Contemporary African Political Economy

This book critically examines the persistence of market orthodoxy in post-apartheid South Africa and the civil society resistance such policies have generated over a twenty-five-year period. Each chapter unpacks the key political coalitions and economic dynamics, domestic as well as global, that have sustained neoliberalism in the country since the transition to liberal democracy in 1994. Chapter 1 analyzes the political economy of segregation and apartheid, as well as the factors that drove the democratic reform and the African National Congress’ (ANC) subsequent abandonment of redistribution in favor of neoliberal policies. Further chapters explore the causes and consequences of South Africa’s integration into the global financial markets, the limitations of the post-apartheid social welfare program, the massive labour strikes and protests that have erupted throughout the country, and the role of the IMF and World Bank in policymaking. The final chapters also examine the political and economic barriers thwarting the emergence of a viable post-apartheid developmental state, the implications of monopoly capital and foreign investment for democracy and development, and the phenomenon of state capture during the Jacob Zuma Presidency.  

This book examines how Africa can secure a ‘just transition’ to low-carbon, climate-resilient economies.

How are poor people in South Africa confronting the persistent legacy of apartheid spatial segregation and anti-blackness? And what can movements across the world engaged in a global struggle against racial capitalism learn from the South African experience? This book explores the relationship between shack dwellers and the municipal government in South Africa. Grounded in the local realities of the struggle for housing and basic survival, the project makes broader interventions in national, continental and global debates about urban geography, African studies, social movements and race. The author argues that the shack settlement is emblematic of a democratic South Africa still profoundly shaped by apartheid's afterlife.