Mcebisi Ndletyana

If we are to talk of a 'new' intellectual movement, the question is begged: what happened to the 'old' intellectual movement? What happened to the thinkers who inspired and led our struggle against colonialism, apartheid and exploitation? What has happened to the thinkers who gave substance and guidance and, in many cases, practical leadership to our attempts to undo the past and forge a new future? In pursuit of answers to these questions, the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA), in partnership with the Liliesleaf Trust, hosted a roundtable in March 2015 on the theme 'The Role of Intellectuals in the State-Society Nexus'. The roundtable received inputs from a range of thinkers, including Ibbo Mandaza, Ben Turok, Ari Sitas, Ayanda Ntsaluba, Xolela Mangcu, Joel Netshitenzhe, Tshilidzi Marwala and Nomboniso Gasa, as well as provocative and piercing inputs from the attendees. This publication aims to put the contributions and debates at the roundtable further into the public domain and records the input of the main speakers, the respondents, as well as the discussion from the floor. The rigorous debate at the roundtable spilt out of the boundaries of the event itself and encouraged a number of thinkers to provide additional material for this publication: Z. Pallo Jordan, David Moore (with Tshilidzi Marwala) and Desiree Lewis.

Patronage Politics Divides Us is the culmination of a research project that forms part of MISTRA's first suite of eight priority research projects. The research explores the relationship between patronage, poverty, and inequality with a particular focus on its impact on the conduct of local politics. The overall aim of the study was to explore the possibility of constituting public institutions in a manner that enables them to become legitimate arbiters between the various interests, rather than as instruments that are captured by contending interest groups for their own accumulation. Most importantly, this study was necessitated by the realization that post-apartheid patronage politics has not received sufficient scholarly attention. The report is a profile of socioeconomic life in South Africa's various communities as experienced not only by locals but also by foreign-born residents. The findings provide a window on relationships between councillors, business interests, and local party organisations.