The decline of the Anti-Privatisation Forum in the midst of South Africa’s ‘rebellion of the poor’

Analysing the processes of social movement abeyance is a much under-studied and under-theorised area of social movement studies. This article examines the collapse of the once vibrant Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) in South Africa in order to broaden the empirical and conceptual base through which demobilisation is studied. The case of the APF presents a particular puzzle to the analysis of demobilisation as the organisation collapsed in a period of heightened protest which some analysts have described as amounting to a ‘rebellion of the poor’. The question therefore is: how did the APF collapse in a period of widespread collective action and protest? The article provides an answer which critically integrates theoretical insights of political opportunity, collective identity and resource mobilisation.