Abstract
M.A.
Recent proposals and initiatives to privatise state owned enterprises (SOE's) in South Africa
(SA), in order to, inter alia, fund the ANC-led Government of National Unity's (GNU)
Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), service state debt, and empower the
disadvantaged groups, display an extreme paradigm shift in terms of the ANC's original
economic policy. This shift represents a radical departure from public ownership as
embedded in the Freedom Charter, to a compromise towards a 'mixed economy' and 'growth
through re-distribution', to a present capitulation towards a World Bank/IMF style macroeconomic
strategy, which effectively marginalises the RDP both in content, and the means
for its implementation. It is ironical that a privatisation programme, which was subject to
extreme opposition and threats of re-nationalisation by the ANC and its present social
partners - the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Council of South African
Trade Unions (COSATU) during the late 1980's, is now actively pursued by the GNU, even
in the present wake of extreme opposition from the SACP and COSATU.
The impact of the privatisation of SOE's on development are discussed throughout this
study. To create a better understanding of the socio-economic development problems facing
privatisation in SA, this study addresses five issues by means of a literature survey and
interviews. Firstly, the general experiences of privatisation in Sub-Saharan Africa are
assessed in order to show how hazardous and limited the case for privatisation is. Secondly, a review of the privatisation programme of the previous SA National Party government, with the purpose to identify and characterise the underlying political and economic factors involved. Thirdly, in order to explain how these factors might have changed, and to examine the GNU's privatisation proposals and programme. Fourthly, the current privatisation programme's relevance and force to divide and alter both political and economic alliances in SA is illustrated. Finally, a prognosis of the likely impact of privatisation is considered against its supposed goals of stimulating growth and socio-economic development