Being watched, being excluded and being made to speak the 'truth': Foucault and power relations within a Limpopo municipality

Abstract:The present condition of the South African state has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years, with many questions raised about the failure of the post-apartheid state to both transform and deliver. While much of this attention has centred around perceptions of corruption, self-enrichment and state capture, there has been little attempt to integrate the lived experiences of municipal bureaucrats into this discourse, and even less to apply theory to analyse the internal workings of municipalities. This paper seeks to address that gap, by providing key insights from interviews with municipal officials in Mogalakwena Local Municipality during a period of great conflict and upheaval, and attempts to analyse the political manoeuvrings of the key players by applying Michel Foucault's 'micro-physical' approach to power relations, and to analyse the consequences of such actions through a Foucauldian lens.