Apartheid helped create enclaves of safety and familiarity for some communities in South Africa, making those communities impermeable to outside influences, preserving class, culture, caste, religion and race into neat little packages. The demise of apartheid broke those enclaves, changing the landscape of those comfort zones and forcing them to reimagine a new sense of community. Clutching onto the remnants of this past, yet wanting liberation and economic change, these communities are fast learning that some things have got to give. Tongaat, a town constituted like most other South African Indian townships, is one that I grew up in. This research project is my personal journey in which I recount my own memories of the town’s culture, caste system and racial divides using the safety net of being an outsider yet having the privilege of being an insider. Through interviews I investigate if the residents of the town have taken possession of their new political freedoms since the end of apartheid from a class, culture, caste, race and economic perspective. I examine the policy interventions that were introduced in relation to land reform, housing, education and socio-economic empowerment to enable change on the social front. Have these interventions impacted on the lives of the towns inhabitants and what is the future of Tongaat? / XL2018

Food insecurity in South Africa is not due to a shortage of food in the country but to inadequate access to food by poor groups of individuals and households. Many people, who lost their jobs due to retrenchments or can’t find suitable jobs for various reasons, revert to street trading or other activities of the informal economy as a survival strategy. There is limited information on understanding the food security status and strategies used by street traders and their households in Durban. This study aims to understand the extent of food insecurity among street traders in terms of their access to food, the quality of food consumed and the strategies they used to cope with food shortage. A mixed research method composed of a survey, face to face interviews and observations were conducted with a sample population of 120. The findings of this study confirmed that the sector was dominated by semi-literate people who generated R2000 per month which was to be shared with an average of 4 members of their respective households. Consequently, the majority of street traders’ households lived below the poverty line, thus food insecure. Limited income compromised the quality of food consumed: energy dense food dominated their food; hence 59.2% suffered from communicable lifestyle diseases. The study recommended more studies in this field, the extension of the Isipingo census to the entire municipality and the decriminalization of street trading by the municipality in order to improve the food security situation of street traders. / Geography / M.A. (Human Ecology)

Food insecurity in South Africa is not due to a shortage of food in the country but to inadequate access to food by poor groups of individuals and households. Many people, who lost their jobs due to retrenchments or can’t find suitable jobs for various reasons, revert to street trading or other activities of the informal economy as a survival strategy. There is limited information on understanding the food security status and strategies used by street traders and their households in Durban. This study aims to understand the extent of food insecurity among street traders in terms of their access to food, the quality of food consumed and the strategies they used to cope with food shortage. A mixed research method composed of a survey, face to face interviews and observations were conducted with a sample population of 120. The findings of this study confirmed that the sector was dominated by semi-literate people who generated R2000 per month which was to be shared with an average of 4 members of their respective households. Consequently, the majority of street traders’ households lived below the poverty line, thus food insecure. Limited income compromised the quality of food consumed: energy dense food dominated their food; hence 59.2% suffered from communicable lifestyle diseases. The study recommended more studies in this field, the extension of the Isipingo census to the entire municipality and the decriminalization of street trading by the municipality in order to improve the food security situation of street traders. / Geography / M.A. (Human Ecology)