Zuma says South Africa must push more whites out of economy

South African President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday that his country’s economy is still largely under the control of whites. He said South Africa needs a “second transition” to put the wealth balance in favor of the black majority.

South Africa has now swung to the opposite extreme of the pendulum from apartheid. Its leaders are now pushing policies that persecute people simply because their skin color is white.

Jacob Zuma is facing a challenge to his leadership and wants to shore up support from young voters. It’s a situation reminiscent of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe: Zuma’s African National Congress youth wing is now pushing the government to nationalize mines and seize white-owned farmland.

Yet try as he might to blame something that disappeared almost two decades ago, Zuma cannot escape the truth. Eighteen years after the end of apartheid, black leaders have failed to address the poverty, unemployment and health issues that are rampantly afflicting the poor black majority.

Last year, black bishop Desmond Tutu attacked the South African leaders as being worse than the former apartheid government. But the bigger worry for Zuma is that the common voter on the street is starting to feel that way too. Last year, the left-leaning bbc reported, “Some things were better under apartheid”:

When apartheid was dismantled in South Africa, many expected the lives of its black population would improve, but promises of land distribution and new homes have not been fulfilled, as Hugh Sykes discovered.In a community of shacks on a hillside near Johannesburg, a man complained to me: “We didn’t like apartheid, but some things were better under apartheid than they are now.”In a community of shacks on a hillside near Durban, a man complained to me: “Life here under apartheid was bad, but now it is more bad.”I felt slightly unsettled hearing this. It seemed like questioning a sacred belief—that apartheid was an unmitigated, 100 percent evil system. But there is less idolatry here now, as it dawns on most people that the new South Africa is still scarred by extreme poverty and high unemployment. …Millions of South Africans still live in shacks. Rain and dust get in, there is no security against burglars, and shack dwellers have to go out to public stand-pipes to fill up containers with drinking water. And there is no proper lighting, which—quite apart from the obvious inconveniences—makes it very hard for children to get their homework done on dark winter evenings. …[Former African National Congress activist “Bricks” Mokolo] says that housing, especially, was better under apartheid than it is now.He calls the new houses that are being built all over the country an insult because they are significantly smaller than the old matchbox homes that the apartheid government built in the townships.

Statistics South Africa says 29 percent of blacks are unemployed, compared with 5.9 percent of whites. Whites are also said to have an average income nearly seven times that of blacks. Instead of viewing this in light of the vast differences in educational and family structures or as a failure of the current government, the anc views the employment divide as proof of racism. Therefore, instead of repudiating failed economic policies, South Africa’s leaders are becoming even more radical.

“The structure of the apartheid-era economy has remained largely intact,” Zuma insisted as he addressed a crowd of several thousand anc delegates. “The ownership of the economy is still primarily in the hands of white males, as it has always been.”

Zuma’s solution is to get more whites out of the economy. The country’s mineral and land ownership wealth needs to be redistributed more equitably, he said.

The president said that “certain compromises” over the economy and ownership had been negotiated in 1994 in order to ensure a smooth transition from white to black rule at the end of apartheid. Zuma says it’s time for a “second transition.” He highlighted the current “willing buyer-willing seller” policy as being too slow in transferring ownership and wealth from whites to blacks. More forceful steps need to be taken, he said, but did not specify details. Zuma did say black empowerment policy should be strengthened. However, critics say the current black empowerment policy only serves to benefit a few rich black political backers.

Zuma’s trouble is that South Africa does not have the money to legitimately buy out white-owned businesses and land and grant them to blacks. That means that some form of race-based nationalization—state-sponsored theft—is his only real option. But if he goes down that route, South Africa will soon be looking a lot more like Zimbabwe. As many South Africans have pointed out, their economic condition went from bad under apartheid to worse under the anc. What will it be under Zuma’s “second transition”?