South Africa at the End of Neoliberalism? “Gangster Capitalism”, Rentier Accumulation, and the Transformation of Labour Politics after the Failure of Industrial‐Export Development

Abstract Situated in the manufacturing and construction industries of Durban, South Africa, this paper presents an ethnographic investigation into non‐unionised labour activism emergent from so‐called “organised crime” linked to the patronage politics of the African National Congress. In doing so, this paper traces a twin process of post‐colonial class formation: of a new elite class developing through recourse to patronage systems, and of a new class of precarious workers emerging through new forms of non‐union labour activism. Following this process of class formation, I argue, provides an analytic lens for critiquing recent debates on “rentier capitalism” and “political capitalism”, as concepts used to describe contemporary political and economic decay amid chronic low growth. Contributing to this debate, I show how organised labour shapes the articulation of “gangster capitalism” in South Africa, and I suggest that critical theories of “rent” are problematically beholden to a politics of growth.