ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION
NEVA MAKGETLA: Gradual gains not enough to pacify poor
The benefits of the economy are still so unequal that most people cannot be content with gradual gains
I remember toyi-toying outside the ANC elections party at the Carlton Centre in 1994 when the results were announced. We knew we might not succeed in transforming the economy to benefit the majority — the history of other postcolonial states had taught us it would be hard — but of course we had hope. There was a chance, at least, that SA would be one of the few to thread the eye of the needle. We used to say we had learned from the postcolonial experience in the rest of Africa: there is indeed a window of opportunity when the democratic state can reshape the colonial economy in the interests of its constituents. That window of opportunity lasts until the new political elite is bought off by the existing economic powers. And that, we used to joke, takes exactly 26 seconds. In the event, it’s been more than 20 years, the jury is still out, and impatience has reached tipping point. It’s not that working people have scored no gains. Conditions have improved substantially for most.But th...
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