BANTUSTANISM 2.0 AND THE RUINS OF A FAILED NATIONAL BOURGEOUIS STATE

After three decades of experimentation with a bourgeois democracy, it is as clear as daylight that our country is in free fall. We have been hobbling from crisis to crisis with no real solution on the horizon. Except for the first decade when we were still wallowing in the euphoria of democracy, the post-colonial polity has been in ICU for quite some time. On paper, the patient is still alive, albeit due to life support, but the vultures are already perched on the rooftops. To all intents and purposes, South Africa’s bourgeois democratic project has failed, and one gets an eerie feeling that we may be sliding back to Verwoerdian times. It may sound farfetched, but green shoots of a default to regionalism and ethnicity are beginning to emerge. If this proves true, it may be the clearest signal yet, that the nation state is slowly disintegrating and that Bantustanism 2.0 is reloading. Verwoerd may be smiling from the grave.

The ANC carries a tag of pride as the oldest movement on the continent. When the ANC swept to victory, during the first democratic elections in 1994, many had hoped for “A better life for all” the ANC had promised. As South Africa was the last country to be liberated from white minority rule, many of us had hoped that the ANC had the benefit of hindsight to avert the well beaten path of corruption to the sombre ruins that mark the graveyard of failed post-colonial polities on the continent. Instead, it would seem like it is the former colonisers who have mastered the lessons of Fanon’s proven post-colonial playbook to frustrate the emergence of a true bourgeois nation state.

Many may be asking, where did we go wrong? How did we get here? However, when one silences the noise of democracy, equality and freedom, and removes the blinkers of a make-believe constitutional democracy, one is bound to see that not only have we been sold a duck, but, that it was already dead, yet we are still paying for it. We are, in fact. where Fanonian post-colonial theory has long prophesied we would be as demonstrated by many post-colonial polities before us.

Those who understand the fragility of the post-colonial state may be exploiting inherent fractures and may well be behind the trend that is unfolding if it is not a natural consequence.  Those who understand the science of politics can see that there are machination to kill the nation state and revert back to old apartheid politics. It is for this reason that South Africa as a post-colonial nation state has never been allowed to fully take root and to develop a fully-fledged identity. At the end of this essay, one will begin to understand why those who ostensibly wield political power do not have the appetite nor the inclination to rename South Africa and give it an African identity to reflect its triumph over a colonial order.  

These behind-the-scenes machinations have given birth to the likes of the Patriotic Alliance which is unashamedly campaigning on a ‘coloured’ ticket. As witnessed in the last national election, in KZN, politics are still regionally and tribally sensitive despite the ANC showing a strong but declining footprint. These sensitivities may also explain the EFF’s loss of the KZN vote in favour of the MKP which has a national posture but strong regional and ethnic/cultural following. In all fairness, it may be early days as the true nature and character of the MKP is yet to emerge, but those with trained eyes can see where this ship is destined.

Recently we have started witnessing the emergence of politics with regional and tribal undertones. In the Eastern Cape, following his visit to the state of Israel, we have seen King Dalindyebo of the abaThembu spitting on his alliance with the EFF in favour of ATM, another party with a national posture but strong regional support straddling parts of KZN and the Eastern Cape. In the northwest, there has been sentiments expressed to revive a political movement strongly reminiscent of the old Bophuthatswana of Lucas Mangope. 

For now, these developments are still bubbling under, but a clearer pattern is likely to emerge by the time we get to the next local government elections. This, in my view, is the next phase in the loosening of the screws that hold together the fragile body politic of the bourgeois nation state. We can see this manifestation in the mushrooming of the ‘Man and his dog’ political parties aimed at splitting the black vote. This is to ensure the liberation bourgeoisie finally loses its grip on the nation state. Unfortunately, these developments are given ventilation by glaring leadership failures of the liberation bourgeoisie. 

If we want to really understand where we are? how we got here? and where we are headed? we need to numb the emotions and be incisive like a surgeon on the operating table. We need to apply the right tools of analysis if we are to fashion a lasting solution. There is no other way to save our country. As far back as 1962, Fanon’s ‘wretched of the earth’ gave us the prophesy on post-colonial polities, and true to form, almost all liberation movements on the continent have fulfilled the book, and in South Africa, the ANC is no exception.

Fanon teaches us that the biggest challenge facing post-colonial polities, Is the lack of national consciousness by the emergent national bourgeoisie that takes over from the erstwhile colonisers: “instead of being the most tangible, immediate product of popular mobilisation, national consciousness is nothing but a crude, empty, fragile shell.” This lack of national consciousness is the primary reason why post-colonial polities tend to regress “from nation to ethnic groups and from state to tribalism.” 

The democratic state that is South Africa is an outcome of horse trading between the erstwhile colonisers, made up of British capital interests, Afrikaans capital and their political interests as one block, and the African elites under the umbrella of the ANC, as another. We should not be fooled by the multiparty CODESA smokescreen. The masses were just voting cows in the funfair that is democracy. The real power is vested in the hands of the white capital block. The black elites were ensnared by access to the levers of political power and state resources. This is the reason the constitution that guarantees property rights for whites – sold as the best in the world – was never subjected to a referendum. It is also the reason there has been little to no movement in the prosecution of those responsible for Apartheid atrocities despite TRC recommendations. 

White capital and the liberation bourgeois could not deliver the bourgeois democratic state on their own. For the bourgeois nation state to hold, they needed to prop up a pliant middle strata that they co-opted to their ranks. This was necessary to fool the masses into thinking that the make-believe democracy was working. This is the reason we saw the huge upward mobility of the middle class in state and private positions as well as a side move from the townships to the suburbs and from suburbs to security estates. 

