White Monopoly Capital

There is an ongoing call from the Zuma camp of the ANC that White Monopoly Capital must go. The fact that this call is based entirely on the same demand by the EFF is a clear statement of the lack of ideas in the ANC. But the questions still remain: Why must it go? And do those mouthing the slogan really understand what they are asking?

The story that all the ills of the South African economy stem from the domination of the economy by White Monopoly Capital is a myth created for reasons of political expediency, and is demonstrably devoid of any truth. Almost every medium-large company, and every large one, is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and the shares in them are available for purchase by any person, including persons who are not part of the supposed White clique whose sole aim in life is to dominate the economy at the cost of the Blacks. The simple fact is that a large proportion of those shares is already owned, indirectly at least, by Blacks, through their pension funds and insurance policies, and more could be purchased for a relatively modest sum.

Even if we were to ignore those facts, the question is why should Whites, monopolists or otherwise, not run those companies?

The companies in question represent the vast bulk of employment opportunities in the economy, apart from the Government jobs which are a form of grossly-overpaid unemployment insurance for mainly unqualified persons, a system of subsidy that has come at great cost to the South African public, but which forms an effective way of buying the votes of those so employed. If the supposedly White-dominated companies were to disappear, the present rate of unemployment would almost certainly soar, probably to more than double the 35%+ that it now is. If you doubt that figure, consider the fate of the numerous successful commercial farms that collapsed within, at most, two years after the Government handed them over to Blacks. It is rumoured that the failure rate of those farms lies at about 97%, notwithstanding the huge amount of public money that has been sunk into them. The fault for that did not lie in any inferiority of the new Black owners, but rather in the fact that to be a successful commercial farmer, the managers of the farm must have extensive training after receiving a good education. In most cases, that is added after the farmer has acquired a cultural background of the processes and mindset of such farming. A man does not become a good farmer, a successful commercial farmer, simply by acquiring the land. The same applies to a manager in a business. It is something that is learned over many years, and the number of Blacks who have acquired that learning is small at present. That number will increase, as the best of the current crop of young Black employees work their way through the system, in exactly the same way as their Indian, Chinese, Coloured and White counterparts, and they should be encouraged to compete for the relatively few jobs available at the senior levels, to ensure that the new generation of senior managers are the best that the country can produce.

The fact that those shouting the slogan do not have even a low level of understanding of what realization of their demands would imply is evident from the catastrophic shape of the economy. They are making the call on the basis of a background of political training and political, communist, brainwashing by others who were equally unaware of the hard facts of business life. Jacob Zuma was a herd boy, and then a terrorist, neither of which could give any understanding of the thinking and economic background of the way the world operates, which are required to be effective at even a low level in a modern business activity. He has made numerous statements that are proof of this assertion, and his performance as a manager of the economy and of the activities of the members of his Cabinet is abysmal, to say the least. Zuma’s chief protégé at one time is Julius Malema, another man with absolutely no understanding of the business world. These two men know how to buy favours, but neither of them has contributed to the promotion of economic activity. Do they seriously believe that the disappearance of White Monopoly Capitalists would create a stronger economy or more jobs? Who do they think would create the profits to pay the taxes that their polices would distribute so profligately?

Quite apart from these considerations, the insistence by the political leaders on the use of the term ‘White Monoply Capital’ places a heavy emphasis on the ‘White’ element, placing on the broad group of Whites by implication an accusation of wrongdoing, that the Whites are to blame for everything that is wrong in the society, even after 23 years of rule by the ANC. Surely that would be long enough to rid the country of those ‘evil’ whites if, in fact, they are evil. That term is creating a racial disharmony that threatens to undo much of what Nelson Mandela and Ahmed Kathrada worked to achieve, a non-racial South Africa in which every person is free to contribute what he or she can to the country, and to benefit from the common welfare. By the very nature of the situation that existed at the start of that time, the Whites had more knowhow and capital to contribute, which they did with delight, in the knowledge that their efforts would assist their Black (and other) compatriots to step up to their own level of capability. However, as the racism propagated by the ANC and the EFF has grown, so the willingness of the Whites to play that role of helper and equal partner has declined. The stronger and more unfair the rules of Black Economic Empowerment have become, the closer the country has come to a White Economic Empowerment backlash. That may take the form of a faking or downgrading of the BEE activities so essential to the development of a Black managerial class, or the emigration of White capital, or, worst, the emigration of the skilled Whites to countries which value their capabilities more than do their own countrymen.

