Contents THOKOZA RESEARCH – NEW DRAFT OUTLINE

Chapter 1 TERMS OF REFERENCE 7 Chapter 1.1 OVERALL RESEARCH PROJECT 8 6 DESCRIPTION OF THOKOZA HOSTEL 41 1.2 THOKOZA WOMEN’S HOSTEL SITE 8 6.1 A BRIEF HISTORY 42 1.3 KEY RESEARCH QUESTIONS 9 6.2 SPACE IN THOKOZA HOSTEL 45 6.3 INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS 66 2 RESEARCH TEAM 11 6.3.1 MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE 66 6.3.2 BUDGET, RENTAL, COSTS AND AFFORDABILITY 68 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15 6.3.3 PROPOSED HOSTEL UPGRADE 72 3.1 INTRODUCTION 16 3.2 GETTING ACCESS FOR THE FIELDWORK 16 7 ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK 75 3.3 PARTICIPANT SELECTION 18 7.1 SPACE AS MULTI-DIMENSIONAL 77 3.4 METHODS OF ENQUIRY 18 7.2 SPACE AS FLUID 83 3.4.1 LITERATURE REVIEW 20 7.3 SPACE AS GENDERED 85 3.4.2 2011 JOURNEY MAPS 20 3.4.3 MIGRATION ORAL HISTORIES 20 8 ANALYSIS 95 3.4.4 QUESTIONNAIRE 21 8.1 AGENCY | ACQUIESCENCE 96 3.4.5 IN DEPTH INTERVIEWS AND PHOTO SHOOTS 21 8.2 PRIVACY|SOCIABILITY 100 3.4.6 OBSERVATION 22 8.3 COLLABORATION|COMPETITION 112 3.4.7 FOCUS GROUP 22 8.4 PRIDE | SHAME 118 3.4.8 SUPERVISOR INTERVIEW 22 8.5 URBAN | RURAL 121 8.6 LIVELIHOODS (& REMITTANCES) | LOCATION (& DISLOCATION) 133 4 REPORT STRUCTURE 27 8.7 PERMANENCE|IMPERMANENCE 150 8.8 ‘SINGLES’ | ‘FAMILY’ 160 5 AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF URBAN HOUSING 8.9 AMENITY|RULES 168 OPTIONS FOR AFRICAN WOMEN IN DURBAN 31 9 CONCLUSION 175

REFERENCES 180 “The home is the centre of life. It is a refuge from the grind of work, the pressure of school, and the menace of the streets. We say that at home, we can ‘be ourselves’. Everywhere else, we are someone else. At home, we remove our masks. The home is the wellspring of personhood. It is where our identity takes root and blossoms, where as children, we imagine, play and question, and as adolescents, we retreat and try. As we grow older, we hope to settle into a place to raise a family or pursue work. When we try to understand ourselves, we often begin by considering the kind of home in which we were raised…” “Civic life too begins at home, allowing us to plant roots and take ownership over our community, participate in local politics, and reach out to neighbours in a spirit of solidarity and generosity.” “…residential stability begets a kind of psychological stability, which allows people to invest in their home and social relationships. It begets school stability, which increases the chances that that children will excel and graduate. And it begets community stability, which encourages neighbours to 1. form strong bonds and take care of their block.” Chapter 1 MATTHEW DESMOND: EVICTED: POVERTY AND PROFIT IN THE AMERICAN CITY (PAGES 293 – 127, 2017) PENGUIN TERMS OF REFERENCE 1.1 OVERALL RESEARCH PROJECT into neighbourhoods……” universal, even when the only space work, the findings of this research 4. What kinds of place identities The core enquiry to do this is a single bed. That was the project deepen our understanding of develop in these spaces and why? In 2017 the DesigncoLab team was “Places, it is worth remembering main point of this profoundly moving home in Thokoza. Home occupies a 5. How does the design of the built of this ‘narratives selected to participate in the Narratives become part of people’s identities. Here photographic work. spectrum, that is contingent and environment in these spaces enable of Home and Neighbourhood Research we aim to deliberatively draw into the not constant. or constrict social relations, and in of home & Project. The project is funded through heart of the planning disciplines the In 2011, she completed a similar turn shape peoples’ sense of home, an NRF Blue Skies Grant and is experiences of how people make homes project at the Thokoza Women’s Hostel, 1.3 KEY RESEARCH QUESTIONS belonging and neighbourhood? neighbourhood’ managed by the Urban Futures Centre and neighbourhoods ….” photographing every room in Block A. 6. How do residents transform the (UFC) at the Durban University of These works belong to the Durban Art The research questions of the built environment through everyday research project talks Technology (DUT). “This social lens aims to develop Gallery’s permanent collection, and are overall ‘Narratives of Home and livelihood practices and ways alternative theoretical models and exhibited from time to time. Neighbourhood’ Project, which have of belonging? to many of the issues The research broadly examines how imaginative methodologies. It also guided this Thokoza research, are 7. What are some of the intended and state housing models in the city of offers valuable insight into the The core enquiry of this ‘Narratives about “investigating not only what it unintended social consequences of in the hostels, where Durban shape the social landscape: intended and unintended consequences of Home & Neighbourhood’ research means to make a place a home, but living in state delivered housing? of state provided housing.….” project talks to many of the issues how these built forms shape ideas the commonly held “Various models of state housing in the hostels, where the commonly of self, neighbourhoods and broader The more specific framing of this should be locations for investigating (UFC Researcher Briefing document: held qualities of ‘home’ are, at face social belonging…..how people make project, located within the overall qualities of ‘home’ not only what it means to make a place 2017) value, absent. The research project homes and neighbourhoods out of research intention, was proposed a home, but how these built forms has provided an opportunity to places”, and “how housing shapes as follows: are, at face value, shape ideas of self, neighbourhoods 1.2 THOKOZA WOMEN’S HOSTEL explore and better understand the social landscape far beyond the and broader social belonging. Five SITE the underlying complexity of bricks and mortar of the 1. What does home mean and what absent. The research research sites are proposed in the these spaces. units themselves”. are the strategies for making ‘home’ Durban area; a mega human settlement Thokoza Women’s Hostel is one of ten for women living in a single sex project has provided (preferably Cornubia), a Community historically single sex hostels in the Hostels have traditionally (UFC Researcher Briefing document: hostel, in the inner city? Residential Unit or hostel, a subsidised eThekwini Municipality. The other nine been regarded as temporary 2017) 2. What are the desires and an opportunity municipal rental estate, an informal - KwaMashu, KwaDabeka, Wema, Jacobs, accommodation, with occupants expectations of ‘home’ in an settlement in-situ upgrade, and Klaarwater, KwaMakhutha, Dalton, assumed to have some other ‘real The key research questions as per the upgraded/converted Community to explore and buildings run by Social Housing SJ Smith, and Glebelands – were all homes’ elsewhere. What Buckland’s brief were as follows: Residential Unit (CRU) and how does Companies. Research at each site men’s hostels, although there are many Thokoza project showed was that this relate to the CRU policy? better understand should experiment with creative and women living in all of them. Thokoza is although occupied periodically, with 1. What are the meanings 3. What is the relationship and participatory methods and run by a one of only very few hostels originally visits ‘home’ over holidays at least, residents attach to home and meaning of other homes left behind? the underlying team of multidisciplinary members intended for women only, in South hostels are often occupied on a much neighbourliness in specific types of from the fields of sociology, planning, Africa, and is the only women’s hostel more permanent basis. Although state-delivered housing? We planned to interrogate the social complexity of architecture, public art, dance and in Durban. many of the more long-term residents 2. How do residents in state-funded consequences of hostel living, drama, amongst others ……” may still have an attachment to a housing create places that are including issues of place identity, these spaces. In 2002, Angela Buckland, an home-base elsewhere, often in rural understood and experienced as both for the hostel residents and “Research teams in each site will established Durban photographer, areas, they spend most of their time home? their relationships with each other, investigate how people living in a undertook a project in the oldest block at the hostel. For these residents, 3. And how are the concepts of and for their families at their other specific state housing model make of the Jacobs Men’s Hostel, and clearly the hostel is more than temporary neighbourliness and neighbourhood homes; and how the sense of the these places into a home, and showed that the need to create a accommodation: it constitutes understood and shaped in clusters of hostel as a temporary place to stay, transform collectivities of homes personalised sense of ‘home’ is almost a home. Building on this earlier housing units? or as a ‘home’, changes over time?

8 Ῐ Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Ῐ 9 2.

