This paper focuses on the psychologization of development in South Africa, one of the most unequal
countries in the world, through a critical analysis of a discussion on a national radio programme about
the meaning of Mandela Day. We demonstrate how speakers draw on common sense notions of race,
class and party politics that (re)produce subject positions from within a rights based interpretive
repertoire that emphasizes structural reform and class resistance, and an agency interpretive repertoire
that emphasizes individualism, responsibility and volunteerism. We further demonstrate how the
agency subjective position serves to stifle and resist the rights subject position by drawing on common
sense ‘psychological truths’ about what it means to be a good citizen.