Eighteen years after the end of apartheid, South Africa President Jacob Zuma said the country was in need of a “dramatic shift” in the distribution of wealth, which is still largely in the hands of whites.
While agreements on how much land and wealth whites could hold onto were crucial in the country’s much praised nonviolent transition to black majority rule, those agreements have resulted in the black majority having little access to the riches of the wealthiest nation on the African continent.
Zuma made his comments before a meeting of the ruling African National Congress, expressing his frustration at the slow pace of change in redistributing the country’s wealth to the poor. He said reforms needed to be made in land ownership and the benefits to the people from the vast revenues made by private mining firms profiting from the nation’s natural resources.
