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Johannesburg - South Africans resent black success, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Wednesday.
"When people see a successful black, they come to [the] conclusion to say that black should be corrupt or is connected to the ANC," Mantashe told delegates attending a Black Management Forum Conference in Johannesburg.
Successful entrepreneurs were undermined and smeared, he said.
He gave the example of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa's Shanduka company.
The company owned a small portion of platinum miner Lonmin but when things went badly at the mine, he got most of the blame.
"Shanduka, the company where Cyril is a shareholder owns 9% of Lonmin but when things go bad at that company, it is that 9% [which] is to blame. What about the 91% of the white shareholders? That is our attitudes towards black success," he said.
As long as there was such an attitude, the country would not go far.
He also lashed out at black business people saying they were concerned about preserving their positions and not allowing others to learn from them.
"Black executives don't network. They are cushioned against interacting with others. Instead they fight about who should go to the next level among themselves instead of networking and having an impact on what should happen in society," he said.
Forty-four people were killed during a violent strike at Lonmin Platinum in Marikana, North West, in August 2012.
Thirty-four people, mostly striking mine workers, died in a clash with police on 16 August, 2012.
In the preceding week, 10 people, including two policemen and two Lonmin security guards, were killed.
