THE STRUGGLE FOR A SECOND TRANSITION IN SOUTH AFRICA: UPRISING, DEVELOPMENT AND PRECARITY IN THE POST-APARTHEID CITY Yousuf Al-Bulushi A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Geography. Chapel Hill 2014 Approved by: John Pickles Altha Cravey Michael Hardt Scott Kirsch Eunice Sahle ©2014 Yousuf Al-Bulushi ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Yousuf Al-Bulushi: The Struggle for a Second Transition in South Africa: Uprising, Development and Precarity in the Post-Apartheid City (Under the direction of John Pickles) This dissertation explores the limitations of post-apartheid liberation in the specific environment of Durban, South Africa. It takes a social movement of shack dwellers, Abahlali baseMjondolo, as a looking glass into urban debates concerned with the wellbeing of some of South Africa’s most marginalized communities. As the country struggles to deal with the ongoing crises of mass poverty, inequality, and unemployment, the government has responded with a range of developmental projects. At the same time, poor people around the country have protested injustice in record numbers, rivaling levels of unrest in any other part of the world. A mix of state repression and increased governmental redistribution of wealth has been the official response. This study explores these contentious issues by placing them in the context of South Africa’s Second Transition. More broadly, the approach situates the study at multiple geographical scales of analysis from the global to the continental, and the regional to the city. In so doing, it tries to de-center the nation-state as a central unit of analysis without losing site of the specificity of South Africa’s challenges. The dissertation begins by exploring national debates around the resurgence of social movements in post-apartheid South Africa, before moving on to approach to the issue of racialization as a central divisive factor within South Africa and in many of the global uprisings that have occurred since 2011. The study iii shifts to explore state responses to these moments of unrest and rebellion from below by thinking about the rise of a South African developmental state over the past decade. The developmental state in Durban is examined through one of the country’s largest public housing projects. Finally, the dissertation explores the other side of the coin to the state’s response to movements: beyond developmental initiatives too often lies naked repression. The violence that racialized communities living in slums throughout South Africa face is explored through a variety of debates around the peculiarities of precarity beyond the global North. The study closes by putting the findings into conversation with Mahmood Mamdani’s seminal work on the legacy of African colonialism. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the extensive assistance of a range of mentors, colleagues, family and friends. Working under the supervision of John Pickles was truly a delight. He possesses an uncanny ability to let my mind wander freely down a number of exploratory paths while at the same time periodically stepping up to challenge me, discipline my overly ambitious agendas, and provide incredibly rigorous and timely feedback. His own extensive involvement in South African intellectual life proved invaluable as I set out to conduct my research, and the connections he graciously offered me ended up being crucial for my project. Committee members Eunice Sahle and Michael Hardt both put me in touch with South Africans who influenced and changed my thinking dramatically, while proving to be gracious hosts, teachers and interlocutors. Their guidance throughout the process has been extremely beneficial, and both have given their time freely to me over the years in a way I imagine only advisors usually do. Scott Kirsch and Altha Cravey were crucial in my graduate school intellectual formation, teaching courses that proved foundational to my own development. Their role on my committee has been simultaneously supportive and challenging: pushing me beyond my comfort zone while constantly providing the positive reinforcement graduate students need to stay the course. In the final, crucial months of writing, Haruna Suzuki served as an indispensable research assistant by transcribing interviews, providing feedback on chapter drafts, and regenerating me with a combination of humor and optimism. v At home in the US, I benefitted tremendously from the camaraderie and genuine intellectual collaboration within the Race and Space working group and the Marxism and Social Theory working group. Professors and fellow students who all contributed to my intellectual development and my general sanity while navigating the path towards the PhD include: Eloisa Berman, Adam Bledsoe, Kerry Chance, Andy