African National Congress Research Articles

Anarchist/syndicalist and independent Marxist intersections in post-apartheid struggles, South Africa: the WSF/ZACF current in Gauteng, 1990s–2010s

ABSTRACTSouth Africa has a long-established independent left, outside the big traditions of nationalism and Marxism-Leninism. Post-apartheid its fortunes have varied considerably, as space opened up for movements to the left of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party, but opportunities declined as the state increased its legitimacy, penetration of civil society, and systems of patronage. This paper looks at cooperation, competition and convergence on the independent left, with particular reference to independent Marxists (mainly the well-established Trotskyist tradition) and revolutionary anarchists and syndicalists (a movement that revived in the 1990s). These intersections have taken place in study groups, popular education, student struggles, and post-apartheid social movements and unions, and indicate the vitality and fragility of the independent left, and the ongoing importance of cooperation and overlaps, as well as of long-standing divisions over theory and strategy. Particular attention is paid to Keep Left, the Socialist Group, the Democratic Socialist Movement, and the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front.

Critiquing Print Media Transformation and Black Empowerment in South Africa: A Critical Race Theory Approach

ABSTRACT South Africa is a country found on extreme forms of inequality along race, gender, and class lines. Thus, transformation addressing these inequalities of the apartheid past became a critical factor in the re-organisation of society at the onset of democracy in 1994. One essential intervention in addressing mainly the economic disparities of the past was Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), introduced by the African National Congress (ANC) government to overcome the economic legacy of apartheid. The BEE programme, renamed the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) in 2007, measures the transformation performance of companies across all sectors of the economy, according to a specified scorecard. In the absence of a media-specific transformation policy, the Act serves as its transformation policy standard. This paper critiques the B-BBEE policy instrument in relation to print media transformation using Critical race theory, and related concepts, such as racial capitalism, and racial liberalism. The paper finds that despite the racial diversification of the racial composition of the media, B-BBEE is largely an illusion. The B-BBEE strategy has not changed the racial character of the economy, and fundamentally resulted in the co-optation of a small black elite into the wealthy white capitalist elite inherited from the apartheid era, where the “power relationship” reminiscent of apartheid still exists and white privilege intersects with other forms of subordination such as gender and class. Policies supporting media transformation must become “race conscious” in a way that openly confronts racism and engages with systematic racism and exclusion.

Választások és politikai szereplők a Dél-afrikai Köztársaságban

After the wasted decade of the Zuma presidency, Cyril Ramaphosa promised a renewal in South Africa in 2018. The post-state capture condition of the former economic and moral champion of the continent did not favor to regain either the confidence of the voters or of the investors. While the country had been prepairing for the sixth free general elections (25 years after the fall of the apartheid-regime), most of the domestic socio-economic problems remained unsolved. Inequality, unemployment, education, corruption, land reform and provision of public services are still the most important topics of the public talk and determined the focus of the campaign. The publication introduces the party structure of the country, the leaders of the biggest South African parties, what is more the causes and the consequences of the sixth consecutive success of the African National Congress (ANC). The article includes an analysis of the results of the national and provincial elections and beside the electoral analysis the author tries to introduce the dynamics of power within the factions of the ruling African National Congress party, adding an outlook on the members of the new Ramaphosa Cabinet. Last but not least the publication describes the most important authorities and bodies who tackle the thriving corruption in the ANC and in the subsystems of the state.

Land Reform in South Africa: Interrogating the Securitisation of Land Expropriation Without Compensation

ABSTRACTLand has dominated public discourse and policymaking in both apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. The apartheid regime was noted for land dispossession, while successive post-apartheid governments, continue to face the daunting task of resolving the land question. Despite the implementation of land reform programmes as instruments for addressing land injustice, promoting land utilisation, and combating other land-related problems, there are compelling evidence of land inequality, rising poverty levels, land agitations and farm battles. The government recently responded to the failed land reform scheme by categorising the unresolved land question as an existential threat to the socio-economic and political stability of the country. Land Expropriation Without Compensation (LEWC) thereby becomes the proposed policy framework to attain government goals in the land sector. Through the framework of the securitisation theory, the article explores the securitisation of land expropriation without compensation, examines the factors responsible for the adoption of LEWC by the ruling party – African National Congress (ANC) and assesses the appropriateness of the proposed policy shift. The article recognises the imperativeness of revisiting the existing land policy but makes strong arguments for exercising caution in the adoption and implementation of expropriation without compensation.

