Decoloniality, Participation, Organisational Democracy and Self-Management

The paper explores the intersection of these four concepts (decoloniality, participation, organisational democracy and self-management) with specific reference to post-apartheid South Africa and the global south. It asserts that the aspirational human goals of participation, organisational democracy and self-management in the global south cannot be delinked from the matrix of colonial power which continues to negatively impact efforts to ensure social inclusion, democratic participation and self -management. The continuing processes of imperial extraction, capitalist exploitation to ensure massive profitability, and the psychological, social and physical violence suffered by the unemployed and the working poor who constitute the majority of the population in South Africa, serve to hinder any prospects for real freedom. The paper concludes by seeking to address what spaces exist for progressive change.