More Moeletsi
Been reading up some more on Moeletsi Mbeki.
I'm starting to develop serious respect for the man. I'm never going to be that keen on his brother, but Moeletsi seems to be cut from a very different cloth. Or perhaps he feels that he's sufficiently disinterested in personal political power that he's able to say what he thinks (and he evidently does a lot of thinking). He's been sharply critical of his brother and the SA govt. on a number of issues, particularly Zim and Black Economic Empowerment.
A few excerpts:
- - - - - - -
(From BBC News: 22-09-2004)
The average African is worse off now than during the colonial era, the brother of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has said.
Moeletsi Mbeki accused African elites of stealing money and keeping it abroad, while colonial rulers planted crops and built roads and cities.
"This is one of the depressing features of Africa," he said.
Moeletsi Mbeki also said that South Africa should support democracy in Zimbabwe, and not tolerate violence.
President Thabo Mbeki has been accused of being too soft on his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe.
South Africa should "not tolerate use of violence, torture and rigging of elections and, if necessary, we should support the opposition," Moeletsi Mbeki said.
He said that while China had lifted some 400,000 people out of poverty in the past 20 years, Nigeria had pushed 71 million people below the poverty line.
"The average African is poorer than during the age of colonialism. In the 1960s African elites/rulers, instead of focusing on development, took surplus for their own enormous entourages of civil servants without ploughing anything back into the country," he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3679706.stm
- - - - - - -
(From MineWeb: 10-09-2004)
[Responding to a question on Black Economic Empowerment]
MOELETSI MBEKI: ... And my view then, which is my view now, was that I said to the people who were explaining that that is not a development model. It is a wealth redistribution model. But the problems of South Africa are not wealth redistribution, the problems of South Africa are wealth creation and job creation in particular. In fact, we have had a lot of wealth redistribution in South Africa created as a result of the trade union movement, for example, and those are the normal processes of redistributing wealth. Black economic empowerment handicaps entrepreneurship, in my view.
MINEWEB: Handicaps it?
MOELETSI MBEKI: Yes, because it takes – and I have lots of friends who were involved in black economic empowerment deals – it takes the brightest among the black people who -- instead of devoting their energies to creating new companies, to creating new products, to providing and creating employment -- tend to spend most of their time, if not all of their time, looking for redistributing mechanisms to get shares in pre-existing companies. So what you are actually getting is that the brightest among the black people in this country, instead of creating wealth, building up their own companies, are becoming secondary fiddle players to the existing companies – and that in my view is not what is going to save our country.
. . .
MINEWEB: What about the argument that role models are being created for the black community?
MOELETSI MBEKI: You know, to tell you the honest truth, Alec, I think Ernest Oppenheimer is more of a role model to me or Anton Rupert or Donald Gordon, because they created real companies from scratch, they are making real products. If you smoke, you will be smoking a cigarette made by Anton Rupert, and there was no such a cigarette before. So those, in my view, are real role models. Now there are black role models. If you look at somebody like Herman Mashaba, who created Black Like Me. Black Like Me did not exist. It is a product. But now he is employing top chemists to create new products. You can take another guy called Omar Mothali, who makes furniture. He was inviting me the other day to come to a new showroom. So we have role models both black and white in this country, but they a’re creating real products.
MINEWEB: So the Mzi Khumalos, the Tokyo Sexwales and so forth would not in your opinion be the right kind of role model?
MOELETSI MBEKI: Well I am very nervous to name their names, because I am already in their bad books – one of them once promised that if he ever met me in a dark alley he will donner me. I wouldn’t like to go into names but, as I say: who created the premier products of South Africa? It is not that group.
. . .
MINEWEB: It seems as though we are a young democracy, we are learning as we go forward, we take a step ahead and then there is kind of half a step backwards and so forth. Do you feel, though, that BEE today – and I know, as you have explained to us, that it is on the wrong path – at least we are starting to head towards the right solution, or not?
MOELETSI MBEKI: I am afraid I don’t think so. For me, if I wanted to advance, which is what I think we should all be doing to advance our country, to grow its economy, to enrich its people, there is no shortcut. We have to develop our artisans, we have to attack our mathematics levels, we have to train our technicians and our engineers. This is what Asia is doing. If you visit China, which I do quite often, when you get into a hotel there’s a doorman there who is trying to ask you "can you correct my English?" because the doorman knows the globalising world uses English. He is learning English himself. So you have an enormous culture of learning which we do not have in South Africa, We have black economic empowerment. We are playing to a culture of entitlement rather than to a culture of entrepreneurship and a culture of learning.
http://www.mineweb.net/radio/classic_mining/346622.htm
- - - - - - -
What can I say? The more I hear and read, the more impressed I am. And after his recent article on trade with China, I'm more keen than ever to start learning Mandarin.
And more convinced than ever that my future is tied to the East.
