Magister Artium - MA / The study analysed the politics of resistance in Manenberg placing it within the over arching mass defiance campaign in Greater Cape Town at the time and comparing the strategies used to mobilize residents in Manenberg in the 1980s to strategies used in the period of the 2000s. The thesis also focused on several key figures in Manenberg with a view to understanding what local conditions inspired them to activism. The use of biographies brought about a synoptic view into activists lives, their living conditions, their experiences of the apartheid regime, their brutal experience of apartheid and their resistance and strength against a system that was prepared to keep people on the outside. This study found that local living conditions motivated activism and became grounds for mobilising residents to make Manenberg a site of resistance. It was easy to mobilise residents on issues around rent increases, lack of resources, infrastructure and proper housing. / South Africa

Thesis (M. A. (Political Science)) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / This study interrogated the politics of South Africa’s macro-economic policy. It done this by briefly analyzing the RDP and GEAR at length. The purpose was to identify the flaws in its conception and philosophy in order to modify it to make it more people friendly enthused with social democratic ideals. This is because it was hypothesized that if GEAR and the philosophy underpinning it were humane, poverty would have been significantly reduced. Moreover, the objective of this study was to highlight major macro-economic policy trends so as to suggest a macro-economic policy that will respond to the needs of all the people, particularly the poor. The macro-economic policies of the DA, COPE and COSATU were analysed to this end. Moreover, the NGP which replaced GEAR in November 2010 was also analysed, and it was found that they don’t differ ideologically. Both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were used to collect data. It was found that while GEAR succeeded in stabilizing the economy, it to achieve its employment, social equality and economic growth target. This study then recommended for a macro-economic policy which will intertwine private enterprise government intervention and planning to realize fair competition, maintaining a balance between high growth rate, low inflation and unemployment, together with the nationalization of the means of production. These proposals will yield equality, economic growth and higher job creation.

This study is premised on the assumption that women’s right to political participation in Africa is vital, especially as women constitute half of the population in African states. Since the 1990s, much attention has been focussed on the role of women in African politics. Consequently, women’s inclusion, especially in legislatures and in the executive arm of government, has increased during this period. International and national law, combined with political will, have been relied upon to ensure that women are included in key decisionmaking positions in national government. However, women’s political participation in local government has received less attention, despite the fact that local government may be the level of government best suited to positively impact on women’s daily lives. Four of the leading African states in respect of women’s political participation in local government are Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. The study focuses on these states with a view to establishing the extent to which they have domesticated international norms that advance women’s political participation in local government. Surveying relevant international instruments at the global and Africa regional level, the study establishes that generally, international law recognises women’s right to participate in politics. Local government was, in particular, not even mentioned and participation in local government could be inferred from the wider right to political participation. However, recent developments in international law are increasingly paying attention to local government. In addition, attention is increasingly being paid to ensuring that women enjoy the right to political participation on the basis of equality with men. Consequently, parity in representation is being promoted and states are expected to domesticate the international norms to which they are parties in order to realise the goal of equality in political participation. States have made efforts to domesticate international norms by including them in their constitutions or legislation. In addition, states have put in place temporary special measures focussing on the area of local government. These measures are to be utilised by states, to ensure that women participate more fully in local government. vi With respect to the four states under investigation, it is observed that there is a limited application of temporary special measures that can be used to promote women’s political participation in local government. In terms of the actual extent of women’s participation, the limited available data illustrates a relatively high percentage of women in local government, especially at the level of councillors where all the four states reviewed are performing reasonably well. None of the four states has attained gender parity among directly elected councillors even though the number of women councillors is fairly high in some of the states. Among other senior local government positions, the rate of including women is inconsistent. In some cases women are included in substantial numbers but there are also cases were the inclusion of women is disconcertingly low. States are also failing to provide detailed information on women’s political participation across all portfolios in local government. The implication of such shortcomings is that the actual levels of women’s inclusion remain largely unknown and therefore efforts to address women’s marginalisation are undermined. In order to ensure increased political participation of women at the local government level, a number of measures must be taken. First, efforts should be made at the international level to further elaborate the right to political participation with particular reference to local government, especially in so far as indirectly elected or appointed office is concerned. These are areas of local government where the current norms do not sufficiently advance women’s inclusion and as a result inclusion of women is inconsistent. Second, human rights treaty bodies should pay greater attention to questioning states on their performance in including women in local government. Questioning state performance will create greater awareness and increase the attention that states pay to women’s political participation in local government. Third, concerted efforts should be made to streamline legislation on local government in the four states under review with a view to making it simpler, clearer and consistent. The current proliferation of laws can create challenges in understanding the extent to which the law promotes women’s political participation in local government. Finally, the four states should display greater transparency with regard to providing data on women’s political participation in local government. Providing sufficient data would enable proper scrutiny and provide a diachronic picture of developments as far as women and men’s political participation in local government is concerned. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Centre for Human Rights / Unrestricted

