Informal and Unserviceable: the State, Informal Settlement Residents, and Sanitation Management in Western Tshwane City, South Africa

Urban Forum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 533-547
Author(s):  
Tapiwa T. Shoniwa ◽  
Vusilizwe Thebe
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Informal Settlement ◽  
The State

A Closer Look at the Right to Have Access to Adequate Housing for Inhabitants of Informal Settlements Post Grootboom

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-111
Author(s):  
Clarence Tshoose
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
The State ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
The Right ◽  
Right Of Access ◽  
Available Resources

In South Africa informal settlement dwellers are faced with a myriad of socio-economic problems, which relate, amongst others, to living standards, access to basic services, and suitable housing. Notwithstanding these problems, the Constitution affords everyone the right to have access to adequate housing. It also makes it obligatory for the state ‘to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right’. In light of the above, this article examines the constitutional obligation on the state to provide informal settlement dwellers the right of access to adequate housing. It explores some of the landmark cases that have shaped the jurisprudence of the right to have access to adequate housing in South Africa post the ground breaking Constitutional Court’s Grootboom decision.

The Prophetic Voice of the Church in a Democratic South Africa – A Theological Reflection

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lufuluvhi Maria Mudimeli
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
The State ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Black Liberation Theology ◽  
Prophetic Voice ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Church

This article is a reflection on the role and contribution of the church in a democratic South Africa. The involvement of the church in the struggle against apartheid is revisited briefly. The church has played a pivotal and prominent role in bringing about democracy by being a prophetic voice that could not be silenced even in the face of death. It is in this time of democracy when real transformation is needed to take its course in a realistic way, where the presence of the church has probably been latent and where it has assumed an observer status. A look is taken at the dilemmas facing the church. The church should not be bound and taken captive by any form of loyalty to any political organisation at the expense of the poor and the voiceless. A need for cooperation and partnership between the church and the state is crucial at this time. This paper strives to address the role of the church as a prophetic voice in a democratic South Africa. Radical economic transformation, inequality, corruption, and moral decadence—all these challenges hold the potential to thwart our young democracy and its ideals. Black liberation theology concepts are employed to explore how the church can become prophetically relevant in democracy. Suggestions are made about how the church and the state can best form partnerships. In avoiding taking only a critical stance, the church could fulfil its mandate “in season and out of season” and continue to be a prophetic voice on behalf of ordinary South Africans.

CHALLENGES TO BUILDING AUTHENTIC PARTNERSHIPS: LESSONS FROM BHAMBAYI, KWAZULU-NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanusha Raniga ◽  
Barbara Simpson ◽  
Ntokozo Mthembu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Mutual Trust ◽  
Open Communication ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Kwazulu Natal ◽  
Qualitative Phase

In contemporary South Africa, partnerships between service providers in government, non-governmental organisations, the private sector and community based organisations have been identified as a means to strengthen communities and the sustainability of social services. However, the unequal power relations that exists between and within these organisations often leads to fragmentation, duplication, and lack of coordination of social services. Using Fowler’s (1998) conceptualisation of authentic partnerships, this qualitative phase of a larger study explored the challenges of building authentic partnerships in Bhambayi, a predominantly informal settlement in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Individual interviews and a focus group held with nine service providers revealed that intraorganisational challenges, cross-boundary and inter-organisational relations as well as political influences were obstacles to the development of authentic partnerships. The article suggests that open communication, clarity of roles and mutual trust between service providers is vital.

The 1992 Referendum in South Africa

1993 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Strauss
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
The State ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
National Party ◽  
White Voters ◽  
The Right

The ruling National Party (N.P.) asked white voters during the 1989 election campaign for a mandate to negotiate with all concerned about a new constitution, an undivided South Africa, one citizenship, equal votes, protection of minorities, and the removal of stumbling blocks such as discrimination against people of colour.1 Although the N.P. achieved a cleat majority – 93 seats against 39 for the Conservative Party (C.P.) and 33 for the Democratic Party (D.P.) – the right-wing opposition made destinct progress by gaining 17 seats. After the C.P had captured a further three from the N.P. in by-elections, including Potchefstroom in February 1992, President F. W. de Klerk announced in Parliament that whites would be asked the following month to vote in a referendum in order to remove any doubts about his mandate. The carefully worded question which the electorate had to answer was as follows: Do you support continuation of the reform process which the State President began on February 2, 1990 and which is aimed at a new constitution through negotiation?

The community strike: From precarity to militant organizing

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 159-177
Author(s):  
Marcel Paret
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
The State ◽  
A Site ◽  
Collective Actor

How do insecure layers of the working class resist when they lack access to power and organization at the workplace? The community strike represents one possible approach. Whereas traditional workplace strikes target employers and exercise power by withholding labor, community strikes focus on the sphere of reproduction, target the state, and build power through moral appeals and disruptions of public space. Drawing on ethnography and interviews in the impoverished Black townships and informal settlements around Johannesburg, I illustrate this approach by examining widespread local protests in South Africa. Insecurely employed and unemployed residents implemented community strikes by demanding public services, barricading roads and destroying property, and boycotting activities such as work and school. Within these local revolts, community represented both a site of struggle and a collective actor. While community strikes enabled economically insecure groups to mobilize and make demands, they also confronted significant limits, including tensions between protesters and workers.

scholarly journals God's servant working for your own good: Notes from modern South Africa on Calvin's commentary on Romans 13: 1-7 and the state

1998 ◽  
Vol 54 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Strauss
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Order ◽  
General Interest ◽  
The Government

This article aims at demonstrating that Calvin's grasp of the message of Romans 13 in its reference to the state is highly relevant for the present South Africa. This includes the belief that the authority of rulers is ordained by God, be it that of a just or an unjust government, and that their right to govern should therefore be respected; that government should maintain a public order of justice and peace within which people can serve God in all spheres of life; that state authorities should use the sword and even the death penalty when needed, and not shy away from this God-given responsibility; that a society in which crime threatens to create chaos needs stronger measures of punishment; and that rebellion against the government or disruption of public life should be resorted to only as an ultimate means and when carefully considered as in the general interest.

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