Radical economic transformation was the much-anticipated theme in President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address (Sona). His speech articulated the 12-point plan that emerged from the national executive committee’s lekgotla.
What’s amazing to see is that Zuma and the NEC are slowly coming full circle in the debate on economic transformation after dismissing calls by the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) between 2009 and 2012 for the nationalisation of mines, banks and monopoly industries.
It would, however, be unfair to say the president never spoke about economic transformation in previous Sonas.
It’s because of this recycling of ideas, the slow pace of delivery of some of the elementary promises without any discernible action on others, that I haven’t found the Sonas credible.
There’s nothing groundbreaking about the speech.
Nevertheless, what is new is its correct posture, which explicitly refers us back to the basics that the ANC has abandoned the 1969 strategy and tactics document.
In the historic document, the party weaved together an approach that linked national and class questions.
Interestingly, the passages the president quoted, in reference to revered leader Oliver Tambo, are in the section that acknowledges the special role of the working class in the struggle.
Having explained the extent of the national humiliation and the daily sufferings of the African people, the document says: “We do not understand the complexities which will face a people’s government during the transformation period… But one thing is certain, in our land this cannot be effectively tackled unless the basic wealth and the basic resources are at the disposal of the people as a whole and are not manipulated by sections or individuals be they white or black.”
It’s also interesting that the president quoted a passage that said: “To allow the existing economic forces to retain their interests intact is to feed the roots of racial supremacy and exploitation, and does not represent even the shadow of liberation.”
It’s the ANC’s premise that to radically take the country forward, the first thing that must be done is to transfer basic resources to the people as a whole, and that the resources should not be manipulated by sections or individuals, be they white or black.
The statement rejects schemes aimed at transferring our national resources into the hands of sections or individuals, be it in the form of continued white monopoly or Broadbased Black Economic Empowerment and black industrialists. The basic resources are defined in the Freedom Charter. They are the mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industries, and the land.
The only sensible way in which the people can own the resources is through nationalisation carried out by a democratic state, which is the only institution that can justly claim to represent the will of the people.
Unfortunately, in his 2013 Sona, the president stated: “We believe at a policy level we have managed to bring about certainty in the mining sector. The nationalisation debate was laid to rest in December at the ruling party’s national conference.”
The passages Zuma quoted explained why South Africa remained a racist country in the sense that institutional power remained in the hands of white people and the country tended to experience regular bouts of racist outbursts.
White monopoly on the wealth of the country is the material basis of racism. Indabas, imbizos, prayers, fines and criminalisation won’t resolve the basic problem of racism, which has its roots in white monopoly on economic power.
For 23 years, the dominant ideological trend in the ANC has avoided linking racism to white monopoly and steadfastly defended white monopoly capitalist interests, thereby suppressing the national question, which is the basis upon which the ANC was formed.
The lack of self-criticism on this front is a glaring weakness. In fact, the 2012 strategy and tactics document defends the defence of white monopoly capitalist interests on the basis of tactical considerations, when in fact such a defence is strategic and ideological.
Hence, I am not convinced when the president says this time around “we are starting a new chapter of radical socio-economic transformation. We are saying we should move beyond words, to practical programmes.”
To effectively and decisively pursue rapid economic transformation as historically conceptualised would require high levels of political organisation, socialist-oriented ideological fortitude and unity, and mass mobilisation inside and outside the country, since white monopoly capitalist power has international support as well.
The capacity of the ANC to achieve all this is at an epic low. If the basic wealth of the country can no longer be transferred to the people through democratic state ownership, what are other ways in which this could be done without falling into a trap of placing the resources into the hands of sections or individuals, be they white monopoly capital or black industrialists?
Black private ownership of strategic monopoly sectors doesn’t guarantee national sovereignty, nor does it guarantee that inequality and poverty will be reduced. The struggle wasn’t about replacing white monopoly capital with black monopoly capital. What emerges from Zuma’s speech is that radical economic transformation boils down to clearing the path for sections of the black capitalist class to own and control the resources on behalf of the people.
Instead of putting forward a plan to seize monopoly industries, the banks and mineral wealth, the president calls for established white monopoly capital to accommodate black entrepreneurs by allowing entry to partake in the super-exploitation of the black workers. This is the same strategy which, for the past 23 years, has failed to effectively tackle the interrelated problems of poverty, unemployment and inequality since 1994.
Instead of reducing inequality, it has increased it more within the black majority.
Instead of positioning the working class in a special way among the motive forces as the most oppressed and exploited class under capitalism, the recent strategy and tactic documents lump the working class together with a proliferated cocktail of motive forces, and its interests are not defined in relation to the patterns of ownership and control of the economy. The economic interests of the working class are primarily and narrowly defined in terms of jobs.
Hence the president continues to ask white monopoly capital to absorb African youth and entrepreneurs on the one side, while on the other he talks radical transformation. The existing economic power relations aren’t aligned with radical transformation as historically conceptualised.
To genuinely tackle the national problems, the first thing to do is to break white monopoly power by transferring the basic wealth to the people as a whole and not to sections or individuals. The president does not mention this first step, he talks about regulatory measures which the Freedom Charter says should be used to control “all other industry”.
There was no need for the ANC NEC to reinvent the wheel; to attempt some sophisticated definition of radical transformation, when what needs to be done is well known. What’s required is to put forward the Freedom Charter, define its main clauses as strategic pillars of the radical transformation programme, elaborate how each pillar is to be advanced and get on with it. But the capacity of the ANC to lead a political organisation, mass ideological preparation and mobilisation is at a low.
To illustrate how problematic the radical transformation plan is, in his early years Zuma had five priorities, including a nine-point plan. Now we have a 12-point plan that is purported to advance radical transformation.
Looking at this 12-point plan, one is struck by the prioritisation of land ownership patterns, but there is silence about the ownership of banks (including the Reserve Bank), mines and other monopoly industries. There’s no report on the progress of the African Exploration Mining and Finance Company in expanding state-ownership in all minerals.
Large firms in monopoly industries are to be “punished” for collusion and not transferred to the ownership of the people. The state will de-concentrate strategic sectors, even if that destroys productive capabilities.
Black industrialists are to be accommodated and are expected to thrive without the backing of a state-owned bank and state-ownership of strategic sectors. The National Health Insurance will be rolled out without any progress in establishing a state-owned pharmaceutical company. School and other infrastructure will be expanded without a state construction and cement company.
These issues illustrate that without a coherent programme that is based on the Freedom Charter, the president and the ANC NEC will stagger from one set of issues to the next, without seriously tackling the basic problems confronting the country, as has happened for the past 23 years.
– Malikane is associate professor of economics at Wits University. He writes in his personal capacity.