Maybe “both” is the right answer?
Right-wing tendencies are the easiest to explain. South Africa is obviously much richer than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, and of course Westerners play a more important role in its history but also in its present. You can give different interpretations to this, but various of these paths lead to right-wing conclusions. The lessons of the left are more unique to meditate on, here are some of them:
1. After the removal of apartheid, a black middle class and upper class emerged relatively quickly. This speaks to the importance of environment, opportunity and circumstance. Of course, most black people in South Africa still lack adequate opportunities, mainly because of poor education and also sometimes because of poor geographical location in the country, a legacy of the times of apartheid. Overall, visiting the country reinforces the importance of opportunities and recognizes that poor conditions for talented people can last a very long time.
2. Post-apartheid economic performance has been disappointing and economic inequality has increased rather than decreased. This suggests that more capitalism may exacerbate economic inequality, even as political inequality eases.
3. Apartheid was enforced with a remarkably small number of police officers, far lower per capita than in most Western countries at the time. This might suggest a sort of Marxian-Foucauldian view that oppressive systems acquire a force of their own, through norms and expectations, and are more difficult to dismantle than an analysis of simple coercion would indicate. The disappointments of post-apartheid South Africa do little to refute this suggestion, as these earlier norms and expectations have by no means entirely disappeared.
4. In the new South Africa, without apartheid, social class sometimes seems to be much more important than race per se. A number of blacks have been integrated into the upper classes, thanks to their commercial successes, but the primary role of the class continues much as before. This point seems more Marxist than contemporary leftist, but Marx is still left.
5. You can see how South Africa’s history has been shaped by the role of gold and diamonds in their economy. This again goes in the Marxist direction, more so than the left today. In South Africa, the means of production really mattered.
6. What does the ideal of color blindness mean, after so many centuries where color has so much importance and in so many formal ways? They even still call a group”Colors.” Would it be so wrong to suspect supporters of South African colorblindness of missing the point and asking for something that is both illusory and impossible to obtain?
I’m not sure I agree with all of this, only that these are ways I can imagine visiting South Africa and coming away more rather than less left.
What else?
