Niall Reddy, from South Africa, is a doctoral student in sociology at New York University.
Since the end of apartheid, South Africa's ANC has held a firm grip on power. In recent years, the party, plagued by accusations of clientelism and corruption, has been met with opposition from populist forces seeking to advance an ethno-nationalist agenda.
A popular new South African book insists racism is primarily to blame for social polarization. But describing South African inequality as “the new apartheid” obscures the central role that class and capitalism play in reproducing hierarchies.
The recent unrest in South Africa wasn't an expression of progressive politics. The Left will have to find a way to channel popular discontent into mass left movements — or we'll get nativism, and, inevitably, authoritarianism instead.