Township Politics Research Articles

Township Politics

This book review explores "Township Politics: Civic Struggle for a New South Africa," offering a comprehensive assessment of its content and significance. Delving into the intricate dynamics of grassroots movements during the post-apartheid era, the review highlights the author's adept storytelling and sociopolitical analysis. By humanizing the historical narrative through the voices of ordinary citizens and community leaders, the book succeeds in providing a nuanced understanding of the challenges and triumphs inherent in civic engagement within South African townships. The critique acknowledges the strength of the book's dual approach, combining historical documentation with insightful analysis, while also considering the potential challenge posed by its level of detail. Overall, the review positions "Township Politics" as a compelling and essential read for those seeking a profound exploration of post-apartheid South Africa and the transformative power of grassroots activism.

Capturing amaphela: Negotiating township politics through shared mobility

Amaphela, meaning cockroach in isiXhosa, are a form of paratransit that provide township dwellers in Cape Town, South Africa with flexible, inexpensive and relatively comfortable transportation in combination with other formalised and semi-formalised services. While this shared mobility practice has received scant attention through the lens of paratransit and transportation geographies, amaphela have completely evaded analysis through the lens of mobility studies. The flexibility and informality of amaphela services can be understood through both utopian or dystopian lenses: It can be seen as a threat to order, formality, safety and reliability in the modern South African city; or it can be celebrated for the unique and creative ways that they negotiate township space while serving the public through flexible and affordable demand-driven service. This paper concludes that amaphela services in Cape Town thrive in an intermediate zone of adaptive infrastructure and governance to fulfil their mobility role.

Township Histories, Insurrection and Liberation in Late Apartheid South Africa

This article reviews the literature on resistance in South Africa's African townships that emerged in response to the township insurgencies of the 1980s and early 1990s. It focuses on two bodies of writing: the literature that chronicled the revolt as it unfolded on the one hand, and the historical literature that explored township politics and culture during the first half of the twentieth century on the other. It evaluates these writings’ strengths and points to the inevitable gaps and blind spots. It also highlights the disjunctures that existed between the two. The current wave of historical writing on South Africa's liberation struggle as well as the reassertion of township-based resistance and of township history gives this survey a particular salience. This article argues for the need for both a ‘joined-up’ liberation history that gives due place to the township-based rebellions (as opposed to one that is subordinated to that of the exiled ANC in contemporary public history) and one that recognises the deeper roots of, and continuities with, earlier phases of township resistance and rebellion. It also considers this body of writing in the light of subsequent critiques of the resistance paradigm and the social history approach that dominated the study of townships in the 1980s.

‘Catch the Cockerel Before Dawn’: Pentecostalism and Politics in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe

AbstractThe article examines relations between pentecostalism and politics in post-colonial Zimbabwe through a case study of one of Africa’s largest pentecostal movements, Zimbabwe Assemblies of God, Africa (ZAOGA). The Church’s relations with the state change considerably from the colonial to the post-colonial era. The movement began as a sectarian township-based organisation which eschewed politics but used white Rhodesian and American contacts to gain resources and modernise. In the first decade of independence the leadership embraced the dominant discourses of cultural nationalism and development but fell foul of the ruling party, ZANU/PF, because of its ‘seeming’ connections with the rebel politician Ndabiningi Sithole and the American religious right. By the 1990s ZAOGA and ZANU/PF had embraced, each drawing legitimacy from the other. However, this reciprocal assimilation of elites and the authoritarianism of ZAOGA’s leadership are in tension with the democratic egalitarian culture found in local assemblies, where the excesses of leaders are challenged. These alternative pentecostal practices are in symbiosis with radical township politics and progressive sources in civil society. Thus, while pentecostalism may renew the process of politics in Zimbabwe, it may itself be renewed by the outside forces of wider Zimbabwean society.

'Catch the Cockerel before Dawn': Pentecostalism and Politics in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe

The article examines relations between pentecostalism and politics in post-colonial Zimbabwe through a case study of one of Africa’s largest pentecostal movements, Zimbabwe Assemblies of God, Africa (ZAOGA). The Church’s relations with the state change considerably from the colonial to the post-colonial era. The movement began as a sectarian township-based organisation which eschewed politics but used white Rhodesian and American contacts to gain resources and modernise. In the first decade of independence the leadership embraced the dominant discourses of cultural nationalism and development but fell foul of the ruling party, ZANU/PF, because of its ‘seeming’ connections with the rebel politician Ndabiningi Sithole and the American religious right. By the 1990s ZAOGA and ZANU/PF had embraced, each drawing legitimacy from the other. However, this reciprocal assimilation of elites and the authoritarianism of ZAOGA’s leadership are in tension with the democratic egalitarian culture found in local assemblies, where the excesses of leaders are challenged. These alternative pentecostal practices are in symbiosis with radical township politics and progressive sources in civil society. Thus, while pentecostalism may renew the process of politics in Zimbabwe, it may itself be renewed by the outside forces of wider Zimbabwean society.

Township Politics: civic struggles for a new South Africa by MZWANELE MAYEKISO, edited by Patrick Bond with a foreword by Mel King New York: Monthly Review Press, 1996. Pp. 288. $18.00 (pbk.).

Township Politics: civic struggles for a new South Africa by MZWANELE MAYEKISO, edited by Patrick Bond with a foreword by Mel King New York: Monthly Review Press, 1996. Pp. 288. $18.00 (pbk.). - Volume 37 Issue 2

Township Politics: civic struggles for a new South Africa by MZWANELE MAYEKISO, edited by Patrick Bond with a foreword by Mel King New York: Monthly Review Press, 1996. Pp. 288. $18.00 (pbk.).

