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From a Theory of Revolution to the Management of a Fragile State Saki Macozoma

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From a Theory of Revolution to the Management of a Fragile State Saki Macozoma From a theory of revolution to the management of a fragile state Saki Macozoma 11 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE We have a common sky. A common firmament encompasses us. What matters it by what kind of learned theory each man looketh for truth? There is no one way that will take us to so mighty a secret. Symadius, on replacing the statue of victory in the Roman forum AD 3841 Introduction Debating the South African transition and its prospects to deliver thoroughgoing transformation is not new: it is the continuation of a century-long tradition of analysing the politics and economics of South Africa with a view to finding and forging appropriate responses. Two broad alliances emerged in South Africa over time: the capital/apartheid axis, and a nationalist/marxist axis represented by the Congress Alliance2 led by the African National Congress (ANC). Each produced a central thesis that underpinned its ideological perspective. The ideological outlook of the capital/apartheid axis first appeared as jingoism sanitised by a civilising mission, exemplified by Lord Milner and his kindergarten after the South African War. Afrikaners, when their turn came, underpinned their ideological outlook with strident nationalism reinforced by Herrenvolkism. At the centre of both these ideological prisms was support for a system of capitalist accumulation that sought to pauperise Africans for the purpose of securing the plentiful cheap labour for which the economy thirsted. The consolidation of the settler state in 1910 resulted in a government that John Tengo Jabavu had earlier characterised as ‘playing a political baal to the entreaties of the Natives’3 and necessitated new political responses on the part of the African population. The burden of developing a theory and praxis of resistance, and later of revolution, lay with the leadership of the African population. 1 Quoted in D.F. Boorstin, The seekers: The story of man’s continuing quest to understand his world, (New York, Random House, 1998), p.1. 2 The Congress Alliance had earlier embodiments, such as the relationship fostered by Josiah Gumede, president of the ANC in the late twenties, between the ANC and the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). The nationalist/marxist axis was to mature in the early fifties with the evolution of an alliance between the ANC, the Congress of Democrats, the Coloured People’s Congress and the South African Indian Congress. The Congress Alliance found its ultimate political expression in the Freedom Charter. 3 From his letter to the Aborigines Protection Society in London, written in the 1880s and quoted in N. Mandela, speech to the Foreign Policy Association, Denmark, 17 February 1992, http:// www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mandela/1992/sp920217.html, p.1. Jabavu was referring to the growing illiberal character of the government of the Cape Colony. 12 FROM A THEORY OF REVOLUTION TO THE MANAGEMENT OF A FRAGILE STATE As resistance grew in response to the legislation of dispossession and greater discrimination, a theory of resistance became necessary. The confluence of resistance strategies between African nationalists and communists began in the late 1920s and culminated in the Congress Alliance in the 1950s. The complex reality of the relationship between national, class and gender oppression and its symbiotic relationship with capitalism had to be explained in political terms. The concept of colonialism of a special type (CST) was developed.4 From this understanding of the South African problem a theory of revolution – the national democratic revolution (NDR)5 – evolved over decades of struggle and reflection. The concept of the national democratic revolution guided the ANC and its allies through the political negotiations of the early 1990s to a settlement that included significant compromises. The critical question at the conclusion of the negotiations was whether a programme for the fundamental transformation of society was possible, given the nature of the negotiated settlement. This question brought the role of the state in the South African transition onto the centre stage of political and ideological debate. The state, in any case, had assumed a particular significance in South Africa given the country’s socio-political development from a series of independent African polities, through the Afrikaner republics and the consolidation of the settler state by the British, to the evolution of the apartheid state. Each successive group needed the state in order to exercise hegemony. The British needed a coherent, unified state to put a firm grip on the country’s mineral wealth. Afrikaner nationalists needed the state to realise their dream of eradicating the poor white problem and give practical effect to their particular notions of Herrenvolkism and national socialism. African nationalists and their allies, in their turn, need(ed) to capture the state in order to stop and reverse the ravages of apartheid and its twin, racial capitalism. Debates within the tripartite alliance on the role of the state The compromises made in the political settlement and the limited role assigned to the state as a result of the impact of globalisation, among other things, posed the first challenge for the tripartite alliance in relation to transformation.6 Although the ANC had prepared itself for the challenges it would face when it took the reins 4 See D. Everatt, ‘Alliance politics of a special type: The roots of the ANC/SACP alliance, 1950-1954’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 18:1 (March 1992), pp.1-19; and H. Wolpe, Race, class and the apartheid state, (London, James Currey, 1988). 