This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. COMRADES STILL STRUGGLING: CLASS, NATIONALISM AND THE TRIPARTITE ALLIANCE IN POST- APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA Alexander Beresford Doctor of Philosophy The University of Edinburgh 2011 1 The thesis has been composed by myself from the results of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledged. It has not been submitted in any previous application for a degree. Signed (ALEXANDER ROY BERESFORD) Date 2 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the trajectories of class politics in post-apartheid South Africa. It investigates whether we can witness South African politics entering into a post- nationalist era characterised by the increasing salience of class struggles rooted in the country’s glaring socioeconomic inequalities. In particular, the thesis explores the political role of the organised working class with a focus on the Tripartite Alliance between the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Alliance politics has traditionally been studied with a focus on policy analysis and elite-level exchanges played out in the public domain (Bassett 2005; Buhlungu 2005; Lodge 1999; Webster 2001), or with a focus on workers’ political attitudes that uses statistical survey data (Buhlungu et al 2006a; Pillay 2006). The unique contribution made by the thesis is that it offers a detailed ethnographic focus into class politics ‘from below’, with a focus on the political attitudes and activism of members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), South Africa’s largest and most politically influential trade union. The thesis explores how rank and file members of NUM have adapted to the radically altered social, political and institutional environment heralded by the transition to democracy in 1994. In particular, it analyses how and why union members are engaging in their trade union in changing ways, and what implications this has for those who advocate the trade unions becoming the driving force behind a radical class-based, post-nationalist political agenda (Bond 2000; 2010; Habib and Taylor 1999; 2001). The thesis also explores workers’ relationships with the post-apartheid state and their experience of economic transformation under the ANC government. The case study evidence offers an important insight into how workers understand post-liberation politics and how they construct their political identities in relation to both their class and also the nationalist movement. In doing so, the thesis does not attempt to offer normative prescriptions as to what COSATU ‘should’ (or ‘should not’) do. Instead, it challenges mechanical, deterministic analyses of the relationship between class and nationalist politics, particularly those that stress that underlying class divisions in South African society will inevitably, in some form or another, produce a new class-based politics that will not only challenge, but potentially supersede, nationalist politics. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 3 LIST OF ACRONYMS 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 7 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE THESIS 9 1.1 The research problematic 9 1.2 An overview of the core themes of the thesis 11 1.3 Literature Review: The ANC’s nationalist project and the contours of class politics in post-apartheid South Africa 19 1.4 Methodology: outlining my approach to Alliance politics 40 1.5 Setting the scene 49 CHAPTER 2: ‘A VICTIM OF OUR VICTORY’: HOW AN ASPIRATIONS CULTURE IS CHALLENGING THE FOUNDATIONS OF WORKING CLASS SOLIDARITY IN NUM 57 Introduction 57 2.1 The new opportunity structures of deracialised capitalism 60 2.2 The ‘generational’ divide in the Union and the changing culture of Union participation 65 2.3 Competing class interests within Union structures 73 Conclusion 88 CHAPTER 3 ‘WE ARE PARALYSED, TOTALLY PARALYSED’: UNION POWER IN THE POWER STATION 91 Introduction 91 3.1 Democratic organisation in NUM 94 3.2 Powering the nation while disempowering the workers: Eskom, ‘essential services’ and the ‘slow death’ of the ‘Union of toyi-toyi ’ 104 Conclusion 120 CHAPTER 4: THE POLITICAL STRATEGY OF NUM 123 Introduction 123 4.1 Alliance politics at the national level: little room for manoeuvre 125 4.2 Current 1: workers in support of the ANC-led alliance 132 4.3 The second current: ‘gumboots and overalls’ unionism from below? 