Transnet chief executive Brian Molefe has restored some confidence in the utility while acting as chief executive.
Brian Molefe is now a member of Parliament. The disgraced former Eskom chief executive who resigned after being named in former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture Report now finds himself in the pound seats. His ascension to this new position could put in play a move to capture the purse strings of the South African economy. If the country’s biggest opposition is to be believed, this is the boldest proof yet of that plan.
An alternative view is that South Africa’s riches continue to remain in the hands of a precious few to the exclusion of the majority of its people. With high unemployment and widespread poverty, South African society is one of the most unequal in the world. Molefe has become the poster boy for a new kind of popularism; rapid economic transformation. The sentiment has captured the mood of a nation tired of waiting for economic emancipation in their lifetime.
A free South Africa is still a relatively young entity. It has only been 23 years since democracy. Since then, the country’s economic policy has always been the litmus test of true freedom. Various policies encouraged broad-based black economic empowerment. These policies were instrumental for a number of the brave, and in many cases, the politically connected to blaze a trail in South African business.
And those who found themselves on that list usually read like the whose who of the ANC. And it is for this reason many grew to distrust the efficacy of those policies. Gradually, the voices grew louder calling for a review of South Africa’s economic policies.
The ANC’s successive national conferences in both Polokwane and Mangaung reiterated the party’s commitment to the ideals of quicker distribution of wealth. However, this project has seen very little progress. The economic realities inherited by the class of 1994 stubbornly remain. At the same time, poor South Africans continue to suffer under the burden of under development.
It is perhaps this continued status quo that shocked the ANC into radical mode when the August 3 municipal elections handed them defeat in major metropolitans across the country. Since late last year, the ante was considerably amped between two propagandists; on one side, the so-called crusaders for rapid economic transformation, and on the other so called white monopoly capital.
At the time of his appointment as Eskom chief executive in September 2015, he had already made a name for himself. He was credited for bringing stability to Transnet and turning around the Public Investment Corporation. His experience with state-owned entities won him the respect and admiration of industry peers. In 2003 he received the prestigious Financial Services Achiever of the year from The Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals. Another accolade from Anglo American for BEE leader of the year established his reputation for his advancement of black economic empowerment.
As decorated as he is, his appointment to Parliament could place him on a collision course with current Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan who has just tabled the 2017/2018 budget. The current leadership of the finance ministry has braved a constant onslaught. It is often criticised for protecting ‘white monopoly capital’ and doing everything to thwart radical economic change.
The momentum likely to carry the ANC into its national conference will be of great interest. Those with moderate views might find themselves pushed aside to make way for a leadership that will harness the reins of the economy to satisfy the calls echoed by the impatient majority.
The discourse is likely to centre around whether this move in placing Molefe in a position to launch his public career as a cabinet minister, will result in a rapid decline of key state organs, the finance ministry being the most obvious one. It will depend on the extent to which the ANC is desperate to stave off defeat in the 2019 general elections. The time is running out for them to demonstrate a more radical commitment to the ideals of radical economic change. And Molefe just might fit the bill; he is outspoken and seen as fearless against formidable white monopoly capital. More importantly, he represents a move to eradicate opposing views between the country’s highest seat of office and its finance ministry.
The political tension is likely to escalate while we await the next move by Zuma, what he does next is likely to set the tone in the build-up to the party’s elective conference this December.
Lionel Skink is a freelance journalist