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This article explores post-apartheid South Africa's commitment to macro-economic orthodoxy. Its key argument is that South Africa offers an exemplary case of neoliberal deepening which has entailed three interconnected processes: ideological conversion, a stated focus on poverty and development covering a deep commitment to orthodox macro policies, entailing institutions and a set of practices, and a far-reaching state restructuring involving the emergence and consolidation of a hegemonic treasury. Drawing on an analysis of grey literature, policy documents and a series of interviews with policy-makers, the article first discusses neoliberalism in South Africa, focusing on the ‘conversion’ of key ANC leaders to neoclassical economic orthodoxy. It then turns to the central, yet under-researched, instrument of neoliberal deepening: the emergence and consolidation of a dominant national treasury with the ability to shape policy-making across all areas of state intervention. The article closes on a call to envisage concurrently ideological conversion and state formation to understand the dynamics of neoliberalism, and its paradoxical resilience in the South Africa case.
Segatti et al. (2013) studied this question.