South Africa’s ‘Radical Economic Transformation’ LEKGANTSHI CONSOLE TLEANE Nearly a quarter-century ago, the transition from juridical apartheid to a liberal constitutional democracy in South Africa brought with it hopes for the improvement of the standard of living for the majority-black working class and the poor. However, it did not take long before voices of discontent began to emerge from both within and beyond the ruling alliance led by the African National Congress (ANC). 1 Eventually, growing anger at the ANC government’s perceived inability to improve the con- ditions of the black working class and the poor led the organization, at its December 2017 54th National Conference in Johannesburg, to adopt an economic and development policy that has come to be known as the Radical Economic Transformation program (RET). 2 The plan lays out a long list of initiatives as critical to the country’s economic transformation in South Africa: reigniting growth by encourag- ing an investment pact between government, business, and labor; root- ing out corruption; avoiding credit downgrades; regulating uncompeti- tive behavior by corporations; accelerating land redistribution by, among other measures, expropriation without compensation, while at the same time ensuring food security; improving the governance and management of state-owned companies, and using them to catalyze growth; address- ing the pay gap between company executives and workers and imple- menting the minimum wage; nationalizing the central bank; transform- ing financial institutions such as banks, to make development finance more widely available; fast-tracking the establishment of a state bank; setting up a sovereign wealth fund; strengthening black economic em- powerment through preferential procurement for black companies; and supporting small businesses in general. Delivering his maiden State of the Nation address as president in February, Cyril Ramaphosa promised to translate the ANC’s proposals into government policy. 3 To assess whether the RET will bring about these changes, let us examine the ANC’s approaches to economic policy over the years, both prior to the 1994 political settlement and since. Lekgantshi Console Tleane is a research associate in the Change Management Unit of the Office of the Principal and Vice Chancellor at the University of South Africa. archive.monthlyreview.org DOI: 10.14452/MR-070-04-2018-08_2 11