South African History Research Articles

BREAKING THE SILENCE – FRIENDS OF THE COURT CAN ADDUCE EVIDENCE Children’s Institute v Presiding Officer of the Children’s Court District of Krugersdorp Case CCT 69/12 [2012] ZACC 25

An amicus curiae, literally friend of the court, is a person or organization with a strong interest or views on the subject matter of an action, but not a party to the action who may petition a court for permission to file an application on behalf of a party. Other definitions state that the amicus is able to advise the court on matters of fact. An amicus curiae educates the court on points of law that are in doubt, gathers or organizes information, or raises awareness about some aspect of the case that the court might otherwise overlook. Justice O’Connor of the United States Supreme Court has justified the amicus procedure on ground that “[t]he ‘friends’ who appear today usually file briefs calling our attention to points of law, policy considerations, or other points of view that the parties themselves have not discussed”. The participation of amicus curiae in litigation is a practice which has been entrenched in the common law and civil law of various jurisdictions. It is for this reason that an amicus has become versatile and is said to fulfil a wide range of important functions. The participation of amicus curiae in litigation is a well-established practice in South African legal history. Indeed, the South African courts “are increasingly recognizing that certain matters must necessarily involve the perspectives and voices of organizations or entities that may not have a direct legal interest in the matter”. Amicus curiae briefs have helped the courts to clarify and develop judicial approaches that would assist the courtsin handling intricate issues. The role of amicus curiae in South Africa must be viewed against the background of public-interest litigation which is largely the result of the “apartheid” era in which human-rights activists and civil society organizations sought to fight the inequalities of the “apartheid” regime. With the advent of the Constitution the challenge has now moved away from addressinginequalities of the past but towards ensuring that all persons benefit from the rights enshrined in the Constitution. This has been greatly helped due to the South African Constitution adopting a liberal position with regard to locus standi. This approach has been usefulespecially for those wishing to enforce the rights in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution by litigating in the public interest. Although, technically, locus standi can be distinguished from the amicus curiae procedure, the courts have applied the same locus standi flexibility to the amicus curiae procedure. In light of this, organizations sought to be admitted as amicus curiae in order to adduce statistical evidence, initiate court cases or have sought to be admitted as amicus curiae on behalf of individuals or groups in litigation. The Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town in the case of Children’s Institute v Presiding Officer of the Children’s Court District of Krugersdorp (Case CCT 69/12 [2012] ZACC 25) is a classic example of such a case. The Children’s Institute sought to be admitted as amicus curiae in order to adduce statistical evidence demonstrating why orphaned children living with family members should receive the foster child grant. The Children’s Institute contended that the Children’s Court decision would lead to roughly 350 000 orphaned children (who live with family members) losing their foster grants.

Reforum: A brief but not unimportant chapter in the Dutch Reformed Church’s apartheid saga

In 1985 when storm clouds were gathering over South Africa, and a state of emergency was declared, a group of members of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) Family, clergy as well as laity, founded an organisation, Reforum. The two-fold aim of Reforum was to provide a prophetic witness against apartheid, calling the DRC to take leave of its theology of apartheid, and, secondly, to work towards the reunification of the DRC Family. The article researches the original Reforum documents, minutes, reports, conference material and letters, that hitherto laid untouched in the DRC Archive, in Pretoria. The programme of Reforum, especially the national and regional conferences held by the organisation over the 7 years of its existence, is discussed. The initial negative reaction of the DRC officials and synods, as well as the critique from some in the Dutch Reformed Mission Church and the DRC in Africa that Reforum was not radical enough in its approach, are recorded. The summation, at the end, is that Reforum did play a significant role, albeit humble and short lived, in the annals of the DRC’s apartheid saga. Relevance: The DRC’s apartheid saga, the story of a church that had over many years lived with apartheid and even provided a theological argument for separate development, eventually came to the point where the DRC not only repented of its past, but declared apartheid and the theology of apartheid a sin and a heresy, continues to fascinate historians, including church historians. For South African Christians, clergy as well as laity, it helps explain their often troubled past, as well as present. The often neglected story of Reforum and the role and contribution of the organisation in this process needs to be recorded. Original research: the author provides original qualitative research, using material that had lain untouched in the DRC Archive for three decades. This may be considered to be a preliminary study. The archival material merits more and deeper attention. It may well provide material for post graduate research.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The research is of value for the study of South African general history, South African church history, ecumenical studies, and practical theology.

