A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology. 2016 / This thesis focuses on the everyday operation of the African National Congress (ANC) as a dominant party in post-apartheid South Africa. It examines the scope of intraparty politics, particularly the trajectory of factionalism in ANC local structures after 1994. Despite the dominance of the ANC in South Africa’s political field, its more recent political trajectory most particularly since it became a party of government in 1994 is much less well understood (Butler and Southall 2015: 1). The party has traditionally been studied using a top-down perspective and with a focus on elite level exchanges in which dynamics at the national level are viewed to reverberate downwards whilst drawing on information from party leaders. The contribution made by this thesis is that it offers a detailed qualitative focus on the operation of ANC intraparty politics at a local level drawing on evidence from Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. The overriding aim of this study which is informed by theoretical expositions on the dominant party approach and on patronage and clientelism, is to understand how factionalism in the ANC has evolved in the post-apartheid era. The thesis observes that the ANC’s political dominance after 1994 saw the gradual conflation of the party and state partly through two processes related the party’s transformative agenda. Firstly, the state itself had to be transformed to reflect the demographic composition of the country and for the most part the ANC deployed its cadres into the state who could tow the party line. Secondly, the party relied on the state as a vehicle for redistribution and the transformation of the broader political economy to achieve equity and growth. Hence black economic empowerment, state preferential procurement and other policies to uplift previously disadvantaged social groups became stepping stones for the emergent African middle and upper class. Whilst these processes transformed the state, they also fundamentally transformed the party itself as it became a site of accumulation. Intraparty contestation intensified over the limited opportunities for upward mobility provided by access to the state. The thesis argues that factionalism increasingly became characterised by patronage as competing groups within the party sought to ring-fence their political power and the opportunities for upward mobility provided by the state. This was also compounded by deepening neoliberalism whose consequences of unemployment, poverty and inequality especially at the local level led to increased dependence on the local state and the development of factionalism based on patronage politics. The thesis then explores how patronage operates in everyday practice at the local level. It shows how patron-client relationships are not merely the exchange of state resources for political support but rather they embody a field of power relations (Auyero 2001). Evidence from Buffalo City offers an important insight into how patronage exchanges are preceded by complex relationships of power that are established over time and through various enactments. The thesis demonstrates how patrons, brokers and clients exercise various forms of power every day that inform inclusion or exclusion into networks for distributing scarce state resources. It challenges views that regard factionalism and patronage as elite driven practices. / MT2017

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management March 2016 / The critical observation for public administration and governance in South Africa has been the relationship between senior managers and political officials since the establishment of the democratic government in the country. The first documented observation in the United States of America by Woodrow Wilson marked the launch of public administration as an independent faculty, breaking away from the political sciences. The dominant theory that characterised public administration was that there must be a clear distinction between politics and public administration. This theory suggested that politics had nothing to do with public administration and, therefore, politicians should not intrude into matters of public administration. For contemporary academia, it is crucial to ask questions about the relevance of Wilson’s perspective with regard to the relationship between senior managers and political officials. Nevertheless, contemporary scholars are challenged by the emergent need to study the dual nature of public administration, suggesting that public administration should not be separated from politics, since public administration is merely the expression of the political ideology. Hence, politics and public administration should be inseparable. To refute or reaffirm these notions, this thesis explores this study by reviewing the relationship between senior public managers and political officials through analysing the politics– administration interface in South Africa between 1999 and 2009. In congruence with the main research questions of this study, the researcher utilises four pre-claims to examine the politics–administration interface and the factors that lead to strained relationships around the interface. The first pre-claim in this study examines the notion suggesting that it is the nature of the political bureau to dominate public administration. The second pre-claim examines the notion suggesting that there could be conflicting leadership styles between a political official and a senior public service official. The third pre-claim is that political officials may have a different political ideology as compared with the political ideology upheld by a senior public service official. The fourth pre-claim is that political officials or public service officials or both parties may have some disregard for documented duties and