Post-apartheid social movements and the quest for the elusive 'new' South Africa

Journal of Law and Society

Volumn 34, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 77-98

  Madlingozi, Tshepo ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33847348417     PISSN: 0263323X     EISSN: 14676478     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2007.00383.x     Document Type: Review

References (126)

1. F. Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1963) 136.
2. Trevor Ngwane, former ANC councillor, now a leading member of the Anti Privatisation Forum,
3. cited in A. Desai and R. Pithouse, '"But We Were Thousands": Dispossession, Resistance, Repossession and Repression in Mandela Park' (2004) 39 J. of Asian and African Studies 239-69, at 239.
4. See Bill of Rights in the South African Constitution of 1996 ('the Constitution').
5. D. Goldberg, The Death of Race (2004) 9, cited in Desai and Pithouse, op. cit., n. 2, p. 246.
6. Unveiling the new macroeconomic policy, Mbeki told journalists to 'call me a Thatcherite', Business Day, 13 May 1997,
7. cited in S. Terreblanche, A History of Inequality in South Africa 1652-2002 (2002) 145.
8. H. Marais, South Africa Limits to Change: the Political Economy of Transition (2001) 163.
9. id., p. 164.
10. S. Gelb, 'The Politics of Macroeconomic Policy Reform in South Africa' (History Workshop of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 18 September 1999) 16-17,
11. cited in id., p. 162.
12. D. McKinley, 'Democracy, Power and Patronage: Debate and Opposition within the African National Congress and the Tripartite Alliance since 1994' in Opposition and Democracy in South Africa, ed. R. Southall (2001) 183-206, at 192.
13. Marais, op. cit., n. 6, p. 153.
14. C. Bassett, 'The Demise of the Social Contract in South Africa' (2004) 38 Cnd. J. of African Studies 544,
15. cited in S. Andreasson, 'The African National Congress and its Critics: "Predatory Liberalism", Black Empowerment and Intra-Alliance Tensions in Post-Apartheid South Africa' (2006) 13 Democratization 303-22, at 310.
16. Andreasson, id., p. 304.
17. id.
18. For comprehensive and critical analyses of the effects of GEAR, see Terreblanche, op. cit., n. 5;
19. Marais, op. cit., n. 6;
20. P. Bond, Elite Transition: From Apartheid to Neoliberalism in South Africa (2005).
21. See the preamble to the Constitution.
22. See, especially, ss. 26 and 27 of the Constitution.
23. J. Saul, 'Cry the Beloved Country: The Post-Apartheid Denouement' Monthly Rev., January 2001,
24. as summarized in D. McKinley and A. Veriava, Arresting Dissent: State Repression and Post Apartheid Social Movements (2005) 8.
25. D. McKinley, 'Democracy and Social Movements in SA' (2004) 28 Labour Bull. 39-42, at 40.
26. P. Bond, 'South Africa's Resurgent Urban Social Movements: The Case of Johannesburg, 1984, 1994, 2004' in Challenging Hegemony: Social Movements and the Quest for a New Humanism in South Africa, ed. N. Gibson (2006) 103-24, at 124.
27. N. Gibson, 'Calling Everything into Question: Broken Promises, Social Movements and Emergent Intellectual Currents in Post-Apartheid South Africa' in Gibson, id., 1-53, at 41.
28. McKinley, op. cit., n. 9, pp. 183-4.
29. Also, see K. Johnson, 'State and Civil Society in Contemporary South Africa: Redefining the Rules of the Game' in Thabo Mbeki's World: The Politics and Ideology of the South African President, eds. S. Jacobs and R. Calland (2002) 221-41, at 222.
30. See R. Ballard, A. Habib, and I. Valodia, 'Conclusion: Making Sense of Post-Apartheid South Africa's Voices of Protest' in Voices of Protest: Social Movements in Post-Apartheid South Africa, eds. R. Ballard, A. Habib, and I. Valodia (2006) 397-417, at 415.
31. For a detailed history of the emergence and proliferation of these organizations, see A. Marx, Lessons of Struggle: South African Internal Opposition, 1960-1990 (1990)
32. and M. Mayekiso, Township Politics: Civic Struggles for a New South Africa (1996).
33. Also, see G. Houston, The National Liberation Struggle in South Africa: A Case Study of the United Democratic Front, 1983-1987 (1999) 37-57.
34. Houston, id., p. 46.
35. id.
36. id.
37. id., p. 48.
38. id., p. 56.
39. id., p. 5.
40. See Marx, op. cit., n. 23, pp. 106-46.
41. Houston, op. cit., n. 23, p. 63.
42. Murphy Morobe, then acting publicity secretary of the UDF, explained what the Freedom Charter catchphrase 'The People Shall Govern' meant for the UDF: When we say that the people shall govern, we mean at all levels and in all spheres, and we demand that there be a real, effective control on a daily basis ... The key to a democratic system lies in being able to say that the people in our country can not only vote for a representative of their choice, but also feel that they have some direct control over where and how they live, eat, sleep, work, how they get to work, how they and their children are educated, what the content of that education is; and that these things are not done for them by the government of the day, but [by] the people themselves. See M. Morobe, 'Towards a People's Democracy: the UDF View' (1987) 40 Rev. of African Political Economy 81-7,
