Nationalisation

The chorus for nationalisation of the mines and banks in South Africa is becoming increasingly raucous. The logic being used to sway the masses is that if the mines, and whatever else, are nationalised then the profits can be used to finance free education.

How realistic is the call when, apparently, the only state-owned mine in the country runs at a massive loss?

Also, what is the REAL motive behind the call? In my experience there is normally the stated motive, which is trumpeted abroad for all and sundry to hear and debate, and then there is the REAL motive. The one that is discussed either in hushed voices behind closed doors or, more often than not, loudly in pubs with alcohol-soaked voices rising in direct proportion to the level of inebriation of the speaker.

What is the hidden agenda?

Could it be that many people who were given shares in the mines and banks after South Africa became a democracy, unhappy with the current value of those shares, want to cash in on them in a big way?

“They” tell us that black mine owners have no problem with nationalisation of their mines. Is that because the reserves in the mines the black mine owners bought have been virtually exhausted, having been purchased at the end of their viable life? So-called white mine owners (most mines are stock exchange listed to my knowledge so shareholders could be from anywhere, and any race group, in the world) are fighting tooth and nail to prevent nationalisation happening.

Call me cynical, but when I hear the vuvuzela, sorry, Julius Malema trumpeting about nationalisation I cannot help but wonder what the REAL reason is for that call.

Notes:
1. For those who did not get to watch the FIFA World Cup 2010, a vuvuzela is a plastic ‘horn’ that makes a very loud and obnoxious sound and doesn’t add any value to anything. It definitely does not enable meaningful dialogue to take place in its presence. Excessive use of the vuvuzlea during the world cup even resulted in a new medical condition: Vuvu lips! I kid you not!! They have no relationship to Botox lips, although I think that both the bearers (wearers?) of Vuvu Lips and Botox Lips experience the same lack of sensation.
2. Julius Malema is president of the ANC Youth League.

I decided to post the following poem on this blog, rather than on my other blog at http://bleedingmoonpoetry.blogspot.com because I feel it says exactly how I feel about certain individuals in this country.

EMPTY VESSEL
When
you speak
we hear a
vuvuzela.
You are obnoxious.
you grate on every nerve.
You overwhelm the voices
of stability and reason
with the drivel you sprout so freely.

When you speak we hear a vuvuzela.


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