South Africa's economy is still in the apartheid era and blacks must wrest control of the continent's financial and mining powerhouse from the white minority, President Jacob Zuma said Tuesday."The structure of the apartheid economy has remained largely intact and has not included higher or inclusive growth," Zuma said as he opened a key policy conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
During talks with the apartheid regime before the end of white minority rule in 1994, the party "had to make certain compromises in national interest and these were absolutely necessary," Zuma said.
"The ownership of the economy is still primarily in the hands of white males as it had always been," he said. "The ANC must democratize and deracialise the ownership and control of the economy by empowering the African community and blacks in general."