Africa
Marcellus Chuene writes a cautionary message to Pallo Jordan and the new elite
I am responding to an article by Pallo Jordan that appeared in the Mail & Guardian of November 28 to December 4 1997 entitled “ANC must cultivate the new elite”.
I am not opposed to the views of the minister about the cultivation of the new elite but am very suspicious of the methods that are being employed to create the black middle class. It is already obvious that the black middle class is emerging and my great concern is that it is through nepotism and cronyism that those executives clinch top jobs at the expense of well- qualified candidates whose sin is not being connected to ANC politicians.
The ANC seems to have forgotten that it is a mass-based organisation that draws support from all sectors of the black population. I think the ANC should not expect everyone to be an exile or revolutionary, because it is the ordinary man in the street who voted them into power.
The ordinary man’s daughter or son should never expect to get a job in the public service or the NGOs – which are 90% manned by ANC people – even if they qualify. It is true that the ANC had to put in its own in organs of state like parastatals and the public service to consolidate its power as a government, but it is crucial it observe the principles of professionalism and work ethics.
You cannot employ unqualified comrades, some of whom are semi-literate, for political expediency. Some are handpicked after some drunken political discussions in a shebeen. In their offices they cannot execute duties entrusted to them and then the government employs the costly services of private consultants.
My question to Pallo is: should the government waste taxpayers’ money by letting idle people earn a salary for bragging how they necklaced a suspected police informer in the townships? Concubines and the next of kin of government officials are sure to get a job, even if they won’t be able to deliver. It’s true that some are being compensated for the sacrifices they made, but the problem is that all blacks, except for a few, suffered under apartheid and their votes carry the same weight as those of the exiles and other ANC connections.
I am drawing the attention of the minister and his buddies to the fact that the 62% they won in the 1994 elections was constituted by less than 5% of those they have targetted to benefit to create the new elite. The majority of the votes came from the people in the street who will never see the tributaries of freedom reaching their station of life.
Pallo Jordan brags that the ANC is a significant player in the new business elite, which is good. He further states that the ANC has a national executive member who heads one of the largest conglomerates trading on the JSE and that the corporations employ thousands of ANC members.
That sounds very good, because it is a foray into an economy that was previously a preserve of whites. This indicates that the ANC is serious about ANC-member empowerment, not black empowerment. What about a black member of the Democratic Party, Pan Africanist Congress, Azanian People’s Organisation, Inkatha Freedom Party … to mention a few?
In the new South Africa it is common knowledge that for one to get a job as a cleaner in government offices one needs political connection. This scourge of ANC nepotism has permeated every sphere of South African life. Its consequence is the majority of graduates roaming the streets jobless. Those graduates are the focal point on which the ANC can start cultivating the new elite, but that is not the case. Instead, they are being marginalised and becoming rebellious, which will prove costly for the ANC in 1999.
This is going to interfere with patriotism, which is vital to sustain and maintain political stability in the country. I think I should remind comrades that patriotism is not about giving a drinking buddy or a sister a job. It’s about taking decisions that are in the interest of the country.
How can the daughter of a domestic worker go to Wits or Oxford while the trustees of bursaries give bursaries to their own children (when they have quite enough money themselves to pay). This is happening, and it is going to discourage foreign donors.
The children who will feel the pinch are those who come from the truly disadvantaged backgrounds – not the children of the ANC trustees who hold top jobs. Where will a child of a domestic worker get the money to study when the government is minimising subsidies in line with the growth, employment and redistribution strategy (Gear)?
I advise the ANC and Pallo Jordan to review the means they are using to cultivate their new elite, because I’m afraid they are cultivating the new anarchists. Jordan is, however, right when he argues that affirmative action is a corrective step in the short term, and that ability must become the overriding criterion. But I am compelled to tell him that ability without opportunity is nothing.
There is a mistaken belief in the high ANC echelons that they will get an easy victory in 1999. This is what makes them over- confident and arrogant, which makes it difficult for them to listen to the voices of those who voted them into power.
Don’t tell me about Afro-pessimism … It’s just that if things are going wrong the ANC must admit it – to prove to us they have the mandate from the masses, not from themselves.
I am black and from a very disadvantaged background – not a “rich and black disadvantaged”. I voted for the ANC in 1994 and wonder whether it was not enough for me to get an ANC job.
So, there you go, intellectual minister, I am not impressed with RDP rhetoric or Gear. We are watching with great interest.