TOP LEFT: Joanne Lees Chapter 2 TOP RIGHT: Angela Buckland BOTTOM LEFT: Melinda Silverman BOTTOM RIGHT: Phumzile Xulu RESEARCH TEAM At project inception, the proposed Unfortunately, political interference in Durban. She had also worked on core project team comprised Angela in the selection of our team and an oral history project with the UFC, Buckland, Joanne Lees, Melinda participants delayed the start of Migration and Shaping the Inclusive Silverman, and Hlengiwe Makhathini. the project, and almost derailed it City: The Case of Durban, South Africa, completely. With the assistance of the in 2017. Angela Buckland is a well-known Human Settlements Department and photographer in Durban, and this the hostel supervisor in particular, Ten of the oral history participants research builds on work she did in the process to be used to select the were Thokoza residents. The 2002 at the Jacobs Men’s’ hostel, and resident fieldworkers was re-designed transcripts of the relevant oral in 2011 at Thokoza. and had to be started from scratch. histories were a useful secondary It was decided that an external source for this research. Joanne Lees is an architect and facilitator would also be engaged. urbanist with extensive public Unfortunately, during this period, housing experience. She was involved Hlengiwe suddenly became very ill and Unfortunately, a little with Angela’s previous was unable to work on the project at hostels works. all. She subsequently died. political Melinda is an architect, experienced Phumzile Xulu is a freelance social interference in academic, currently working at Wits facilitator with extensive community and UJ, and is a practicing housing engagement experience. She has the selection of and urban policy specialist. recently completed her law degree. She joined the team, and conducted our team and Hlengiwe Makhathini was a resident most of the interviews, assisting with of the hostel for over 15 years other facilitation when needed. participants and was one of five care workers in the hostel employed by the Thando Mghobozi was one of the delayed the start Department of Health on a part- young Thokoza residents identified time basis to assist the sick and initially to assist. She helped us of the project, elderly. Her standing in the resident on an ad hoc basis with setting up community, and her prior experience appointments and some translation. and almost working with Angela Buckland in She was also included as a participant 2011, made her a key member of in the research. derailed it the proposed team. Hlengiwe’s role was to be the key facilitator, Nomkhosi Xulu Gama was invited to completely assist with the identification of the facilitate the participant focus group participant group, and assist with the that concluded our fieldwork. Her photography and fieldwork. She also PhD research, completed through identified two young women with the the UFC, and her subsequent book appropriate skills who were hostel ‘Hostels in South Africa: Spaces of RIGHT: Hlengiwe Makhatini speaking at residents and interested in working Perplexity’ (2017) looked at hostel life, the opening of Angela Buckland’s 2011 part-time on the project. in particular in the Kwa Mashu hostel Thokoza Exhibition at the KZNSA

12 Ῐ Chapter 2 Chapter 2 Ῐ 13 3. Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 INTRODUCTION interview with him after the fieldwork whole, explaining what we needed from was completed, was invaluable. We participants etc. This was essentially to Based on Angela’s experience during her are very grateful to him as this work test the level of interest and willingness 2011 photography project, we suspected would not have been able to proceed of residents to volunteer to be part that different age groups would have without his assistance and support. of the study. We also presented some very different experiences and attitudes proposed lines of questioning in order to the idea of home in the hostel. In 3.2 GETTING ACCESS FOR to get feedback around the willingness our research proposal, we had broadly THE FIELDWORK to engage in these discussions. defined three groupings of women in the hostel, differentiated mainly by their As stated before, Hlengiwe The group was generally enthusiastic age and length of stay; aiming for as Makhathini, had been identified about talking about their experiences much diversity as possible within that. as a key team member for this although there was one older woman research project. We had an existing (Silvia Giyani) who was sceptical, telling We proposed using questionnaire-based relationship with her, and her role us that there had been many studies interviews, more in-depth interviews as a health care officer, meant that in Thokoza, and many promises of and storytelling sessions, and individual she also had good relationships with development that had come to nothing. photographic sessions with our selected many of the hostel residents. The voluntary nature of the study, the participants; to gather raw data around right to remain anonymous, and the the research questions. The size of our The hostel supervisor, Siyabonga research emphasis that was not linked sample group was determined by the Mkhize, assisted by confirming who in any way to development initiatives available time and budget. we needed to engage with at the was reiterated. Human Settlements Department We had under-estimated the regarding gate-keeper signatures, Our plan was to conduct two trial importance of what started as and it was agreed that we could begin questionnaire-based interviews in order incidental observations of life in preparing for the work in parallel with to test and refine the questionnaire Thokoza. This became a more conscious the gate-keeper process. He told us before actually starting the fieldwork. and critical enquiry as we proceeded that the Ward Councillor would also We were still waiting for gate-keeper with the work, and contributed to the need to be informed. sign-off at that stage. Although the richness of the photographic record senior Human Settlements Department. and the findings overall. We had delegated the initial selection of managers were aware of our requests, participants to Hlengiwe, based on our they had not responded with either We had also underestimated the broad criteria, and began the work with queries or a signature. value of the involvement and an introductory meeting of a group of assistance of the supervisor. What about 12 potential participants and two Just before the planned ‘test’ interviews, we learned about the hostel from young residents whom Hlengiwe had the Ward Councillor, having heard about engaging with him directly around the identified as potential assistants, based the proposed study, lodged a complaint logistics of the fieldwork, especially on a ‘skills description’ we provided. with the supervisor, saying that we may when we encountered difficulties not proceed. getting the requisite permissions, With Hlengiwe’s help , and translation from observing him engaging with provided by Thando, one of these young It transpired that the main objection the participants and though an women, we presented the project as a was that Hlengiwe had previously run ABOVE (TOP AND BOTTOM): Meeting convened by Hlengiwe to introduce the project

16 Ῐ Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Ῐ 17 for Council election, and that even list was to be abandoned. range of livelihoods. historical evolution of Thokoza Hostel. framework for our data analysis. construction of South Africa’s apartheid though they represented the same landscape. He offers useful definitions political party, it was clear that we On this basis, and after much An open meeting was advertised in the The reviewed books are all based on Ramphele explores the creative of space. For Bank, writing in 2011, would not have been able to proceed deliberation and uncertainty regarding hostel and approx. 28 women attended. fieldwork conducted in historically strategies that hostel dwellers and Xulu-Gama in 2017, hostels are with her on our team. Unbeknown who should give the authority, the Phumzile, with support from the men’s-only hostels, but cover the have adopted to survive within the important spaces where residents to us during this time, Hlengiwe had Human Settlements Department agreed supervisor, explained the project and period when women had started constrained physical, social and negotiate the conflicting pressures of fallen ill, and she did not recover. We to the project. participant selection criteria. We divided moving in to these previously all- psychological space of the hostel. Elder, modernity and tradition. considered abandoning the project at the attendees into their age groups and male environments. Each adopts a writing ten years later, brings a queer that stage as it is not easy for outsiders The process highlighted the extent to through discussion with them, and with particular focus and provides useful and feminist perspective to his analysis We identified two sources that deal to work in Thokoza. which the hostel is a highly politicised their assistance, we selected the most themes informed our own fieldwork of Kwa Thema hostel, exploring how specifically with Thokoza Hostel: space, also giving insight into the diverse sample possible within each in Thokoza, and most importantly hostels were determined by, and served Gina Buijs’s tightly focused analysis Eventually the supervisor proposed institutional structure, and some of the age group. provided a very useful theoretical to support, a powerful heteropatriarchal of how Xhosa women negotiated that we use an outside facilitator and ‘governance’ processes that control, and agreed to convene an open meeting at least partly define the hostel as home We had wanted one disabled of all interested residents, opening (or not home). participant, and one lesbian participant up participation to anyone. A random – as we were already aware that there selection could then be made from 3.3 PARTICIPANT SELECTION were several openly lesbian women the total pool of interested parties, choosing to stay in the hostel. The with the proviso that we achieve the Our proposed criteria were as follows: supervisor helped us to identify both, diversity of participants as per the zz the elderly and the disabled – for and their inclusion has definitely added research methodology. The original whom it seemed that the hostel value to the findings. might serve the purpose of an ‘institutional’ home – although it The total population is officially 1030 may not have always been that way. (the number of beds), but the actual zz medium term residents –some population is estimated at over 2000. with (sometimes adult) children We selected 18 women from the – for whom the hostel may have meeting. Our final total sample was 23. originally played a temporary urban bridgehead role, which has changed 3.4 METHODS OF ENQUIRY over time. 3.4.1 LITERATURE REVIEW zz recent, younger residents – possibly with children, or who are the grown There is very little literature that deals children of other residents; for explicitly with women’s hostels and the whom the hostel is a bridgehead, role of these institutions as ‘homes’. student accommodation, or just a The literature survey therefore extracts place to stay. useful informants from other sources to build up a broad understanding of The hostel residents come from rural as African women in the city; conceptions well as other urban/township areas, and of space in the hostel (Ramphele, we wanted a range. We also wanted the Elder); hostels as sites of modernity and ABOVE: Notice of our public meeting sample to include women engaged in a tradition (Bank, Xulu-Gama); and the ABOVE: Public meeting convened by the supervisor to select participants