The African Renaissance Conference, Twenty-One Years Later: A Critical Reflection

On September 28 and 29, 1998, four years after the first democratic elections in South Africa which brought about the Government of National Unity (GNU) headed by Nelson Mandela, then president of the African National Congress (ANC) and the first African president in a post-apartheid South Africa, a conference dedicated to the African Renaissance was held at the Karos Indaba Hotel in Johannesburg. In 2019, twenty-one years after the convening of the African Renaissance conference, the vice-chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa), Prof. Mandla Makhanya, invited the author to his institution to reflect on the historic event. This reflection was a contribution to Prof. Makhanya's African Intellectuals Project (AIP), a platform provided by him to African intellectuals to reflect on the challenges that continue to confront Africans on the continent, and to suggest possible solutions. Prof. Makhanya saw fit that as one of convenors of the African Renaissance conference, the other two being Thaninga Shope and Thami Mazwai, I should reflect on the successes and failures of the African Renaissance project. In this article I reflect on the journey of the African Renaissance project, twenty-one years after the historical African Renaissance conference.

Constitutional Populism in South Africa

South African constitutionalism has always contained the ingredients for a populist turn, and that turn is now decidedly occurring. This paper argues that the main political factor driving this development is the ongoing struggle for control of the governing African National Congress (ANC). That struggle currently sees a moderate constitutionalist faction pitted against a 'radical economic transformation' (RET) faction consisting of supporters of former President Jacob Zuma. Against the background of the rising influence of the left-wing populist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the ANC's RET faction has decided that there is political advantage to be had in fronting some of the EFF's policies. These currently include a proposal to amend the 1996 Constitution to allow for 'expropriation without compensation' and the nationalization of the Reserve Bank. Rather than an attempt to head off the EFF's rising influence, the paper argues, these developments should be seen as a political wedge that the RET faction is using to gain control of the ANC. By floating these proposals, the RET faction is backing the constitutionalist faction into a corner, forcing it either to resist them, and in so doing accept responsibility for any resultant loss of electoral support to the EFF, or embrace them, and in so doing allow the RET faction to dictate the ANC's political direction. In addition to exploring these dynamics, the paper situates the South African case in the comparative literature on constitutional populism and suggests ways in which that literature needs to be revised to take account of it.