43. quoted in M. Neocosmos, 'Intellectual Debates and Popular Struggles in Transitional South Africa: Political Discourse and the Origins of Statism' (1999) Seminar Paper, Centre for African Studies UCT.
44. Houston, op. cit., n. 23, p. 85.
45. id., p. 2.
46. id., p. 5.
47. id., p. 7.
48. McKinley and Veriava, op. cit., n. 17, p. 5.
49. For an extensive treatment of these developments, see D. McKinley, The ANC and the Liberation Struggle: A Critical Political Biography (1997)
50. and M. Neocosmos, 'From Peoples' Politics to State Politics: Aspects of National Liberation in South Africa' in Opposition in Contemporary Africa, ed. A. Olukoshi (1998) 195-240.
51. Marx, op. cit., n. 23, p. 177.
52. id.
53. McKinley and Veriava, op. cit., n. 17, p. 7.
54. Neocosmos, op. cit., n. 37, p. 206.
55. Desai and Pithouse, op. cit., n. 2, p. 241.
56. See 〈http://ukzn.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?6,20〉.
57. D. Snow, S. Soule, and H. Kriesi, 'Mapping the Terrain' in The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, eds. D. Snow, S. Soule, and H. Kriesi (2004) 3-6, at 6.
58. S. Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics (1994) 3-4.
59. id., pp. 4-6.
60. Ballard, Habib, and Valodia, op. cit., n. 22, p. 399.
61. id.
62. id., p. 399.
63. For a detailed study of the SECC, see A. Egan and A. Wafer, 'Dynamics of a "Mini-Mass Movement": Origins, Identity and Ideological Pluralism in the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee', id., pp. 45-65.
64. See 'About the APF' at 〈http://www.apf.org.za/article.php3? id_article=2〉.
65. For more on the APF, see S. Buhlungu, 'Upstarts or Bearers of Tradition? The Anti-Privatisation Forum of Gauteng', in Ballard, Habib, and Valodia, id., pp. 67-87.
66. id., p. 399.
67. See S. Greenberg, 'The Landless People's Movement and the Failure of the Post-Apartheid Reform', id., pp. 133-53.
68. See S. Oldfield and K. Stokke, Building Unity in Diversity: Social Movement Activism in the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign', id., pp. 111-32, at p. 111.
69. See id., p. 399.
70. id.
71. id.
72. See J. Cock, 'Connecting the Red, Brown and Green: The Environmental Justice Movement in South Africa', id., pp. 203-24, at p. 207.
73. id., p. 399.
74. id.
75. Tarrow defines 'po1itical opportunity structure' as 'consistent - but not necessarily formal, permanent or national - dimensions of the political environment which either encourage or discourage people from using collective action', see Tarrow, op. cit., n. 45, p. 18.
76. See M. Mbali, 'TAC in the History of Patient-Driven AIDS Activism: The case for Historizing South Africa's New Social Movements' in Gibson, op. cit., n. 19, pp. 129-55, at p. 131.
77. For a contrary view see Mbali, id.
78. Desai and Pithouse, op. cit., n. 2, p. 21.
79. Ballard, Habib and Valodia, op. cit., n. 22, at p. 400.
80. id.
81. id.
82. id.
83. id., p. 401.
84. id., p. 407.
85. R. Koopmans, 'Protest in Time and Space: The Evolution of Waves of Contention' in Snow, Soule, and Kriesi, op. cit., n. 44, pp. 19-46, at p. 41.
86. See, in general, McKinley and Veriava, op. cit., n. 17;
87. Desai and Pithouse, op. cit., n. 2
88. as well as Mzi Memeza, A Critical Review of the Implementation of the Regulation of Gatherings Act 205 of 1993: A Local Government and Civil Society Perspective, at 〈http://www.fxi.org.za〉.
89. The view that the state is engaged in systematic harassment and repression of social movements, is quite pervasive among social movements organizations. In August 2002, a week before the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Social Movements Indaba (SMI) organized a march dubbed a 'freedom of expression march' to highlight issues of harassment and imprisonment of social movement activists. This march was violently disrupted by members of the South African Police Services. The SMI reacted by releasing a press release that made the connection between the horrors of apartheid-era repression and repression allegedly carried out by the post-apartheid government. In part, the press release said the following: The events of this evening are only further confirmation of the ever-narrowing space in the 'new' South Africa, for the exercise of constitutional and human rights to freedom of expression and assembly. If it was not before, it should now be crystal clear that the South African government is hell-bent on smashing legitimate dissent by whatever means they deem appropriate, including peaceful marchers and terrorising children. The ghosts of the South African past are returning with a vengeance. Cited in McKinley and Veriava, id., pp. 43-4.
