Transformative change in South Africa's academic employment? Shifts in democratising academic labour and its labour force

Segregation has been central to South Africa’s institutional architecture, inscribed and re-authorised through higher education. ‘Transformation’ was embedded in the 1996 constitution as a discourse to proactively address apartheid and colonialist legacies through informed national policies and practices. This chapter discusses the shifts and tensions which have emerged in academic staffing, following the negotiated political revolution from ‘white’ minority rule which also brought international investment and influence. The problematic foundations of higher education institutions and employment policies in the country are outlined, in order to historicise the sector’s current orientation, and targets, for social and demographic change. While energies have been focussed on transforming the sector’s racist and patriarchal legacies, university governance has paradoxically moved away from internal democratisation and towards managerialism and corporatisation. Such global tensions raise questions about the conditions of possibility for a post-colonial country to reconcile local transformation within current neoliberal geopolitics.