Clarno, Chris Courtheyn, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Arturo Escobar, Banu Gokariksel, Annelies Goger, Diana Gomez, Conor Harrison, Elizabeth Havice, Atiya Husain, Fredric Jameson, Tamara Johnson, Tu Lan, Stevie Larson, Liz Mason-Deese, Fred Moten, Charles Muiruri, Stephanie Najjar, Joseph Palis, Linda Quiquivix, Sara Safransky, Aron Sandell, Sara Smith, Ken Surin, Autumn Thoyre, Pavithra Vasudevan, Priscilla Vaz, Willie Wright, and Shengjun Zhu. South African intellectuals without whom this dissertation simply would not have been possible are numerous. They gave their time willingly and selflessly, and for this I am extremely indebted to them. The most directly responsible for educating me include Richard Ballard, Patrick Bond, Ashraf Cassiem, Nieh Dlodlo, Grant Farred, Lindela Figlan, Kelly Gillespie, Siya James, Brij Maharaj, Bandile Mdlalose, Shauna Mottiar, Howard and Marleen, Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Zodwa Nsibande, Sindiswa Ntlangulela, Mazwi Nzimande, Richard Pithouse, Jackie Shandu, Ahmed Veriava, Christi van der Westhuizen, and S’bu Zikode. Without a doubt, my family has been the single most important influence upon my growth as a human being. To Kathryn Horsley, Mussa Al-Bulushi, and Samar Al-Bulushi: thank you and I love you. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………….......ix INTRODUCTION: METHOD, RESEARCH, POLITICS: LIVING LEARNING…...........1 CHAPTER 1: EMERGING ALTERNATIVES IN THE “TRANSITION” TO DEMOCRACY: WHAT IS AT STAKE IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICAN STRUGGLES?................................16 Understanding the Limits of the First Transition………………………….19 New Subjects Emerge……………………………………………………..24 Civil Society and the State………………………………………………...28 Human Rights and the First Transition…………………………………....30 Autogestion and the Withering Away of the State: The Transition Reconceived……………………………………………....38 Transitions, Rebellions, Democracies…………………………………….43 CHAPTER 2: UPRISING: SOUTH AFRICAN AND GLOBAL STRUGGLES BEYOND THE VERTICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF POWER…………………….46 Neoliberalism and the Global Threat of Race……………………………54 Occupy: 99% or the White Middle Class?.................................................57 Europe: From Anti-Austerity to Migrant Menace……………………….62 Libya: Anti-Blackness and “African Mercenaries”……………………...71 “Xenophobia” in South Africa’s Slums: ‘The Anger of the Poor Can Go in Many Directions’…………………...75 The Global Threat of Race and the Decomposition of Struggle………...87 vii CHAPTER 3: DEVELOPMENT: A PROMISED LAND CALLED CORNUBIA………...95 Abahlali and the Birth of Cornubia………………………………………….95 Development(s)………………………………………………………….......98 Planning Durban……………………………………………………………101 BRICS, State Capitalism and a Changing World System………………….107 Urban Informal Settlements: The Growth of Shack Communities…….......114 Spatial Justice, the Rural-Urban Divide, and Post-Apartheid Housing Policy………………………………………..117 Post-Apartheid Housing 2.0? The Case of Cornubia………………………122 Social Movements and the Developmental State…………………………..133 Which Developmental State?........................................................................136 CHAPTER 4: PRECARITY, SURPLUS AND SPONTANEITY: THINKING THE SLUM WITH FANON IN SOUTH AFRICA………………….142 A Tale of Two Deaths……………………………………………………...144 A Precarious Liberation……………………………………………………158 Fanon in the University, Fanon in the Slum……………………………….164 From Non-Being to the New: Spontaneity and Beyond.…………………..173 Riots and the Delegitimization of Precarious Protesters………………......180 From Precarity to Anti-Blackness…………………………………………187 Gwala’s Legacy……………………………………………………………194 CONCLUSION: RACIALIZED CITIZENS, SUPERFLUOUS SUBJECTS, AND COUNTER-POWERS IN AN AREA FORM………………………...…....197 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………..…………..203 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 - Durban pre-1994; Durban today (eThekwini)………………………………….88 Figure 1.2 - Apartheid’s Rural Geography of Homelands…………………………………..99 ix INTRODUCTION METHOD, RESEARCH, POLITICS: LIVING LEARNING African politics has for too long been characterized by the central dilemmas of violence, civil war, and the supposed necessity for benign foreign intervention. Beginning perhaps around 1974, with the triumph of independence movements in Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and Angola, African politics began to shift from the dilemma of overthrowing colonial rule to healing internal divisions. Southern African nations like Angola and Mozambique slid from anti-colonial struggles into civil wars. While Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa all continued to fight for self-determination in a struggle against their internal white colonizers, much of the