R Southall
Biographic Data
| ID | 32835 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R Southall |
| GIVEN NAMES | R |
| FAMILY NAME | Southall |
| SIGNATURE | SOUTHALL R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Witwatersrand |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5635-9096 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 113 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 435 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 114 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1972 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Ramaphosa’s contretemps in the White House
Racial Capitalism heute
Dieser Artikel setzt sich mit der verbreiteten Kritik auseinander, Südafrika stelle auch im Post-Apartheid-Kontext weiterhin ein Paradebeispiel von „racial capitalism“ dar. Diese Kritik wird mit Verweis auf die anhaltende Vorherrschaft von Weißen bei Kontrolle und Management von Großunternehmen begründet, ungeachtet der im Kontext der Post-Apartheid verwirklichten Strategien von Black Economic Empowerment und „Employment Equity“. Hier wird die Th…
Reappraising the Life and Legacy of Jan C. Smuts
In this book, the authors cover both familiar and unfamiliar themes.
Navigating the unknown
The middle class and suburbia
Whites and Democracy in South Africa
Whites and Democracy in South Africa
Whites and Democracy in South Africa
Key book in Whiteness Studies that engages with the different ways in which the last white minority in Africa to give way to majority rule has adjusted to the arrival of democracy and the different modes of transition from "settlers" to "citizens". How have whites adjusted to, contributed to and detracted from democracy in South Africa since 1994? Engaging with the literature on 'whiteness' and the current trope that the democratic settlement has…
Whites and Democracy in South Africa
A key book in Whiteness studies that engages with the different ways in which the last white minority in Africa to give way to majority rule has adjusted to the arrival of democracy and the different modes of transition from settlers to 'citizens'.
Zimbabwe’s continued isolation
In late November 2017 Emmerson Mnangagwa replaced Robert Mugabe as President of Zimbabwe in a ‘military assisted transition’. He declared Zimbabwe ‘open for business’ as the cornerstone of his foreign policy. Hopes were nurtured that this would bring some improvement in human and political rights domestically and greater opportunity for Western investment
The Poverty of the 'Middle Classing' of Development
Recent decades have witnessed a 'middle classing of development' as global institutions hail the expansion of middle classes in the global South. Although the African continent has lagged behind in this regard, expanding middle classes have nonetheless been proclaimed as drivers of development and progress. However, such generalisation smoothes over the rough edges of history, for the emergence, evolution and character of middle classes have been…
Zimbabwe's Foreign Policy Under Mnangagwa
Under the presidency of Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe's foreign policy is characterized by the desire to 're-engage' with the West with a view to securing the removal of sanctions and encouraging investment. In this, it has received the backing of the African Union and Southern African Development Community states. Simultaneously, the violence of the Mnangagwa regime has reinforced the reluctance of the West to remove sanctions, and Zimbabwe has even begun…
Beyond tenderpreneurship
In recent years, the study of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has fallen on hard times. During its early days, primarily under the Mbeki government, it attracted much attention, as analysis sought
Donald Trump and Jacob Zuma as charismatic buffoons
This analysis uses Walden Bello’s notion of charismatic politics to explain why ordinary people as voters have been complicit with the authoritarian politics of Donald Trump in the USA and Jacob Zuma in South Africa. In both cases, the authoritarian has displayed the capacity to connect with the masses by exploiting the yawning gap between popular aspirations and the messy realities of liberal democracy. Although, given the different contexts, th…
Flight and fortitude
This article focuses on the impact of the policies of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) government on Zimbabwe's black middle class. It does so by exploring three propositions emerging from the academic literature. The first is that during the early years of independence, the middle class transformed into a party-aligned bourgeoisie. The second is that, to the extent that the middle class has not left the coun…
South Africa's Precarious Black Middle Class
The precarity of daily existence for so many black middle-class South Africans is heightened by dependence on political connections
If only
It’s easy to look back at the settler regime in Rhodesia and to conclude that its defeat was always written in the stars. Defiant of a pusillanimous government in London, Ian Smith issued his Unila
The Decolonisation of the Political Science Curriculum in East Africa
