Politics In South Africa Research Articles

A Pariah Among Parvenus: Anne Fischer and the Politics of South Africa's New Realism(s)

While scholars have begun to explore the complex afterlives of “new realism” in Europe and the Americas following the collapse of Weimar democracy, its reception on the African continent has received far less attention. Looking to the unheralded documentary work that Anne Fischer, a German- Jewish refugee to Cape Town, produced in the early years of the Second World War, this essay examines how she and South African contemporary Constance Stuart Larrabee variously employed German modernist photographic aesthetics to both critique and uphold public fictions of race in the decade leading up to the advent of apartheid. In considering these women's work, the text sheds light on how issues of race, class, and gender inflected Fischer's experience of exile and, in turn, how she mobilized her lens in her new colonial context as a young pariah among parvenus

Apartheid Politics in South Africa

Racial discrimination is a very big problem and is found in several countries such as the United States, Britain and the most dominant in South Africa with Apartheid politics. Therefore, South Africa is the focus of the fight against racism towards the realization of justice. The word Apartheid means "separation" in African language and it describes the racial rigidity that governs the division between the white minority population and the majority white population. The struggle of the majority of black Africans against the dominance of white minorities is the main and final racial conflict. The international community actively encourages it. However, the white group was quite a lot and was too strong while the black power was so weak and divided, that in the end a person named Nelson Mandela would appear who was active in fighting for the elimination of Apartheid politics in South Africa, on the grounds that racial crises and conflicts would arise. what happened there was soon over and South Africa became a conducive country.

Developing ethical managers for future business roles: a qualitative study of the efficacy of “Stand-Alone” and “Embedded” University “Ethics” courses

Purpose While the problem of unethical leadership is undoubtedly a global one, the urgency of generating ethical leadership to advance the development of Africa has never been more evident than it is today. The challenge for higher education in developing ethical leaders is of core importance, as it is responsible for providing the main recruiting ground of business leaders. The current paper reports findings of a qualitative study of postgraduate students’ ethical development at the end of courses in business ethics aimed to enhance moral reasoning and ethical decision-making. The paper aims to ascertain whether stand-alone ethics courses are more effective than integrated ones in achieving academic ethical competency. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts an idiographic approach which aims at eliciting individual student subjective perceptions of the effects of the direct and indirect courses of ethical instruction on their moral reasoning and ethical practice. The research design broadly follows Mill’s (2017) method of difference. Findings Findings indicate perceived differences in the relative effectiveness of stand-alone and embedded ethics courses among students but also show that most students hold positive overall evaluations of the effectiveness of the both types of ethics instruction. Research limitations/implications Limitations to the study include that it is cross-sectional, involves a small sample of postgraduate students and is restricted to two management courses at one institution of higher learning. Furthermore, while Mill (2017) provides a useful research design in this context, it is not able to indicate causality, as there are other possible unidentified “third variables” that may be the actual cause of student differences between embedded and stand-alone ethics courses. The study is not able to show the durability and transfer of ethical competencies into students’ later working lives. Practical implications The study provides a useful practical educational contribution to the extant knowledge in the field in that it suggests that ethical courses aimed at giving students a moral reasoning “toolkit” for ethical decision-making are more effective when delivered in the stand-alone format, whereas practical decision-making skills are best honed by embedded business ethics courses. Social implications The problem of corruption in business and politics in South Africa is widely documented and has been regarded as responsible for creating a serious developmental drag on the alleviation of poverty and quality of lives of the majority of people in the country. The moral/ethical competency and behavior of future business leaders is partly the responsibility of institutions of higher learning. The study aims to find the most effective means of imparting moral awareness in postgraduate students who are likely to take up business leadership positions in their future careers. Originality/value The study provides useful contribution to the extant knowledge in the field in the African context in that it suggests that ethical courses aimed at giving students a moral reasoning “toolkit” for ethical decision-making are more effective when delivered in the stand-alone format, whereas practical decision-making skills are best honed by embedded business ethics courses.

