TRANSFORMATION
CAROL PATON: Capitalism in need of a new morality with growth in populism
‘Alongside growth, social programmes and campaigns that can transform people’s lives are needed on a mass scale’
The popularisation of "radical economic transformation" could have a positive side effect. While we all know that the popularisers in the main are venal self-serving cronies whose real motive is "radical economic looting", as Mcebisi Jonas put it, the fact is the demand for change is now irrevocably in the air. Social commentators have begun to put forward ideas for a new deal. Some have said "everything must be put back on the table", from the land question to executive pay. Others have suggested the revival of the campaign for the basic income grant and others have called for a "new activism" to find "imaginative solutions" to social challenges. Business and the wealthy, both black and white, should be careful not to be tone deaf to this nascent discussion. If SA is to be pulled back from the brink, a step change in economic development is required. And if capitalism is to emerge as part of the solution in SA – and stand its ground against populist ideas of nationalisation — it is...
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