Pillay ’18 [Devan; 2018; Former trade unionist, Associate Professor and Former Head in Sociology, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, Co-editor of Labour and the Challenges of Globalization; Climate Crisis, The: South African and Global Democratic Eco-Socialist Alternatives, “CHALLENGING THE GROWTH PARADIGM: MARX, BUDDHA AND THE PURSUIT OF ‘HAPPINESS’,” Ch. 7, p. 153-154] SPark
The example of South Africa’s ‘green economy’ discourse illustrates this very clearly. After growing opposition to neoliberal policies based on the minerals–energy–financial complex – which has seen the apartheid social deficit only partially addressed, with unemployment rising to around forty per cent, growing social inequality and persistent poverty – the ruling African National Congress (ANC) ousted its leader Thabo Mbeki in 2007 and replaced him with Jacob Zuma, with the backing of the Communist Party, the ANC Youth League and trade unions, amongst others. After the 2009 national elections, Zuma became president of the country and co-opted key Communist Party and trade union leaders into government. After eight years, little has changed to meaningfully tackle the social or ecological deficit. However, government has produced new policy initiatives in the form of the New Growth Path and the NDP, drawing in respectable intellectuals and activists from academia and civil society.
The NDP, which is now government policy, is a classic example of paradigm maintenance. It contains a competent analysis of both the climate and the social crisis, and promises ‘green jobs’ and ‘sustainable development’. However, the Economics chapter maintains the essential neoliberal economic growth paradigm, based on the minerals–energy–financial complex.12 This effectively washes away the promises of decent green jobs based on renewable energy. It represents what Jeff Rudin (2013) calls ‘symbolic policy-making’ – seeming to concede with one hand, but taking away with the other – where the government talks Left, but walks Right. This strategy succeeds in winning some over to its promised development path, such as trade unions and NGOs hoping for half a loaf at least – what could be called ‘reformist’ reforms that may bring some cosmetic changes, only in order to maintain the paradigm.
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