ANC RET faction slams ‘stockpiling whites’
The group also criticised the government and ANC headquarters for using sanitisers, soaps, masks and other goods procured from white-owned companies.
Long queues of customers at Makro can be seen at the Centurion store, 16 March 2020, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles
An ANC-linked grouping, Gauteng Radical Economic Transformation (RET), which supports Jacob Zuma, is condemning bulk buying by the rich and middle class as it will cause shortages and increased prices that would hit the poor.
Since President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national disaster due to the coronavirus, many went on shopping sprees to stockpile goods in anticipation of shortages as a result of the virus. Some goods are now out of stock while some shop owners have hiked prices.
In a shop in Florida in Johannesburg, the price of a mask that usually costs R10 went up to R50 overnight and the prices of sanitiser around Johannesburg were also inflated.
The group said they were concerned that companies owned by “white monopoly capital” were exploiting the crisis to make money “from the increased stress and suffering” of the poor.
“We furthermore call on the minority of [mainly white] South Africans, who have the financial means to indulge selfishly in bulk buying and food hoarding to desist from doing so.
“We will only be able to overcome the scourge of the coronavirus when we unite and live out our common humanity in the manner that we care for each other as fellow South Africans,” said RET representatives Carl Niehaus and Sibusiso Hadebe.
The group criticised the government and ANC headquarters for using sanitisers, soaps, masks and other goods procured from white-owned companies.
They were concerned that products and services from Bidvest and its subsidiaries were “disproportionately procured”.
“This is entirely unacceptable. It cannot be that the main cause of our economic suffering and continuing subjugation, as represented by white monopoly capital, now benefits more in the face of the increased suffering of poor black South Africans, caused by this coronavirus pandemic.
“We therefore demand that our ANC, as the governing party, must ensure all the products required to protect our people from exposure to the coronavirus must be procured from companies that are genuinely black owned,” they said.
– ericn@citizen.co.za
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