31 Years of Democracy: Neoliberal Crisis and Prospects for a Left Renewal in South Africa

South Africa is in the throes of a deepening social crisis. This social crisis mainly results from the ANC’s political dominance for 30 years, during which the ANC presided over a neoliberal economic development that wrought dire development outcomes such as a high levels of unemployment, massive poverty, acute income and wealth inequality, rural and urban underdevelopment, and poor delivery of basic public services by the state. This was accompanied by widespread corruption within the state, leading to a decline of confidence in public institutions. It is also a crisis of the decline of democracy and an ecological crisis of climate change, energy crisis and environmental degradation.   

The decline of the ANC, down to 40 per cent of the vote in 2024, from their highpoint of 69.69 per cent in 2004, is the biggest defeat of the ANC since 1990, when its ban was lifted by the apartheid government and Mandela was released from jail. 

The viable alternatives that are needed to exit the neoliberal crisis cannot be found among mainstream parties. Mass movements are also too weak to constitute a countervailing political force, outside parliamentary politics. That’s why South Africa is in the throes of a deepening political and social crisis.

This article discusses the prospects for a left renewal and rebuilding in South Africa on the terrain of the deepening neoliberal social crisis. 

Was the ANC neoliberal path inevitable, flowing from its ideological orientation? 

Following the 1994 democratic breakthrough, the ANC government, under Nelson Mandela did not want to upset finance capital that had become dominant in the 1980s, as the neoliberal restructuring was gaining traction globally. The apartheid finance minister (Derek Keys) and the central bank governor (Chris Stals) were retained to continue the neoliberal macroeconomic policies initiated by apartheid government in the 1980s.This was a TINA moment (There is No Alternative to the dominant neoliberal economic policies) for the ANC government. The main positions of neoliberal economic policy are too well known. They include: fiscal and monetary austerity, privatization, free trade, flexible exchange rate, cuts in public spending, tax reductions for corporates and high-income earners, deregulation of business activities, liberalisation of capital controls, labour market flexibility.

Thirty years is certainly a long enough period to fail, trying to pursue a sovereign development strategy and trying again, and again, until you succeed. But with the ANC, the failure has been dismal because they were not committed to a coherent sovereign development project. Instead, they succumbed fully to the dominant capitalist path of development that does not accord any prospects of success to countries of the Global South, given the imminent polarisation within the global capitalist system. Persistent pursuance of a coherent sovereign development project would have facilitated moving beyond the current impasse of the neoliberal crisis and encouraged a rupture with the logic of dominant capitalism - a delinking in Samir Amin’s conception.

The ANC bourgeois capitulation was not a given. The ANC had a revolutionary potential that was not fully explored with the necessary courage amidst the neoliberal triumphalism of the 1990s. When the ANC did not fully explore its revolutionary potential, the weaknesses of its political strategy, the National Democratic Revolution, kicked in. Even the outcomes of the negotiated settlement that ushered in the democratic dispensation in 1994 did not necessarily block a radical social and economic transformation. 

The ANC could have evolved leftwards and avoided the bourgeois capitulation after 1994, had the South African Communist Party, the ANC grassroots structures, the trade unions, the youth and women, and mass movements aligned to the ANC insisted on a radical sovereign development project that is firmly anti-capitalist, looking towards socialism. When that did not happen the ideological crisis of the ANC came to a head and the bourgeois capitulation manifested in earnest. The problem with the ANC’s NDR as a theory and a strategy, is its lack of a solid anti-capitalist outlook, which made it easy for the NDR project to be swallowed by capitalism as a dominant social system. An anti-capitalist outlook does not necessarily mean pursuing socialism because socialist construction is not immediately possible to South Africa as a country in the periphery of global capitalism. What is on the agenda is a popular revolution that can challenge capitalism to advance a sovereign development project, looking towards socialism. 

