Doing Politics in Bushbuckridge: Work, Welfare and the South African Elections of 2004

Africa ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 526-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isak A. Niehaus
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Child Support ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
The South ◽  
National Elections ◽  
School Feeding ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Ruling Party

AbstractIn the South African national elections of 2004 the ruling ANC (African National Congress) increased its majority, particularly within the poorer, black, rural voting districts. Drawing on ethnographic research that I conducted in Impalahoek – a village in the Bushbuckridge municipality of the Limpopo Province – this paper investigates reasons for this pattern of voting. With reference to a survey of 87 households I show that unemployment, crime and disease had increased dramatically between 1990/1 and 2003/4. Yet, at the same time, there have been considerable improvements in access to state pensions, housing, school feeding schemes and child support grants. In this context, I argue that the ANC's election campaign highlighted the capacity of government in service provision, and that voting for the ruling party constituted a strategic attempt to obtain access to state-controlled services. Hence the election was characterized by neo-patrimonial politics and by a transactional logic of voting. Voting for the ruling party does not amount to an ideological endorsement of its policies, and discontent is more likely to be expressed through boycotting the elections rather than voting for opposition parties.

Review – Tom Lodge, Red Road to Freedom, A History of the South African Communist Party 1921–2021, Jacana, Johannesburg 2021.10.26

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110596
Author(s):  
Jeremy Cronin
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
The South ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Congress ◽  
History Of The South ◽  
Ruling Party

In the year of the South African Communist Party’s centenary, Tom Lodge’s in-depth, scholarly work is a landmark achievement. The account is particularly strong in tracing the ideological currents that shaped the party and the changing and diverse sociology of its membership. The influential role of the party in helping transform the African National Congress into a mass-based campaigning formation from 1945 is a central focus. Lodge also traces the critical role of the party in the re-building, at first largely in exile, of a weakened ANC following the major strategic setback of the liberation movement in the mid-1960s. There is less focus on the reciprocal impact of the ANC upon the party, especially in the context of the practice of “dual membership” in both formations. This neglect is one factor in weakening the analysis of the post-1994 period in which the ANC has been the ruling party.

scholarly journals Facilitation and Mediation in South Africa: Three Case Studies

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik Van der Merwe
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
South African ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
The South ◽  
National Congress

In this paper I discuss three case studies of facilitation and mediation in South Africa: 1) facilitation between the South African apartheid establishment and the African National Congress in exile from 1963 to 1989; 2) facilitation that eventually led to mediation between Inkatha and the United Democratic Front in Natal over 10 months from 1985 to 1986; and 3)mediation between the African National Congress and the Afrikaner Freedom Foundation (Afrikaner Vryheidstigting, also known as Avstig) over 18 months from 1991 to 1993.

"The Struggle Made Me a Nonracialist": Why There was so Little Terrorism in the Antiapartheid Struggle

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The South ◽  
Social Basis ◽  
White Allies ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Congress

Most theories of terrorism would lead one to have expected high levels of antiwhite terrorism in apartheid South Africa. Yet the African National Congress, the country's most important and influential antiapartheid political organization, never sanctioned terrorism against the dominant white minority. I argue that the ANC eschewed terrorism because of its commitment to "nonracial internationalism." From the ANC's perspective, to have carried out a campaign of indiscriminate or "categorical" terrorism against whites would have alienated actual and potential white allies both inside and outside the country. The ANC's ideological commitment to nonracialism had a specific social basis: It grew out of a long history of collaboration between the ANC and white leftists inside and outside the country, especially those in the South African Communist Party.

The Freedom Charter and Ethnicity— towards a Communitarian South African Society

1989 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-115
Author(s):  
A. J. G. M. Sanders
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Joint Venture ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
International Level ◽  
African Society ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
The South ◽  
South African Society ◽  
National Congress ◽  
People’S Organisation

