The South African Communist Party (SACP) has added its voice to growing concerns being raised within some sections of the tripartite-alliance about the role of the emerging black capitalist elite.

Writing in the latest issue of Umsebenzi Online, an SACP newsletter, general secretary Blade Nzimande argued that, while black professionals, managers and businesspeople could play an important transformatory role, there was a real threat that they could help perpetuate the “continued dominance of a capitalist accumulation path that oppresses the great majority of blacks, women and, of course, workers and the poor”.

His comments came only one day after Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi warned that the dominance of business figures in the African National Congress, the leading tripartite-alliance partner, could dilute the pro-poor ideological stance of the organization.

Writing the article under the headline “South Africa’s democracy: Deepening class contradictions”, the SACP leader criticised developments in the labour market as well as the way black economic empowerment deals were being pursued.

He said, for instance, that while partially State-owned telecoms utility Telkom presented itself as a leader in black economic empowerment (BEE), its behaviour over the last few weeks raised serious questions.

“It has just declared a huge profit of R4,5-billion and paid its black CEO an obscene R11,4-million in salary and bonuses. In the same week as these figures were released, Telkom announced its intention to retrench thousands more workers over the next three years.”

He also lambasted the financial-services sector. “Again, in exactly the same week that Standard Bank announces a huge black economic empowerment deal, the banks were busy evicting black bond-holders in Protea Glen in Soweto. This happens against the backdrop of unrest in Diepsloot, again a symptom of, amongst other things, the dismal failure of capitalist banks to finance low-cost housing. We note that as the capitalist banks do this, it is the state, through the Minister of Housing, cde Lindiwe Sisulu that has had to come to the rescue of some of those being evicted. For the capitalist banks, profits are the bottom line not the social needs of Protea Glen residents,” Nzimande wrote.

He then went on to suggest that the capitalist-accumulation undertone is likely to have an effect on the current cycle of wage negotiations. “South Africa is currently faced with a number of labour disputes and possible strikes in major sectors of our economy – the metal and motor industries, the mining industry, the public sector, media and communications, etc. “In part, these are the usual, cyclical, two to three-year rounds of wage negotiations, as existing agreements begin to expire. But this year they occur in a particular context. In many sectors, organized workers cannot but help notice that the capitalist accumulation path has brought immense rewards to capitalists, while the earnings of workers (those still in employment) have declined.”

He added that the intensity of these disputes will, in part, be about different class interpretations of our decade of democracy, and of the ANC’s 70% electoral mandate.

“Some in the media and in big business have tried to interpret the ANC’s April election victory, as a mandate to continue with “business as usual” in economic policy. This is certainly not the view of the millions of workers and poor who actually voted for the ANC. Nor are they the views of the ANC leadership, as illustrated by the Letter from the President (“The poor of this world rich in faith”) in last Friday’s ANC Today,” Nzimande argued.