ABSTRACT
The South African state has played a pioneering role in the evolution and adoption of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad). The adoption of Nepad has, in turn, given rise to a plethora of debates that generated a growing body of literature, both promotional and critical. On the one hand, a set of views see Nepad as an expression of national interests and good for the development of the continent, and on the other hand there are those seeing it as a neoliberal development framework and represent the adoption of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) by African leaders. This chapter endorses the latter characterisations and takes them further by examining the significance of Nepad from the standpoint of the social forces behind it. A central question at the heart of any developmental programme is: ‘which class rules, benefits from and shapes [policies] in their own image?’ In other words, which are the social forces that have propelled the evolution of the programme and, therefore, stand to benefit from its implementation? The chapter explores this question by reflecting on the social forces behind the pioneering role of the South African state in the evolution of Nepad. The chapter argues that Nepad is a programme of both global and major South African corporations to restructure social relations on the continent to facilitate capital accumulation and penetration of productive spheres.
