South Africa - The Present as History

314 Pages·2014·5.97 MB·English

by  John S. Saul

Saul_Bond jckt_24mm v9a:B+B 1/24/2014 1:47 PM Page 1
SOUTH AFRICA
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S THE PRESENT AS HISTORY
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L FROM MRS PLES TO MANDELA & MARIKANA
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Foraging alongside fellow hominids more than two million years ago in
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John S. Saul, professor emeritus of the Magaliesburg range west of Johannesburg, Mrs Ples’s life ended
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Social and Political Science and African prematurely and violently… as did that of nearly three dozen platinum U

Studies at York University in Toronto mineworkers nearby on 16 August 2012. The premeditated ‘Marikana MT
and Fellow of the Royal Society of Massacre’ demonstrated to the world how little Nelson Mandela’s ANC r
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Canada, also taught in Tanzania, had changed South Africa’s core power relations, notwithstanding the
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Mozambique and South Africa. He dramatic, heroic victory over racist rule in 1994. The anti-apartheid
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formerly edited Southern Africa Report struggle’s disappointing outcome was recolonization of the country by
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and authored or edited 20 books. global capital, working with a complicit, increasingly corrupt local elite.
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Patrick Bond is senior professor at the This volume traces South African history from early days through the MI
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University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for long European conquest and into two decades of democracy. The current a
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Civil Society in Durban. His books socio-economic paradox – one that finds inequality, unemployment and A
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include Elite Transition; Cities of Gold, poverty worsening since 1994 – reflects Mandela’s early 1990s’ e
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Townships of Coal; Unsustainable South concessions, choices which reduced the pursuit of genuine socio- aS H

Africa; Against Global Apartheid; Talk Left, economic and political transformation to the mere realization of what & E
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Walk Right and Zuma’s Own Goal. can best be termed ‘low-intensity democracy’. Analysing tensions MI P
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exemplified by Marikana, the authors consider potential futures for an R
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increasingly volatile society. Genuine liberatory possibilities could rO
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continue to be vanquished – but that is not the only possible result of kR
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today’s turmoil. Y N
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Cover photograph:Nkaneng township,
Marikana, South Africa, August 2012.
(© and reproduced by kind permission of Greg www.jacana.co.za
Marinovich)
an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN 978-1-84701-092-6
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF (GB) and John S.Saul & Patrick Bond
668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620-2731 (US)
www.boydellandbrewer.com
www.jamescurrey.com 9 781847 010926
00 South Africa:Layout 1 27/1/14 14:33 Page i
South Africa
– The Present
as History
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South Africa
– The Present
as History
From Mrs Ples to Mandela & Marikana
JohnS.Saul
ProfessorEmeritusatYorkUniversity(Canada)
PatrickBond
SeniorProfessorof DevelopmentStudies
&Directorof theCentreforCivilSociety
attheUniversityof KwaZulu-Natal(Durban)
00 South Africa:Layout 1 27/1/14 14:33 Page iv
JamesCurrey
isanimprintofBoydell&BrewerLtd
POBox9
Woodbridge,SuffolkIP12 3DF(GB)
www.jamescurrey.com
andof
Boydell&BrewerInc.
668MtHopeAvenue
Rochester,NY14620-2731(US)
www.boydellandbrewer.com
PublishedinpaperbackinSouthernAfrica
(SouthAfrica,Namibia,Lesotho,Swaziland&Botswana)
byJacanaMedia(Pty)Ltd
OrangeStreet,Sunnyside
AucklandPark2092
Johannesburg
SouthAfrica
WithfundingfromtheGermanFederalMinistryforEconomicCooperationandDevelopment
andtheRosaLuxemburgStiftung
©JohnS.SaulandPatrickBond2014
Firstpublished2014
AllRightsReserved.Exceptaspermittedundercurrentlegislation
nopartofthisworkmaybephotocopied,storedinaretrievalsystem,
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Dedication
forNevilleAlexander,1936–2012
RobbenIsland‘graduate’,exemplaryactivist
andintellectualinspiration,afteralife
dedicatedtotheachievementof agenuinelyliberated
SouthAfrica
and
tothememoryof the34workersmassacred
atMarikanabythepost-apartheidstate
16August2012
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Contents
Introduction:SouthAfricainHistory 1
(JohnS.SaulandPatrickBond)
Part I
What’sPastisPrologue:FromtheBeginningsto1994 13
1.
TheMakingof SouthAfrica…andApartheid,to1970 15
(JohnS.Saul)
AnAfricanhistory 16
Conquest 21
Themineralrevolution 28
‘ ‘Whitepolitics’:Fromsegregationtoapartheid 36
Resistance,tothe1960s 47
The1960s:Theapartheidboom 56
2.
TheTransition:
ThePlayersAssemble,1970–1990 63
(JohnS.Saul)
The1970sandthe1980s:Socio-economiccontradictions
andtherebirthof resistance 67
Thepoliticsof theproletariat:Durban,COSATUandthe
resurgentworkingclass 67
Thepoliticsof theprecariat:Soweto,thetownshipsandtheUDF 78
Insidefromtheoutside:Exile,theANC’sdrivetopower–
andtotheRight 94
The1970sandthe1980s:Thepoliticsof powerandprofit 105
Unevenandcombinedcontradictions 107
Thechanginglogicof capital 111
Thewhiteresponseinthe1970sand1980s:Reformand
repression 115
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viii Contents
3.
TheApartheidEndgame,1990–1994 121
(JohnS.Saul)
Cuttingadeal:On‘compromise’asanti-climax 122
Floatingadeal:MandelaandMbeki,deKlerkandcapital 131
Sealingthedeal:Thetroubledtransition(1990–94)and
the‘FreedomCompromise’ 139
Part II
ThePresentasHistory:Post-ApartheidandPost-1994 143
4.
ContradictionsSubsidethenDeepen:
AccumulationandClassConflict,1994–2000 145
(PatrickBond)
Economicbarriers 146
Economicoutcomes 152
Socialpolicyinphilosophyandpractice 156
Commercializationof thestate 165
Earlysignsof ecologicaldecayand‘resourcecurse’ 168
Earlyindicatorsof socialunrest 170
5.
ConsolidatingtheContradictions:
FromMandelatoMarikana,2000–2012 176
(PatrickBond)
Economicmiraclemyths 177
Inthe‘secondeconomy’,thestate’swaronthepoor 183
Constitutionalrightsandwrongs 190
CommoningmedicinesduringtheAIDSpandemic 195
Lookingoutward 197
Conclusion 208
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Contents ix
Part III
Conclusions:TheFutureasHistory 211
6.
UnevenandCombinedResistance:
MarikanaandTheTrailto‘TunisiaDay’2020 213
(PatrickBond)
AmomentatMarikana 215
Corporate-state-laboursweethearts 220
Marikanamassacre:historicalmetaphorsandpoliticallessons 225
COSATU,Malema,Ramaphosa,andafracturedrulingparty 227
Rebuildingfrommicropolitics 232
Revolution,revulsionandrearguarddefence 235
Conclusion 240
7.
LiberatingLiberation:
TheStruggleagainstRecolonizationinSouthAfrica 243
(JohnS.Saul)
Liberation,ANC-style 245
Marikana:SharpevilleandSowetorevisited 250
Mangaungandafter 265
Bibliography 271
Index 287