Editorial: Whats up with the doc? (Photo Archive)
Iqbal Survé is so comforted by the expanse of his ego that he may sometimes miss the edges of reality that threaten his particular way of seeing things. But his proclamations of a grand conspiracy spanning the judiciary, big business and the executive are really not a joke — okay, we did laugh at the video of the doc, visibly agitated, offering his own professional opinion on what the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) might actually be looking for in the Sekunjalo offices last week.
But our mirth is dissipated by the reality of the allegations facing Survé. And yes, we must make clear that neither Survé nor Sekunjalo have been found guilty of anything. That said, the allegations he faces are so serious that they call into question a lot more than the world according to Survé.
Survé has been able to construct a business empire in the name of transformation. He insists it is his support for “causes left of centre” that have made him the enemy of the establishment. What exactly those causes are, we’re not exactly sure. What we are sure of is that, in Survé, we are faced with the reality of the monster that was created in forging a transformation agenda that sought only to replace the beings at the top of the food chain without fundamentally altering the values underpinning it.
Survé reminds us that the problem is not just “white monopoly capital”, or indeed, white capital, but capital itself. And black capitalism — unless it can radically evolve into a system that does not prey on the poor — is just as bad, and just as corrupt as white capitalism.
As the struggle song goes: “Umhlaba wonke ezandleni zabantu/
Akunamuntu ongaphatha umhlaba yedwa/
Bayayesaba amabhujwa/
Kuba efuna ukusetyenzelwa ngabantu.”