Black Diamonds is a recently released short documentary by Dutch filmmaker, Saska Vredeveld (view the film here). The film offers an inside view of the personal lives of three black South African entrepreneurs, including the odd Felicia Mabuza-Suttle, the “Oprah of South Africa.” The film’s promotional material very mistakenly refers to these people as South Africa’s emerging middle class, while I would peg them more accurately as the new rich.
There are contradictory ideas present between “the struggle” and the fruits of that struggle. These three people take pride in their wealth considering the hardships they faced as blacks under apartheid by calling it self-empowerment. However, I didn’t regard anything about their exorbitant lifestyles as self-empowering simply because the emphasis seems to be on the “self.” The hard fact that this film omits is that most black South Africans have remained dirt poor in the new South Africa. The film prefers to focus on the few who’ve achieved great personal wealth and pass it off as whole class of people.
Black Diamonds does highlight the conflict between business culture and race well. In other words, the difficult decision that black business professionals face between joining in with the behavior of the white status quo, or to take a subversive path and risk irrelevance. Business executive Richard Ndlela comments that business is the white man’s game and that black businessmen must “adapt or die,” whereas Vusi Vardos Mahlaba (the most interesting character, pictured above) prefers to keep his business in the black township.
This is a revealing and fascinating film about the mentalities of a few rich black South Africans who have “made it,” but they are certainly not the middle class as the film’s promotional material describes (if this is the middle class, I’d like to see what the affluent class looks like). “Black diamond” success stories are problematic as popular representations of South Africans because they feign racial and economic equality.
As it turns out, black wealth is not Vredeveld’s first stab at a niche group. She has also directed a documentary about South Africa’s poor white people called White Poverty. I’ll reserve my comments for when I actually see the film, but thoughts are already running through my head. I will say that Vredeveld may be searching for the untold story, which is great, but it must be done responsibly as well.
For a well-rounded documentation of black wealth in South Africa, I suggest checking out “Destination Johannesburg.” The site, a project of the French newspaper Liberation, hosts short documentaries on various people living in and around Johannesburg. Sandton resident, Letepe Maisela in particular offers a well-articulated account of his own success within the context of broader socio-economic struggles among black people.
- Allison Swank
Why there should be any surprises that there are Black South African Millionaires? Is it not their own country? The film despatches these Millionaires as vulnerable to extinction or a rare sight.
Anyway, I hope these Millionaires do not forget their country men who are less fortuned. It must boring sometimes living gated community.
PS. I only watched 6 min. of the film. Time to go bed for me.
@ Tayat, I definately co-sign your statement “Why there should be any surprises that there are Black South African Millionaires? Is it not their own country? The film despatches these Millionaires as vulnerable to extinction or a rare sight”
I haven’t watched this documentary and judging by what Allison’s written , I don’t think I will . In addition to what Tayat wrote about this rare breed of rich black people , I hate it when people make seem like a new phenomena in South Africa , all thanks to the ANC. I’m hesitant on revealing information about myself but I will say is that there has always been a thriving black middle class in South Africa even under apartheid where off course it wasn’t easily displayed , the Patrice Motsepe’s were not made over night via the liberation struggle instead by enterprising black and educated people coming from the halls of the former great Menduntsa’s and Fort Hare University, and some chose to be apolitical and something that we black South African (or in my case having a Xhosa mother and being raised around Xhosa people) is the affluent or well to do families in our black communities from way back , if you Xhosa you know the Bam family from ilali yase … who were doctors , shop owners etc etc I know it may not be the overall story in South Africa , but I hate the fact that very few acknowledge this or the fact that it is rarely mentioned.
Anyways thats my five bob
I liked Richard, he is very articulate. He obviously comes from a more middle class background, probably studied abroad.
Vusi is interesting and is less attuned into the white business world.
I don’t think the film ignores the fact that this is not the story of the majority. This is mentioned several times especially towards the end.
So I think for a free documentary (and at only 50 min) it is worth checking out.
Hi Allison,
Thank you for commenting on my film, but please take note that in the ‘promotional material’ it does state that the people portrayed in the film are miljonaires, the new rich.
Also the film cleary shows the unemployed, ie the poor.
All my films are made for a Dutch audience. For South Africans, offcourse it’s all old news. In Holland we are flooded with news items of poverty, aids , corruption and crime. ‘Black Diamonds’ was an eye opener. My documentary ‘White Poverty’ is worth watching , so is ‘Leaving Mandela Park’ about kids in the township. I hope you get the chance to see it. greetings Saskia V
Well done Saskia! I am doing my Honours research on Black Diamonds and their ‘penchant’ (or so I think) for conspicuous consumption. I disagree with some of the people who commented on the page. I live in SA and this was refreshing to see, most South Africans feel that the emerging black middle class is a topic that has been done to death but I found that to be the opposite since starting my research. There are thousands of people who don’t know what constitutes the black diamond market and documentaries such as yours are informative and add to the volume of research on Black Diamonds – so from me you get a cyber high five on a job well done! Keep on doing a great job and I have even shared the video link with my Facebook friends. Kamo