Nationalisation, privatisation, land: What Mandela told business in 1990 still resonates today

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Nationalisation, privatisation, land: What Mandela told business in 1990 still resonates today | Fin24

Just under three decades ago, Nelson Mandela addressed 300 business executives at a conference convened by the Consultative Business Forum in Johannesburg on the theme: 'Options for Building an Economic Future'. He touched on issues that South Africa still grapples with, including nationalisation, privitisation, land reform, inequality, public finances, unions and capital flight.. In honour of 10 years of Mandela Day, an edited version is reproduced here.

To establish a system of cooperation requires that we should at least share some common objectives. But it also means that we have to overcome the mutual mistrust that, to some degree, undoubtedly exists between us. We do not have to elaborate the reasons for that mistrust. As South Africans, we all know that they emanate from the fact that on one side of the street are the haves, and on the other, the have-nots;on one side, the whites, and on the other, the blacks.

"Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that...

It might be said that international experience shows it is wisest not to tamper with this power structure. The argument is made that the sanctity of private property, and the incentive and dynamism that derive from private ownership, should convince all of us to accept, if not welcome, this economic power structure as a fact of life.

Another issue we might have to consider is the advisability or otherwise of the placement on the boards of privately owned companies of directors appointed by the government, to see whether it is possible to balance the pursuit of private gain with the need to promote the common good.I would also like to stress that we do not want to have everything done by the new government. A healthy relationship between employers and trade unions is crucial to the country's future.

There should be no debate among us about the centrality of the issue of ensuring a rapidly growing economy. To ensure a rising standard of living the gross domestic product must grow at rates that are higher than the rate of growth of the population. Various figures have been thrown around about the possible and desirable rates of growth. This conference will obviously not have the possibility to look at these figures and to study their macro-economic implications.

In this connection, we should all accept the reality that growth by itself will not ensure equity. A situation could develop in which, in terms of levels of income, we continue to have a persistent gap between the haves and have-nots, despite any increase that may take place in the standard of living of the other. I am therefore raising the question that the matter of the redistribution of wealth in conditions of a genuine economy, is one that must be faced squarely and addressed firmly.

 

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