18 Ῐ Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Ῐ 19 identity in a hostel inhabited mainly after we had conducted most of the around the key research questions. then administered by appointment, as a The final questionnaire is attached as evident that the photographic by Zulu-speaking women in the 1980s, interviews. They did not provide much The questions were informed by our follow up. Appendix 2. strategy had to emerge in the and Robynne Hansmann’s study of new information or insight, but served own prior understanding of life in moment with each participant, and the hostel in 1993. Building on both to corroborate and poignantly illustrate Thokoza, conversations with Hlengiwe Voice recordings were made, with 3.4.5 IN DEPTH INTERVIEWS AND that each situation would be very Buijs’s and Hansmann’s inquiries, we our findings, adding very personal detail Makhathini, and by the literature review. permission by the participants of most PHOTO SHOOTS different. The sessions were almost attempted to extract broad information to our understanding, especially of the A first draft was tested with Hlengiwe of the interviews. Only one participant invariably by appointment, always on the changes that have taken place older women’s stories. Four of the maps and refined based on her feedback. preferred not to be recorded, and one Photography is an ideal research in the participant’s rooms, and in the Thokoza Hostel in the last seemed particularly interesting in terms recording did not work. medium as it not only documents prompting questions, formulated half-century. Buijs’s use of Clarissa of our enquiry and are referred to in Some 52 questions covered the reality but can include poetic elements individually with reference to Fourie’s research at Thokoza in the section …... All of them are attached, following broad areas of enquiry: A few participants preferred to use a to articulate subtleties of hostel life. individual questionnaire response, 1970s in particular, provides a rich with the translated text, as Appendix 1. pseudonym for the interviews. Their Strong images have the power to helped get the conversation going. By source of information on the history of B built environment chosen names are the names that provide insight, intimacy and humanity, and large the women reached a point Thokoza, particularly with respect to 3.4.3 MIGRATION ORAL F family are used throughout the report. One often lost in formal investigations. in the conversations where they were the paternalistic management style that HISTORIES H home participant expressed unhappiness Portrait photography can be an happy to volunteer their thoughts, characterised the hostel from the mid- M mapping with the research, even after having empowering medium for residents and stories of feelings about Thokoza, 1950s to the mid-1970s. Information on In 2017 Nomkhosi Xulu Gama recorded P profile participated in the questionnaire, in give them an opportunity to reflect on and were feeling comfortable in front more recent developments at Thokoza oral histories as part of a project called S social depth interview, and a photography their lives lived, especially the elderly of the camera. was sourced from Hansmann and Migration and Shaping the Inclusive W work session in her room. Her contributions participants. newspaper articles. City: The Case of Durban, South Africa. were important to the research, but all The two exceptions were Toyz, who Of the thirty oral histories, ten were Questionnaire interviews were details have been disguised to retain The initial ideas about how the spontaneously engaged with the team The full literature review is available as given by women living in Thokoza, conducted mainly by Phumzile Xulu, her anonymity, none of the photography photography might unfold had to and wanted to participate, and Thembi, a separate document, but extracts are providing very detailed views of by appointment with the participants, has been used. be abandoned as it quickly became who was introduced to the team when included throughout this report. aspects of life in the hostel. who were mostly available at night and her friend Zanele was being interviewed. over weekends. Other than the two Both were interesting additions to 3.4.2 2011 JOURNEY MAPS One of the oral history participants, questionnaires administered by Joanne the diversity of the sample. In their Thandi, is also one of our participants. Lees, these interviews were conducted cases, the questionnaire interview was An interesting and important Her history provided very useful in the hostel reception area, in isiZulu. conducted after the more spontaneous component of Angela’s 2011 Thokoza background to her interviews photo Phumzile did simultaneous translation conversation and photo-shoot. project was the inclusion of ‘Journey shoot and informed her ‘story’. and recorded the responses in writing, Maps’. The maps comprising drawings, in English. Joanne used the admin Parts of the conversations during the paintings and text, were created in Two of the other histories provided block meeting room as a venue, and photography sessions were recorded, a workshop with some of the older particular insights related to our research conducted the interviews in English, however these are sometimes women – the ‘gogos’, facilitated by questions, and we have treated them as both participants being, and having incomplete due to the logistics of doing acclaimed story teller Gcina Mhlope. we have our own in-depth interviews, stated that they were comfortable to be the shoot and having a conversation Details from those maps raised using the transcripts to write them interviewed in English. simultaneously. As a mode of important questions around the issues up as ‘stories’: Ma Sibiya (page …) and engagement, it was very successful, and challenges of humane housing, Nomusa/Nokuthula (page …) In two cases, participants were yielding valuable data and insight. urbanisation, community advocacy and introduced and included in the study human rights. 3.4.4 QUESTIONNAIRE spontaneously, with the in-depth Melinda took rough notes, as the conversations and photography circumstances permitted. These notes, We referred to the journey maps only The questionnaires were designed happening first. Questionnaires were ABOVE: Phumzile Xulu conducting a questionnaire interview in the foyer the questionnaires, our observations

20 Ῐ Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Ῐ 21 and experience in the field, and the at all. The noise from activities in All participants were invited to the photographs, were used as the basis the hall is evident in some of the focus group which was facilitated for the personal narrative vignettes questionnaire interview recordings. by Nomkhosi Xulu-Gama, mainly in that appear as inserts through the isiZulu. The session was attended by report. 3.4.7 FOCUS GROUP nine participants. After the formal session, we invited the participants 3.4.6 OBSERVATION As mentioned above, we used a to share in a meal to express our selection of the images generated appreciation and conclude the The team spent many hours in the through the research as ‘prompts’ for fieldwork. hostel, on different days of the week a group discussion. The images were and at different times of the day. intended as a device to deepen the Participants also received stipends Simply being in the hostel space and conversation about Thokoza as ‘home’, as a contribution for the time they observing had not been consciously and around themes that had emerged gave us. included as part of our methodology from the data. The group interaction, but became a critical part of the especially where participants had 3.4.8 SUPERVISOR INTERVIEW research. Photographing the hostel differing views, was an important environment became a very important complement the individual responses. Although planned from the start, the and useful way of looking. Initially this interview with the supervisor only observation of the environment was Interestingly, in the focus group took place almost at the end of the incidental but became a deliberate session where a selection of images data analysis, providing a valuable mode of enquiry. was used to prompt discussion opportunity for checking some of our around particular themes that had conclusions and for clarification. The photography does not capture emerged, many of the participants the sound in the hostel, and the noise were horrified to be associated with The content of the interview is of so many people sharing so little what they saw – seeing their living mostly captured in the description space, emerged as a major source of environment through someone of Thokoza, particularly regarding unhappiness. The recordings of the else’s eyes – especially images of the institutional and financial questionnaire interviews that were mess and dirt. It was the only time arrangements. conducted in the foyer, capture some we observed any element of shame of the sounds of the place, and bear associated with living in Thokoza. Detailed notes were taken at the this out. At times, the activities in the This is discussed under the theme interview and are included in the raw hall were so loud that it was almost Pride | Shame in the analysis section data set. The supervisor asked not to impossible to conduct a conversation of this report. be recorded.

TOP LEFT: Angela Buckland photographing Thembi TOP RIGHT: Thembi looking at her photographs BOTTOM: Focus group with participants to reflect on and discuss the photographs

22 Ῐ Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Ῐ 23 IN-DEPTH ORAL HISTORY INFORMANT QUESTIONNAIRE INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT

Nqobile  Malindi   Thembeka  Fezeka    Tsidi    Thuli  Phetheni  Beatrice    Bongi  Monica  Nokwanda  Nthombizele  Nozipho  Zanele    Veliswa  Sylvia    Thandi    Thando  Toyz    Octavia  Thembi   Busisiwe  ma Sibiya  Nokuthula  Mabel  ABOVE: Focus group with participants, facilitated by Nomkhosi Xulu-Gama to reflect on and discuss the photographs Table 1: PARTICIPANT SAMPLE AND METHODS OF ENQUIRY 24 Ῐ Chapter 3 4. Chapter 4 REPORT STRUCTURE The preceding sections of this report cover the background to the research. The following sections document the findings.

There are three types of output.

