An explanation of the New Growth Plan and alternatives to neo-liberal and capitalist development in South Africa

In this second volume of the New South African Review, the New Growth Path adopted by the South African government in 2010 provides the basis for a dialogue about whether 'decent work' is the best solution to South Africa's problems of low economic growth and high unemployment. There are investigations into rising inequality against the backdrop of the failings of Black Economic Empowerment; 'greening the economy', with emphasis on biofuels; the crisis of acid mine drainage on the Witwatersrand; possibilities for participatory forms of government; civil society activism; transformation of the print media and the SABC; the crisis in child care in public hospitals; the relationship between the police and a township community; the problems related to the absence of legislation to govern the powers of traditional authorities over land allocation; and assessments of the state of opposition political parties and the ANC Alliance. Asking whether the New Growth Plan reflects a set of new policies or an attempt to re-dress old (com)promises in new clothes, this volume brings together different voices in debate about possibilities for alternatives to neo-liberal and capitalist development in South Africa.

William Attwell is Senior Analyst for Sub-Saharan Africa at Frontier Strategy Group in Oxford

INTRODUCTION: The Zuma presidency: The politics of paralysis? John Daniel and Roger Southall CHAPTER 1: The Tripartite Alliance and its discontents: Contesting the 'National Democratic Revolution' in the Zuma era Devan Pillay CHAPTER 2: The African National Congress and the Zanufication debate James Hamill and John Hoffman CHAPTER 3: Dancing like a monkey: The Democratic Alliance and opposition politics in South Africa Neil Southern and Roger Southall CHAPTER 4: Democracy and accountability: Quo Vadis South Africa? Paul Hoffman CHAPTER 5: Civil society and participatory policy making in South Africa: Gaps and opportunities Imraan Buccus and Janine Hicks CHAPTER 6: Bring back Kaiser Matanzima? Communal land, traditional leaders and the politics of nostalgia Leslie Bank and Clifford Mabhena CHAPTER 7: South Africa and 'Southern Africa': What relationship in 2011? Chris Saunders INTRODUCTION TO PART 2: Continuing crises, contradictions and contestation Prishani Naidoo CHAPTER 8: 'The wages are low but they are better than nothing': The dilemma of decent work and job creation in South Africa Edward Webster CHAPTER 9: The crisis of childcare in South African public hospitals Haroon Saloojee CHAPTER 10: The worker cooperative alternative in South Africa Vishwas Satgar and Michelle Williams CHAPTER 11: Policing in the streets of South African townships Knowledge Rajohane Matshedisho CHAPTER 12: BEE Reform: The case for an institutional perspective Don Lindsay CHAPTER 13: Bokfontein amazes the nations: Community Work Programme (CWP) heals a traumatised community Malose Langa and Karl von Holdt INTRODUCTION TO PART 3: Ecological threats and the crisis of civilisation Devan Pillay CHAPTER 14: Above and beyond South Africa's minerals-energy complex Khadija Sharife and Patrick Bond CHAPTER 15: Corrosion and externalities: The socio-economic impacts of acid mine drainage on the Witwatersrand David Fig CHAPTER 16: Food versus fuel? State, business, civil society and the bio-fuels debate in South Africa, 2003 to 2010 William Attwell INTRODUCTION TO PART 4: Media transformation and the right to know Devan Pillay CHAPTER 17: The print media transformation dilemma Jane Duncan CHAPTER 18: The South African Broadcasting Corporation: The creation and loss of a citizenship vision and the possibilities for building a new one Kate Skinner