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Abstract
South Africa is experiencing record levels of protest. Interpretations of protest fall into two groups. First, there is the argument that protests represent only limited rebellion and that though unruly, they are a mechanism for political re-engagement. A second understanding links “new social movements” that address general grievances to wider hegemonic challenges. This article addresses the issue of whether these upsurges in militant mobilization threaten or complement democratic procedures. The article draws from a study of two protest “hotspots” in Durban.
Acknowledgements
We are extremely grateful to Olwethu Silangwe, Jabu Wanda, and Dimple Deonath as well as to all the residents we interviewed in Masxha, Greenland, Merebank, and Wentworth.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Tom Lodge is Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Limerick, Ireland. His most recent book is Sharpeville: An Apartheid Massacre and Its Consequences (Oxford: 2011).
Shauna Mottiar is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies in the School of Built Environment and Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Her research is centred on social movements and social protest in South Africa and her work has appeared in Development and Change, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, and Politikon.
Notes
1. Alexander, “Rebellion of the Poor,” 27.
2. Alexander, Runciman, and Ngwane, Media Briefing.
3. Duncan, “The Politics of Counting Protests.”
4. Booysen, “The African national Congress,” 138.
5. Alexander, “Rebellion of the Poor,” 37.
6. Rosenthal, “New Social Movements.”
7. Seddon and Zeilig, “Class and Protest,” 23.
8. Mottiar and Bond, “Discontent and Social Protest,” 18.
9. Leonard and Pelling, “Mobilisation and Protest,” 139.
10. Bratton and Mattes, “Democratic and Market Reforms,” 458.
11. Linz and Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition, 5.
12. Alexander, “Rebellion of the Poor,” 37.
13. Held, “Democracy,” 18.
14. Friedman, “People are Demanding Public Service”; Pithouse, “The Service Delivery Myth.”
15. Linz and Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition.
16. Edwards, “Swing the Assegai Peacefully,” 84.
17. Popke, “Modernity's Abject Space,” 745.
18. Suttner, The ANC Underground, 29.
19. Edwards, “Swing the Assegai Peacefully”
20. Meth, “Committees, Witchdoctors and the Mother-Body,” 273.
21. Pithouse, “There Will be Blood.”
22. Alexander, Runciman, and Ngwane, Media Briefing.
23. Beetham, “Liberal Democracy.”
24. Bhana, Gandhi's Legacy, 114.
25. Barnett and Scott, “Space of Opposition,” 2621.
26. Freund, “Brown and Green,” 730.
27. Leonard and Pelling, “Civil Society Response.”
28. Anderson, “I'm Not So Into Gangs Anymore,” 57–58.
29. Naidoo, “Crude Oil.”
30. Pithouse, “A Politics of the Poor.”
31. Burger, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place.”
32. Roberts, “Durban's Future,” 1490.
33. Marks and Wood, “The South African Policing Nexus,” 146.
34. Smith, “South African Police Brutality.”
35. Booysen, “The African National Congress,” 485.