South Africa, a potential predatory state

Letters to the Editor

In the history of all societies states arose in the midst of the conflict between the oppressing class and the oppressed. It is, as a rule, the state of the most powerful, economically dominant class, which, through the medium of the state, also becomes the politically dominant class, and thus acquires new means of holding down and exploiting the oppressed class.

However, periods occur in which the warring classes balance each other so closely that the state power as ostensible mediator acquires, for the moment, a certain degree of autonomy from both classes. Thus, we are all led to define the state in neoliberal terms as the institution of social service. The state in South Africa lacks relative autonomy and is highly amenable to the interests of political incumbents.

Since the democratic dispensation in 1994, the oppressed in South African reasonably expect and sincerely believe that political freedom will enable the political elite in government to exercise public power in protecting the material interest of the poor and working class in the state. Contrary to the expectation, South Africa’s political elite is increasing the capacity of state to create conditions and pursue policies that privilege the accumulation of wealth by ruling elites.

There is also a conversion of state offices and public resources into sources of private wealth, and this has been the primary mode of wealth accumulation among many of the political elite. It is the latter that potentiates a predatory character of the state.

A defining attribute of predatory domination is the unfettered conversion of political power and position into economic wealth for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many (Callaghy, 1984).

Control of, and access to, public offices and resources determine the social location of predatory elites. In November 2011, the public protector published a report on Midvaal municipality (a Democratic Alliance led municipality), among many irregularities the report found that title deeds of some properties, handed over by ratepayers who could not financially afford to keep them, were not transferred to the municipality but to a law firm owned by the Democratic Alliance Midvaal leader André Odendaal.

In the public bureaucracy, for example, the Department of Public Works was found to have entered into an unlawful lease agreement with Roux Shabangu’s company, Roux Property Fund, whereby the Sanlam Middestad building should have been rented at a market value of R40 a square metre but was signed in the lease at R135 a square metre, the inflated financial expenditure was found to have happened under the watch of the former Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde.

The latter case is more disturbing in that the former minister was deployed by the African National Congress (ANC), a former liberation movement that embodies the aspirations of the people for freedom and national dignity.

But as soon as political freedom was declared, far from embodying in concrete terms the needs of the people in what touches bread, land, and the restoration of land to the sacred hands of the people, this former liberation movement is hijacked by individuals that promise to lead, but only reveal their inner purpose – to become the general presidents of that company of profiteers, impatient for their returns which constitutes the national bourgeoisie.

These pseudo leaders adjust the masses to a neo-colonial reality which they wish not to change.

Under the new situation of Colonisation of a Special Type (CST), these leaders judge the “ingratitude” of the masses harshly; when the people protest against poor service delivery the police shoot them like the case with Andries Tatane.

Everyday that passes these pseudo leaders range themselves a little more resolutely on the side of the exploiters. Thus, when the working class calls for abolition of labour brokers and e-tolling system, the leaders in government remain indifferent to the plight of these masses. They therefore knowingly become the aiders and abettors of the petty bourgeoisie and the capitalist class which are plunging into the mire of corruption.

Sandile Fuku
Botshabelo