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Angifi Dladla and the bleakness of freedom

  • Authors: Dladla, Angifi
  • Date: 2020
  • Subjects: Dladla , South Africa , Violence
  • Language: English
  • Type: Article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/464575 , uj:41509 , Citation: Dladla, A. 2020. Angifi Dladla and the bleakness of freedom. , DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/reseafrilite.51.3.08
  • Description: Abstract: Angifi Dladla is a Poet of No Sure Place. His poetry speaks for the marginalized and explores the otherwise unmentioned dynamics of South Africa's political and social landscape. In this article I explore how this label is demonstrated within his two collections of poetry, The Girl Who Then Feared to Sleep and Lament for Kofifi Machu. More specifically, my argument engages with the evolving meanings of freedom evoked by Dladla, first in his apartheid-era poetry and, second, in that of today's post-apartheid situation. I demonstrate how the black-on-black violence of the 1980s townships caused a sense of confinement that forced Dladla within himself. Only then was he able to understand freedom and chart a way forward. Following this, the article turns toward those poems that depict contemporary South Africa. My analysis suggests that when freedom, not oppression, is the official political environment of the day, the reality for many is only continued violence and despair. To chart a way out of this bleak malaise, Dladla exhorts others to write in the style of his own poetry.
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Democracy as an open-ended Utopia : reviving a sense of uncoerced political possibility

  • Authors: Friedman, Steven
  • Date: 2012-03
  • Subjects: Contention , Democracy , Revolution , Violence , Utopian thought
  • Type: Article
  • Identifier: uj:5837 , ISSN 1558-5816 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/7867
  • Description: Utopian thought has been discredited because attempts to re-engineer society using Utopian formulae have invariably produced violence and despotism. But the apparent eclipse of Utopia has left a yawning gap, for economic and social conditions across the globe suggest a need for alternatives to the reigning social order - and thus for Utopian thinking which avoids the pitfalls of 'classical' Utopias. This needs to begin by recognising that the chief flaw in earlier Utopias is that they aspired to a world in which contention and conflict were banished. If Utopia is imagined as a state in which contest persists but in which all can contest equally without violence, it becomes a state in which democratic difference is not abolished - as in earlier Utopias - but in which it reaches its fulfillment. By conceptualising democracy as an 'openended' Utopia we can reconstruct the vision of an alternative which will legitimise neither violence nor the suppression of difference. Utopia is, in the mainstream of social and political thought, no longer seen as a subject for serious discussion. It is necessary that it become one again.
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Die effek van geweld op maatskaplikewerk-dienslewering in geweldgeteisterde gebiede

  • Authors: Van Zyl, Pieter Jacobus
  • Date: 2012-09-11
  • Subjects: Social workers , Social workers - Job stress , Violence , Violent crimes - Social aspects , Criminals - Rehabilitation , Criminals - Social aspects , Social workers – Research - South Africa , Violent crimes - Social aspects - Research - South Africa , Criminals – Rehabilitation - Research - South Africa
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:10057 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/7445
  • Description: M.A. , The aim of this study was to compare the effect of violence on the rendering of social work services in severely strife-torn areas with its effect in moderately strife-torn areas. The social workers in the Gauteng Department of Welfare and Population Development were divided into two groups according to the area in which they render services. 2. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF VIOLENCE AND SOCIAL WORK A broad theoretical outline followed which consisted of the definition of violence, the rendering of social work services and crime. Furthermore attention was given to theories of violence and different types of violence. Then a description of violence in South Africa was given, followed by a layout of the many factors contributing to violence in South Africa. This section concluded with a description of violence in the rendering of social work services nationally and internationally. RESEARCH DESIGN The research concentrated on a comparative study which was undertaken between social workers rendering services in severely strife-torn areas and those rendering services in moderately strife-torn areas with regard to the effect violence had upon them in the rendering of services to clients. RESEARCH RESULTS Six types of hypotheses were postulated beforehand and these were then compared with information that was received from respondents from the two identified areas. The results may be summarised briefly as follows: Social workers in both strife-torn areas were prevented from visiting clients; they were prevented from going to work; their vehicles were hijacked; their vehicles were stoned often; they were abducted; they had to run away or hide; their service offices were damaged; they were late for work; their service offices had to close at times; there were times they felt that their families were in danger; they didn't want to visit clients living in certain areas; violence caused them to postpone dealing with other social problems; their relationships with their clients were strained; their clients were prevented from keeping appointments; their clients were mildly injured (no hospitalisation); their clients were seriously injured or killed; the social workers had to take leave as a result of violence; some of them possess licensed firearms (11 out of 81 social workers); they can testify to incidents where people were killed or seriously injured; they felt negative about the effect violence had on their rendering of social work services; and they were positive about the proposed ways to handle violent situations. In addition, when comparing these two areas, clients known to social workers in severely strife-torn areas can testify to more incidents where they witnessed people being killed or seriously injured, than those in moderately strife-torn areas; clients themselves were also injured more in the former than in the latter areas; and the social workers in the former areas felt that their families were in greater danger than those of their counterparts in moderately strife-torn areas. But the other variables was found not to be statistically significant. 5. RECOMENDATIONS The respondents' reaction to the proposed ways to handle violent situations led to the prioritisation of the following fourteen ways in descending order of importance: two-way radios or cellular telephones in vehicles; replacement of "G" by "T" registration of vehicles; verbal telephone codes to request assistance; in-service training in order to handle violent situations; awareness of high-risk procedures, for example the removing of a child; reporting and recording incidents of violence; retreating and getting away if possible; obtaining discreet police assistance; using conventional alarm systems; the proximity of a "stand-by" person; paired home-visits; pre-arranged interview interruptions; carrying a service firearm; and supervised office interviews. The above-mentioned ways of handling violent situations were then included in four main categories to form part of a safety strategy for this specific organisation.
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Disruption as a communicative strategy : the case of #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall students’ protests in South Africa

  • Authors: Mpofu, Shepherd
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: Fallist movements , Disruption , Violence
  • Language: English
  • Type: Article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/250396 , uj:26093 , Citation: Mpofu, S. 2017. Disruption as a communicative strategy : the case of #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall students’ protests in South Africa.
  • Description: Abstract: In 1994 South Africa became a miracle in the world of postcolonies as a newly independent ‘rainbow’ nation-state. Apartheid was replaced by an informal but still identical system which I refer to as apartheid. Good governance, democracy, peace, civility and quiet are framed by the media and regarded by investors and political elite among others to be the preferred set-up of things. Using the rage in the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall student protests as data, I argue that disrupting the world as we know it in order to address the poor’s grievances is part and parcel of strategic and effective communication especially for the marginalised poor majority black people whose dreams remain deferred. This argument will be framed by questions around the current burdens of apartheid, the achievements of disruptive protests and the meaning, roles and behaviours of officialdom towards members and ideologies of Fallist movements.
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Excited by the killings: How the Chronicle Newspaper Covered Gukurahundi Genocide in Zimbabwe

Excited by the Killings: How The Chronicle Newspaper Covered Gukurahundi Genocide In Zimbabwe

  • Authors: Ncube, Bhekinkosi Jakobe
  • Date: 2021
  • Subjects: Gukurahundi , Ndebele , Violence
  • Language: English
  • Type: Journal article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/490610 , uj:44775 , Citation: Ncube, B.J., 2021. Excited by the Killings: How The Chronicle Newspaper Covered Gukurahundi Genocide In Zimbabwe. African Journal of Rhetoric, 13(1), pp.100-119.
  • Description: Abstract: This paper examines and interrogates the role of the state-controlled media during the Gukurahundi genocide in Zimbabwe. Gukurahundi is a genocide that took place in Zimbabwe between 1983 and 1987 resulting in the death of thousands of innocent civilians, mostly Zimbabwe African People’s Union Patriotic Front (PF-ZAPU) opposition supporters to the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU-PF)’s ruling party. This paper is against the realisation that there is an intrinsic relationship between the media, in the form of hate speech, propaganda, violence and ethnicity. Hate speech has been the soundtrack of the genocide in Zimbabwe in particular and in Africa in general. Research on the role of the media in state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe has tended to focus more on the post-2000 land invasions and political violence. Similarly, most of the writings on the role of media during genocides in Africa have justifiably tended to focus on the role of the RTLM radio in the Rwandan genocide where close to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days. This paper deploys textual analysis to analyse articles by a state-controlled Chronicle newspaper. Using the propaganda model and political economy theoretical frameworks, and the Chronicle newspaper as a case study, this paper therefore seeks to show that as opposed to Rwanda where the media openly urged the killers on, in Zimbabwe, the media was used to mask and justify the genocide of over 20000 innocent civilians.
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Exploring counsellor burnout and personal accomplishment in organisations that empower abused women

  • Authors: Hatfield, Kelly
  • Date: 2012-03-05
  • Subjects: Counselors , Burn out (Psychology) , Adjustment (Psychology) , Violence , Abused women , Wife abuse , Rape
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:2141 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/4508
  • Description: M.A. , Violence in South Africa has reached epidemic proportions. Violence against women is one area in which this social undercurrent continuously plays itself out. People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) and Rape Crisis, Cape Town (RCCT) are two organizations that use lay counsellors to focus specifically on counselling women who have endured rape and domestic violence. Burnout is widely recognized as a consequence of this helping profession. This quantitative study comprised of 26 female counsellors from POWA and RCCT, who completed questionnaires that included demographic data, the Maslach Burnout Inventory to measure levels of burnout and personal accomplishment, and the COPE that measures different coping styles. The statistical analysis used was Pearson's correlation t-tests and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results showed that this small sample group do not feel burned out, but rather have a sense of personal accomplishment. The counsellors listed eleven of the fourteen coping styles suggested as useful, and five of these appeared significantly so. Certain differences in coping techniques became apparent when analysed according to demographic data. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are also discussed.
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Gangs : spatialities and socialities in South Africa

  • Authors: Maringira, Godfrey
  • Date: 2020
  • Subjects: Gangs , Crime , Violence
  • Language: English
  • Type: Article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/464583 , uj:41510 , Citation: Maringira, G. 2020. Gangs : spatialities and socialities in South Africa. , DOI: https://doi.org/10.25159/0256-8845/8336
  • Description: Abstract: The “making” of gang relationships has remained at the periphery of research, yet it is critical in understanding the continuity and sustainability of gangsterism in different contexts. This paper examines the ways in which young men involved in gang violence forge and sustain their relationships in the streets of a black township in South Africa. I argue that the “making” of gang relationships is never easy; rather, it is characterised by violence within and outside gang membership. The article asserts that, within gangs, violence is a technique which sustains their relationships, as it acts as a source of social and emotional support—especially in a context characterised by fractured families as well as social and economic marginalisation. The paper draws from an ethnography of walking the township streets, being in gang streets, talking to gang members, engaging with and observing young men involved in gang violence.
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Violence as communication? : youth protest in Thembelihle informal settlement

  • Authors: Ledwaba, Madumetja Jayson
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Political violence - South Africa - Thembelihle Informal Settlement , Riots - South Africa - Thembelihle Informal Settlement , Squatter settlements - South Africa - Gauteng , Violence , Communication
  • Language: English
  • Type: Masters (Thesis)
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/420356 , uj:35787
  • Description: Abstract: Is violence a form of communication? This study examined why, in contemporary South Africa, “service delivery protests” were typically violent and why violence has appeared to become synonymous with such protests. Could it be that citizens, particularly the youth who participate in these protests, engage in acts of violence to communicate their discontent with unfulfilled aspirations, poor service delivery by government and its contractors and subcontractors, and systematic exclusion from political and economic participation? The study examined the real or perceived turn to violence by black youth in post-apartheid South Africa service delivery protests and asked how, if at all, violence constitutes a form of communication. The deeper fascination, in the end, was with an account of violence-as-communication and participation-as-communication that adequately foregrounds the interaction, on the one hand, between spectacular violence and systemic violence and, on the other, the complex praxis of communication and participation. The study, located in the informal settlement of Thembelihle which experienced major protest upheavals in 2015 (leading to then president Jacob Zuma to intervene directly), deployed a qualitative research design to investigate participation by the youth of Thembelihle’s in so-called service delivery protests, and probed what they thought they were doing in the process. Using semi-structured face-to-face interviews and focus groups, and the theories of violence by Zizek and Fanon, the study found that indeed violence is a form of communication, but not only in the ways we conventionally understand communication. Rather, such communication is bound up with questions (and contradictions) of identity, participation, equality and justice which not only defeat easy generalisation but also transcend the discipline of communication. Before, during and after a protest, violence is transformed into a multifaceted communication tool through which the full subjectivities and politics of the subaltern youth emerge, while at the same time calling into question both the future of the poor black youth in South Africa and the direction of post-apartheid democratic South Africa. , M.A. (Fundamental Communication)
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