Political Change In South Africa Research Articles

The “I” as Implicated Subject: Performative Confession in Rian Malan’s My Traitor’s Heart

Confessional forms of autobiographical writing have predominated in post-apartheid South African literary studies. This paper discusses Rian Malan’s My Traitor’s Heart, published in 1990 during drastic social and political changes in South Africa’s transition to democracy. It was one of the first and most prominent examples of this genre. Focusing on Malan’s perspective as a white Afrikaner and an “implicated subject”, this study explored how his confessional account grappled with the existential dilemma of post-apartheid Afrikaner identity. Malan simultaneously affirmed his Afrikaner identity to confront his implication in apartheid and sought to establish a legitimate place for this identity within the new multicultural society. Through a close reading of Malan’s strategic performance, this paper argues that his work offers a means of reimagining the collective self in a new community and understanding historical injustices from a multidimensional perspective. Ultimately, My Traitor’s Heart contributes to the post-apartheid project of envisioning a more inclusive psychological and topographical construction of individual and collective identity, with the implicated subject as its centre.

Challenges to the integration of the Platfontein San in South Africa between 1990 and 2003

This article is based on a narrative case study that explores the controversy in the history surrounding the Platfontein San. During the South African border war, San soldiers joined the South African Defence Force in their fight against African liberation movements in Angola and Namibia. Shortly before Namibian independence, these soldiers and their families were evacuated to a military base in South Africa. Amidst the concurrent political changes in South Africa, the fate of this small San community came to be uncertain and insecure. In their quest for a place to settle permanently, the group experienced different racial, socio-economic and cultural problems. Eventually in 2003, they settled permanently in Platfontein. Overall, the government’s resettlement project was a “quick-fix” decision, not an integrated solution. It shaped many chronic socio-economic problems among the Platfontein community. The article thus seeks to understand how the small group of indigenous inhabitants has been affected by major changes in Southern Africa and reveals the key factors that favoured and hindered its integration in South Africa.

Racial Identity in Post-Apartheid South Africa: J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace

J.M. Coetzee is a South African novelist, critic and an active translator of Dutch and Afrikaans literature. His novels are conspicuous for their well- crafted composition, pregnant dialogues and analytical brilliance. Coetzee’s earlier novels question the apartheid regime, while his later works offer an apocalyptic vision of post- apartheid South Africa. His major works include Disgrace, Waiting for the Barbarians, Life and Times of Michael K, Boyhood, Age of Iron and The Childhood of Jesus. In 1999, Coetzee has been the recipient of numerous awards throughout his career, although he has a reputation for avoiding award ceremonies. Coetzee became the first author to be twice awarded the Booker Prize, winning it as second time for Disgrace which portrays the post-apartheid society. Coetzee went on to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 2003 for his entire body of works. During the years of apartheid, he was at the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement among writers. Scholar Isadore Dalia labelled J.M Coetzee as one of the most distinguished white writers with an anti-apartheid sentiment. Coetzee’s earlier novels question the apartheid regime, while his later works offer an apocalyptic vision of post- apartheid South Africa. Disgrace can be analyzed as a representative work of the new south Africa where the social problems relating binary oppositions such as black- white, white- immigrant, powerless- powerful, are stressed. This paper attempts to show through the protagonist, David Lurie, that the way to adapt to the changes in the country is to make a fresh start, a way to adapt to the new times, where no ideas of the old are retained. Frantz Fanon’s concepts within the field of post colonialism which he articulated in Black Skin, White Masks (1967) and The Wretched of the Earth (1963) have much relevance in Disgrace. The objective of this paper is to stretch his new ideas in a new direction by applying his theories on nation and culture onto a white subject Lurie, a white native South African. In the light of Fanon’s text, The Wretched of the Earth it can be argued that following the revolutionary political changes in South Africa in 1994, the former colonizer can be seen in the same way as the colonized usually is: a powerless native, regardless of racial identity.

