The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is calling for the nationalisation of the wealth of South Africa's richest men, Patrice Motsepe and Human Settlement Minister Tokyo Sexwale. This follows the release of the country's Rich List, which was compiled by Who Owns Whom, on Sunday.

The list showed that Motsepe is the richest South African with a fortune estimated at R14.2 billion. Numsa says that it is obscene that massive wealth is concentrated in the hands of private individuals in a country where the gap between the rich and poor remains painfully big.

Numsa spokesperson Castro Ngobese said: “The wealth that has been amassed by the Sexwale's and the Motsepe's have amassed it through looting the wealth of our country. As NUM, we are saying that wealth must be in the hands of the people. The Freedom Charter must be brought back to the agenda and also the state can redistribute these resources as part of addressing the huge backlogs of service delivery in our communities, creating descent work for our people.”

Meanwhile, Sexwale has dismissed NUM's call as ridiculous. He said: “Its either somebody is joking or someone has not looked at things properly. We should not try to besmirch the wealth of people which has been accumulated in front of all of you. It's on the stock exchange so there is no money stolen, no money is embezzled. Its not money carried in black bags under tables, so lets get serious and this type of stories make us not focus on the real problems that we have.”