Lucien van der Walt, Kirk Helliker, Gilton Klerck and Gorden Moyo (2025), State Capitalisms in Southern Africa: Colonial Rule, Capitalist Development, and Class Formation in Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, 1880s–2020s, 250 pp. Boston, Delft: Now Publishers. More information HERE.
State Capitalisms in Southern Africa offers a groundbreaking reappraisal of Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe through the lens of evolving forms of state capitalism. From colonial charter companies to post-independence parastatals and financial institutions, this monograph traces how successive state-capital hybrids have shaped economic development, class formation, and corporate governance across the region.
Challenging dominant narratives that centre Western and Eastern models, the authors draw on historical institutionalist approaches to show how national contexts drive variation within seemingly similar economic forms. By mapping distinct eras of capitalism—merchant colonialism, import-substitution industrialisation, neoliberalism, and militarised accumulation—this study reveals how African cases both enrich and complicate global debates on state capitalism.
Engaging deeply with neglected African histories, this is a timely contribution to political economy literature that underscores the centrality of the state in shaping economic trajectories and governance systems in the Global South.
Introduction … 2
2 “State Capitalism”: Conceptualisations, Antecedents, and New Directions 8
2.1 Specifying “State Capitalism” … 9
2.2 State Capitalism and the Exhaustion of “End of History” Arguments … 16
2.3 From Neo-Liberal Globalisation to “New State Capitalism” … 20
2.4 Linking “State Capitalism” to “Embeddedness” … 30
2.5 State Capitalism and African Political Economies … 33
2.6 Analysing State Capitalism in Sub-Saharan Africa … 42
2.7 Mapping “State Capitalism” in Southern Africa … .49
2.8 “State Capitalism” in Southern Africa, with South Africa as Regional Hegemon … 55
3 “State Capitalism” in South Africa … 60
3.1 From the VOC to the Union of South Africa … 60
3.2 The Initial ISI Years in South Africa … 71
3.3 ISI, Apartheid, and National Security … 79
3.4 Parastatals and State Development Finance in Apartheid’s Homelands … 90
3.5 From ISI to Neo-Liberalism in Late Apartheid … 95
3.6 The Transition Period and the ANC Government … 98
3.7 “State Capture,” Crisis in the Parastatals and the “New Dawn” … 107
4 State and Capital in Namibia … 115
4.1 State-Capital Linkages in German South West Africa … 116
4.2 South West Africa under South African Colonial Rule … 119
4.3 Reforms and Regional War in the Later Years of South African Occupation … 127
4.4 State-Capital Hybrids in Independent Namibia … 134
5 State and Capital in Zimbabwe … 154
5.1 The Colonial Period: From British South Africa Company Rule to White Self-Government … 154
5.2 The Federation Years and UDI … 162
5.3 Independent Zimbabwe: The First Decades … 166
5.4 The Post-2000 Mugabe Period … 174
5.5 The Mnangagwa Regime, 2017 Onwards … 179
6 Conclusions … 191
Acknowledgements … 203
Author Biographies … 204
Lucien van der Walt 