responsibilities. Consequently, this study examines the politics–administration interface in South Africa within the scope of the pre-claims as presented in the introduction to the study. The study found that the colonial legacy in the Commonwealth Nations with features of the Westminster system of governance perpetuates political bureau dominance over public administration. The study further found that it is conventionally accepted that the political bureau should provide guidance to the public administration bureau and dominate public administration which is only the expression of the prevailing political will. The researcher has examined the pre-claim of conflicting leadership styles between the elected officials and senior public servants. The study found that between 1999 and 2009 there was a transition from the collective leadership of the ruling political bureau to a closed conventional leadership system where political power was centralized in the presidency, resulting in leadership through fear and mistrust. Regarding the pre-claim on different ideologies, this study argues that public administration is the implementation of political ideologies, and public service managers are at the apex of implementing policies for the benefit of the social classes on behalf of the political bureau, which drives the ideologies of a ruling political party. Therefore, different political ideologies between the political bureau and the administration bureau may be one of the factors of a strained politics–administration interface. The study found that in cases (Buthelezi and Masetlha as well as Zille and Mgoqi) where officials from different political parties attempted to work, the arrangement resulted in a power struggle in the politics–administration interface. With regard to the pre-claim on disregard for documented rules and responsibilities, the study found that the problem in the interface is not always the neglect of documented rules and responsibilities, but rather that in some cases the documented rules and responsibilities are not always clear, resulting in grey or nondescript areas in the politics−administration interface that are ultimately claimed by the political bureau. This study has further proposed a public service governance structure with an added governance responsibility for the Public Service Commission to oversee the administration in order to distance the political bureau from public administration operations and direct engagement with senior public servants, such as the directors-general. / MT 2018

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A research project submitted at the University of the Witwatersrand, Department of Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, in fulfilment of the Master of Arts (Research) Degree. / South Africa’s countryside’s are rich in ‘new’ high-demand metal and energy minerals, like platinum and uranium, as well as vast, untapped reserves of industrial staples, above all coal. Yet, these are also characterised by deep rural poverty and legally insecure systems of ‘customary’ tenure, under the local administrative control of traditional authorities. Here, new mining activity is setting in motion significant processes dispossession and Immiseration that are at once tracing, reconfiguring and widening the class, gender and other social divisions that define these rural settings. Communal land is frequently alienated with little or no compensation, local residents forcibly removed to make way for surface infrastructure, and scarce water and other natural resources polluted and depleted. At the same time political tensions are arising from the assumption that local chiefs are ‘custodians’ of the mineral-rich land under their jurisdiction. Questions of land, livelihood and rural democracy are thus intimately bound together on the new frontiers of the regional extractives boom in ways that are having profound implications for growing numbers of the rural poor. Using a case study of the Bapo ba Mogale traditional Authority in the North West Province, South Africa, this thesis seeks to explore how these new mining activities are shaping and reconfiguring the heightened political contestations over the institution of traditional leadership in the area, the definitions of community and belonging/exclusion, and the struggles over land ownership and how mining capital is shaping these struggles and is connected with these struggles / EM2017

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Political Studies, 2016 / This dissertation is a critical examination of anti-Indian racism in post-apartheid South Africa. While racism presents an intractable problem for all racial groups in South Africa, this dissertation will show that Indian South Africans are especially framed by a specific racist discourse related to broad perceptions of economic exploitation within the context of redistributive and resource-allocation conflicts, political corruption, insularity and general lack of a socio-cultural ‘fit’ with the rest of South African society. This is not unique to present day South Africa and is (albeit in evolving ways) a long standing phenomenon. Key concerns addressed by the dissertation are: the lack of critical attention to the matter of anti-Indian racism, the historical origins of anti-Indian racism, the characteristics and dynamics of anti-Indian racism and its persistence in post-apartheid South Africa despite an avowed commitment of South Africa’s new post-apartheid dispensation to a non-racial society. / MT2017

