Karima Brown
25 November 2009
Johannesburg — YOUNG Communist League (YCL) national secretary Buti Manamela says the call by its counterpart in the African National Congress (ANC) to nationalise mines only amounts to "state capitalism" and would not restore SA's mineral wealth to the people.
In an interview with Business Day yesterday, Manamela slated the ANC Youth League's (ANCYL's) push for nationalisation, saying the YCL proposed something more radical.
He also dismissed notions of a so- called "truce" on the issue after a slew of public insults with his counterpart, Julius Malema, who dismissed South African Communist Party (SACP) deputy secretary- general Jeremy Cronin's critique of the ANCYL 's view, saying SA did not need a "white messiah".
"I am capable of mudslinging but I am also capable of reason, and in this instance reason appeals to me more," Manamela said.
He was responding to questions about why he has called for the debate to be handled internally rather than through the media.
But yesterday, two of the YCL's provincial structures also issued public condemnations slating Malema's behaviour, a move that is only likely to increase tensions ahead of any engagement between the two youth leagues .
Manamela said the substantive issues on nationalisation were what needed to be thrashed out internally, including the need to debunk the myth that the ANCYL's call to nationalise mines would automatically mean genuine people's power over the economy.
"You can't have nationalisation only for purposes of deracialising the economy so that BEE (black economic empowerment) interests are served. Nationalisation for its own sake makes very little sense."
Manamela argued that "socialising" the commanding heights of the economy was a better option.
He said that would go beyond formal state control to real ownership being in the hands of the people, not BEE companies in need of bail-outs.
This was also the view that Cronin expressed in his article in the party's newsletter, Umsebenzi Online.
"Some of us have already cautioned that nationalising mining houses in the current global and national recession might have the unintended consequence of simply bailing out indebted private capital, especially BEE mining interests."
Manamela said the strategic importance of overcoming private monopoly distortions in the economy and society was what the Freedom Charter's call to ensure that the wealth was shared actually meant.
"The YCL supports a multi- pronged strategy that ensures that we increasingly socialise these commanding heights of our economy through a wide range of interventions.
"H ence our call for control of Sasol and Mittal Steel to be refashioned to serve the energy needs of the people instead of capital," Manamela said.
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