Tito Mboweni blasted on social media for claiming SA is too 'Africanist'

'Detached from reality', or 'on point' - you decide

25 March 2019 - 12:34 By Kyle Zeeman
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Finance minister Tito Mboweni has once again received backlash on social media for his comments. One person called him a self-hating African.
Finance minister Tito Mboweni has once again received backlash on social media for his comments. One person called him a self-hating African.
Image: Ruvan Boshoff

Finance minister Tito Mboweni has once again found himself at the centre of a social media storm after suggesting that SA had become too "Africanist" and had lost its battle with nonracialism.

In a candid interview on Power FM on Sunday evening, Mboweni said that some appointments in government were "not broad enough to represent what we call a democratic nonracial, nonsexist society".

"From time to time, I've had a feeling that we have become too narrow Africanist. Most of the appointments that we make in the public service, for example, are very Africanist," he added.

He went on to claim that the ANC had not overcome the apartheid National Party the way it had wished.

"Our forces did not defeat the apartheid system. We did not walk into Pretoria in a manner we thought we would. We thought we would walk into Pretoria and take everything; defeat the National Party government, take over and implement our policies the way we wanted to. The fact of the matter is that we had to negotiate a settlement," he said.

His comments sparked debate on social media. Some criticised the minister for being "detached from reality".

Others, however, thought the minister was correct in his assessment.


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