Epilogue: Chérif Keïta in South Africa: A Conversation with Albie Sachs

Epilogue:Chérif Keïta in South Africa: A Conversation with Albie Sachs Dianna Bell On a cool morning I sit on Albie Sachs's patio with coffee and a freshly baked croissant. I look out on the ocean and realize that this is a setting I am beginning to take for granted. I have spent most of my summer holiday mornings with Albie—we have had many meaningful conversations about history and the legal profession at this table. Aside from Albie's generosity with his time, I am aware that I am only here because of my sababu, or link, to Albie Sachs—Chérif Keïta. We had other plans for the work we might do this morning, but I had left the materials I needed in the car. So, instead, we begin to talk about Chérif. I was curious about how Chérif had even made it into Sachs's purview. Sachs is a legendary figure in South African history, whose time is stretched by endless invitations to cultural events such as film screenings. Albie thought for a moment before saying, "Actually, I don't remember. One day he was just there." I smile as I write down the quote, because I can relate to the feeling. The first time I met Chérif, it did not feel as if I were meeting him, but rather that I was reconnecting with a close friend. Chérif has impacted so many people by teaching them French and showing them a Francophone world that extends far beyond France. But he has a side hustle too; he has made three notably rich documentaries about John Dube, the first president of the African National Congress (ANC). Albie reflects on the importance of John Dube as a patriot who dedicated his life to the struggle. Why then, I ask, had no one in South Africa made a documentary about him? He replies that his generation had a general respect for early ANC leaders, but that even he grew up in Cape Town knowing very little about Dube, who hailed from what is now known as KwaZulu. He remarks, "This is what Chérif has achieved. He has given a strong visual face, a personality and place, and a humanity to the Dube family." We sit together with that thought for a moment. Then Albie adds that now, when he closes his eyes, he sees Nokutela's, not John Dube's face. Chérif's [End Page 211] third documentary, Remembering Nokutela, focuses on the first wife of John Dube, Nokutela Mdima Dube. Albie offers that Remembering Nokutela shows the way that women shouldered so much pain from colonialism while still managing the planning and care it takes to run a household. He continues by saying that there is a sadness to the story of John and Nokutela Dube. Their marriage did not survive, and that demonstrates the way that sharing religious beliefs and a strong ideological system, such as what the ANC espouses, does not necessarily guarantee a happy relationship. In Remembering Nokutela, Chérif finds both Nokutela's unmarked grave and also her story. "He has rescued her from erasure," says Albie, and continues to explain that the effect of Remembering Nokutela is that John Dube becomes the husband who emerges as a figure in the shadow of his wife. Nokutela was remarkably organized and put together; she exhibited a natural elegance. Chérif has an energizing effect on people. Even the conversation about him enlivens me for the day. He is an historical conjurer. He brings ideas and people to life while forging current connections. I mention that I once heard Chérif remark at a film screening that black South Africans have been demoralized in a way that other Africans cannot quite grasp. Albie agrees in part, saying that he noticed while traveling in West Africa that people walk in the street with proud dress and posture, while the majority of pedestrians in South Africa, after centuries of conquest and forced involvement in an industrial economy, have a far more diffident and respectful pavement presence. I myself have noticed that people in West Africa who sell items or...

To Swim with Crocodiles: land, violence and belonging in South Africa, 1800-1996 by Jill E Kelly

Reviewed by: To Swim with Crocodiles: land, violence and belonging in South Africa, 1800-1996 by Jill E Kelly Sibongiseni Mkhize (bio) Jill E Kelly (2019) To Swim with Crocodiles: land, violence and belonging in South Africa, 1800-1996. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press; East Lansing: Michigan State University Press The Valley of a Thousand Hills is famous for its scenic routes and picturesque, rolling hills. It is famous as the route of two major international sport events, the Comrades ultra-Marathon and the Dusi Canoe Marathon. Both events start in Pietermaritzburg and finish in Durban, with the Comrades alternating its start and finish point because, unlike the canoe marathon, it does not rely on gravity. The villages that the local and international athletes and media see and broadcast to the world look serene and the locals often cheer the athletes who run or paddle past their homes on their way to the finish line. It is a magnificent landscape, whose mesmerising views have featured in many postcards and anthropological studies for more than a century. The two rivers, the Umngeni and Umsunduzi, have for centuries been sources of life and economic sustenance to the precolonial and current inhabitants of these areas and to the cities that emerged during the nineteenth century, Durban and Pietermaritzburg. For the residents of these parts of KwaZulu-Natal, those rivers and rolling hills represent key markers of identity and belonging. The scene of the drama that took nearly 150 years to reach its tragic climax is an area on the western side of the Valley of a Thousand Hills, situated at the confluence of Mngeni and Msunduzi rivers, at the centre of which is a mountain called Table Mountain (not to be confused with the famous mountain in Cape Town). Jill Kelly's book, sub-titled Land, [End Page 161] violence and belonging in South Africa, 1800-1996, takes the reader on the meandering historical journey. Unlike some writers of the contemporary history and politics of Natal and the midlands region, Kelly has taken a longer-term view, locating the generational conflict of the 1990s within a historical context. The temptation over the years has been to reduce the conflict of the 1980s and 1990s to ideological contestation between the supporters of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the African National Congress (ANC).1 However, what Kelly has demonstrated is a much more complex picture, including the problematising of the words chiefs and inkosi in colonial, apartheid and post-apartheid contexts. Kelly's book is divided into three parts. Part 1 is preceded by the Introduction. Kelly does a sterling job of situating her study within a broader historical context and describing in detail the concept of ukukhonza in relation to chiefly authority, identity and belonging. Understanding the concept of ukukhonza, which cannot merely be defined as allegiance, is important because it carries a deeper meaning of a social contract between the chief and his subject. Ukukhonza, paid in the form of a fee, gives expectations of land and security on the part of the chief's subjects. Kelly uses ukukhonza 'as a lens to explore the history of the relationship between chiefs, subjects and land' (220). She introduces the readers to chief Mhlabunzima Maphumulo and goes into detail in respect of his relationship with his subjects and how his chiefdom and its authority had been undermined and denigrated by the neighbouring Nyavu based on the fact that the Nyavu claimed to be the original occupiers of the land by arguing that Mhlabunzima's great grandfather, Maguzu Maphumulo, was not a traditional chief but a minor headman who was rewarded with a piece of land by the colonial authorities for his loyalty to them. The names of the two chiefs, when translated figuratively, are illustrative of their difficult heritage, the trials and tribulations of their forebears. Mhlabunzima's name is about the hardships of the land while Bangubukhosi records the contestations for power in his chieftaincy. Part 1–'Violence, allegiance and authority in the making of kingdoms and colony'–has two chapters. This section delves into the heart of chiefly authority, identity formation, claims of originality and pre-colonial existence, and the fluidity...

