April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

other words, cutting up the capitalist pie more evenly without
"revolutionary" disruptions to South Africa’s political economy. As usual
though, there was no acknowledgment that the real issue is who is cutting
up the pie and which "pieces" are being eaten by whom.
Then-president Mbeki’s two-nation thesis provided the necessary
analytical/explanatory rationale (utilising the implicit threat of social
disorder) and the "turn" to a stated commitment to adopt a kinder/more
human faced capitalism (social democracy) in the face of continued
poverty and global inequality provided the necessary political rationale.
Soon there emerged a range of new initiatives (such as the BEE
Commission) and legislation that would "guide" BEE through a more
systematic program of targeted "empowerment" deals and integration into
the state’s capital expenditure outlays to ostensibly benefit the poor.
Despite these manoeuvrings and more recent politically motivated forms of
BEE initiatives, most black South Africans remain deeply sceptical and
generally hostile to the way in which BEE has been, and continues to be,
pursued.
As a result, the ANC implicitly understands that it will not suffice simply to
rearrange the BEE deckchairs but that it is, more than ever, necessary to
make a reconnection with the real basis of the ANC’s continued legitimacy
(i.e., the liberation struggle) in order for BEE not to be rejected by the
majority of its own professed constituency. So, in order for what, in
reality, continues to be a specific program of class accumulation and
privilege to be "seen" and accepted as part and parcel of the historic
mandate of the ANC (i.e., the economic emancipation of the workers and
poor) there is the continued need to provide ideological "cover". As in the
past, the "national democratic revolution" (NDR) is the associated
talisman.
Besides its more widespread "deployment" as the generic underpinning of
South Africa’s "transitional" political economy – for example, in the service
of the SACP and COSATU’s continued alliance with the ANC – what we now
have is a concerted attempt by the ANC to resurrect the practical
applicability of NDR theory as the macro framework for pursuing BEE and
rationalising all its other associated and contradictory "developmental"
policies and activities. In this respect, its crucial function is to provide
justification for the existence and expansion of a (‘patriotic’) black
bourgeoisie – which practically represents the leading "motive force" –
alongside continued and close cooperation with white capital.
The result is that contemporary BEE in South Africa has become, more than
ever, the prime practical vehicle for elite accumulation, rent seeking and
corruption as well as the conceptual cover for extreme inequality.
http://links.org.au/node/2198
[Dale McKinley is an independent writer, researcher, lecturer and political
activist based in Johannesburg. This two-part article first appeared at the
South African Civil Society Information Service. It is posted at Links
International Journal of Socialist Renewal with the author's permission.]
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