Mcebisi Jonas says ANC is becoming known for ‘empty slogans’

Deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas on Tuesday reportedly slammed the ANC’s stance on radical economic transformation championed by President Jacob Zuma, saying it was just another slogan the ruling party was now becoming known for.

HeraldLIVE reports that Jonas while addressing a Langa Massacre commemoration event in Uitenhage said the ANC was becoming known for “sloganeering”, saying buzzwords were of little use when the party’s old slogans had never resulted in any meaningful change but were later replaced with new ones.

He told about 400 people gathered at the Babs Madlakane Community Centre to mark the 32nd anniversary of the Langa Massacre there had to be accountability within the ANC for what each slogan had achieved.

Jones said the ANC used to be an organisation that used to speak truth to power, however, the truth was yet to be spoken about why the party lost Nelson Mandela Bay Metro to the opposition during last year’s local government elections.

Questions had to be asked about how radical economic transformation would benefit the masses, Jonas said.

“We are misleading ourselves if we keep talking about radical economic transformation without talking about uplifting 51 million people … Radical economic transformation should not be an elite programme that seeks to replace white monopoly with black monopoly,” he was quoted as saying.

According to the report, the deputy finance minister also spoke out against nationalisation, saying any monopoly either by the state or “white monopoly”, was bad when it doesn’t solve the problem of inequalities in the country.

He said The Freedom Charter and transformation based on people’s needs, such as quality education and healthcare, were the instruments that could achieve true radical economic transformation.

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