The ANC & black capitalism in South Africa

Abstract

The emphasis initially laid by the African National Congress (ANC) on national reconciliation after 1994 meant that its ideas about Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) were non-threatening to white interests. However, the government's recent strategy is more assertive, having the aim of creating a black capitalist class, which is both ‘patriotic’ and productive, as laid down in the ANC's guiding theory of the ‘National Democratic Revolution’. Corporate capital is responding with recognition of the inevitability and potential advantages of BEE. However, given the centrality of the state to the deliberate task of creating black capitalism, there are considerable dangers of the latter's lapse into Asian-style cronyism. The ‘patriotic’ nature of black capitalism is therefore in sharp contestation with its ‘parasitism’.

The social unemployment gap in South Africa: Limits of enabling socio-economic redress through expanding access to higher education

“…That said, the overall trend is clear: the country is experiencing high levels of unemployment. South Africa is experiencing sustained higher levels of unemployment (Banerjee et al, 2008;Kingdon & Knight, 2003;Southall, 2004).…”

Recipient States in Global Health Politics

“…Although this model of economic governance is at the end not liberal in practice (Southall, 2004), the organisation and implementation of social welfare programmes really follows a liberal approach through the participation of public and private entities. The third-way social democracy of the ANC has maintained a commitment to liberal-capitalist economic policies including implementing social policy for the excluded populations based on a mixed system of governmental and nongovernmental intervention.…”

Transformation to an Equitable Socioeconomic Dispensation

“…Accompanying problems included a lack of start-up capital, the closed nature of business fraternities, fronting, and corruption. Unfortunately the program has drawn into the economic mainstream only a handful of politically connected Blacks who, in a short space of time, have become remarkably wealthy (Southall, 2004). Below, Randall (1996) cites some of the more prominent voices that have been critical of the emerging class of Black capitalists in South Africa:…”