State Capture in South Africa

A multidisciplinary analysis of how state capture unfolded in South Africa and was contested within both civil society and the state itself. It presents a scholarly and empirical understanding of how things went awry, even with various regulating bodies in place, and how to prevent state capture from happening again in the future.

The metaphor of ‘state capture’ has dominated South Africa’s political discourse in the post-Zuma presidency era. What is state capture and how does it manifest? Is it just another example of a newly independent, failed African state? And is it unique to South Africa?

The contributors in this collection try to explain the phenomenon from a variety of viewpoints and disciplines. All hold fast to the belief that the democracy that promised the country so much when apartheid ended has been significantly eroded, resulting in most citizens expressing a loss of hope for the future. Read together, the essays cumulatively show not only how state capture was enabled and who benefitted, but also how and by whom it was scrutinised and exposed in order to hold those in power accountable. The book aims to present a scholarly and empirical understanding of how things went awry, even with various regulating bodies in place, and how to prevent state capture from happening again in the future.

Mbongiseni Buthelezi is the director of the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) and an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg.

Peter Vale is senior research fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria and senior fellow at the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI). He is visiting professor in international relations at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Brazil, and an honorary professor in the Africa Earth Observatory Network, of which he is a founding member.

Karl von Holdt is a professor at, and former director of, the Society Work and Politics Institute (SWOP) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Robyn Foley is a researcher at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University.

Ryan Brunette is a research associate at the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and the University of Cape Town, South Africa.