Bulelani and Phumzile

One of the many components of the Anti-Apartheid Movement during the last one or two decades before liberation was called SATIS, standing for “South Africa – The Imprisoned Society”. This was a response to, and a critique of, the extraordinarily high rate of imprisonment, as well as judicial murder of prisoners, in South Africa at the time. SATIS correctly held that the criminalisation and brutalisation of such a huge proportion of the population was a systemic political phenomenon and a distinct component of the State’s means of maintaining the class dictatorship of the (then) all-white South African bourgeoisie. Paul Craig Roberts (“PCR”) is a liberal US Republican (and a very great writer, widely published) who has opposed the continuing US war on Iraq unflinchingly since its beginning. In the article linked below he uses some amazing statistics and some shocking examples to show the exact same phenomenon at work in the United States, which “has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners”, to use one example from the article. Being the good liberal that he is, PCR attributes the problem to “Prosecutors Gone Wild”. But it is clear that this phenomenon is not simply an epidemic or a “culture” among the prosecutors, who are only instruments of the State. The present South African National Prosecution Authority (NPA) and its side-arm, the Directorate of Special Operations, or “Scorpions” was trained by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and is packed with old South African regime thugs. It is a means of increasing the rate of arbitrary criminalisation and brutalisation within South African society, with a view to making a central contribution to the coercive side of the dictatorship of the now “non-racial” South African bourgeoisie. A key feature of the NPA/Scorpion methodology is the use of the plea-bargaining tactic that Paul Craig Roberts so convincingly denounces. You have been warned! Plea-bargaining has already fatally compromised the Brett Kebble murder investigation, and others. Among the individuals who stand out in the current passage of history - which is the re-bourgeoisification of South Africa in new conditions - is Bulelani Ngcuka, the husband of Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Deputy President of the country and first in line to succeed the outgoing President, Thabo Mbeki. Ngcuka was the founding National Director of the NPA/Scorpions and is now a multi-millionaire or possibly a billionaire. He has graduated to the ranks of the principal monopoly bourgeoisie of this country, one of a tiny handful of blacks who can make that claim. Some of the steps that Bulelani Ngcuka took on his way to this position are chronicled in yesterday’s landmark Umsebenzi Online in the very powerful and detailed critique of the Gautrain Project. In the same Umsebenzi Online the SACP repeats its statement that it does not support (or oppose) Jacob Zuma for President. COSATU’s position is the same. What is of greater interest at this time (because it is the bourgeois press that is stirring up the “succession battle”) is: Who does the big bourgeoisie support? Is it really united in support of the Bulelani-Phumzile team? We think there are big risks for the bourgeoisie in such a course, involving as it does the promotion of arbitrary power, combined with a type of bourgeois individuality that is close to fascism. Bulelani Ngcuka’s Amabubesi company boasted: “Our association with decision-makers at the highest level enables us to influence strategic decisions in our country.” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said that there is nothing wrong with getting “filthy stinking rich”. Bulelani’s company said in 2004 that he wants to be “a major player in the economy”. This couple is not shy to say what it wants. Marriage is a bourgeois institution. It regulates bourgeois property. Those who would retroject feminist political correctness on to the Ngcuka marriage should ponder on Margaret Thatcher’s relationship with her millionaire husband, Denis. This is nothing to do with women’s rights, and more like the opposite. But the question we would ask at this stage is: Are the Ngcukas good for the bourgeoisie? Or do they want the whole show for themselves? Because if the latter is the case they may at first succeed but they will eventually fall, and could quite likely take the whole capitalist class down with them. In Bloemfontein yesterday at the 4th SANCO Congress COSATU 1st Deputy President Sdumo Dlamini gave a full statement on COSATU’s relationship with that body. The speech is linked below. COSATU had previously been the victim of a wild, clap-trap accusations by SANCO’s outgoing President, Mlungisi Hlongwane. Once again it fell to the working class to lay down what an alliance is, and why, precisely, alliance partners should not interfere with each other’s inner democracy. But in spite of this, Hlongwane later dispersed the SANCO Congress before it had elected a new leadership, presumably because he feared defeat. Let us hope this shameful episode is not a foretaste of other “succession battles” to come. The last document is the schedule of the YCL Congress, which starts in earnest today. Click on these links: Prosecutors Gone Wild, Paul Craig Roberts, Counterpunch (1708 words) COSATU 1st Dep Pres Sdumo Dlamini to SANCO Congress (2468 words) Detailed Programme of YCLSA Congress 061213-17 (Schedule)