Durban — The Professionals’ League, which is a socio-political group under the ANC, has called for (Convention for a Democratic South Africa) Codesa-style convention, which will discuss the transfer of land and economic ownership to black people to avoid racial war.
Codesa was a multi-party talks which led to the peaceful democratic dispensation in South Africa from 1991 to the first democratic elections in 1994.
Prompted by the racial stand-off between the EFF’s Julius Malema and the DA’s John Steenhuisen over the dubul’ ibhunu slogan, the League secretary Thulani Ngubane said the country’s leadership must revive Codesa to avoid bloodshed in the country.
Ngubane said as a free nation, people must find new avenues to address and deal with the national question as it is clear that the current government is failing to address the economic impasse in South Africa. He said there are no concrete plans in sight, adding that, at times, people are not even clear about the National Economic Regime the government is pursuing.
“What is the current economic policy of South Africa under the current administration? What does it seek to achieve? Where does it place the advancement of black people economically? Does it talk about addressing ownership patterns of our skewed economy? Where is the voice of the progressive left movement in SA?’’ Asked Ngubane.
He added that the nation seems to have normalised the madness of economic exclusion of black indigenous people who are jobless, landless and moneyless in their majority. He lamented the lack of political will from all political parties in the South African parliament, saying it was an indictment to the constitution and its Bill of Rights.
The League further stated that the land in South Africa still sits in the hands of white minority males, and again, this matter has been turned into a political football without anyone wanting to act decisively on it to bring about redress. As things stand, white males own 72%, and African indigenous people own 4%, coloureds own 14%, while Indians own 5% of South African land.
Ngubane stated that these numbers are supposed to make any revolutionary-conscious leader have sleepless nights trying to find a redress solution urgently.
“Our leaders have forgotten about the masses. It has all turned to be about themselves, a great sense of self- aggrandisement and their stomachs. The time is now to call on all progressive forces and resistant liberals to get on the table and defuse the ticking time bomb in our country.
“The Professionals’ League (PL) calls for a Convention for Economic Ownership by Black South Africans to avert many bubbling economic racial confrontations as we see them bubbling. All South Africans have a responsibility to build a united, democratic and prosperous South Africa; we must refuse to allow the widening racial gap. As a nation, we averted violence then, and we can still learn from our forebears and fix our problems through national dialogue. We must avoid a situation when one day, the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich,” concluded Ngubane.
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