South African splinters: from ‘elite transition’ to ‘small-a alliances’

Abstract

The struggle for full liberation in South Africa was truncated by a nationalist, neoliberal bloc led first by Nelson Mandela and then, more rapidly degenerating during the early 2000s, by Thabo Mbeki, both under the influence of global capital. The backlash by trade unions and communists, once Jacob Zuma was fired as deputy president in 2005, reverberated through the ruling African National Congress (ANC). With Mbeki tossed out in late 2008, a shift was anticipated under Zuma, but did not occur. However, the independent Left failed to construct a clear alternative and began to fade, while ubiquitous populist insurgencies were rudderless. This left merely a distant hope for a unioncommunity fusion, on some future occasion.Since the freeing of Nelson Mandela in February 1990, the South African liberation struggle has witnessed the truncation, hijacking and reversal of its fabled 'second stage': the National Democratic Revolution ('NDR'), which aims to transform the state and address class inequality. Instead, the state became an even more blatant vehicle for crony capitalism and merely tokenistic welfarism than it was under the Afrikaners' Nationalist Party rule. By mid 2010, the contradictions had become unbearable, and a spate of labour unrest suddenly brought home the obvious point: Alliance politics must urgently restructure -along with national socio-economic policies -or face an historic breaking point. Society dividesThe whole society began splintering just a few weeks after the World Cup provided a show of 'nation building', broad-based excitement and unity. But the structural cracks had been widening during a two-decade-long era of neoliberalism. As the University of Cape Town's South African Labour and Development Research Unit recently reported, 'income inequality increased between 1993 and 2008' (from a 0.66 Gini coefficient to 0.70) as South Africa raced ahead of Brazil to become the world's leader among major countries. The income of the average black (African) person actually fell as a percentage of the average white's from 1995 (13.5%) to 2008 (13%), and 'poverty in urban areas has increased' (Leibbrandt et al. 2010).How could a democratic government have actually amplified apartheid-era race -class inequality? It 's stunning, but Mandela (1994 -99) and his successor Thabo Mbeki (1999Mbeki ( -2008, long-serving former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, former Trade Minister Alec

The Politics of Regenerative Nationalism in South Africa

“…13 The alliance with the ANC is extremely significant: trade unions have been at the centre of many of the political struggles against colonialism, authoritarianism and neoliberalism across Africa 14 and it is widely argued that COSATU represents the only force capable of galvanising a new class-based political agenda able to draw together the fragmented forces of the South African Left. 15 Several scholars have advocated' COSATU forging organic linkages with the growing mass movement of organisations resisting the ANC's neoliberal policies 16 or forming a social democratic workers' party to contest elections against the ANC in order to introduce 'substantive uncertainty' into South African elections. 17 Instead, however, COSATU has remained in its alliance with the ANC.…”