POINT OF ORDER
TIM COHEN: Afrikaner plan a far cry from ANC looting
‘Surely the lesson is not that apartheid made a section of the population rich, but that it made everybody poorer?’
Last week, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa wrote a reaction in Business Day to Richemont chairman Johann Rupert’s comment that radical economic transformation was "a code word for theft". In the process, she likened black economic empowerment (BEE) to "volkskapitalisme" of the apartheid era, commenting that it was "regrettable that this scathing critique of the black-majority government came from a beneficiary of the largesse of the interventionist apartheid state". This comment was just one of a host of distortions and inaccuracies in Molewa’s argument, but I really don’t mean to pick on her. The view she exposes is pretty commonplace in ANC circles nowadays and, in fact, her arguments were unusually well expressed. The second thing I should say is that simply because apartheid was fundamentally evil doesn’t mean we should entirely dispense with historical accuracy. More importantly, Molewa and the radical economic transformation crew are not actually focused o...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.