A dissertation submitted to the Global Labour University in conformity with the requirements of a MA in Labour Policy and Globalisation School of Social Sciences Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg March 2016 / Understanding the subjective views of low skilled marginalised workers who occupy bottom ends of labour markets and are implicated in everyday precarious living and working conditions is crucial for advancing scholarship on precarity. This qualitative study grounded in a phenomenological theoretical framework highlights the disconnects between the academic understandings of precarity and an understanding of precariousness from Zimbabwean migrant security guards’ own perspective in South Africa’s Private Security Industry (PSI), Gauteng Province. Relying on data collected through a combination of an ethnographic experience in 2014 and in-depth face to face interviews I conducted from June 2015, this study examines the perceptions that migrant security guards have on precarity, the strategies and tactics they employ to navigate everyday precarious working and living conditions and most importantly, the rationale behind these workers continued stay and work under precarious situations. As workers with precarious backgrounds, the findings of this study reveals that migrant security guards treat wage employment instrumentally, a source of their livelihood that has led to improvements in their standards of living as interpreted by them. The strategies and tactics employed by these workers either individually or collectively are therefore rationally and tactically crafted so as not directly challenge and disrupt the existing structures (state, capital and law) but instead to survive within these structures so as not to jeopardise their main source of livelihood-wage employment. For migrant security guards, wage employment remains a vital tool for meeting their varied socio-economic and political objectives. This study therefore led to the conclusion that there is generally a mismatch between academic conceptualisation of precarity and the way marginalised and low skilled labour migrants interpret and understand circumstances. / GR2017

It is widely acknowledged that poverty has declined globally over the last few years. In fact, this idea has become so ingrained in our society that it is almost taken for granted and assumed as an incontestable fact. The question that remains unanswered is where all the poor are now. Are they living a prosperous life or are they tinkering on the edge of poverty? This research study focuses on the precarious non-poor, who are the people surviving just above Upper Bound Poverty Line used by Statistics within South Africa. Although they are not ‘officially poor’ they are still a group that is often overlooked or ignored within the global development community since they are not poor enough to warrant intervention yet not secure enough to demand action. As the research study will show through using a mixed-method approach, they are far from being prosperous and in fact, still struggling to survive. The quantitative findings are based on a statistical analysis of the General Household Survey (2011) that overlaps with the latest Income and Expenditure Survey (2011). It gives valuable background to the problem that was also used during the qualitative phase of the research study to inform the sample choice and interview guide. The quantitative analysis shows that the precarious non-poor is not a unique problem, and as a group, they are found across South Africa. The qualitative findings are based on in-depth interviews conducted in Cape Town, Western Cape and Newcastle, KwaZulu Natal. Framed by the capability approach, set out by Amartya Sen, and a focus on basic capabilities such as employment, education and housing, the results show that the precarious non-poor lack access and choice in terms of capabilities and the opportunity to realise them into functionings. The precarious non-poor in this study are mostly employed within insecure, uncertain or underpaying jobs, underpinned by a social support program, living in neighbourhoods where they feel unsafe while trying to secure a better future for themselves and especially their children. In fact, they are probably no better off than their poor counterparts with prosperity remaining out of reach. / Sociology / Ph. D. (Sociology)

This thesis explored the fathering practices of precariously employed African men with the study objectives including understanding: (1) how precariously employed men construct fatherhood; (2) the fathering practices considered important to them; (3) in what way precarious employment impacts on their fathering practices; and (4) how precariously employed men negotiate between their children’s economic as well as socio-emotional needs. This research focused particularly on the experiences of roadside work-seekers in Parow, Cape Town, seeking to understand how they construct fatherhood within their precarious working conditions. What these men think about fatherhood is important particularly in South Africa where not only unemployment is high, but also the rates of children growing up without their fathers. An ethnographic study was conducted during which data was collected using both participant observation and semi-structured interview methods. This thesis reports on interviews conducted with 46 men over a period of seventeen weeks. The findings reveal that the majority of roadside work-seekers are migrants (both internal and cross border) who have families to provide for. This study also revealed having children as one of the main reasons men engage in precarious work activities. Also highlighted is the extent to which precarious work impact the lives of those involved to the extent that it affects their relationships with their children, families and intimate partners. The majority of day labourers, due to being unemployed also do not live with their children, with many being denied access as a result of a breakdown in their relationship with the mother of the child, but also as a result of being unable to fulfil certain traditional requirements expected of men who impregnate women out of wedlock in some African cultures. Finally, this study confirmed the various ways in which men engaged in precarious employment are exposed to high levels of poverty, homelessness, substance abuse, violence and crime, and racism, discrimination and exploitation. / Psychology / D. Phil. (Psychology)

This thesis explored the fathering practices of precariously employed African men with the study objectives including understanding: (1) how precariously employed men construct fatherhood; (2) the fathering practices considered important to them; (3) in what way precarious employment impacts on their fathering practices; and (4) how precariously employed men negotiate between their children’s economic as well as socio-emotional needs. This research focused particularly on the experiences of roadside work-seekers in Parow, Cape Town, seeking to understand how they construct fatherhood within their precarious working conditions. What these men think about fatherhood is important particularly in South Africa where not only unemployment is high, but also the rates of children growing up without their fathers. An ethnographic study was conducted during which data was collected using both participant observation and semi-structured interview methods. This thesis reports on interviews conducted with 46 men over a period of seventeen weeks. The findings reveal that the majority of roadside work-seekers are migrants (both internal and cross border) who have families to provide for. This study also revealed having children as one of the main reasons men engage in precarious work activities. Also highlighted is the extent to which precarious work impact the lives of those involved to the extent that it affects their relationships with their children, families and intimate partners. The majority of day labourers, due to being unemployed also do not live with their children, with many being denied access as a result of a breakdown in their relationship with the mother of the child, but also as a result of being unable to fulfil certain traditional requirements expected of men who impregnate women out of wedlock in some African cultures. Finally, this study confirmed the various ways in which men engaged in precarious employment are exposed to high levels of poverty, homelessness, substance abuse, violence and crime, and racism, discrimination and exploitation. / Psychology / D. Phil. (Psychology)