Aurelia Segatti

'The art of neoliberalism': accumulation, institutional change and social order since the end of apartheid

Analysing Chiles post-Pinochet transition, Palma identified a conundrum which equally well captures the political economy of post-apartheid South Africa:The basic political dilemma for any oligarc...

Stuck in stabilisation? South Africa's post-apartheid macro-economic policy between ideological conversion and technocratic capture

This article explores post-apartheid South Africas commitment to macro-economic orthodoxy. Its key argument is that South Africa offers an exemplary case of neoliberal deepening which has entailed three interconnected processes: ideological conversion, a stated focus on poverty and development covering a deep commitment to orthodox macro policies, entailing institutions and a set of practices, and a far-reaching state restructuring involving the emergence and consolidation of a hegemonic treasury. Drawing on an analysis of grey literature, policy documents and a series of interviews with policy-makers, the article first discusses neoliberalism in South Africa, focusing on the ‘conversion’ of key ANC leaders to neoclassical economic orthodoxy. It then turns to the central, yet under-researched, instrument of neoliberal deepening: the emergence and consolidation of a dominant national treasury with the ability to shape policy-making across all areas of state intervention. The article closes on a call to envisage concurrently ideological conversion and state formation to understand the dynamics of neoliberalism, and its paradoxical resilience in the South Africa case.

Introduction of xenophobia and citizenship: the everyday politics of exclusion and inclusion in Africa

If you go to Alexandra (Johannesburg), to Sunnyside (Pretoria) ... everywhere, spaza shops, hair salons, everything has been taken over by foreign nationals ... They displace South Africans by making them not competitive. (Major Kobese, Director of Policy Support in the Office of the Director General, Department of Home Affairs, South Africa, cited by C. van der Westhuizen in Cape Times, 6 September 2011, p. 11)

Explaining the Impasse of Circular Migration in Southern Africa

Circular migration (CM) is not a trendy concept in Southern Africa. This is in spite of over a century of circular labour migration to the South African mining and agricultural sectors strictly regulated by bilateral agreements. In the post-apartheid period, outsourcing of the core industrial sectors (mining) and liberalisation in agriculture and services have resulted in a structural shift in labour demand. Drawing on a range of ecumenical data (recent statistics releases, interviews, and empirical research), this paper examines existing policy and management contradictions in the facilitation of regional labour movement towards South Africa. The paper sets out on a critical examination of existing statistics before turning to a review of South African policy instruments showing the use of deportation and regularisation schemes as unofficial but de facto CM mechanisms. The paper then examines regulatory frameworks for skilled migration from the region showing the barriers to facilitated movement. It then closes on an analysis of the protracted deadlock at sub-regional level. The paper finds that CM is only beginning to be considered as a policy option by Southern African policy-makers as a labour instrument. The paper concludes that South African policy-makers have protected the vested interests of the mining sector and commercial agriculture about fifteen years into the post-apartheid period and have no yet fully embraced a regional approach to labour migration.