Book reviews

Women of Phokeng: Consciousness, Life Strategy, and Migrancy in South Africa 1900 ‐1983 by Belinda Bozzoli, with the assistance of Mmantho Nkotsoe, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1991. Our Precious Metal: African Labour in South Africa's Gold Industry, 1970–1990 by Wilmot G. James, David Philip, James Currey & Indiana University Press, Cape Town, London & Bloomington,1992. Bounds of Possibility ‐ The Legacy of Steve Biko & Black Consciousness by N.B. Pityana, M. Ramphele, M. Mpumlwana, & L. Wilson, (eds), Cape Town, David Philip, 1991. Faces in the revolution: the psychological effects of violence on township youth in South Africa by Gill Straker, with Fathima Moosa, Rise Becker and Madiyoyo Nkwale. Cape Town, David Philip, 1992 and Athens, Ohio, Ohio University Press, 1992. Lives of Courage: Women for a New South Africa by Diana E.H.Russell. New York, Basic Books, 1989. Towards Justice? Crime and State Control in South Africa by Desiree Hansson and Dirk van Zyl Smit (eds), Cape Town, Oxford University Press, 1990. South Africa in the Nineties by DJ van Vuuren, NE Wiehahn, NJ Rhoodie en M Wiechers (eds), HSRC Publishers, 1991. To Live in Fear: Witchburning and Medicine Murder in Venda by A de V. Minnar, D Offringa and C Payze, HSRC, Pretoria, 1992. The Anti‐Politics Machine: ‘Development’, Depoliticization and Bureaucratic Power by James Ferguson, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990. Zimbabwe's Guerrilla War: Peasant Voices by Norma J. Kriger. Cambridge University Press, African Studies Series, number 70,1992. A Passage to England ‐ Barbadian Londoners speak of home by John Western. U.C.L. Press, London, 1992. Breaking the formal frame: Readings in South African education in the eighties by Clive Millar, Sarah‐Anne Raynham and Angela Schaffer (eds). Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1991. Negotiation : Theories, Strategies and Skills by Wynand Pienaar and Manie Spoelstra, Kenwyn, Juta, 1991 SUM: Selected Works by Martin Versveld. Cape Town: Carrefour Press 1991. Projections in the Past Tense, by Kelwyn Sole. Ravan Press, 1992.

Considering the work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the criticisms levelled against it, and the literary response it has evoked in terms of a struggle over definitions of trauma and recovery can help the debate over the perceived monocultural bias of trauma theory in its ‘classical’, mid-1990s formulation and the fraught relationship between such tendencies and the commitment to social justice on which the field prides itself. Insofar as the TRC mapped Euro-American concepts of trauma and recovery onto an apartheid-colonial situation, it was subject to the same problems and limitations faced by trauma theory—problems and limitations which post-apartheid literature has not been slow to confront. Sindiwe Magona’s truth-and-reconciliation novel Mother to Mother, for example, can be seen to supplement the work of the TRC by critically revisiting its limits, exclusions, and elisions—and thus also to suggest a possible way for ‘traditional’ trauma theory to reinvent and renew itself.

IT HAS BEEN WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED that the South African Human Rights Commission's Inquiry into Racism in the Media was a watershed initiative in the annals of the nascent democratic South Africa. By undertaking the investigation, the Commission demonstrated the advantages of a nonjuridical approach to human rights promotion and protection. In particular, the mechanism of an inquiry serves multiple functions. It gives public expression to the values embedded in our Constitution and thereby it raised awareness of human rights. Second, it showed that ordinary South Africans who have reason to be concerned about violations of human rights would receive a sympathetic hearing. Finally, it demonstrated that everybody, however powerful, is subject to the law and the Constitution and can be made to account for their actions insofar as these affect the human rights of the others. The South African Human Rights Commission is an independent state institution established by law as provided for in the Constitution. National institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights are a recent development in international human rights practice. They have been established in order to ensure application of international human rights norms in the domestic sphere and to monitor the observance of human rights nationally. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Paris Principles in 1993.1 The Paris Principles define the sphere of operation of national institutions and set out elements for the effective functioning of national institutions. Among these are independence,

The Constitution of South Africa, 1996, is committed to redressing poverty and inequality. This is evident in its inclusion of a range of justiciable socio-economic rights along with a strong substantive right to equality and non-discrimination. The South African Human Rights Commission is a state institution established by the Constitution to support constitutional democracy. It has wide-ranging powers to investigate, monitor and protect human rights, including an express constitutional mandate in relation to socio-economic rights. This article examines how it has sought to apply its constitutional and legislative mandates to various manifestations of poverty and economic inequality in South Africa. It focuses on three broad areas of the Commission’s work with a view to identifying its achievements as well as some of the key challenges it has faced. Based on this analysis, the article concludes by reflecting on the broader implications of the experience of the Commission for fourth branch institutions, specifically national human rights institutions, that apply a human rights lens to poverty and economic inequality.