Campaigning Against Apartheid: The Rise, Fall and Legacies of the South Africa United Front 1960–1962

ABSTRACTThe international struggle against apartheid that emerged during the second half of the twentieth century made the system of legalised racial oppression in South Africa one of the world’s great moral causes. Looking back at the anti-apartheid struggle, a defining characteristic was the scope of the worldwide efforts to condemn, co-ordinate, and isolate the country. In March 1961, the international campaign against apartheid achieved its first major success when Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd chose to withdraw South Africa from the Commonwealth following vocal protests at the Heads of State Summit held in London. As a consequence, it appeared albeit briefly, that external pressure would effectively serve as a catalyst for achieving far-reaching and immediate political change in South Africa. The global campaign, centred on South Africa remaining in the Commonwealth, was the first of its kind launched by South Africa’s national liberation movements, and signalled the beginning of thirty years of continued protest and lobbying. The contributions from one organisation that had a role in launching and co-ordinating this particular transnational campaign, the South Africa United Front (SAUF), an alliance of liberation groups, have been largely forgotten. Leading members of the SAUF claimed the organisation had a key part in South Africa’s subsequent exit from the Commonwealth, and the purpose of this article is to explore the validity of such assertions, as well as the role and impact it had in generating a groundswell of opposition to apartheid in the early 1960s. Although the SAUF’s demands for South Africa to leave the Commonwealth were ultimately fulfilled, the documentary evidence suggests that its campaigning activities and impact were not a decisive factor; however the long-term significance of the SAUF, and the position it had in the rise of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) has not been fully recognised. As such, the events around the campaign for South Africa’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth act as a microcosm of developments that would define the international struggle against apartheid.

‘Good citizens and gentlemen’: Gender, Reputation and Identity at the South African College, 1880–1910

This article examines the formation of gendered identities at the South African College, later the University of Cape Town, between 1880 and 1910. Using the records of disciplinary cases at the College, the article shows that there was an attempt to construct the ‘ideal’ College gentleman as adhering to particular codes of behaviour, seen as distinctive to young men who had been educated at the College. It then discusses inclusions and exclusions within the College, on the grounds of race, class and gender, showing that there was a central tension between the College's ‘public’ face as a government-funded institution, and its need to protect what occurred within the College space as distinctive, available only to particular kinds of people. The much-neglected records of the College Senate and Council as well as the student-run South African College Magazine have been used to examine these issues. The final section of the article addresses the College's response to political change in South Africa in the first decade of the twentieth century, arguing that the College actively sought to promote broad South Africanism for its students, and to position itself as central to the future of the South African Union.

Understanding and managing conflict: a prerequisite for post-merger FET colleges

It was common practice in the pre-1994 South Africa that many historical black universities and Further Education and Training (FET) colleges were deeply entangled in ongoing conflict, instability and crisis. The academic and administrative staff was in constant conflict with senior management while councils were also deeply divided among themselves, especially on the issue of governance and management. As a result of political changes in South Africa in 1994, the government proposed that the higher education system should be restructured to address past inequalities. Subsequent investigations into restructuring the education system resulted in a wave of mandated mergers across the sector. The Department of Education made provision for the merging of technical colleges by addressing the social structural inequalities manifested through apartheid, and ensuring that limited resources are effectively and efficiently utilized. However, FET mergers introduced a number of organizational changes and dynamics resulting in heightened emotions, fear of job losses, having to move sites, and changes to conditions of service that were unfavourable. Using a questionnaire, this study investigated the perceptions of academic staff on how managers and management teams handled conflict in post-merger FET colleges. The empirical findings included lack of conflict management skills, poor communication and lack of participative decision-making amongst role-players. The Conflict Resolution Model was developed to provide a substantial basis for assisting managers to effectively manage conflict during future FET merging processes, or at newly merged institutions.

Organised Crime in South Africa since Transition to Democracy

This paper presents extend of the spread of organised crime in South Africa. The purpose of the paper is to highlight how transition to democracy added fuel for the growth of organised crime in South Africa. Political changes in South Africa provided openings for criminals which had not existed previously. When apartheid ended, border controls were weakened, thus creating potential areas of operation for organised crime. The paper used secondary data, collected from various scholarly documents on organised crime in South Africa. Findings reveal that organised crime was transformed from a domestic to an international phenomenon and from a law and order problem to a national and international security threat. Organised crime is a major threat to social stability and economic growth. It is also viewed as a major impediment to good governance and security in Africa. Policing organised crime relies heavily on the ability of the police agencies to gather intelligence on groups, activities and individuals and their contacts. The paper draws conclusions from the findings and makes recommendations on measures that can be put in place to reduce organised crime problem in South Africa.