5 See Umrabulo, 1 (4th quarter 1996); Umrabulo, 8 (special edition, May 2000); Umrabulo, 12 (3rd quarter 2001); and the ANC’s Strategy and tactics documents from 1969 (Morogoro) to 2002 (Stellenbosch) (http://www.anc.org.za/ancindex.html). 6 The tripartite alliance comprises the ANC, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). 13 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE of power,7 the extent of the problems facing the new government was far greater than anticipated. A strategic decision of the ANC government in 1994 was first to stabilise the state in a number of areas before embarking on ambitious transformation projects. These areas included reducing the government deficit, reprioritising government expenditure from consumption to productive applications, and helping ease the South African economy into a competitive global economy, among many others. The project of stabilising the state was balanced by a focus on meeting the basic needs of the majority of the population through the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and presidential lead projects. An extensive overhaul of the country’s labour laws was also undertaken. The policy choices made by the ANC were not supported by all in the tripartite alliance. The divergence of views grew, as government elaborated and adopted economic and social policies such as the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy and black economic empowerment (BEE). Alliance partners argued that although globalisation limited the policy options available to a state that wanted to adopt a development agenda, there was, nonetheless, space to develop a sovereign agenda. What was needed, the South African Communist Party (SACP) argued, was an interventionist state that would drive a development agenda, in the place of a state that subjected the logic of development to the imperatives of private capital. The expectation of some alliance partners was that the democratic state would have a privileged relationship with the working class resulting in an alteration of the balance of forces in South African society in favour of those willing to challenge the hegemony of global neo-liberalism.8 The strategic thrust of the ANC government’s response to globalisation and specific South African challenges was seen by some alliance partners as effectively creating a class-neutral referee state which intervened in the economy only through regulation.9 The ANC took the view that concrete conditions in South Africa and internationally dictated a more nuanced approach to the project of transforming the economy and society. In 1997 the ANC stated that it wanted to create a society in which ‘many positive elements of the market dovetail with the obligations of citizens one to the other’.10 Thus the state should not be viewed in narrow ideological terms. A functional approach to the state and its role should be taken, which identifies the core functions 7 See Ready to govern, 1992, http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/policy/readyto.html. 8 B. Nzimande and J. Cronin, ‘We need transformation, not a balancing act’, African Communist, 146 (1st quarter 1997). 9 South African Communist Party, ‘The role of the state’, African Communist, 148 (4th quarter 1997). 10 Strategy and tactics, 1997, http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/conf/conference50/ strategyamend.html 14 FROM A THEORY OF REVOLUTION TO THE MANAGEMENT OF A FRAGILE STATE that enable it to deliver a better life to all citizens in the most cost-effective way, the ANC argued.11 These critical debates in the alliance on the role of the state in the transformation of society and the economy had a bearing on the conception of the national democratic revolution. Thus the ‘current conjuncture’ and its impact on the NDR became hotly contested territory. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) put forward the view that ‘the key strategic opponent of the NDR is capital and its allies and their attempt to impose a neo-liberal agenda’.12 The ANC posited the four critical tasks of the NDR at the current conjuncture to be: transformation of the state improvement of economic performance implementation of social programmes to build a better life for all working with allies across the globe to create a more equitable world order.13 These debates and responses to difficult tactical choices that have had to be made by the governing alliance in South Africa have influenced the pace and the extent of the transformation project.
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