Queering Hip-Hop, Queering the City: Dope Saint Jude’s Transformative Politics

Human rights queryfalse are typically presented in terms of entitlements, correlative duties, claims, “trumps,” and remedies. 1 These framings, which draw principally on law and philosophy, emphasi...

Taxi violence in South Africa was the tool that the apartheid regime used to pursue their interest by dividing the people so that they could acquire what they needed (Sekhonyane and Dugard, 2004:15). Taxi violence is one of the most burning issues faced by Department of Transport, Police, commuters and taxi industry in South Africa. This industry plays a vital role in commuting people to and from work or different destinations, and in most cases it is caught in the wrong doing in terms of fighting for routes where many innocent lives are lost due to infighting. The inability by government to regulate taxi industry is a serious problem for taxi operators, taxi associations, commuters and society. The deregulation of taxi industry brought many problems such as conflict, violence and mafia type assassinations in South Africa. This article focus on preventive measures to curb taxi violence in South Africa. This article utilised qualitative, case study based approach and the approach is supported by analysis of primary and secondary sources. The article further draws on the findings from the world on taxi violence and formulate steps to counteract taxi violence in South Africa. The research based key steps leading to the prevention of taxi violence in South Africa. The first process related to regulation of taxi industry, awareness campaigns on taxi operations, the control of routes and multidisciplinary investigation team should be established to overcome taxi violence in South Africa.

Over the years, South African Courts have adjudicated on the status of English and Afrikaans in language policies of higher education institutions. This article reflects on the slow efforts by the South African government and higher education institutions towards the development and inclusion of languages indigenous to South Africa. Taking a textual analysis approach, the aim of this paper is to place emphasis on the need to develop and include indigenous languages of South Africa in the language policies of higher education institutions. The paper further seeks to contend that the inclusion of languages indigenous to South Africa will facilitate social cohesion and affirm restorative justice efforts given the historical marginalisation of black people in language and education. Building on a previously co-authored article addressing the use of indigenous languages in higher education institutions, this paper is limited to Chairperson of the Council of UNISA v AfriForum NPC 2021, the 2022 Commission of inquiry into allegations of racism at Stellenbosch university also known as the Kampepe Report, and the 2023 South African Human Rights Commission's Investigative Report into Allegations of Unconstitutional Language Practices at Certain Stellenbosch University Residences. The analysis presented in this paper will be grounded in transformative justice and a transitional justice framework.

Handbook on Race Relations in South Africa. Edited by Ellen Hellmann, assisted by Leah Abrahams. Published for the South African Institute of Race Relations by Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press: Cape Town, London, New York, 1949. 778 pp., maps, diagrams, tables, index. £2. 2s. - Volume 21 Issue 1

South Africa failing people displaced by xenophobia riots

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism is routinely invoked to silence legitimate criticism of the State of Israel. According to the definition, comparisons of Israel to apartheid South Africa are antisemitic. Authoritative and compelling research and reports, which conclude that Israel is an apartheid state, are thus regularly disregarded as antisemitic hate speech. This has severely restricted principled pro-Palestine activism and a just resolution of the conflict. But, in South Africa, for no longer. In the 2022 case of SAHRC v Masuku, the South African Constitutional Court, the country’s apex court, considered whether comments accusing Israel of discriminatory apartheid practices constitute antisemitic hate speech. The Constitutional Court held that it does not. This essay discusses the judgment and its implications on the constitutional validity and political relevance of the Alliance definition.

