Letter: Mbalula is too Mba to be a Lula - Business Day

Yacoob Abba Omar writes that Fikile Mbalula could be ushering in a “Lula moment” for the ANC (“Is this the ANC’s ‘Lula moment’ or just a ‘Mbalula blip’?”, August 10).

He says this “Lula moment” refers to the first presidency of Lula da Silva in Brazil. This was something of a mini golden age for the South American state, with rapid economic growth and expansion of the middle classes (although this period is now being reassessed by economists).

It is strange that Omar connects a rebirth of the ANC with a “Lula” moment, which saw life improve for the majority of Brazilians. It does not follow that a resurgent ANC will necessarily result in SA experiencing its own Lula moment. In fact, some would argue that a resurgent ANC and a resurgent SA are mutually exclusive.

As long as the ANC continues to push destructive policies such as expropriation without compensation and National Health Insurance, and also pushes for the continued racialisation of SA society through harsher employment equity and BEE, SA can forget about having its Lula moment.

Unless the ANC does a U-turn on many of its key policies, which only impoverish the people of this country, economic growth will continue to languish in the doldrums, with all that means for tackling unemployment and poverty.

Mbalula may succeed in energising the ANC — but this may not be good news for SA.

Marius Roodt
Institute of Race Relations

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/letters/2023-08-17-letter-mbalula-is-too-mba-to-be-a-lula/