M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for the degree of Master of Arts. Johannesburg 1995. / This thesis set out to investigate the relation between hostels and the political violence on the Reef between July 1990 and December 1993 which claimed 4756 lives. This relation is anchored in a broader discussion of firstly, political violence in South Africa generally, and secondly of the hostel system. This contextualisation frames the investigation of two Sowetan hostels Meadowlands and Merafe. These two hostels were among those that became focal points of political violence on the Reef during the period under review. The thesis argues that the political violence and conflict on the Reef between 1990 and 1993 constituted a "war" in which these and other hostels played a crucial part. The Inkatha Freedom Party colonised these institutions, ejected non-Zulu and ANC supporters and transformed the hostels from migrants camps into "fortresses of fear" from which many attacks on township residents were launched. The thesis attempts to understand this process through an in-depth investigation of Meadowlands and Merafe hostels as case studies. It attempts to draw a sociological profile of these two hostels. This has involved examining these hostels as social institutions, the social relations and culture operating within them, and their place in the social structure of the surrounding community. The thesis has included an investigation of the social characteristics of hostel residents such as their ethnic identity, age, gender identity, marital, employment status, political affiliation and work history. These multiple identities are components in attempting to explain the participation of many hostel residents in political violence. Through a series of in-depth interviews the thesis has attempted to map their different experiences and understandings of political violence in relation to their broader aspirations, beliefs and world views. It is asserted that any investigation of the relation between hostels and political violence requires this attempt to map a 'view from below' which goes deeper than official statistics and media accounts. / AC2017

In South Africa, racial discrimination was witnessed through renowned segregationist acts including the Group Areas Act (No:41) of 1950, which forcibly displaced families from their homes and triggered significant social upheavals and the callous disintegration of long-established communities such as Sophiatown. The removals were a political strategy to relocate so-called “non-white” people from the inner city to townships such as Meadowlands explicitly chosen for their hazardous impure land known as mine dumps (Rodgers 1980:76). These displacements had a paradox of intergenerational homelessness triggered by instrumental racism that influenced politics of space and in effect, the disarticulation of the lives of black South Africans (Milgroom and Ribotc 2019:184). Therefore, it is important to undertake a study investigating the circumstances that gave rise to these forced removals, the subsequent breakdown of social order, a typical consequence of population relocation, which merits an examination of the contemporary implications and ramifications of disarticulation and highlights, in this regard, some significant shortcomings in post-Apartheid governance. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Anthropology)

Water is a vital component for human survival but unsustainable patterns of water consumption are still evident internationally. In South Africa, water conservation has traditionally been limited to the responsibility of the state, with little effort being made by the consumers. However, as water scarcity increasingly becomes a problem, government and residents need to find out how urban South Africans can access water and implement water conservation methods in their homes without the support of government supervision programmes. This study explores the relationship between urban residences in two different parts of Johannesburg (Meadowlands in Soweto and Florida in Roodepoort) and their consumption, perception and usage of water and its conservation. Based on interviews with residents from different backgrounds, the results of this research show that residents have varied but generally limited concern for water issues. Findings from this study indicate that for a resident to conserve water, the type of abode in which he/she lives is irrelevant. Whether the resident lives in suburban home or small government funded housing, the attitudes of the interviewees and the perceptions which they expressed regarding solutions to the water dilemma proved to be similar: people in these urban areas are aware of the importance of water conservation, however, there is limited practice thereof. / Geography / M. Sc. (Geography)