The research analysis comprises the bulk of the report. Section 5 contextualises Thokoza in the bigger narrative of urbanization, and in particular, examines housing choice for African women in Durban. Section 6 comprises descriptions of Thokoza, including its history, spatial form, and institutional form. Section 7 sets out our analytical framework, proposing three lenses, drawn from the literature, through which life in Thokoza can usefully be viewed. Section 8 is an analysis of the data arranged in a series of thematic binaries that attempt to articulate some understanding of Thokoza in relation to the research questions. The use of binaries is a device that helped to describe the paradoxical and fluid situations we found.

The stories and curated collections of images are both artefact and analysis simultaneously and should be read in that way. The stories could be treated as field notes, but also draw deliberate and particular attention to the findings in relation to the research questions. The images are not merely illustrative, although in some instances, they do play that role. They should also be read as visual narratives intended to draw attention to some aspect of ‘home’ in Thokoza. ABOVE: Thokoza entrance façade

28 Ῐ Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Ῐ 29 5. Chapter 5 AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF URBAN HOUSING OPTIONS FOR Photo from: https://www.cctouring.co.za/?attachment_id=66962 AFRICAN WOMEN IN DURBAN Thokoza) coincides with this period . 1 tribal costume… clothing and personal adornments are predominantly Western. Women’s hostels are an aberration in important livelihood strategy that had a life in the informal sector (or via Women who successfully made their The young girls prefer lipstick and the South African landscape which is been adopted by black urban women. domestic work) and were ‘unwanted way to cities sought out accommodation powder to the facial tattooed lines both racialized and gendered. While by the urban authorities’. Women were in a new housing typology that had of the older women. Even the time- men’s hostels were conceptualised Further geographical shifts occurred a handicapped by inferior legal status emerged to meet their needs: the urban honoured ‘imbeleko’ is giving way by policy makers as temporary few years later as a result of drought with their housing options determined yard. Yards were generally located in to the blanket. Saucepans, pots and accommodation for employed black and the loss of male labour in the by their relationships to men. As a suburban areas of the city and were pans, and, above all, the ubiquitous male workers in cities, women were countryside. This led to widespread loss result, African women were thrust onto operated and nominally controlled tins have ousted domestic utensils of expected to remain in rural areas. of cattle which traditionally would have the margins of urban society. That urban by white private-sector landlords Native manufacture. The facilities for In the early years of colonial rule, been used to pay lobola, which in turn life continued to hold any attraction who were intent on extracting high the purchase of ready-prepared mealie collusion between Zulu elders and meant that the marriage prospects for for them at all was testimony to the rentals from an increasingly desperate meal and ready-stamped mealies have colonial officials tried to increase girls diminished. Many fled to mission strength of female dissatisfaction with African population. These yards – later rendered the wooden pestle and mortar ‘traditional’ control over women stations, which provided stepping their situation in rural areas” (Walker, pejoratively known as ‘slum yards’ – and winnowing basket nearly obsolete... (Goebel 2015, 32). Natal administrators stones to domestic labour in towns. quoted by Pithouse 2014). offered African women a measure of That this absorption of material culture saw the importance of keeping women In the mission stations, young women both economic and personal freedom, is not a transient and fluctuating, but a in rural areas to reproduce male absorbed Christian values including During the 1920s, cultural shifts and a sense of ‘home’ notwithstanding cumulative and permanent process, is labour which was important in mining, notions of romantic love, choice in in the rural areas, the erosion of the appalling living conditions that not to be doubted.” (Hellmann, 1935, 41) farming and other industries. Women marriage and monogamy. According to rural economies and the growth characterised these spaces. Yards were in rural areas were “maternalized Goebel (2015), this led to the weakening of manufacturing in cities spurred generally well-located and provided Hellmann noted that many families and expected to become part of the of traditional family structures and African urbanisation for both men and women good opportunities to brew continued to keep ties with rural kin then typical normatized rural black undermined respect for elders. By the women, prompting the central state to traditional beer which was a mainstay of and sent their children ‘home’ to family household, first as daughters, then as 1920s and 1930s, the notion of ‘provider increasingly intervene in the sphere their urban livelihoods. in rural areas to keep them away from mothers” (Elder 2003). love’ had emerged: masculinity would of urban policy and practice. New urban vice (Hellmann 1935). Hellmann now rest on the husband’s ability to legislation, notably the Native Urban FIGURE 1: The diagram dramatically Ellen Hellmann, writing about anticipated that children staying on Yet within two decades of the provide a home and livelihood through Areas Act of 1923 firmly established illustrates both the changing racial the everyday lives of women in a in the yard “would in all likelihood, establishment of men’s hostels in South waged labour (Goebel 2015). the idea of African impermanence in and gender composition in the Johannesburg slum yard, recorded a eventually form a permanent and stable Africa’s emerging urban centres, the town: Urban Africans – according to the city. In 1910 white men and women 50% increase in the number of women urban population, entirely dissociated procreational geography imagined by Quoting Walker, Pithouse argues that Stallard principle - were ‘to minister constituted the majority of the coming to town. Notwithstanding from a rural background. Many of them policy-makers was already beginning to for women the city was not necessarily to the needs of the white man and to urban population, and ‘native’ men their reliance on traditional livelihood - the potential citizens of a town - have shift as African women moved to cities a desirable locale. Rather, “migration depart therefrom as soon as they cease far outnumbered ‘native’ women. strategies, these newly urbanised been reared in a slum yard. Such yards – sometimes as an act of desperation was more likely to represent a means so to minister” (Wilson and Ramphele By 1946 ‘native’ men were by far women quickly abandoned other represent for many Natives their first, to escape rural poverty and/or abusive of escape. It was a personal choice, 1989:192 in Ramphele 1993). the largest group and the number aspects of rural tradition: “There is very and perhaps only, experience of a men, and sometimes as an assertion of involving flight from the controls of of native women had increased little evidence of the survival of Bantu home” (1935, 34). independence. As early as 1914, 4000 pre‐colonial society initially and Yet despite legislation that was somewhat. (Note the essentialised material culture in Rooiyard. With the African women, under the leadership of the deteriorating quality of rural life specifically intended to exclude characteristics ascribed to the exception of a few recently arrived In 1932 the municipal boundaries of a Mrs. Ncamu signed a petition against under colonialism and settler rule Africans from urban areas, both African different population groups, Shangaan women who still wear their Durban were extended dramatically the Beer Act, which forced African men subsequently. On arriving in cities, men and African women continued especially the earrings of the ‘native’ to drink only beer that had been brewed women were excluded from the formal coming to cities. The building of the men and the bundles on the heads 1 In 1934, another hostel, the Dalton Road Hostel, providing accommodation for single males by the municipality, undermining an industrial sector, compelled to make Native Women’s Hostel (now known as of the ‘native’ women. was built, also in the inner city. Source: 1952 Durban Housing Survey

32 Ῐ Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Ῐ 33 to include vast tracts of rural land Natal 1952, 305). outnumber Europeans by more than “Black migration was imagined to be a state to rethink the Stallardist principle and social advantages of the improved surrounding the town. This radically two to one in Durban, the rapid growth movement undertaken by men – with of impermanence and reluctantly came living conditions, and in most instances altered the demographics of the city, According to Shula Marks there were of the non-European population being men supposedly drawn back to rural to terms with a more permanent urban have responded by furnishing their adding significant numbers of Africans 90,400 men to 37,600 women in urban the result of both of the high Indian areas by heteropatriarchal desirings and African presence. The 1952 Housing homes as well as their slender incomes to the urban population, including Natal (quoted in Goebel 2015, 32), but birth rate and the steady influx of responsibility for family and household. Survey acknowledged the extent of permit and by cultivating flowers African women. The authorities who change in the racial composition of natives in search of urban employment” These desirings and responsibilities “non-Europeans employed as semi- and vegetables on their allotments” up until this point had “been chiefly the cities was also dramatic: “In 1936 (University of Natal 1952, vii). were supposedly rewarded by a virtuous skilled operatives in factories”2, but (University of Natal 1952, 335). concerned with the accommodation there were 20,000 more non-Europeans wife held immobile by a draconian also recognised that their wages were of male natives of working age,” now than Europeans in Durban, the former For the authorities, accommodation state. Thus, rendered passive, these still not sufficient to cover the cost For Maylam, this highly differentiated acknowledged “that there would be an living for the most part in seriously for Africans in Durban up until this women were cast in the imaginings and of housing. The Durban municipality housing landscape in the new increasing influx of Natives requiring overcrowded conditions, primarily as point had not been a particularly fantasies of white heteropatriarchal argued that a grant from central townships, comprising both houses family accommodation” (University of a result of poverty… non-European serious problem, because, to quote the planners and policy-makers as the loci government would be required to and hostels, represented the Housing Survey of 1952, “there was in of black heteropatriarchal desire and subsidise housing for ‘non-Europeans’ segregationist intentions of the state fact little demand for family housing… pleasure” (2003, 9). (University of Natal, 1952, 115). which distinguished between different Nor was the accommodation in hostels sections of the black population: and compounds always inadequate But women could not be completely The 1950s saw the massive roll-out between migrant workers and the prior to 1939. It is only in 1939 that a excluded from the city. The Durban of apartheid townships, formally stabilised proletariat, between the serious shortage of accommodation Housing Survey of 1952 noted a constructed residential areas aspirant middle class and those beneath has developed. Poverty in the Native “striking increase in the size of the constituted by both, all-male them, between domestic workers and reserves, an increased desire for urban Native population”, driven partially hostels , but also by rows and rows other urban employees, and between life and opportunities, Durban’s by a high birth rate but “principally of small free-standing suburban different ethnic groups (1995). Bank developing industries and shipping, by the considerable drift of Natives houses that had been built along similarly distinguishes between “those and the labour needs of war combined to Durban… The males, who came to scientific principles by the then newly urban spaces representing the fenced to produce a large and rapid influx of the city to seek work, were sometimes established National Building Research and guarded single sex hostel blocks Natives into Durban” (University of accompanied or in many cases Institute (University of Natal 1952, and those by the seried rows of 51/9 Natal 1952, 303). followed by their women and children” Japha 1998) 3. Access to these houses workmen’s houses accommodating (University of Natal 1952, 33). was limited to male wage-earners who a male-centred urbanism based on The need for family housing was could prove that they were employed in the nuclear family” (Bank 2011, 71-73) probably also prompted by the arrival The policy of apartheid was officially the city. In most townships, tenure was constituted by “a male breadwinner of even more African women in the ushered in by the victory of the National restricted exclusively to rental. The and home-maker mother – a model city: Between 1936 and 1946 Durban’s Party in the 1948 elections. This authorities were very proud of the new which had largely been internalised African female population doubled from coincided with the post-World War Two townships: The 1952 Durban Housing by Africans themselves” (Goebel 2015). 14,234 to 28,523 (Eagle 1987, quoted in manufacturing boom which required a Survey posited that “the general Elder also noted that “only formal Hansmann 1993, 55). more stable African workforce than the layout of the new locations is good. waged work undertaken by men (was) docks or the mines. This prompted the The residents appreciate the material seen as significant in securing the By 1937 the migrant labour system was FIGURE 2: In 1946 there was an extreme gender imbalance amongst urban Africans. firmly in place, profoundly shaping the 2 Kwa Mashu Men’s Hostel, for example, was established during this period, between 1958 and 1960. “Native males” of working age constituted the bulk of Durban’s African population, development of South African cities and far outnumbered African women in the city. and many aspects of South African 3 The National Building Research Institute explored minimum standards of accommodation and housing for South Africa. Eight research life. Elder reinforces the gendered committees were set up under the chairmanship of Mr. Norman Hanson, m.i.a., A.R.I.B.A, comprising some 120 selected specialists who volunteered Source: 1952 Durban Housing Survey nature of the migrant labour system: their services to define South Africa’s housing needs.

Chapter 5 Chapter 5 35 34 Ῐ Ῐ material well-being of the household trade union movement (Goebel 2015). African population was still housed Africa’. The ‘surplus’ population Act of 1970, where all Africans were around motherhood (Goebel 2015). (Elder 2003, 17). Bank affirms this positive role of in ‘Single Quarters’, notwithstanding (unemployed, women, children, the to become citizens of a homeland women. He writes that in the 1950s the roll-out of 51/6 and 51/9 Apartheid aged, the disabled) were shipped to (Hansmann 1993). By the 1970s the 1986 heralded huge changes Jennifer Robinson in her book, women often entered the cities with family housing. Single accommodation these ‘homelands’. The Department drawing up of Bantustan boundaries for South African cities. The “The Power of Apartheid” reiterates a strongly independent spirit and a was provided either by Central of Bantu Administration and conveniently located most of government, through the White the importance ascribed to the determination to make new lives for Government (4.7%), the municipality Development set up an internal Durban’s African accommodation Paper on Urbanisation and through normative family as an essential themselves. It was not only the escape (10.1%), and the private sector (17.3%). resettlement branch to perform these within KwaZulu. the scrapping of influx control, prop in the system: from rural patriarchy that motivated Only 16.5% of urban housing consisted removals (Hansmann 1993). recognised that African urbanisation women to remain single, but also their of family housing. The remainder of The ‘homeland’ system was The establishment of Bantustans was inevitable, and in some cases “If citizens were to be properly desire to hold onto their own earnings Durban’s African population lived in premised on the understanding that and associated mass relocation possibly even desirable (Vedalankar controlled, the family was a key modal (Bank 2011, 167). domestic quarters (17.6%) and by far remittances earned by black male programmes (including ‘Black Spot’ 1993, Murray 2014, Maylam 1990). This unit through which this control was the largest cohort at 33.8% continued labour in urban areas would flow removals) further eroded land-based shift had begun in the late 1970s with to be exercised and proper citizens In 1952 the Pass Laws were extended to live in shacks (Davies 1981, quoted back to rural areas and support black subsistence strategies in rural areas. the report of the Riekert Commission. … were to be created. Houses were to women in terms of the Natives in Hansmann 1993, 37). However, by families (Elder 2003, 17). This in turn spawned increasing, if The Riekert report departed from rigid built (if inadequately) for families, (Abolition and Co-ordination of 1960, with the development of Umlazi, uneven, female out-migration from Verwoerdian ideology by recognising and only families could inhabit them. Documents) Act. For African women, the amount of family housing had Aside from criminalising job-seeking, rural areas, undermining the shared the existence of a permanent urban Women were persistently conceived the prospect of these controls was increased to the extent that there was a deliberate policy of not providing household project of ‘building the African proletariat. This permanent of as ‘housewives’ by administrators highly threatening at a time when an almost equal split between single family accommodation was pursued homestead’ (Bank 2011, 138). For proletariat would constitute a class of in a community where women were new employment possibilities for and family accommodation. to discourage permanent settlement Elder this particular wave of women’s ‘urban insiders’ who would be given frequently breadwinners, even if through women were opening up in urban of those Africans escaping the Pass migration can also be ascribed to preferential access to employment informal work rather than formal areas. New waged employment in the By the late 1960s there was a shift Law net. The Bantu Administration Act the unreliability and inconsistency and housing. At the same time, stricter employment. That the administrators formal sector paid significantly more in government policy. Reluctant of 1963 spelled out that Africans in of support provided by urban male control would be exercised over the were all men is perhaps unsurprising. than domestic service, farm labour acceptance of African presence in ‘white areas’ would be accommodated wage earners. Women were forced ‘outsiders’, those without permanent But the image of fatherhood, and the or informal work. Women therefore cities was abandoned, to be replaced in single sex hostels but would have to supplement the livelihoods of urban rights (Maylam 1990). punitive characteristics of this social vigorously resisted having to carry by the new Bantustan4 policy, which to commute on a weekly or monthly their families with waged labour and and familial role, were central to the passes. For Elder, Cheryl Walker’s envisaged a small, impermanent basis back to the homelands. Aside therefore actively resisted restrictions Writing in the context of the Eastern exercise of power in locations is a view of women’s resistance is deeply urban population and a large labour from the moratorium on family on their mobility. Cape, Bank describes large numbers direct consequence of the masculine flawed: While Walker portrays this reserve, residing in nominally housing, urban amenities – schools, young women moving into the cities in character of the state.” (Robinson resistance as way a of defending independent, ethnically-defined clinics, recreational areas - were also With the growing tide of political unprecedented numbers and making quoted in Elder, 2003, 41). female domesticity, Elder sees the ‘homelands’. The new Bantustan deliberately withheld (Ramphele resistance in urban areas in the headway both in the formal job market women’s pass protests as marking policy represented a retreat to earlier 1993, 18). A period of new hostel 1970s and 1980s, women created a and in the informal sector (Bank Yet, notwithstanding this conservative “how women insisted on having a say views of African urbanisation, once construction started in places like new political space for themselves, 2011, 106). In some instances, many gendering of African women, over the terms of their relations to the again envisaging urban Africans Alexandra in Johannesburg (where providing support to youth actively of these women together, with their particularly in cities, they played an wage labor market” (Elder 2003, 63). as temporary sojourners in urban both men’s and women’s hostels engaged in ‘the struggle’. According to children, started moving into what increasingly powerful role in resistance areas that inevitably fell within were built) and in KwaMashu and Goebel, the African National Congress had previously been single-sex men’s organisations and in the emerging By 1957, the majority of Durban’s the boundaries of ‘white South Umlazi-Glebe in Durban, where two (ANC) politicised motherhood and hostels (Murray 2014, Ramphele 1993, huge men’s hotels were built, each encouraged women to act politically Elder 2003, Xulu-Gama 2017). accommodating 10,000 men. to defend their children as mothers. 4 The change in policy was accompanied by a change in terminology: the term ‘native’ was replaced by the term ‘Bantu”. The appropriation of motherhood Movement into the city was also The Bantustan policy culminated in (‘Mothers of the Nation’) as a mega- precipitated by the collapse of rural the Bantu Homelands Citizenship identity enforced a political discourse economy, particularly in the Transkei

