Since the end of apartheid, issues pertaining to South African identity construction have attracted increased scholarly attention. This is reflected in a growing body of literature in several disciplines that analyze identities in post-apartheid South Africa. At the same time, a number of factors led to an equally increasing interest in Islamic and Muslim politics. However, the interest remains to a great extent concerned with the history of Islam in Africa, with very little attention paid to contemporary Muslim politics in its broader sense or indeed what this means in the South African context. This thesis, about Muslims’ identities in South Africa, aims to merge these two fields of identities in-formation and Muslim politics. In an attempt to unpack identity discourses within the Muslim community in South Africa, the study will address three main questions: How are Muslims’ identities formulated? How do they relate to each other? And how do they develop in different contexts? In order to answer the aforementioned questions the thesis will focus on how religious identities intersect with other levels of identification mainly national, ethnic and political identities. By answering the broader questions about identity construction processes, the thesis is able to address several other more specific questions. For example, what kind of interplay exists between the different identities such as those that are religious, ethnic, socio-economic or political? What does this interplay suggest in terms of the hierarchy of identities in different contexts? Instead of using identity as an analytical category, the thesis adopts the term ‘identification’, which reflects both the processes according to which identities are formulated as well as the context contingent nature of identities. After analyzing the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of identity construction, the rest of the thesis discusses the extent to which Islam has informed Muslims’ identities at three separate, yet intersected and connected, levels. At the political identity level, I argue that religious identity has relatively little bearing on the articulation of Muslims’ political identities in post-apartheid South Africa, by comparison with the apartheid era when political activism of Muslims was heavily charged by Islamic ethos and principles. I also argue that the stance adopted by Islamic religious bodies in the anti-apartheid struggle undermined their influence within the Muslim community to a great extent as far as political identities are concerned. In other contexts however, religious bodies enjoy a more prominent role; that is particularly evident in negotiating Muslims’ rights regarding Muslim Personal Law, which is highlighted as a case in point to show how citizenship, and thus national identity, is intertwined with religious identity. At a third and final level, ethnic identities within the Muslim community are examined through the inter-community relations, which reveal that racial and ethnic identification is best understood through both cultural as well as structural approaches.

This treatise explores the Matatiele boundary demarcation dispute and, in particular, the role that unmet basic human needs play in this dispute. The subject of identity is also explored. In 2006, the government of South Africa decided that Matatiele should no longer be part of the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) and instead should be incorporated into the province of the Eastern Cape. This decision divided the community of Matatiele into two groups; one was pro-KZN and the other, pro-Eastern Cape. In 2008, violence broke out between these two groups. The government’s decision and the resulting violence have created a situation of protracted conflict in the community of Matatiele with rivalries and antagonism being part of the fabric of the society. This treatise attempts to analyse this conflict and link it to the theory of basic human needs as advocated by conflict theorists such as John Burton and Johan Gultang. Human needs theorists hold the view that unmet psychological and physical needs are sources of social conflict and can lead to protracted conflict. This treatise also explores the efficacy of problem-solving workshops and referendums as conflict-resolution techniques for boundary demarcation disputes. The data were collected from unstructured, in-depth interviews with a sample of eleven respondents. The data indicate that there is a nexus between this conflict and the theory of basic human needs and that community-identity concerns are central to this dispute. The findings of this study suggest that the conflict is multi-faceted and that the underlying causes can be attributed to unmet human needs. The data was analysed using the grounded theory approach. This allowed the key causes of the conflict to be identified and subsequently informed the recommendations presented in the conclusion of this treatise.

An analysis of the preoccupation writers of South African fiction display after the process started by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is vital in post-apartheid South African writing. It becomes clear that a fascination with the past is not bound to any one specific racial or gender group within post-apartheid South Africa. Authors can therefore be said to continue the excavation work that the TRC started many years ago. The severe impact that the rigid classification of human beings into different groups based on race had, and continues to have, becomes evident in contemporary South African writing. The fact that white privilege always comes at a cost for those wanting to attain or maintain it cannot be overlooked and whiteness as a construct is examined.

M. Tech. Drama / The purpose of this study was to develop a broader understanding of aspects of identity relating to Coloured and Indian people in South Africa and the portrayal of these aspects on the post-Apartheid stage. The meaning of the term 'identity' and its relation to drama and theatre was investigated. Identity markers (individual and social) were identified to serve as a framework for the play analyses. Research was also conducted on both Coloured and Indian identities, seen against a historical background, as well as the theatrical and dramatic history of the two groups.

This research study investigates Lotus FM, as one of many South African Media components that are catering for one specific cultural or religious group. The investigation explores the implications of practice of a pecific media component that caters for specific cultural or religious groups operating in a post-apartheid South Africa. After the end of the apartheid era in South Africa, a number of South African media components have proclaimed their commitment to reconciliation and nation building within South Africa by attempting to unite audiences. The South African Broadcasting Corporation, which held the monopoly on South African Broadcasting for decades, has promulgated the notion of the rainbow nation to audiences in South Africa. Since 1994, sub-components of the different South African media segments were developed to cater for specific ethnic or cultural groups by the station managements. This was aimed at reversing the effects of pre-1994 media that catered for the former ruling minority only or ethnic groups that were categorized by the former political dispensation. It is possible, however, that this has resulted in a renewed and continued separation of interest groups present in South Africa today.