BLACK MIDDLE CLASS & SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Analysis - The Citizen - Tuesday 04 April 2006
By NKONZWENHLE MQADI
Will the black business or middle class grow, and have a positive effect on the growth and transformation of the national economy? Is the black business or middle class aligned to the country's transformation mandate?
These are the most frequently asked questions, and the groundswell of disillusionment is brewing among the African masses, as people make this concern our national discourse.
The South African emerging business or middle class and its social responsiveness has left the wider civil society questioning whether or not the black elite's new-found purchasing power is really fuelling a broader consumer boom.
Some observers argue these nouveau-riche or elites, located in the most affluent surburbs, lack the class consciousness to create sustainable investment and empower their communities.
Eminent scholars such as KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbusiso Ndebele go out of their way to challenge and address the social conscience of the province's more affluent citizens.
"Where are the black business and intelligentsia located in the South African economy, and are they contributing to the much-vaunted 6% economic growth and the development of our own communities" has become Ndebele's daily mantra.
This new phenomenon-whereby more and more upwardly mobile black people are getting richer while the majority of their compatriots get left behind-is considered as one of the outstanding characteristics of the political, social and economic transformation of the post-1994 era.
And this begs the central question: how do we use this new black economic power to fast-track the gap between the so-called first and second economies?
Figures from a South African Advertising & Research Foundation survey released last year provided a clear picture of the strong growth in the number of blacks in the top LSM (Living Standard Measure) indicating that black people were taking huge strides into the higher categories, wealth-wise.
However, Empowerdex CEO Vuyo Jack criticises the new black buying power because, he argues, it is being spent on consumerism rather than investments.
People are doing what they were previously unable to do-such as going on holidays or buying a nice brand-new car.
"Without a focus on investments the massive spending boom may not be sustainable.
The real middle class are those with income enabling them to build assets, and this income should also be used to support their extended families," according to Jack.
On the other hand, world-renowned Nigerian-born writer Chika Onyeani has warned the South African black middle class that once they go into business arena they should take cognisance of the insidious 'spider web" of economic dependence.
Onyeani sounds a warning about the dangers of economic dependency, that could simply perpetuate the formerly one-sided power relations between haves and have-nots, a decade after the advent of democracy.
Onyeani sees our BBE (Black Economic Empowerment) deals as a good policy that gives Africans first-hand insight into how multi-nationals listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange operate.
However, he urges the black middle class to encourage the growth of a manufacturing class- either by providing access to reasonably=priced money or by buying goods and services that have been produced by their own people.
Merril Lynch economist Nazmeera Moola concurs. He states that " generally there has been an increase in purchasing power, mostly in the sales of consumer goods, financial services, motor cars and tourism".
Moola, though, adds that it is difficult to pinpoint what does constitute the " black middle class".
Interestingly, an ideological debate about the black middle class in the global economy is proving quite contentious.
Strong arguments are that surely it was a good thing that the aspirant black business or middle class had come out of the so-called second economy and have overcome the hardships that the majority of African people are still confronted with.
A pertinent question is whether this so-called class of elites is socially responsible-whether they will empower their close relatives and friends still trapped in the second economy.
What measures have they put in place, working in partnership with the three tiers of governance, to help their communities gain access to basic services?
And is the black business or middle class able to reconcile the huge disparities so prevalent among South African communities' living standards?
Former Black Management Forum MD Jerry Vilakazi argues that it is high time for the black business or middle class to forget about investing in golf estates found in the most affluent surburbs. They need to start investing back into their communities-those still residing in the townships and rural areas, as he warned during the BMF conference last year.
Our black business or middle class faces a critical, fundamental challenge. It is their responsibility, their social imperative, to reverse capital flow back into the townships and rural areas.
Grassroots communities have been asking whether black middle class is using its position and influence to advance the transformation objectives of our democracy.
Seen within the context of revisionist sociology, or in the Marxist idiom, the South African business or middle class lacks the class consciousness and characteristics to become a fully-fledged class in itself.
The pragmatic understanding of the black business or middle class needs to be build more on more than just generating income and immediate profit. It should, instead, start building wealth via assett classes, such as property, manufacturing and securities.
Our black business or middle class has a social duty, the masses argue, to help inculcate entrepreneurial skills to the huge numbers of our unemployed school graduates. And they should also be able to inculcate middle class status to the younger generation.
Simply put, through people development and education programmes our emerging black business or middle class occupying strategic positions should form, shape and influence government policies towards the total economic liberation of the African people.
This assumes a black middle class exists. Suprisingly, renowned black businessman StanLib chairman Saki Macozoma denies the existence of this class: stating the social category we call the black middle class in South Africa is a conceptual construct rather than an objective reality.
"A black bourgeoisie in South Africa" according to Macozoma,"is pure fiction".
# Mqadi is a Durban-based writer.