36 Ῐ Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Ῐ 37 in the 1980s, following extensive suddenly more vulnerable than ever living in the hostel were seen only as reversed the pattern of dependence city (Bank 2011, 166). of these households are critically droughts which killed off livestock before (Bank 2011). members of male residents’ families. that Apartheid architects publicly dependent on state grants amongst and prevented the harvesting of Single women, female headed articulated” (Elder 2003, 48). For Goebel, the grants are something other survival strategies including crops. According to Buijs, “These In 1992 the De Loor Report on households and self-employed of a mixed blessing. While she informal sector activity, social droughts, and the increasing failure housing was released. This continued women fell outside the purview of Notwithstanding the increasing acknowledges that exercising these networks of family and friends, and of male kin to send remittances to emphasise family housing and officials and policy-makers. Thus independence for African women, a rights offered real opportunities for charity (Bank 2011). drove rural women to urban areas: argued that housing for unmarried hostel-upgrading initiatives were new Constitution inscribing gender gender justice and transformation the Witwatersrand, Cape Town, and … people should be left up to the likely to perpetuate apartheid equality, and a growing trend they also imposed “a certain These findings are echoed by urban Natal, namely Durban” (Buijs market and employers to address. definitions of legality and illegality, towards female headed households, definition of being a woman that Goebel, describing the situation 2012). Catherine Cross suggested that This meant that it would be “unlikely ethnicity, sex, and masculinity and post-Apartheid housing delivery fails to interrogate and challenge in Kwa Zulu Natal: “The pervasive while agriculture in the homelands that single accommodation for femininity and would serve to reify still consisted mainly of family the gendered historical, political and social upheaval… manifested in low often acted as an emergency women (would) be built as part of a male hostel dwellers’ aspirations. accommodation, based on the economic processes that produce rates of marriage and instability backstop for the rural household state initiative, unless economically The livelihood strategies undertaken assumption that the family is the their situation” (Goebel 2015, 23). in conjugal relationships and economy, it was not a viable viable” (Hansmann 1993, 62). Women by women - clothing manufacture, male-headed nuclear family. There Goebel asks us to interrogate two subsequently high rates of female alternative to wage employment or were side-lined from discussions beer brewing, urban farming - that was one legislative improvement for important ideas about the women headed households; high rates of informal activity because of the high about hostel conversions, and Elder had witnessed in and around women however: families could now and households: “the African gender-based violence; differentially risk involved in the unpredictable inasmuch as they featured in Kwa Thema hostel were not taken gain access to housing even if the feminist view that motherhood high female unemployment, low environment. (Cross quoted in Buijs policy-makers minds, fulfilled into account in the hostels upgrading family was now headed by a woman. defines women in Africa in a positive wages and poor educational levels; 2012, 162). Buijs writes that many conventional tropes as home-makers policies (Elder 2003). This, according to Bank, “allowed way”, and whether female headed high dependence of women on African women from Bantustans and nurturers. “House, home and women to bypass male-dominated household should be defined solely the welfare state; very high levels such as Ciskei and Transkei started hearth were seen as the essentially During the mid-1990s women circuits of power and authority… through the absence of a man of HIV/Aids, with subsequently migrating elsewhere in South Africa private realm to which women continued migrating to cities. In and get on with the business of (Goebel 2015). high burdens of care; and ongoing in search of livelihoods. Some of were confined. They tended to be East London, according to Bank, making a living and raising their oppression of women by patriarchal these women found work in the excluded from “the factory, the street female headed households emerged fatherless families” (Bank 2011, 185). Bank argues that while women culture” (Goebel 2015, 6). Natal’s agricultural sector, but others and the bar”: the “hostile, busy, noisy as a force. This coincided with the Single women, however, remained might have been keen to recreate found work in Durban, and some and always masculine associations of collapse of male employment and invisible in the eyes of the new post- older models of the female-centred Notwithstanding women’s improved found accommodation in public space” (Elder, 2013, 134). growth of new opportunities for apartheid housing policy-makers. entrepreneurial household, these are access to cities, South Africa’s Thokoza (Buijs 2012). women in the informal economy. increasingly difficult to realise in the geography has retained both the For Elder, the government’s hostel Women acquired new roles as After 1994, many women turned their face of domestic fragmentation and racial and gendered characteristics The 1980s also saw an upsurge upgrading policies were essentially accumulators of wealth, bearers attention away from men, who they intergenerational conflict. He says of earlier times. The 1996 census in youth culture in cities with flawed because they continued of independence and enemies of argued were needy and unreliable, to that today the traditional African revealed that large discrepancies the emergence of the ‘comrades’. to inscribe the heteropatriarchal custom (Bank 2011). Elder witnessed the state and its welfare system as working class has been undermined continue to exist between urban Youths – male and female – were assumptions that had underlain similar conditions: “... support the new backbone of their personal and has been replaced by “the and rural areas, reinforcing existing increasingly breaking away from apartheid. Only putatively single generated by women’s ‘invisible’ and collective security. Access to precariat, an amalgamation of inequalities. Of the estimated family structures and home-based men living in the hostel and labor quite often resulted in a state pensions for women over people who lack social organisation 31.7 million Africans, 19.8 million networks and moving out of family heteronormative families – defined reversal of the supposed support sixty, various disability grants, child and secure wage labour employment. were living in rural areas, with homes to pursue independent life. in terms of male hostel residents that flowed from gainfully employed support grants and foster care grants African urban residents now mostly proportionately more young African In some instances, the struggle who had been joined by their male relatives. By providing meant that women in effect became live by their wits, depending on part- children, women, and older people years created hyper-masculinities wives and children – would benefit food, clothing and sometimes “married to the state” and developed time casual employment, welfare in non-urban areas, underscoring that were difficult to control, with from the newly upgraded hostel financial support and emotional new strategies to reclaim their grants, and hustling in the informal the “gendered geography of the bodies and homes of women accommodation. Women who were sustenance, millions of women citizenship, dignity and right to the economy” (Bank 2011, 28). Many apartheid’s legacy.” (Elder, 2003, 22)