Puppets for Social and Political Change in South Africa

Puppets for Social and Political Change in South Africa

Lewis Nkosi's Durban: An Indian Ocean city in flux

Lewis Nkosi, the late exiled South African writer, and the city of Durban, an extended urban space of an estimated 3 million inhabitants, are incontrovertibly linked. This sprawling Indian Ocean town is where Nkosi was born, where he was educated as a small child, where he started his working career, and where he was finally buried on 10 September 2010. Given the centrality of Durban to Nkosi's life story, it is unsurprising that this city periodically appears in Nkosi's writing, both fictional and non-fictional, as a geographical ‘setting’ but also as a symbol of political change in South Africa. This paper, then, begins an evaluation of the role of ‘Durban’ and the Indian Ocean in the life and work of Nkosi, drawing from his novel Mating birds, and also from a little known article published in a Swiss newspaper, translated into German. Durban emerges from these various sources as a city in flux, a place of startling contrasts, a melting pot of peoples and a dream space called ‘home’ for this celebrated writer.

African languages and the identity question in the 21st century

Debates about identity, its nature, essential markers, fixity or fluidity have increased since the major political changes in South Africa and other parts of Africa towards the end of the 20th century. Language, a key marker, often features prominently. In South Africa a new, common identity is emerging since independence in 1994. One of the features of this development is the de-ethicising of citizenship around the notion of an inclusive South-Africanship. An increased use of English as lingua franca in public domains raises questions about the position of African languages in the 21st century, given the likelihood that the developing scenario is not in line with the position the 1996 Constitution (RSA, 1996) had laid down for the indigenous languages of the country. Following a multidisciplinary approach, this article first addresses language-related issues of identity; then focuses on the current position of the African languages in public domains; and finally probes their future within the political, cultural-demographic, educational and literary modalities at work. The article argues that the national level provides space for a second and possibly third ‘illustrious vernacular’, while on provincial level there are unique opportunities for all African languages to be equally developed and to come into their own as pillars of the African Renaissance.

Discourse, action, rhetoric: From a perception to an action paradigm in social psychology

This article provides a personal account of how discursive social psychology has been used to understand social and political change in South Africa and to reflect on the strengths and limitations of the approach. While celebrating the shift from the perception paradigm to the genuinely social constructionist focus on discursive interaction, the article also argues for an expanded focus on embodied action.

The Political Role and Democratic Contribution of Churches in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Religious institutions have played a critical role in the political changes in South Africa during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Christian churches and interdenominational organizations, in particular, depending on the context, affirmed or condemned apartheid, and numerous Christian organizations have contributed to the process of South Africa's nation-building experience through, for example, participation in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and civic education efforts. Although scholars have provided considerable insight regarding the churches' role in the political process during the apartheid era, the material devoted to religion and politics in the post-apartheid era is not as abundant. This essay seeks to rectify this imbalance by exploring the political role and democratic contribution of four churches or church-based organizations within South Africa in the post-apartheid era, namely, the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK- a.k.a. the Dutch Reformed Church or DRC), the South African Council of Churches (SACC), Rhema Bible Church, and the Zion Christian Church (ZCC).1

Improving Water Use Efficiency Under Worsening Scarcity: Evidence from the Middle Olifants Sub-Basin in South Africa

With the political changes in South Africa in the early 1990s, the South African government introduced a reform process in the entire water sector with the goal of a more enhanced and equitable water management system. This paper analyzes existing water allocation situations and applies a nonlinear optimization model to investigate the optimal intra- and inter-regional allocations in the Middle Olifants sub-basin of South Africa. Results show higher benefit from inter-regional water allocation. Reducing water supply levels to conform to the sustainable water supply policy, it can be shown that although water supply is reduced by approximately 50%, total benefits from water are only reduced by 5% and 11% for inter- and intra-regional allocation regimes respectively. These results indicate that alternative water allocation mechanisms can serve as instruments to offset for the effects of water scarcity.

