Reviewed by: Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements by Trevor Ngwane Mueni wa Muiu Ngwane, Trevor. Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements. London: Pluto Press, 2021. Can people who live in shacks teach us about democracy? Trevor Ngwane begins this book with the following question: Ngingalitholaphi ikomiti lalendawo? Where can I find this place's committee? To answer this question, Ngwane sets out to study four informal settlements of South Africa's nine provinces. Organizing among shack communities can be traced back to protests [End Page 222] against forced removals by the apartheid regime. They occupied private land because the state failed to provide adequate housing. Sometimes communities were forced to live in "temporary" housing for forty years. In seeking to answer this question, Ngwane draws back a curtain and reveals a world that few know about. He visited forty-six informal settlements, of which forty-five had committees. He distinguishes between autonomous committees and people's committees. The latter are formed by the state or NGOs. His focus is mainly on the self-organization of the committees, not their physical organizations. These include ten settlements each in Gauteng, North West, and Kwa Zulu Natal, and sixteen in Eastern Cape. The smallest settlement had twenty shacks, and the largest had eight thousand. Most had between one hundred and five hundred shacks, with Alexandria (Johannesburg) having a thousand shacks a month. The number of informal settlements increased between 1990 and 1994 with the elimination of bans on political organizations and apartheid laws. Most of the settlements are named after the pioneers, how the place was occupied, or after major political leaders. Seventy percent of the settlements have electricity, while 65 percent have access to water taps and 39 percent have long-drop toilets. The first committees set up are the people's committees, which are followed by ward committees (state). There were people's committees in thirty-five settlements. Life in shantytowns is difficult. One has to struggle for every single thing that other communities take for granted, from being alive to getting water and toilets. Amakomiti (Zulu for "committee") people learned to depend on themselves from defense and plot allocation to basic services. Most of these committees rely on their experiences in rural areas to govern their communities. Sometimes they work alongside township organizations but on other occasions they don't, depending on the issues at stake. Ngwane calls the discussions and activities of these committees "democracy on the margins." This is the development and practice of local democratic practices and cultures by neglected communities. It gives them agency where they are not victims. This book explores different committees, their history and roles in democracy on the margins. Popular committees in the shacks are an aspect of a democratic practice and ethos that is not fully understood. The ANC had committees in eight of the forty-six settlements. There were community police forums in five settlements. Five settlements had community development forums, which monitor local construction and development. Twenty-five settlements had more than one committee. Whether committees succeeded or failed depended on their accountability and [End Page 223] transparency in meeting expectations. Relationships between committees and the state vary from antagonistic to symbiotic. Most communities are forced to connect their own services, from electricity to water. Most shacks in South Africa are located in close to mines in Rustenburg, where the unemployment rate is 40 percent. It is also the most unequal place in the world. Rustenburg produces 70 percent of the world's platinum. In-migration is 7 percent from neighboring countries. Based on official figures, 17.4 percent of the people live in twenty-four informal settlements, but independent researchers put the number at 40 percent. Fifty percent have no monthly income. There are two views about shack dwellers: shack dwellers as part of workers' movements, and therefore with a lot to gain, and shack dwellers as distinct from workers' movements, with little to gain. Shack dwellers organize settlement, order, and security. Some are better organized than others. For example, the Power Group in Crossroads, an informal settlement near Cape Town, was organized by women who led protests for services for four months...
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Aug 24, 2024
Bukiwe Ntwana + 1
Open Access
