Being broke is also ‘radical economic transformation’

We live in an age of mass confusion. And hey, if you’re feeling a little lost, spare a thought for the ANC, which is pulling in every direction at the same time.

It’s summed up in the mutually contradictory statements of our new finance minister, Malusi Gigaba, who jokingly told the media at his first press conference that he was “shocked” to find out he was to be put in charge of the more than R1.1 trillion national budget shortly before the rest of us found out.

On the one hand, Gigaba assures the nation that South Africa’s long-standing economic policies will remain largely unchanged – but then in the very next breath he tells us he will be pushing forward with a much-needed programme of “radical economic transformation”, which he and the Zuma crowd seem to believe will fix poverty, reduce inequality and “make Treasury more accessible” (whatever that is supposed to mean).

But no less a person than the ANC’s own chair of the party’s subcommittee on economic transformation, Enoch Godongwana, has pointed out our recent downgrades to junk status by two of the three big ratings agencies mean our economy is heading straight for recession. The party’s programmes of “radical economic transformation” will have to be put on hold.

Reaching junk for the first time in our history is not an achievement to be “welcomed”, despite all those Zuma supporters who seem to think it is and have been slapping each other on the back for it, howling with laughter at their own WhatsApp jokes.

Having Mike Tyson hit your face a hundred times is definitely going to “transform” your look, and it will be “radical” too, but it’s not going to be pretty.

Whether the poor who will suffer most from our self-inflicted economic problems ever come to understand this is unlikely. They will probably be led, predictably, to point an angry, malnourished finger at the shivering scapegoat of “white monopoly capital”, which apparently has to suffer the blame for everything that goes wrong in this country regardless of what anyone who’s actually in charge of the country does.

With even less money at our disposal, we will no doubt also be forging ahead soon with the Russian nuclear deal. That will mean more debt, even more corruption, and lots more “radical economic transformation” towards general poverty. All of this will be making the middle class poorer – so, in a way, Zuma is fighting inequality by doing his level best to turn us all into paupers.

I was at Church Square and the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Friday to witness the middle class’s witty posters in their friendly revolt against Zuma. I was among a group of bikers as we waited in a quiet, jacaranda-lined street to move on when one of the assembled Harleys with a sound system played Talkin’ Bout a Revolution by Tracy Chapman, and I felt a momentary bit of inspiration.

Then, on my way home, I lost most of that inspiration after popping into a favourite drinking hole of some of the staunchest old ANC cadres, where I sat and had a chat with one particular Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) veteran I’ve known for years.

“Let them march,” he said. “As long as they don’t think they can tell us who is our president.”

He wasn’t impressed to hear I’d been at the protest, and said: “You media guys like to lie to the people. You’re so worried about the downgrades, but why are you not writing about how these same agencies that downgraded us had to pay fines for lying?”

He pointed out that “they” had issued false ratings about the quality of US mortgage derivatives, which led to a global financial crisis that also badly hurt South Africa.

However, he seemed to think it was Standard & Poor’s that recently had to pay an $864 million fine for doing this, when it was actually Moody’s. Moody’s, of course, is the only one of the three big ratings agencies that hasn’t downgraded South Africa yet. But don’t let that stand in the way of your righteous indignation if you’re a Zuma supporter.

I couldn’t help but remember something this same MK veteran had told me once in 2010 while we were having another beer somewhere else.

“During exile, during the war, we didn’t make big plans,” he said.

“Okay? Why?”

“Your enemy can never discover your plan and undermine you … if you don’t know your plan yourself.”

I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly, so I enquired, as politely as possible: “You’re saying it’s better not to plan, so that your enemies won’t know what you’re doing?”

“Yes.”

“But then, you don’t know what you’re doing either, right?”

“Yes! That’s how we won the war.”

Zuma used to be the head of intelligence of this very same MK. I sometimes wonder if that apparent old philosophy of just making things up as you go along, and not daring to plan your third step while your foot hits the ground on the second step is actually not exactly the sort of “planning” that’s defining the future of this country.

Looking at the news, I’m quite inclined to believe it is.

Charles Cilliers, Citizen.co.za digital editor