D.Litt. et Phil / This dissertation expands our understanding of South African social movements through a study of the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO), a body formed in 1992 as a national co-ordinating structure of regional and local civic associations. It contends that SANCO can only be understood as a ‘two- tiered social movement’. The study draws on a Human Sciences Research Council survey, to which I contributed as a team member, on participant and non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews and primary literature and a case study of one SANCO branch, Alexandra. The focus of this survey was on the experience of SANCO’s leadership both at national and local level. Social movement literature reviewed in this study ignored the issue of tiers or levels in social movements. The study demonstrates that it would be worth re-looking at the analyses of social movements with an eye to assess whether distinct levels exist elsewhere. Whilst tiers are likely to be absent from small movements, there is an inherent tension for organisations that have both local units focused on immediate day-to-day concerns and also national structures that represent broader issues within political circles. The findings of the study defy the dominant view of South African social movements, which emphasise a demobilisation in the post-apartheid period. In the case of SANCO, its demise was substantiated by examining the organisation at a national level, largely ignoring local realities. A two-tiered approach demonstrates that even though local civic organisations experienced difficulties, particularly in the period immediately after the end of apartheid, they continued to thrive.