuma said the debate over how the country’s mining wealth should be used must go beyond simply the question of “to nationalise or not to nationalise.” Calls for nationalisation from some sectors of the ruling ANC have stirred investor concerns in the world’s No. 1 platinum producer.
He also called for a new programme for land reform, saying the current “willing buyer-willing seller” policy had been too slow in returning white-owned farmland to blacks dispossessed by the apartheid state. But he did not spell out what alternative mechanisms of land ownership transfer should be adopted.
Do you think it is possible for South Africa to reform the white-dominated economy without hurting the economy itself and are there any other ways of dealing with problems effecting the economy? How much is the ANC to blame for economic woes?
