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Owners of nothing, blacks are in trouble

MEANINGFUL ROLE: Former Azapo president Mosibudi Mangena speaks to Sowetan about his book 'Triumphs and Heartaches'. In the book he talks of SA as a country with a painful history, littered with many periods of difficulty and sorrow. He laments the lack of black ownership in SA and says blacks should be owning mines, banks and insurance companies Photo: Thulani Mbele
MEANINGFUL ROLE: Former Azapo president Mosibudi Mangena speaks to Sowetan about his book 'Triumphs and Heartaches'. In the book he talks of SA as a country with a painful history, littered with many periods of difficulty and sorrow. He laments the lack of black ownership in SA and says blacks should be owning mines, banks and insurance companies Photo: Thulani Mbele

As we walk into the Melrose Arch Hotel restaurant for our appointment, Mosibudi Mangena looks around and makes a remark that summarises the position of black people in the South African economy.

He says black people are in trouble because they own nothing in their own land.

Melrose Arch is, in a way, a microcosm of the South African economy. It is owned by Amdec, a white-run property development company founded by John Wilson in 1989. Last year, insurance group Liberty bought a 25% share of the lucrative property.

As we sit to discuss his book Triumphs and Heartaches, ahead of its launch, Mangena continued to express his concerns about political power that has not yielded economic power for blacks.

"We own nothing in our own country. We only account for 3% of the wealth," he said. "This is unsustainable, that is why there is high crime in the country and xenophobic attacks. This is a sign of people who are in trouble."

The book reflects on his journey from joining the Azanian People's Organisation (Azapo) to being its president and MP and later a cabinet minister in Thabo Mbeki's administration.

He says Black Consciousness - the philosophy of black pride popularised by Steve Biko - is still relevant to lift black people out of their troubles. But, while he was a leader, Azapo failed to capture the imagination of many blacks, leaving the ANC with a huge voter support base.

In the book, he admits the organisation made a blunder by boycotting the first democratic election in 1994.

"As a result, the organisation [Azapo] struggled to get itself heard. Politically we could make a strong case for our non-participation, but, tactically speaking, we had erred. Indeed, more than 20 years after that first election, the majority of our people continue to vote for their own poverty and landlessness."

He identifies the middle class as the main beneficiary of the 1994 political change. "With the attainment of the political settlement, the social and economic vistas of this class opened up. Although in the overall configuration of wealth in South Africa the black middle class remains subservient to its white counterparts."

The 67-year-old says the government was supposed to have restructured the economy 20 years ago to allow black people to play a meaningful role. The only tool that was put in place was black economic empowerment, which allows black people to get shares from companies owned by white people.

He is happy that the government is talking about creating industrialists but says it is not clear how it will be done. Last year the government said it would like to see 100 black industrialists emerge over the next three years as active participants in their companies.

"We should be owning mines, banks and insurance companies. I am insured by a white insurance company. Everything is owned by white people and we are the majority.

"If the orientation on the economy was correct, we would be far by now and the majority would not be living in poverty. We need to change the situation. For instance, we killed each other in Marikana, police were involved and the government was involved too. We killed each other over a mine we do not own."

What is worse, Mangena says, is that the country is being overtaken by corruption.

"There is corruption all around and the influential corrupt people are protecting one another at the expense of the poor."

In the book, he reminds us that SA is a country with a painful history, littered with many periods of difficulty and sorrow. "And yet, at every turn, we mobilised one another and fought, only to emerge stronger at the other end. There is no reason why we cannot defeat corruption and thereby strengthen our ability to tackle poverty, inequality, poor education, landlessness and crime."

He is unapologetic in calling on the government to implement programmes that will see black people having a meaningful role in acquiring wealth.

"The programme should be deliberate because what happened was done deliberately. White people were given assistance during apartheid to participate in building their wealth. We also need deliberate efforts to reverse what happened then."

Mangena speaks about the plight of freedom fighters with passion, saying the government should form cooperatives so they in turn can run their own businesses.

What irritates him is that some of the people who never lifted a finger during the liberation struggle are now better off.

He hopes the government will improve the education system, a tool that he says can free black people from poverty. He makes an example that Zimbabwe has a good education system but its economy has collapsed.

"Education will create an environment in which people will be able to function."

Mangena serves on different boards, especially those that run social responsibility projects focusing on education.

"It's pathetic that some schools do not have libraries or laboratories. I assist in getting the schools what they need. Some [students] fail at university because they went to schools that have no facilities."

Mangena's ability to be self-critical and dispassionate makes his book worth reading.

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