‘An Honour, Rather than a Disgrace’: Song Koon Poh, Apartheid Rugby, Tokkie’s Dragons and the Politics of Dissent and Confession

Singaporean rugby player Song Koon Poh is a marginal figure in international sports history. Due to his involvement in a rebel tour to apartheid South Africa in 1982 in contravention of the Gleneagles Agreement, the player received a life ban as a dissenter. Consequently, his version of events became part of the marginalization that often characterized the life story of those that pursue their own course irrespective of the consequences. However, his reinstatement soon after his banishment was not accompanied by any attempt to place his experiences in the mainstream of South African and Asian sports history. This paper reconstructs an accurate and fully contextualized record of the tour in question, emphasizing the pre- and post-tour experiences of Song Koon Poh, its only ethnic-Asian participant. Through this ‘voicing’, both the complexities of ‘native agency’ and the multi-dimensional nature of personal affirmation, the expression of a dissident conscience and dissent are revealed.

Contradictory excessiveness: abandoned trolleys in post-apartheid South Africa

ABSTRACT This essay explores the significance of abandoned trolleys in South Africa. As an international student who later settled in South Africa, I did not initially notice abandoned trolleys. However, as I became more familiar with the senses of South African society, I began to spot trolleys abandoned in seemingly random locations throughout the country. Using Jacob Dlamini’s charge that studies of South African urban history should foreground the senses, I take up the sight of abandoned trolleys as symbols of the contradictory excessiveness of post-apartheid South Africa. Drawing from my own experiences and photos, and the work of Ivan Vladislavić’s emphasis on “tomasons,” I illustrate their centrality within South Africa, albeit from the margins of society. By zeroing in on an object that tends to be overlooked, the polarizing contradictions that exist between people can be distilled from the abstract into the human.

Sam C. Nolutshungu: Race, Reform, Resistance and the Black Consciousness Movement

Abstract This paper excavates and historically contextualizes the political theory of a largely neglected thinker within South African black intellectual history, Sam C. Nolutshungu. It seeks to rectify the current imbalance in South African intellectual history which largely neglects or effaces the contribution of black thinkers in the colonial or Apartheid period notwithstanding significant black contributions in theorizing racial submission, domination, reform and popular resistance in the context of state oppression. In this paper I argue that two such areas of inquiry are present in Nolutshungu’s overall position on political reform. The first is with regards to his intervention in the race- class debates which dominated political and intellectual discussions during the late Apartheid period. Here, Nolutshungu, argues that political domination could not be reformed with simple concessions as a result of its racially exclusionary nature. Thus Nolutshungu argued that race rather than class was the fundamental source of domination. The second is the theoretical evaluation of the social and political significance of the Black Consciousness Movement as an important symbol of resistance and racial solidarity. The link between these two aspects of his thought, I argue are not insignificant and should be carefully considered. Nolutshungu’s valuable analysis on the route to political reform is strengthened by his evaluation of the role of the Black Consciousness Movement, which for Nolutshungu was an instance of how resistance was mobilized along racial rather than class lines. Moreover, the Black Consciousness Movement not only prioritized the question of race as a primary factor in its mode of resistance but served to illustrate how and why meaningful change in South Africa was contingent on the abolition of racial oppression and the overturning of the institutions of Apartheid. Finally, I argue that there is a contextual urgency in undertaking projects that seek to establish the importance of black intellectual ideas and reclaiming these ideas in order to give content and meaning to contested contemporary debates on justice, legitimacy, liberty, equality and land rights in South Africa. While the discourse of the negotiated settlement and reconciliation sparks intense debate often resulting in greater forms of racial polarisation, historical rumination and reflection offers a powerful and enduring opportunity for collective inquiry.

Macroeconomic history in South Africa: The South African Reserve Bank centennial special issue

When Simon Groot died in 1688 on his Stellenbosch farm – leaving behind his wife, Gertrud Baumann, and their two daughters, aged 6 and 18 months – his probate inventory recorded the collection of h...

