Don't judge Blade by the type of car he drives

I think we have to admit that to some extent the Convention for a Democratic South Africa in the early 1990s set us up for failure. This is so because the social, political and economic landscapes of this beautiful country are potholed with contradictions.

Many of the injustices and inequalities are structural.

Some prefer to call them the legacy of apartheid but that is taking it too far. However, what we have in this beautiful land is a long tradition of the super wealthy living side-by-side — almost harmoniously — with the dirt poor.

It is easy to find a blind Zimbabwean beggar or a poor African woman and child asking for small change at an intersection.

They will all be looked at with indifference by filthy rich people — both black and white — who refuse to recognise them as fellow South Africans.
Now, we have to be realistic and admit that government ministers are not the only people who drive around in BMW 750i.

The so-called WaBenzi class also includes overpaid corporate executives ( from all race groups whose companies rip off the poor ) and countless beneficiaries of affirmative action and black economic empowerment.

It is sheer political opportunism for anyone, especially labour activists, to expect us to believe that government ministers are the only ones who are living off the fat of the land. In fact, we are not gullible fools.

I think there has to be a national shift in the way we deal with Blade Nzimande’s choice to purchase a BMW valued at more than R1 million.

It just does not make sense to me that there can be a hardening of attitude while the capitalist bosses, who rip off the poor, and the beneficiaries of government empowerment deals continue to flaunt their wealth.

We need to reach some kind of consensus that the perceived indifference to poverty and unemployment is not just a government problem.

It is a situation that should move us all.

The only safeguards against the ultimate abuse of government funds are for us to agree that no money derived from the people of this country should be used to flaunt personal wealth or status.

I wish to repeat: no money that is derived, directly or indirectly, from the people of this country should be used to flaunt personal wealth or status.

When it comes to Nzimande et al, for instance, it has to be said that nobody should expect a chicken to lay a duck egg.

The social and economic system in this country is organised in such a way that a government minister is within his rights to own two BMWs, if that is what he chooses.

Nzimande has committed no crime in his choice, if we go by the book.

We must remember that, sometimes, circumstances may temporarily change a man.

It has to be said without fundamental transformation of the economic and social system, it is easy for any one-time rebel to be tempted to become part of what they fought against once upon a time.

What we have is an unchanged social and economic landscape that has, largely, preserved white monopoly of the wealth. The posh cars, fancy clothes and luxury homes are part of the unchanged system. They have always been an appeal, an invite to get black leaders, including government ministers and corporate top dogs, to get caught inside an amnesiac, middle-class media gloss.

Nzimande did not create this problem.

The key to bringing enlightenment to this controversy is in realising that ideas are more important than what people drive. Essentially, the brouhaha over Nzimande is just a gimmick to distract society from the main issue which is: who else drives a BMW?

There are a lot of people in glass houses who are throwing stones at government ministers simply because they are government ministers. What does it help if Nzimande gives up his BMW because the social, economic and political landscape will not change?

One day we will live in a society where a minister is not judged by the car he drives but his ideas.