I think that we must note the following:
1) Definitions of black and white. The first prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act was passed only in 1806 after the British took control of the Cape. Between 1652 and 1806 the only requirement for a mixed couple to get married was that both parties had to be Christian. The consequence is that there are in fact very few, if any really white (racially pure) Afrikaners, most are in fact ‘coloured’.
2) There are endless reports of corruption in Britain, Europe, the USA and even Japan. These cases of often massive corruption are not sensationalised in the media so few people pay attention to them.
3) We live in a racial capitalist society in which the accumulation of capital was promoted but the black population was completely excluded from any opportunity to accumulate capital and property. After 1994 the state was opened to all races through democratic elections, and by the very nature of our demographics the majority black population rightfully became the majority in the structures of the state, but were still excluded from an untransformed economy based on private ownership.
4) The only entry point for a black person to participate in the capitalist economy was through the mechanism of the state post 1994. Thus the state became a vehicle for the private accumulation of capital by black South Africans, which then led to a proliferation of corruption, not because those involved were black, but because this was the only entry point to economic participation in a class system that correlated with race. This could have been avoided if the large white dominated foreign owned monopolies in mining, banking, wholesale and retail trade were broken up and opened for black participation.
5) However, another, better solution would have been a socialist trajectory that sought to raise the standard of living of all, instead of promoting a non-racial capitalist class and retaining capitalism The nationalisation and socialisation of the economy could have avoided all the contradictions we now find ourselves in.
6) Corruption involving state resources was therefore a consequence of economic exclusion in the private sector, while racism is a function of defending the racial exclusion of the majority from participating in the economy. We must therefore understand the systemic drivers of corruption and racism rather than succumbing to wholesale labelling and generalisation.
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