Contemporary South Africa Research Articles

Examining the impact of job location on violent crime: the study of South African metropolitan areas

ABSTRACT The physical separation of people from economic activities creates spatial disparities, fragmentation, and unequal access to opportunities. Contemporary South Africa displays spatially divided communities. Affluent locations are socio-economically integrated with fewer crime activities, while poor communities are disintegrated from economic activities with high crime occurrences. The study explores the relationship between spatial mismatch and violent crime in South African metropolitan areas. The study used regression modelling and choropleth mapping to analyse and present the relation. Data used were acquired from Stats SA, CSIR, and SAPS National Crime Statistics. The findings revealed that areas located closer to jobs are associated with low levels of violent crime. In contrast, poor areas are located away from job opportunities and have high levels of violent crime. The study concludes that spatial mismatch determines the level of violent crime in South African metros.

The Fact of Anti-Blackness in South African Farms

This article uses the 2020 protest by a group of white farmers in Senekal as an entry point to the continuing anti-Black racist violence in South Africa’s white-owned farms. It argues that the key demand by the white farmers reflected the living violent history of white farmers, particularly as articulated in the country’s farmlands. The article contends that the history of white racial violence that produced the current racial disparities of land ownership in South Africa is, to an extent, kept alive by the ongoing exploitative and racist practices that have become a defining feature of white farming practices in South Africa. These exploitative and racist practices are well documented in the research on post-1994 white farms. As was the case in the past, anti-Black racist violence in contemporary South Africa relies on the narrative that historically constructed Blacks as subhuman and therefore were regarded as deserving of exploitation and unfair treatment. Blacks in this narrative are cast as not worthy of being treated with dignity and hence the dominant theme of this narrative portray Black life as insignificant, meaningless and disposable.

Essay review: technopolitics, development and the residues of the South African state.

It has been thirty years since the end of political apartheid in South Africa in 1994. Those decades have been marked by single-party dominance under the African National Congress (ANC), and the expansion of democratic rights and public goods like education, as well as neoliberal economic policies, growing inequality and, in recent years, corruption and maladministration scandals. On the heels of a historic election in May 2024, one which marked the end of the ANC's electoral dominance and was shaped, in part, by government mismanagement of the energy sector and extensive infrastructural decline, it is a timely moment to consider the history of South Africa's state and its relation to industries of extraction and energy production. Two new books do just that. Residual Governance: How South Africa Foretells Planetary Futures, by Gabrielle Hecht, takes a long view of the impact of extractive industries, arguing that contemporary South Africa may offer a cautionary tale of the devastating impacts of the Anthropocene, one that 'foretells planetary futures' in the way that the state has failed to reckon with the enduring communal and environmental impacts of the mining industry. Apartheid's Leviathan: Electricity and the Power of Technological Ambivalence, by Faeeza Ballim, historicizes the development of South Africa's electricity sector under the apartheid state and traces the roots of the current energy crisis back to the pursuit of authoritarian high modernism in the mid-twentieth century.

Dear Mr Sobukwe: examining Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe’s pan-African vision and how it has influenced youth movements in South Africa today

Pan-Africanism is experiencing a resurgence amongst young people in post-1994 South Africa. In this article, I explore how people across different generations interpret the legacy of a critical figure in South African history, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe. The participants in this research and I represent a sliver in the changing interpretations of Sobukwe’s legacy in South Africa after 1994. I have chosen an epistolary form as the key organising framework to share my ethnographic research, mirroring Sobukwe’s own prolific letter writing practice throughout his life. The article presents letters written by two participants in my research to Sobukwe, followed by a response letter from me. This forms a dialogical conversation between me, the researcher, the participants in my research and Robert Sobukwe. The research essay contains elements of auto-ethnography, allowing me to engage closely with how Sobukwe has impacted my own thinking about justice in South Africa. I focus on education, a key tenet in Sobukwe’s pan-Africanist vision. The article shows the ongoing erasure of Black liberation fighters from contemporary South Africa and the impact of coloniality in education.