Michelle le Roux and Dennis Davis, Lawfare: Judging Politics in South Africa. Johannesburg and Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers 2019 xv+351 p.

Michelle le Roux and Dennis Davis, Lawfare: Judging Politics in South Africa. Johannesburg and Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers 2019 xv+351 p.

Obliv[i]on C: Sedatives, Schedules, and the Stresses of ‘Modern Times’: South African Pharmaceutical Politics, 1930s to 1960s

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on histories of one category of the many new synthetic drugs of the mid-twentieth century, which were variously termed hypnotics, sedatives and tranquillisers. I invoke Obliv(i)on as a metonym for pharmaceutical products now largely forgotten, for the general absence in our historiography of their significance, and for amnesia about the politics of pharmaceutical regulation in South Africa in the 1930s to 1960s. Along with antibiotics and hormones, by 1962, synthetic sedatives and tranquillisers were amongst the most frequently prescribed medical drugs in this country. As in many other countries they came to be amongst the fastest-selling, most desired, and on occasion, most dangerous new drugs of the post-war era. The article identifies a number of registers in which and moments when these sedatives became of pharmacological, professional or public interest, and sketches a chronology of their regulatory politics in South Africa in the mid-twentieth century. While South African markets remained limited, many local pharmacists, manufacturers, importers, and consumers were quick to embrace the therapeutic aspirations and chemical technologies of the time. In turn, they helped to accelerate multiple changes in a fulcrum period of the uneven emergence of ‘pharmaceutical modernity’ in South Africa.

Turning Points on the Periphery? The Politics of South Africa’s Platinum-Belt Strike Wave in Rustenburg, Northwest and Northam, Limpopo, 2012–2014

Mine workers have been positioned at the forefront of a new left alliance in South Africa. This article questions that assumption. It assesses the politics of workers on a mine called Swartklip, part of Anglo Platinum’s operation in Limpopo province, whose rank and file engaged in unprotected strike action in the Northam region (in 2012) before becoming part of the longest strike action in South African mining history (in 2014). Drawing from original in-depth interviews with workers’ leaders, the article argues that the Marikana massacre and the concessions that workers had won from their employers at Northam, and in the western limb of the platinum mining belt more generally, was indeed rooted within a militant worker-driven, democratic culture, which laid the groundwork for a shift in the country's broader political landscape (notably the rise of the EFF as a political force and the shift of NUMSA outside the ANC alliance). However, the events at Northam suggest that mine workers in general do not envisage themselves playing a leading role in consolidating a left alternative in South Africa’s ‘new’ political formations.

South Africa's politics of regional integration in SADC and its socio-economic implications

South Africa's politics of regional integration in SADC and its socio-economic implications

Living Politics in South Africa’s Urban Shacklands. Kerry RyanChance, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017, 224 pp.

Living Politics in South Africa’s Urban Shacklands. Kerry RyanChance, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017, 224 pp.

Living Politics in South Africa’s Urban Shacklands by Kerry Ryan Chance

Living Politics in South Africa’s Urban Shacklands by Kerry Ryan Chance

On race, sport, and politics in South Africa’s past and present

There has been a steady emergence of quality writing about sport, politics, and the intersection between them in South African society in recent decades. This review essay looks at a number of recent works on soccer, rugby, and cricket, placing them within a larger context of race, sport, and politics in South Africa’s past and present.

Agents of the Regime? Traditional Leaders and Electoral Politics in South Africa

Traditional leaders are often given subnational authority in developing democracies. Although ubiquitous, the electoral consequences of their power have received little attention, often due to empirical challenges. We argue that traditional leaders, whose power and resources largely depend on the state, have incentives to support incumbent political parties who can guarantee their survival and provide them with rents. We study this quid pro quo in the former Bantustans of South Africa, showing that an alignment between the incumbent African National Congress and chiefs maps to increased electoral support for the party. Our results suggest that chiefs boost African National Congress vote share by between 6.6 and 8.2 percentage points in the Bantustans, translating into a change in the national vote of between 2 and 2.5 percentage points. Our empirical strategy rules out that our results are driven by differences in ethnicity, race, or economic circumstances, which commonly confound the presence of traditional authorities.

