The BMW of the proletariat
Blade Nzimande, general secretary of the South African Communist Party, is under fire for using $120,000 in taxpayer money to buy himself a BMW 750i. This is a bit much from a politician who likes to sing “My mother was a kitchen girl, my father was a garden boy. That’s why I am a communist” ...
Blade Nzimande, general secretary of the South African Communist Party, is under fire for using $120,000 in taxpayer money to buy himself a BMW 750i. This is a bit much from a politician who likes to sing "My mother was a kitchen girl, my father was a garden boy. That's why I am a communist" at party rallies, but Nzimande, who serves as South Africa's higher education minister, has no intention of giving the car back.
Blade Nzimande, general secretary of the South African Communist Party, is under fire for using $120,000 in taxpayer money to buy himself a BMW 750i. This is a bit much from a politician who likes to sing “My mother was a kitchen girl, my father was a garden boy. That’s why I am a communist” at party rallies, but Nzimande, who serves as South Africa’s higher education minister, has no intention of giving the car back.
This reminds me a bit of a Marxist professor I had at college, who was known for zipping around campus in a rad European sports car. Occasionally students would ask him if he saw any contradiction in this. “Not at all,” he’d reply. “After the revolution, everyone will drive a sports car.”
Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
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