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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dave rose who wrote (22260)	1/10/2005 4:01:16 PM
From: sea_urchin	Respond to of 80950

Dave > There are rumors about that the government is going to , may I say appropriate, some of the business and mines so that ownership should be at least 50% black No, their policy is one of the compulsory sale of a certain proportion of the equity of companies (10 - 25%) to "black empowerment" groups. There is no nationalization or expropriation. Of course, the compulsory sale of a proportion of white owned business to blacks is a pain in the butt but one has to recognize the inequity of the situation where 9% of the population owned possibly 90% of the country, including land, businesses etc. It requires no particular imagination to envisage how unstable that situation would be. So, it is in the whites' own self-interest if business ownership is broader-based. Indeed, most whites, and certainly those in business, recognize this and do their best to comply, not that they have much choice. > Many of the owners of stock in S.A. miners are worried. Even the mine owners are divesting outside of S.A. to protect their stock value. I'm fully aware of that and I don't blame them for doing what they can to protect their own interest. But I think you can understand the dilemma the government faces where the majority of SAns, and indeed its supporters, have no stake in the country whatsoever and, unless some means is instituted for them to obtain it, they can never obtain one. Fortunately, so far, we haven't seen the Zimbabwean "solution" where whites were simply forced off their land. Many say it could still happen. I'm confident the "transition" will be more orderly -- but who knows? Such is the uncertainty of life in Africa! > Is this how a democracy works? Sometimes, yes. Democracy, after all, has also been called the tyranny of the majority. That's why I mentioned earlier that SA has a non-liberal democracy, where the interest of the masses is considered more important than the interest of the individual -- at least, that's what they say. But, as I mentioned, the ANC have become avaricious capitalists and they would be the last ones to want to see what they now own also "redistributed" to the masses!