The price of liberation was the Black soul

THERE isa black sadness that is slowly creeping over South Africa. Perhaps it's more than sadness. It's a gutfeel filled with shame. It is rooted in issues such as black corruption, black crime, black incompetence and lastly, black irresponsible enrichment. The devel- opment of the black billionaire classes post-apartheid caught our liberation victory off-guard. Their obsession with accelerated wealth accumulation was the ultimate betrayal of the political struggle. South Africa should have implemented legislation to limit wealth accumulation through political office and political connections. That it did not do so was a fatal mistake.

- LORENZO DAVIDS

Funded by foreign governments, its global agencies and corporate elites, a path was paved that would do what these foreign actors have done in every African country since colonialism: set up a wealthy elite that they will own and that they will do their bidding for lucrative rewards and that they will, once they have served their usefulness, destroy. For colonial and oppressive governments, losing political power ‘was not an unanticipated factor in their planning. It is always anticipated. The next phase of colonialism was to build a black elite that would become the agents of political and economic power for these foreign governments.

Acting like colonial masters, these black billionaires would exhibit the same wealth as their masters. Their media partners would celebrate them. The social pages would showcase them. The talk shows would interview them.

And eventually, when they wish to destroy them, they would contrast them with the horrendous conditions within their country, setting them up to fall.