The ANC did not only stick to the guidelines by the World Bank, as Patrick Bond said, it did even more. It went all out not to upset the cart by maintaining the apartheid structure to gain international acceptance. It retained the last Finance Minister under apartheid, Derek Keys, who served under Mandela for four months.
Keys was replaced by another white, Chris Liebenberg, a banker, who served nearly two years before Manuel was moved from Trade and Industry to Finance. But Manuel looks so white that most non- South Africans are not aware that he is not white but coloured.
After 13 years, Manuel gave way to someone slightly darker, Pravin Gordhan, before Pretoria finally appointed the first black Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene this year, 20 years after "democracy".
Some black South Africans noticed the lack of progress. The Economic Freedom Fighters capitalised on this and more than one million voted for the party led by ANC renegade Julius Malema despite the fact that he was facing racketeering charges and 52 other counts.
Malema said something that resonated with them- getting their land back and nationalisation of mines- something that the ANC had promised during the fight for liberation but had abandoned. This was an indictment that the free market was not delivering.
During his campaign, Malema said something that must have irked parties like the Democratic Alliance and even some in the African National Congress: "We are going to take charge of our own lives like the Zimbabweans have done," he said.
"You can say whatever you want to say about Zimbabweans. In the next 10 years they will be the only Africans in the whole of Africa who own their country because, why, they were ready to take the pain. Revolution is about pain. Revolution is change and change is painful. We are ready for that pain. We need that pain."
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