The relationship between social welfare policy and multidimensional well-being: An analysis using the South African Child Support Grant

Socio-historical context and ideology are often overlooked in analyses of how social welfare policy is used to promote well-being. This paper uses the South African Child Support Grant (CSG) to illuminate how a policy may enhance or hinder well-being, not only for individuals but also for a society. Forged through a combination of the inherited apartheid state's architecture, the redistributive ideology of the ruling African National Congress, social development theory and the constraints of economic globalisation, the CSG has produced paradoxically positive material well-being outcomes for many poor South Africans and possibly reproduced problematic subjective and relational forms of well-being nationally. Analysing how the grant, as a social policy, is historically and ideologically situated illuminates some of the constraints imposed upon a twenty-first century democratic developmental state as it tries to find its way in a global market, redistribute wealth, satisfy different constituencies and promote individual and collective well-being. Grants are a necessary but insufficient strategy for a twenty-first century democratic developmental state like South Africa.

‘Wij waren nette mensen, wij gooiden geen stenen’

Abstract ‘We were fine people; we did not throw stones.’ Debates in the early Dutch anti-apartheid movement about solidarity with violent resistance to apartheid in South-Africa In 1956 the first Dutch anti-apartheid movement, the Comité Zuid-Afrika (CZA), was found. Following the example of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, the CZA modelled itself as a politically representative moderate movement that was based on solidarity with the oppressed black population in South-Africa. As this article shows, the meaning of this solidarity became fiercely contested within the movement after the African National Congress (ANC) shifted from non-violent action towards armed resistance in the wake of the Sharpeville bloodbath in 1960. Following David Featherstone’s conceptualization of solidarity as a ‘relationship’ that is not a static given, this research shows that solidarity was constantly being contested and redefined in debates between individual members of the CZA. Within the movement many feared that solidarity, once declared, was by definition unconditional. The CZA eventually defined its relationship of solidarity with the ANC as support for non-violent resistance only. Its successor, the Anti-ApartheidsBeweging Nederland (AABN), which like other international anti-apartheid movements in the early 1970s was led by younger and more ideological activists, defined solidarity as unconditional. This different understanding of solidarity made this second generation of anti-apartheid activists participants in the violent resistance against apartheid.

The Paradox of (De)politicisation in a Selected South African Municipality: An Afrocentric Ethical Reflection

South Africa’s local government administration is complex in that both traditional leadership and elected municipal councils play a role in it. Traditional leadership occupies an essential position and status in local government administration, in particular in rural South Africa. However, the contemporary administrative jurisdiction of municipalities cuts across both rural and urban areas. In the rural areas, the conflict over the division of roles between traditional leaders and elected councillors is evident. Due to the influence and dominance of the neo-liberal global order, modernists often accuse traditional leadership of being undemocratic and authoritarian. However, the reality is that elected councils’ administration also leaves much to be desired, and the consequences of their poor administration are not uniformly understood. Since South Africa is a democratic state, it is expected that there should be a clear separation in government institutions between party (i.e., the ruling African National Congress) politics and public administration; a phenomenon that some describe as depoliticisation. Nevertheless, the realities on the ground suggest otherwise. This article, which is based on the theory of Afrocentricity, examines a selected rural municipality (Maruleng) in South Africa’s Limpopo province to critically reflect on the ethics and the value system of African culture in the context of local governance vis-à-vis Westernised governance principles. The aim of this research is achieved through interdisciplinary critical discourse and thematic analysis in its broadest form.

