National identity in South Africa is, and has been, a complex concept, with diverse and contested attempts at its embodiment. This research extends the discourse of identity politics in the post 1994 democratic South Africa to beyond the discourse of racial politics, and notions of oppressor and oppressed to the complexities of resistance and the eventual establishment of a democratic South Africa. The research draws on the views and experiences of young South Africans, born after 1990, regarding what constitutes a South African identity. The research participants represent the socio-cultural and economic spectrum of the city of Cape Town, in the Western Province of South Africa. Schools were chosen across this spectrum to allow for heterogeneity of research sample to reflect the different population groups that comprise the South African population. The areas the schools were chosen from included those that existed during the apartheid era and those that have since been developed. Schools included were those historically delineated according to apartheid-constructed racial groups, and one that was established after 1994 as a non-state school. The exploration of the data reveals a population of young people who have moved beyond the imposed identities created by the apartheid system to an actively inclusive conception of what it means to be a South African in a post-apartheid context. Additionally, the research shows that this inclusive national identity also allows for the acknowledgement and expression of the diversity of cultures and languages existent in South African society. There is also an understanding that socio-economic issues such as poverty, poor education and continued imbalances from the Apartheid era need to be addressed to ensure a stable and unified South Africa. Therefore, the research found that this research contends that young people born after 1990 are committed to a respectful and representative national identity that affords all South Africans an equal place in society.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts University of the Witwatersrand Department of Political Studies February 2015 / The question of gender inequality in South Africa has still not received the platform that it deserves. This reality may be attributed to numerous factors including the masculine attitudes that continue to prevail in South African politics. This dissertation therefore analyses the construction of gender roles in youth political organisations in South Africa, and investigates how hegemonic gender formations challenge and shape the activism of women within these organisations. It focuses on the largest and oldest youth political formation in the country, the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). It draws from the rich history of the ANC and the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) to understand better the framework of current gender politics. Feminist theory is used as the underpinning theoretical framework throughout this research, thus providing a new perspective of women’s activism that goes beyond the traditional practices employed in research about political organisations. This dissertation is informed by a qualitative research approach with a focus on interviews with individuals who are members of the ANCYL in the Seshego township in South Africa’s Limpopo Province. The main argument made in this dissertation is that women in mainstream political organisations like the ANCYL continue to experience difficulties in the assertion of their activism because of the historically dominating masculine characteristics of such organisations. A nuanced analysis of young women’s activism in South Africa is the major contribution that this research offers. By bringing forth the narrative of ordinary female activists, this dissertation deliberately confronts the celebration of the supposedly already realised gender equality, arguing that this is a premature celebration that is not cognisant of the daily experiences of female activists of the ANCYL.

The aim of this Code of Conduct for activists is to provide a set of basic guidelines as to how activists and members of our organization should conduct themselves; both inside and outside the organization. We feel that it is important in 2 respects: (i) It highlights the dangers of negative tendencies and the desirability of good qualities. In this way we hope to improve the quality of activists involvement in our organization by providing them with a set of rules and methods that will allow them to achieve their political goals easily and effectively. (ii) Activists represent not only their own organization but the cause of the national democratic struggle in general. As such, the way we behave and conduct ourselves reflects on this cause. Activists must therefore be seen to act in a comradely, disciplined and democratic fashion. It must be pointed out that although this code of conduct applies to all members of our organization it is obviously more relevant to those activists who play an active role in the decision making process, regularly come to meetings and volunteer for the different tasks at hand.

Thesis (M.Com.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Business and Economic Sciences, 2017 / With an increase in competition in the political sector, there is a paradigm shift as parties revert to branding to influence voters’ political party brand preference. Political marketing is one of the most important aspects of developing industry which affects institutions, people and the involvement of successful candidates in the modern generation of politics. Therefore, it is of interest to examine how political party branding can enhance brand preference of the voters. Although several studies have explored political marketing and factors influencing university students’ intention to vote using various mediums, few studies have explored distinctive cues as a holistic concept in investigating the effect on youth of brand image and brand preference. More precisely, few studies have explored this topic in a political context among the youth in South Africa. This research purpose is to determine whether political party branding influences voting brand preference among the youth in South Africa, through the means of the proposed conceptual model, brand identity, positive word of mouth and brand authenticity as the predictors, brand image as the mediating variable, and brand preference as the outcome variable. The current study undertakes a quantitative approach, where 379 questionnaires were received from the respondents, (University of the Witwatersrand students), to explore the influence of political party branding on voting brand preference among the youth in South Africa. The data was analysed using structural equation modelling and Amos 23.0. Findings support all five proposed hypotheses. Hence indicating that brand identity, positive word of mouth and brand authenticity, influences brand image and brand preference. The contribution of this study is to provide general information to guide political parties or politics in South Africa in developing marketing / branding strategies based on the concept of brand preference. These contributions will help different types of political parties in having the knowledge of the critical role of brand preference and its implementation in the political marketing context. Theoretically, it is positioned in political marketing and adds to empirical literature that focuses on political branding, branding and voters’ preference in political parties. Lastly, by examining the predictors’ variables and their influence on brand image and brand preference, the findings provide political parties with a better understanding of branding strategies that can be implemented to influence voters’ preference before, during and after a campaign through comprehensive political branding. / XL2018

Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Limpopo, 2008. / The Black youth struggled against the apartheid regime as the title indicates because as Blacks the policy made them to suffer. They were oppressed in the country of their birth. Before the militant youth involvement in the liberation struggle in the 1970s there were a few Black youths who tried to force the government to relinquish its policy. They were unsuccessful. This was because they were opposed to the government as members of the various Black organisations. They were not united. SASO with its Black Consciousness philosophy brought unity amongst all the Black youth and put them on the vanguard of the struggle. These youth did not just mobilize and unite Blacks (organisation and non organisation members) through public criticism of the apartheid system. They also mounted physical attacks on enemy targets such as police stations etc. South Africa became ungovernable. This resistance compelled the government to release political prisoners and to relinquish power in 1994.

A PhD Thesis to the Anthropology Department, Faculty of Humanities: University of the Witwatersrand. / This study will argue that; (i) that the evolution of hip-hop arises out of the need by young people to give expression and meaning to their day-to-day socio-political and economic struggles and the harsh realities of urban life, and (ii) that hip-hop has become the audible and dominant voice of reason and a platform that allows youth to address their plight, as active citizens, and (iii) that, as a music expression, the hip-hop narrative can be used as an unsolicited yet resourceful civic perception survey to gauge the temperature and the mood of society at a point in time. My research question is premised on the argument that the youth looks at society and their immediate surroundings through the lens of rap music and the hip-hop culture. It presupposes that it is this hip-hop lens that has become the projector through which the youth views and analyses society and then invites the world to peep through, to confirm and be witnesses to what they see. It is not the purpose of this research to argue how much influence hip-hop has on young people, but instead to look at how youth is using hip-hop to express their discontent and what the various sites are where their relentless desire for a better life is being crafted and articulated. In my investigation, I have argued that it is at these social sites that open or discreet creative expressions are produced/created by the hip-hop generation as the subordinate group and directed to those perceived to be the gatekeepers to their aspirations and their rites of passage. In my investigation I have explored how, out of indignation and desire, the hip-hop generation has employed creative ways to highlight and vent their frustration at a system that seems to derail their aspirations. This is the story of hip-hop where Watkins (2005) argues that the youth have crafted "a vision of their world that is insightful, optimistic and tenaciously critical of the institutions and circumstances that restrict their ability to impact on the world around them" (p. 81) With regard to hip-hop in South Africa critical questions and a central thesis to this paper begin to emerge as to whether hip-hop, as an artistic expression and a seemingly dominant youth culture, has found long-hidden voices through which young people now engage with this art form to address and reflect on their socio-economic and political conditions as active citizens in search of a meaningful social contract. By investigating the triangular relationship between commerce, politics and hip-hop, this study looks at how creative, adaptive people with unrealised potential, who find themselves trapped by illusion and exploitation (realistic or perceived), always try to find a meaning to make sense of their worlds. / AC2018

This dissertation deals with the nature of the black middle-class assimilation in the South African suburban space, a space that was the sole preserve of the white middle-class during apartheid. It explores the relationship between these races as they come to meet in this space and what new identities are being formed. It also explores the relationship between both the black and white suburbanites and the urban poor who stay in an adjacent area to the suburb. The study uses the Beacon Bay area, which is constituted by one of East London’s most affluent suburbs and a poor township, Nompumelelo, to show how the emergent black middle-class has managed to enter this space in the post-apartheid era. Previous studies by Richard Ballard (2004) and Grant Saff (2001) have shown how the white middle-class has always been against any form of race or class mixing. Within the suburb, the new black suburbanites in Beacon Bay appear to have been welcomed but with conditions by their fellow white counterparts. The relationship between these two races does not stretch beyond meet and greets and it is only in the second generation black middle-class that you find better and non-superficial relations with fellow white suburbanites. In the older generation, the generation that experienced apartheid, the relationship between these two races has been that of tolerance and serious escape of contact unless when necessary. The children of both white and black families, though, have a far better relationship in school and in sport than their parents. This has created another area of contact for both these races and it bears potential for meaningful integration in the suburban space. Externally as it relates to relations between the black middle-class and the urban poor, the findings show that these new black suburbanites express a similar discomfort as the white suburbanites about the urban poor’s presence in the area. This shows that the evolution of the Beacon Bay suburb, with its deep-rooted discourse of white middle-class exclusivity, has not been entirely about hatred of the urban poor necessarily but about an identity ascription of what it means to live in a suburb. Despite these realities traditional ceremonies organised by the black middle-class in the suburbs and the church appear to be playing a role in creating relations between these suburbanites and the Nompumelelo residents. This is why we have decided to use the conceptualisation of the 18th century frontier zone as the borders of segregation within the suburb and between the suburban residents and those of the township can be crossed and re-crossed.