As the neoliberal crisis of dire development outcomes combined with widespread corruption within the state, was reaching maturity around 2009, the ANC’s legitimacy started to seriously erode. At this stage, the transformation of the ANC from a leftist national liberation movement into a centrist neoliberal party had come full circle, with the ANC fully established as an agency of neoliberal economic development and a link to international finance capital.

What could have halted and reversed the ANC decline, is a genuine renewal of the ANC to rid itself of corruption and pursue a genuinely meaningful social transformation that fulfils the promise of a better life for all, by redistributing income and wealth in favour of the black majority, extending social wage to include a basic income grant, pursuing a sovereign industrial policy and improving the delivery of public services such as health, education, housing, public transport, infrastructure etc. The SACP's resolution to independently contest 2026 local government elections demonstrates the political independence they have, but never exercised in the last 30 years, to influence the alliance or strengthen left politics. Sadly  it is now too little, too late. The SACP has unconditionally tied itself to the ANC, to a point of allowing itself to perish with the ANC as the ANC decline has become irreversible. 

Revolution or Decadence?

The system of neoliberal globalisation has entered a terminal phase of crisis; its implosion is clearly visible, as indicated by, among other things; Brexit, the tragedy and farce of the Trump regime and the chaos of tariffs, New Cold War against China, the climate crisis, Russia-Ukraine proxy war, the rise of various forms of neofascism all over the world, Israeli genocide in Gaza, the threatening wars in the Middle East. Even in South Africa the right and reactionary mobilisation is on the rise as demonstrated by ethnic organising and xenophobic rhetoric by parties such as MK Party and Patriotic Alliance. 

The rather inglorious end of this neoliberal system opens up a potentially revolutionary situation in all parts of the world. But this potential will become reality only if radical left forces know how to seize the opportunities offered and design and implement bold offensive strategies based on the reconstruction of the internationalism of workers and peoples in the face of the cosmopolitanism of the imperialist powers’ financial capital. If that does not happen, then the left forces of the West, East, and South will also share responsibility for the ensuing disaster.

The world is at the historic moment echoing Rosa Luxemburg’s famous quip: “Socialism or Barbarism”, that Samir Amin has reformulated as “Revolution or Decadence”. South Africa as a country that is a microcosm of contradictions (such as global polarization and inequality, racism, foreign capital domination, gender oppression, violence, xenophobia, urban decay, rural underdevelopment, extreme poverty, mass unemployment, climate and ecological crisis) within global capitalism, has a potential to show the way, in actual struggles, towards the much needed much revolutionary advance to save humanity from a capitalism that is senile and crisis redden. The South African left has to renew and rebuild mass movements capable of waging mass struggles towards a revolutionary advance.

The absence of a sovereign development project in South Africa has reduced the country into a beggar with no dignity (as shown in recent Ramaphosa’s visit in Oval Office) in world political and economic affairs, and gets disrespected by crude imperialists like Donald Trump. There is no amount of appeasing America and Trump’s naked crude imperialist project that will improve the lot of South Africa, as Ramaphosa’s administration is doing. South Africa’s audacious stance against the US backed Israel in its genocide against Palestine shows the potential South Africa has audacious measures, but has not been fully explored in the post-apartheid South Africa.   

The old Chinese communist slogan: “The states want independence, the nations want liberation, the people want revolution”, remains instructive for countries of the Global South in light of the dramatic shift in US imperialism under the Trump presidency. 

In South Africa, two outcomes seem possible from this deepening neoliberal crisis: a resulting tragic impasse, or a responsive radical social transformation. These two outcomes reflect very different forces. The first likely entails a deepening crisis of governance and the decline of democracy, poor public services, corruption, growing unemployment, massive poverty and growing inequality. The second entails halting the crisis and posing a social transformation that advances the social demands of the majority. 

So what is the way forward for left renewal and rebuilding?

Popular classes and the left must organise and wage struggles for the pressing social demands which include (1) the basic income grant, (2) decent jobs on a large scale (3) quality public services, and (4)a meaningful land reform and food security and sovereignty.

