Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has called the black middle class "cowards" for always criticising the government and reiterated the need for black professionals to prioritise radical economic transformation. Speaking at a Black Management Forum dinner on Friday, Gigaba said: "The black middle class, owing to its junior position in the economic relations, is never heard criticising the conservative vested interests, but will be quick to criticise government for any wrongdoing … because government is easy to pick on and will not apply any sanctions against forces that brought it to be, whatever the unfairness or viciousness of the attack or criticism." To thunderous applause, Gigaba said there was intense contestation about the content of economic transformation. "We either recoil in our plans or implement so minimalist a transformation that it would amount to no change at all". On criticism of the ANC, he said the political agenda that undermined economic transformation "is to eventu...

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