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CONTRARY to the Westernized, popular belief that South Africa is a model democracy", it is one of Africa's most dysfunctional democracies.

South Africa's apartheid regime is remembered as one of the worst crimes against humanity of the 20th century. The economic system that underpinned it remains alive and well today. Whites comprise only 12 percent of the population but, thanks to the racist exploitation of blacks over the past 350 years, still own 75 percent of the countrys land.

US-based bank, Citigroup, recently ranked South Africa as the worlds richest country, in terms of its mineral reserves, worth an estimated $2.5 trillion. Whites and foreigners own a staggering 80 percent of this wealth. South Africa is, unquestionably, the world's most racially unequal society.

Democracy is not about holding elections, simply to choose which particular representatives of the elite class should rule over the masses. True democracy is about equalizing the economy and giving economic power back to the majority.

The Economic Freedom Fighters party campaigned for the just-ended elections on a platform of three pillars, designed to democratize the economy and overthrow the economic legacy of apartheid. First, expropriation of land for redistribution amongst the masses. Second, nationalization of mines and banks for the benefit of the people and, finally, free education and health care for all

This week marks the most important election in South Africa's post-apartheid history. The EFF is the party of the poor, and if given power by the electorate, it will do what the ruling ANC has failed to do since 1994: provide economic freedom for the poor African majority, at the expense of the predominately white capitalists.

Despite twenty years of South African democracy, five white-owned companies still control 75 percent of South Africa's stock market. It's the largest concentration of wealth and power on earth. Corporate powers, which underwrote apartheid in South Africa, are reminiscent of the great German companies that ran the Third Reich's economy. The only difference between the Third Reich and apartheid is that 'reconciliation' in Germany did not leave pro-Nazi financiers in business whereas in South Africa, those financiers are still firmly in control.

During apartheid, Britain was the single biggest investor in South Africa, followed by the United States, yielding the highest return on capital in the world. The United States and the other Western capitalist governments not only supported, but benefited from the racist apartheid regime. With economic control still concentrated in the hands of the white elite, we see no difference between the old and the new South African regimes. Blacks have reclaimed the political crown, but whites have remained with the crown jewels.

Today, Western media demonizes Julius Malema, the EFF's commander-in-chief, because he is the most outspoken proponent of economic justice. It is no surprise, considering Malema's ideologies threaten the economic stability of some of the most powerful white capitalists in the world.

To this day, a large portion of South Africa's budget pays apartheid-era debt to Western nations. This means the people pay for their oppression twice over. Clearly, the fabric of apartheid, which the Western media claims is long dead, still generates large sums of money, lining the pockets of the very same Western capitalists.

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SAs EFF: From economic apartheid to true democracy