Mindfulness meditation among South African psychologists: a pathway to ‘being’ amid existential suffering in contemporary South Africa

Mindfulness is currently regarded as a life skill as well as part of an approach to life that can generate beneficial intrapersonal and relational outcomes. Given the centrality of intrapersonal and relational outcomes in psychotherapeutic encounters, it seems logical that the practice of mindfulness by psychologists would be relevant to explore, especially in contemporary South African contexts where high levels of trauma, interpersonal distress, and resultant existential and intrapsychic struggles prevail. The study seeks to address an identified gap in existing research concerning the experienced relevance of long-term mindfulness meditative practice for counselling psychology and therapeutic practice generally, particularly in the South African context. Located within an interpretivist paradigm and interpretative phenomenological analysis, this study explored the mindfulness and mindfulness meditation practices of 11 South African counselling psychologists and the ways in which these practices informed their being in both personal and psychotherapeutic settings. Each participant was invited to participate in a semi-structured interview and reflexive journalling task as part of the research process. The findings centralise the being capacities afforded to psychologists through a mindfulness practice and identify how the related elements of non-judgement, nonattachment, and (re)connection enable enhanced relational encounters with clients. The findings contribute to the limited literature related to the value of psychologists’ mindfulness practices in relation to the way in which they manage their own responses to clients, as well as the potential for mindfulness practices to help clients manage presenting trauma responses.

The unfinished promise of infrastructure in post‐apartheid South Africa

AbstractThis article explores aspects of the “unfinished” using notions of human‐centered design in African public infrastructure and the importance of involving the “users” and “beneficiaries” in infrastructure development and delivery. Infrastructure, both conceptually as an idea and in its constructed material reality, has a huge impact on society, socially and economically, and has been promised as one of the most effective drivers of economic growth in South Africa. Increasingly in South Africa, facilities are falling into disrepair. Infrastructure is being adapted and used in unintended ways that often do not provide the socio‐economic benefits intended. In considering medical infrastructure across three sites in post‐apartheid South Africa, my argument asks how factors such as statecraft, governance and funding models, design considerations, project implementation methodologies, operational and maintenance policies affect the promise of infrastructural change in contemporary South Africa?

Opportunity Hoarding and Elite Reproduction: School Segregation in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract School integration is an important indicator of equality of opportunity and racial reconciliation in contemporary South Africa. Despite its prominence in public and political discourse, however, there is no systemic evidence on the levels and patterns of school segregation. Drawing on the literature on the post-apartheid political settlement and sociological theories of opportunity hoarding, we explain how the small White minority and, to a lesser extent, the new Black middle class monopolized access to South Africa’s most prestigious schools following the abolition of de jure segregation in 1994. Using the 2021 Annual School Survey—an administrative dataset covering all South African schools—and the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study school survey, we find very high levels of school segregation along racial as well as socioeconomic lines. White students almost exclusively attend former White schools, have little exposure to the low-income Black majority, and are vastly overrepresented in elite public and private schools. We argue that in South Africa and other contexts with under-resourced education systems, elite capture of the few high-performing schools serves to reproduce race and class privilege.

A decolonial analysis of religious medicalisation of same-sex practices in South African Pentecostalism

Same-sex practices are commonly medicalised in various global spaces. Some societies view same-sex practices as some form of disease that needs to be cured. In Africa, the influence of Christianity has prompted many communities to conclude that there are spiritual forces behind same-sex orientations and practices. Therefore, same-sex practices are demonised, and those identifying with these sexualities and gender identities are viewed as sick, or as having some form of mental illness. As a fast-growing and influential movement in South Africa, Christianity plays a critical role in this narrative. Against this backdrop, this article examined how some Pentecostal pastors in South Africa use God-talk to propel the narrative that medicalises same-sex practices and how these pastors claim to have miraculous powers to heal these practices. Consequently, the gender and sexuality commonly accepted within African religiosity and spirituality are pushed to the peripheries. Therefore, it is argued in this article that the colonial-missionary discourses regarding African sexualities and genders are at play within the religious medicalisation of same-sex narratives. Thus, there is a need to problematise and transform this narrative. This act can contribute to delinking African genders and sexualities from Western repressions and subjugation agendas. The discussion moved from the premise of decoloniality while adopting a multidisciplinary approach that incorporated theology, gender and sexuality studies, psychology, health, and socio-political sciences. Again, the article used secondary literature analysis to examine this phenomenon and to gain a thorough understanding of how African Pentecostalism continues to use God-talk to medicalise same-sex practices in contemporary South Africa and the repercussions thereof.Contribution: The study contributed to the existing knowledge that addresses religious challenges faced by people identifying with non-normative sexualities and genders in Africa. This can contribute to the transformation of religious medicalisation of same-sex practices in South Africa, and elsewhere.