Fake news from Africa: Panics, politics and paradigms

The moral panic about ‘fake news’ internationally has formed the backdrop for debates about the impact of the spread of similar fabrications on politics in South Africa. News – whether ‘fake’ or ‘real’ – should not be understood outside of its particular contexts of production and consumption, and therefore an investigation into the phenomenon of ‘fake news’ in South Africa needs to take account of local specificities. The phenomenon of ‘fake news’, the discourses that surround it and responses by audiences and the journalistic community have to be understood within the particular social, cultural and political context. This article seeks to locate the manifestation of ‘fake news’ within the South African media landscape, in order to illustrate how it produces particular responses that relate directly to specific social and political forces at a given historical juncture. In other words, the phenomenon of ‘fake news’ will be used to understand how journalistic discourses operate within particular environments. Of particular interest is the response of the journalistic community to the emergence of ‘fake news’, and how this phenomenon is used as leverage to assert a professional identity in the light of pressures on journalism in the context of a young democracy.

Echo of Poesy in South Africa’s Politics: Form and Resistance in Dennis Brutus’ “Simple Lust” and “Letters to Martha”

Apartheid in South Africa began in 1948 AD with the introduction of separatist rule that introduced draconian principles in government. This made formation of associations impossible. There was no free movement of the Blacks. Pass laws were imposed to prevent the Blacks from free movement. This approach brought protest among reasonable people of the World. Within the literary circle, protest literature ensued and emerged to join forces with organizations to clamp down on the draconian system operatives in South Africa. From the 1950s through the 60s and 80s witnessed a plethora of protest literature against the system of government in South Africa. This paper entitled “Echo of Poesy in South Africa Politics: Form and Resistance in Dennis Brutus’ Letters to Martha and A Simple Lust examined South Africa’s protest literature with particular reference to Dennis Brutus’s poetry of resistance showing the various circumstances which Dennis Brutus offers his poetry of resistance.

Textual Textiles: Gender and Political Parodies in the Work of Lawrence Lemaoana

Lawrence Lemaoana is a male artist working with cloth and embroidery, using feminist tactics to interrogate contemporary masculinities. In his exhibition, Fortune Telling in Black, White and Red (2008), he humorously employs floral printed cloth “cutouts” of a dancing Jacob Zuma in such a way as to subvert what he considers an outdated construct of masculinity personified by Zuma and ratified within a patriarchally inclined South Africa. He also uses the historically complex Kanga cloth to create parodies of newspaper headlines and posters. The pithy statements in these works question the propagandistic role of the media in supporting certain mechanisms of power and gender politics in South Africa. The 2008 exhibition coincided with Thabo Mbeki’s recall and the beginning of Zuma’s rise to power, which made it particularly relevant at the time. In the light of recent developments surrounding the controversial status of Zuma, it is contended that the critique of both politics and hegemonic masculinity in these artworks might be more pertinent now than when they were originally exhibited. In this article, it is revealed that Lemaoana’s parodies might function as an insightful commentary on the current political state of South Africa and the sense of masculine entitlement that underpins South African men in positions of power.

