Violence In South Africa Research Articles

Blurred Lines: Intersections of Ethnography and Rape in South Africa and Mozambique

SummaryIn this article, I examine the blurred lines between my own experience of violence in South Africa and that of the women I encountered while doing fieldwork in Pafuri, Mozambique. I centralize the importance of personal insight to deal with violent sexuality and rape and argue that reflection provides meaning to the process of ethnographic fieldwork. I examine the similarities between my own experience of violence in South Africa and that of my interlocutors in Mozambique, set within a regional political system that marginalizes women's experiences in both countries. While negative experiences of rape stem from a prejudiced history, I argue that these experiences can be overcome through rebirth or initiation. In my case, this was achieved through the personal level of transformation that fieldwork produced, while for women in Pafuri, the initiation (vukhomba) of young girls translates violence into empowerment.

Intimate partner and domestic violence in South Africa

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines domestic violence as the deliberate use of force, power and threats against a person or group of people to bring about death or physical injury. This abusive behavior is used to gain or maintain control over the other intimate partner or family member. It usually results in physical, psychological, emotional sexual or economic harm. Most perpetrators are spouses and close family members. It cuts across different spheres of the society and can occur in couples; heterosexual, or homosexual and also between parents and children (child abuse). Research reported that out of 1394 men that partook in the 2016 representative sample of the South African Demographic and Health Survey, 50% of them were perpetrators of domestic violence in their own homes. Sadly, domestic violence has caused a lot of havoc in several families and life of individuals, these range from psychological trauma, anxiety, use of drugs, alcohol and other harmful substances, physical pain, emotional trauma, homelessness, economic crisis, to low self-esteem and death amongst other effects. The aim of our research is to understand the contributing factors of domestic violence in South Africa and to also add to the growing body of knowledge of domestic violence in the country and the region. Deducing from this conclusion, we can recommend that government should focus more on girl child education till tertiary level and women empowerment in terms of job creation to help reduce the occurrence of domestic violence in our society. Population scientists Tomiwa Fapohunda and Phathutshedzo Masiagwala and Professor demographer Nancy Stiegler from the University of Western Cape discuss in this interview the prevalence, population group, age, occupation, marital status, education attainment of the victims of domestic violence, with a view to establish factors that causes domestic violence in South-Africa.

The Roots of Xenophobic Violence in South Africa—A Pan African Response

The Roots of Xenophobic Violence in South Africa—A Pan African Response

A review of Kohlberg’s theory and its applicability in the South African context through the lens of early childhood development and violence

ABSTRACT Kohlberg’s theory of moral development has maintained a dominant position in cognitive moral development literature over several decades. This universal influence has been particularly evident in its application to moral education literature and policy. A closer assessment of Kohlberg’s theoretical conceptualization suggests the application of universal assumptions masked by Eurocentric values and possible unconscious bias. In this paper, the relevance of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development in the South African context is explored in relation to early childhood development. In addition, through the example of violence in South Africa, we illustrate how moral development occurs in ways that are at odds with the universalist claims made by Kohlberg. While acknowledging the value of Kohlberg’s work, our appraisal unveils its blind spots. This appraisal contends that moral reasoning is negotiated in context and thus needs to be understood within the local socio-historical, cultural, and economic milieu.

Disrupting structural violence in South Africa through township tourism

This paper describes the potential that tourism encounters have in disrupting structural violence (conceptualized as silencing and invisibilization) in South Africa. Based on PhotoVoice research undertaken with a small number of residents of three Cape Town-area townships, we consider how residents’ descriptions of their encounters with the tourists can be seen as helping to “polish the wounds of the past” as they shared a sense of being seen and heard. We apply the African philosophical lens of Ubuntu, described by one participant as “I am because we are,” to consider the role of tourism in promoting peace simultaneously at the individual as well as the collective level. While far from unproblematic, this research finds hope in the ways township tourism is disrupting structural violence, thereby supporting the emancipatory aims of post-apartheid South Africa.

Gender Based Violence in South Africa

In Africa, and elsewhere, no unified masculine identity exists. However, in all societies, there are expectations about how male child and adult should act and behave. Each society determines gender roles and meanings of violent acts; and these meanings also vary depending on the context. This paper presents an overview on the common male child’s socialization practices in South Africa and how these contribute to a gender hierarchy that sees women as subordinate and even perpetuate violent behaviour against women. Using South Africa as example, where one of the world’s highest rates of violent crime and gender-based violence is recorded, this paper examines the association between apartheid’s racist and violent policies and existing masculine identities.