Biblical discourses and the construction of genders and sexualities in contemporary South Africa: A decolonial analysis

The constructions of genders and sexualities in different global spaces continue to be influenced by Christian and imperial ideologies. In Africa, genders and sexualities were (mis)construed by colonial and missionary enterprises, and they continue to be defined according to Eurocentric terms and perceptions. This has produced ‘modern sexual repression’. The use of Biblical discourses to construct African genders and sexualities is one way that this repression is mirrored in South Africa. Because of this, African genders and sexualities are marginalised, treated as taboo and depicted as backward and uncivilised, thus, promoting hegemonic heteronormative and monogamous marriages. This article examined how Biblical discourses contributed to this narrative. It further advanced a call for transforming this dominant narrative by engaging theology, gender and sexuality studies and socio-political sciences from the premise of a multidisciplinary epoch. The decolonial motif, with a focus on delinking African genders and sexualities from the Western agenda of sexual repression, serves as the theoretical framework for this research. On the other hand, race, gender and sexuality serve as lenses used to better understand the phenomenon and to explore the use of biblical discourses in this context. Thus, the article makes use of a secondary research approach to carry out this task.Contribution: This article seeks to add to the body of knowledge that endeavours to change the way that biblical discourses are used in South Africa today to construct a narrative that represses non-normative genders and sexualities.

The University in Contemporary South Africa: Commodification, Corporatisation, Complicity and Crisis

ABSTRACT: Post-1994, the arc of university development in South Africa has produced commodified, corporatized, crisis-ridden universities, as part of the wider crisis of the South African political economy under neo-liberal hegemony. The article illustrates the different dimensions of the crisis and offer some ideas on a different future for universities that breaks with their current dubious trajectories. Important as they are, renewed and transformed universities will not come into being through intellectual, epistemological, and theoretical work alone. Those efforts must be part of political struggle and connect with political action and struggles of individuals and social groups committed to a different kind of society based on other logics than the destructive and dehumanising ones of contemporary neo-liberal capitalism.

Syncretism Narrative and the Use of Material Objects within Some Neo-Pentecostal Circles in Contemporary South Africa

African Pentecostal Christianity presents interconnectedness with African cultures, spiritualities, and religiosity in many ways. Among many other practices that demonstrate this interconnectedness is the use of material objects common within some African Pentecostal Christian spaces, African cultures, spiritualities, and religions. The advent of neo-Pentecostalism in South Africa has brought some controversies in the use of material objects within the broader African Pentecostalism. This has led to the outright demonization and to the conclusion that this practice was fundamentally syncretistic. This article investigated the syncretism narrative given the use of material objects within some neo-Pentecostal spaces in contemporary South Africa. It scrutinized the syncretism narrative and problematized it as the continuation of the missionary-colonial project that demonized African religious and cultural practices. It was argued that this constitutes coloniality that uses a “cultural bomb” that seeks to eradicate African customs, cultures, religions, and practices including the use of material objects. The study was conducted through the desktop research methodology focusing on secondary literature on African Pentecostalism, African neo-Pentecostalism, and syncretism. The findings indicated that the syncretism narrative is often applied to African Pentecostalism and seldom used with other Christian traditions, especially those of Western descent. Again, when the term is used, non-syncretistic elements are often not acknowledged. Thus, the need to transform the current narrative was highlighted.

"Health Outcomes of Grandparents Caring for Double Orphans in South Africa": What Are the Determinants?

In the 21st century, grandparenthood is a significant phenomenon in the fields of demography, gerontology, and sociology. It is mainly explored in the context of ageing, as it is poised to become one of the most significant demographic phenomena and social issues in contemporary South Africa. Therefore, this study examined the determinants associated with grandparents who are parenting as caregivers and the health challenges they are exposed to as caregivers. The National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) Wave 5 dataset was utilised, and a total of 302,476 grandparents aged 25 years and older, who were reported to be primary caregivers of double orphans, were included in the analysis. Both bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regressions were performed to determine the predictors of the determinants of grandparents parenting as caregivers and their health challenges in South Africa. Estimated odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used, and the threshold for statistical significance was established at ρ < 0.05. A majority of the male and female grandparent caregivers were aged 24-34 years, were Black Africans (69.8%), had secondary education (46.9%), reported health challenges (HC) (59.7%), with 26.4% reporting headaches in the last 30 days. Logistic regression revealed that grandparent caregivers aged 55-64 years were 8.9 times more likely to report health challenges compared to those aged 25-34 years. Non-Black African grandparent caregivers were found to be 0.61 times less likely to report health challenges, compared to Black African grandparent caregivers. Those with perceived poor health status were 3.3 times more likely to report health challenges, compared to those with excellent perceived health status. Therefore, there is an urgent need to redesign health interventions to address these health burdens among grandparent caregivers and to take cognisance of providing economic and social support for these vulnerable populations.