This article takes issue with the account of 'The Decolonisation of the Political Science Curriculum in East Africa' by Mongomemezulu and Hadebe published in a recent issue of this journal. It challenges the bald assertions that (i) expatriate staff at the University of East Africa became the agents of entrenching a Westernised curriculum; (ii) political scientists and historians forged relations with political leaderships and pushed for decoloni…
Polarization in South Africa
Under apartheid, white oppression of the black majority was extreme, and South Africa became one of the most highly polarized countries in the world. Confronted by a counter-movement headed by the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling National Party (NP) was eventually pressured into a negotiation process that resulted in the adoption of a democratic constitution. This article outlines how democratization defused polarization, but was to be…
Shaping the Post-Apartheid Landscape in South Africa
Roger Southall must rank as one of South Africa’s most enterprising and provocative scholars. He is not one to shy away from taking on challenging and demanding assignments. Like his book before this one, Liberation Movements in Power: Party and State in Southern Africa (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2013) was pathbreaking in examining and exploring the structural anatomy and governance pathologies of liberation movements in Southern Africa.…
(Middle-) Class analysis in Africa
Recent interest in the growth of middle classes in Africa (and elsewhere) has been characterised by immense theoretical diversity. While this diversity indicates the complexity (and limitations) of class analysis, it remains important for the latter to be guided by the classic concerns around power, wealth and inequality which characterise radical debate
Presidential transitions and generational change in Southern African liberation movements
Recent presidential transitions in Southern Africa have prompted suggestions that the region is moving towards a new generational politics which is more responsive to the need for economic reform and holds significant democratic possibilities. While this analysis concedes that this analysis has some considerable purchase, it argues that the evidence suggests that liberation movements are likely to remain mired in a morass of patronage and corrupt…
The Case for Sortition
This article considers how the erosion of democracy in South Africa since 1994 might be addressed through sortition, the random selection of citizens to perform public tasks. Drawing upon the recent essay outlining the case Against Elections by David Van Reybrouck [(2016). Against Elections: The Case for Democracy. London: Bodley Head], which paints liberal democracy as facilitating rule by elites, it argues for the appointment of sortition panel…
The Ndungu Report
Melber, H. (2000), 'Economic and Social Transformation in the Process of Colonisation: Society and State Before and During German Rule' in C. Keulder (ed.), State, Society and Democracy: A Reader in Namibian Politics, Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan, pp. 16-48; (2002), 'Contested Territory: Land in Southern Africa: The Case of Namibia', Journal 50, Namibia Scientific Society, Windhoek, pp. 7785; (2003a), 'Namibia, land of thebrave: Selective memorie…
Divisive pan-Africanism in Southern Rhodesia
The ANC & black capitalism in South Africa
The emphasis initially laid by the African National Congress (ANC) on national reconciliation after 1994 meant that its ideas about Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) were non-threatening to white interests. However, the government's recent strategy is more assertive, having the aim of creating a black capitalist class, which is both ‘patriotic’ and productive, as laid down in the ANC's guiding theory of the ‘National Democratic Revolution’. Corpor…
South Africa's Transkei
Ten Propositions about Black Economic Empowerment in South Africa
Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has become one of the most high profile strategies of African National Congress (ANC) government. Yet BEE has also become highly controversial, critics arguing variously that it serves as a block to foreign investment, encourages a re-racialisation of the political economy, and promotes the growth of a small but remarkably wealthy politicallyconnected ‘empowerment’ elite. There is considerable substance to such an…
The Politics of Black Economic Empowerment in South Africa
Since 1994, the black majority African National Congress (ANC) government has pursued several important goals at the same time, sometimes emphasising equity and redistribution of wealth, and sometimes advocating rapid economic growth and corporate investment. These goals have been difficult to reconcile with each other. They have led the government to fluctuate in its black economic empowerment (BEE) policies, shifting between a moderate and radi…
Political Change and the Black Middle Class in Democratic South Africa
(2004). Political Change and the Black Middle Class in Democratic South Africa. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines: Vol. 38, A Decade of Democracy in Southern Africa / Une décennie de démocratie en Afrique australe, pp. 521-542
