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'UNION IS JEALOUS'

LOADED: Tokyo Sexwale is one of the richest in SA. Pic: Simphiwe Nkwali. 06/10/2007. © Sowetan.
LOADED: Tokyo Sexwale is one of the richest in SA. Pic: Simphiwe Nkwali. 06/10/2007. © Sowetan.

CALLS by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA for the nationalisation of the wealth of mining magnates Patrice Motsepe and Tokyo Sexwale are driven by jealousy, says the ANC.

CALLS by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA for the nationalisation of the wealth of mining magnates Patrice Motsepe and Tokyo Sexwale are driven by jealousy, says the ANC.

Both Motsepe and Sexwale are among the 20 Africans included in a recently released list of South Africa's 100 richest people.

ANC general secretary Gwede Mantashe said the call was driven by "a strange phenomenon among Africans of being jealous when fellow Africans succeed".

"It's talking to the resentment we have among ourselves as black people. If anybody progresses we feel very jealous and we resent their success," Mantashe said yesterday.

The Rich List, published by Sunday Times last Sunday, showed Motsepe as the richest African in the country with R14,2billion.

Following publication of the list, Numsa spokesperson Castro Ngobese said the trade union was opposed to the replacement of white capitalists with African ones.

"We believe that our national democratic revolution, as encapsulated in the Freedom Charter, was never meant to reproduce or replace a white capitalist class with a black one or coopt connected politicians to join the exploiters.

"As Numsa we are calling for the nationalisation and eventually the socialisation of the massive and privately owned wealth in the hands of the Motsepes, Sexwales, Macozomas, Nhlekos, Mittals and Oppenheimers of this world," he said.

Mantashe also condemned the attacks on ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa by the Gauteng Young Communist League, saying "vilifications are the surest way of derailing and killing any debate".

The attack came after Phosa had assured British businesspeople that the ANC would not nationalise the mines.

"There is no decision of the ANC to nationalise mines," Mantashe said.

He said the Mineral and Sectoral Development Act had already "reverted the ownership of mineral deposits to the state, therefore giving effect to the content of a clause in the Freedom Charter which called for the mineral wealth to be transferred to the majority".

Mantashe also called on members of the ANC, Cosatu and SACP to refrain from attacking each other inpublic.

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