Political sloganeering is dangerous at the best of times, but the type of sloganeering typified by “White Monopoly Capital’ in the South African context constitutes economic suicide.

Thought Leaders

In any civilised society, university students are placed in an elevated position.  They are supposed to be above the herd, in terms of their thinking capabilities, their knowledge of events and history far beyond the scope of the courses they are taking, and in terms of their ability to apply reason to what they intend to say before the words are uttered.  They are the leaders of the future, and most of them accept the responsibility that this imposes on them.  That has always been true of South African university students, many of whom have shown their ability, their courage and, sometimes, their foolhardiness in speaking truth to authority.  This is sometimes punished, and, usually, not rewarded, as has been shown conclusively by the thousands of such students who stood up to the Apartheid Police, in demonstrations and in silent roadside vigils in sun, rain and in icy winter conditions.

Occasionally, one such student develops political aspirations, and decides to use his position of putative thought leadership to make outrageous statements, hoping that the unthinking herd will follow his lead.  Often, those who hear the statements, or who are the target of them, understand that the statements are part of the immaturity of the person, the mental incapability to understand the history and the profound meaning of such history or, sometimes, the simple abject stupidity of the person making such statements.  However, at times the speaker is a person who puts such stupidity arrogantly on public display, no doubt with the intention of gaining the notoriety that persons of much lesser learning arrogate to themselves by means of profoundly stupid utterances.

Such a person is the President of the Students Representative Council of the University of the Witwatersrand, Mcebo Dlamini.  That body has always been contrarian, but it has usually maintained a position that might be understood, if not forgiven, on the basis of the immaturity of the members.  However, when Dlamin published a statement on Facebook that every White person had elements of the Nazis in them. Dlamini demonstrated conclusively his lack of intelligence, his lack of capability to understand the lessons of history, and his lack of the discretion that one would expect of a leader of a student body in the previously august body of learning, a body that, at one time, had the ability to claim the moral high ground, at a level well above that of the ANC, which had proved by its actions against its own cadres and against the mass of Black people that it claimed to represent (don’t forget the campaign of cold-blooded murders, ‘necklacings’, carried out under the instruction of Comrade Winnie).  He explained his views in a TV interview, which spoke very clearly of the minimal knowledge he has of the facts of the rise to power of Hitler, even of the timeline.  Dlamini compounded his stupidity by stating that he ‘likes the Nazis, for their organisational abilities’ something that was undoubtedly better than the ANC, but which cannot in any sane society be used as a reason for respect for a group of vicious, self-centred genocidal thugs which drove one of the most advanced and civilised societies in a lemming-like scurry over the precipice to national suicide.  He also admires the way that ‘Hitler brought back the pride of the German people in 1938’, which happens to be the year of the most horrific anti-Jewish actions of that murderous Government.  This is the sort of populist claptrap drivel that one has come to expect of persons like Julius Malema (it is noteworthy that the EFF Wits Branch has come out in support of Dlamini’s comments) and certain senior members of the ANC.  Come to think of it, that could be a description of the ANC and the EFF!

One wonders what course of study Dlamini is undertaking, and what his level of success in those studies might be.  One also wonders whether the University will stand up for what is right and good, and take the logical action of expelling this man.  Evil deserves to be punished, and there can be no doubt that Dlamini is evil.  This will not be censorship.  It will be the excision of a dangerous cancer, one that needs to be removed before it infects the entire society.  It would be comparable with the imprisonment or execution of Adolph Hitler before he imposed his insanity on a noble nation.  If the University fails to take such an action, it would be reasonable to conclude that it endorses his statement.  I personally hope that this will not be the case.  I worked hard to gain my two degrees from Wits, and, until recently, I was proud of them.  The fact that a man like Dlamini can be a leader of the students of Wits deprives me of that pride.  I, as well as thousands of my peers, dread that we, our intellectual honesty and our moral standards should be compared with Dlamini.

Remove the History

There has been much agitation in the past weeks to remove the statues and the names of places that bear witness to the ‘White colonialisation’ of South Africa.  The statue of Cecil Rhodes at Cape Town University, the name of Rhodes University in Grahamstown, the statue of Paul Kruger in Church Square and the statue of Jan van Riebeeck in Durban are the first examples of this urge.  One may wonder whether this trend is driven by the upcoming municipal elections, given that the Whites in the country are increasingly being held responsible for the failures of the ANC Government.  Jacob Zuma has said that the problems in the country, from the state of joblessness of the poor to the abysmal performance of Eskom, all stem from the arrival at the Cape of Jan van Riebeeck.  However, in the same vein, we have some further proposals to make, to assist in the removal of all traces recording the contribution of the Whites to the country.