Living in a country plagued by high crime rates and negative perceptions of the South African Police Service, South Africans are relying more and more on devices such as siege architecture and fortification to attain a sense of safety and security. However, these fortified enclaves do not just provide people with a sense of safety, they also serve as manifestations of Apartheid memory: intensifying segregation and ‘othering’, discouraging the growth of community and working against the development of healthy and inspiring civic spaces. At the same time, society’s obsession with police criminality, intensified by the influence of the media, has made policing one of the most contentious topics in post-Apartheid South Africa. Consequently, the relationship between the police – the state’s strong-arm of power – and the people is fragile, tense, and unpredictable, symptomatic of the palpable divide that separates the state and the people, a divide which is reinforced by a lack of spatial justice and a relic architecture which neither the state nor the people can identify with. As a tangible tool of cultural expression and a discourse of time and place, architecture embodies a nation’s shared history, its present, and its future aspirations. Architecture is also fundamental to the cause of change, serving as a catalyst and an interface through which the divide between the state and its people may be reconciled. However, the police station as an institutional building – a social incubator – remains apathetic to the ‘everyday’. This archetype demands a drastic rethinking of both parti and contextual setting. Such a reform could potentially transform the police station into an integral, effective, and active facilitator of relationships and make possible the goal of ‘community policing’.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Management at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Management in Public and Development Management, 2016 / This report sought to determine the nature of participatory democracy practices in Madibeng municipality. In order to achieve the intension of this study, two research questions were formulated (1) what is the nature of participatory democracy in Madibeng municipality? (2) To what extent does the implementation of participatory democracy mechanisms influence municipal policy decisions? A hypothesis was formulated in respect of the second question that: The implementation of participatory democracy mechanisms in Madibeng is limited to compliance with existing laws and regulations. Data was drawn from two strata’s (population samples), [ward councillors and community members] from Madibeng municipality. A probability simple random sampling was used to collect data from a total list of 36 ward councillors, whilst a non-probability convenient sampling was used to collect data from 27 community members. In respect of ward councillors, the study targeted 26 respondents and only achieved 52% response rate, whilst a total of 11 respondent was targeted and 27 responses were attained, indicating 145% response rate in respect of data collected from community members. The general finding in relation to the first question is that participatory democracy practice in Madibeng municipality is characterised by the implementation of five mechanisms; IDP, Ward committee structures, Mayoral imbizos, Policy public hearings and Petitioning system. A revelation was made that communities prefer to participate in IDP and ward committee structures meetings than the other three mechanisms reflected in the report. However, it remained unclear as to how effective and efficient is the exercising of the two preferred mechanisms. The general arguments found in various literature sources, that the practice of participatory democracy in South Africa’s local municipalities seem ineffective and often do not often yield positive results, was also confirmed by this study. This conclusion was based on the revelations made from the contradicting responses given by ward councilors and community members. In general, ward councilors considered the implementation of available participatory democracy practices in Madibeng as effective and strongly believed such practices informs the municipal Executive Council’s policy decisions to a large extent. On the other hand, community members seemed unsure or inadequately informed about the influence, their participation in policy decisions has on the overall service delivery by the municipality. / XL2018

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, September 2017 / The study attempts to examine the relationship between national identity and political sovereignty and their impact on the emergence of nations, with a special focus on debates around the South African nation-state from 1990 to 2004. Located within the postcolonialism approach, the study looks at national identity through the prism of ethnicity, language, religion and race, while sovereignty is considered through its two component parts, the state and citizenry. By examining two postcolonial contexts, the Arab world and India, the study has developed a framework which is applied to the study of the South African state. This framework identifies nationalism as a glue which holds sovereignty and identity together in the nation-state. The two cases reveal that there is always more than one nationalist narrative, often competing against each other. In the case of the Arab world the study looks at the tensions between pan-Arabism, Arab nationalism and Islamism. In the case of India a secular Indian nationalism has had to compete against a Hindu nationalism. The study argues that South Africa’s history has been characterised by contestation between a white, Afrikaner nationalism and an African nationalism. As in the two case studies, these narratives are not just polar ends, but rather a complex spectrum which has seen alliances being struck across the racial divide. The essence of the former has been an attempt at addressing the ‘Native Question’, that is how to manage the continued subjugation of the overwhelming number of Africans in this country. Having its roots as a reaction to its socio-economic conditions in the Cape, it evolved into an ethnically constructed view of itself and