“Where Shall We Place Our Hope?”: COVID-19 and the Imperiled National Body in South Africa's “Lockdown Collection”

“Where Shall We Place Our Hope?”: COVID-19 and the Imperiled National Body in South Africa's “Lockdown Collection”

Jacob Dlamini

Book Review| May 01 2021 Jacob Dlamini: The Terrorist Album: Apartheid’s Insurgents, Collaborators, and the Security Police Tamar Garb Tamar Garb Tamar Garb is the Durning Lawrence Professor in the History of Art, University College London, and a scholar of the art/visual histories of South Africa. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Nka (2021) 2021 (48): 178–180. https://doi.org/10.1215/10757163-8971609 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Tamar Garb; Jacob Dlamini: The Terrorist Album: Apartheid’s Insurgents, Collaborators, and the Security Police. Nka 1 May 2021; 2021 (48): 178–180. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10757163-8971609 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsNka Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2021 by Nka Publications2021 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Reviews You do not currently have access to this content.

Between Magnanimity and Malevolence: Nigeria’s Commitment to South Africa’s Political Freedom in the Lens of Reciprocity

The history of South Africa’s long walk to political freedom is dotted with Nigeria’s undaunted commitment and involvement, propelled by Nigeria’s Afrocentric foreign policy stance. This study therefore, demonstrates Nigeria’s concern for Africa’s political liberation, and in particular, presents Nigeria’s commitment to South Africa’s struggle for political freedom during the colonial years. It adopts the secondary method of data collection, and borrows from the conceptual framework and doctrinal provisions of reciprocity to weigh South Africa’s attitude towards Nigeria’s commitment to her (South Africa’s) political emancipation. Passing Nigeria’s involvement in South Africa’s liberation struggle and South Africa’s treatments of Nigeria through the critical lens of historical and theoretical analysis, this study makes a finding that Nigeria’s magnanimity to South Africa is at variance with South Africa’s response to Nigeria. The study recommends that Nigeria’s relations with her African brothers, informed by her foreign policy of Afrocentrism, should reflect reciprocity. In sum, that in her foreign relations, Nigeria should treat as she is treated.

Building counter-archives: Oral history programmes of the Sinomlando Centre and Memory Work in Africa and the South African History Archive

Counter-archives, including those aligned to universities, have grown and developed as alternatives to the conventional and traditional mainstream archives. The purpose of this paper is to look into how such counter-archives are building and using their holdings. The study is based on two purposively selected counter-archives, which are the Sinomlando Centre and Memory Work in Africa and South African History Archive. The data were collected through interviews and document analysis, especially of the respective websites. One of the conclusions drawn from the paper is that counter-archives are here to stay as the general public is losing confidence in established traditional institutions.

Traversing a Tightrope between Ecumenism and Exclusivism: The Intertwined History of South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church and the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian in Nyasaland (Malawi)

During the first few decades of the 20th century, the Nkhoma mission of the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa became involved in an ecumenical venture that was initiated by the Church of Scotland’s Blantyre mission, and the Free Church of Scotland’s Livingstonia mission in central Africa. Geographically sandwiched between these two Scots missions in Nyasaland (presently Malawi) was Nkhoma in the central region of the country. During a period of history when the DRC in South Africa had begun to regressively disengage from ecumenical entanglements in order to focus on its developing discourse of Afrikaner Christian nationalism, this venture in ecumenism by one of its foreign missions was a remarkable anomaly. Yet, as this article illustrates, the ecumenical project as finalized at a conference in 1924 was characterized by controversy and nearly became derailed as a result of the intransigence of white DRC missionaries on the subject of eating together with black colleagues at a communal table. Negotiations proceeded and somehow ended in church unity despite the DRC’s missionaries’ objection to communal eating. After the merger of the synods of Blantyre, Nkhoma and Livingstonia into the unified CCAP, distinct regional differences remained, long after the colonial missionaries departed. In terms of its theological predisposition, especially on the hierarchy of social relations, the Nkhoma synod remains much more conservative than both of its neighboring synods in the CCAP to the south and north. Race is no longer a matter of division. More recently, it has been gender, and especially the issue of women’s ordination to ministry, which has been affirmed by both Blantyre and Livingstonia, but resisted by the Nkhoma synod. Back in South Africa, these events similarly had an impact on church history and theological debate, but in a completely different direction. As the theology of Afrikaner Christian nationalism and eventually apartheid came into positions of power in the 1940s, the DRC’s Nkhoma mission in Malawi found itself in a position of vulnerability and suspicion. The very fact of its participation in an ecumenical project involving ‘liberal’ Scots in the formation of an indigenous black church was an intolerable digression from the normative separatism that was the hallmark of the DRC under apartheid. Hence, this article focuses on the variegated entanglements of Reformed Church history, mission history, theology and politics in two different 20th-century African contexts, Malawi and South Africa.