Introduction
The post-election crisis of January 2008 brought Kenya close to collapse and the status of a failed state. Following the abrupt proclamation of Mwai Kibaki, the incumbent president, as victor in a highly contentious presidential election, peace was disrupted by severe ethnic violence between supporters of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and the Party of National Unity (PNU). This saw up to 2,000 people killed and as many as 300,00…
Understanding the ‘Zuma Tsunami’
Jacob Zuma's defeat of Thabo Mbeki's bid to serve a third term as the president of the African National Congress (ANC) at the party's 52nd National Conference in Polokwane in December 2007 provoked a torrent of analysis. In large part, this was because Zuma himself was a highly controversial and contradictory figure. On the one hand, the ANC's new president was at the time having to fight against myriad charges of corruption through the courts; o…
Bob's Out, the Croc is In
The military-assisted ousting of Robert Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe and his replacement by Emmerson Mnangagwa was widely welcomed by Zimbabweans. However, hopes of significant change were dashed by the nature of his cabinet appointments, which indicated greater continuity than change vis-à-vis the Mugabe era. Mnangagwa is likely to pursue an agenda of authoritarian reform: rendering the economy more attractive for foreign investment while mai…
The ANC for Sale? Money, Morality & Business in South Africa
The African National Congress (ANC) as a liberation movement drew much of its strength from its moral underpinnings as fighting for a just society. However, since its acquisition of political office in 1994, the ANC is widely perceived to have lost its moral compass. This demoralization needs to be located within the structural determinants of the South African transition. Against the background of the dilemmas faced by the ANC in its bid to prom…
Legacies of Power
It was a widely dominant perception until the early 1990's that African rulers do not vacate their office alive. But even in the brutal reality of African politics, transition takes place and diffe
The Centralization and Fragmentation of South Africa's Dominant Party System
South Africa's first democratic election of 1994 provided the basis for the African National Congress (ANC) to replace the formerly ruling National Party (NP) as the country's dominant party. The new dominance was initially established by the ANC's majority position within the postelection coalition Government of National Unity. Since the election, however, the ANC's dominance has begun to be extended by a centralization of control exercised thro…
Opposition in South Africa
2001). Opposition in South Africa: Issues and Problems. Democratization: Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 1-24
(Middle-) Class analysis in Africa
Recent interest in the growth of middle classes in Africa (and elsewhere) has been characterised by immense theoretical diversity. While this diversity indicates the complexity (and limitations) of class analysis, it remains important for the latter to be guided by the classic concerns around power, wealth and inequality which characterise radical debate
Popular attitudes toward the South African electoral system
This article is based on a survey of popular attitudes towards the pure list system that is South Africa’s proportional representation electoral system. While the reported findings are broadly positive there are some notable exceptions, located disproportionately among racial minorities and also among sizable numbers of black respondents. Pure proportional representation is unlikely to produce the values that the respondents say they most want fr…
Democracy in Southern Africa
The peace dividend in southern Africa may serve to underpin NEPAD's bid for economic growth and development. However, it is by no means so clear that the region is embarked upon an unambiguous progression towards the consolidation of democracy. Indeed, there are deeply worrying indications that the democratic wave which broke upon the region's shores in the 1990s is now moving into reverse. Most particularly, it can be argued that a developing cr…
Lesotho's general election of 1998
The official result of Lesotho's general election of 1998, which saw a 79 out of 80 seat victory for the ruling Lesotho Congress of Democrats (LCD), was repudiated by the opposition, notably the former ruling Basotho National Party (BNP) and the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP). These latter parties were historic enemies but forged an alliance of convenience to contest the outcome of the election. By mobilising their supporters to occupy Maseru th…
The Beneficiaries of Transkeian 'Independence
In a recent article, Heribert Adam argued that the 'prevalent view of South Africa combines conceptual errors with false methodological emphasis and, often, wishful thinking', and that the 'popular perspective represents a gross over-simplification of a far more complex situation.'1The analysis to which he was objecting views South Africa as an outdated colonial society, in which white settlers enforce a racially defined domination upon an exploi…
