http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100419/BUSINESS/704199956/1058&template=columnists
South Africa finds another new word for inequality Gavin du Venage Last Updated: April 19. 2010 7:36PM UAE / April 19. 2010 3:36PM GMT Julius Malema, the chairman of the ANC’s youth league, is the personification of tenderpreneurship in the Rainbow Nation. EPA Words such as “commando” and “apartheid” have been South Africa’s contribution to the English language over the years. Now the country is likely to add another: tenderpreneur. The term is, like “oligarch”, a far-from flattering reference to connected businessmen who use political influence to make vast fortunes from the country’s shaky attempts to grow a modern economy. A tenderpreneur is likely to be black, a member of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), and adept at using affirmative action laws to feather his or her nest. Over the past year the word has become common in local media and among bloggers, and regularly tumbles from the lips of analysts and even politicians, especially those who have been unable to take advantage of the system. No one represents tenderpreneurship as visibly as Julius Malema, the multimillionaire chairman of the ANC’s powerful youth league. Mr Malema, 29, is as well known for his flash lifestyle as he is for his rabble-rousing speeches calling for the nationalisation of mines and apparent endorsement of attacks on white farmers. He has reportedly won contracts worth 140 million rand (Dh69.5m) in the past few years, to build roads, cemeteries and bridges in his home province of Limpopo, to the north of the country. At least one bridge built by his company, SGL Engineering, has had to be closed after it began to fall apart months after completion. Mr Malema has become a constant source of media copy. The country’s scrappy newspapers have run lurid stories about his wealth, love of 250,000-rand Breitling watches and the wild parties that outrage his neighbours in upmarket Sandton, north of Johannesburg, the site of one of his homes. Not bad for a guy with no more than a high school diploma. If Mr Malema represents the worst sort of political opportunism, his actions also speak of a deeper malaise that Africa’s biggest economy has been struggling with since white rule ended in 1994. Under apartheid, blacks were legally excluded from holding all but the most menial of jobs. Black education was specifically crafted to produce a generation of labourers. As a result, the country has what Thabo Mbeki, a former president, called a “cappuccino economy” – a froth of whites at the top, with a mass black underclass below. A recent survey by the respected South African Institute of Race Relations showed per capita income for whites is 135,707 rands, compared with 19,496 rands for blacks. ------------------------------------ ---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to [email protected], OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to [email protected] TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to [email protected] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
