The Politics of Poverty Reduction: Exploring the ANC's Policy Discourse on Non-Racialism and its Effects on the Persistence of the "Triple Challenge" in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa has performed relatively well on certain development and governance indicators. As a result, it is widely regarded as one of the most developed and pro-democratic nations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite such high levels of achievement, the country continues to confront high levels of poverty, unemployment, and inequality, an issue that has been commonly referred to as the “triple challenge”. In fact, about 1 in 4 South Africans are unemployed, 1 in 2 live in poverty, and about half of the country’s income is in the hands of the top 10 percent. Therefore, the underlying question motivating this paper is: why does South Africa continue to confront grave levels of economic inequality, poverty, and unemployment despite performing relatively well on certain development and governance indicators? This question has been explored at great length by various scholars in the economics, political science, and sociology disciplines, especially in regards to why the country’s poverty alleviation strategies have failed to ameliorate these conjoined challenges. However, what has been largely absent from this literature is a discussion of how the ANC-led government’s instrumentalization of non-racialism within its poverty alleviation strategies has hindered an effective engagement with the roots of the triple challenge. Although there has been substantial debate about the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the theory of non-racialism as a solution to the ills of apartheid, this debate has not been extended to understanding the pitfalls of the country’s poverty alleviation strategies. Therefore, this paper aims to contribute to the dialogue on the inefficacy of South Africa’s poverty alleviation efforts by exploring how the ANC-led government’s framing of certain key poverty alleviation strategies since 1994, namely through its instrumentalization of non-racialism, has led to its failure to effectively engage with the roots of poverty, unemployment, and inequality in South Africa? To answer this question, this paper will draw on secondary sources that detail the different perspectives in the theory and practice of non-racialism in South Africa. Then, it will use these sources as a framework to analyze certain key poverty alleviation strategies and their instrumentalism of non-racialism. Based on its interpretation of the literature, this paper argues that the paradoxical perspectives on non-racialism, namely the universalist, generic humanist perspective and the essentialist, multiculturalist perspective, that are held by ANC branch members will be reflected within the nation’s poverty alleviation strategies. More specifically, it contends that the presence of both perspectives within these strategies has crippled poverty alleviation efforts by limiting the formulation of concrete measures that directly operationalize non-racialism. Therefore, instead of leading to substantive reforms in the institutional structures that maintain poverty, inequality and unemployment in South Africa, the articulation of non-racialism within these strategies has become largely theoretical, having no concrete basis in the effective practice of poverty alleviation. Thus, it is the faulty instrumentalization of non-racialism, among other factors, that has contributed to the persistence of poverty, inequality and unemployment in South Africa. Following this analysis, it will discuss the implications of its findings for the formulation of future poverty alleviation strategies.