abstractTo remedy the structural and systemic socio-economic effects of apartheid, colonialism and patriarchy, South Africa’s constitutional legal framework provides creative remedies through anti-discrimination and employment equity (affirmative action) legislation to promote equal participation of women with disabilities in the workplace. In an Equality Court hearing, Singh, an applicant for a position of magistrate, argued that she was excluded from being short-listed ostensibly because as a partially blind woman, she would be unable to meet the requirement of a valid driver’s licence. Her disability status was not considered in applying the short-listing criteria. Singh successfully challenged the discrimination inherent in the short-listing process in Singh v Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and Others (SA National Council for the Blind and another as Amici Curiae). The Equality Court ordered the Magistrate’s Commission to revise its criteria for short-listing in the appointment of magistrates to reflect the necessary racial and gender composition in appointments in the judiciary as well as to have regard for the need to promote persons with disabilities in its short-listing and appointment processes. The article will consider the relationship between race, gender and disability in employment equity (with emphasis on gender and disability) against the backdrop of the Singh case. It outlines the monitoring roles of two constitutional watchdogs: the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE), and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC); and the enforcement role of the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE), in promoting equal workplace participation. The analysis of the Singh case and the greater legislative scheme can be used for employees and employers generally in understanding not just the importance and need for advancement of persons with disabilities in the workplace, but also in how this category of employees is considered in the hierarchy of other transformational grounds, such as race and gender and why it is not subordinate to those statuses. The article argues for a fuller notion of diversity, than mere representivity in employment equity, which would necessitate transforming current notions of “able-bodied and able-minded” norms within workplace processes of recruitment, appointment and retention practices. It recommends accountability fostered by the monitoring of state compliance by the Chapter Nine institutions, as well as strategic litigation to challenge state and non-state inaction or omissions.

Associational life in Cape Town is a mechanism for migrants from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to find belonging in South Africa. We trace the internal politics of associational membership from 2000 to 2019 to illustrate how membership in eastern Congolese associations has minimized community ties to other foreign Africans and South Africans. An increase in election violence in the DRC, divided into pro- and anti-combattant camps, and the threat of xenophobic violence in South Africa have led to a closing of ranks that presumes only other eastern Congolese can be trusted. In tracing gender, class and language cleavages, we find that eastern DRC associational life reproduces the xenophobia associational membership is intended to ameliorate.

Cape Town is the second-largest city in South Africa, with a population of over four million people. Established by Dutch colonists in 1652, it is a diverse and complex city, with a long history of segregation and inequity. The city continues to be characterized by high levels of inequity, most tangibly manifested in the presence of informal settlements. Much of this inequity is along racial lines as a result of enforced spatial segregation during colonial and apartheid times. Since South Africa’s transition to democracy in the 1990s, the city has continued to evolve, with significant urban regeneration initiatives (such as the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront) and with major governance reforms (with the fifty-seven local government bodies and regional government body that existed in the early 1990s being merged into one local government body in 2000). Cape Town has been the site of much research, from a range of perspectives. During the apartheid era, this research largely focused on the implementation of apartheid segregation and the resistance to apartheid, whereas since the 1990s, the focus has been on the implementation of developmental local government, continued inequities, and the roll-out of neoliberalism. Research from a “developmental local government” perspective has focused on government reform and the large amount of service delivery (for example, housing delivery) that has occurred since the 1990s. Another major focus of research has been on the implementation of neoliberal urban strategies and the resistance of civil society to this (although some scholars of “southern urbanism” would argue that the importance of Neoliberalism in Cape Town and other cities in the Global South has been overemphasized by scholars from the Global North). Given its location in a magnificent setting with unique levels of biodiversity, tourism and the urban interface with the natural environment have also become major topics of research. Probably the most effective reflections of life in Cape Town have been in fiction and popular nonfiction works, so it is important to also consider these as well. The bibliography is structured in the following sections: History of Cape Town (to 1990); Overviews of Post-Apartheid Cape Town (after 1990); Poverty, Inequality, and Exclusion in Cape Town; Place and Space in Cape Town; Governance of Cape Town; Neoliberalism in Cape Town; Crime and Violence in Cape Town; Tourism in Cape Town; Cape Town and the Natural Environment; and Fiction and Popular Works about Cape Town.

The African human rights system encompasses two major instruments: the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. The enforcement and monitoring mechanisms for both the Charter and the Protocol are the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. The Court has power to give advisory opinions on an issue relevant to the African Charter or any other relevant human rights instrument. The advisory opinion may be requested by African Union States, the African Union or any of its organs or any African organisation recognised by the African Union. The effectiveness of the Commission and the Court will depend on the extent to which sufficient resources are provided for them to carry out their mandates. Keywords: African Charter; African human rights system; human rights instrument; monitoring mechanisms