A Photovoice Study Exploring the Subjective Constructions of ‘Born-Free’ Identities in a South African University

The South African identity has been shaped by nation-building discourse; it remains a point of ongoing political discussion well into South Africa’s democratisation. Literature suggests that ‘South Africans’ only exist through their creation by nationalist rhetoric; therefore, growing political discontent is reflected in a disentanglement from the ‘South African’ identity. This article, using photovoice, explores Black university students’ constructions of their identity in contemporary South Africa. The participants viewed the South African society as a divided one. Although they described the impact of nation-building discourse as having existed in the past, they spoke of it as a disingenuous sentiment that has faded with the passing of former President Nelson Mandela. Instead, the participants turn to their ethnic groups to establish a fluid cultural identity. The ‘bornfree’ generation is in a state of ‘in-between’: born after the official end of apartheid, they are thought of as having access to opportunities unavailable to previous generations. However, they continue to grapple with the challenges and unresolved legacies of the past. This project’s significant contribution lies in its emphasis on the perspectives and experiences of the ‘born-frees’ themselves. Existing literature shows that politicians and academics usually control discussions related to nation-building and transformation. Yet, the voices of the ‘born-frees’ are frequently side-lined, as they are perceived to lack firsthand experience of apartheid’s challenges. This study demonstrates that, even with democratic change, there are numerous aspects of ‘born-free’ lives that have remained untransformed.

Hegemonic Masculinity as a Contributing Factor Toward Intimate Partner Violence in Contemporary South Africa

South Africa is a country that is known for its high levels of violence, ranging from intimate partner violence to xenophobic attacks. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant problem that profoundly affects the well-being of another partner. IPV is described as abuse within the context of an intimate partner relationship where one partner asserts power and control over the other, and it includes physical, sexual, economic, and psychological abuse (National Crime Victims’ Rights Week Resource Guide 2018, 1). Understanding the factors that play a role in IPV is pivotal. Hegemonic masculinity has been used to explain men’s power over women via submission and the use of violence. Hegemonic masculinities are characterised by attitudes, ideals, interactions, and practices among men that perpetuate inequality, dominance over women, patriarchy, and power over minority groups (Jewkes and Morrell 2012, 2; Jewkes et al. 2015, 98). In this study, comprehensive desktop research was carried out to gather relevant data and themes identified from studies conducted between 2010 and 2018. Analysis showed that the phenomenon of IPV, particularly towards women, is still a major challenge that requires stakeholders to be more responsive to the concerns of women in a global space.

Neo-Pentecostalism and gender-based violence before and during COVID-19 in South Africa

Pentecostal Christians in Africa preach a pragmatic gospel that attempts to address social, practical and contextual concerns. Similar patterns may be seen in the emergence of neo-Pentecostalism in South Africa and other parts of the continent. Neo-Pentecostalism is commonly known for the use of God-talk that promises people solutions to their socio-economic issues such as unemployment and poverty if they obey the prescripts of the so-called ‘prophets’ or ‘man of God’. Nonetheless, the global devastation caused by the COVID-19 left much to be desired. In South Africa, it highlighted the high extent of gender-based violence (GBV) in addition to other societal issues. Although GBV has always been a problem in South Africa, its cases increased drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic to the point where GBV was also declared a pandemic. This has compelled various social structures to start exploring solutions to stop this conundrum. The overarching question posed in this article was how neo-Pentecostal rhetoric about God contributes to GBV cases in South Africa before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, given that God-talk has been utilised to influence people’s perceptions of and reactions to other societal concerns. As a result, this article aimed to investigate this subject while also outlining some potential solutions that African Pentecostals can consider as possible contributions to the struggle against GBV in contemporary South Africa. The study used a literature analysis to achieve this goal and it followed an interdisciplinary approach in the collection of the relevant data. These disciplines included theology, social sciences gender and sexuality studies. Therefore, the literature analysis focused on how neo-Pentecostalism intersect with gender and social issues that are actors in the rise of GBV in South Africa. Furthermore, the concept of God-talk was adopted as a theoretical framework guiding the discussion in this article, whilst the African ethic of Ubuntu [humanness] was proposed as an antidote that can be used in transforming God-talk and contributors of GBV in church and society. Ubuntu brings to consciousness that pastors and every member of society should treat each other as created in the image of God and with respect and humanness as we all exist because of and for others.Contributions: This article contributes to the body of knowledge aimed at finding solutions to GBV in South Africa. Finding solutions is critical as GBV continue to be a challenge in South Africa and elsewhere.

