National 8.5.2016 11:50 am
Ngwako Modjadji
Blade Nzimande. Picture: (File Photo by Gallo Images / Daily Sun/ Lucky Morajane)
Nzimande says we have enough centres like the Mall of Africa already. We need useful economic investment.
SA Communist Party (SACP) boss Blade Nzimande has called on banks to invest more in manufacturing and the productive economy rather than in shopping malls.
Nzimande’s remarks came in the wake of the grand opening of the ambitious Mall of Africa late last month in Midrand, northern Johannesburg.
Addressing the SACP provincial congress in Polokwane yesterday, Nzimande said the SACP would not invest in malls if it was in power.
“There is Mall of Africa in Midrand, and it is called shopping tourism,” said Nzimande.
“What is that doing?”
Tourism is known to be a jobs creator in South Africa. However, he asked: “But why a Mall of Africa out of all the priorities we have?”
Nzimande, who is also the higher education minister, said the situation in Vuyani, where 24 schools were burnt down, was not just a Limpopo matter.
“Something is going on there,” he said. “We can’t allow these things to happen.
“They may start in one place and they start spreading throughout the country.
“It is not a just a Limpopo matter. We will be making a mistake if we treat it like that.”
Nzimande warned that there were signs that the world might go back to recession, which would have a devastating impact, especially on developing countries.
“In the global situation at the moment we are faced with a capitalist system that has not come out of its crisis that started in 2008,” he said.
“Student debt in the United States alone is more than 1.3 trillion dollars. In fact, there is a fear that the next thing that may cause the capitalist crisis to come back is the failure of those families and students to pay those debts.”
He said students debt was one of the biggest problems in the world today.
Nzimande added that most Brics countries (other than SA, they are Brazil, Russia, India and China) were in an economic crisis.