IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revape/v49y2022i173p395-416.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Crony capitalist deals and investment in South Africa’s platinum belt: a case study of Anglo American Platinum’s scramble for mining rights, 1995–2019

Author

Listed:
  • Musa Nxele

Abstract

This article analyses how crony capitalism emerges as a solution to maintaining investment in platinum mining. Using a case study of platinum, the analytic narrative exploits the quasi-experimental design provided by the nationalisation of mineral rights to evaluate the relationship between mining investment and crony capitalism. Does the policy have the effects intended? This article argues that the answer is no because of the cronyism between mining capital and politically connected black elites. The institutionalisation of cronyism, coupled with low economic growth and shrinking market-based black economic empowerment opportunities, bolstered and legitimised capture of the state. The system of cronyism produced limited investment and limited black productive capital. Poor mining communities and mine workers have suffered from this cronyism, but have recently organised their power to control the operating environment, or the ‘social licence’ to operate.

Suggested Citation

  • Musa Nxele, 2022. "Crony capitalist deals and investment in South Africa’s platinum belt: a case study of Anglo American Platinum’s scramble for mining rights, 1995–2019," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(173), pages 395-416, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revape:v:49:y:2022:i:173:p:395-416
    DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2022.2098009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03056244.2022.2098009
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03056244.2022.2098009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:revape:v:49:y:2022:i:173:p:395-416. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CREA20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.