Oliver Tambo’s International Policy: Unique Features of the South African Foreign Policy Process and Personality Factor

The aim of the work is to develop an understanding of the role of Oliver Tambo as the actual head of the foreign policy department of South Africa during the period of implementation of the policy of apartheid and the process of decolonization of the African continent. The author’s thesis is that the African National Congress (ANC) foreign policy during the period of South Africa’s activities as a state supporting racial segregation was of the nature of external representation. The development of foreign policy was identical to the formation of a new state. The uniqueness of the analyzed situation is expressed in the fact that for the first time in history, international relations were established not only by a party that does not politically agree with state ideology, but also does not show its loyalty to any political blocs. The theses presented by Oliver Tambo in the conditions of the Cold War were democratic, consistent with the principles of civil choice and were not identified as the need for armed confrontation. It is these aspects that enabled the transition of power to the radical majority to avoid prolonged civil wars or conflicts involving international armed groups. The basis of the methodology is the understanding of the international process during the liberation of Africa and the choice of allies for this process by representatives of the leading world powers. The author uses the historical method and the method of direct oppositions of the position of Oliver Tambo and a significant number of ideological proposals from the leading world powers of the time under investigation. The article shows that the activities of Oliver Tambo fully comply with the regulations and traditions in the performance of their functions by the foreign affairs ministries. The author argues that the leading role of the ANC and O. Tambo in particular is to ensure the preservation of stability in the socioeconomic development of South Africa with the transit of power in the 1990s and the preservation of the pace of development of South Africa in the 2000s. The work examines the period from the appointment of O. Tambo to the post of Secretary General of the ANC to his death. It is noted that, in addition to the revealed features of O. Tambo’s activities for South Africa for the general theory of international relations, the above facts showed how to build cooperation with non-institutional actors in world politics.

The promise and limit of freedom: South Africa and the pursuit of racial justice

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss South Africa’s trajectory of socio-economic development since the advent of democracy a quarter century ago. This is done through a critical discussion and review of major policy interventions that have been implemented to achieve the goal of racial justice. The author argues that while the advent of democracy brought about significant opportunities for social justice, socio-economic development in South Africa has been characterised by increasing wealth and income inequality, which has undermined the cause of racial justice. The key argument the author advances in the paper is that the decline in the power resources of the working class and the poor accounts for the neoliberal turn in economic policy in South Africa.Design/methodology/approachThe paper relies on primary policy documents of the government and on primary political and policy documents of the African National Congress and its political allies such as the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party. The author also reviews the extensive literature on the subject of development policymaking in the new South Africa.FindingsThe main finding is that the advent of democracy a quarter century ago and the policy interventions by the government have brought about social progress in some areas. However, the colonial and apartheid domination still shapes access to social-economic opportunities in South Africa. In anything, income and wealth inequality has increased since 1994. The goal of racial justice appears far from being achieved.Research limitations/implicationsThe key implication arising from the research is that strengthening political organisations of the working class and the poor is critical to attaining the goal of social equity. This is particularly true in a context where elite interests in the state and the corporate sector have been ascendant for the past two decades.Originality/valueWhat is original about the paper is that it is one of the first papers that assess the progress that has made in bringing about racial justice 25 years after the advent of democracy in South Africa. Furthermore, the paper uses the power resources theory to explain the dearth of pro-poor social reform in South Africa. This is a departure from the dominant approach, which explains the adoption of neoliberalism in South Africa as either inevitable due to poor economic performance or an outcome of the sell-out by the ANC political elite.

