The Myth That Black South Africans Were Taught How To Trade – They Built Anyway
To say black South Africans lacked business acumen until others arrived is not an analysis. It is arrogance, and history does not support it
By Zola Pinda:
Maponya Mall in Soweto. The author argues that if Richard Maponya represented visible township capital, Sam Motsuenyane represented the organised backbone of black business. (Image: Facebook)
No one taught us how to trade - Black South Africans were not waiting to be taught how to trade.
They were already trading, building, borrowing, saving, transporting, wholesaling, manufacturing and organising long before 1994. They did so under pass laws, forced removals, influx control, racist licensing regimes, police harassment and an economy designed to deny them ownership. To suggest that...