Trajectories of Power Relations in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

Since the official political power shift in 1994, the interaction of power among various groups in South Africa has become an important subject of discussion among academics and researchers. There are four major arguments around power dynamics in South Africa. First, power has officially shifted from whites to blacks, although it is not clear how this in practice has changed power relations. Second, different interest groups in South Africa among the anti-apartheid 'pro- gressives' lacked a clear ideological vision of how to sustain their influence over the policy-making process. Third, due to a lack of synergy of ideological views amongst the progressive constituency, the corporate sector controlling economic power took a controlling influence over the policy-making processes. Finally, the African National Congress (ANC) alli- ance policy-making process shifted from a consultative to an elitist pattern as a result of the new centralised leadership of Thabo Mbeki. This paper critically assesses these four arguments and attempts to explain the complexity of the power dy- namics that arose in post-apartheid South Africa. To do so it traces the evolution of the positions of different organisations within the anti-apartheid coalition from the outset of their rise to power and discusses the different groups' interests and their exertion of power and influence. It looks into the interaction between elites and the implications for socio-economic development in South Africa. This discussion takes place in the context of a four-fold periodisation of post-apartheid South Africa. To realise this, this paper draws from policy documents, relevant literature, and in-depth interviews con- ducted during six months of research fieldwork carried out in 2007.