POLITICS

South African economy has become a fully-fledged pyramid scheme – Anton Alberts

FF Plus says there are currently more people in the country that receive social grants than people that work

The South African economy has become a fully-fledged pyramid scheme

21 June 2017

The Institute for Racial Relations (IRR) has announced that there are currently more people in South Africa that receive social grants than people that work and contribute to the economy and this means that the country’s economy has deteriorated to a fully-fledged pyramid scheme, says adv. Anton Alberts, the FF Plus’s parliamentary spokesperson for economy.

Adv. Alberts says that about three years ago, the FF Plus had warned Minister Pravin Gordhan – the then Minister of Finances – that South Africa’s economy was going to collapse like a house of cards. This warning was voiced during a budget vote debate speech and it was downplayed as being just talk; the exact word that was used is ‘hyperbole’.

“Unfortunately, the gloomy prediction has now come to pass. The bad news is that there is no plan in place to remedy the economic situation because the pro-Gupta faction in the ANC is in total control of the public purse as well as the numerous pension funds of government employees.

“The ANC does not plan to straighten out the economy because the chaos that it is currently causing in the markets suits them as it gives them the opportunity to execute their plan of creeping expropriation. They are making money by speculating with the Rand and buying up shares, of which the prices have been artificially brought down, with government funding from the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

“The forced bankruptcy and sale of the Optimum mine to the Gupta’s Tegeta is a classic example.

“Black Economic Empowerment simply becomes an instrument that is used as a go-between in huge transactions where the parties involved do not add any value themselves. This means that the poor only gets poorer and the new elite get richer and richer.

“This does not bode well for South Africa and it creates an unstable environment that may ultimately lead to a revolution,” says adv. Alberts.

Issued by Anton Alberts, FF Plus chairperson and parliamentary spokesperson: Economy, 21 June 2017