In February 2017, Tanzanian President John Magufuli publicly declared a war on drugs, an unexpected change in policy in a country previously leading the way in harm reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa. The war on drugs, a set of policies aimed at reducing drug supply and use through the punishment, forced treatment and criminalization of drug users, is a part of Magufuli’s strategy to ‘clean up’ Tanzanian society. Prior to his election, the Tanzanian government largely ignored treatment and drug policy, and foreign NGOs, in partnership with local activists, funded and implemented harm reduction interventions. This thesis seeks to understand a puzzling reversal from harm reduction to repression, posing the questions: 1) How did the Tanzanian government implement a war on drugs that went against the goals of a number of powerful foreign actors funding services for drug users? 2) What have been the outcomes for drug users in Tanzania as a result of the drug policies and programming implemented since the election of Magufuli? 3) How does Tanzania’s war on drugs shape international and domestic approaches to drug use and drug policy in the country? In the fall of 2018, I interviewed foreign and local NGO workers, officials from major international organizations and former drug users and activists in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Using interviews and observations during this fieldwork, I explore the realities on the ground underlying both the drug policy changes towards drug users implemented over 2016/17, and the more public crackdown on drug use in 2017. I rely on a constructivist methodology to challenge and interrogate the narratives being produced by the Tanzanian government, which echoed harsh, war on drugs ideology but also boasted about comprehensive harm reduction programming, a contradictory position I also explore in this thesis. In answer to my first research question, I argue that the Tanzanian government evaded donor pressure or interference in pursuing an anti-drug user agenda through strategies of appeasement, intimidation and the exploitation of a neglected policy area. The Tanzanian government touted its harm reduction program at the international level to produce a narrative of continued support for drug users, appeasing donors and foreign agencies while, in reality, narrowing the scope of treatment to the detriment of people who use drugs. The government also used intimidation tactics, threatening the work of foreign NGOs working with vulnerable population, which chose to stay and provide limited services rather than risk being kicked out of the country. The Tanzanian government, with limited resources, took advantage of donors’ focus on HIV/AIDS and lack of commitment to drug users, to maneuver and achieve a repressive policy agenda without interference. I build on this argument using the evidence I gathered during fieldwork to answer to my second research question. I argue that the outcomes of the Tanzanian drug war agenda were increased police harassment, higher drug prices and fear of punishment among drug users which led to riskier drug use, greater difficulty in accessing services and greater economic vulnerability. Drug users had to go farther, spend more money on drugs and face harassment as they tried to avoid dopesickness. Policy changes resulted in the closure of harm reduction centres frequented by drug users, limited access to needle exchange and limited the outreach efforts of local and international NGOs, making life much more difficult for people who use drugs. During my research, I found that, contrary to some of the literature I read which posited the war on drugs as a Western strategy of political control, the Tanzanian government was actually producing war on drugs narratives, and using these narratives to justify its repressive policies. This finding supports the answer to my third research question. I argue that the Tanzanian government produced narratives of drugs hindering development, causing corruption and threatening national unity. I also argue that donors such as the United Kingdom, and foreign agencies working in HIV/AIDS, are reproducing these narratives and are following an agenda, set by the Tanzanian government, that does not meet the needs of drug users and supports the centralization and repression of the Magufuli regime. Foreign agencies shifted from supporting drug users, to instead following an agenda that does not meet their goals in reaching drug users. Donors did not notice or prioritize the increased abuse of drug users’ human rights at all, accepting the provision of methadone as evidence of support for drug users and continuing to provide general budget support to the Tanzanian government and even providing specific funding to limit drug supply in the country. The effectiveness of Tanzania producing such narratives, and enacting the repressive policies war on drugs narratives justify, reveals global antipathy towards actually supporting people who use drugs and advancing the rights of people who use drugs. In upholding old war on drugs narratives and implementing policies that attack people who use drugs, Tanzania is contributing to an international consensus that the war on drugs is justified as long as basic treatment is provided. This thesis, using the voices of activists and advocates on the ground, deconstructs the Tanzanian war on drugs. I argue for the inclusion of those with lived experiences in shaping and changing the repressive drug policies and epistemologies that are being produced by the Tanzanian state and are being accepted by the international community.

