The so-called black middle class does not really exist, says politician turned businessman Saki Macozoma.
”It is a [mere] conceptual construction,” Beeld newspaper’s business section reported him as saying on Wednesday.
Macozoma, formerly an African National Congress (ANC) MP and currently chairperson of Stanlib, said the black group concerned does not have much of a ”class consciousness”. It should rather be described as a category.
The group cannot sustain its own continued existence as members either rise rapidly into the high-income group or fall back into the lower-income groups.
On top of this, the group lacks the organised political mobilisation required to defend its economic progress.
Evidence of this is the absence of a coordinated reaction to recent attacks from union and ANC ranks on the black middle class. ”The black middle class is being fired upon from both sides,” Macozoma said.
He said the white bourgeoisie also does not see its own survival as being dependent on the success of a black middle class.
The private sector can benefit the most from a growing black middle class, yet a subtle resistance from business leaders can be detected.
Macozoma said the so-called black middle class is still dependent on the goodwill of the government.
Its position in the economy is also extremely vulnerable. ”Many people labelled as black middle class are actually a cheque away from poverty.” They do not have many assets at their disposal, and succumb to the temptation of reckless consumer spending.
”Upbringing is one’s ticket to become part of the black middle class, and a lack thereof results in falling out of the bus.”
Macozoma said what is known as the black middle class should at least be growing at the same tempo as the economy.
Black South Africans should not see intra-African migration as a threat, but as an opportunity to grow the black middle class and establish bonds across borders.
”I have heard people speaking Afrikaans in every pub I have been into the rest of Africa. The continent has opened up and our black middle class should make use of this it,” Macozoma said. — Sapa