The EFF has no choice but to propose that banks must be nationalised without compensation, because due to the ANC’s corruption and mismanagement the government simply does not have the money to pay for the nationalisation if it should happen, says Dr Corné Mulder, Chief whip of the FF Plus.
Yesterday, during a parliamentary debate on the EFF’s proposal to nationalise banks in this way, Dr Mulder said that South Africa will be destroyed if their proposal is carried out.
According to him, history has continually shown that the notions of the free market and guaranteed property rights create wealth and job opportunities, while socialism and communism leave everybody equally poor and hungry.
“We all know the popular quote: ‘The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.’
“If banks are nationalised, a great percentage of value and job opportunities will be destroyed overnight. The government cannot interfere in this business as it has already proven itself utterly unable to manage anything.
“What the EFF is actually saying is that we should do to banks what has already been done to ESKOM and the SAA with people like Dudu Myeni and Brian Molefe in charge. It is a recipe for disaster.
“Examples of where nationalisation failed in Africa include Nigeria that nationalised its banks in the 70’s and went bankrupt by 1994. Things went the same way in Ghana and Tanzania as well.
“There are, however, also examples of countries in Africa where the opposite happened: Botswana, Mauritius, Kenya and South Africa all have well-developed economic systems and show progress.
“South Africa’s economy is currently in such a critical state that we simply cannot afford to send the message that we want to nationalise our banks to investors, graders and the rest of the world.
“Especially not on the day that the private banks had to save the SAA from ruin with yet another buoy of R3 billion. At present, we have a current deficit of R50 billion in our economy. What investors will we invite to invest in South Africa if we want to nationalise our banks in the current circumstances?” Dr Mulder asked.
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