These popular demands will be sacrificed further by the dominant version of national unity that requires respect for the markets and investors over a sovereign development path. The ANC-DA coalition which goes by the false name Government of National (read Neoliberal) Unity is failing to bring about political stability and economic growth. The current national budget crisis clearly shows this. 

The task of building formidable mass movements on the ground that are immersed in popular struggles to exit the neoliberal crisis has become urgent. In this regard, a lot can be borrowed from the heroic past of anti-apartheid struggles, as we invent new ways of organising and struggle suited for a post-apartheid South Africa. 

Five key moments stand out in the period since 2010 in posing a popular challenge to neoliberalism: the Xolobeni community protest against uranium mining in Pondoland, which is ongoing; the Marikana mine workers strike in 2012; the De Doorn farm workers strike in 2012; and the FeesMustFall student movement of 2015/2016. The establishment of the United Front (UF) in 2013, an umbrella body of trade unions, NGOs and community organisations, was an appropriate response to the momentum generated by these events. The UF failed, however, because it was not a bottom-up approach relying on mass movements; rather, it was a centralised approach relying largely on the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA) structures. The Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) which succeeded in litigating for the dissolution of the Makana Local Municipal Council, (in Makhanda, formerly Grahamstown) in 2020 and won 5 seats and became the main opposition in the subsequent 2021 local elections, in which they contested as part of a broad front, the Makana Citizens Front, is a good example of local popular mobilisation and organisation for exiting the neoliberal crisis, whilst contesting political power. The UPM has been waging sustained popular struggles over 20 years.   

The neoliberal crisis tends to lay bare the major social demands that should constitute the rallying popular cry for exiting the neoliberal system and its deepening social crisis. For instance, out of the economic crisis, emerge the demands for universal basic income grant priced at R1600 which is the upper-bound poverty line as determined by StatSA (see StatSA National Poverty Lines, August 2024), large scale permanent jobs in the public sector and a sovereign industrial policy of capital and consumer goods manufacturing industries that create jobs on a large scale. 

The energy crisis gives birth to social demands for access to consistent sources of clean water and reliable electricity supply in a manner that restores the central role of the state in providing public services without deferring to the private sector and ecological sustainability. 

The crisis of the collapse of public services and municipalities helps us to crystallise the social demands for quality education, health care, housing, roads, infrastructure and a popular challenge to the neoliberal fiscal policy which is faulty by design and has plunged municipalities into crisis by falsely assuming that they can collect revenue between 73 and 90 per cent of their annual budgets, through property rates, user charges and fees(tariffs on sanitation, waste management, electricity and water). Such a revenue collection is not possible in the midst of the persistent high levels of unemployment, low wages and poverty. The current Minister of Local Government, Velenkosi Hlabisa, acknowledges this. That’s why he has publicly announced a process to revise the local government fiscal framework. 

 The current national budget crisis presents an opportunity for poor communities and workers to intensify struggles for challenging austerity of budget cuts on public services spending and wages of government workers. Without concrete sectoral mass struggles on the ground; on education, on early childhood development, on healthcare, on housing, on public infrastructure such as roads and bridges, the struggle against neoliberal austerity will remain a left intellectual criticism with no impact. Marches and rallies on the day of the annual budget tabling byFinance Minister tend to assume a character of sideshows of the aggrieved, when there are no persistent sectoral mass struggles on the ground.

This budget crisis cannot be resolved within the framework of fiscal consolidation which is about reducing the public debt, at all costs, by either cutting baseline budgets or raising taxes. Any further budget cuts on public services will exacerbate the social crisis, and they cannot increase taxes, as witnessed in their recent attempt to raise VAT by 2 percentage points, because the cost of living is too high. The economy will need to grow at a faster pace if they are to shrink the debt burden—and it will need much more investment if growth is to accelerate. Neither is likely, given the persistent low growth trajectory since the 2008/09 Great Recession which has been made worse by the 2020 Covid-19 slump (even the World Bank accentuates this point about public debt of developing countries, see World Bank’s chief economist Indermit S. Gill in the International Debt Report 2024). The neoliberal monetary policy measures of increasing interest rates as a way of fighting off the inflation, in the wake of the Covid slump, simply made matters worse when it comes to the cost of living crisis.     

