INTRODUCTION: MZALA NXUMALO’S IDEAS IN POSTAPARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

The post-apartheid South Africa, for which many people such as Nobleman Jabulani ‘Mzala’ Nxumalo were prepared to lay down their lives, still has far too many unresolved problems and unfulfilled promises, even though significant progress has been made in certain areas. ‘Mzala’, as he was commonly known, was one of the leading Marxist intellectuals to emerge from the 1976 student uprisings against the apartheid regime in Soweto and elsewhere. Like thousands of other young South Africans, he left South Africa and joined the ranks of the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). In exile, he engaged actively in the wide-ranging debates within the ANC and SACP, including those associated with the relationship between race, class and gender oppression, and with the national question.