Latest news with #racialredress
The Herald
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald
Ramaphosa offended by GNU partner Mulder's suggestion to scrap BEE laws
President Cyril Ramaphosa did not take kindly to a suggestion by GNU partner and FF Plus leader Cornè Mulder that the country should rethink its racial redress legislation, which in his view hindered economic growth. In an oral question to the president, Mulder said the policies raised by Ramaphosa pertained to Operation Vulindlela, which he claimed would not see the light of day if the country did not abandon race-based reforms. 'We need to amend or develop a new economic policy that can make possible real growth. If we do not have economic growth, none of the programmes will be implemented nor will they be successful. The new policy needs to take a different approach regarding black economic empowerment, employment equity and expropriation without compensation,' Mulder said. Ramaphosa was startled by the assertion and gave Mulder a history lesson on the ownership of the economy during apartheid and why legislation such as BEE was necessary. 'I'm rather surprised and taken aback when I hear that policies of BEE militate against the growth of our economy. That I find quite surprising. I work from a starting point that our economy was held back over many years by the racist policies of the past. 'Those racist policies prevented a majority of South Africans to play a meaningful role in their own economy. Black people were brought in as hewers of wood and drawers of water, as labourers. They were not even seen as consumers or active players in the economic landscape of our country.' He said democracy saved the day, opening up the economy and broadening participation. 'It is right in your face. During apartheid South Africa, you'd never see a black personality being made to advertise soap or milk or anything. Today every advert you look at has got black people. This is because it has now been realised that it is black people who are the consumers and are economic players.' Those who would want black people just to play the consumer role are truly mistaken, Ramaphosa said, adding that black people must play a productive role as well. 'I am really baffled by people who still hanker for policies of the past and to have you, sir, say that BEE is holding our economy back goes completely against even what the World Bank says. What is known clearly is that there was a report that detailed that what holds South Africa back is the level of concentration. 'They said what holds South Africa back is the fact that the ownership of the economy is in far too few hands and has not spread, that is what the World Bank and IMF said. In our country it is the privileged white people who intimidated to own the means of production. I find it very worrying that we continue to have this notion that BEE is holding us back.' Ramaphosa said the constitution's equality clause implores the government to redress the imbalances in the country, including the ownership of the economy. 'There is nothing that gives our people joy, as they go around and find that this production facility is owned by a black person, it warms one's heart, it makes us feel so good because we come from a horrible past where that was not allowed by law.' The president detailed that the Medium-Term Development Plan 2024—2029 (MTDP) in its current form will foster economic development, with an apex priority to achieve inclusive growth and job creation as the key focus. ' To achieve higher levels of economic growth, we are in many ways undertaking massive investment in infrastructure and upgrading our maintenance activities. In the budget speech finance minister Enoch Godongwana confirmed that public infrastructure spending in the next three years will amount to R1-trillion. Allocations towards capital investment remain the fastest-growing area of spending, ensuring that we use our resources to foster and support growth. He said the investment on infrastructure will be complemented by the reforms that government has embarked upon and the regulatory framework to enable public private partnerships. 'A further pillar of our economic strategy is to support sectors with high potential for growth and job creation. This includes growing our key export sectors like mining and agriculture, while developing new industries such as renewable energy, where we continue to distinguish ourselves, electric vehicles and green hydrogen in harnessing our unique advantages in the green economy. 'We are strengthening the capacity of the state, which is our key pillar of the MTDP, including turning around the financial and operational performance of state institutions including delivery at local government level.'
