By Dr Minga Mbweck Kongo*
Today, Wednesday, 19 June 2024, we witness the inauguration of President Ramaphosa of South Africa at the Union Buildings in Tshwane, Gauteng. With the theme “30 Years of Democracy, Partnership and Growth”. The ceremony is attended by South Africans and representatives of regional, continental, and international organisations and bodies, such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), and the United Nations (UN).
South Africa is confronted with a quintuple threat of water scarcity, energy depletion, racism, inflation, and unemployment, leaving politicians unsure where to begin to minimize the damage. Before the start of the 2024 election, poverty had already attained an endogenous dynamic of its own, snowballing down a slope with its momentum. In 2024, those on the margin were already exposed to several poverty traps that perpetuate poverty spontaneously and augment it.
In its Election Manifest (2024), the ANC promised the electorate that poverty and unemployment would be reduced. These promises were previously unattainable, mainly because the government adhered to its economic approach of neoliberalism and the free market. The poverty problem is too deep and too comprehensive to be reduced in a short period.
Thirty years into democracy, service delivery challenges remain, unemployment is high, and ±50% of the population lives below the poverty line. The politico-economic system in place in South Africa from ±1994 until 2024 is highly dysfunctional. It served the interests of the few elites exceedingly well and enriched them undeservedly. However, due to the exploitative nature of the system, the blacks – and especially the Africans – are becoming impoverished undeservedly. South African society is still a deeply divided racial society. Few blacks are economically in a privileged position as middle-class (or bourgeoisie) people, while almost all the blacks are impoverished lower-class people.
The 2024 election results have plunged the ANC hegemonic order into a survival crisis when the electorate radically changed the composition of the South African political scene. This caused a profound paradigm shift in the ideological thinking of the Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) and the newly formed political party MK and started to change the power relations on which the ANC political supremacy and capitalism were based. Floyd Shivambu, the deputy president of the EFF, argues that the period from 1994 to now has caused stagflation, poverty, and growing unemployment. It coincided with the liberation struggle when political bargaining power slowly shifted from whites to blacks. A significant catalyst in this shift is the rise of the uMkhonto weSizwe party (MK), which acted as a powerful anti-hegemonic movement against the deeply institutionalised power constellation of the ANC political dominance.
The hegemony of the ANC’s political dominance (and the power constellation on which it was based) lost its majority rule. The ANC government made several concessions to other political parties in a desperate attempt to convince them to form a Government of National Unity. The fault line shifted to include other political parties. While the ANC’s power and hegemony are slowly but surely subverted, the corporate sector has consolidated its position of power and influence.
The Democratic Alliance (DA), backed by powerful controlled corporations, convinced the ANC, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and other smaller parties of the (alleged) merits of their ideological approach to neoliberalism and the free market. During the same period, the MK, EFF, The African Transformation Movement (ATM), and other smaller opposition parties who call themselves progressive parties also started negotiations among themselves. In these negotiations, these opposition parties told the voters that they did not benefit from the ANC and will not benefit from a Government of National Unity (GNU) and that it was always against the wishes of the South African citizens. These claims need to be tested.
The 2024 election is a remarkable period in the history of South Africa. It only sometimes happened in the history of a country when the political party in power, disintegrates almost completely and that an institutional vacuum (or tubule rasa) is created before a new power constellation and a new politico-economic system could be institutionalised. It was not expected that the MK would emerge as a strong contender and power broker. During the negotiations of the GNU, the ANC was in a weak position than ever before and thus they could not mould or control the negotiations to entrench their interests to a more significant extent. The reduction of the ANC voters has created an opportunity for dogmatic protagonists of free-market capitalism to claim a triumphant victory.
Parallel to the formal negotiations on South Africa’s future political system, negotiations were conducted between a leader of the ANC, DA and the IFP. According to MK, in these negotiations, the DA was strongly supported by global corporatism. In these negotiations, the ANC leadership was convinced about the alleged merits of neoliberal, free-market fundamentalism and a globally orientated economic approach for South Africa. The DA and the ANC agreed upon several Elite Compromises. Through the agreements of a GNU, there is an assumption that a new politico-economic system will become institutionalised. The DA might emerge as a dominant party in the latest power constellation. At the same time, the ANC would co-op in a subservient position but on compromising terms to protect President Ramaphosa from impeachment.
The acceptance of a neoliberal, free-market and global-orientated economic approach by the ANC is portrayed by the MK and the EFF and other smaller opposition parties as a grave mistake from the point of view of the impoverished black person. According to them, this economic approach was “superimposed” on the socio-economic status of post-apartheid and the struggle fundamentally. Shivambu said it is an anti-poor policy that only prioritises economic growth.
According to Fikile Mbalula, the ANC secretary, and Helen Zile, the DA chairperson, the GNU endeavours to solve the problems of corruption, poverty, social inequality and unemployment.
The economic growth attained over the past 30 years benefited mainly a few. According to the UNDP, more than half of all South African women live below the poverty line compared to men. This means that women bear a heavier burden of poverty and inequality than men.
The ANC hegemony reached its zenith in 2024—it was highly dysfunctional. It was responsible for the lack of service delivery. This systemic lack of service delivery will likely be reproduced if the NGU remains intact and perpetuates its neoliberal economic approach. The crisis around the high cost of basic services for the poor and corrupt service delivery is leading to a constant decline in the living standards of the poorest of the population.
Despite its rhetoric, the ANC government is pro-middle-class and not pro-poor. This orientation will persist as long as the black middle class remains in control of the government. From a governance point of view, the ANC is not a strong government. It cannot stand its ground under pressure from local and global corporatism.
Unfortunately, whether good or bad, this election result has weakened the ANC and has opened the door to different points of view and has left us, the voters arguing and debating the pros and cons of a GNU. Will this GNU serve the interest of all South African citizens? Or only the interest of the privileged few and the powerful corporations? Only time will tell.
*Minga Kongo is an anthropologist, development scholar with research interests in water sociality, mobility, urbanism, politics, illness and climate change. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town. He can be reached via email kongmbweck@gmail.com
