Durban – State capture can be traced back to the era of Cecil John Rhodes, according to Arts and Culture Minister and African National Congress national executive committee(NEC) member Nathi Mthethwa.
Mthethwa was speaking to over 1000 ANC supporters during a lecture on economic freedom at Durban City Hall on Sunday. President Jacob Zuma was also expected to address the crowd later.
“We don’t need to be ahistorical about state capture,” Mthethwa told ANA on the sidelines of the meeting after presenting his lecture.
“Cecil John Rhodes worked with the British Parliament and the economic business interests of Britain to take control of South Africa and the continent,” and this was an example of state capture, he said.
“What we have seen before and during the period of the apartheid government was and still is totally captured by big businesses who are not representing South Africa’s interests.”
Mthethwa said he would call on ANC members to “dig deeper” to discuss state capture and how the country evolved to where it was today.
Terms such as state capture could not be "thrown around" without putting them into a “theoretical perspective”.
“In South Africa, state capture is about corruption. Let’s talk about corruption, about what we are doing and saying about corruption."
A few families had had control of the wealth in South Africa since the Rhodes era and the issue had to be addressed, he said. For 40 to 50 years only four companies in the country had benefitted from tenders handed out by Eskom, for example.
"These four companies are Anglo American, Exxaro, BHP Billiton, and Glencore. In this instance these four are monopoly capital,” Mthethwa said.
State capture had now become an issue because companies such as these had benefited from Eskom, and when their contracts came to an end others would benefit.
“If we want to deal with the economy in South Africa we need to revoke our own understanding on capital, particularly monopoly capital, but capital as a whole. The issue of state capture did not centre on a socialist versus capitalist agenda.
“The capitalist mode of production is the dominant view in the world and South Africa, while the ANC is in favour of a mixed economy.
Certain levers should be owned by the state, but there are others that need capitalist intervention,” he said.