90. This mainly consists of acts of intimidation and vilification of movements as 'ultra-leftists', 'counter-revolutionary', and 'enemies of the people'. The general tone of an article by Michael Sachs, a key ANC strategist, exemplifies this approach. See M. Sachs '"We don't Want the Fucking Vote": Social Movements and Demagogues in South Africa's Young Democracy' (2003) 27 Labour Bull. 23-7.
91. McKinley, op. cit., n. 9, pp. 183-4.
92. Desai and Pithouse, op. cit., n. 2, p. 24.
93. M. Neocosmos, 'The State of the Post-apartheid State: The Poverty of Critique on the South African Left' (2004) 23 Politeia 137-57, at 151.
94. F. Barchiesi, 'Classes, Multitudes and the Politics of Community Movements in Post-apartheid South Africa' in Gibson, op. cit., n. 17, pp. 209-42, 214-15.
95. Oldfield and Stokke, op. cit., n. 54, p. 130.
96. id.
97. id.
98. S. Friedman and S. Mottiar, 'Rewarding Engagement?: The Treatment Action Campaign and the Politics of HIV/AIDS' at 〈http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/ FRIEDMAN%20MOTTIER%20A%20MORAL%20TO%20THE%20TALE%20LONG%20VERSION.PDF〉.
99. Desai and Pithouse, op. cit., n. 2, p. 260.
100. This is the unequivocal position of Zakie Achmat, chairperson of the TAC, who asserts that: 'We want to get medicine to people - we don't want to cause a revolution'. Cited in Friedman and Mottiar, id.
101. D. Rucht, 'Movement Allies, Adversaries, and Ihird Parties' in Snow, Soule, and Kriesi, op. cit., n. 44, pp. 197-216, at p. 203.
102. Friedman and Mottiar, op. cit., n. 80.
103. R. Greestein, 'Civil Society, Social Movements and Power in South Africa' (2003) 17, unpublished RAU Sociology seminar paper, available at 〈http://general.rau.ac.za/sociology/Greenstein.pdf〉.
104. P. Virno, A Grammar of the Multitude (2004).
105. Barchiesi, op. cit., n. 76, p. 215.
106. id., p. 216.
107. Greestein, op. cit., n. 84, p. 16.
108. Slogan displayed at the launch of the Social Movement Indaba.
109. Greestein, op. cit., n. 84, p. 17.
110. Indymedia South Africa as cited in id., p. 14.
111. D. Snow and R. Benford, 'Ideology, Frame Resonance, and Participant Mobilization' (1988) 1 International Social Movement Research 197-217, at 198,
112. as cited by D. Snow, 'Framing Processes, Ideology, and Discursive Fields' in Snow, Soule, and Kriesi, op. cit., n. 44. pp. 380-412, at p. 384.
113. A. Desai, 'Vans, Autos, Kombis and the Drivers of Social Movements', Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture 28 July 2006, available at 〈http://www.ukzn. ac.za/ccs〉.
114. D. McKinley, 'The Rise of Social Movements in South Africa' (2004) Debate: Voices from the South African Left 17-21, at 20,
115. cited in Ballard, Habib, and Valodia, op. cit., n. 22, p. 398.
116. The role of these mainly white middle-class activists has recently come under fire from a number of black activists. Thus, Andile Mngxitama, a former activist with the Landless People's Movement has complained that: to date, what has often happened in these social movements in South Africa is that historically dominant voices - primarily white-left intellectuals - have been the main mediators of the identity and aspirations of the poor of the country. In a sense we are witnessing the re-inscription of racial domination in the service of a 'greater good' - to hold back the tide of neo-liberal attack on black bodies. See A. Mngxitama, 'Let Black Voices Speak for the Voiceless' Mail and Guardian Online 22 January 2004, available at 〈http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=131236&area= %2finsight%2finsight_comment_and_analysis%2f〉.
117. See, also, M. Ndlovu, 'Social Movements, Representation and the Role of Supporters of People's Struggle' 14 September 2006, electronic paper available at 〈http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,1126〉
118. and N. Mthembu, 'The Role of White Activists in the Liberation of the Black Race', 12 September 2006, electronic paper available at 〈http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,1125〉.
119. Saul, op. cit., n. 17.
120. M. Szeftel 'Two Cheers? South African Democracy's First Decade' (2004) 31 Rev. of African Political Economy 193-202, at 194-5.
121. id., at p. 194.
122. id.
123. id., at p. 195.
124. id.
125. P. Bond, 'Ten Years of Democracy: A Review' in Articulations: A Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture Collection, ed. A. Alexander (2006) 37.
126. Desai, op. cit., n. 93.