Chained Communities: A Critique of South Africa’s Approach to Land Restitution

by Anthony C. Diala and Sonya R. Cotton Abstract In its quest to restore land to millions of its citizens dispossessed under colonial and apartheid regimes, South Africa adopted a Restitution of Land Rights Act and set up a Land Claims Court in 1994 and 1996, respectively. This article uses select judgments of the Land Claims Court […]

Recalibrating South Africa’s Political Economy: Challenges in Building a Developmental and Competition State

by Paul Thompson and Henry Wissink Abstract This article is situated at the cusp of debates raging in South Africa in which the delivering of a democratic developmental state is amongst the priorities of the African National Congress (ANC) led government. Thus, the narrative on South Africa’s developmental path has taken predominantly a singular approach, […]

University-Based Music Training and Current South African Musical Praxis: Notes and Tones

by Madimabe Geoff Mapaya Abstract Music pedagogy places a premium on written notation, sometimes to the detriment of orality. This, in the main, explains the disjuncture between South African university-based music education and music praxis obtaining within black communities. It is for this reason that most African students coming from an oral tradition background struggle to […]

University-Based Music Training and Current South African Musical Praxis: Notes and Tones

To Cut and Run: Donor Approaches to Male Circumcision in Southern Africa

by Krista Johnson Abstract Male circumcision is being heralded in the scientific and policy communities as a highly effective intervention that could significantly reduce the number of people being infected with HIV in a number of high prevalence countries in southern Africa. However, the scale-up of male circumcision in most southern African countries has been slow. […]

Financial Performance of Local Government in Limpopo Province, 2010-2012

by Majuta Judas Mamogale Abstract Governance problems mar local government in South Africa’s Limpopo Province, especially in relation to financial management. The province received the highest rate of unsatisfactory audit outcomes between 2010 and 2012 of any province in South Africa. This paper examines the various explanations for this situation and uses the datasets from the Afrobarometer and the […]

Improving the Contribution of Cooperatives as Vehicles for Local Economic Development in South Africa

by Prudence Khumalo Abstract There has been a growing realization over the years of the importance of cooperatives as vital instruments for socio-economic development across the globe. The article seeks to argue that the success of cooperatives in contributing to local economic development (LED) in South Africa is undermined by the lack of an active cooperative […]

Employment Relationships and Organizing Strategies in the Informal Construction Sector

by Jill Wells and Arthur Jason Abstract The expansion of self-employment, casual labor and outsourcing in the construction sector around the world and the growing involvement of intermediaries has led to an increasing complexity of employment relationships. The paper discusses the implications of this complexity for collective organizing, drawing on recent studies of informal labor in the […]

Informalization from Above, Informalization from Below: The Options for Organization

by Jan Theron Abstract The paper examines different strategies for the collective organization of informal workers, on the basis of a number of empirical illustrations from South Africa. It argues that the situation of workers in the informal economy is best understood in terms of two inter-related processes. The first is “informalization from above,” whereby […]

Informality and Casualization as Challenges to South Africa’s Industrial Unionism: Manufacturing Workers in the East Rand/Ekurhuleni Region in the 1990s

by Franco Barchiesi Abstract The paper addresses informalization processes driven by layoffs, casualization, and outsourcing and their implications for workers’ agency. The empirical focus is on the metal engineering, glass, and paper industries in the East Rand, South Africa’s industrial heartland. The author argues that growing job precariousness, the expansion of casual work, the increasing stratification […]

African Studies Quarterly

Tag: South Africa