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Journal of Public Administration (JOPA)

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ISSN : 2
Constructing Black Economic Empowerment as a Neoliberal Project in South African Mining

Author: Metji Makgoba

Affiliation: University of Limpopo

Source: Journal of Public Administration, 2024-03-07 09:04:28

Accreditation: Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET)



Abstract: Constructing Black Economic Empowerment as a Neoliberal Project in South African Mining

This article employs Critical Discourse Analysis to investigate how Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) perpetuates and reproduces the socio-economic status quo of neoliberalism through the Mining Charter. It specifically examines how the Charter reduces the political processes of transformation and empowerment to the managerial practices of technical scoreboards, targets, and auditing processes as well as economic participation at the microcosmic level. This article argues that the African National Congress discursively uses the Charter to advance the ideology of neoliberalism by privileging and constructing the free markets as the means of advancing the government’s empowerment and transformation agenda. It is worth mentioning that BEE studies tend to approach and construct BEE as a structurally disruptive and radically redistributive policy and proceed to measure its implementation processes and outcomes. How