Capitalist crusader

Afro capitalist at the helm

A FEW weeks after Herman Mashaba became mayor of South Africa’s biggest city, tragedy struck. A group of illegal miners known as zama-zamas (“chancers”, for the risks they take) were trapped in an old mineshaft at Langlaagte, the Johannesburg farm where prospectors first discovered gold in 1886. At least three of them died.

To Mr Mashaba, the disaster was a symptom of the breakdown of law and order. It was also a chance to look for capitalist solutions to lingering problems, such as the sky-high unemployment that makes zama-zamas risk their lives. Langlaagte is the “commercial foundation” of Johannesburg, Mr Mashaba declared in his inaugural speech to the city council a few days later. It ought to be a tourist site, and have its “commercial potential” unleashed.

Mr Mashaba, 57, calls himself the “Capitalist Crusader” (the title of a book he published last year). Among South African politicians he is a rare breed: a scrappy self-made millionaire, a libertarian and a capitalist in a country so left-leaning that even the...Continue reading

from Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2dmopPl
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT