Abstract
This dissertation attempts to conduct an African Feminist exploration into the life herstory
narratives of four women in the Zivuseni Reloaded programme in the Expanded Public Works
Programme (EPWP) at Leratong Hospital in Kagiso situated in Gauteng province, South Africa.
In South Africa, poverty has a face, she is young, black African and poorly educated but we are
reliably informed that her access to the EPWP and other government programmes is steadily
increasing. Once you move past the demographics, little is known about this woman, she is
encrypted under a veil of invisibility, her identities, her relationships, her gendered negotiations
of daily life and her ability or inability to grasp opportunities and influence her life course is
gapingly absent from the noisy discourse - the narrative is aborted prematurely. This study
endeavours to address the invisible gap in the literature through the study goal of visibilising
women’s life histories back into narratives. This dissertation begins to fill the void in the
literature through the chronicling of life history events that have led participants to join the
EPWP intervention within the infrastructure sector. Moreover it strives to voice the work life
experiences and negotiations of participants within the infrastructure sector EPWP. The study
advocates that research is not value neutral, and specifically not gender neutral, nor is the
selection of research methods. Feminist social research is based on women’s experience. The
qualitative approach this study takes to research is operationalised through the life history
narrative technique and contextualises the research within the perspective of African feminism.
This study becomes a journey of reflexivity for the researcher. The study found that key scenes
in the life herstory of participants allude to EPWP recruitment strategies which contribute to
attracting specific participants, a range of programmatic vulnerabilities, experiences in working
on EPWP infrastructure projects, EPWP impact on economic stability, the alternative income
streams of participants and the collective life goal of financial independence. Finally this
dissertation provides insight into how women participants negotiate the traditionally male
dominated infrastructure sector and unveils the hopes and dreams of participants beyond
EPWP.
M.A. (Sociology)