Anatomy of Political Violence in South Africa

Recent political killings in the Kwazulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa have necessitated the interrogation of the root causes of political violence in the country. While, arguably, power struggles and patronage are at the centre of some of the killings, these together also point directly to the ever-growing violent political culture in the country and particularly in the governing ANC party politics. As a solution, this essay suggests it is central to look at the historical and pedagogical presuppositions on which the political violence and killings in the country hinge. Building on extant literature, the essay utilizes both Fanon’s On Violence and the concept of political socialization to first argue the political violence in KZN is not surgically disjointed from the history of volatile politics consequent on the history of decolonization in the country. Secondly, focusing on KZN, the essay interrogates the culture of violence among the people and the ANC party members in particular, and suggests these are avenues in which political violence may have been learnt. Finally, utilizing Lederach’s “structure” in the integrated model of peacebuilding, the essay presents some recommendations for addressing the problem.

Predictors of Resilience Among Adolescent Girls and Young Women Who Have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence in South Africa.

South Africa has some of the highest rates of intimate partner and sexual violence globally, with prevalence ranging from 10% to 21% among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). Yet, few studies characterize the relationship between violence and resilience. Identifying factors associated with resilience following exposure to violence can guide the development of strength-based interventions that change modifiable protective factors to bolster resilience. Data were derived from a cross-sectional survey of AGYW aged 15 to 24 years in South Africa that took place from 2017 to 2018. This survey was part of a national evaluation of a South African combination HIV intervention for AGYW funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. A sample of 4,399 observations was achieved through a systematic random sampling frame of 35% of households in districts where AGYW were at highest risk for HIV, and where the intervention was implemented. Resilience was assessed using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. Intimate partner and sexual violence were assessed using: (a) an adapted version of a questionnaire from the World Health Organization's 2005 multicountry study on domestic violence against women, and (b) questions on lifetime experience of forced sex/rape. Nearly a third of AGYW (29.6%) reported intimate partner emotional and/or physical and/or sexual violence in the past year. Nearly a quarter of AGYW (23.74%) reported emotional violence, 17.48% reported physical violence, and 6.37% reported sexual violence from intimate partners. Nearly 8% (7.72%) reported forced sex/rape from intimate partners and/or nonpartners. More equitable gender norms, higher social support, and hazardous drinking were positively associated with higher resilience among those who experienced physical or sexual violence. This study addresses a gap in the resilience and violence literature. Future research should focus on the development of resilience-promoting interventions for individuals who have experienced violence.

Discourses of Gender and Political Violence in South Africa

Abstract Politically violent women are regularly muted or made exceptional. Yet, underplaying women’s involvement in political violence obscures the systemic nature of such violence. We employ a discursive psychology analysis of an in-depth interview with a South African woman who has been involved in decades of political activism, and identified two discourses: Gendering Politically Violent Symbols and Enactments, where political violence was wielded as a symbol, and Gendering Political Organizing, wherein feminist agencies were directed against political structures. Together, these discourses indicate how gender identity is simultaneously consistent and at odds with political identity and how gender intersects with political violence.

Decolonization, Neo-Apartheid and Xenophobic Violence in Phaswane Mpe’s Welcome to Our Hillbrow

ABSTRACT South Africa is undoubtedly one of the most unreceptive destinations in the world for black African refugees due to the prevalent xenophobic violence since the dismantling of apartheid in 1994. Previous research claimed that attitudes of intolerance and xenophobia towards foreigners were results of social and economic insufficiencies. Yet, this study argues that apartheid was not really dismantled, and that incomplete decolonization led to a state of neo-apartheid which catalysed citizens towards aggression and intolerance against foreigners. The article looks at Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001) by Phaswane Mpe through the lens of Fanons’ concept of decolonization, and attributes the actions of xenophobic violence in South Africa to the incomplete process of decolonization after apartheid. The article concludes that unsuccessful liberation and incomplete decolonization can lead to a state of neo-colonialism and ultimately, neo-apartheid. Xenophobic violence is triggered and motivated by the reality that nothing has really changed in South Africa even after the dismantlement apartheid.

Reducing Women to Bare Life: Sexual Violence in South Africa

This article investigates rape through the lens of biopolitics, using Agamben’s notion of a state of exception and bare life. I will argue that there needs to be a closer look at the neglected sexual and gender dimensions of biopolitics in settler colonial societies, and specifically at the continuities of sexual violence of the settler colony with high levels sexual violence in present day South Africa. Women in post-colonial South Africa are included in a state of exception giving rise to bare life through the abandonment by the law and state agencies that have to implement the law. I end by considering the possibilities of resistance against bare life.