38 Ῐ Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Ῐ 39 6. Chapter 6 DESCRIPTION OF THOKOZA HOSTEL 6.1 A BRIEF HISTORY beds for nearly 600; in addition, a large toilets and kitchen hot plates - were 168). The random allocation of beds Buijs records that in the mid-1980s, number of women slept on the floor and considered generally inadequate for was supposed to prevent ethnic groups children were allowed to stay with their The matron also The Durban Native Women’s Hostel was in passages and halls”. The same survey so many people but they were kept forming which could have led to fights. mothers for short periods in school built on the site of a school for African pointed to other problems including clean by residents, the management holidays. Men however were excluded encouraged residents children, run by St. Faith’s Anglican inadequate light and ventilation: “In committee of residents, and fourteen The matron devised a set of rules which and unable to venture beyond the Church and was first occupied in 1927 this hostel, window space seemed staff supervised by the matron. (Fourie, was handed to residents. The rules lobby and lounge. “Thokoza was, in to vote for a new (Buijs 164-165). The hostel was intended to be quite inadequate, even when quoted in Buijs 2012, 167) At the time, were intended to “help the Matron effect, a female world…” (2012, 168) to accommodate domestic workers, based on the low minimum standard the hostel also had a lounge with tables, and Committee to make this hostel a name for the hostel. hence its central location which gave of one-fourteenth of the floor space” chairs and a radiogram. This was the place of happiness and think about In the 1990s, the bulk of access to the white suburbs. (University of Natal 1952, 316). Some place where meetings, either religious others and be respectful and behave accommodation within the hostel The women chose years later, the 1952 Durban Housing or of various clubs, and concerts were yourselves well and be clean”. Despite comprised rooms with three beds, There was a clear paternalistic agenda Survey recorded accommodation for held (Fourie, quoted in Buijs 2012, 167). this injunction, Fourie records that the as well as a number of dormitories the name Thokoza in establishing the hostel, echoing the 520 people and beds for 70 casuals but perpetual overcrowding in the rooms, sleeping up to 19 women. intentions of the churches who had acknowledged that the hostel – then According to Fourie, the overcrowding along with competition for hot water (meaning ‘happiness’) established hostels for African women known as the Grey Street Hostel – “at had one positive advantage for the and space on the washing lines led to Visitors and family were not allowed to in Johannesburg. These, in effect, were times provided shelter for about 1,000 residents, which was that pass books friction which was often expressed in visit the hostel, except in the entrance which was submitted “Christian compounds for girls, centres women” (University of Natal 1952, 328). were seldom checked. It was thus ethnic terms. foyer. There was a degree of flexibility of accommodation which would limit possible for unregistered women to live around female family visitors, but no to and accepted free movement (especially at night)” By the late 1970s, the paternalistic at Thokoza and not worry about being In 1984 and 1985 Gina Buijs conducted laxity around male family or visitors, (Buijs, quoting Fourie, quoting Gaitskell). agenda in the hostel still prevailed. The deported back to the homelands as was field work at Thokoza explicitly to who are not allowed beyond the by the Durban matron who had worked in the hostel often the case for those living in their probe the question of Xhosa identity entrance foyer. Children were also Accommodation in the hostels avoided since 1952 had wanted the residents employers’ back yards. Some of the within a Zulu environment. Buijs noted expressly forbidden from staying in the Corporation. the ‘backyard shacks’ which were of the hostel to ‘treat it like a home’. women Fourie interviewed were brought high levels of out-migration of women hostel: “The only exception being that believed to expose young girls from the She instituted a residents’ committee to the hostel by kin already living there, from the then Transkei in the mid- children under the age of two may - for countryside to the temptations of men to oversee personal interactions in the but most gained admission after their 1980s. According to Buijs, these women limited periods - stay in the corridors. and drink. hostel; formulated rules “oriented to employers had written letters to the were forced - rather than chose - to Male children under the age of seven help the crowded living conditions”; matron asking for them to be admitted. leave their homes and to move from are allowed to visit, but once they This was not the only hostel for African and raised money for the annual the Xhosa ‘homeland’ to predominantly are a bit older that they can’t come women in the magisterial area of Christmas party (Fourie 1977, quoted in Fourie records that in 1975 a third Zulu Durban in search of livelihoods. see their mother. This rule, according Durban, but its location within walking Buys 2012). The matron also encouraged of the hostel residents were Xhosa to Hansmann “is left over from the distance of the city centre, near Indian residents to vote for a new name for speaking and two thirds Zulu (1977: While acknowledging the severe notion that hostels are temporary shops (which sold goods more cheaply the hostel. The women chose the name 30), with the Xhosa women originating overcrowding of Thokoza, Buijs places, where workers live for limited than white-owned ones) and close to a Thokoza (meaning ‘happiness’) which almost entirely from Pondoland and was impressed the neatness of the periods and then return home to their large vegetable market, made it a highly was submitted to and accepted by the the Mount Frere area, those closest to spaces inhabited by the women. Buijs families” (1993, 84). desirable place to stay. (Buijs 2012). Durban Corporation. Natal. The matron spoke fluent Zulu and notes the contrast with Ramphele’s conducted all her dealing with residents account of municipal hostels for At the time of Hansmann’s research, The hostel was designed to In 1975 Thokoza had 677 beds in in Zulu. Rules were also written in Zulu. migrant workers in Langa in Cape Thokoza was highly politicized as a accommodate about 500 women, but dormitories and some rooms with Fourie noted that the matron strongly Town which were characterised by result of the unbanning of the ANC. soon became over-crowded. A survey three beds in each, but women also disapproved of ‘inter-tribal animosity’ “pervasive garbage and dirt as well This put Inkatha on the offensive, and carried out by the municipality in slept in the courtyards and passages. - code for physical fighting - which was as overcrowding indicative of squalid, Inkatha then took charge of the then- 1943/44 recorded that “there were The numbers of bathrooms, showers, forbidden (1977:35, quoted in Buijs 2012, degrading facilities”. planned upgrading process.

42 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 43 This historical overview points to an ongoing shortage of affordable housing in Durban...For women – and especially women who choose to live without men - housing choices are particularly limited.

The abandonment of restrictions on to allow residents to live as families. This historical overview points to movement in the post-1994 period He said some residents complained an ongoing shortage of affordable resulted in increasing numbers of that children damaged cars, left taps housing in Durban, and to the gendered people – including women – moving to running, and babies cried all night, assumptions which often underpin cities. This exacerbated overcrowding disrupting sleep. such housing. For women – and in Thokoza and by 2016, there were an especially women who choose to live estimated 5 000 people living in the On the other hand, women with children without men - housing choices are hostel (https://mg.co.za/article/2016- pointed to the inhumanity of the particularly limited. Women may seek 04-14-life-inside-a-womens-hostel). This rules. Many women argued that it was out places in existing men’s hostels, figure appears to be an exaggeration impossible to send their children away where they are reliant on the patronage exceeding by over 100% the number because there are no people to look of a male hostel resident; they may estimated by Hlengiwe Makhathini, after their children at home. be able to access accommodation who had lived the hostel since 2014. in a township house intended for a According to Makhathini, two or three This situation reached a head in March heteronormative nuclear family; they people would share one of the 900 2015 when the eThekwini Municipality may choose (or be driven) to occupy available beds although they were no gave the women of Thokoza notice a shack in an informal settlement longer sleeping in the passages. Her that all children living there must be which is often unsafe and precarious; wish at the time was for the municipality gone. Some 28 residents, assisted by or – if dependent on inner city location to transform the hostels into family the Legal Resources Centre then went – may choose to live in unregulated units (https://mg.co.za/article/2016-04- to the Durban High Court, challenging and hazardous flats, rooms and doss- 14-life-inside-a-womens-hostel). the rules separating mothers from their houses in the inner city. Given these children. (https://www.iol.co.za/news/ limited and sometimes dangerous Significantly, women had also slowly south-africa/kwazulu-natal/durban- choices, Thokoza is something of an started bringing their children to hostel-children-living-in-fear-1830016). aberration, offering relatively safe, the hostel, notwithstanding rules The judge ruled in favour of the serviced accommodation for women – that had expressly forbidden this. In women, allowing children to remain and especially women without men - in FIGURE 1: Locality map January 2015, the residents were told with their mothers. At the time, the a highly desirable location. Demand that children had to leave and, in municipality opposed the finalisation for such accommodation has placed future, all male children older than 10 of the interim order. A city spokesman huge strain on the Thokoza Hostel with 6.2 SPACE IN THOKOZA the junction between the inner-city to health facilities, schooling, work would also be barred. At the time, the said, “steps are being taken to address increasing numbers of women – and now HOSTEL edge, and the Greyville racecourse. opportunities, including informal hostel’s superintendent, Siyabonga the concerns of residents”. (https:// children – having to share the space. This edge of the inner city has a mix of trade, transport infrastructure, shops, Mkhize, argued that the structure of the www.timeslive.co.za/news/south- This has forced women who’ve gained The Thokoza Women’s Hostel was built uses: commercial, residential, retail, supermarkets, informal fresh produce building “does not permit for children”, africa/2015-03-12-court-buys-hostel- access to the hostel to make enormous in 1927 on the corner of Sydenham and major public transport facilities. markets, and is not far from the Berea, but there were plans to upgrade it kids-some-time). compromises in order to be there. Road and erstwhile Grey Street, at It is very well located with respect and the beach .

44 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 45 The building is a courtyard perimeter block, built to the street edges. It is an enclave with limited access - a discreetly bounded neighbourhood.

Today, the hostel comprises the original ‘U’ shaped building – Thokoza A – dating from 1927 to the East with the main pedestrian entrance on Dr. Yusuf Dadoo Street. Block B in the centre and Block C, another courtyard, were built in the 1990s .

In the early 2000’s, due to political strife in the hostel, some municipal sheds nearby on Market Street, were identified as an annex of Thokoza – known now as Thokoza 2. This was meant to be a temporary arrangement, but still houses 26 women in dormitories. FIGURE 2: Thokoza women’s site context

stair shop t t

bath stair bath stair n e e e m e r g t a

staff n bath staff n e stair courtyard S a h

c m t i o k o d a

foyer D courtyard hall management f u

stair s u

staff meeting Y

.

courtyard r

stair bath stair D bath stair management kitchen stair

hall bath

bath Carlisle Street TOP: Thokoza Block A courtyard BOTTOM LEFT: Dr Yusuf Dadoo Façade FIGURE 4 Diagrammatic Plan – Typical Floor FIGURE 3 Diagrammatic Plan - Ground Floor BOTTOM RIGHT: A Thokoza resident informal trader 46 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 47 There is a range of accommodation – single rooms, double rooms, 3-bed rooms, and dormitories housing up to 13 beds.

