Talk Left, Walk Right: South Africa's Frustrated Global Reforms (review)

In Talk Left, Walk Right Patrick Bond argues that there is a major difference between Thabo Mbeki's radical rhetoric and his actions, which cater to a neoliberal agenda. Bond's goal is to analyze the main challenges that "face orthodox global governance since September 2001" (4). The capitalist economy, he maintains, benefits developed countries especially in trade and investment while marginalizing Africa's economies. Unfortunately, the African National Congress has not gained much by abandoning the populist agenda embodied in the Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP) and replacing it with the Growth, Employment and Redistribution Program (GEAR).

According to Bond, Mbeki's approach cannot succeed because what is needed is the globalization of people rather than capital. A bottom-up approach that focuses on people by creating partnerships between Africans themselves could have served them better than any other program. He draws on Zapro's cartoons to illustrate his argument that Mbeki's close relationship with imperialism and George Bush comes at a price: South Africa's and the continent's economies are further integrated into the world economy as unequal partners. Globalization affects most aspects of average citizens' lives as commodities are privatized, making them inaccessible to the poor.

The global-local power relations that Pretoria confronted after 9/11 entailed several dimensions, including global justice movements, Third World nationalism, post-Washington consensus, and resurgent right-wing politics. At the same time that he opposed the right-wing resurgence and the Iraq war, Mbeki imposed neoliberal policies at home and promoted them across the continent through the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). George Bush's visit to South Africa further solidified the Mbeki-Bush alliance in a "nation that has become a major force for regional peace and stability" (30). Mbeki also opposes reparations for slavery, colonialism, and apartheid. Under his leadership, South Africa has moved increasingly to moderate positions when it comes to negotiating between Europe and the continent. As a result, tensions are mounting between South Africa and other African countries.

In a chapter entitled "Pretoria's Trade Off: Splitting Africa for WTO," Bond maintains, in fact, that Mbeki's support for neoliberalism has had serious repercussions for the World Trade Organization. Further, class inequality between rich and poor has increased and conditions of poverty have worsened. Although South Africa, as the major economy within SADC (Southern African Development Community), has managed to convince its fellow members to adopt neoliberal policies, it has failed to get continentwide support. Thus, South Africa acts not "so much [as] a bridge between developed and developing countries, but rather a bridge for the transmission of influences from the developed to the developing countries" (56).

Domestically, AIDS victims continue to die because most of them cannot afford antiretroviral medicine. Furthermore, Pretoria faces strong opposition because of its slum clearance policy, which forces families out of meager dwellings into worse ones without sanitation and water. Electricity continues to be disconnected 90 percent of the time for poor South Africans, while water has become an expensive commodity. There is an attempt by major corporations (with the support of the World Bank) to privatize water, making it impossible for poor families to survive. Bond provides examples from India to show how the privatization of water continues to harm the poor. He notes that companies that are involved in water privatization in South Africa have failed elsewhere; nevertheless, Pretoria has allowed these companies into the country in spite of their devastating activities. A new leftist movement has developed to challenge Pretoria's neoliberal agenda, but these critics have been attacked as "phony revolutionaries" and "North American populists" (170).

Why is Pretoria "talking left and walking right"? According to Michael Sachs, the head of ANC's policy and research unit, without the Soviet Union there is no alternative to capitalism. Bond argues that in the twenty-first century older systems of domination have been...