<b>Township Politics: civic struggles for a new South Africa</b> by M<scp>ZWANELE</scp> M<scp>AYEKISO</scp>, edited by Patrick Bond with a foreword by Mel King New York: Monthly Review Press, 1996. Pp. 288. $18.00 (pbk.).

Township Politics: Civic Struggles for a New South Africa

Township Politics: Civic Struggles for a New South Africa

Book Review: Township Politics: Civic Struggles for a New South Africa, by Mzwanele Mayekiso. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1996

Book Review: Township Politics: Civic Struggles for a New South Africa, by Mzwanele Mayekiso. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1996

From Mainstream Politics to Township Politics: Resistance and Collaboration in Durban, 1960 to 1975

The 1960s constituted a decade of political repression and state intervention in African life yet was also an era of unprecedented economic growth. During that period, the apartheid state gained control of the situation of national unrest when it banned the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), leading to their disorganisation and fragmentation. These organisations sank into dull passivity as the state assumed greater powers; in fact, the government managed to contain African popular resistance and protest. Despite this, the underground ANC remained committed to the transformation of society through carefully monitored sabotage campaigns by its newly-founded armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). However, between 196 1 and 1964, the ANC failed substantially to challenge the state as its fairly isolated sabotage campaigns declined almost to vanishing point. This failure marked the beginning of the era of fragmentation of existing political structures and a turn towards exile. It was also a period of a turn away from both industrial and 'popular' politics.

Township politics: civic struggles for a new South Africa

Township politics: civic struggles for a new South Africa

From quiescence to ‘people's power’: Township politics in Kagiso, 1985–1986

Many of South Africa's townships erupted in revolt during the mid‐1980s. At least two forms of transition to revolt and confrontation can be identified. Different factors shaped the respective processes and outcomes of political mobilisation and protest. Existing case‐studies tend to focus on the first form: the initial transition to confrontation in each region, in which local factors were of primary importance. This article focuses on the second form: the ‘belated’ transition, in which mass protest occurred in one township some time after violent conflict had become endemic in the surrounding region. The case‐study of Kagiso township on the West Rand shows how supra‐local factors, in particular regional and national organisation, played an important role in these belated transitions. In Kagiso, as in many other townships, consumer boycotts served as the medium for national influence on local politics. But external factors only led to mass mobilisation in conjunction with other, local factors.

‘Trailing behind the masses’: the United Democratic Front and township politics in the Pretoria‐Witwatersrand‐Vaal region, 1983–84

The formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in South Africa in mid‐1983 was followed in 1984 by an escalation of township protests, especially in the Pretoria‐Witwatersrand‐Vaal region. This...

Racism and space: The endeavour to remove Reagile township

The Koster study illustrates the tenacity of racism and how spatial distance is an intrinsic component of the practice of racism. Secondly, it reveals the power of the state to co-opt some township residents to be its main functionaries in carrying out policies that are potentially devastating for those individuals on the receiving end. Thirdly, it shows that resistance to state policies does not necessarily have to emerge from workers or younger residents, broadly defined as the youth. In township politics, pensioners can be in the forefront. Fourthly, it indicates that in certain instances, entering the local authority structure can be a viable tactic. As shown, the takeover of the local authority by the KRA threw all removal plans into disarray and forced the state to reconsider its plans. There is a strong possibility that if the KRA had not entered the local authority structure, Reagile would have been relocated prior to the new political dispensation heralded by President De Klerk's speech in February 1990. Finally, however, the Reagile Story indicates how the tactic of entering the local authority structure can have dire implications if new councillors become carbon copies of the ones they replace. In local politics the tide can easily turn and, when it does, the consequences are potentially devastating.

GENDER IDEOLOGY AND TOWNSHIP POLITICS IN THE 1980's

DURING THE 1980'S political organisation, protest and conflict occurred on an unprecedented scale and duration in South Africa's townships. This has given rise to an extensive literature, with a bibliography on the topic listing almost five hundred artides, reports, etc. (Seekings, 1991). But sensitivity to gender is not a strong feature of this literature (my own work induded). Less than ten of these five hundred focus primarily on the stuggles of women. More importantly, most of the rest neglect directly genderrelated issues altogether. Protesters and other active participants in organisation and overt conflict have for the most part been identified as the 'people', the 'community', 'workers', 'youth', 'township residents', or eveni the 'masses' all gender-blind categories. A closer examination of the organisations and protests involved suggests that most protesters, in whichever category, were in fact men. But the apparently relatively low participation of women raises, rather than removes important questions from the agenda. Why were women less prominently involved? Were women involved in some organisations, at some time, or in some areas more than others? Were particular groups of women more active? What forms of action were women involved in? Did they have any discrete impact as women? This paper attempts a preliminary examination of the involvement of township women in political organisation and activity, drawing primarily on the fragmentary material contained in existing secondary sources. It is largely speculative, providing a focu s for continued research, and does not even tentatively answer all the questions above. I examine the forms of political organisation and action in which women were and were not involved, suggesting that there are important shifts in the pattern of women's participation, and that these were related to general changes in township politics in combination with the constraints imposed by patriarchal gender ideologies and, to a lesser extent, the division of domestic labour. In summary, women mobilised extensively over a range of civic issues, but were largely 'demobilised' as township politics came to revolve around violent confrontation. Women were rarely pronmnent in the so-called 'youth'. The most visible role played by women was the more limited role of peacemaker.

Gender Ideology and Township Politics in the 1980's

Gender Ideology and Township Politics in the 1980's