South Africa States & Market

South Africa joined the BRICS group of nations in 2010. Its inclusion represented a desire to expand the representivity of BRICS to include Africa, rather than being a function of South AFrica's economic or geopolitical dynamism. Among so-called emerging markets, post-Apartheid South Africa has been a relatively poor performer – registering high rates of growth for only a brief spell during the most exuberant phase of the pre-2008 commodity cycle. This is despite the African National Congress’ extremely market friendly policies. A steadfast commitment to globalization in key state institutions has allowed large-scale South Africa corporations to become highly profitable, many featuring prominently in the rise of so-called emerging market multinationals. Little of their success has trickled down however – South Africa continues to be plagued by world-beating rates of inequality and unemployment. The ANC’s unremitting attachment to neoliberalism despite this has been generally interpreted as sign of its dominance by large-scale business interests. But at end of the Jacob Zuma presidency those interests were seriously challenged – not by popular classes but by rival ‘tender-based’ fractions of business connected to the rise of patrimonialist politics in the ANC. These events revealed major fissures within the elite, which have split the ANC in two. This webinar will seek to understand the origins of the crisis of the post-Apartheid state linking it to the developmental model pursued by the ANC.

Bibliography

• Ashman, S., Fine, B., & Newman, S. (2011). The crisis in South Africa: Neoliberalism, financialization and uneven and combined development. Socialist Register, 47(47), 174-195. https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/issue/view/1097
• Southall, R. (2012). The ANC: Party vanguard of the black middle class. One Hundred Years of the ANC: Debating Liberation Histories Today. Johannesburg: Wits University Press and South African History Online, 325-346. https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/1944478/pdf
• Lodge, T. (2014). Neo-patrimonial politics in the ANC. African Affairs, 113(450), 1-23. https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/113/450/1/48437