Peter Bruce » Blog Archive » If Radebe wants the “people” to own the mines, hand over to communities now

Then  one of the papers yesterday quoted fellow  miner Bridgette Radebe saying she’d be happy  to have her mines nationalised so they could  become the property of something called “our  people”. Her brother, Patrice Motsepe, has  also indicated in the recent past that he’d be  open to the prospect of nationalisation.

With all that kind of money and clout  behind him it is no wonder Malema feels he  can do pretty much as he pleases.

Still, I don’t understand why Radebe (or  any other beneficiary of empowerment in the  mining industry) would think like this. BEE  has been good to her. In fact she’s the epitome  of BEE success — a woman, connected, clever  and black . If ever you objected to this kind of  thing, you were a racist or a coconut. Like all  miners she would have had her ups and  downs, but to try and have herself bought out  during a “down” like now at taxpayers’  expense is just breathtaking.

Business is always hard and always  unforgiving. If you don’t like waking up in the  morning with a knot in your stomach then do  something else. If we are genuinely trying to  grow an entrepreneurial class of black people  in SA then Radebe’s reported remarks in Durban set the worst possible example.

via blogs.businessday.co.za

I have isolated the most significant paragraphs. Please read the whole article - this is a VERY different spin on mine nationalisation that seems to follow a certain perverse logic.