Pretoria's perspective on globalization: A critique

Explicitly disempowering rhetoric about globalization characterize the South African government's political and economic argumentation, and help African National Congress (ANC) leaders and ideologues justify many of their transparently neoliberal strategies. This article offers a critical assessment of the ruling party's divergent discourses (and the uses to which these are put), their underlying presumptions, their intellectual and practical rigour, and their correlation to material self-interest. It is argued that ultimately the perspective on globalization chosen by Pretoria is far from progressive.