Title : The Legacies of Apartheid and Implications of Economic Liberalisation
Working Paper No : 49 (series 1)
Author(s) : Sarah Mosoetsa
Date : July 2004
Abstract:
This paper is concerned with
organisational responses of residents in one low-income urban
community located in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal. The area
concerned is Mpumalanga Township near Durban, and it is an area
that has had a difficult history of political violence. This has
meant that, despite a coterminous history of trade union
militancy and high levels of community mobilisation, social
networks have been severely fractured. Firstly, this paper
explores the tenuous process of rebuilding community level trust
and collective action in the wake of political transition. A
process of democratic consolidation has been made more difficult
by economic recession and workplace restructuring. The general
lack of trust in politicians and popular representatives in the
contemporary period has meant that people are retreating into
families and kinship networks, a response reinforced by poverty.
In contrast to previous modes of trade union organisation in the
area, problems of poverty and efforts towards enhancing
livelihood opportunities are treated as private issues. Thus
poverty and suspicion undermine community engagement and limit
collective action responses to widespread problems. Secondly,
the family is seen as a site of stability, but this is only
realisable if the institution is supported by government policy.
State transfers, such as pensions and child maintenance grants,
are critical to relieving the enormous pressures and demands
made upon the household. The argument advanced here is that it
is on the stability of families, and particularly of older women
within them, that the production of future citizens rests.
However, due to the enormous burden placed on family networks
and unequal power relations within households, the stability of
family networks is seriously undermined. A crisis of
reproduction surfaces as incidence of alcohol and drug abuse and
domestic violence become common features of most households.
Thirdly, the crisis of representation has informed the emergence
of alternative forms of community organisation. The link between
household survival and urban services has also given rise to
popular responses so that engagement with metropolitan
government becomes another site of emerging citizenship.
Finally, the consolidation of democracy is emerging out of
conflict as citizens demand accountability from politicians. It
is argued that this constitutes a potential faultline in the
process of democratic consolidation.