Party-state Collapse and Trajectory of Factionalism in the ANC Post-apartheid: Reflections from Buffalo City, 2005–2015

Abstract

Party – state collapse is whereby the functions of the party and state are largely combined into one body, with a dominant role for the party. This paper traces the collapse of the party and state during the African National Congress’s (ANC) political dominance post-apartheid and traces how this process shaped factional politics within the party between 2005- 2015. The gradual conflation of the party and state occurred partly through two processes related to the party’s imperatives of pursuing a transformative agenda. Firstly, the state itself had to be transformed in the way it operated and to reflect the demographic composition of the country. This presented an opportunity for the ANC to deploy its cadres into the state. Secondly, the party relied on the state as an economic actor to be a vehicle for redistribution and the transformation of the broader society for equity and growth. Hence, black economic empowerment, state preferential procurement and other policies to uplift previously disadvantaged social groups became one of the stepping-stones for the emergent African middle and upper class. Whilst these two processes transformed the state, the paper argues that they also fundamentally transformed the party itself, as it became a site of accumulation and intense intra-party contestation. Patronage networks emerged to secure and defend political power and the material benefits it came with. The paper draws on primary research in the ANCs Buffalo City region in the Eastern Cape Province at the peak of factional battles between Mbeki and Zuma aligned officials.