23rd June 2011 13:59 This piece is taken from TIMES LIVE
The CEO of the South African Institute of Race Relations says ANC Youth League president Julius Malema"s public statements spell out the real intentions of the ruling party. He says while the youth leader threatens land grabs and nationalisation the government has already passed laws to facilitate that. Speaking at the AGM of the Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Johannesburg, John Kane-Berman argues that while farmers and the Transvaal Agricultural Union complain that Malema was creating a climate for land invasions, legislation that will encourage such invasions was approved by the cabinet at the end of last year. “Mr Malema is accused of discouraging foreign investment, although it was not he but the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), and no fewer than three cabinet ministers, who put the Wal-Mart deal in jeopardy. So also, Mr Malema’s proposed “big bang” of nationalising the mining industry is but the culmination of a series of incremental interventions by the Government which have already injured the industry. So let us be grateful to Mr Malema for spelling out a scenario for South Africa which is as plausible as any other. Forewarned is forearmed,” says Kane-Berman. He says the alienation of the white, coloured, and Indian minorities from the ANC apparent in the recent local elections is arguably the result not only of Malema"s threats to "kill the boer" but also of laws already on the statute book, plus recent anti-coloured remarks by Jimmy Manyi, the official government spokesman. He says the question, then, is how to halt the country’s slide into an African nightmare like Zimbabwe or the banana-republic-predator-party scenario which the general secretary of Cosatu has warned against. “Unfortunately, Cosatu unions have not yet decided whether they wish to reverse the decline they fear. They recently came to the defence of a free press, but their stranglehold on public schooling is busy destroying the prospects of millions of black children,” he says. He says Cosatu’s contradictory position is mirrored throughout the ruling tripartite alliance. The most obvious being between President Jacob Zuma’s recent call on ministers to announce their job targets, and Manuel’s statement 11 years ago that "governments around the world are impotent in creating jobs”. “The ANC wants South Africa to be counted among the Bric heavyweights (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) but its policies will ensure that we are left behind by these and other emerging markets,” says Kane-Berman. He says the ANC think they can run a modern economy, fix local government, build infrastructure, combat crime, tackle poverty and inequality, finance a welfare state, create jobs, and generate electricity - without fully exploiting the skills of the white population, fixing black education, liberalising immigration laws, professionalising the civil service, or making the country more attractive for business. “The absurdity of this position needs to be pointed out without reservation or apology, over and over again, until such time as a critical mass within the alliance comes to recognise it,” Kane-Berman says. He says business has a role to play by being more forthright about some of the destructive policies that the ANC alliance is imposing upon the country. “If you want to influence the direction of policy, you have to join the debate. Minister Ebrahim Patel has invited contributions. Let him have them,” he says. He also proposes that the private sector put forward alternative ideas based on the tried and tested principles of political and economic liberalism. “Julius Malema – “JuJu” as the tabloid press calls him - has identified a fast-growing, political market: black youth. A minority of this group can benefit from cadre deployment, patronage, nepotism, tenderpreneurship, fronting, affirmative action, black economic empowerment, and the other familiar components of ANC policy,” Kane-Berman says. He says the rest of the youth have little hope because their education is mostly dreadful, their employment prospects are low, and their chances of winding up in crime statistics or dead from AIDS are quite high. “When Mr Malema says Cosatu and the South African Communist Party have betrayed the poor he is right.Of course, Mr Malema himself has nothing to offer them except nationalisation. This is his equivalent of the garlic-and-beetroot offered not so long ago by the ANC and its late health minister as a cure for AIDS,” says Kane-Berman. He says the problem - and a source of potential growth for the Malemas of this world - is that no one else is offering them anything better. “Cosatu is interested only in protecting the unionised labour aristocracy. The communists are interested mainly in getting their hands upon as many levers of power as they possibly can without having to fight elections”. Kane-Berman says the ANC - with its own threats to mining and agriculture, and its racial and labour policies - is offering the youth “what is best described as Malema-lite”. He says Manuel and his commission’s proposed "development plan” to the government’s “vision 2030”, part of which is a "social compact”, is a mirage. And in the meantime Malema"s constituency will grow. Kane-Berman says if Malema were really smart and constructive, he would launch a campaign to liberate the labour market to enable unemployed youngsters to get jobs more easily. “He would take on the teaching unions who are destroying the prospects of yet another generation of schoolchildren. Unfortunately, however, just like President Zuma, Malema is a creature of the ANC. He may be younger, but he is also an anachronism. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