The M-Plan: Mandela’s Struggle to Reorient the African National Congress

This is an account of Mandela’s strategy and actions in 1961 and 1962, organising and reorienting the African National Congress (ANC). Based largely on oral memoirs and interviews, including state witness depositions, the article argues that Mandela's plans were thwarted. After the government declared the ANC illegal, Mandela helped to supervise the programme called the M-Plan, in order to lay the groundwork for mass participation in an anticipated revolutionary transformation, but the effort did not succeed. Members resisted the M-Plan reorganisation on the ground; the state assaulted the ANC and its leaders, and ripped apart communities; and the leadership denied Mandela full access to the ANC in his preparations for the violence he saw ahead of them. He was allowed to form a separate group, relying on the South African Communist Party and port city trade unionists for its organising. That smaller network, Umkhonto, was grafted into the M-Plan hierarchy a year later, problematically and partially, too little, too late.

Mandela’s Army: Urban Revolt in South Africa, 1960–1964

This article focuses on Nelson Mandela’s tenure as the first commander-in-chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). It emphasises his objectives for MK as reflected in the archive of diaries, notebooks and reports that he produced at the time. It also looks at the effectiveness of his work as Commander by exploring how the army he built fared in its insurgency against the state. The article emphasises the seriousness of purpose of Mandela and colleagues, which is something they have not always been credited for in the literature. Also explored is MK’s history beyond Mandela’s arrest. This involves revisiting what would be the first ‘Free Mandela’ campaign in history. Led by the underground within South Africa, the campaign offers a platform from which to assess the durability and effectiveness of the structures that Mandela left behind. The history of the post-Mandela underground also encompasses ‘Operation Mayibuye’, which was the MK High Command’s first attempt at launching guerrilla warfare. Operation Mayibuye was not implemented. This was a result of a crackdown by the state, most notably with the raid on Lilieslief Farm in July 1963. The article looks at how the underground absorbed the blows that it received at the hands of the state from 1963 to 1964, including the process by which the leadership of MK shifted to the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) External Mission, led by Oliver Tambo. The contribution of the Communist bloc and independent African states in facilitating the transition is discussed, as well as the embedding of the armed struggle in the larger conflicts of the Cold War and decolonisation. Finally, the paper considers the legacy of the urban revolt of the early 1960s and its significance for the larger debate regarding the role of the armed struggle in the broader liberation struggle in South Africa.

News from Robben Island: Journalists’ Visits to Nelson Mandela during his Imprisonment

From 1952, when Nelson Mandela received his first banning order, the apartheid government attempted to remove the African National Congress leader from public life through issuing successive banning orders, censoring the publication of his words and image and finally sentencing him to life imprisonment in the maximum security prison, Robben Island. The notorious prison – a site of brutality, quarantine and resistance – was subject to the Prisons Act of 1959, which further shrouded it in secrecy. At the same time, the post-war growth of humanitarian and human rights law resulted in increasing global concern about conditions in prisons and, in turn, in the rise of activist organisations such as Southern Africa: The Imprisoned Society (SATIS), which advocated the release of apartheid’s political prisoners. In order to prove that its prisons were humane, the state was pressured to allow human rights organisations and, increasingly, the media to have access. It was also pressured to permit access to Mandela, the country’s most famous political prisoner.This article analyses four media visits to Mandela on the island (two in 1964, one in 1973 and one in 1977), when Mandela was interviewed and/or photographed, looking at the context that led to the authorisation of such visits, complex behind-the-scenes negotiations between journalists and the authorities, Mandela’s attempted curation of his image, and the subsequent framing, publication, censorship and dissemination of information. The article argues that the state’s attempts to control the discourse around Mandela and Robben Island grew increasingly less successful – particularly in overseas reports – and that Mandela’s incarceration on the mysterious island contributed to his mythologisation. Even from a position of imprisonment, Mandela was careful to anticipate his reception abroad, establishing an irrefutable moral authority from the confines of his prison cell. His comments reveal his consistent appeal to western democratic sensibilities, his utilisation of human rights discourse and his careful negotiation of the issue of prison conditions.

