About the lack of growth in our economy (raised by Jonathan Katzenellenbogen’s piece yesterday, Do we truly want to grow?), this is a political problem that can only have a political solution.
The black African political elite that took control of the state in 1994 did not own productive assets, unlike the white Afrikaner political elite who owned land.
The Afrikaner political elite used political power from 1910 to 1994 to make their land profitable by investing in infrastructure.
The African elite use political power to tax the country’s productive assets so as to fund the extravagant consumption of government revenues by the new African political elite.
The post-1994 elite has no need for developing infrastructure as it doesn’t own productive assets.
The solution is obvious. After visiting African countries in 1964, Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai said that “an excellent revolutionary situation exists in Africa”.
I agree with the late Chinese Premier; SA needs a capitalist revolution.
Moeletsi Mbeki
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