South Africa does not need another July 2021 unrest episode and neither does it need another Marikana massacre.
These are the words of Independent candidate and diamond entrepreneur Louis Liebenberg who has committed himself to changing the lives of zama zamas through artisanal mining and the empowerment of the country’s poor people.
Liebenberg was speaking as one of the leaders of various political organisations that took part in the second political dialogue hosted by The Star at the Joburg Theatre on Wednesday.
Liebenberg, who has been advocating for the legalisation of artisanal mining, said his jobs plan would liberate the mines in order to create jobs for South African miners including zama zamas.
“We will not live in this country forever if we do not put the mines and the farms in the hands of the people,” Liebenberg said.
“My story is not a political story, but the story of a businessman. When I had my story re-organised, I started thinking about the people. It is time to put the mines, the farms, the gold and the platinum in the hands of the people. The government is very eloquent in talking about jobs when no one between them can create even one job,” he said.
Liebenberg, who shocked many when he declared his support for former president Jacob Zuma last year as well as the MK Party in recent weeks, said the country must avoid another Marikana massacre and July 2021 type unrest if the country’s democracy was to be fully realised.
Liebenberg, who is eligible to contest the elections in the Free State and Gauteng after a court found that he did not amass enough signatures in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, urged voters in the provinces he was contesting to vote for him as he would ensure their issues were taken care of.
“We can talk nicely about each other. But if people do not have hope ... If people are unemployed because 95% of people in Namaqualand are unemployed because De Beers left them in the lurch,” Liebenberg said.
“Their reality is a different reality than our reality here in Gauteng. I am saying this because when I said let the people share in the mineral wealth in 2004, they slapped me with more legislation. Politicians, much like lawyers and accountants, are the most corrupt people in the world because what we have here is an ANC that can’t even pay their staff, but they say they will create jobs,” he said.
Liebenberg accused the ANC of corruption, saying the country was like a patient lying in ICU due to high levels of corruption.
He added that the country’s justice system was being used to target Zuma and the MK Party, adding that for corruption to end, voters needed to ensure the removal of the ANC from power.
“What we have here is a country that is in ICU due to corruption. We are not yet a democracy because if we were (Chief Justice Raymond) Zondo would not have decided that Jacob Zuma cannot stand as a candidate,” he said.
The Star
siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za