Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: New paths, old (com)promises?
- PART 1 POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL
- Introduction: The Zuma presidency: The politics of paralysis?
- Chapter 1 The Tripartite Alliance and its discontents: Contesting the ‘National Democratic Revolution’ in the Zuma era
- Chapter 2 The African National Congress and the Zanufication debate
- Chapter 3 Dancing like a monkey: The Democratic Alliance and opposition politics in South Africa
- Chapter 4 Democracy and accountability: Quo Vadis South Africa?
- Chapter 5 Civil society and participatory policy making in South Africa: Gaps and opportunities
- Chapter 6 Bring back Kaiser Matanzima? Communal land, traditional leaders and the politics of nostalgia
- Chapter 7 South Africa and ‘Southern Africa’: What relationship in 2011?
- PART 2 ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
- PART 3 ENVIRONMENT
- PART 4 MEDIA
- Contributors
- Index
Introduction: The Zuma presidency: The politics of paralysis?
from PART 1 - POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: New paths, old (com)promises?
- PART 1 POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL
- Introduction: The Zuma presidency: The politics of paralysis?
- Chapter 1 The Tripartite Alliance and its discontents: Contesting the ‘National Democratic Revolution’ in the Zuma era
- Chapter 2 The African National Congress and the Zanufication debate
- Chapter 3 Dancing like a monkey: The Democratic Alliance and opposition politics in South Africa
- Chapter 4 Democracy and accountability: Quo Vadis South Africa?
- Chapter 5 Civil society and participatory policy making in South Africa: Gaps and opportunities
- Chapter 6 Bring back Kaiser Matanzima? Communal land, traditional leaders and the politics of nostalgia
- Chapter 7 South Africa and ‘Southern Africa’: What relationship in 2011?
- PART 2 ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
- PART 3 ENVIRONMENT
- PART 4 MEDIA
- Contributors
- Index
Summary
That the ANC will become another ZANU is possible, but by no means certain, even if the entrenchment of a one-party dominant system is likely to continue generating a range of democratic deficits in South Africa.
(James Hamill and John Hoffman in Chapter 2 in this volume)The intent of the Zuma presidency, according to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), both of which played vital roles in bringing about its political ascendancy, was to create a government that would be less remote, more responsive and closer to the people, and which would, above all, implement a shift in economic policy that would create more jobs and be more pro-poor. In short, we were led to believe that Thabo Mbeki's conservative macroeconomic policies would give way to Zuma's more activist, interventionist ‘developmental state’. The reality, however, has fallen dismally short of such expectations. Popular anger has been stirred by the personal extravagance of countless government officials, including members of the cabinet. Corruption appears rampant. Key agencies of the state, notably the police, seem unaccountable, if not out of control – an entity as in apartheid days, more to be feared than relied upon. The capacity of local governments in numerous ANC-run councils seems on the verge of collapse. The global recession has bit deeply, causing continuing job losses and spreading indebtedness while a high rand is stimulating higher prices, notably of food. Although some movement towards a significantly different, perhaps employment-creating, industrial path has been presaged by the government's New Growth Path, official policy seems as largely beholden to the market as ever – except insofar as its penchant for ramping up regulations and controls in areas such as mining seems designed to discourage rather than facilitate foreign investment.
Amid this evidence of stasis and looming crisis, Zuma himself appears indecisive and weak. Brought to power by a coalition of those at odds with Mbeki rather than merely of the left, he has seemed to devote more effort to shoring up his position (and promoting the material interests of his family, his friends and his home village) within the ANC than to meeting the challenges of government; he seems so beholden to the diverse constituents of the alliance that enabled him to unseat Mbeki that he seems reluctant to offend any of them.
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- Information
- New South African Review 2New paths, old compromises?, pp. 20 - 30Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2012