In a discussion paper for the ANC conference, Pallo Jordan advocates greater involvement with the black bourgeoisie, writes Charlene Smith
`No serious person could pretend that South Africa today is not a country of far greater opportunity than it was 10 years ago” – but should the African National Congress deliberately foster the emergence of a black middle class?
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Pallo Jordan, a key ANC intellectual and strategist, makes this point in a discussion paper for the ANC’s 50th national conference in December. Jordan takes a hard look at the economy and the rise of the black bourgeoisie. He suggests that the ANC’s “engagement with the emergent black bourgeoisie should involve the elaboration of certain standards of conduct and a business ethic that will speed the realisation of the goals of the national liberation movement.
“In the immediate time-frame this must include job creation, skills development, the empowerment of women, the strengthening of the popular organs of civil society and active involvement in the fight to end poverty.
“The ANC must also encourage this black bourgeoisie to cultivate within their own enterprises and in those where they hold executive positions, the creative management of the conflict potential in industrial relations. The ANC must influence the black bourgeoisie to assume certain Reconstruction and Development Programme-related responsibilities and to give the lead to the business community with respect to responsible corporate behaviour.”
Jordan notes that the opening of new opportunities has developed a new strata of black capitalists and senior managers. “The purpose of affirmative action is to create circumstances in which affirmative action will no longer be necessary.” But he notes this has not been without problems.
“In the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal the impression has quite deliberately been fostered that affirmative action entails the laying-off of coloured and Indian workers or denying them opportunities. Racial and ethnic flashpoints over what are seen as diminishing job opportunities are being created to compound the existing tensions encouraged by the racial hierarchy in jobs and skills of the past.”
He suggests that if the ANC does not become involved in the development of the black middle classes, other political organisations will. And yet the ANC is already a significant player among the new business elite: “In the past there were no captains of industry in the leading organs of the ANC; today a national executive committee [NEC] member heads one of the largest conglomerates trading on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The corporation, moreover, employs thousands of other ANC members as well as ANC supporters.
“Prior to 1994, Transnet, one of the biggest state-owned corporations which employs thousands of ANC supporters and members organised in the South African Rail and Harbour Workers Union, was headed by one Johan Maree. Today its managing director is a member of the NEC.”
Although there is conflict potential between workers and companies – with potential political implications, Jordan also avers that the ANC and its senior members have a history deeply-rooted in business leadership. Jordan notes that Africans had a long history of involvement in the economy from being landowners and farmers to publishers of newspapers, mine and factory owners and by the time the Act of Union was passed in 1909, urban Africans shared common interests despite differing ethnic stock among themselves and white, coloured and Asian people.
Segregationist forces began to strengthen early in the century, culminating in the apartheid policies of the National Party, which came into power in 1948, thereby shattering the remnants of racial hegemony.
This was followed by the ANC’s Freedom Charter in 1955, which envisaged the seizure of economic assets as essential to the transformation of the country. However, electoral politics have brought new imperatives.
“The election results indicated that in many instances it was identification with particular parties and fear of others, rather than political platforms per se, that persuaded voters how to cast their votes. Race, ethnicity, gender and class were evidently salient factors in voter choice.”
But should these be taken into account given the ANC’s commitment to non- racialism? Jordan writes that the endurance of the ANC’s principles of non-racialism and its non-ethnic ethos have been difficult to maintain in a racist society. But the principles are essential to maintain, he says: “It is proper that we remind ourselves of our strategic goal – creating a democratic, non-racial, non- sexist society.
“The radical transformation of the quality of life of the black majority is central to these objectives. Putting an end to poverty, hunger, insecurity and economic exploitation should be at the top of the ANC’s agenda.
“To the ANC, democracy, non-racialism and non-sexism do not mean that every five years Tony Leon and his African domestic worker can stand at the same queue in Houghton to vote.
“They mean creating the conditions in which that domestic worker’s daughter has a fair chance of competing equally with Tony Leon’s son for a place at the best schools in South Africa, playing the same sports at sporting facilities of equal quality, with the best access to cultural amenities and to compete for a place at Wits to become a doctor or lawyer if she so wishes, and to move in next door to Leon (or even Harry Oppenheimer for that matter) if that is what she wants.”
Jordan argues that a perpetuation of racist practices will undermine economic endeavour and political democracy.
He says it will be manifest in a number of ways and should be dealt with creatively. He suggests that Afrikaner petty bourgeois intellectuals will engage in ethnic mobilisation around the issue of language for the resonances they can expect from the coloured population, even though it will “prove unattractive to the majority of voters”.
“Traditional leaders” and the institutions they represent have become a “lucrative source of income and patronage” and pose the danger of deepening ethnic divisions to perpetuate those sources of patronage. Jordan suggests traditional leaders be stripped of state powers and stipends and their judicial powers circumscribed, leaving tradition to play a role only in those communities that choose to subscribe to it.
The overall answer is simple, and yet the most complex of all: “The ANC [must] pursue deracialisation with the same determination … as racists pursued racism and division.”
And so, Jordan says, for the economy to function effectively, race must be removed from the equation (and affirmative action is one of the necessary corrective steps in the short term) and ability must become the overriding criterion.