Mandela, Human Rights and the Making of South Africa’s Transformative Constitution

Since 1994, numerous books have been written about South Africa’s leadership of the human rights revolution. Such narratives lie at the heart of Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom and George Bizos’ Odyssey to Freedom: A Memoir by the World-Renowned Human Rights Advocate, Friend and Lawyer to Nelson Mandela. More recently, historians have taken a clearer-eyed view of the African National Congress’s (ANC) late conversion to the language of rights. They have mainly looked at how the ANC, an organisation rhetorically committed to revolution and suspicious of ‘bourgeois rights’, made an abrupt about-turn and adopted human rights discourses in the late 1980s. This article takes a different course, opening up debates about the different meanings that rival groups of anti-apartheid lawyers attributed to the notion of human rights. At the start of the 1980s, there was little common ground between the mainly liberal, mainly white, Lawyers for Human Rights, the Black Lawyers Association’s demands for ‘rights and recognition’ and ANC exiles’ search for ‘a liberated law’ and ‘popular justice’. I trace how these three broad strands of legal thinking converged during the 1980s around a common set of ideas: speaking of ‘positive freedoms’ that would undo the inequalities of the apartheid regime. By shepherding together these different groupings, the ANC leadership entered the constitutional negotiations that would usher in South Africa’s democratic transition as the champion of human rights and ‘transformative constitutionalism’. None the less, sharp disagreements remained between rival groupings. This is one reason, I suggest, why ‘Mandela’s constitution’ has recently become a lightning rod for bitter debates about race and inequality and, more broadly, the meaning of human rights and transformation.

Black Neofascism? The Economic Freedom Fighters in South Africa.

This article argues that twenty-first century fascism is variegated and shaped by complex socioecological conditions. While enabled by the specific conditions of contemporary capitalist crisis, it is actually different from its antecedents. This requires actual in situ case studies. Hence, this article focuses on the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in South Africa and explores its emergence in the conjuncture of hegemonic crisis faced by the ruling African National Congress. Moreover, the article challenges current liberal classificatory discourses that seek to define the EFF in South Africa's democratic order and also revisits the history of fascism from a decolonial perspective. It is argued there where two moments of fascism in the twentieth century, interwar fascism, and militarized fascism in the peripheries supported by U.S. imperialism. The EFF does not share anything in common with these twentieth century fascisms and therefore has to be analyzed and explained on its own terms.

An Afrocentric exploration of Jacob Zuma's anti Apartheid stance: The question of Israeli–Palestinian struggle

In this article, the author utilizes interdisciplinary critical discourse analysis to analyse the state of South Africa–Israel relations under the Zuma‐led African National Congress (ANC). The author ground roots this article on Afrocentricity as the alternative theoretical framework to identify the position of the ANC in relation to the unfolding events in Israel and broadly analyse this position in order to make sense of it. This is done within the context of the Zuma‐led ANC in order to tease out major contradictions, which characterizes the administration of Zuma's stance on attested Apartheid Israel. The central question engaged with in this article is to determine whether political and ideological counterstatements to those the ANC communicated, by some of the opposition political parties such as African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), had any major implications on South Africa's foreign policy on the Apartheid Israel. In this article, the author argues extensively that Zuma's foreign policy on Israel can best be understood when located into his entire term as president of South Africa and the NASREC resolution of 2017.

Data practices and inequality in South African early childhood development policy: Technocratic management versus social transformation

Background: In 1994, the African National Congress identified early childhood development as a potential strategy to redress the inequalities of apartheid, however, two and a half decades later, poverty still persists, and South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Aim: This article explores how policy texts based on and with the use of certain data practices establish ‘truths’ about childhoods and society, construct families and communities, and determine forms of provision to address inequality. Setting: In 2015, the South African government published the National Integrated Early Childhood Policy (NIECDP) to continue to address poverty and inequality. Its implementation increasingly draws on data practices that measure and inform solutions. The use of data practices, while also providing needed information, prioritises solutions that proceed in technocratic ways instead of facilitating social change. Methods: With a critical discourse analysis of policy texts and the introduction of alternatives, the analysis seeks to highlight the power and knowledge hierarchies that construct the policies of NIECDP. Results: This article demonstrates how discourses and data practices prioritise ‘the government of poverty’ instead of helping to eliminate it and silence the voices of those living with poverty. This form of government through data also undermines the policy’s potential to respond to the different life chances resulting from the diverse conditions in which young children live in South Africa. Conclusion: This article seeks to re-open a debate that the NIECDP successfully silenced, specifically who benefits, who speaks and who is silenced.