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COPYRIGHT AND CITATION CONSIDERATIONS FOR THIS THESIS/ DISSERTATION o Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. o NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. o ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. How to cite this thesis Surname, Initial(s). (2012) Title of the thesis or dissertation. PhD. (Chemistry)/ M.Sc. (Physics)/ M.A. (Philosophy)/M.Com. (Finance) etc. [Unpublished]: University of Johannesburg. Retrieved from: https://ujcontent.uj.ac.za/vital/access/manager/Index?site_name=Research%20Output (Accessed: Date). ‘Amakomiti’ as ‘Democracy on the Margins’: Popular Committees in South Africa’s Informal Settlements by Trevor Ngwane A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DLitt et Phil in Sociology Johannesburg, 2016 1 I declare that this dissertation/ thesis is my own unaided work. It is submitted for the degree of DLitt et Phil in Sociology in the University of Johannesburg. It has not been submitted for any other degree or examination in any other university. _________________________________________ Trevor Ngwane 1 May, 2016. 2 ABSTRACT The global economic crisis has arguably led to a crisis of democracy as perceptions that governments serve the rich and powerful rather than ordinary people abound. The quest for solutions and alternative forms of democracy including the dream of a society where the economy and the state are run and controlled by the people themselves, to the equal benefit of all, was seriously set back and tarnished by the defeat of the socialist experiment in the Soviet Union and other countries. This dissertation is a search for signs and instances of democratic practice that can inspire and inform political practice in the endeavour to retrieve and realise that dream. The dissertation looks at the widespread practice whereby informal settlement dwellers in South Africa operate popular committees that address and take care of each shack community’s collective affairs. Forty-five out of 46 shack settlements researched in four South African provinces operated such committees, called “amakomiti” (in the isiZulu language). The research findings suggest that shack dwellers collectively improvise forms of self-government and self-management because their settlements are often established and managed without the blessing and support of the state. They have to take over land and organise the allocation of households to stands, provision of basic services, crime prevention, etc. They assume functions normally carried out by the state in the course of their struggle for land and shelter. The dissertation proposes that this collective self-management points to the existence of a form of “democracy on the margins” in the informal settlements which is distinct from the dominant democratic state form. Can we learn anything from this grassroots form of democratic practice during this era of crisis in democratic governance? A key empirical question is why amakomiti continue to thrive while other grassroots forms of community self-organisation that emerged during the struggle against apartheid, such as the township civics and street committees, have declined in the post-apartheid era. The dissertation analyses the nature, character and operation of the amakomiti in the light of international, historical and often revolutionary forms of working class self-organisation such as the Russian soviets, Italian factory councils and Iranian shuras (workplace and neighbourhood councils). The dissertation argues that amakomiti should be understood as forms of working class self-organisation and as such part of the explanation for their continued existence lies in the dialectical relationship between their role as organs of struggle and as organs of democratic self-government. In both guises the committees are most effective when 3 they are firmly rooted in their respective local workplaces or living spaces while simultaneously linked to structures that allow them to be part of a broader movement whose goals and vision they largely share. This conclusion has important theoretical and strategic implications for those searching for alternative democratic forms of government, such as the reviving workers’ movement in South Africa and elsewhere in the world. 4 CONTENTS Title Page ………………………………………………………………………..… 1 Declaration…………………………..……………………………………….……. 2 Abstract ………………………………………………………….………………… 3 Contents …………………………………….……………………………………... 5-12 Acknowledgements …………………….…………………………………………. 13 Abbreviations ……………………………………………..………………………. 14-15 List of tables ………………………………………………….…………………… 16 List of figures………………………………………………………………………. 