<em>Chieftaincy, the State, and Democracy: Political Legitimacy in Post-Apartheid South Africa</em>, J. Michael Williams

Reviewed by: Chieftaincy, the State, and Democracy: Political Legitimacy in Post-Apartheid South Africa Stephen Agyepong Williams, J. Michael. 2010. Chieftaincy, the State, and Democracy: Political Legitimacy in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 300 pp. $24.95 (paper). Chieftaincy in South Africa after apartheid has been important but controversial. As J. Michael Williams, an associate professor of political science at the University of San Diego, has delineated in Chieftaincy, the State, and Democracy, it has adapted to the prevailing norms of public democracy. This book helps its readers understand many nuances of this adaptation, including the means by which chieftaincy continues to assert its power. The book has eight chapters, an acknowledgment, and a useful section for abbreviations, notes, a bibliography, and an index. The first chapter serves as an introduction, wherein Williams discusses chieftaincy, the state, and the desire for chieftaincy to dominate. In chapter two, “The Binding Together of the People,” he discusses chieftaincy as the balm that unites the populace. In many African countries, chiefs are expected to eschew politics, especially partisan politics; however, Williams places such importance on politics that he examines how carefully chiefs negotiate South Africa’s political landscape. He shows that traditionalists see chieftaincy in democratic terms, while its opponents see it as an anachronistic institution, which lacks legitimacy because chiefs are not elected. Williams goes beyond the call of intellectual or research duty to describe the network of formal-cum-informal accommodations that have gone a long way to ease the interactions of local and state units. He puts a premium on local perceptions of chieftaincy. In doing so, he brings into the open diverse efforts at democratization, at local, national, and other levels. This book should appeal to scholars and researchers from various disciplines. Statistical experts will benefit from its data, which include the fact that not less than 2400 individual royal persons—including chiefs, kings, queens, and headmen—live and operate in seven of the nine provinces of South Africa. They see themselves as traditional rulers, who have jurisdiction or authority over specific territories, of which there are 774 chiefdoms in all. This book has many similarities, in usefulness, to Nigerian Chiefs: Traditional Power in Modern Politics, 1890s–1990s (University of Rochester Press, 2006), a book by Olufemi O. Vaughan, Geoffrey Canada professor of history at Bowdoin College. Williams’s book complements Vaughan’s, as both books demonstrate the authority that chieftaincy enjoys in both southern and western Africa. There are no clear cut ways in which these traditional institutions take shape, but readers learn that chieftaincies play useful roles, especially in national development and promoting traditional norms. That is why the recommendations provided by Lauren Morris MacLean, a professor of political science at Indiana University, and Clifton Crais, a professor at Emory University, are themselves meaningful and worthy of praise: seeing the complications of chieftaincy, MacLean commends the care by which Williams [End Page 109] has woven a scholarly net around the interactions between the central state chieftaincy and local people; to Crais, Chieftaincy, the State, and Democracy makes an important and substantive contribution to our understanding of political change in South Africa. Stephen Agyepong Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana Copyright © 2010 Indiana University Press

An analysis of sport gambling behaviour among university students

Gambling is probably as old as society, but recently formal betting on sport events has started making rapid inroads on the African continent. Political changes in South Africa in the past two decades have resulted in explosive growth of the gambling industry and increased gambling opportunities dramatically. Since casino gambling was legalized in South Africa in 1996, the gambling industry has become a fast-growing business offering a variety of gambling options to individuals. It now permeates almost every segment of society including the family, communities, media and government. Consequently, it is inevitable that university students will be exposed to gambling and its promotion on a daily basis through a variety of sources which include coverage in print and broadcast media, observation of the sale of lottery tickets, visits to the casino with friends or family and watching friends betting on sport events. The aim of this study was to extend previous research on gambling by empirically examining gambling behaviours of university students with the intention of contributing to a better understanding of their gambling behaviour and suggest preventative measures to reduce problems associated with gambling. A 22-item questionnaire, based on an extensive literature study of gambling as well as items obtained from the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) (Lesieur & Blume, 1987), was developed to investigate different aspects of gambling behaviour. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the items. The responses from the gambling questionnaire were subjected to principle axis factor analysis. Using a minimum eigenvalue of 1.0 and a varimax rotation, a total of 3 first order factors namely behaviour, escapism and motives were identified. The findings of the current study found that gambling is not a risk for most university students. However, it is important that addictive gamblers be identified and treated as their behaviour may have consequences not only for other students but also for the university.

The State of the State: institutional transformation, capacity, and political change in South Africa by Louis A. Picard Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2005. Pp. 390. R180 (pb).