I'm starting to develop serious respect for the man. I'm never going to be that keen on his brother, but Moeletsi seems to be cut from a very different cloth. Or perhaps he feels that he's sufficiently disinterested in personal political power that he's able to say what he thinks (and he evidently does a lot of thinking). He's been sharply critical of his brother and the SA govt. on a number of issues, particularly Zim and Black Economic Empowerment.
A few excerpts:
- - - - - - -
(From BBC News: 22-09-2004)
The average African is worse off now than during the colonial era, the brother of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has said.
Moeletsi Mbeki accused African elites of stealing money and keeping it abroad, while colonial rulers planted crops and built roads and cities.
"This is one of the depressing features of Africa," he said.
Moeletsi Mbeki also said that South Africa should support democracy in Zimbabwe, and not tolerate violence.
President Thabo Mbeki has been accused of being too soft on his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe.
South Africa should "not tolerate use of violence, torture and rigging of elections and, if necessary, we should support the opposition," Moeletsi Mbeki said.
He said that while China had lifted some 400,000 people out of poverty in the past 20 years, Nigeria had pushed 71 million people below the poverty line.
"The average African is poorer than during the age of colonialism. In the 1960s African elites/rulers, instead of focusing on development, took surplus for their own enormous entourages of civil servants without ploughing anything back into the country," he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3679706.stm
- - - - - - -
(From MineWeb: 10-09-2004)
[Responding to a question on Black Economic Empowerment]
MOELETSI MBEKI: ... And my view then, which is my view now, was that I said to the people who were explaining that that is not a development model. It is a wealth redistribution model. But the problems of South Africa are not wealth redistribution, the problems of South Africa are wealth creation and job creation in particular. In fact, we have had a lot of wealth redistribution in South Africa created as a result of the trade union movement, for example, and those are the normal processes of redistributing wealth. Black economic empowerment handicaps entrepreneurship, in my view.
MINEWEB: Handicaps it?
MOELETSI MBEKI: Yes, because it takes – and I have lots of friends who were involved in black economic empowerment deals – it takes the brightest among the black people who -- instead of devoting their energies to creating new companies, to creating new products, to providing and creating employment -- tend to spend most of their time, if not all of their time, looking for redistributing mechanisms to get shares in pre-existing companies. So what you are actually getting is that the brightest among the black people in this country, instead of creating wealth, building up their own companies, are becoming secondary fiddle players to the existing companies – and that in my view is not what is going to save our country.
. . .
MINEWEB: What about the argument that role models are being created for the black community?
MOELETSI MBEKI: You know, to tell you the honest truth, Alec, I think Ernest Oppenheimer is more of a role model to me or Anton Rupert or Donald Gordon, because they created real companies from scratch, they are making real products. If you smoke, you will be smoking a cigarette made by Anton Rupert, and there was no such a cigarette before. So those, in my view, are real role models. Now there are black role models. If you look at somebody like Herman Mashaba, who created Black Like Me. Black Like Me did not exist. It is a product. But now he is employing top chemists to create new products. You can take another guy called Omar Mothali, who makes furniture. He was inviting me the other day to come to a new showroom. So we have role models both black and white in this country, but they a’re creating real products.
MINEWEB: So the Mzi Khumalos, the Tokyo Sexwales and so forth would not in your opinion be the right kind of role model?
MOELETSI MBEKI: Well I am very nervous to name their names, because I am already in their bad books – one of them once promised that if he ever met me in a dark alley he will donner me. I wouldn’t like to go into names but, as I say: who created the premier products of South Africa? It is not that group.
. . .
MINEWEB: It seems as though we are a young democracy, we are learning as we go forward, we take a step ahead and then there is kind of half a step backwards and so forth. Do you feel, though, that BEE today – and I know, as you have explained to us, that it is on the wrong path – at least we are starting to head towards the right solution, or not?
MOELETSI MBEKI: I am afraid I don’t think so. For me, if I wanted to advance, which is what I think we should all be doing to advance our country, to grow its economy, to enrich its people, there is no shortcut. We have to develop our artisans, we have to attack our mathematics levels, we have to train our technicians and our engineers. This is what Asia is doing. If you visit China, which I do quite often, when you get into a hotel there’s a doorman there who is trying to ask you "can you correct my English?" because the doorman knows the globalising world uses English. He is learning English himself. So you have an enormous culture of learning which we do not have in South Africa, We have black economic empowerment. We are playing to a culture of entitlement rather than to a culture of entrepreneurship and a culture of learning.
http://www.mineweb.net/radio/classic_mining/346622.htm
- - - - - - -
What can I say? The more I hear and read, the more impressed I am. And after his recent article on trade with China, I'm more keen than ever to start learning Mandarin.
And more convinced than ever that my future is tied to the East.
posted by Sentinel at
3:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home