At national as well as international level the South African Freedom Charter has become a symbol of the long-standing struggle against apartheid. In this essay the emphasis will be on the charter's provisions relating to ethnicity. The question of ethnicity is a crucial one, for on its solution depends the outcome of the economic and other social problems which trouble South African society.The 1955 Freedom Charter, which was the outcome of a joint venture of the African National Congress (A.N.C.), the South African Indian Congress, the South African Coloured People's Organisation and the predominantly European South African Congress of Democrats, suggests a unitary, participatory welfare state, which will acccord equal rights to all “national groups and races”.For the A.N.C., the senior partner in the “Congress Alliance”, the reference in the charter to “national groups and races” soon became a major headache. Could it be said that the charter lent support to the creation of “four nations”? A number of people within the A.N.C. feared that much. Prominent among them were the “Africanists” who in April 1959 broke away from the A.N.C, and formed the Pan-Africanist Congress (P.A.C.) “Charterists” and “Africanists” are still at loggerheads, but the A.N.C.'s “Revolutionary Programme” of 1969 and its “Constitutional Guidelines for a Democratic

scholarly journals ANALISANDO A TRANSIÇÃO DA ÁFRICA DO SUL À DEMOCRACIA: neoliberalismo, transformismo e restauração capitalista

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 328
Author(s):  
Evandro Alves Barbosa Filho ◽  
Ana Cristina de Souza Vieira
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
The South ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
National Liberation Movement ◽  
National Congress

Desde 1994 a África do Sul pôs fim à sua estrutura oficial de segregação, baseada na ultra exploração da força de trabalho negra e na total segregação racial: o Apartheid. Embora esse sistema tenha acabado e o país seja governado pelo antigo movimento de libertação nacional, o African National Congress (ANC), as desigualdades sociais se aprofundaram. O objetivo deste artigo é analisar os processos políticos que condicionaram a transição Sul-africana do Apartheid à democracia. A pesquisa tem natureza qualitativa e foi realizada por meio de revisão bibliográfica da sociologia crítica sulafricana, da análise de documentos oficiais e na análise crítica de discurso. O estudo identificou que a transição à democracia foi tutelada pela mais rica fração da burguesia sul-africana e viabilizada pelo ANC, que aderiu às ideologias neoliberais.Palavras-chave: Apartheid. África do Sul. Transição. Neoliberalismo.ANALYZING SOUTH AFRICA'S TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY: neoliberalism, transformism and capitalist restorationAbstractSince 1994 South Africa has put an end to its official segregation structure, based on the overexploitation of the black workforce and total racial segregation: The Apartheid. Although this system is over and the country is ruled by the former national liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), social inequalities have deepened. This paper aims to analyze the political processes that conditioned the South African transition from Apartheid to democracy. The research has a qualitative approach and It was conducted through a bibliographical review of South African critical sociology, analysis ofofficial documents and critical discourse analysis. The study found that the transition to democracy was led by the wealthiest fraction of the South African bourgeoisie and made possible by the ANC, which adopted the neoliberal ideologies.Keywords: Apartheid. South Africa. Transition. Neoliberalism.

The Destruction of Sophiatown

1981 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Lodge
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
South African Government ◽  
The South ◽  
African Government ◽  
National Congress

In 1955 the South African Government began to demolish a black freehold suburb in Johannesburg, and to relocate its inhabitants in a state-controlled township. Resistance to these moves by the leading black political organisation of the time, the African National Congress (A.N.C.), was short-lived and unsuccessful. Despite its abortive nature, the attempt to oppose the destruction of Sophiatown was historically significant for several reasons.

scholarly journals The South African Election of 2009

2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Southall ◽  
John Daniel
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
General Election ◽  
The South ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Provincial Level ◽  
The People ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Business As Usual

South Africans voted in their country's fourth democratic general election on 22 April 2009. The African National Congress (ANC) again secured a substantial victory. It might seem that the 2009 Elections proved to be “business as usual”. Yet such a conclusion is unjustified, for events had conspired to generate excitement about this particular contest, which rivalled that leading up to the “liberation election” of 1994. The reasons for this were several, but the most important revolved around Jacob Zuma, who had risen to the presidency of the ANC in December 2007, and the formation of a new party of opposition, the Congress of the People (COPE), by dissidents from within the ANC. In the elections, however, the ANC reasserted its dominance. Even so, the results of the 2009 election at national and provincial level indicate change. The ANC has maintained its electoral dominance, yet its grip on the electorate has been somewhat weakened, while the opposition – although remaining very much in the minority – has consolidated.

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