Intraparty Politics and the Local State: Factionalism, Patronage and Power in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. Tatenda Godswill Mukwedeya SUPERVISORS Professor Roger Southall Professor Michelle Williams A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology. 2016 i Abstract This thesis focuses on the everyday operation of the African National Congress (ANC) as a dominant party in post-apartheid South Africa. It examines the scope of intraparty politics, particularly the trajectory of factionalism in ANC local structures after 1994. Despite the dominance of the ANC in South Africa’s political field, its more recent political trajectory most particularly since it became a party of government in 1994 is much less well understood (Butler and Southall 2015: 1). The party has traditionally been studied using a top-down perspective and with a focus on elite level exchanges in which dynamics at the national level are viewed to reverberate downwards whilst drawing on information from party leaders. The contribution made by this thesis is that it offers a detailed qualitative focus on the operation of ANC intraparty politics at a local level drawing on evidence from Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. The overriding aim of this study which is informed by theoretical expositions on the dominant party approach and on patronage and clientelism, is to understand how factionalism in the ANC has evolved in the post- apartheid era. The thesis observes that the ANC’s political dominance after 1994 saw the gradual conflation of the party and state partly through two processes related the party’s transformative agenda. Firstly, the state itself had to be transformed to reflect the demographic composition of the country and for the most part the ANC deployed its cadres into the state who could tow the party line. Secondly, the party relied on the state as a vehicle for redistribution and the transformation of the broader political economy to achieve equity and growth. Hence black economic empowerment, state preferential procurement and other policies to uplift previously disadvantaged social groups became stepping stones for the emergent African middle and upper class. Whilst these processes transformed the state, they also fundamentally transformed the party itself as it became a site of accumulation. Intraparty contestation intensified over the limited opportunities for upward mobility provided by access to the state. The thesis argues that factionalism increasingly became characterised by patronage as competing groups within the party sought to ring-fence their political power and the opportunities for upward mobility provided by the state. This was also compounded by deepening neoliberalism whose consequences of unemployment, poverty and inequality especially at the local level led to increased dependence on the local state and the development of factionalism based on patronage politics. The thesis then explores how patronage operates in everyday practice at the local level. It shows how patron-client relationships are not merely the exchange of state resources for political support but rather they embody a field of power relations (Auyero 2001). Evidence from Buffalo City offers an important insight into how patronage exchanges are preceded by complex relationships of power that are established over time and through various enactments. The thesis demonstrates how patrons, brokers and clients exercise various forms of power every day that inform inclusion or exclusion into networks for distributing scarce state resources. It challenges views that regard factionalism and patronage as elite driven practices. Keywords: Dominant Party, African National Congress, Factionalism, Patronage, Clientelism, Power ii Declaration I declare that this thesis is my work and it has been written by me in its entirety. It is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. I have not submitted it for any degree or for examination at any other university. Parts of this thesis have been published as the following journal articles: Mukwedeya, T. G. 2015. The enemy within: factionalism in ANC local structures—the case of Buffalo City (East London). Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa. 87 (1) 117-134. Mukwedeya, T.G. 2013. Revisiting the Dominant Party Debate: Implications for Local Governance in a South African City. Africa Peace and Conflict Journal. 6 (3) 25–36. ______________________ Tatenda Godswill Mukwedeya ___________________ 2016 Johannesburg iii Acknowledgements Whilst I have declared that this is my unaided work to abide with academic rules, this severely understates how people and various institutions have helped me to put this work together. As one scholar said, ‘to deny the social component of any knowledge contribution is to deny our common humanity - we exist and, indeed, we know because of other people’. Let me thank all who have assisted me to put this work together. I am in debt to the people of Buffalo City who tolerated my questions and took the time to share their experiences with me. The information that they imparted to me has formed the basis of this thesis. Without their cooperation and time, this work would not have been possible. I sincerely thank them all. I would like to thank and dedicate this thesis to my supervisors Professor Michelle Williams and Professor Roger Southall. A student could never ask for a better combination of supervisors. You have both gone beyond your academic duties to advise and mentor me. I deeply appreciate your patience and the time you afforded to me as you guided me throughout this project. Thank you for the words of encouragement during moments of self-doubt that crept in at various stages of my studies. To a significant extent, this work evolves out of your intellect and experiences as well and I am honoured and grateful for that. However, I am responsible for any flaws and weaknesses in the analysis and conclusions drawn in the pages that follow. My family deserves special mention for it has been pivotal in my life. My parents sowed the seed of hard work and dedication from a young age and I appreciate their value for education that ensured we got the best they could manage. My mother particularly played a central role in my decision to pursue post graduate studies, ndinokutendai Amai. To my wife Mandy Maringa who has been there for me way before I embarked on this journey, I deeply thank you for your love and support throughout this prolonged endeavour. I pray you continue to be my rock in the future. You have believed in me even when I have doubted myself and for this I eternally thank you. To the rest of my family my siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, it is through your love and support that has made me to reach this point. Many are no longer with us and a couple left us during the course of this project iv but their footprints are all over this work. I will always cherish the moments we shared and the memories we made. The Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP) at Wits was my base throughout this protracted struggle. I am grateful for the financial support through the Ford Foundation that sustained me for the greater part of my studies. The numerous seminars, colloquium and informal talks with academics such as Professors Karl von Holdt, Jackie Cock, Eddie Webster and distinguished visiting scholars like Michael Burawoy and Javier Auyero were invaluable. The evening of the book was a wonderful initiative that broadened my reading beyond the usual. I hear that a PhD can be a lonely endeavour but I am glad I never experienced that. I was part of a group of SWOP PhD fellows that made sure that this journey was bearable. To my fellow comrades; Crispen, Kathrine, Asanda, Themba, Musa and Thabang thank you for the encouragement, support and importantly for the many lighter moments and laughs we shared: Aluta continua. Many thanks to Mondli, Shameen and Abnavien for always being available to assist with administrative support. During the course of my doctoral studies, the Department of Sociology at Wits has given me some of the most exciting and stimulating moments of my intellectual life through various teaching opportunities. I was a tutor in the department for several years and was offered the opportunity to lecture final year students in 2015. Thanks to Prof Michelle Williams for mentoring me during my lectureship at Wits Plus. I also wish to thank all my lecturers over the years and students of the last few years for enriching my ideas. Many thanks too to the administrative staff in the department and at the Faculty of Humanities particularly Nombulelo, Veli and Sarah for their guidance through the bureaucratic processes. I wish to appreciate the Humanities Graduate Centre (HGC) which is an oasis of intellectual life for graduate students at Wits. I appreciate the working space provided by the centre where one gets to meet and interact with graduate students from all over the world and from diverse scholarly fields. The centre provided funding through the Mellon PhD completion grant at a critical moment of this project. The numerous discussions at the lunch table and endless words of encouragement from the following people at the HGC are worth noting: Stanford, Reason, Jakie, Simba, Jeremy, Bob, Linet, Bev, Joyce, Ikechi, v Dudu, Nonhlahla, Kingsley and Sifiso. The director Prof Eric Worby and the administrator Mapule deserve special mention for their great work at the centre. I am privileged to have been part of the UPEACE/IDRC doctoral fellowship program. I am thankful for the financial support and importantly to have been part of the intellectual development program through various workshops that were organised in Addis Ababa.