ABSTRACT
South Africa is marred by remarkable economic, social, and environmental extremes. Inequality, unemployment, poverty, violence, including that against women, levels of HIV/AIDS infection and tuberculosis, diabetes, hunger, and obesity—all stand amongst the highest in the world. So do carbon emissions, as a consequence of a coal-dominated energy system. And so too do social protests. None of these phenomena is unique to South Africa, but the South African path of development has meant they take particularly acute and extreme forms. Despite social progress towards reversing the racist practices which pervaded all aspects of life before 1994, South Africa is profoundly marred by its past, many features of which continue to be reproduced in the present. South Africa has changed from one flawed system to another: from the apartheid-era ‘minerals–energy complex’ (MEC) to a neoliberal, financialised MEC, which has left South Africa in a crisis of development, and with a crisis of the state. This chapter looks at three key issues: inequality; the crises of work and social reproduction; and the climate crisis.