To exit the neoliberal crisis, South Africa as a country in the periphery of global capitalism with no sovereign capital markets, does not have the option of the conservative New Keynesianism (see Stavros Mavroudes, 2025) that was pursued in Europe and US after the 2009 Great Recession, with an expansionary fiscal policy of increased government spending and a loose monetary policy of lower interest rates and quantitative easing. Following the 2020 Covid slump, expansionary fiscal policies with large government expenditure were again implemented in the Global North. Even there, New Keynesianism has not saved capitalism from the accumulation crisis, hence growth and investment levels remain low. 

The only plausible option, in my view, for South Africa is delinking from global capitalism by building a sovereign industrial production system of manufacturing industries of consumer and capital goods that replace imports that flood the local market, and compete on global markets. A sovereign food production system and a radical land reform should be included in a sovereign development project. Of course, such a sovereign project should be supported by an expansionary fiscal policy and a developmental monetary policy that strengthens the local currency and tightens up capital control measures, with a local banking system that avails credit to local industry. Foreign capital should be mobilised on condition that they meet priorities of the sovereign development project and allow technology transfer, while they benefit from local business conditions and make good profits. Opening our doors much wider and unconditionally submitting to financial globalisation has clearly not worked.

Building a sovereign development project implies a state under the influence and control of a coalition of popular classes. This means popular struggles that are impactful in challenging neoliberalism, towards a sovereign development path and a left electoral victory. However, a significant electoral victory of the left will not happen before popular struggles register decisive victories. 

With clarity on social demands to exit the neoliberal crisis, comes the need to identify and organise popular classes, communities and sectors affected directly, then mass struggles to push for those specific social demands, followed by the task of building movements and the training and development of cadres to organise movements and struggles. The politicisation of these mass struggles and a coordination towards the strategic goal of exiting neoliberal crisis towards a sovereign development path with a long-term socialist outlook will be key.  

Changes in contemporary capitalism require an updating of: definitions and analysis of social classes, class struggles, political parties and social movements; and of modes of action for bringing about radical social transformation amidst the deepening neoliberal crisis. We need to lay bare the reality of neoliberal capitalism in South Africa and its integration in the global economy.

A serious attempt to understand the post-apartheid social formation has to be made so as to formulate relevant strategies and tactics for waging effective popular struggles and building formidable mass movements. Without this preoccupation with historically stage adapted strategy and tactics of action, the South African left risks being condemned to merely repeating facile and impotent slogans like: “Down with Capitalism”.    

Popular movements, not political parties, such as in Latin America, as documented by Marta Harnecker in her 2015 book, A World to Build, have to be on the forefront of struggles to exit the neoliberal social crisis. These movements should engage in concrete popular struggles made up of various social classes; workers, lower middle classes, the unemployed, urban and rural communities suffering underdevelopment of the neoliberal crisis, the women, the youth and so on. The decisive victories in these popular struggles will lay the momentum and a fertile ground for the electoral victory of the left. 

Let the power and organisation of popular classes rise for a left renewal and radical social change in South Africa!

Gunnett Kaaf is Marxist activist and writer who is with Zabalaza Pathways Institute, South Africa. 

References

Samir Amin. 1990. Delinking: Towards a Polycentric World. Zed Books, London

Samir Amin. 2013. The Implosion of Contemporary Capitalism. Monthly Review Press, New York 

Statistics South Africa. August 2024, National Poverty Lines, Pretoria

Indermit S. Gill/World Bank. 2024. International Debt Report 2024. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42444 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO

Stavros Mavroudes. 2025. ‘Is Neoliberalism Still the Dominant Economic Paradigm in the West Today?’ World Marxist Review  https://doi.org/10.62834/5j1x2p43

Marta Hannecker. 2015. A World to Build: New Paths toward Twenty-First Century Socialism. Monthly Review Press, New York