South Africa’s black middle classes between 2009 and 2018

Abstract

This article considers the social and political action of South Africa's black middle classes during the Jacob Zuma administration (2009 and 2018) during which the governing party fragmented in a disorderly way, partly dissolving traditional class lines. Swathes of black middle classes left the governing party to join the militant Economic Freedom Fighters, new smaller parties and the main opposition party (the Democratic Alliance). The class-based fallout was consequential for the governing party, as it was for theories of middle classes. Using South Africa's experience, this article offers a critique of the dominant neoliberal tradition which imagines an orderly and politically homogeneous class. It further argues that social and political action among the black middle classes should not be viewed as generic, it is rather shaped by dynamics unique to South Africa, including social memory. This, it is argued, blurs class behaviour as articulated by prevailing class theories.