Human Rights to Water Access in South Africa: Challenges and Critical Concerns

Many scholars have written on the challenges of ensuring access to water in South Africa, and much research has been done on the national water policy of the South African Government, yet major challenges facing the water sector persist. This study presents a human rights approach as a theoretical foundation for investigating the basic right to water access, with a specific focus on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the three tiers of governance. Existing literature on the history of water access was explored regarding the global as well as the South African history of water rights. The main focus of this study was SDG no. 6, which is related to issues regarding water access in South Africa. The study concluded that the human right of having access to water is a crucial issue to be treated with caution by the government in order for the poor to have basic infrastructure.

Atypical Black Leader Emergence: South African Self-Perceptions.

The research aimed to gain understanding of the self-perceptions of black professionals in relation to business leadership, and how these self-perceptions influenced their behaviors, aspirations and self-perceived abilities in leadership positions. The study was specifically focused on black South African professionals. Black professionals were found to exhibit signs of deep-rooted pain, anger and general emotional fatigue stemming from workplace-, socio-economic- and political triggers that evoked generational trauma and overall negative black lived experiences. The negative lived experiences could have led to racial identity dissonance and, in extreme cases, complete racial identity disassociation. Moreover, black professionals were found to display symptoms of ‘survivor guilt,’ stemming from the shared history of oppression amongst black people in South Africa. The ‘survivor guilt’ contributed toward a profound sense of shared responsibility and purpose to change the circumstances, experiences and overall perceptions about the capabilities of black professionals. Results showed that upbringing, determination, resilience, black support networks, and black leadership representation within organizational structures were important ingredients that positively contributed to the leadership aspirations and success of black professionals. The research discovered that, in some cases, black professionals leveraged white relationships to propel their careers forward, however, this practice reportedly resulted in the black professionals experiencing feelings of self-doubt in their own abilities. Self-doubt, also found to be a result of historical oppression, could have and have been shown to eventually lead to self-deselection, negatively impacting the aspirations and career advancement prospects of black professionals in organizational leadership. Furthermore, the research found that black leaders believed that their blackness, specifically, its unique texture of experiences and history in South Africa, provided them with superior empathetic leadership abilities toward other black employees. Black leaders frequently highlighted the distinctive values of ubuntu as the cornerstone of their leadership approach. In addition, it was found that black professionals also considered their blackness, particularly the shade of their skin, to detract from their leadership opportunities, as it reduced the odds of being authorized as natural leaders, thus fortifying a skewed self-perception of their own leadership capabilities.

The opportunist: The political life of Oswald Pirow, 1915-1959

Finding a mainstream South African publisher for an academic work on SouthAfrican history is a daunting prospect for an author. Doing so when it involves a nichetopic on an obscure personality in a forgotten period of South African history can beeven more disheartening. Praise for Protea Book House, who backing Mouton, haveprovided a mainstream publishing vehicle to bring a fascinating period of our historyback into the public domain. Works such as The opportunist: The political Life ofOswald Pirow, 1915–1959 might otherwise have remained inaccessible to the generalpublic, either residing in the rarefied atmosphere of academia or gathering dust on ashelf in a university library as an academic print. The hard truth is that well-researched,peer-reviewed and skilfully written works of history do not necessarily translate intobestsellers, and in most cases, the opposite is true. Publishers with a keen eye on theirbottom-line have a set of criteria designed to maximise profit, which often clashes withthe lofty standards demanded by academia. For that reason, it is always welcome whena work such as this book by Mouton manages to bridge the academic–popularist divide.

