by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – FRUSTRATIONS is mounting among black South Africans over the slow pace of land redistribution, three decades after the dawn of democracy, with vast tracts of land still concentrated in the hands of the white minority.
The South African Communist Party (SACP), through its Central Committee meeting held at COSATU House in Johannesburg, has once again raised alarm at what it describes as the enduring legacy of racial capitalism.
“Land remains in the hands of a tiny capitalist minority, dominated by commercial farmers, mining houses, estate developers, game farms and tourism operators. This reflects the continuing domination of white bourgeois ownership,” said SACP General Secretary, Solly Mapaila.
He lamented the limited progress made under land restitution and redistribution programmes, arguing that beneficiaries have largely been left without adequate state support.
“This defies the Freedom Charter’s call that land shall be re-divided among those who work it, and that the state shall provide implements, seed, tractors and dams,” Mapaila said, adding that the same applies to other key economic sectors.
Despite the Freedom Charter’s declaration that mineral wealth, banks, and monopoly industries should belong to the people, Mapaila said the commanding heights of the economy remain under monopoly capitalist control.
“The vast value of South Africa’s mineral wealth is converted into profits for a few bosses, transferring ownership from the people to private hands,” he noted.
Mapaila further condemned what he termed “neo-liberal austerity” and structural reforms that, in his view, weaken state-owned enterprises while creating opportunities for private profiteering.
He pointed to Eskom’s struggles, South African Airways’ (SAA’s) collapse, and the looming threats to the Post Office and Post Bank as evidence of an agenda to erode public ownership.
“In energy, so-called reforms have opened the door for private producers under the guise of a just transition, with government guarantees shifting risk onto the public,” he said. He also criticised the auctioning of high-frequency spectrum, which strengthened the dominance of Vodacom and MTN.
“Privatisation in South Africa is not only about selling assets,” Mapaila warned. “It is about systematically weakening the state’s role in the economy to the benefit of private profit interests.”
– CAJ News