Passion or profession: the training of theatre directors in South Africa

This article explores director training in the context of contemporary South Africa. Through individual interviews with ten South African theatre directors, we explore their origins and inspirations towards becoming a director. The selected directors differ in their ways of working and their personal backgrounds, providing a diverse spectrum of profiles that highlight the different skills required by theatre directors. Together, these interviews reflect the reality of the theatre industry in South Africa, which is somewhat haphazard and fragmented. The interviews explore how most of the selected directors, working across the spectrum of formal, well-funded theatre and under-resourced, community-based theatre, have fallen into directing as a default position, rather than receiving specific directing training during their studies. In most cases, this has been born out of a necessity to create their own work as actors, or to produce their own scripts as writers. This practice reflects how South African theatre directors are often driven by their own passion rather than by the professional training provided for directors in other countries. Based on these experiences, and the needs within the theatre industry in South Africa, the article concludes with suggestions for curriculum reform for theatre directors in the context of the South.

Being black and non‐citizen in South Africa: Intersecting race, white privilege and afrophobic violence in contemporary South Africa

AbstractPost‐apartheid South Africa is characterized by growing feelings of pain, anger and frustration amongst black communities triggered by pervasive social inequalities. This has given birth to a new form of political and social activism shaped by crude violence, vandalism, destruction, brutal killings of women and children as well as thuggery in different black communities. It has also led to an upsurge in violence particularly on Africans from other parts of the continent. In this article, I attempt to examine how racial politics and resilient white privilege intersect to trigger afrophobic violence in South Africa. I draw on existing literature on broad conceptions of race and xenophobia to make a set of assertions about racial valuations, the resilience of white supremacy and black on black violence. In the article, I argue that black South Africans' pain, anger and the performance of violence on African migrants are on one level a consequence of resilient structural racism and racial practices, which continue to marginalize, emasculate and dispossess blacks. These racial practices force black South Africans to look elsewhere to express their anger, pains and frustrations.

Hatching Conflicts: Trout Reproduction, Properties of Water, and Property Ownership in South Africa

ABSTRACT Trout were introduced to South Africa in the late nineteenth century with colonial fanfare, but since the 1990s, post-apartheid legislation has declared trout alien and sought to reduce their numbers. Both the initial introduction of trout and contemporary debates are entangled with ‘properties’, in the dual sense of land claims and biophysical traits of fish and waters. Trout introductions were part of colonial enclosures; now, attempts to control them are seen by many white owners as a state attempt to undermine private property. Trout become a site for conflict because they struggle to spawn in South African waters and are largely dependent on hatchery reproduction, which makes them available for legislative acts that can eliminate owners’ ability to maintain private stocks. Attention to links between these dual meanings of property illustrates how contestations over land-waters in contemporary South Africa are shaped by the ongoing effects of more-than-human colonial projects.

Mutual Aid and Informal Finance

This paper focuses on stokvels in contemporary South Africa. It examines the resilience and persistence of mutual aid in a modern setting. It seeks to build a qualitative model to understand the persistence and adaptation of the stokvels in a modern society wherebanking institutions coexist with informal credit practices. The concept of cooperation is key to the analysis. We argue that stokvels continue to persist in modern society, despite the rise of banking institutions, because of their cooperative nature.

Invigorating Interfaith Consciousness for the Common Good: Reimagining the Role of African Religion and Pentecostalism in Contemporary South Africa

Contemporary South Africa reflects complex, diverse, and evolving religious realities. Changes continue to manifest at the confluence of encounters between various religions and rapid changes in social institutions that affect, in one way or another, various religions in the nation. These realities are typically embedded in sociocultural contexts and give clarity and meaning to religious experiences. In the post-apartheid era, the spirit of openness toward religious tolerance often dwindles when it comes to interactions between African religion and Pentecostalism. When people understand why followers of other religions believe and practice their rituals and sacraments, this knowledge may help dispel mis- and disinformation and thereby construct inter-religious common ground. Using an extensive review of the relevant literature, this article investigates some of the factors that may limit harmony between African religion and Pentecostalism in South Africa. After providing some definitions and historical context, we discuss the power and legacy of anti-apartheid interfaith solidarity. We also explore ongoing factors hindering interfaith engagements between African religion and Pentecostalism in South Africa. We then explore opportunities for interfaith dialogue in South Africa. Utilizing Walter Hollenweger’s Pentecostal intercultural theology, we argue that expressive liturgy for biodiversity and sustainability, communal participation for reconciliation, and experiential spirituality focused on land care could provide a potential ‘fourth’ approach to interfaith dialogue for African religion and Pentecostalism in South Africa. This includes underappreciated albeit profitable interrelationships between Indigenous knowledge, traditional spirituality, and sustainable development. We also acknowledge some limitations and opportunities for future research. Finally, we offer a succinct concluding synthesis that recapitulates the paper’s main points. This article aims to invigorate interfaith consciousness through meaningful thematization of pertinent issues, including the articulation and application of relevant intercultural theology.