one camp is made up of the kleptocratic and authoritarian nationalists in the ruling party and the EFF, while the other is led by Ramaphosa and supported by big business and civil society.

They are correct to describe the kleptocratic faction as grossly misusing the language of radical nationalism as a mask to disguise their aspirations to accumulate personal wealth via the state. But they are seriously incorrect when they describe the anti-corruption faction as uniformly committed to a standard set of neoliberal policies such as privatisation, inflation targeting and austerity – including mass retrenchments from state-owned enterprises.

These commentators miss the vital fact that there are also left-wing actors that are simultaneously opposed to both corruption and the neoliberal measures that are being called for by the business press,to have significant influence within the ANC, and because they are a critical part of the coalition that brought Ramaphosa to power, and keeps him in power, he cannot alienate them entirely and be confident of retaining his hold on power.

Saftu has been able to mount street protests on an impressive scale reminiscent of the 1980s and remains powerful on the shop floor in various industries, including some of the state-owned enterprises. Its largest and most militant union, Numsa, has hundreds of thousands of members and is growing rapidly. Abahlali baseMjondolo is a powerful actor in Durban where it has more than 70,000 paid-up members and regularly holds mass meetings of thousands of its members at football grounds. It is also growing rapidly in provinces such as the