The study explains the regional roles of Egypt and South Africa in the last two decades by reference to the state’s relationship with society, a variable that has long been underplayed in international relations and foreign policy literature. It suggests that the different character of this relationship in each country has shaped the opportunities and constraints affecting the foreign policy choices of both the state and societal institutions in the two countries. The study adopts a cross-disciplinary approach using debates on state capacity and its relationship with regime type in comparative politics and political economy to understand and evaluate the two countries' foreign policies in their respective regions. After analysing the impact of state-society relationships on the regional role conceptions of the state and societal actors, the study compares the performance of these actors in two case studies; the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the case of Egypt and the Zimbabwean crisis in the case of South Africa. It concludes that although the role of each state in resolving its respective regional conflict has been less than effective, the post-apartheid democratic dispensation has provided opportunities for South African social forces to play roles that complemented, checked and balanced the role of the state, compared to their Egyptian counterparts. On the other hand, the soft authoritarian Egyptian state used its role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to maintain the international alliances that helped to sustain its domestic control. This constrained the state's foreign policy options. It made marketing peace as 'a strategic choice' and containing resistance movements the priorities of Egypt's intervention in the Palestinian issue. The co-optation of the Egyptian business community and the exclusion of Islamist forces by the state weakened their roles in conflict resolution, depriving the state of tools of effectiveness. In the case of South Africa, racial politics, the ANC's liberation movement psyche, and the domination of the presidency over foreign policy making have hindered the promotion of NEPAD's principles of democracy and respect for human rights in the case of Zimbabwe. However, South African civil society played a crucial role in supporting its Zimbabwean counterpart, holding the South African state accountable to its foreign policy principles and its democratic institutions, and intervening where the state's role was missing or insufficient.

This thesis addresses the question of who votes in Africa and why. It uses three sets of quantitative data at three different levels to test its claims: an original compilation of national level institutional and socioeconomic indicators for over 700 elections from independence until 2006 compiled by the author; the Afrobarometer survey of almost 50 000 voters in 17 multiparty African regimes; and the first ever purpose-built survey aimed at testing rational choice turnout models in an African case study, which was designed, administered and analysed by the author in 2005 in Durban, South Africa. It uses a mixture of statistical methods to test comprehensively the determinants of voting in pooled and multilevel, logistic and linear, individual and national level models. It finds that the central claims of the rational choice model do not generally apply in African elections. Both the closeness of the election and the costs of participation are not found to be central to the voting calculus of African voters. Instead those citizens who face the highest barriers to participation in the West: the rural, poor and minimally educated, are the citizens who vote most in Africa. The thesis argues that this is because turnout in Africa is mobilised turnout and these are the groups of people targeted by mobilising agents. It further finds that three central institutions of African politics; ethnicity, clientelism and regime type further structure patterns of mobilisation in ways that have been entirely neglected in studies of turnout until now. Finally, it confirms that voting is habitual and that voters are socialised by formative experiences in their youth, especially the nature of the regime that they grow up in and how democratic they think the country is.

This study develops a geographic theory relating to sub-imperial states and resistance to them. The theory is centred on what can be called the government-business-media (GBM) complex, whilst resistance to such states is characterised as counter-imperialist discourses. The theory is applied primarily to South Africa’s (SA’s) interactions with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The aim is to assess the state of SA’s sub-imperialism and evaluate the claim that this sub-imperialism is in crisis. The research findings are based on media material drawn from, and interviews conducted in, Botswana, Zambia and SA. The thesis outlines how sub-imperialism should be regarded as a distinct analytical and theoretical phenomenon. It explores the theoretical context in which the GBM complex and counter-imperialist discourses may be viewed. Using this theoretical framework, the study then traces the historical geographical development of SA’s GBM complex. Building on this, the thesis identifies and examines regional responses and attitudes to SA’s post-apartheid political, business and cultural-media engagement with the region, by analysing counter-imperialist discourses to SA during this period. In order to assess the current state of SA’s sub-imperialism, case studies were taken from the following four areas which cover crucial aspects of SA’s post-apartheid engagement with the region: SA’s parastatal expansion (Eskom); SA’s peacemaking role (Zimbabwe); SA’s state-driven rhetoric of multiculturalism and tolerance (xenophobia); and SA’s hosting of mega-events (2010 Football World Cup). In each of these areas the intended geopolitical and geoeconomic discourses of the GBM complex, and the corresponding responses in the region, are investigated. It is concluded that there is a discrepancy between the intended discourses of the GBM complex and the responses from the region, giving rise to counter-imperialist discourses. These discourses support the claim that SA’s sub-imperialism is in crisis.

