ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a critical analysis of the historical trajectory of cross-border finance management in South Africa, in light of the historical-geographical specificity of capital accumulation and class relations prevailing in the country, from the 1930s to the eve of the 2008 global financial crisis. The analysis draws on national accounts data, official and research documents, as well as public statements released by South African authorities and the IMF and on primary data generated through qualitative research interviews. Similarly to the previous chapter, the periodisation which organises the present analysis is based upon the historical waves of financial capital flows to South Africa and how they shaped various rounds of state policy-making, policy experimentation, and institutional innovation in terms of cross-border finance management. Each round has been driven by the necessity to find new forms of mediating contradictions, depending on contextually specific forms of resistance and struggles, and the availability of global liquidity on the world market. The chapter concludes with reflections on the comparative historical experiences of Brazil and South Africa from the 1930s to 2008 and draws implications for understanding elements of similitude and differentiation in the long historical trajectory of cross-border finance management in the two countries.
