‘Nationalisation will never happen’

South Africa will never see nationalisation. This was the message from political commentator Justice Malala at this year’s Road Freight Association (RFA) conference at Zimbali in KwaZulu-Natal. “Not only has the ANC admitted that it would be an unmitigated disaster for the country if they were to go the nationalisation route, but also they just can’t afford it as it would cost in the region of R1 trillion, a figure that exceeds the entire government budget,” he said. Malala said that Julius Malema, who has been ousted by the ANC, had instigated much of the nationalisation talk in the country. “There is very little possibility of him surviving politically or financially, judging my latest reports,” he said. “In 2008 I stood at this very conference and told you that he was nothing but political noise and I think this has been found to be true. His political career is over.” Malala said the government also needed a 65% majority along with the agreement of all nine provinces to change the Constitution to bring about nationalisation. “If one looks at the election results then we see the ANC had 69.5% in 2004 and did not change it. They now have 62% of the vote after the 2009 election and are not allowed to change it.” He said the ANC would also not jeopardise foreign direct investment in the country. “I don’t foresee the ANC ever again getting 65% of the votes. In fact predictions are that they will continue to lose support and that they won’t even get 60% of the votes in the next election.” Malala said all the talk about nationalisation had however hurt the country as major rating institutions such as Moody’s and Fitch Ratings had downgraded South Africa from stable to negative. “There is nothing wrong with debating nationalisation but should we be debating it for so long? Malema has been calling for it for years and only in February did the President finally put it to bed. By allowing the conversation to drag on for so long we have hurt the country as it has resulted in millions of rands not being invested and not being spent, with people being over-cautious and not willing to take risks.” He warned that nationalisation would be back on the table in June this year when the ANC held its policy conference ahead of the big party conference in Mangaung in November. He called on RFA members to take the time to read up on the national development plan in order to better engage with government rather than act up last minute as happened with e-tolling.