Right from the start, agreements and plans for the development of COVID-19 vaccines聽were going to privilege a profit-generating and market-based approach, writes Dale McKinley.
Dale T McKinley
Under new COVID-19 regulations, it is now a criminal offence聽鈥 for the first time in South Africa鈥檚 history 鈥 to hold any kind of political gathering, writes Dale McKinley.听
There鈥檚 a new comic book superhero in South Africa and she is fighting climate change, capitalism and COVID-19, write Mandy Moussoris and Dale McInley.
Pandemics have their roots in environmental change and ecosystem聽disturbances. Understanding their foundational causes can provide fertile ground for the systemic changes we so desperately need, writes Dale McKinley.
The African National Congress (ANC), which led the struggle against Apartheid, has become the key political vehicle, both in party and state form, of corporate capital.
This applies to all capital 鈥 domestic and international, black and white, local and national, and includes a range of different 鈥渇ractions鈥 of capital.
Over the past two decades, it has been the fight on and over this terrain 鈥 with some for, some against, some in the middle 鈥 that has defined the ANC鈥檚 journey since the end of Apartheid in 1994.
It is arguably the most important political development of South Africa鈥檚 post-1994 era. In the early hours of November 8, South Africa鈥檚 largest union, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), was expelled from South Africa鈥檚 largest union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
The political significance of NUMSA鈥檚 expulsion derives from three key, interrelated areas of impact.
ANC-led alliance
No sooner had the final results of South Africa's May 7 national elections been announced than President Jacob Zuma gave a predictably self-congratulatory speech lauding the result as 鈥渢he will of all the people鈥.
The reality however is that the incumbent African National Congress鈥 (ANC) victory came from a distinct minority of 鈥渢he people鈥. The real 鈥渨inner鈥, as has been the case since the 2004 poll, was the stay-away 鈥渧ote鈥.
Even if the meanings we give to dates are most often overblown, there is something about the mark of a new decade.
At some point in the not-too-distant future, we might just look back at 2008 as the year in which things really started to fall apart for the African National Congress (ANC).
While the violent intensity and geographical spread of the recent attacks on immigrants across South Africa certainly surprised most of us, we should not have been surprised that such attacks happened 鈥 or at the state鈥檚 response.
The one thing that President Thabo Mbeki has to be given credit for is his consistency. Ever since he ascended to South Africa鈥檚 political throne, the would-be king has stuck doggedly to the fundamentals of a macro-neoliberalism that has underpinned this country鈥檚 developmental path for the last decade and more. It is a consistency that has, not surprisingly, greatly benefited the elite few and cost the majority dearly.
The June 27-30 African National Congress (ANC) Policy Conference and the South African Communist Party聮s 12th Congress, held in July, confirmed what many political observers in South Africa have known for a long time: that the politics and practical work of the SACP and Congress of South African Trade Unions have become umbilically tied to the intensifying personal and positional power struggles inside the ANC-led Tripartite Alliance. The result is the paralysis of the SACP and COSATU聮s ability to organise and mobilise on a genuinely practical, working class/poor-centred basis.