Summary

This book offers critical perspectives on post-apartheid South Africa's "sustainable development" experience, and on the neo-liberal, market-oriented strategies, adopted by central government and most municipalities since democracy dawned in 1994. Bond and his co-authors have researched and campaigned on behalf of social and environmental justice for years: offering alternatives to a minerals smelter at Coega, opposing the Lesotho mega-dams, helping township activists end disconnections of their electricity and water, and campaigning for free lifeline services. Grassroots protest movements are rising everywhere: against globalization, privatization, unemployment, poverty, the denial of healthcare and social services, and ecological degradation. Market forces that ignore social and environmental degradation are scrutinized and critiqued, and alternative proposals are examined in this book.