The Country's Wealth: State-Owned Enterprises in Apartheid and Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have played a foundational role in the political and economic history of South Africa since the Dutch East India Company first established a trading post at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. Throughout the following centuries, South African governments of various stripes have each used state ownership of resources and industry to restructure the country’s economy in the service of their own perceived interests. In this comparison of apartheid and post-apartheid SOE strategies, I draw from a wide range of scholarly work to assess the relative failures and successes of state ownership policies since 1948, with an eye to the implications for present-day policymaking.

Department: Political Science 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Chaldeans Mensah