The Citizen reports that, after an Oxfam report revealed that three South Africa’s billionaires have the same wealth as the bottom 50% of the country’s population, Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla expressed the view in an interview that inequality would continue to worsen in SA.
This was said to be because government has kept its hands off the running of the country’s economy, leaving the plight of the poor at the mercy of monopoly capital with its wealth accumulation agenda. Pamla argued that, since the government was fence-sitting, there has been ongoing consolidation of monopoly capital through mergers and acquisitions in the past few years to form more powerful companies. In the process, bosses accumulate wealth through increased profits and huge salaries, while workers struggle to make ends meet.
“To counter this, we need a South Africa where the state actively ensures that those on the periphery of the economy are able to participate in growing that economy,” Pamla indicated. He suggested that SA needed to be a truly developmental state, with a development bank for the poor to access funding.
- Read this report by Eric Naki in full at The Citizen
- See too, Inequality worse than at end of apartheid, says Oxfam, at IOL News
- And also, Cosatu ‘disgusted’ by wealth report, calls for international action, at The Citizen
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page