139 4.4 NUM and Jacob Zuma 147 Conclusion 152 CHAPTER 5: ‘THEY BROUGHT US THE LIGHT’: ESKOM WORKERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE ANC 155 Introduction 155 5.1 The symbolic/ideological dimension of workers’ support for the ANC 158 5.2 The material/tangible dimension of workers support for the ANC 167 5.3 The interplay between the ‘two dimensions’ of workers’ support for the ANC 185 Conclusion 190 4 CHAPTER 6: ‘BUILDING SOUTH AFRICA’: HOW ESKOM WORKERS RATIONALISED THEIR POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT IN THE POST-APARTHEID PERIOD 193 Introduction 193 6.1 The state, civil society and organised working class agency 195 6.2 Eskom workers’ proactive engagement with the ANC 200 Conclusion 216 CHAPTER 7: ‘WE ARE NOT ASKING FOR A MESSIAH’: ANC LEADERSHIP CHANGE AND ESKOM WORKERS ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE ANC 219 Introduction 219 7.1 What is a populist rupture? 222 7.2 Eskom Workers’ conceptualisation of democracy and representation in the post-apartheid era 226 7.3 Awuleth Umshini wami (bring me my machine gun): the ANC succession battle as a metaphorical call to arms 231 7.4 The ANC as a regenerating party 241 Conclusion 249 CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION: TOWARDS A GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF CLASS AND POST-LIBERATION POLITICS 252 BIBLIOGRAPHY 273 APPENDIX 1 Interview list 284 APPENDIX 2 Summary of interview questions 289 5 LIST OF ACRONYMS ANC African National Congress ANCYL African National Congress Youth League BEC Branch Executive Committee COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions FOSATU Federation of South African Trade Unions NUM National Union of Mineworkers NUMSA National Union of Metalworkers South Africa ZANU PF Zimbabwean African National Union (Patriotic Front) 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS South Africa There are many people in South Africa to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude. Firstly, the help and support I received from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) made my research possible. In the first place, I would like to thank all the union members who agreed to take part in the research. I would like to thank Lesiba Seshoka, NUM’s spokesperson, who kindly agreed to meet with me and put me in touch with all the people I needed to speak to. Also at head office, my thanks to Frans Baleni and Oupa Komane for kindly allowing me to interview them and for offering their support for the research. In the Witbank regional office I would like to thank Paris Mashego and Piet Matosa. I am extremely grateful to Job Matsepe for allowing me to attend so many NUM meetings and for his support and insightful observations about my research project. My thanks also to Thembelani, Ernest and Nathi who helped organise the interviews themselves, and for helping me gain access to the power stations and local ANC structures. I would especially like to thank Joe Skosana, to whom I am greatly indebted. Without Joe’s help none of the research in the power stations would have been possible. I am honoured to hold him and my comrades at NUM as my friends. I hope this thesis is in worthy of the warmth and generosity the have shown me. To all my South African friends I would like to say a big thank you for helping me to settle into the country and for making my time over there so unforgettable. In particular I would like to thank Becks for harbouring me during my time in Jo’burg and for her unrelenting friendship and support. Nat, Kate, Sinwell, Norton, Pops, Waynand, Wildy, Claire and Shaun, I love you all. Special thanks must go to Teresa Dirsuweit, a dear friend of mine from Wits Geography department, for her stimulating conversation and general friendship. To the Abrahams family, and in particular Caryn, Uncle Russell, 7 Auntie Shanu, Claire, Ralph and Jaiden, my heartfelt thanks for extending such a warm welcome to me in Lenasia for Auntie Shanu’s fantastic Sunday afternoon curries; Hummingbird Avenue will always be a home from home. UK First I must acknowledge the financial support of the ESRC who funded both my M.Sc. and later my Ph.D. Without their funding, this research would not have been possible. I would like to offer special thanks to my supervisors, Sara Rich Dorman and James Smith, for providing such insightful and stimulating intellectual support, even in the face of chapters of War and Peace proportions. My thanks to all the staff in the Centre of African Studies, including Tom Molony, Paul Nugent, Joost Fontein, Andrew Lawrence and Laura Jeffery. A special thank you to my fellow students, Annalisa Urbano, Setri Dzvenu, Paul Swanepoel, Tom Fisher, Emilie Venables, Marc Fletcher, Laura Mann, James Pattison, Sabine Hoehn, Shishu Pradhan, Lara De Klerk and Julie Grant. I am extremely grateful for the help and encouragement which you have all, in your different ways, offered me during my time in Edinburgh.