through which it mobilised political and economic resources to perpetuate its dominance after it reached its zenith in the 1948 elections. This narrative’s arc saw it being redefined in race terms to encompass English-speaking whites, and then through a combination of anti-communist rhetoric and anti-African scare-mongering, included the coloured and Indian parts of the South African population. Today it manifests itself in a return to an ethnic laager which takes the form of attempts at discriminating against non-Afrikaans speakers on the basis of an appeal to victimhood and the exercise of constitutional rights. The African nationalism narrative begins from the mid-1800s, tracing the impact of those educated at missionary schools on the society they came from. This Christian elite came to play a powerful role in establishing a plethora of organisations so that as the wars of resistance were ending, political mobilisation was taking off. This mobilisation took the form of voter registration and voting for those white candidates considered to be acting in the interests of Africans, church congregations as well as newspapers which served as platforms for airing of grievances. A moderate, urbanbased, accommodating form of politics ran parallel to a more militant, rural-based form of resistance. The former would shape the first few decades of the African National Congress until the 1940s, while the latter was subsumed under the rhetoric of the nationalist elite – similar to the experiences of India and the Arab world. / XL2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Studies, 2016 / The emergence of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) as a new and ‘radical’ political party significantly altered the shape of the political landscape in South Africa. As one of the starting points in this paper, I show how the EFF comes out of a history in the ANCYL before turning attention to public discussions on the organisation. These contemporary debates about the EFF have taken numerous forms, oftentimes in deeply polarised ways - from those who argue that the EFF is pejoratively populist or fascist to arguments that the party is a crucial left alternative. Within the context of these debates, this research paper grapples with the question of the political character of the EFF, ultimately arguing that the EFF is populist. I use, however, a framework for populism set out by Ernesto Laclau thus marking a break with most discussions on the EFF that are often theoretically limited. This research works with both the empirical and the theoretical – in doing this I utilise Michael Burawoy’s ‘extended case method’ to ground the discussion and to provide a method that encompasses the field research – I used semi-structured interviews and participant observation – with a theoretical inquiry. This research is based on the Marikana Branch of the EFF, in the North West Province. In using data from respondents, a number of conclusions about the EFF in Marikana are drawn out around the membership base of the EFF, organisational structures, the relations with other organisations as well as the class, gender and age substance of the party. These conclusions partly stand on their own in building an understanding of the EFF. They are also used in a central discussion around populism in the EFF and the building of a collective political subjectivity that is premised on the popular. In this way, this research works on two interlinked levels that feed into answering questions around the EFF as a new political formation. In line with Burawoy’s method that is used throughout this research, I also outline some of the key limitations of using Laclau’s theory of populism in understanding the EFF and how we move from these limitations through the work presented around the Marikana Branch. / MT2017

South Africa adopted a local integration settlement policy for refugees which formed the basis for the reception of refugees into the country since the early 1990s. This policy also laid the foundation for Refugee legislation that was subsequently developed to deal with the arrival of refugees including the applications for asylum and the processes related thereto. The fact that South Africa decided on a local integration policy in the early 1990s is an anomaly in that many countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region at the time and even now had encampment policies where refugees are kept in camps and have minimal freedom of movement outside camp settlements. Foreign policy sometimes plays a critical role in shaping domestic policy in various spheres. This research study has determined that South Africa’s Foreign Policy Practice both during the transition years between 1991-1994 and post 1994 played a major role in South Africa adopting a human rights based settlement policy for refugees. This was initially informed by South Africa’s desire to show the international community that the country was indeed adopting democratic principles and thus denying any role in the destabilisation in the region. After 1994 South Africa had acceded to international instruments on the protection of refugees without any reservations on the freedom of movement. The focus of the study is on the decision-making process that led to the signing of both the 1991 Memorandum of Understanding and the 1993 Basic Agreement between South Africa and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and subsequent adoption of the Refugees Act in 1998 to establish the role played by foreign policy and other foreign policy factors in the final decision of adopting local integration. Findings from this research further highlight the role of civic actors for both the pre and post 1994 periods. The study has implications for other countries in the region and beyond which are promoting democratic principles while curtailing the right to freedom of movement for refugees.