The historical roots of post-apartheid intra-working-class racism

Both European colonialism and apartheid shaped the economic history of South Africa, at the heart of which was the super exploitation of Black labour for the benefits of capital, the state, and white labour. While the early mercantile and agricultural economic stages influenced South Africa’s racial capitalism, it was the era of the mineral revolution in the late 19th century – as well as the attendant imperative for cheap, Black labour – which formed the bedrock of the Union of South Africa in 1910 and later necessitated the rise of the apartheid state. With vested interests in the racist and later racialist order, which constituted them as the racialised labour aristocracy, white labour conceived of its identity – in racial and cultural terms – as part of European society. Consequently, an increasing social gulf emerged between Black/African labour and white labour, whose world outlooks were deeply immersed in racist metaphysics. Post-apartheid South Africa has inherited this dual, contradictory, and mutually antagonistic historical consciousness. This has been exacerbated by poor economic performance based on a neo-liberal framework, the social visibility of the often-self-assertive emerging Black middle class resulting from government affirmative policies, and the relative impoverishment of the white working class as they begin to face the cut and thrust of labour market with no preferential state cover. In view of this history of racialised capitalism, racism in post-apartheid South Africa is largely located within the Black and white working-class socio-economic space, as the latter forfeited its racially vested interests while the former derive the benefits of corrective state action.

Historicising gqom as a post-kwaito phenomenon

This article examines gqom’s position as a post-kwaito phenomenon as it occupies both a landscape significantly shaped by kwaito and distinguishes itself from it. Kwaito represents a major milestone in the development of South African electronic dance music and has significantly shaped personal expression amongst black youth. The development of kwaito and its broader relationship with South African history are discussed here. A subsequent section deals with the history of gqom and addresses its name, emergence, dissemination, production, gender discourse, relationship with party spaces, and the way that these elements continue and challenge the legacy of kwaito. This is followed by an analysis of the musical characteristics of gqom, many of which are distinguishable from the sound of kwaito. These include a ‘raw’ dark sound, the subordination of harmony and melody to emphasise a distinguishable rhythmic beat, an unmistakable ‘slow-burn’ structure, and the further transformation of these characteristics in more recent releases. While gqom certainly resembles kwaito and owes a great deal to its history, it stands out in the South African musical landscape as a wholly new form of music with a new mode of self-definition and approach to music-making.

A ‘School' Person in a ‘Red' Blanket: The Case of SEK Mqhayi

The article considers the scope and purpose of the project, “Translating (South) African Literatures”, in relation to the early twentieth-century Xhosa writer, SEK Mqhayi, two of whose works have been translated into English in the project. Turning to the several prompts to reflection offered by the project, I evaluate Mqhayi's contribution to an ‘expanded' South African literary history. As does the project, my argument requires a return to the archive, in this case of Mqhayi's dual commitment to both Xhosa custom (‘Red') and colonial-Christian modernisation (‘School'). A brief comparison of Mqhayi's plain voice of ethical justice and, in the mid-1920s, the experimental modernism of his contemporary, William Plomer, raises the issue of an appropriate aesthetic in an expanded literary history, while I conclude with a key consideration in any translation project: the need for a ‘usable’ theory and practice of translation.

A long history of being fed up: Anti-crime mobilisation on the Cape Flats: a case study

Anti-crime mobilisation has a long and chequered history in South Africa. Over the years, such forms of mobilisation have come in various shapes and sizes. In this paper, the authors explore one example of a broad-based anti-crime mobilisation that evolved on the Cape Flats from 1994 to 2006. Documentary analysis and field data allow reflection on the social context within which the Western Cape Anti-Crime Forum (WCACF) emerged, and the political sensibilities and social aspirations that shaped its course. The article considers the local safety issues that dominated the deliberations, the mobilising strategies utilised, and the networks activated in pursuit of community safety. The social history of the Forum as recounted here hopefully provides insight into the key concerns of this particular initiative as well as the kind of factors that shape, more generally, the fortunes and misfortunes of anti-crime alliances. Such insights may be of comparative use as the authors try to make sense of contemporary manifestations of a myriad of instances of anti-crime mobilisation.

Ena Jansen, Like Family. Domestic Workers in South African History and Literature. From 1658 to the present

Ena Jansen, Like Family. Domestic Workers in South African History and Literature. From 1658 to the present

In Memory of Belinda Bozzoli

Thirty-six years ago, as a PhD student in the Wits Sociology Department, I was assigned to tutor students on a course taught by Belinda Bozzoli. I attended her lectures, and they were to prove one of the crucial intellectual experiences of my life. Teaching with the kind of dash, colour and flair more normally associated with the theatre than the classroom, Bozzoli provided what felt like a complete education in South African history and social science. She gave me things to think about, which have continued to shape my academic work to this day. That was the moment when I got to know one of the most extraordinary people amongst a great generation of socially and politically engaged South African academics.