The State of the State: institutional transformation, capacity, and political change in South Africa by Louis A. Picard Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2005. Pp. 390. R180 (pb). - Volume 46 Issue 4

Staff perceptions of the merger between two South African regional technikons

As a result of political changes in South Africa in 1994, the Government of National Unity proposed that the higher education system should be reorganised to address past inequities. Subsequent investigations into restructuring the higher education system resulted in a wave of mergers across the sector. The literature on corporate and education mergers is consistent regarding the pivotal role of `people issues\' during transformation and its contribution to the success of mergers. Since staff are considered the cornerstone of higher education institutions and essential to their continued existence (Fielden 1998), using a descriptive survey, this study investigated staff perceptions of a recent merger between two regional technikons in South Africa. A survey of various employee issues was conducted at the newly merged institution, to investigate communication and participation; motivation; job satisfaction and loyalty. Within the context of education, staff perceptions on the impact of the merger on quality and standards of education were also investigated. The current study is also documented as a case study, since this was one of the first mergers implemented in the South African higher education landscape. The results in this study demonstrated that poor communication, a lack of participative decision-making, minimal staff involvement and insufficient extrinsic motivation contributed to decreased job satisfaction and employee loyalty. In accordance with the literature, it is likely that these perceptions were reported as a result of perceived poor merger management and conflict between the merging entities. However, significant positive factors identified in the study include intrinsically motivated staff and a consensus in support of merger objectives and educational benefits. These positive factors provide a substantial basis on which the newly merged institution can build a new foundation to ensure that the regional merger under discussion is indeed a successful merger in South African higher education. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 21 (3) 2007: pp.485-502

Transformation of residential planning in Umtata during the post-apartheid transition era

The political changes in South Africa after 1994 necessitated that the Bantustans, the main servers of apartheid planning, be re-incorporated into the mainstream of South Africa, implying the transformation of apartheid residential planning. Since then there has been much speculation about the type of transformation that would be implemented in the Bantustans to effect change in a non-racial South Africa. The aim of this paper is to analyze the effects of post-apartheid territorial restructuring in the former South African Bantustans. Examining and elucidating the manner in which the diverse social, economic and political factors have manifested themselves in the process of transformation of spatial residential planning in Umtata (the former capital city of the Transkei Bantustan) since 1994 is the central theme of this paper. Using property registers together with changes in legislative policies and land ownership, the transformation pattern was analysed in the former Bantustan capital city (Umtata). The findings indicate that the new South African policies and development strategies have been partially successful in eliminating the incongruencies of the past with regard to access to housing in Umtata. More critical is that this paper suggests that there still remains a greater challenge lingering from the influence of the Bantustan government in the city.

“BIRTH TO TWENTY”: A STUDY OF HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THREE GENERATIONS

ISEE-418 “Birth to Twenty” started in 1989 as a longitudinal birth cohort study of children's health and development, during a period of rapid social and political change in South Africa. The period of the study has overlapped also with sweeping demographic and health transitions. More than 70% of the original cohort of children and their families in Soweto-Johannesburg have been followed up for 15 years, and the first child in the third generation was born late in 2004. The project has examined a broad range of influences on children's health and wellbeing including socio-economic status, family and school support, and access to services. Currently, the focus of the study is on determinants of risk for sexual and reproductive health and early indications of non-communicable diseases. This paper describes the mobility of children in an urban environment, from data collected during annual and biennial data collection waves, as well as a survey of 5 501 children attending more than 600 schools in the Gauteng area. All these children were born within the 7-week cohort enrolment period in 1990. Close to half of the children surveyed at schools are in-migrants to the area, from neighbouring towns, from other provinces in South Africa, as well as from the southern African region. However, in-migration and circular migration between urban and rural areas are only two aspects of children's mobility. Other aspects, more difficult to determine, are residential moves with family, long-term and short-term stays with relatives and neighbours, and travel between home and school. Children's movements are difficult to track and to interpret. Some mobility is designed to achieve benefits for children; for example, when families send children to live elsewhere as a strategy to gain access to better education or more resources in a household. However, other moves that children make compromise their care and protection. Given the implications that mobility has for a broad range of policies designed to benefit children, the paper makes recommendations on how children's movements can be tracked and what supports need to be in place to ensure that high levels of mobility do not jeopardise children's health, education and development.

Public relations practice and political change in South Africa

South Africa has undergone one of the most drastic political changes of the late 20th century. Its 45-year tradition of public relations practice and education allows for the study of change on practice. Results indicate public relations becomes more important and strategic during times of change, and while affecting change it is also affected by change. Practitioners felt they made an important contribution to social upliftment and black economic empowerment. The more democratic political environment forced practitioners to be more aware of important political constituencies, particularly community and grassroots publics who hold high symbolic value. Cross-cultural communication became more important but also problematic.