The new notion of radical economic transformation is nothing but rhetoric meant to further enrich the elite, the SACP said on Sunday.
The term “radical economic transformation” was the same as constant references to “white monopoly capital”, SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande said, asking whether the lives of the black majority would change for the better if there was “black monopoly capital”.
“It is only now, belatedly, that from the side of some within the ANC and government that we are seeing an attempt to provide a gloss to the notion of radical transformation. Unfortunately, ‘radical’ in these quarters is largely rhetorical and is almost entirely focused on advancing narrow black elite accumulation,” Nzimande said in Johannesburg following the SACP’s central executive committee meeting at the weekend.
“This very narrow version of BEE (black economic empowerment) evokes ‘blacks in general and Africans in particular’, but in effect it is about ‘me and what’s mine specifically’,” he said.
The governing ANC has made repeated calls for what it has termed radical economic transformation as a means to transform the structure of the economy to benefit everyone, especially the previously marginalised black majority. In his State of the Nation address, President Jacob Zuma said the country’s Budget should be used to drive radical economic transformation in future.
Following its lekgotla held last month, the ANC said it was focusing on radical socio-economic transformation in order to shift the economy by implementing pro-poor policies and make the state empower the disadvantaged.