MOELETSI MBEKI ON AFRICA – AND GAUTRAIN
Posted on 03 July 2009 by Railways Africa Editor
Businessman and political commentator Moeletsi Mbeki launched his new book Architects of Poverty (Picador) at the June Cape Town Book Fair. “It is a stinging critique of African capitalism,” writes Percy Zvomuya in the Mail & Guardian, “describing how the powerful elite on the continent ‘sell off its assets to enrich the rest of the world’. This phenomenon, first witnessed during the slave trade, has not stopped with the advent of independence.
“Mbeki argues that the ‘slave trade or oil trade is known as mercantile capitalism’ – an earlier form of capitalism in which one ‘buys cheap and sells dear’. He says Africa is still locked in the mercantile stage of capitalism.” The Mail & Guardian caught up with Mbeki for an interview, where he said:
“Frantz Fanon railed against the unproductive bourgeoisie of newly independent countries. But these nationalists are not a bourgeoisie. They have no capital like a typical bourgeoisie. They don’t create wealth; they are a parasitic elite that lives off the existing assets which they didn’t create.
“It is the same with the BEE tycoons in South Africa. They are living off the assets handed to them by existing companies. They are not a bourgeoisie; yes, they are wealthy but they are not capitalists.
“That happens when you are consuming and are not investing.
About 70% of South Africa’s GDP goes into private consumption. By comparison about 40% of China’s GDP goes into consumption. The rest goes into investment. If you compare China and South African you can see why China is creating jobs.”
Zvomuya asked: “Hasn’t the government put money into infrastructure?”
Mbeki replied: “Our infrastructure isn’t functional. That’s why trucks carry goods from Johannesburg to Cape Town – because there’s been no meaningful investment in the rail network. The average age of a railway wagon in South Africa is 40 years.”
Zvomuya: “But the government has invested in the Gautrain.”
Mbeki: “The Gautrain is transporting the elite from Sandton to the airport. There’s nothing productive in that. There’s already a train from the airport that goes to central Johannesburg, but the elite didn’t want to use that and so they built their own. This is not an investment; it’s part of consumption. It looks like an investment but it’s not.”
Zvomuya: “What about the public infrastructure programme that came as a result of hosting the World Cup?”
Mbeki: “It’s very temporary and most of it is in construction. Once you have finished building a stadium, the people are back in unemployment. This is not sustainable employment. This is an artificial boost to employment.”
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Allen Taylor