In September 1985 a group of white South African business leaders travelled to a game lodge in Zambia to meet with the exiled ANC leadership under Oliver Tambo and Thabo Mbeki. The group wanted to establish for themselves who and what the ANC was, and they were led by Gavin Relly, executive chairperson of Anglo American. The Zambian visit set in motion a coordinated and well-resourced plan by big business to influence political change in South Africa.
After the ANC was unbanned, their goal was to ensure the party did not turn the country into a last outpost of socialism. In The ANC Billionaires top-selling author Pieter du Toit investigates whether secret deals were struck between capital and the liberation movement to ensure the status quo remains in terms of economic policy.
He also shows how the ANC was completely unprepared to navigate the intersection between business and politics. The book draws on first-hand accounts by major role players about the contentious relationship between capital and the ANC before, during and after the countrys transition to democracy.
It also sheds light on the millionaires and billionaires who have benefited from their relationship to the party, and with business. After 1994, a cadre of politically connected businessmen, such as Tokyo Sexwale, Cyril Ramaphosa, Saki Macozoma and Patrice Motsepe, emerged who had access to preferential empowerment deals brokered by companies like Anglo American all became very wealthy. The one thing these individuals have in common is the ANC - the party of government and patronage.
