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Johannesburg - More than 80% of the Johannesburg Stock
Exchange is accounted for by the large banks and the few companies in the
traditional sectors: mining and energy, said trade federation Cosatu.
"All these companies are white, private, and
capitalist-owned and they are increasingly being foreign-owned," its
president Sdumo Dlamini said in his comments on the 100th anniversary of the ANC, of which Cosatu is an ally.
There was "significant foreign ownership" of many
of these companies.
"Sasol is about 30% foreign-owned and ArcelorMittal is
65% foreign-owned. Massmart is 60% foreign-owned, Shoprite is 35%, Truworths is
50%, Foschini is 40%, JD Group is 40%, Lewis is 30%, Pick n Pay has less than
10%, Spar under 20% and Mr Price and Woolworths 20%.
"Absa is 56% foreign-owned whilst Standard Bank is at
least 40% foreign owned," Dlamini wrote.
The fact that major conglomerates such as Anglo American
[JSE:AGL] had shifted their headquarters and had listed abroad was "an
indication of the increasing foreign and imperialist ownership of the means of
production in South Africa".
Dlamini said that economic power was still "very much
concentrated" and had increasingly become externalised.
"The drive towards foreign ownership, combined with
private ownership of the Reserve Bank, deepens the transformation of the South
African economy away from working class control. The centenary celebrations
must mean a reversal of this painful reality of our economy."
Dlamini added that the present economic reality translated
into a situation "in which African people remain at the lower end of the
ladder".
It was for this reason that since 1994 Cosatu had remained
"consistent in emphasising that the liberation movement must use its
position of political incumbency to create a sustainable economic power base
for the majority of the blacks and Africans in particular".