Let us ban the use of telephones, an invention of a White who, no doubt, had the deprivation of the Blacks as his main objective.  Let us destroy all computers and cell phones, also invented by Whites.  Let us scrap all the cars and trucks, the trains and aircraft, all invented by Whites.  Let us dump our supplies of medicines, invented by Whites, as well as all the medical equipment, following the example of the Department of Health, which is already far down the path of abandoning these instruments of evil.  Let us stop the production of electricity, an invention of Whites and brought to this country by the colonial masters, adding to the efforts of Eskom to drive us all back to the good times of Shaka.  Let us complete the work of the SABC in demolishing the institutions of radio and television, also inventions of Whites.  Let us add to the efforts of Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki in abandoning the principles of democracy, a system of oppression of Blacks which was introduced by Whites, and, while we are about it, let us also recognize that Karl Marx, the founder of Communism, was also a White.  Let us destroy the rifles, armoured cars, fighter aircraft and bombs of the Whites and equip our army with the short stabbing spears and rawhide shields that were so effectively used by the great King Shaka and his impervious regiments of Zulu warriors (totally ignoring the fact that both the idea of a stabbing weapon – a sword – and the ‘bulls horn’ tactics of Shaka which have been claimed to have been the greatest innovations of that King were well described by Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great thousands of years earlier in writing, which Shaka and his mighty nation of Stone Age warriors had not yet developed until the Whites arrived to educate them).  We could add a liberal dose of muti, derived from the hearts of the Whites, to make the new breed of warrior impervious to the modern weapons of the Whites, as was shown convincingly in the Massacre of Marikana.  Let us follow the example of the Departments of Education, and formalise the destruction of the system of education.  Let us drive all formal industry from our shores – Shaka did not have industry at the time it was introduced by the colonial masters, so it must be bad!  Cosatu and its trade union associates have already started this process.  Let us introduce violence and fear into the Councils of Government, by bringing in armed thugs under the guise of Police to expel all Members of a Party that has the nerve to question the State President on his illicit use of State funds (the taxes paid to a very large extent by the hated Whites and their organisation).  Let us introduce the notion that the President and the ‘Black Royalty’ are above the mass of people and so not subject to the laws and rules that apply to the rest of us.

Let us return to the peaceful and productive Stone Age society that prevailed before the Whites arrived in the country, bringing with them absurd notions of rule by law, of democracy, of education for all, of responsibility of the State and its instruments to the people.  Let us all live in mud and grass huts, as did the mighty King Shaka, and let us all submit to the violent and bloodthirsty dictatorship that characterised his rule.  Let us return to drawing our water from the rivers, ignoring the fact that those who live upstream dump their filth and their excrement into those rivers, to flavour the water that we drink.  Let us return to the idyllic days, where men were warriors and did little more than drink beer while the women tended the fields and produced the children as the property of the men.  Let us hand back the properties of the Universities of Cape Town and Rhodes to the Rhodes trust – we no longer want any part of the education that that vicious colonial master provided!  Let us dismantle the railways that Rhodes instigated, following the example of Spoornet.  Let us hand over power to the effective and benevolent leaders of our nation, and no longer demand that they account to us, the people, for what they are doing with the money they take from all of us.  Let us ignore the statements of the White-dominated Ratings Agencies – we will in any event refuse to accept the investments that the hated Whites make in our country, which is always done to impose their neo-colonial rule on us, and we will refuse the Aid grants made by them to support our fight against HIV/AIDS, our hospitals, our education system, our striving for democracy.  We will succeed on our own, ignoring the fact that our national economy is dependent to over 70% on the White colonial masters.  Let us drive the White managers, bankers, industrialists and engineers from our country – one Black man is as good as any ten Whites, as has so clearly been shown by the resounding successes of the BBEEE and land distribution policies.  Let us cancel the contracts of the White consultants, who claim to have been propping up our bumbling efforts to run our major State activities, from Government Departments to State-owned entities such as Eskom and SAA.

Most important of all, let us now cease the lip service we pay to the notion that Whites are welcome in this country.