Africanism has replaced non-racialism, says Mboweni

In a frank interview on Power FM on Sunday night, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni bemoaned what he described as a move away from a non-racial, non-sexist society, due to South Africa moving in a “narrow Africanist” direction.

“From time to time, I’ve had a feeling that we have become too narrow Africanist. Most of the appointments that we make in the public service, for example, are very Africanist,” he said.

These appointments, he continued, “are not broad enough to represent what we call a democratic non-racial, non-sexist society”.

The finance minister also conceded that the ANC did not “defeat apartheid” like they were expected to following the transition to democracy.

“Our forces did not defeat the apartheid system. We did not walk into Pretoria in a manner we thought we would.

“We thought we would walk into Pretoria and take everything; defeat the National Party government, take over and implement our policies the way we wanted to. The fact of the matter is that we had to negotiate a settlement,” Mboweni said.

At another point in the interview, Mboweni also hinted at views on privatisation that have placed him at odds with some within the ANC.

“One should be careful not to elevate state ownership to a religion,” he said.

READ MORE: Mboweni is a ‘reputable’ minister and I ‘think we’re fine’ – Mabuza

The minister’s views on state-owned enterprises are not popular with unions aligned to the ANC, who strongly oppose privatisation.

Deputy president David “DD” Mabuza recently raised eyebrows when he was asked at a Q&A session in parliament about the minister’s views on state-owned enterprises.

“I don’t really take the minister of finance seriously when he’s making comments,” adding that when the minister tweets, “it’s not a government position”.

“I don’t think that’s the way we should approach this debate, whether there are certain entities that must be privatised, certain SOEs, this debate must not be approach this way,” Mabuza said.

“I don’t really take the minister of finance seriously when he’s making comments. These are his own comments.

“We will take the minister serious when he’s articulating government positions. But when he’s talking about his views, when he’s tweeting, that is his own… I’m not going to entertain a tweet from the minister.”

He later told reporters on the campaign trail in Benoni that his comments were misconstrued.

“I know the finance minister is a very reputable minister and very groomed up cadre of the ANC. I trust that he has not taken that comment by the DA in a very bad light. But me and the minister have spoken and I think we are fine. I have confidence in the minister of finance,” Mabuza told The Sowetan.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)

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