Business Report writes that Blade Nzimande, SA Communist Party (SACP) general secretary, has called for an affordable housing subsidy programme from the government for public sector workers, who are not poor enough to qualify for the reconstruction and development programme housing, but do not earn enough to qualify for funding through the banks.
Ndzimande said that he was shocked when he read about a single individual receiving more than R9bn from the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which is the asset management company for the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) and invests funds on its behalf. He lamented that the funds from the GEPF were being used to fund the wealthy elite, while ordinary workers such as teachers, nurses, and other, whose money was being used, struggled to get funding for basic housing. Nzimande pointed out that to build houses was effectively boosting the economy, “because the more houses we build means more windows will be bought, more steel will be bought, more furniture will be bought, which is what actually boosts the economy”. In 2016, the PIC spent R9.4bn on a black economic empowerment (BEE) deal with the Lancaster Group, which benefited just one person, businessman and former trade unionist Jayendra Naidoo. SACP central committee and political bureau member Jeremy Cronin observed that first-generation BEE had largely played out within the rules of the capitalist system in general.
- Read the full original of Sizwe Dlamini’s report on the above story at Business Report
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