Introduction

We are pleased to bring you Transformation #105, the first issue of 2021, which is an eclectic assemblage. This issue is perhaps a reflection of the mosaic of thoughts, ideas and analyses that underpin our rapidly changing and uncertain world, and indeed vulnerable times in a COVID context. We responded to the latter in our previous issue (#104) with perspectives that brought to light insights on pre-existing fracture lines compounded by historical and contextual divisions in the context of the pandemic. In this general issue, we turn to other concerns and questions that matter to the remit and purpose of this journal.

In the Articles section, Ivor Chipkin revisits the Zuma-era and reads between the fine lines dividing – or overlapping – democracy, government, and public administration. Chipkin conceptualises state capture as an event in democracy rather than simply as a moment of corruption, which he argues requires theoretical development. He contends that a theory of the democratic political system should be accompanied by a theory of democratic government. Moving away from a discourse focusing on corruption, criminality and patronage, Chipkin builds on democratic theory to argue that bureaucratic autonomy is a democratic virtue.

Philippa Kerr then takes us to the world of academia, which is continuously changing and increasingly corporatised. She asks whether there is a parallel pipeline, whereby temporary and casual academic positions are outnumbering tenure-track, permanent positions. She calls this phenomenon ‘the casualisation of academic labour’, and explores the effects this trend has on the academic community and profession. Kerr uses her own experience as a postdoctoral fellow and contract lecturer to show how the next generation of academics is mentored and trained but without much tenure prospects. This precarious situation sees them assuming a workload that enables tenure-track, permanent academics to focus on the university’s ‘productivity units’ and ‘outputs’, relegating several yet essential administrative and teaching loads to casual academic ‘labourers’.

In ‘The multiple consciousness of Blackness: race and class in South Africa’, Mosa Phadi builds on WEB Du Bois’ notion of ‘double consciousness’ to examine how the reality of being black in post-1994 South Africa produces, or is the result of, ‘multiple consciousness’. Drawing on the transatlantic influence of Du Bois on South African intellectual history, she further argues that language, culture, class, and ethnicity intersect to ‘shape Blackness’. In doing so, Phadi proposes new ways of theorising identity in contemporary South Africa, emphasising the complexities inherent to race politics and identity.

In their Research Note titled ‘The political economy of South Africa’s constitutional road to Central Bank Independence (1993–1996)’, Vishnu Padayachee and Jannie Rossouw reflect on the legal process leading to the the central bank’s autonomy and independence being enshrined in South Africa’s Constitution at the time of the democratic transition in South Africa. Their research, which is based on existing literature and interviews conducted between 2019 and 2020, bore, in their own words, ‘surprising and unexpected’ conclusions as the authors navigated the ‘fog surrounding the constitutional and political processes by which the SARB was eventually granted its independence’. Their paper provides alternative conclusions in terms of the Constitutional autonomy and independence for the South African Reserve Bank.

This edition also provides a brief perspective on Bill Freund (July 6, 1944 – August 17, 2020), one of the founding editors of Transformation. Much has been written and spoken about Bill Freund since his death in a range of popular and academic publications. We deliberated as editors whether to provide an obituary in a journal Bill so intimately knew, to which he dedicated a significant amount of his time, and that he collectively helped shape over the years. Because some of us knew Bill for decades as colleagues/friends, others more recently, we deduced that Bill would not have wanted an obituary. We believe that Bill will ultimately be remembered – in varied ways – by those who travelled a path with him. While he was instrumental as one of the founding editors and remained active until virtually a month before his death, we wanted not to eulogise him, but to rather say something very briefly about his...