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Thanks Louis
On 2018/02/27 02:49 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/27/after-jacob-zumas-firing-south-africa-risks-budget-austerity-and-even-renewed-brics-poisoning/
There was quite a political dust-up in Pretoria last night, so the
updated version -
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/cyril-ramaphosa-relaunches-neo-liberalism/
- has these new paragraphs below. They seek to explain the transition
from 2009-18 "Zupta" time (Zuma+Gupta brothers, who are now in full
flight) to a neoliberal-nationalist "Ramazupta" regime, in which the
ultra-corporate new president is weighed down by dreadful characters he
has to retain so as to maintain the coherence of the corruption-riddled
ruling ANC. At the end of these four paragraphs, I set the stage for
what marxmail readers may want to debate with me: the sub-imperial
character of the BRICS. Latest update on that riff is at both
counterpunch and zcomm today.
Of course I didn't get too far with that last line of argument on RT
recently, before running into trouble with the host!:
https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/419094-zuma-legacy-south-africa/
Cheers,
Patrick
***
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/cyril-ramaphosa-relaunches-neo-liberalism/
Indeed a wicked combination of patronage politics and neo-liberalism is
likely to continue, given that on February 26, Ramaphosa announced a new
cabinet that includes the return of two former finance ministers
celebrated by the financial markets – Nhlanhla Nene and Pravin Gordhan –
and a deputy president, David Mabuza, who ran the eastern Mpumalanga
province since 2009.
Mabuza’s predecessor in that job, Mathews Phosa – also a former ANC
national treasurer – was scathing about his reputation as a corrupt
thug: “He’s engulfed in this cloud of scandals and let me tell you it’s
going to follow him where he is today… People fear him. They talk about
the killings in the province, when they talk about them, they link them
with him… I don’t think the ANC will win the 2019 elections.”
The leader of the new SA Federation of Trade Unions (second largest
after the ANC-supporting Congress of SA Trade Unions), Zwelinzima Vavi,
was just as critical of the new ministers: “Ramaphosa’s appointment has
changed nothing. He has reshuffled names but remains rooted in the
corrupt and pro-business ANC led by his predecessor. In particular it is
incredible that he has appointed a deputy president, and therefore
potential president, who has for years been implicated in of some of the
most serious crimes when Premier of Mpumalanga. These crimes included
alleged bribery in the awarding of contracts for World Cup facilities,
threatening and spying on journalists and drawing up a hit-list of
political opponents, of whom at least 15 were assassinated while no-one
was arrested for any of these murders.”
However on the positive side, Ramaphosa fired Zuma’s closest cabinet
ally – energy minister David Mahlobo – and as a result, Pretoria’s
attempted $100 billion purchase of eight nuclear energy reactors from
Rosatom is now highly unlikely. This is largely due to Pretoria’s
worsening debt crisis, so that really leaves just one accomplishment as
Zuma’s legacy: annual networking with leaders in Beijing, Brasilia,
Delhi and Moscow.
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