Struggles Around the Commodification of Daily Life in South Africa

Abstract

Post-apartheid South Africa has seen the emergence of new social and community movements making demands on the African National Congress government to deliver on its promise of ‘a better life for all’. In these struggles, the identity of ‘the poor’ has been increasingly mobilised, both by movements reminding the state of its obligations to its people, and in official policy discourse seeking to introduce neoliberal macro-economic changes. This paper explores how the category of ‘the poor’ is mobilised in struggles for basic services in urban areas in South Africa, and in state policy that seeks to draw poor people into agreements to pay for services. In doing this, it explores the possibilities inherent in capitalist society for change and the building of relations that challenge or subvert the dominant logic of commodification and, in turn, of capital.

Notes

1. The SECC was formed in 2000 at the height of electricity cut-offs in the township. Initially providing advice for residents who had been cut off, the SECC grew into a movement as residents came together around the act of illegal reconnections.

2. ESKOM is a public utility responsible for the supply of electricity in South Africa, and large parts of Africa.

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Notes on contributors

Prishani Naidoo

Prishani Naidoo is a Masters student based at the Centre for Civil Society in the School of Development Studies at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, a member of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (Johannesburg), and a researcher with the collective, Research & Education In Development. This article is based on archival and field research that I am currently conducting for my Masters degree at the Universityof Kwazulu-Natal. I am greatly indebted to Ahmed Veriava, for ideas arising from his Masters work that assisted with the conceptualisation of this paper; e-mail: [email protected].