Friend or Foe? Dominant Party Systems in Southern Africa
Democracy at Risk? Politics and Governance under the ANC
The negotiated settlement of 1994 established South Africa as a constitutional democracy. Under Nelson Mandela, the new democracy basked in a glow of national reconciliation, early growth, and optimism. Subsequently, however, the national sense of collective well-being has declined. Racial inequality has narrowed, but the fundamental features of the apartheid economy remain, including a significant section of the population living in absolute pov…
Re‐forming the state? Kleptocracy & the political transition in Kenya
Kenya's general election of December 1997 saw the return of President Daniel Arap Moi and the Kenya African National Union (KANU) but has inaugurated a period of intense political fluidity. On the one hand, the ruling party won the election, but its sense of vulnerability has been reinforced by widespread recognition that a less divided opposition could have displaced it. On the other, apparent acceptance by the President of a 1992 constitutional…
Local Government and the Return to Multi-Partyism in Kenya
Journal Article LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND THE RETURN TO MULTI-PARTYISM IN KENYA Get access ROGER SOUTHALL, ROGER SOUTHALL Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar GEOFFREY WOOD GEOFFREY WOOD Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 95, Issue 381, October 1996, Pages 501–527, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a007766 Published: 01 October 1996
Threats to Constitutionalism by Liberation Movements in Southern Africa
Constribution to the Debate on the Political Culture in (Southern) African States in Africa Spectrum
The South African Election of 2009
South Africans voted in their country's fourth democratic general election on 22 April 2009. The African National Congress (ANC) again secured a substantial victory. It might seem that the 2009 Elections proved to be 'business as usual'. Yet such a conclusion is unjustified, for events had conspired to generate excitement about this particular contest, which rivalled that leading up to the 'liberation election' of 1994. The reasons for this were …
Conclusion
The introduction to this collection raised a series of questions around the project of political opposition in South Africa given the challenges posed by consolidating democracy given the emergence of the African National Congress (ANC) as a ‘dominant party’. In many ways, the different contributors may be interpreted as having grappled with the issue of how South Africa’s new democracy is coping with the twin dilemmas of representation and accou…
The South African Elections of 1994
The South African elections of 1994 constituted one of those rare historical moments when humankind made a significant step forward. The peaceful culmination of a liberation struggle, which for years many had feared would end in a bloodbath, registered not only a triumph for the democratic ideal but the resounding defeat of racism as an organising principle of government. If its more recent reference point was the collapse of dictatorial régimes …
The politics of medical higher education in East Africa
Converging Models of University Development
Le développement de l'enseignement supérieur dans les anciennes colonies britanniques repose sur deux séries distinctes de principes: a) spécialisation entre université et collèges techniques; b) organisation sur une base régionale ou nationale d'après la capacité de la zone de fournir un nombre suffisant d'étudiants. Les auteurs soutiennent que tant au Ghana qu'en Afrique de l'Est la spécialisation entre institutions d'enseignement supérieur a d…
Books reviewed
Sam C. Nolutshungu, South Africa in Africa: a study in ideology and foreign policy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1975. pp. ix + 329. Bibliography. £6.50) Ronald Hyam, The Failure of South African Expansion, 1908–1948 (London: Mac‐millan, 1972. pp. ix + 219. Maps. £5.50) Jordan Kush Ngubane, Ushaba: the hurtle to Blood River (Washington: Three Continents Press, 1974. pp. 323. £2.50) D. A. Kotzé, African Politics in South Africa, 1964–1…
The Beneficiaries of Transkeian 'Independence
In a recent article, Heribert Adam argued that the 'prevalent view of South Africa combines conceptual errors with false methodological emphasis and, often, wishful thinking', and that the 'popular perspective represents a gross over-simplification of a far more complex situation.'1The analysis to which he was objecting views South Africa as an outdated colonial society, in which white settlers enforce a racially defined domination upon an exploi…
Farmers, Traders and Brokers in the Gold Coast Cocoa Economy
Cet article tente d'éclairer davantage le rôle économique des intermédiaires dans l'économie coloniale de la Côte d'Or. Ces intermédiaires facilitent notamment le mouvement du cacao des producteurs ruraux vers le marché mondial. L'article met fin au silence qui a trop longtemps existé au sujet de leur rôle politique dans le ralentissement de la production du cacao en 1938. Ce fut en effet la révolte la plus massive des producteurs dans l'histoire…
African capitalism in contemporary South Africa