17 List of photographs ………………………………………………………………. 18-19 List of maps ……………………………………………………………………….. 20 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………… 21 1.2 Aims ………………………………………………………………………... 29 1.3 Rationale …………………………………………………………………… 30 1.4 Research hypotheses ……………………………………………………….. 32 1.5 Theoretical framework ……………………………………………………... 33 1.6 Research questions …………………………………………………………. 35 1.7 Methodology ……………………………………………………………….. 36 1.8 Chapter outline ……………………………………………………………... 36 Chapter 2: Shack dwellers’ popular committees and the theory and practice of working class self-organisation 2.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………… 38 2.2 Definition of key terms in the theoretical framework……………………….. 40 2.2.1 Democracy, participatory democracy and “democracy on the margins” 40 2.2.2 Hegemony and state power…………………………………………… 45 2.2.3 Protest and mobilisation of social and working class movements…… 46 2.3 The social and economic roots of working class self-organisation ………... 47 5 2.3.1 Utopian socialism and economic determinism …………………..… 48 2.3.2 Modes of production ……………………………………………….. 49 2.3.3 The political economy of labour ………………………………..….. 52 2.4 The capitalist housing crisis and the informal settlements ……………..….. 54 2.4.1 From “the housing question” to “the right to the city”………….….. 55 2.4.2 Housing provision in different countries ………………………..…. 58 2.5 Class and the informal settlement dwellers …………………….………..… 61 2.5.1 Contested class identities ……………….………………………..… 62 2.5.2 The “underclass” debate ……………………………………….…… 67 2.5.3 The concept of “marginalisation”……………………………..….… 70 2.5.4 The rise of the squatter movement and the Iranian Revolution……. 73 2.6 Working class self-organisation and the Marxist classics …………………. 81 2.6.1 Marx: Lessons from the Paris Commune …………………………... 81 2.6.2 Lenin and Luxemburg on the party and the soviets ..……………..... 83 2.6.3 Workers councils: The ideas and experiences of Trotsky, Lukács and Gramsci ….…………………….……..…………..……………. 93 2.6.4 Evaluation and synthesis of Marxist classics ……………………… 97 2.7 Self-organisation under colonial and post-colonial conditions…………….. 100 2.7.1 The problematic of universalism: Post-colonialism ………….……. 101 2.7.2 The Russian experience: The debate between the Slovophiles and the Western European “modernisers”……………………………… 105 2.7.3 Frantz Fanon: The dangers of “false decolonization”..…………….. 106 2.7.4 Mass mobilization of the class and the nation: Nyerere, Mbeki and Wolpe………………………………………………………………. 115 2.7.6 Synthesis of African scholarship: Classes and masses…………….. 121 6 2.8 Gaps in the literature……………………………………………………….. 123 2.9 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….. 126 Chapter 3: Theory and history of the role of shack settlements in the South African struggle 3.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………..……. 128 3.2 Migrant labour, proletarianisation and the emergence of shack settlements in South Africa ………………………………………………… 129 3.3 The squatter movement in the 1940s...……………………………………... 133 3.4 The 1952 Defiance Campaign ………………………….………………….. 143 3.5 Shack dwellers and the United Democratic Front …………………………. 146 3.6 Informal settlements and the struggle in post-apartheid South Africa……… 150 3.7 Conclusion …………………………………………………………….…… 155 Chapter 4: Methodology 4.1 Introduction ..……………………………………………………..………... 156 4.2 The necessity of a “public sociology” ……………………………………... 156 4.3 Positivism or reflexivity? ………………………………………………….. 159 4.4 Research methods …………….……………………………………………. 163 4.4.1 Research design ……………………………………………………. 162 4.4.2 Research techniques ……………………………………………….. 166 4.4.3 The interview ………………………………………………………. 166 4.4.4 Participant observation …………………………………………….. 169 4.4.5 Observation …………….………………………………………….. 171 4.4.6 Documents………………………………………………………….. 172 4.5 Theory and data ……………………………………………………………. 171 7 Chapter 5: Overview of informal settlements (results of the visits) 5.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………… 174 5.2 Profile of the informal settlements …………………………………….…... 175 5.2.1 Location, size and date of establishment of the settlements ………. 176 5.2.2 Naming and names of the settlements.…………………………..… 179 5.2.3 Infrastructure and services in the settlements ……………………... 182 5.3 Categories of popular committees …………………………………………. 184 5.3.1 People’s committees ……………………………………………….. 185 5.3.2 Ward committees ………………………………………………….. 189 5.3.3 ANC committees.…………………………………………………... 190 5.3.4 Community policing forums ……………………………………….. 192 5.3.5 Community development forums ………………………………….. 195 5.3.6 Headman committees ………………………………………………