Applying Rhodes’s racial capitalism to post-1994 South Africa obfuscates the entire matter of what former president Thabo Mbeki called the ‘black bourgeoisie’ whose creation, consolidation and expansion has been one of the only successes of the democratic era.
I doubt that Yvonne Busisiwe Phyllis would find much common ground with me. She is a director of The Forge, which describes itself as ‘a mixed-use space for Pan-African Culture and Thought from the Left’, which suggests a rather different orientation from that of the Institute of Race Relations.
The Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa and partners is holding a Whistleblower Protection Week; Daily Maverick is hosting a webinar on ‘My Vote Counts: Internal democracy in the ANC and the party’s upcoming elective conference’; and the Helen Suzman Memorial Lecture is taking place at.