POLITICAL ECONOMY

Readership:
Academics and students in the departments of Economics, Sociology and Political Sciences and general readers interested in socio-economic issues in the country.
Size: 230mm x 150mm
Page Extent: 404 pages
Format: Soft Paperback
Price: 325.00 (VAT Incl)
ISBN: 978-0-6399024-6-3
Publication Date: June 2023
Rights: World English Language
Black, White and Gold. Reflections of South Africa's political economy
AUTHOR: Francis Wilson

This compilation of essays was written over a period of 60 years and spans more than a century of South African history from the conquest of land and the discovery of diamonds and gold, to the threats of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The book focuses on the political economy of apartheid, its transformation at the end of the 20th century and the difficult early decades of the early 21st century. Francis Wilson asserts that the realities of poverty, unemployment and inequality, which loomed large before, during and after legalised apartheid, are connecting threads throughout this historical epoch.

The essays trace and expand on these trends in agriculture, mining( specifically gold mining), migrant labour, and the peculiar nature of urbanisation that has resulted in slums and squatter camps so prevalent in contemporary South Africa. The past six decades have been extraordinarily turbulent for a country not quite at war. These essays unpack some of the economic forces at play and their impact on the politics and social fabric of the majority of South Africans.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Francis Wilson was an emeritus professor of economics, and a lecturer and researcher at the University of Cape Town from the 1960s. He founded the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unity (Saldru), out of which the DataFirst resource unit grew, directed the Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development and organised the Towards Carnegie Conference, on overcoming poverty and inequality, in 2012. He chaired the University of Fort Hare Council during the 1990s as well as the National Water Advisory Council. He wrote widely on the South African political economy including gold mining, farming, the migrant labour system, globalisation, poverty, and history. His books include: Labour in the South African Gold Mines 1911-1969 (1972), Uprooting Poverty: The South African Challenge (1989) (co-authored with Mamphela Ramphele) and, Dinosaurs, Diamonds & Democracy: A short, short history of South Africa (2009).

POLITICAL ECONOMY

Readership:
Economists, Academics and students, Policy makers, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Business leaders and the general public concerned about building a better future for South Africa.
Size: 150mm x 230mm
Page Extent: 436 pages
Format: Soft Paperback
Price: R320.00 (VAT Incl)
ISBN: 978-0-6399024-1-4
Publication Date: September 2018
Rights: World
Getting it Right; A new economy for South Africa.
AUTHOR: Philippe Burger
After a strong start in the fifteen years following the fall of apartheid, the South African economy stagnated. Economic growth collapsed; the unemployment rate increased; the country’s level of inequality is one of the highest in the world. Not only is South Africa in an economic rut – high levels of corruption, patronage and state capture also mean that it suffers from severe institutional rot.
 
The first democratic government in 1994 had inherited an underperforming economy with a broken labour system, high levels of poverty (particularly in the former bantustans) and a racially fragmented and weak education system. It introduced reforms, but with limited success.

Getting it Right reveals how the toxic apartheid set-up is still entrenched in the economy, twenty-four years later. Philippe Burger sets out the key problems inhibiting economic growth, job creation and the reduction of inequality and poverty. He discusses the actions that must constitute the government’s policy agenda to address these issues, an agenda to getting it right: much higher levels of investment; reform of land tenure to secure better livelihoods for the 32% of South Africa’s population living on communal land in the former bantustans; much better education to increase the employability of its youth. The success of this agenda’s also requires rolling back corruption and patronage.

Only when these steps are taken can South Africa create a new inclusive high-growth, high-employment economy.

POLITICAL ECONOMY

Readership:
Academics and students in the departments of Economics, Sociology and Political Sciences and general readers interested in socio-economic issues in the country.
Size: 200mm x 130mm
Page Extent: 160
Format: Soft Paperback
Price: 190.00 (VAT Incl)
ISBN: 978-0-620-53725-4
Publication Date: August 2012
Rights: World English Language
Lost in Transformation; South Africa's search for a new future since 1986
AUTHOR: Solomon Johannes Terreblanche (Sampie)
THIS TITLE IS AVAILABLE IN AFRIKAANS AND SIMPLIFIED CHINESE

In this book, Emeritus Professor of Economics Sampie Terreblanche, the author of bestseller The History of Inequality in South Africa 1652- 2002, delves into South Africa’s political economy, unmasking the manoeuvres and backroom strategies of manipulation by American and British companies, in collaboration with the country’s Mineral Energy Complex (MEC) to subdue and defeat the ANC. He traces the evolution of the present day “crisis” facing South Africa by examining the global political and economic context of the 1980s, focusing particularly on the period 1986-1990. Prof Terreblanche, in his unique manner, takes the reader back to the 1650s and traces political-economic developments up to 2012

Terreblanche also evaluates the performance of the ANC-led government since 1994, focusing on South Africa’s affirmative action policies and the rapid Africanisation of the state bureaucracy. The author recounts some of his personal experiences and also exposes secret negotiations and deal-making which occurred behind the scenes, revealing issues which ordinary South Africans would never come to know. The penetrating insights and compelling arguments make the book ‘a must read’ if one wants to unpack the foundations of the ‘crisis’ the country is facing today, understand the politics and economics of South Africa, and find fresh answers.

Author Information:
Professor Solomon Johannes (Sampie) Terreblanche earned his BA, MA and PhD degrees at the University of Stellenbosch. The University of the Free State awarded him a D. Comm. (honoris causa) in 2005. From 1957 to 1964 he lectured at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. In 1965 he moved as a Senior Lecturer to the University of Stellenbosch and became Professor of Economics in 1968. Since 1996 he has been an Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Stellenbosch. Professor Terreblanche is the author of The history of Inequality in South Africa 1652-2002, a co-publication of KMM Review Publishing Company and UKZN Press.

“I regained optimism after reading this powerful book, because with a voice of Terreblanche’s experience and intolerance for injustice, with renewed awareness about how the Mineral Energy Complex corrupts our economy and environment with revulsion at widespread police brutality, and with growing solidarity for the victims of the Marikana Massacre, surely there must now be a way to undo our liberation party’s world-historic sell-out?”  Patrick Bond