mahnmut

Book calls South Africa's fiscal policy 'whiter-than-white'

South Africa's government hotly disputes activist
and journalist John Pilger's criticism of ANC policies.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/09/01/safrica.book.reut/

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- Journalist John Pilger is scathing in his criticism of the "whiter-than-white" economic policies of the South African government, which he says have enriched a few blacks at the expense of millions of others.

In his new book "Freedom Next Time," the combative Australian-born writer says the African National Congress sold its soul to corporate bosses over glasses of single malt whiskey. "It was as if the ANC aspired to be whiter-than-white in its relations with the rulers of the world," Pilger writes.

"Low tariffs would entice foreign imports; low inflation would preside over low wages and high unemployment ... and the rand would be subjected to the vagaries of the market."

In a book that also has essays on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the war in Afghanistan, Pilger questions the morality of paying off South Africa's apartheid-era debt and the wisdom of running budget deficits lower than those of many developed nations.

Even pro-business economists have questioned such fiscal austerity in the face of pressing social needs. ...