If the ANC wants to establish something new that it believes must be owned by the state, then two requirements should be met, writes Mpumelelo Mkhabela.
One of the things that keeps coming up at ANC conferences is the obsession with the establishment of a state-owned bank. The phrase "state-owned" seems to be the ANC's solution to intractable problems.
In the case of the state-owned bank, it's not even clear what problem the ANC is trying to resolve. Would it offer free banking services and make taxpayers subsidise the bank's operations? That wouldn't make sense.
