Comrades ‘Back on Track’? The Durability of the Tripartite Alliance in South Africa

摘要

The article examines the Tripartite Alliance in South Africa, drawing onnin-depth interviews with members of the National Union of Mineworkersnemployed by Eskom, South Africa’s electricity parastatal. The articlenchallenges the widespread argument that the alliance is heading for an inevitablenbreak-up by interrogating the resilience of workers’ support for thenANC. It is argued that workers continue to identify a broad range of aspirationsnwith the party and that the ANC thus remains the primary figureheadnof political and social change in these workers’ political imaginations. Exploringnthe attitudes of Eskom workers towards the ANC’s presidentialnsuccession battle, it is shown that workers continue to hold the ANC asnan organization to be sacrosanct: the failures of the ANC government werenconsidered to result from the failure of individual leaders to meet theirnexpectations of representation, mediation, and accountability within thenpost-apartheid democratic era, rather than any irredeemable ideologicalnshortcoming of the ANC itself.