'Black capital driving democratic change'

STELLENBOSCH -- Black capitalists were definitely part of the "motive forces" of democratic change in South Africa, African National Congress national executive member Joel Netshitenzhe said yesterday.

Briefing the media on a new preface to the party's 1997 strategy and tactics document, he said the preface "re-emphasised" what was in the original document relating to the black capitalist class.

"There has been debate within the alliance and within the ANC, some people saying how can you have exploiters as part of the drivers of change.

"But the reality is that because objectively, when you have democracy, when you deepen democracy, the black capitalist class benefits, therefore they are part of the drivers of the process of change."

This debate had continued this week among delegates in most of the behind-closed doors commissions at the ANC's national conference here.

The preface had however been accepted with only minor changes by delegates. It says these "motive forces" include the black, emerging capitalist class, whose interests are served not only by formal political democracy, but also by the programme "to change apartheid property relations".

"This class, as with other motive forces, needs to be organised and mobilised to serve the interests of reconstruction and development," it says.

Netshitenzhe denied that the ANC had abandoned class analysis.

"If you look at the preface, if you look at strategy and tactics itself, it will tell you that there are forces that were arrayed against one another during the period of apartheid which could be defined both in national terms or racial terms, as well as class terms.

"If you want to define them in racial terms it was black and white.

"If you define them in class terms, those drivers of change from within the black community would have been the working class, the middle strata, the professionals and the emergent or aspirant black capitalist class.

"So yes there is a class analysis in the approach of the ANC.

"But what we need to add is that a class analysis does necessarily mean that the ANC stands for a working class struggle for the attainment of socialism. The ANC is a national liberation movement, it's not fighting for socialism."

Netshitenzhe said a programme of black economic empowerment in its broadest sense would involve an element of sacrifice on the part of those who owned South Africa's wealth.

Referring to President Thabo Mbeki's report to the conference, which included a proposal for a transformation charter on black empowerment, he said it had had emphasised consultation and had referred to the possibility of "incentives in order to deal with those tensions which arise". -- Sapa