its own progressive think tanks, including MERG and the RDP Base Document, all combined to cripple the ANC’s stance on economic and social policy from about mid-1993 and into the early democratic era.
We do not characterise these compromises by Nelson Mandela and the ANC leadership as some kind of ‘betrayal’ or ‘selling out’, as has become popular in some circles today. Yes, in our judgement there were many things the ANC could have done better, especially in respect of the way it cut itself off from its greatest strength, that is the mass democratic movement. But we accept that those comrades in leadership who took these policy decisions were genuinely convinced it offered the best hope for our people. In this respect, we cannot conclude on the basis of the evidence that there was a conscious and intentional ‘sell-out’ of the decades-long struggle to achieve an emancipated society in South Africa. Neither is there any conclusive evidence, apart from some speculation, of secret late night meetings involving the ANC, Western governments, the Bretton Woods institutions and local capital, which persuaded the ANC to adopt market-friendly economic and social policies. For us, the jury is still out on this point. The extensive available evidence we have reviewed could not substantiate such claims, yet we do not deny this possibility. Further research is needed before anyone can come to a definitive conclusion and it is our hope that our book will act as a spur to such research by interested scholars.
What is unassailable in our view, though, is that the values and principles of democratic debate, accountability and accompanying political selflessness, all key features of the progressive mass democratic movement in the struggle against apartheid, were near abandoned in the economic policy-making process of the transition era. This commitment, indeed insistence, on the need to deliberate and reach consensus on policy alternatives through our mass democratic political culture is reflected most tellingly in the views of Alec Erwin, then education officer of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), expressed at an Indaba with the ANC in Paris in 1989. Erwin said that ‘central to our thinking is the development of a democratic political process that will entrench mass participation and involvement in the formulation and implementation of economic policy’ (Erwin 1990: 206). We hold that there was a subsequent ‘sell-out’ of this commitment to a grassroots, mass democratic political culture informing the policy-making process. Apart from the impact on policy process and content itself, this shift has had devastating consequences for accountability, eroding the fabric of progressive South African political life and contributing substantively to the corrosion of the progressive body politic. The roots of this phenomenon, we argue, are to be found in the era of the political transition since 1990 and the early period of democracy following the 1994 elections, and then finally cohered and consolidated in the ruinous Zuma era.
In respect of economic and social policy and in the context of a ‘negotiated revolution’, the ANC was outgunned and outwitted by the far more powerful economic machinery of the late apartheid state and of local (white) capital. In our view, the role of the ‘international economic community’ in the form of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in explaining the ‘shift’ has been exaggerated, as has been conclusively demonstrated in a recent paper by Padayachee and Fine (2018). An elitist team was assembled and entrusted by the ANC leadership with creating the policy and institutional foundations for realising the Freedom Charter, the ANC’s long-term emancipatory vision for a South African good society. Through missteps and arrogance, that foundation could not be laid. We now live with the consequences.
Now, as we conclude our work in a post-Zuma South Africa, and with a new dawn based on a ‘New Deal’ being evoked by President Ramaphosa and his followers, there are worrying signs that none of the lessons of theory or history, or the lessons drawn from the vast post-2008 crisis literature, appear to have been learnt. It looks like ‘business as usual’ after the obscenely corrupt ten years of Zuma’s administration brought post-apartheid South Africa virtually to its knees (Van Niekerk and Fine 2019).
We wish to conclude though, again, with the observation of Issel, who after forcefully rejecting all the trappings of political elitism in the ANC in the final years of his life, had these words to say in his poignant and final public speech: ‘What spurred us on then – the need and urge for freedom – still burns within us and I think it will burn within us for a long time to come. And I want you to be strong comrades and don’t be distracted by anything … Let us continue moving on and finally I believe we shall see what we had fought for’ (YouTube 2011).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many individuals and institutions contributed their time, energy and ideas towards the finalisation of this book. We thank especially the staff of the many archives we searched: particular thanks are owed to Vuyolwethu Feni-Fete, senior archivist at the National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre at the University of Fort Hare (Alice); Gabriele Mohale, head archivist at the William Cullen Library at the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg); and Huibre Lombard and her dedicated staff at the Archive of Contemporary History at the University of the Free State (Bloemfontein). Dr Abel Gwaindepi (Rhodes and Stellenbosch University) assisted with our archival work at the National Heritage Archives in Alice. Lee Smith and Robert Jacot-Guillarmod are acknowledged for their assistance in the editing of the volume.
Special thanks are due to those (all busy people) who allowed us to interview them. Their names and affiliations are recorded in the bibliography. This book would not have been possible without their contribution.
We also thank the following colleagues who provide us with leads and shared their ideas and reflections on the period of South Africa’s transition and who supported us in many ways as we worked towards completion of the manuscript. They include, in no particular order, Ronnie Kasrils, Saleem Badat, Bradley Bordiss, Bill Freund, Jannie Rossouw, Jonathan Leape, Tulo Makwati, Imraan Valodia, Lumkile Mondi, Keith Breckenridge, Deenan Pillay, Anand Pillay, Patsy Pillay, Jonathan Klaaren, Yusuf Sayed, Ben Turok, Shepi Mati, Greg Ruiters, Verne Harris and Keith Hart. Ben Fine and John Sender gave hugely of their time and their powerful memories of key aspects of the economics of the transition, in which they were both deeply involved. Apart from being interviewed by us, they always responded timeously and enthusiastically to our email queries and questions.
We are immensely indebted to Karen Pampallis and Sally Hines for their thorough editing work and for turning our scrabbled thoughts into elegant text. We are also grateful to our project manager, Alison Paulin, for her painstaking and meticulous efforts in finalising the book with us, carried out with good humour, patience and wonderful consideration for what we were trying to achieve.
We thank our respective families in Durban and Makhanda (Grahamstown). Vishnu Padayachee thanks Nishi, Sonali, Dhirren and his mother for being supportive and for allowing him the dedicated space and time to work uninterruptedly at his study in Durban. Vishnu would also like to acknowledge with deep gratitude four generations of the Padayachee and Naidoo families, whose powerful contribution and selfless service to the educational, cultural and economic life of Umkomaas left an indelible mark on his world view and values.
Robert van Niekerk thanks Orla, Nia and Oisin for their patience and support while he completed this book over four years of research and writing. Robert would also like to thank his comrades and friends in the Lansdowne Youth Movement and the Cape Youth Congress where his political understanding of the African National Congress as an historical movement of emancipation was first shaped. In particular he remembers Robbie Waterwitch, a cherished friend, and Coline Williams, who both died very unexpectedly but bravely as young MK guerrilla fighters in 1989. Their sacrifice is not forgotten.
For a lifetime of dedication and sacrifice to the struggle for democracy in South Africa and for his courage, integrity and vision, we are honoured to dedicate this book to Tata Andrew Mlangeni.
COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Permission to publish extracts and information taken from the following