Mail & Guardian
27-05-2025
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
Ramaphosa: Racial redress is not stunting growth
President Cyril Ramaphosa.(@PresidencyZA/X) Racial redress is not a hindrance to Ramaphosa told Freedom Front Plus leader Corné Mulder he failed to understand how those who questioned affirmative action could not see the real problem is black people do not own a big enough share of the means of economic production in the country. 'I am rather surprised and taken aback when I hear that policies of black economic empowerment militate against the growth of our economy. That, I find quite surprising because I work from the starting point that our economy was held back over many years by the racist policies of the past,' he said. Apartheid prevented the majority of South Africans from playing a meaningful role in the economy, he continued. 'Black people were brought in as hewers and wood and drawers of water and they were just brought in as labourers. They were not even seen as consumers. They were not seen as active players in the economic landscape of our country.' Mulder had suggested that the government should rewrite economic policy to create growth, and in that process abandon affirmative action and the concept of expropriation without compensation because it was not serving the country. Ramaphosa countered that the reality of apartheid, including the wholesale exclusion of black South Africans from the economy, could not be forgotten as if it were merely 'a bad dream'. 'You would never see a black person being made to advertise either soap or milk or anything. Today every advert you look at has got black people because it is now being realised that it is black people who are the consumers.' But, he added, there must be a realisation that black South Africans must moreover command the levers of the economy to reduce inequality and poverty. 'So I am really baffled, I am baffled by people who still hanker for policies of the past and to have you, Sir, say black economic empowerment is holding our economy back,' he said. 'It is the partial and exclusive ownership of the means of production in our country that is holding this economy from growing. 'Why can't black people be made to own productive aspects of our economy, why can't they be rich as well?' The national debate about affirmative action has been revived by the The Democratic Alliance's court challenges to the In Tuesday's question session, MPs from the Patriotic Alliance (PA), uMkhonto weSiswe party and African Christian Democratic Party challenged the president about the racial classification in South Africa 30 years after the end of apartheid. The PA's Marlon Daniels demanded to know why coloured, Indian, Khoisan and white South Africans were not deemed African. Ramaphosa said it was regrettable that racial classification endured, but that the very aim of redress was creating a society where it no longer had any place. 'It is most unfortunate that the classifications that we have inherited from apartheid have tended to continue and our clear intent that we should see those classifications of our people withering away because we are all Africans, we are all South Africans. 'To rid ourselves of that form of classification we do need to take steps to say this group, and that group and that group were previously disadvantaged and we therefore have to take steps to ensure they are put in a better position.' It did not imply discrimination, he said. 'There should never be a sense that there is any group that is more special than any other, we are all equal. As we move forward, our objective is to consolidate the unity of our people as one people, as Africans.' He said those who argued against affirmative action were trying to put a plaster on the deep wound inflicted by apartheid. 'That sore does need to be lanced, it needs to be properly repaired and to repair it you need to go to the depth of it … you've got to name everything for what it is because unless you do so, you will never be able to rid our country of the legacy of the past.'
Mail & Guardian
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Mail & Guardian
Ramaphosa to press Trump on attending G20 summit, racial redress
President Cyril Ramaphosa is welcomed by Minister Ronald Lamola at the South African embassy in Washington. (GovernmentZA/X) President Cyril Ramaphosa is meeting The meeting is the result of extensive spade work from South Africa's side since Donald Trump Tensions have only escalated since, and there have been media reports that Ramaphosa's aides have sought to prevent an Oval Office showdown similar to the humiliation experienced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 28 February. Ramaphosa's spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said there were several topics on the agenda for Wednesday's meeting at the White House, including South Africa's year-long presidency of the G20 and the barbs the Trump administration has hurled at South Africa about the country's official state policy of racial redress. Ramaphosa intended to use his meeting with the US president to Trump has indicated that he may well not do so, posting on his social media platform Truth Social in mid-April that he could not be expected to do so when the government was, he claimed, expropriating white-owned land and persecuting the descendants of white settlers. He Ramaphosa's office has, for months, described his remarks and executive orders to this effect as informed by a campaign of disinformation. The hard-won visit comes just over a week after 49 South Africans arrived in the US as beneficiaries of Trump's special dispensation for asylum for victims of alleged persecution. Magwenya said Ramaphosa would not only again invite Trump to attend the G20 summit but hoped that his presence in South Africa would suffice to persuade him that no race group was subject to persecution. 'We hope that he will use that opportunity to see for himself that there is no truth to the propaganda around racial persecution in our country,' he said. The narrative is not new. Trump alleged racial persecution in South Africa in 2018, during his first term. Among the commentators who contradicted him at the time was Witney Schneidman, one of the authors of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), and a former US assistant deputy secretary of state for African affairs. Trump's stance has been widely attributed to a campaign by Breitbart News editor Joel Pollak to discredit the country's domestic and foreign policy. Pollak's agitation in recent months was widely seen as a second audition for the post of ambassador to South Africa. He was again overlooked. Trump instead South Africa's ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled in March after calling Trump a white supremacist. Ramaphosa has yet to name a replacement, but has in the interim appointed former deputy finance minister and current MTN chairperson Mcebisi Jonas as his special envoy to the US capitol. Jonas is accompanying the presidential delegation to Washington on what is his maiden voyage in that capacity. His special brief is to Ramaphosa is also accompanied by International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola, Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen and Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau, who have for months been drafting a bilateral trade pact with the US which will be put on the table during this visit.
