The report is divided into four main chapters: The first chapter introduces the topic, relevant
literature and details surrounding the event and context. The second chapter gives a detailed
ethnographic and historical background of Soweto and Diepkloof, and will discuss the
conditions under which the Township was founded. It also shows how the development of the
Diepkloof Square only served to reinforce existing social differences that have been imagined
by the employed and the unemployed residents over the years. Chapter three focuses on the
tensions between the employed and the unemployed members of Diepkloof, and will discuss
and analyze the resident’s perspectives on work and citizenship. Chapter four looks at the
dynamics that I have observed between Diepkloof Business Forum (DBF), state
representatives and the developers, discusses and highlights many of the contradictions which
I came across during the research. It came to my attention that there was a sufficient amount
of press coverage from prominent newspapers around the scandals that overshadowed the
building and the opening of the shopping centre, and as a result I begin by looking through
the newspaper archives covered by the media as part of the methodology. The process
allowed me to reconstruct a timeline of events leading to the hiring of workers and the
opening of the retailers, and to understand the role played by the media in the recreation of
the narrative around the Diepkloof Square project. I also got in contact with many of the
participants through references from existing participants and through being referred. It
concludes that the controversial promises of jobs were never kept by the developers and state
representatives, thus has looked at how parties within the Township contested the sense of
what the developers owed to the residents. The focus is particularly on questions about the
link between work on the one hand and the dynamics of citizenship or belonging on the other.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/15540 |
| Date | 15 September 2014 |
| Creators | Masemola, Rebone |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
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