Out of Africa I

In a speech to the Financial Times in London South African Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu has warned that the gap between rich and poor in South Africa is widening.

He said “most (people) are languishing in the wilderness,” criticising the slow pace of wealth redistribution since the end of apartheid in the country in 1994.

It is not the first time Tutu has spoken out against South Africa’s economic policies, arguing that that had enriched only the few, and not the many. Many of the ruling ANC upper eschelon have accumulated wealth beyond belief in the 13 years that they have had the opportunity to dip into the public purse.

This is against a background of suspicion that very senior ANC politicians accepted bribes from British arms dealer BAE estimated at approximately ₤150 million.

Earlier this year Tutu also criticised the South African government for failing to back a UN resolution condemning human rights abuses in Burma, and in 2004 suggested the ruling African National Congress party was stifling internal dissent.