Yes, we complain too much.

Maybe because we have been oppressed for centuries, we don't know how to snap out of moaning and get on with the task of developing ourselves after vanquishing our erstwhile oppressors.

It is disheartening to hear many of us, especially those in state leadership, frequently whining about how whites are the source of the problems plaguing our country. In any case, there is something jarring when the majority in a country complain incessantly about a 10% minority in the population. We cannot afford to be victims forever.

Twenty-three years after the attainment of a democratic order, one would have thought that we would be preoccupied with the tasks of developing our country and taking our people out of poverty and social misery.

Under no circumstances should we forget where we come from and our trials and tribulations. While demanding redress, we should never devalue our achievements by continuing to behave as though our attainment of a democratic order means nothing.

Through our own heroic efforts, we now have state power. When whites had state power, especially the Afrikaner , they made it count. They used state power to empower their people, allocating them land, establishing big companies, providing them with education to enable them to benefit from the land and run the sophisticated companies they created. The Sanlams and Absas of this world are a monument to those efforts.

Constituting 90% of the population in this country, what stops us from building our own businesses and companies to create wealth for our country and people? Just like they did, we could leverage on the state power that we have to create the desired entities and sustain them. The only difference would be that we would not oppress anybody in the process of building and running our creations.

Launching ourselves on the basis of our control of state power, we could embark on a meaningful process of land reform that would ensure that many of our people who would like to use the land, get it. Large-scale support in the form of training, extension services and inputs would be provided by the state to ensure the farmers succeed.

In this way, we would grow our rural economy, create wealth for those communities and create employment for legions of workers. This would have a positive impact on food security, the health of our rural communities and stem the migration into urban areas.

Secondly, we could encourage, coax, support, facilitate and finance businesses in black communities. We should encourage and sensitise the communities to support businesses in their areas in order to have their rands circulating in these communities .

Being 90% of the population, imagine what such a phenomenon would do in terms of tackling poverty and unemployment. That would also go a long way towards transforming our communities from living in the ghettoes they were built to be, into viable settlements.

Furthermore, the rich 10% of the population would not be able to carry on as usual. We would be able to reset the relationships among the racial groups in this country on a course towards greater equality and harmony.

Thirdly, the state and all of us should work on the building of big black-owned, controlled and managed companies in the media, financial services, manufacturing and other areas of human life. These would then take their place among the other big companies in the country.

Let the whining stop because it takes us nowhere. Even if we were to take away what the whites have and distribute it equally among all of us, we would not be better off.

Let us take our destiny in our own hands, use our control of the state, and harness our solidarity and superior numbers to build a great country that we can be proud of.