Hickel, Jason. Democracy as death: the moral order of anti-liberal politics in South Africa. xvii, 263 pp., map, illus., bibliogr. Oakland: Univ. of California Press, 2015. £24.95 (paper)

Journal of the Royal Anthropological InstituteVolume 23, Issue 2 p. 435-436 Book review Hickel, , , Jason. Democracy as death: the moral order of anti-liberal politics in South Africa. xvii, 263 pp., map, illus., bibliogr. Oakland: Univ. of California Press, 2015. £24.95 (paper) Elizabeth Hull, Elizabeth Hull SOAS University of LondonSearch for more papers by this author Elizabeth Hull, Elizabeth Hull SOAS University of LondonSearch for more papers by this author First published: 08 May 2017 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12629Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume23, Issue2June 2017Pages 435-436 RelatedInformation

Coming-Out Confessions: Negotiating the Burden of Lesbian Identity Politics in South Africa

ABSTRACTFor lesbians, “coming out” or disclosing one’s sexual orientation has come to be seen as a marker of self-acceptance, actualization, and the imperative first step in the authentication of a liberated subjectivity and social identity. However, other critical schools of thought, largely informed by Foucault’s middle writings, have argued that “coming out” is merely a confessional response to an incitement to discourse about sex. This study explored constructions of coming out by a group of self-identified lesbians in South Africa. Data were collected via eight semistructured interviews and subjected to discourse analysis. Although the coming-out stories appear to conform to some discursive practices characterizing confessional modes of response to incitements to speak, they are also de-emphasized as central to the constitution of selfhood. The changing conditions of possibility for the production of sexual subjectivity in contemporary South Africa seem to disrupt understandings of coming out as either solely a confessional or liberatory practice.

UN-BLURRING THE MYTHS AND REALITIES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Awareness of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW 1979) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC 1989) is relatively high within academic and political circles in South Africa and elsewhere around the world. In South Africa, this can be ascribed mainly to the powerful women’s lobby movements represented in government and academic sectors. Women and children’s issues have been especially highlighted in South Africa over the last few years. In this process, the aforementioned two international human rights instruments have proved very useful. There is a gender desk in each national department. The Office on the Status of Women and the Office on Child Rights have been established within the Office of the President, indicating the importance attached to these institutions. These offices are responsible for co-ordinating governmental efforts towards the promotion and protection of women and children’s rights respectively, including the two relevant treaties. Furthermore, there is also a great awareness amongst non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in respect of CEDAW and CRC. This can be ascribed mainly to the fact that there is a very strong women’s NGO lobby and NGOs are actively committed to the promotion of children’s rights. Women are increasingly vocal and active within the politics of South Africa, but the weight of customary practices remains heavy. The foregoing is evident of the widening gap between policy theory and practice in the fraternity of vulnerable groups – children and women in particular.

Queer politics and intersectionality in South Africa

In an interview with Nadia Davids, Zethu Matabeni discusses contemporary queer politics in South Africa and Cape Town in particular. Matebeni contextualizes current queer activism in a broader historical trajectory in which she observes the ongoing exclusive boundaries of Pride celebrations and positions two recent protest movements, #FeesMustFall and Rhodes Must Fall.

Black, Queer, and Precarious Visibilities: Simon Nkoli's Activist Image in South Africa's Exit Newspaper