Despite significant growth in the number of 'good governance' initiatives promising to generate optimum developmental outcomes in resource-rich countries, there is surprisingly little empirical information about their sector and country-specific dynamics. This thesis focusses on how external 'good governance' norms and institutions interact with domestic actors and organisations to shape the institutional landscape of resource-rich countries. This objective is pursued by means of an in-depth case study of Ghana, a Sub-Saharan African nation that has become a middle-sized exporter of crude oil since January 2011. More specifically, it scrutinises two major reform efforts designed to steer the country's oil industry towards a developmental direction: the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international auditing and multi-stakeholder oversight mechanism, and the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, a home-grown citizens' oversight initiative in Ghana. The analytical lens employed in the study is based on comparative political economy and comparative institutional analysis. They are employed to make sense of the dialectic between the promise of corrective 'good governance' measures and the mirage of reform outcomes in the Ghanaian oil sector. The main argument advanced here is that 'good governance' solutions in the oil industry are essentially weak instruments, due to their inability to grapple with deep-seated instrumental politics, perverse institutional environment, and elite capture that continue to undermine reform in Ghana. This point is adduced to highlight the shortcomings of the 'good governance' agenda. The thesis draws from multiple data sources, collected through semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders, public officials, NGOs and community activists, development agencies, and oil companies. These are complemented by archival research, documentary sources, non-participant observation, and workshops.

This thesis examines the lives of Senior Chief Koinange wa Mbiyu and his eldest son, Peter Mbiyu Koinange. It joins with the growing rise of biographical work within African Studies. It challenges the historical understanding of late colonial rule in Kenya and the role of official myth in pre- and post-independence historical narratives. Koinange wa Mbiyu was the patriarch of one of the most respected, wealthy, and politically influential Kikuyu families of Kenya's colonial and post-colonial period. His eldest son, Peter Mbiyu, received a prestigious education abroad and returned to Kenya where he became a prominent leader for African independent education African political action. Koinange and Peter bear frequent mention in academic discussions of collaboration, discontent, nationalism, and militancy in Kenya's colonial era. This thesis challenges the widely held narrative that Koinange and Peter embraced militant politics opposing colonial rule during the 1940s. While fitting larger understandings of decolonisation, it is not an honest depiction of the Koinange's political actions. As a result, this thesis is intentionally a work of revisionist history that looks to the profound changes in the culture and nature of colinal rule during the 1940s, rather than a political shift in the Koinanges. In addition to challenging the prevalent understanding of Koinange and Peter's political action, this thesis raises a number of areas - gender, wealth, elite and family dynamics, to name a few - where the Koinange family history would further illuminate the historical understanding of the colonial era. This thesis is a dual biography, crafted as a work of narrative history. It challenges a breadth of current scholarship, utilizing the largest collection of pre-Mau Mau archival records to date. This thesis engages with a number of historiographical challenges related to biography, the individual, the family, and the challenges of oral history shaped in the crucible of cultural crisis.

Primarily, this study seeks to examine the means and effectiveness of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, African human and Peoples' rights organizations, and the government of the Gambia in their efforts to propagate the institutions and legal instruments of the African Human and Peoples' Rights System (AHPRS) in general and the rights and duties of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights in the country of The Gambia in particular since the Charter came into force in 1986. The work explores the history of the AHPRS from ancient conceptions of rights and duties within Classical Africa to its formal establishment in the 1980s and 1990s with emphasis placed on the particular political and social history of The Gambia. Further, the work presents and analyzes the work of three African human rights organizations operating within The Gambia and offers an Afrocentric critique of the promotion of the African Human and Peoples' Rights System. / African American Studies