Durban — ANC presidential hopeful Dr Zweli Mkhize believes that the current structure of the government was originally set up to preserve a colonial type of economy, which is money extracted from South Africa and sent to the colonial country.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily News at the weekend, Mkhize spoke about the impact the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) had. He said where there’s inequality there’s poverty, where there’s unemployment, there’s crime.
Mkhize said when apartheid ended the economical structure was not tampered with and it was left to serve the minority interests. Mkhize said the country needed an economy that services the majority of South Africans. He said we cannot continue to have a minority-led economy. The country needed to broaden it.
He also divulged his Struggle history, the impact he had on shaping the country’s political sphere, and how the Digital Vibes saga almost destroyed him.
Mkhize joined the ANC underground movement in 1978 at a time when political organisations were banned. The United Democratic Front (UDF) formed in 1983, giving people a voice against the former apartheid administration, said Mkhize.
“When we spoke about the issue of more radical socio-economic transformation it was meant to look at how we address the fact that over many years, we have a majority of people who are not in control of the country. We have a situation where 10% of the population actually controls 80% of the economy. And 80% of the population shares 10% of the economy. So we need to deal with that because SA is more unequal now than it was during the days of the apartheid and that cannot be,” Mkhize said.
Mkhize said he was on good terms with former president Jacob Zuma and in the past few months they had been in touch to discuss how to support the leadership in the province. Mkhize also kept the lines of communication open between him and Thabo Mbeki.
“I explained to Zuma my intentions of standing to be elected president. He understood but he still prefers a certain candidate. I respect his different view. It is always important to remember that these are leaders that we have served with and under.”
Mkhize also had no problem with having a woman as his deputy but it was all left to the ANC branches to decide. Mkhize said when he was the premier of the province it was an era of stability and growth.
Speaking about the ANC resolutions, he promised to ensure that they would be implemented if he is elected as the party president at the conference.
Mkhize said there was a concern that the party was not implementing resolutions that were taken at the party conferences and he would ensure all the resolutions were implemented.
There has been concern that the party was good at drafting and approving good policies but lacked an implementation plan. Some of the resolutions were the nationalisation of the SARB and land expropriation without compensation.
Mkhize said it was important that these resolutions were implemented before new resolutions were taken.
Bolstered by the Special Investigation Unit’s (SIU) admission that it did not have the evidence that it had relied on to link him to the Digital Vibes tender scandal, Mkhize appeared to speak with confidence on his possible ascendency to the top position of Africa’s oldest party. Asked whether he intended to sue the SIU after its admission that it did not have evidence that it claimed it had, Mkhize said he was taking it one step at a time, saying he first wanted the report reviewed.
Mkhize had previously accused the SIU of delaying the matter to be heard by not filing its responding affidavits on time and when it finally did it filed incomplete papers.
He further advised that to break the chain of the high crime rate in the country, a chain of poverty and unemployment should be broken first.
Mkhize said the government departments needed to work together as a team in fighting the challenges faced by the communities.
“We get the Department of Transport going to the community ward to talk about roads. Two weeks later, the other department wants to talk about the schools and health. All this leaves the communities confused.
“Second, it is important that at national level the government has a very strong approach to push investments, growth, empowerment, job creation programmes and involvement of police with the community,” said Mkhize.
“When we hosted the imbizo in Wentworth, Sydenham, an 82-year-old man said we cannot be looking at the issue of drugs as the only problem, but we should also look at poverty. He said a lot of the drug dealers are not seen as criminals by the community but as saviours. They also give people groceries and give children bus fares. Therefore, these people will be shielded by the community. The bulk of the challenge is people who stick to petty crime because that’s their only way of survival.
“The police need to work together with the community otherwise they will never stop them,” said Mkhize.
Daily News