New paths, old compromises?

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.

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.

The second volume of the New South African Review (NSAR) continues a tradition of debate and critical, analytical scholarship about contemporary South Africa. Drawing on authors from academia and beyond, it aims to be informative, discursive and provocative. In this volume, the New Growth Path (NGP) adopted by the South African government in 2010 provides the basis for a debate about whether ""decent work"" is the best possible solution to South Africa's problems of low economic growth and high unemployment. Rising inequality is explored against the backdrop of the failings of Black Economic E

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