Black, Queer, and Precarious VisibilitiesSimon Nkoli's Activist Image in South Africa's Exit Newspaper Z'étoile Imma (bio) We must be visible if we are going to be liberated. —Simon Nkoli In November 2015, Exit, South Africa's longest running monthly LGBT newspaper, published its 300th issue. As critic and activist Donna Smith asserts, in the context of pervasive uncertain and inconsistent publication of lesbian and gay print media in South Africa, founded in 1985, and still available in clubs and bookstores throughout the country, Exit has uniquely stood the test of time (189). Not surprisingly, Exit editors marked the milestone with a celebratory and confident tone. The issue's cover photo featuring a smiling, young, muscular, seemingly able-bodied white man, standing poolside with a dainty glass of beer raised outlines the aesthetic, embodied, and affective contours of Exit's brand of gay triumphalism. Along with the luxury, pleasure, and leisure harkened by the cover image, in an essay published in Exit's November print edition and subsequently posted on the newspaper's Facebook page, cultural critic, literary scholar, and contributing writer for the periodical, Tim Trengove-Jones, notes that for Exit "to survive in South Africa for 300 editions is close to miraculous" (8). In his guest column entitled "Long Life to Exit" Trengove-Jones goes on to offer a brief history contextualizing the great achievement of Exit's continued run in the face of apartheid-era Christian nationalism, the AIDS crisis, and Pride politics, upheavals, and fractures. As he charts the importance of Exit as "not a voice. THE voice" of the LGBT community in South Africa, Trengove-Jones highlights key moments in Exit's thirty-three-year trajectory. He asserts that Exit "was there" when "Pride really mattered," when debates regarding performance artist Steve Cohen's now infamous antics emerged, when (openly gay and HIV-positive) Justice Edwin Cameron defended Cohen's right to free speech, when the now defunct "Out in Africa" film festival was launched, when LGBT rights were constitutionalized, when "a group of disaffected lesbians lay down in Jan Smuts Avenue in protest against what they believed was the depoliticization of Pride," and when the queer community mourned the passing of well-known drag performer and Exit contributor Dainti Delischia (8). In the making of his tightly abbreviated queer timeline, Trengove-Jones pinpoints key moments of victory, visibility, and contestation in South Africa's LGBT recent history. While much and many must be left out of such a brief and largely informal construction, the glaring absence of how race, racism, and racialized queer subjects have shaped LGBT politics in South Africa ironically affirms long-standing critiques of Exit as white supremacist and white masculinist centric. [End Page 61] In choosing to construct a memory project in which three white South Africans—Steve Cohen, Justice Cameron, and Dainti Delischia (Charles Wiley)—uniquely serve as central figures in their country's LGBT history, Trengove-Jones misses an opportunity to center the names and flag the stories of important Black and of color queer activists and figures such as Bev Ditsie, Zackie Achmat, Phumi Mthethwa, Wendy Isaack, Caster Semenya, and Simon Nkoli. In Trengove-Jones's commentary, South Africa's Black queer notables are at best coded and minoritized as disaffected bodies or at worst relegated to the impermeable background of LGBT history. As a central force behind the first Pride march in South Africa, the politicizing of AIDS treatment for gay men, and the successful campaign to include legal protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation in South Africa's constitution, it remains that Simon Nkoli haunts the silences and blank spaces of Exit's most recent (re)fashioning of LGBT history and memory. Yet Nkoli was, and is, more than a specter to the white-centered representational practices systematized in Exit. Simon Nkoli was an early, consistent, yet dynamic figure in the newspaper, even after his death in 1998; he was memorialized three times in the pages of Exit that following year. As such, failure to make explicit mention of his contributions, if not his controversies, in celebrating the periodical's history, however passingly, is especially egregious. Indeed Nkoli was there in...

SPORT, POLITICS AND BLACK ATHLETICS IN SOUH AFRICA DURING THE APARTHEID ERA: A POLITICAL-SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

The article examines the relationship between sport and politics in South Africa from a political-sociological perspective, with a specific focus on the status of black athletics in apartheid South Africa. The narrower focus aims to outline how white civil society and the National Party government utilised athletics as a mechanism to enforce the policy of separateness/apartheid in the South African society. In the process, white dominated political structures and centralised political processes were used to dominate and regulate black athletics in South Africa (1894-1976). The structures and dynamics of black athletics were, for more than a century, manipulated and dictated for political and related reasons. The manipulation took place in three broad identifiable periods, namely: 1884-1960 – the period of “informal” segregation, when the national body, provinces and clubs used race as a mechanism to enforce cleavages in society. The second period stretches from 1960-1976, when the National Party adopted a more assertive direct role to enforce their sports policy. The last period, between 1976 and 1992, signified another direction change, when government stepped back and only set the broader framework for the regulation of athletics in South Africa. In each of the periods, the politics-sport power relationship will be explained in relation to the regulation of black athletics in the country.