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This book critically examines the persistence of market orthodoxy in post-apartheid South Africa and the civil society resistance such policies have generated over a twenty-five-year period. Each chapter unpacks the key political coalitions and economic dynamics, domestic as well as global, that have sustained neoliberalism in the country since the transition to liberal democracy in 1994. Chapter 1 analyzes the political economy of segregation and apartheid, as well as the factors that drove the democratic reform and the African National Congress' (ANC) subsequent abandonment of redistribution in favor of neoliberal policies. Further chapters explore the causes and consequences of South Africa's integration into the global financial markets, the limitations of the post-apartheid social welfare program, the massive labour strikes and protests that have erupted throughout the country, and the role of the IMF and World Bank in policymaking. The final chapters also examine the political and economic barriers thwarting the emergence of a viable post-apartheid developmental state, the implications of monopoly capital and foreign investment for democracy and development, and the phenomenon of state capture during the Jacob Zuma Presidency. Shaukat Ansari received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto, Canada, and has published in several peer-reviewed journals, including African Affairs, Review of Political Economy, and International Critical Thought.

ABSTRACTThis article situates South Africa's cash transfer programme within the country's financialized neoliberal regime. The adoption of economic liberalization by the African National Congress in the aftermath of the democratic transition has raised the profile of international investors in the domestic bond market. It is argued that this development, in the context of rising public debt and stagnating economic growth, has facilitated the financialization of the post‐apartheid state and has linked the sustainability of fiscal policy, and hence state‐led redistributive measures, to deepening debt relations with global asset managers. Additionally, a cluster of orthodox economic measures, such as inflation targeting and reserve accumulation, have served to thwart the potential for industrial upgrading. Moreover, it is posited that financial liberalization has further strengthened the influence of the Treasury over heterodox bureaucratic centres such as the Department of Trade and Industry, thereby serving to lock in the post‐transition neoliberal programme. Finally, the article argues that the integration of cash transfer recipients into the circuits of debt and finance is an outgrowth of the limitations of the social welfare programme and the broader financialization of the state. Overall, the analysis offered here serves as a counter‐argument to the notion that South Africa's cash transfer programme could offer a progressive alternative to market orthodoxy.