“Things are not as easy once you are actually in power, ” says one. The second agrees: ‘It is a question of what is achievable, what your priorities are, where sacrifices will fall. Tough choices have to be made ' ” (Guardian, 24 June).
These are two members of South Africa’s new black elite explaining away the contrast between the ANC’s pre-election promises and its subsequent performance in government.
What it has delivered since the end of apartheid is a sharp fall in the economic inequality between white and black, but growing inequality within the black population. The black elite now enjoy the good life, once the preserve of rich whites, but the vast majority of blacks still live in squalor.
Yes, now that the ANC is presiding over South African capitalism tough choices and sacrifices do indeed have to be made, but it is very clear that those who make the choices will not be making the sacrifices.
August 1996 issue of the Socialist Standard
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