The Prevalence of Gender-Based Violence against Women in South Africa : A Call for Action

The prevalence of gender-based violence in South Africa is an intense and widespread problem that impacts almost every aspect of life. This call for states’ intervention in the prevention of gender-based violence (GBV) in the country. Reports show that intimate partner violence and sexual coercion are the most common forms of GBV globally, and these are the types of violence that are explored in this paper. GBV has serious consequences for women’s health, such as homicides, suicides, AIDS-related deaths as well as physical injuries, chronic pain syndrome, gastrointestinal disorders, complications during pregnancy, miscarriage and low birth-weight of children. GBV also poses significant costs for the economies of both developed and developing countries alike, including low productivity and earnings, and low accumulation of human and social capital. Findings from literature show that violence can negatively affect women’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health, and may increase the risk of acquiring HIV in some settings. The study called on the government to take imperative actions to address gender-based violence (GBV). It recommended the implementation of a more strategic plan having recognized the detrimental impact of GBV on the victims and the general society.

COVID-19 Lockdown: A Fertile Ground for Gender-Based Violence in South Africa

Gender-based violence (GBV) has always been an issue of concern in South Africa and Globally. This problem of gender-based violence is currently exacerbated due to the lockdown restrictions. Women and children are targets for Covid-19 related frustrations as gender-based violence reports increase during the lockdown period. Across the country, civil society groups, gender-based violence advocacy organisations, religious groups, and other social justice groups have reported an increase in incidences related to violence against women and children and heightened demand for emergency shelters. Moreover, at the beginning of June 2020, Nehawu mentioned that reports suggested that the number of gender-based violence cases had risen by 500 per cent since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown. Employing the literature review, the paper elaborates on the nature of gender-based violence reported in South Africa and further highlights how gender-based violence has increased during the lockdown period. In this paper, I use the social dominance theory to understand the escalation of gender-based violence when people ought to be focusing on curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Observing COVID-19 protocols and encouraging one another to adhere to protocols in the endeavour to reduce the spread of the pandemic ought to be the focus of everyone irrespective of their gender. The suggestions on how to eliminate the scourge of gender-based violence with the advent of the COVID-19 are herein presented.

Xenophobia in South Africa: An Insight into the Media Representation andTextual Analysis

This paper examines print media coverage of xenophobicrelated behaviours and its possibility to incite xenophobic violence in South Africa considering the fact that the press has had accusations of publishing unbalanced and inconsistent stories about xenophobic-related violence. The method adopted was textual analysis of the selected South African newspapers’ headlines. Thus, this paper has made use of headlines from the Daily Dispatch, The Citizen, Sunday Times, Business Daily, and Independent Online news (IOL), between the period of May 2008 to August 2018. Interestingly, most of the selected newspapers in this paper have published vastly during this period, and they have been accused of misrepresentation, biasness, unbalanced reportage mostly on xenophobic-related violence. The findings of this paper revealed that these headlines are capable to putting readers on the edge and thus incite xenophobic violence across the country. In an attempt to discourage xenophobic behaviours, this paper has therefore recommended peace journalism and Ubuntu journalism as alternative models for reporting xenophobic violence and conflict.

HISTORY AS A SYSTEM OF WRONGS — EXAMINING SOUTH AFRICA'S MARIKANA TRAGEDY IN A TEMPORAL LEGAL CONTEXT

On 16 August 2012, striking miners in Marikana, South Africa were fired upon by the South African Police Service, resulting in the death of 44 mineworkers. For many the incident has signalled a turning point for the country. This paper suggests that rather than a turning point, the tragedy at Marikana is perhaps only the newest instalment in a centurylong cycle of industrial action and government violence in South Africa's labour history. Marikana is thus not a turning point, but rather a restatement of the ineffectiveness of law. The article then attempts a theoretical analysis of these events, as well as the matter of whether Marikana is a true event that brings about political and social change. Although many consider Marikana a "founding myth" for a popular uprising in South Africa, the article cautiously suggests that it is in fact just "business as usual".

