BOBBY Godsell and Michael Spicer, chairperson and chief executive of Business Leadership South Africa, respectively, say nationalisation is no good.

SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande agrees. Two capitalists and a communist in harmony. These are interesting times.

The capitalists say the government received R17,1billion from mining industry taxes, that shareholders only got R16,2billion in profits, that it costs more than R441billion to operate South Africa's mines, that 93percent of that R441billion expenditure, of which R78,4billion goes to salaries, stays in the country. Black mining industry players, they add, would be among the losers if the government took over mines, and that, it is the private sector that can create "long-term sustainable employment through productive investment".

Nationalisation, they say, would mess things up. Their alternative to nationalisation is for us to go back and follow the Mining Charter plus the newly minted Mining Industry Growth, Development and Employment Task Team.

The communist reckons the call for nationalisation is aimed at saving "BEE elements in crisis, not to address the interests of the workers and the poor".

He gives no alternative to nationalisation.

Let's be clear. Nationalisation calls are a response to the refusal of white industries, including mining, to help alleviate poverty.

Blacks were the main contributors to South Africa's political freedom for all.

And now that it's clear that we all need money to enjoy this political freedom, white South Africans refuse to either share it or help black people get on their own economic feet.

Of the R78,4billion local mining salary bill, blacks get the most meager pay cheques largely as labourers while the white top brass earn millions.

The remaining R362,6billion of mining's local expenditure goes to procuring mining services, creating ancillary industries that still remain lily white.

The dismal failure of their solution, the Mining Charter, aside, it is telling to note that Spicer and Godsell ignore these facts.

And, instead of promising change, they argue, keep these white businesses alive otherwise the world will consider us a pariah state.

Zambia's nationalisation failed, they say, and if one black country fails, they all fail. Forget Norway, which is successfully nationalised. It's white.

Considering that the largest group of current tenderpreneurs is white, Nzimande, is it okay for more of us blacks to get more government tenders to feed and educate our children while you search for an alternative to nationalisation please?