The middle strata is a necessary cushion created primarily from the ranks of party loyalists and from the college and university graduates to prop up a pseudo class of national elites. They are an important cog in the functioning of the bourgeois democracy as their actions are predictable and easy to exploit. They are a necessary buffer against the spontaneity of the masses. They also lack national consciousness and will not throw their lot with the masses as they have something to protect. Those drawn from the ranks of the party repay the bourgeois elite with their loyalty and silence when things go wrong and continue voting in one direction despite failings by the liberation bourgeoisie who guarantee them jobs in the civil service and state-owned entities.  

Just like party loyalists, those drawn from the ranks of college and university graduates first default to their bonds, car instillments and children’s school fees. However, when things go wrong, they resort to social media and phoning radio stations to vent their frustrations. They have no loyalty to the liberation bourgeoisie and may spread their vote across the ‘man and his dog parties’, and even the colonisers’ parties to voice their disapproval of the liberation bourgeoisie but will never commit class suicide. The importance of the middle strata to the bourgeois nation state is their predictability, which stems from their fragility as they are not a real class.  In essence, they are a class of bonds and instalments. They find purpose and meaning from their ability to pay their instalments.

The problems we are facing are not a function of sabotage by agent provocateurs as many who fail to provide solutions would like us to believe. These are structural problems endemic to post-colonial polities. Fanon describes the emergent national bourgeoisie as weak and lacking national consciousness.  In the South African context, whilst the national elites have gained political power, they lack economic clout and, thus, powerless in comparison to white capital.  

True to its nature, the emergent liberation bourgeoisie is nonproductive and fully dependent on the erstwhile colonisers. They inherited everything from the former colonisers from its parliament to its bureaucracy and its juridical set up.  They do not own the means of production and lack imagination to invent anything. Their biggest failure is not being able to establish themselves into a true national bourgeoisie able to leverage political power to economic power.   

Sadly, they do not even fancy themselves as a true national bourgeoisie, running factories as they are underdeveloped and lack the capacity to catapult themselves to an independent national bourgeoisie. The closest they could get was to be allotted shares as BEE partners with no active role in the running of a business. Thus, in accounting terms, the South African economy, from the Apartheid state to the post-Apartheid/post-colonial polity, was a going concern, squarely in the hands of the former colonisers. 

Fanon described the emergent bourgeois elites as parasitic rent seekers who produce nothing and create nothing and lack the imagination to create work. He labelled them as ‘bourgeois of the civil service.’ Other revolutionary theorists such as Issa Shivji labelled them as ‘the bureaucratic bourgeoisie’. Samir Amin and Amilcar Cabral labelled them as the ‘pseudo bourgeoisie’ and even ‘comprador bourgeoisie’, as their wealth is dependent on looting state resources and playing the role of intermediaries to local and international capital. This is the reason behind the selling-off of state own entities where the vultures will be pocketing millions from the spoils of the ill-conceived sell-off scheme. They are not interested in fixing or building state capacity but disabling it. Eskom is a case in point. It would seem the real powers have reminded the President of his mandate.

The status quo of economic and political relations is beneficial to both white capital which continues to control the economy and wield influence on the politics on the one hand, and the black elites who continue to benefit from rent seeking as agents of white capital and do the political bidding on its behalf. Thus, in the South African context, their relations are symbiotic. Only the masses are left out of this symbiotic equation. It does not matter how many state of the nation addresses will be delivered in parliament promising redress to the masses, and it will not matter how many protest marches the masses stage in frustration, the status quo will hold. If needs be, they will not hesitate to shoot to protect the interest of capital as they have done in Marikana. They will do what is asked of them by their capitalist masters.

For their lack of national consciousness, the looting will continue. For as long as there is rent to be extracted and resources to be leveraged from the bourgeois democratic state, the rot will continue. It is in the nature of the beast. Ultimately, when the liberation bourgeoisie starts sending signals that it has lost national consciousness, opportunism emerges and we should not be surprised that criminal syndicates have infiltrated the state.

Those on the fringes revert to ethnic groups at the expense of the nation and also default to tribalism at the expense of the state, in order to leverage state resources. This is increasingly becoming evident in the emerging regionalism on national posts and state tenders. It is just a matter of time before they organise themselves into political formations outside the liberation movement tradition if they feel the liberation elites are not pandering to their interest. Worst still, this may manifest in tribal or ethnic loyalties. It may sound far-fetched, but we have seen this unfolding with other post-colonial nation states on the continent. We are on a slippery slope and tethering on Bantustanism 2.0 and a failed bourgeois nation state.

Three decades down the line, we have enough evidence to show that the liberation bourgeoisie has lost its way and has abdicated its historic mission. As Fanon has prophesied, the national elites have failed to commit class suicide and have instead chosen the conventional path. As their parasitic nature dictates, they have chosen to go to bed with the erstwhile colonisers and have abandoned the masses. 

It is not for any other reason but for their lack of national consciousness, and for their total failure to establish themselves as a fully-fledged national bourgeoisie in control of the levers of the economy. This is their last fighting chance to hang on to power. Do not be fooled by their worn-out speeches and their shibboleth of struggle as their ticket of authenticity to lead. It’s all showmanship in a big puppet show to deceive the unsuspecting masses, whom they only see as voting fodder to guarantee their next rent and that the show goes on. Clearly, the writing is on the wall, we are headed for the ruins of a failed national bourgeois state.

The predicted path is too dastardly to fathom. That we are headed there is inevitable. We can deny all we like but the road markings are clear. With every step, with every state of the nation address, we are nudging closer and closer to the precipice. We have come too far, by all accounts, the Party is clinically dead, but we cannot afford to allow the tribe to raise its head. And for that, even if it is for that alone, the nation must hold. And for the nation to hold, a new movement with national consciousness must rise.