The underdevelopment of an indigenous African bourgeoisie undoubtedly constitutes one of the primary defining characteristics of South African political economy. Indeed, it ironic that in South Africa, where capitalism has developed the forces of production to a level higher than anywhere else on the continent, the African petty-bourgeoisie has remained relatively more backward than in the large majority of African territories which, in contrast,…
Buthelezi, Inkatha and the Politics of Compromise
Journal Article BUTHELEZI, INKATHA AND THE POLITICS OF COMPROMISE Get access ROGER SOUTHALL ROGER SOUTHALL Roger Southal] taught for several years at the University of Lesotho and is currently at the School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Canada. An earlier version of this article was presented to the Annual Conference of the Canadian Political Science Association in May 1981. The author would Uke to thank Bob Edgar of Howard Unive…
Consociationalism in South Africa
The widespread perception that South Africa is moving inexorably towards violent confrontation has led to increasing attention being paid to consociationalism as providing a potentially workable framework whereby the White minority's present monopoly of political power could be nudged towards a democratic form of rule in a reasonably just, evolutionary, and non-violent manner. Not surprisingly, most such speculation has been undertaken by those o…
Books/Livres
Botswana as a host country for refugees
Third World Trade Unionism
South Africa's Transkei
Labour Regulation and Black Workers' Struggles in South Africa
Books/Livres
Botswana
A Note on Inkatha Membership
Journal Article A NOTE ON INKATHA MEMBERSHIP Get access ROGER SOUTHALL ROGER SOUTHALL Roger Southall is a lecturer in the Department of Politics, University of Leicester. He is indebted to Gerhard Mare for discussion and the provision of some basic data required to write this Note Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 85, Issue 341, October 1986, Pages 573–588, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxf…
Migrants and Trade Unions in South Africa Today
Cet article esquisse les images contradictoires des travailleurs émigrés. La perspective dominante considère les emigrants comme des syndicalistes malgré eux dans la mesure où ils sont soumis à une contrainte et à un contrôle extrêmes; cependant, des analystes ont déclaré plus récemment que précisément parce que les émigrants sont plus vulnérables à la victimisation, ils ont tendance à être des syndicalistes aussi engagés que les autres ouvríers.…
Post-Apartheid South Africa
Few observers reckon that the white citadel will fall overnight, yet the days of racial minority rule in South Africa are now widely assumed to be running out. But the future can rarely be tamed in advance, and many of the more optimistic scenarios and hopes concerning a transition to a non-racial form of state may well prove to be hopelessly misplaced. Even so, to the extent that it is considered that history is now finally on the move, debate a…
Labour, Capital and Society / Travail, Capital et Société
Apartheid and the case for sanctions
Apartheid in Crisis edited by Mark A. Uhlig (Suffolk: Penguin, 1987, pp.334, £3.95). The Utility of International Economic Sanctions edited by David Leyton‐Brown (London and Sydney: Croom Helm, 1987, pp.320, £25). The Sanctions Handbook: For or Against? by Joseph Hanlon and Roger Omond (Suffolk: Penguin, 1987, pp.399, £4.95)
After Soweto
Journal Article After Soweto: An Unfinished Journey Get access After Soweto: An Unfinished Journey, by John D. Brewer. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986. xvi+448 pp. ISBN 0 19 827480 7. ROGER SOUTHALL ROGER SOUTHALL University of Leicester Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 87, Issue 348, July 1988, Pages 475–478, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a098073 Published: 01 July 1988
An Appetite for Power
An Appetite for Power: Buthelezi's Inkatha and South Africa Get access An Appetite for Power: Buthelezi's Inkatha and South Africa, by Gerhard Maré and Georgina Hamilton. Ravan Press, Johannesburg, and Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis. 261pp. £9.95. ISBN 0 86975 313 4. Gatsha Buthelezi: Chief with a Double Agenda, by Mzala. Zed Books, London. ix+240pp. £27.95hardback, £7.95paperback. ISBNO 85232 792 X, 086232 793 8. ROGER SO…
Trade Unions and the New Industrialization of the Third World
Negotiations and Social Democracy in South Africa
Whilst the so-called 'new right' shrilly proclaims victory for capitalism and liberal democracy in the cold war, quieter voices see in the death agonies of European Stalinism the seeds of socialism more as it was meant to be. I refer not any triumphal Trotskyist depiction of the popular overthrow of bureaucratised ruling classes, but rather to wide-spread searchings throughout Eastern Europe for 'a third - and better - way'. From this perspective…
Introduction
Political science (107 works) · Law (86 works) · Politics (75 works) · Sociology (74 works) · Law (58 works) · Political economy (55 works) · South African History and Culture (54 works) · Economics (49 works) · Democracy (44 works) · Development economics (32 works)