Wage Labor and Social Citizenship in the Making of Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

The scholarly literature on the South African democratic transition generally recognizes the decisive role of organized labor and black trade union organizations in the collapse of the apartheid regime. Labor's contribution in this regard was premised on a view of liberation that was not limited to the achievement of political rights and civil liberties, but crucially included a discourse of social citizenship enabled by expectations for employment creation, redistribution and decommodification of social provisions. Labor's social citizenship discourse was largely translated into the massive electoral support that the government of the African National Congress (ANC) has enjoyed since 1994. Conservative macroeconomic policies, and the deepening crisis of stable employment that have characterized the South African transition radically challenge, however, wage labor as an effective vehicle of social inclusion and the repository of collective identities and solidarity. The downgraded material conditions and the growing commodification of everyday life that confront a widening share of the black working class question the links between citizenship and wage labor emerged in past struggles. At the same time, the ANC government's social policies have turned the celebration of waged employment into a set of moral and pedagogical imperatives that prioritize labor market participation and the individual responsibility of the poor as alternatives to redistributive interventions regarded as conducive to welfare ‘dependency’. The article analyzes the shifting position of waged employment in relation to access to social services and social citizenship discourse in two specific cases: manufacturing workers in the East Rand region and employees of the Greater Johannesburg municipality.