Abstract
Scholars agree that the number of protests in South Africa is rising and that young people are often at the forefront of these uprisings. Some have referred to it as a ‘rebellion’ to give an indication of the scale of protest activity in the country (Alexander 2010). While scholarly literature on the general phenomenon is quiet extensive, research on youth participation is limited. This dissertation addresses this weakness by means of a case study on Zamdela, a township close to Sasolburg, which is located 90 kilometres south of Johannesburg. On 22 January 2013 people from Zamdela participated in a large and violent protest where looting and destruction were widespread and over five thousand people, many of them young people, were observed to have participated in the protest. The main focus of the protest was to act against the amalgamation of the Ngwathe and Metsimaholo municipalities and to express discontent with the African National Congress (ANC) provincial Premier.
This dissertation seeks to answer how and why youth in Zamdela engage in protest and how that impacts on their political participation including voting in elections. A mixed methods approach was utilised. Most information comes from interviews with young people (non-participants as well as well as those who joined the action), but use has also been made of documentary evidence, observation, interviews with older people, and some quantitative data that was also collected.
It makes a contribution to our conceptualisation of youth in three ways. First it shows that young people in Zamdela tend to define the term experientially, emphasising social responsibility but also physical capacity. Secondly, a distinction is made between ‘older youth’ and ‘younger youth’. This is based mainly on political attitudes, and the dividing line is roughly between those born before and after 1990. Thirdly, I suggest the nearest similar word to ‘youth’ in Sesotho has different connotations to the English word. This highlights the need for take greater care with translation, because words are embedded in social experiences, and so provide clues to the way these vary.
I provide the study of social conflict in South Africa with a detailed timeline of the action that occurred in Zamdela, thus offering a micro- sociological account that goes beyond journalistic reports. This includes a map showing the progress of the...
M.A. (Sociology)