Recent events have shown just how explosive the South African political scene is. Working people have again erupted in struggle; fighting for basic rights such as social services and higher wages.
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The end of apartheid was a highly progressive development, yet it has brought new contradictions to South Africa. Some Blacks have become rich, but at the same time the gap in wealth distribution has broadened.
In fact, the majority of working people in South Africa face economic conditions not that much better than those under apartheid. In May of this year, unemployment stood at 23 percent. South African capitalism, too, has suffered from the worldwide economic crisis, with South Africa’s main industry, mineral extraction, hit by thousands of job losses.
The ANC is based on the cross-class coalition that defined it during the liberation movement. The ANC pulls together elements of the South African capitalist class and the working class, represented primarily by the main trade union federation COSATU and the South African Communist Party. This base is built from the ranks of the poor and working class. Despite having grievances, these sectors supported the ANC in the April elections.
Cosmetic changes?
In a nod to his left-wing coalition partners, Zuma made a few changes in how the government was structured. The SACP had pressed for changes that would promote development and lay the groundwork for a governing approach that truly placed reduction of poverty and creation of jobs at the center of its agenda.
But as the SACP has itself pointed out, the new changes could easily be purely cosmetic, a sop to the left. Indeed, left-wing elements outside the SACP have argued this is likely the case. The one area all forces on the South African left, including COSATU, can agree on is the need to intensify popular struggles.
Not content to take politicians at their word, workers have taken to the frontlines several times since Zuma was elected. Notably, construction workers on World Cup stadiums struck in early July and won a 12 percent raise. In July, numerous townships erupted in protests demanding better delivery of services. Basic social services, such as water and public transportation, are inadequate or non-existent in the townships, which are predominantly working class.
Additionally, protesters representing the unemployed movement seized food without paying from two Durban supermarkets. They were protesting the fact that a great number of South Africans continue to live in hunger more than a decade after the end of apartheid.
On July 27, central Johannesburg was shut down as more than 150,000 workers, mostly municipal employees, went out on strike seeking a 15 percent wage increase. Workers are angry that Zuma has not lived up to his promise to take action on jobs and poverty.
Similar tensions during the presidency of Thabo Mbeki brought the ANC alliance the closest it has ever been to a left-right split. Since 2007, members of the SACP have argued for running independent candidates to avoid being stained by the right-wing policies of their coalition partners.
This underscores the fragile nature of Zuma’s coalition. His balancing act between left and right can only work if he can make both sides content. But faced with the current economic crisis, Zuma is leaning toward more concessions to international capital than to the urgent needs of workers.
Can the left-wing forces both inside and outside the ANC present a common front that can strongly link these various struggles together and move the body politic in South Africa to the left? The SACP and COSATU face being hemmed in by their participation in the government. For those left-wing forces outside the ANC, the challenge is to build bridges with the left forces inside the ANC to present a common front of struggle. The SACP, too, must overcome the challenge of past divisions.
For those closely watching the unfolding struggle from afar, the main task is to stand firmly behind the workers of South Africa as they struggle for the full promise of post-apartheid society. Victory to the townships and the strikers!
