Emancipatory politics and the Mpondo revolts
- Authors: Bruchhausen, Sarah
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Pondo Revolt, South Africa, 1960-1963 , South Africa -- History -- 20th century , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/5093 , vital:20765
- Description: This thesis aims to offer a revised view of the Mpondo revolts. The central theoretical concept of the thesis is that of emancipatory politics. Drawing predominantly on archival sources the primary concern of the thesis is to expose and interrogate certain aspects of this historical moment of popular politics which can be seen as emancipatory. In particular the notions of egalitarianism and universal human dignity will be analysed in relation to the popular political subjectivities, formations and praxes of the Mpondo revolts. In so doing this thesis attempts to make a meaningful contribution to present day debates concerning alternative theories of human emancipation by showing what emancipatory politics looked like historically and in practise within the context of the Mpondo revolts.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Aggrey Klaaste : the relentless community-builder
- Authors: Mbonambi, Phakama
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Klaaste, Aggrey , Sowetan (Johannesburg, South Africa) , Newspaper editors -- South Africa -- Biography , Nation-building -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:5999 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020882
- Description: This thesis looks at the life and times of Aggrey Klaaste, the larger-than-life late editor of Sowetan who shot to fame by championing a novel idea of nation building. His initiative started in 1988 as flames of violence engulfed South Africa and it seemed as if an apocalypse was on the cards. Sickened by what the frustrated black community was doing to itself, for example the use of the dreadful practice of necklacing against the so-called collaborators, he called for moral regeneration. He wanted his compatriots to look into the future and take their destiny in their own hands. Through nation building he tirelessly launched into crusading journalism that sought to heal the scars of the black community after decades of apartheid. It was grassroots community building. He rewarded ordinary men and women who made a difference in their communities. He actively sought peace to end the violence of the 1980s and 1990s. He spoke his mind without wearing any ideological blinkers, even as some thought his initiative would disturb the march to freedom. He was the ultimate newspaperman. This thesis argues that by calling for reconciliation and rebuilding of battered black communities even before freedom came, Klaaste was ahead of his time and even predated Nelson Mandela. Klaaste preferred to do what was right and not be shackled to any ideology. In doing so, he angered many people who felt his thinking was derailing the struggle for freedom. But Klaaste stressed that nation building was ideologically neutral and was meant for everyone. By contradicting prevailing political orthodoxy, he very likely risked his own life. But, like a true leader, he stuck to his convictions. Klaaste was exemplary in calling for reconciliation and building when others called for breaking. Ten years after he died, as the country still grapples with issues he raised in his popular weekly column On The Line, it is worth appraising his thinking and actions. The thesis also looks at the environment that influenced his thinking. His life is interwoven with South African history. That he began his adult life shakily, spending his days in a drunken stupor at Johannesburg shebeens to being awarded the Order for Meritorious Service for his outstanding community work, makes him an interesting subject to look at. It’s a story of a man who vanquished his demons and, through his compassionate community engagement, became an asset to the country. It’s a story of redemption. As his private life attests, he was man with flaws – like anyone else. But Aggrey Klaaste strived to do what was right for his community at all times. He was a restless community builder.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Evolution of the African National Congress Youth League: from "freedom in our lifetime" to "economic freedom in our lifetime"
- Authors: Sipuka, Msingathi
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: African National Congress -- History , African National Congress -- Youth League , Political parties -- Platforms , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MPhil
- Identifier: vital:8350 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020832
- Description: The 1994 democratic elections heralded a significant change in South Africa‟s political and social landscapes. This historic moment, and the subsequent democratic developmental processes that unfolded aimed at laying the foundations for a democratic state, were the culmination of a long history of struggle by the Black majority, in alliance with other social forces, against colonialism and apartheid. One of the significant social forces that emerged as part of this struggle against racial oppression was the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). It is argued that the two most important developments in South African politics during the 1940‟s were the emergence of the African National Congress Youth League and the consolidation of its influence on the ANC leadership. The African National Congress Youth League was formed against the background of very distinct circumstances, the first being the worsening economic conditions for the growing African working class and the declining African peasantry. The second was the inability of the African National Congress to respond to the material challenges confronted by the African majority, because of its leadership and organisational weaknesses. The political programme of the ANCYL was rallied under the ideological auspices of African Nationalism, and its organisational programme under the articulated need to build a mass based and campaigning organisation. With a very strong leadership, the ANCYL was able to, within five years, assert its leadership and authority in the ANC with key elements of its manifesto forming significant parts of the ANC Programme. This culminated into the rise of the generational theme of the ANC Youth League of “Freedom in our Lifetime”. Essentially freedom was conceived as the abolishment of formal apartheid, and the delivery of a democratic South Africa. Formal democracy became a reality in South Africa in 1994 and at the helm of the ANC and the new government was the ANC Youth League generation of the 1940‟s. This generation had over fifty years struggled for freedom and 1994 represented the formal victory over apartheid and the attainment of a generational mission. The ushering in of formal democracy in 1994 heightened the expectations of the black majority in terms of its elevation from a point of view of its existing socio-economic realities. Close to twenty years after the end of formal apartheid the reality has been less than satisfactory in terms of addressing these socio-economic realities. What has been observed on the contrary is an increase in key measures such inequality and unemployment. Subsequent to that has been a less than satisfactory performance in the area of economic transformation which has been seen as a critical limiting factor in addressing the legacies of apartheid, particularly among the black majority. These limits to transformation have resulted in discontentment among the majority, claiming that democracy has not yielded to any significant changes in their material lives. The discontentment has been particularly proliferated among the youth, who bear the brunt of social challenges such as unemployment. The ANC Youth League, has had to confront the reality of being of a youth league of a governing party and balancing that with the social discontentment that has developed among South African, particularly the youth, as a result of perceived lack of social transformation. In balancing these two realities, the ANC Youth League has found itself at the centre of South African politics similarly to the 1940s generation of ANC Youth League leaders of the Youth League who had been mobilised under the theme of “Freedom in our Lifetime”. The contradictions within the ANC, of which the ANC Youth League has found itself at the centre of, and the need to become a socially relevant political force have culminated into the birth of a generational theme led by the ANC Youth League of “Economic Freedom in our Lifetime”.
