Abstract
In this chapter, we will discuss the major changes experienced by the South African economy between 1976 and 1994. We will analyze how these developments transformed the ruling elite. We will trace the economic developments that forced the National Party to change its policies. This analyses will be followed by an examination of the changing Afrikaner class base as a result of economic prosperity. The rest of the discussion in this chapter will focus on answering the following questions: how did African militancy affect the economy? What reforms were introduced as a result of the Soweto rebellion? Did the involvement of South Africa in destabi-lization wars in Angola and Mozambique affect the economy? Finally, what was the impact of international sanctions and the fall of the Soviet Union on the economy?
Most countries strive to raise the quality of their human resources; only South Africa made it an express purpose of official policy to lower standards and frustrate the aspirations of those who wished to improve their contributions to the economy.
—Charles H. Feinstein, An Economic History of South Africa
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Notes
Robert M. Price, The Apartheid State in Crisis: Political Transformation in South Africa 1975–1990 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 72.
Hermann Giliomee, “Broedertwis: Intra-Afrikaner Conflicts in the Transition from Apartheid 1969–1991,” African Affairs 364 (1992): 349.
Hein Marais, South Africa Limits to Change: The Political Economy of Transformation (Cape Town: University Cape Town Press, 1998), 20.
Stephen Gelb, South Africa’s Economic Crisis (CapeTown: David Philip, 1991), cited in Hein Marais, South Africa: Limits to Change: The Political Economy of Transformation, 21.
Heribert Adam and Hermann Giliomee, Ethnic Power Mobilized: Can South Africa Change? (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 169.
William Pomeroy, Apartheid Imperialism and African Freedom (New York: International Publishers, 1986), 10; Vishnu Padayachee, “Private International Banks, The Debt Crisis and the Apartheid State, 1982–85,” African Affairs (London), 1988; 87: 361–76.
Dan O’ Meara, Volkskapitalisme: Class, Capital and Ldeology in the Development of Afrikaner Nationalism 1934–1948 (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1983), 250–54; Dan O’Meara, “‘Muldergate’ and the Politics of Afrikaner Nationalism,” Work in Progress 22 (1982): 1–18.
J. Saul & S. Gelb, The Crisis in South Africa: Class Defence and Class Revolution (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1981), 23.
Vella Pillay, “Rising Cost of Apartheid,” Frontline Southern Africa: Destructive Engagement ed. Phyllis Martin and David Martin (New York: Four Walk Eight Windows, 1988), 314–15.
James Leatt, Theo Kneifel & Klaus Nuremberger, eds., Contending Ideologies in South Africa (Cape Town; David Philip, 1986), 82.
Charles H. Feinstein, An Economic History of South Africa (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 213; Robert M. Price, The Apartheid State in Crisis, 32.
Anna Starcke, Survival (Tafelberg, CapeTown, 1978), 23. Quoted in Hermann Giliomee, “Broedertwis,” 345.
Leonard Thompson, A History of South Africa (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001).
Craig Charney, “The National Party, 1982–1985: A Class Alliance in Crisis,” 24. In ed. Wilmot James and Craig Charney, The State of Apartheid (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1987), 5–36.
Vladimir Shubin, ANC: A View From Moscow (Cape Town: Mayibuye Books, 1999), 309; see also Pravda, 5 November 1986.
Counter Information Services, Black South Africa Explodes (London: Counter Information Services, 1977), 44–45; On Sophiatown see Bloke Modisane, Blame me on History (London: Thames and Hudson, 1963); Trevor Huddleston, Naught for Your Comfort (Glasgow: William Sons & Sons, 1987).
Dan O’Meara, Rob Davies, and Sipho Dlamini, The Struggle for South Africa: A Reference Guide to Movements, Organizations, and Institutions (London: Zed Press, 1984), 123, cited in William Minter, King Solomons Mines Revisited: Western Interests and the Burdened History of Southern Africa (New York: Basic Books, 1986), 285–86.
Leonard Thompson, A History of South Africa (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), 224–25; William Minter, King Solomon’s Mines Revisited, 250
Republic of South Africa, Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Riots at Soweto and Elsewhere (Cillie Commission Report) (Pretoria: Government Printer, 1980), 604.
A. Stadler, The Political Economy of Modern South Africa (Cape Town: David Philips, 1987), 160; Velk Pillay, “The Rising Cost of Apartheid,” 330; M. Morris & P Padayachee, “Hegemonic Projects, Accumulation Strategies and State Reform Policy in South Africa,” Labour, Capital and Society, Vol. 22 No. 1 (1989).
David Harrison, The White Tribe of Africa: South Africa in Perspective (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), 248.
S. Lall in A. Baker, A. Borraine & W Krafchik eds., South Africa and the World Economy in the 1990s (Cape Town: David Phillip, 1993), 61–62, cited in South Africa: Limits to Change, 128.
William Minter, “Destructive Engagement: The United States and South Africa in the Reagan Era,” in ed. Phyllis Johnson and David Martin Frontline Southern: Destructive Engagement (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1988), 428.
African National Congress, Unite for Freedom: Statement by the African National Congress on the Question of Unity and Anti-Apartheid Coalition 1985–1990 (ANC DIP, Lusaka: 1987): 1.
Martin Meredith, The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence (New York: Public Affairs, 2005), 435–36.
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© 2008 Mueni wa Muiu
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wa Muiu, M. (2008). Changes in South Africa’s Economy, 1976–1994. In: The Pitfalls of Liberal Democracy and Late Nationalism in South Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230617278_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230617278_6
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