Taxi violence in South Africa : insight from Mpumalanga Township, Kwazulu-Natal Province, South Africa

Despite the demise of apartheid, taxi violence still remains a major challenge in the South African minibus-taxi industry. South Africa is no stranger to bloody clashes between rival taxi organizations who fight to gain dominance over lucrative routes. This qualitative study examines the transition of taxi violence in a new democratic South Africa and draws upon semi-structured interviews conducted with taxi drivers in Mpumalanga Township, which is a low-urban community settlement in the eThekwini Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province. The findings suggest that taxi violence still remains a fundamental challenge in South Africa, and its perpetrators are predominantly taxi owners contesting ownership of lucrative routes to secure a more robust daily income. This study posits that a holistic approach must be taken and the entire industry restructured.

Tackling Xenophobia through Dialogue: A Freirean Approach

The deadly violence associated with xenophobia has become a concern in South Africa, a country with historically high levels of violence. This article explores the role that peace education can play in mitigating such conflict. Using Paulo Freire’s theorisation of dialogue in education, it discusses a peace education intervention that developed participatory workshops to foster dialogue between South Africans and their neighbours of foreign origin soon after the second wave of violence in South Africa in 2015. The article discusses the curriculum and pedagogical intent of the workshops through a theoretical framing of dialogue, how participants and facilitators responded to such plans and what learning and action were generated from these workshops. The experiences of participants and facilitators reveal a preliminary stage of deepening understandings in terms of reviewing rigid us/them dichotomies and identities, and reviewing stereotypical understandings of causes of conflict. The final section offers some critical reflections on the workshop design and the role of such interventions in relation to goals of broader social change. Some recommendations for future workshops in light of the need for psychosocial support generated by the workshop process are offered.

Victimhood gone viral: portrayals of extra-lethal violence and the solidarity of victims in the case of South African farm violence activists

ABSTRACT In her 2013 paper, Lee Ann Fujii proposes the concept of “extra-lethal violence,” which explores the ways that actors use violence over and above a standard of lethality to achieve group goals, like in-group cohesion. This paper, in an extension of Fujii’s work on extra-lethality, looks at the multiple audiences that such violence engages. Utilizing cases of rural violence in South Africa, this paper argues that the brutality of extra lethal violence provides an opportunity for mobilization not only by perpetrating populations, but also victim populations, even when it is infrequent. Organizations representing those who perceive themselves to be connected to the victims of such violence – White, mostly rural, and largely conservative South Africans – stand to benefit from focusing on the brutality of such violence. Victim groups benefit from exaggerating the scope and frequency of extra-lethality of such violence, not least because organizations representing White farmers draw more members and funds in increased threat environments. Activist groups overcome the barrier to mobilization presented by the rarity of extralethal violence by focusing on a small number of cases, and through repetition of the details.

Predicting the Vulnerability of Women to Intimate Partner Violence in South Africa: Evidence from Tree-based Machine Learning Techniques.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive social challenge with severe health and demographic consequences. Global statistics indicate that more than a third of women have experienced IPV at some point in their lives. In South Africa, IPV is considered a significant contributor to the country's broader problem with violence and a leading cause of femicide. Consequently, IPV has been the major focus of legislation and research across different disciplines. The present article aims to contribute to the growing scholarly literature by predicting factors that are associated with the risk of experiencing IPV. We used the 2016 South African Demographic and Health Survey dataset and restricted our analysis to 1,816 ever-married women who had complete information on the variables that were used to generate IPV. Prior research has mainly used regression analysis to identify correlates of IPV; however, while regression analysis can test a priori specified effects, it cannot capture unspecified inter-relationship across factors. To address this limitation, we opted for machine learning methods, which identify hidden and complex patterns and relationships in the data. Our results indicate that the fear of the husband is the most critical factor in determining the experience of IPV. In other words, the risk of IPV in South Africa is associated more with the husband or partner's characteristics than the woman's. The models developed in this study can be used to develop interventions by different stakeholders such as social workers, policymakers, and or other interested partners.

Imagining Zimbabwe as home: ethnicity, violence and migration

Abstract:Migration debates tend to focus on the numbers of people moving, whether they are economic migrants or asylum seekers, deserving or not of protection. This categorization usually rests on national identity, necessitating simplified one-dimensional representations. Ndlovu uses a case study of Zimbabwean migrants memorializing Gukurahundi in Johannesburg to highlight the ways in which migration narratives can be more complex and how they may shift over time. She presents Gukurahundi and the formation of the MDC in Zimbabwe, along with xenophobic violence in South Africa, as examples of the ways that the meanings of national and ethnic identities are contested by the migrants and influenced by political events across time and space.