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- Date Issued: 2012
A just culture : restoring justice towards a culture of human rights
- Authors: McConnell, Jesse
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: South Africa. Truth and Reconciliation Commission , Reconciliation , Restorative justice , Justice , Human rights , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2860 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007594 , South Africa. Truth and Reconciliation Commission , Reconciliation , Restorative justice , Justice , Human rights , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century
- Description: This thesis seeks to investigate the possibility that the binary opposition between retributive and restorative forms of justice that structures the discourse on justice is unhelpful and unnecessary, particularly for societies seeking to extricate themselves from violent conflict and towards building peace and democracy. I shall argue for the importance of considering restorative justice as conceptually and historically prior to the possibility of retributive justice rather than the negation of one or the other, as well as advocate the potentially greater transformative power of the values of restorative justice which may provide a constructive alternative to retributive justice in the context of post-conflict peacebuilding.
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- Date Issued: 2005
The failure of the Coloured Persons' Representative Council and its constitutional repercussions, 1956-1985
- Authors: Saks, David
- Date: 1992
- Subjects: South African Labour Party , Federal Coloured People's Party -- South Africa , South Africa. Parliament , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century , South Africa -- Race relations , Coloured Persons Representative Council of South Africa , Colored people (South Africa) -- Politics and government , Political parties -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2624 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015907
- Description: The thesis starts by providing a brief overview of South African ''Coloured" politics from the passing of Ordinance 50 in 1828 to the removal of the Cape Coloured people from the common voter's roll in 1956. It then goes on to discuss in detail the structures instituted by successive Nationalist Governments to serve as an alternative to parliamentary representation for the coloured people, the role of the various coloured political parties within such structures and the latter's gradual adaptation and development, culminating in the inauguration of the Tricameral Parliament in early 1985. The thesis is, on the one hand, a detailed record of coloured political activity following the loss of common roll voting rights in the Cape, focusing on specifically coloured political parties rather than on broader, non-ethnic resistance movements in which many coloured people took part during the same period. This covers the rise and rapid decline of a conservative grouping within the coloured community which sought to foster an exclusively coloured nationalism operating within the Government's policy of parallel development, and attempted to use the Coloured Persons' Representative Council as a means towards achieving the economic, social and political upliftment of the coloured people. It also deals with the important role of the Labour Party after 1966, showing how a moderate resistance movement carne to use the Council as a platform from which to confront the Government's apartheid policies and to render the institutions of parallel development unworkable through noncooperation and boycotting. The second important preoccupation of the thesis concerns the ambiguous and often contradictory attitudes towards the "coloured question" within the National Party itself. This ambivalence, it is argued, not only had much to do with the eventual failure of the Coloured Persons' Representative Council to become a viable substitute for Parliamentary representation acceptable to the majority of coloured people, but was also a primary cause of the National Party split in 1982. It shows too how the collapse of Grand Apartheid had its origins in the failure to incorporate the coloured population within its framework. The thesis is concerned primarily with coloured political developments. When relevant, however, the establishment and development of representative institutions for the Indian people is also dealt with, in so far as this overlaps with issues and events concerning the coloured Council. Finally, the five year period following the dissolution of the Coloured Persons' Representative Council in 1980 and the inauguration of the Tricameral Parliament in 1985 is briefly dealt with in a concluding chapter. This mainly concerns the gradual accommodation reached between the Government and the Labour Party when the latter eventually agreed, conditionally, to take part in the new constitution.
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- Date Issued: 1992
The origins and subsequent development of Administration Boards
- Authors: Humphries, Richard G
- Date: 1983
- Subjects: South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century , Influx control -- South Africa , Public administration -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2854 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006873 , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century , Influx control -- South Africa , Public administration -- South Africa
- Description: Until the introduction of administration boards in 1972-1973, the responsibility for administering the urban black townships in "white" South Africa was vested with the municipalities as agents of the Department of Bantu Administration and Development. The establishment of administration boards to replace the municipalities' Non-European Affairs Departments reflected the determination of the Department of Bantu Administration and Development to secure tighter direct control over the implementation of policy, particularly that affecting influx control and labour regulation. The decision to end municipal control was made after the report of the Van Rensburg Inter-Departmental Committee of Inquiry into Control Measures, which reported in 1967. The report's concern that influx control was not working as intended, coupled with doubts about the political autonomy of Opposition controlled municipalities, which dated back to the 1950s, were the major reasons for the introduction of administration boards.
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- Date Issued: 1983