Block A – 166 rooms, 2 singles, 6 dorms, 148 are 3 beds. 527 beds Block B – 40 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 1x4 bedroom. 145 beds FAR LEFT: The view from the Block C – 94 rooms, all doubles except 121 singles, and 2 TV rooms which are now 10 second floor looking north over bed dorms. 188 beds Greyville Racecourse Thokoza 2 - 29 beds in 3 dormitories BELOW LEFT: A typical 3 bed room (Supervisor interview) BELOW RIGHT : A typical dormitory

48 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 49 Until the additions in 1990, 60 years accommodate social gatherings are as bathing, cooking, sleeping, etc. after the original building was built, a few rooms at ground floor level, (1993, 85). the built fabric was fixed, but the including the hall. These are hired occupancy levels highly variable, out for meetings, we saw a Shembe Thokoza residents must entertain depending on the effectiveness of group conducting a vigil, political visitors in the ground floor entrance municipality in policing the number meetings, engagement parties, EPWP lobby, or in their rooms. This is not of people who occupied the hostel. meetings and church services. conducive to socialising, especially Due to the current circumstances, with men. Aside from the constant described later, management of These rooms are intensively used movement of people in and out of occupancy is now less controlled for formal gatherings, for which the building, the chairs and tables than ever before. permission is required, leaving no are broken, and convey a bad space for informal gathering. This impression of the hostel. Recreation There are very few places in the shortage of communal space was spaces that had existed on the hostel for women to gather, other also noted by Hansmann: “The upper levels, including the room than in each other’s rooms, which only space available for communal that historically had contained limits the size of the gathering. On activities - meetings and concerts a ‘radiogram’ to entertain the weekends small groups hang out – was the hall…The remaining residents, and then more recently together at the ends of corridors. communal space is left-over space, TVs have since been converted to The only spaces large enough to or planned for other activities, such dormitories because of the huge

FAR LEFT: Far left: the exterior of Thokoza Block LEFT: A typical Thokoza 2 dormitory interior ABOVE: A Church service in progress in the hall 50 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 51 “There is no privacy, and the children are making a noise. The room is so small.”

eatrice, a gracious 56-year old with life in this room, but decided so small.” grandmother, has spent fifteen nonetheless to put her name down The daily routines of Beatrice and those years living in Thokoza, and at the ‘office’, applying to the hostel of her fellow room-mates are totally she has spent all these years manager to move up the housing incompatible. Beatrice, who is formally Bwaiting. She waits every day in the ladder to a two-bed dorm. She doesn’t employed as a general worker at Durdoc queue for the showers before heading remember the date, but was upgraded Hospital, must rise early in the morning off to work. She waits every year for to a two-bed in Block C. Unfortunately – between 3.30am and 5am - if she her annual leave to see her family things didn’t work out with her room- wants to be in time for a hot shower in Mfundisweni near Flagstaff in the mate in the two-bed dorm: “That lady before heading off to work, and must Eastern Cape. But by far the longest wait was not going to the church. I couldn’t go bed before 8pm. Her room-mates, has been the fifteen years she’s spent stay with that aunty.” in contrast, work in the informal sector waiting to get a room of her own in So Beatrice then applied at the office and their lives are less determined by Thokoza: “I sit here,” says Beatrice, “and to be moved again. But this time, in the eight-to-five jobs. They get up later, and they tell me they will find me another elaborate game of snakes-and-ladders go to bed later, preventing Beatrice from place, but they’ve never looked for a that determines the somewhat arbitrary getting enough sleep. Things are even ‘single’ for me”. Beatrice is a very allocation of beds, Beatrice slithered hard on Sundays: “Sometimes when I’m patient woman. down the hierarchy, landing up once coming from church” which involves Beatrice gained access to the hostel in again in a ‘three-bed’, back in block day-long services ending at 6pm, “I want 2004 at the request of her employer – a A, this time in room 67. This is where to sleep, but the children are playing.” formal approach which secured her only Beatrice now stays, sharing with two But Beatrice acknowledges that Thokoza the right to sleep in the hostel, but not other women, Nkululeko and Boni, who offers an important amenity: “I’m happy necessarily a bed. For six or seven long come from Kwa-Zulu Natal. She says because I am not far from my work”. years she was obliged to share a bed. it was difficult at first to “share with And she’s even tolerant of the fact that This is a relatively common practice in strangers, but now I know them because men have started staying at the hostel Thokoza where demand for sleeping we are staying together.” The two women – being sneaked in by young women places far outstrips supply. are significantly younger than Beatrice, intent on sleeping with their boyfriends. It was only in 2011 that she was allocated and have recently brought their young “I don’t mind about that thing because Narratives a bed of her own, albeit in a three-bed children to live with them, exacerbating I’m just coming to sleep and then I’m dorm - room 79 in Block A - where she the competition for space in a room just going to work.” Beatrice was obliged to share with two other which measures less than ten square She would, however, be much happier in women, both of whom were strangers. metres. “There is no privacy, and the a room of her own. She continues Beatrice had no particular problems children are making a noise. The room is to wait. 52 Ῐ Narratives: Beatrice Narratives: Beatrice Ῐ 53 pressure for accommodation.

The public areas – corridors, ablution blocks, laundry rooms and kitchens - are maintained and cleaned by workers employed by municipality. Generally during the week, the hostel was clean and tidy, but by the end of weekend over-use, the strains of overcrowding, and lack of daily cleaning left them dirty. The public spaces are not as well maintained as the bedrooms and dormitories whose upkeep is the responsibility of occupants. Our experience was that with few exceptions, the rooms are impeccably tidy and organized.

There are ablution blocks on every floor. The quality varies. They are generally in a bad state of disrepair in block A, the oldest block, and appear to be in better shape in Block C. In theory, there are hot showers, however many of the geysers are not working at present. The newest ablutions are in Thokoza 2. These are much appreciated by the residents there, who have arguably some of the worst sleeping conditions.

Significantly, very few people seem to cook together in the communal kitchens, preferring to prepare meals on the ubiquitous two-plates that women keep in their rooms. The communal kitchens are used primarily for washing dishes, any food preparation that needs water, ABOVE: The foyer is desperately in need of upgrading and is the only place to receive visitors and processing peanuts, rather other than in the bedrooms than the regular preparation of RIGHT: Litter in the main stairwell of Block A 54 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 55 a business, but given the pressure already on the hostel infrastructure, the impossibility of ensuring that the only customers are residents, he seemed reluctant to agree. It does seem likely that there are laundry services being provided informally already though.

The environment as a whole is hard and has an unrelenting institutional character . There are no green spaces and no vegetation. Graffiti in the stairwells speaks of a lack of ‘ownership’ of the common spaces, which is unsurprising. Efforts to paint the exterior of the building in bright colours in an attempt to brighten up the place have not been helpful and are viewed cynically by the residents: “do they think this is a nursery school” (Hlengiwe Makhatini).

The physical space of the hostel is not transformable by the residents, except through personal objects in meals. This echoes the findings an impressive laundry facility and chains. The photo essay – pages … - their limited personal space. The of Bank in the men’s hostels in open washing lines. There is some …., show the creative appropriation space is fixed and institutional. the Eastern Cape. He noted that provision for drying on the ground of space for drying of laundry. “whereas previously, cooking floor in leftover space as well, but The overall environment is highly occurred collectively in home-based there is a shortage of drying space, It is possible that some hostel fluid though. It is a ‘rental’ space, (abakhaya) cooking groups, and then and women have devised creative residents are using the laundry and occupants change over time. shifted to kin-based cooking groups, ways of hanging laundry – fire escape facilities to provide commercial Children have come, women by the 1990s more than two-thirds grilles, embedding hangers in the laundry services as a livelihood move in and out of Thokoza, and of the residents in B-hostel were brickwork, suspending hangers from strategy, evident from the large move between rooms within the cooking alone” (1993, 150). the rafters. There appears to be a amount of men’s clothing that hostel. Activities in the intensively problem of the theft of clothes from was hung out to dry on one of our used ‘public spaces’ also change Provision has been made in the washing lines, and therefore some visits, but this is not necessarily constantly, although despite this, FAR LEFT: The ubiquitous 2 plate hostel for the washing of clothes, women take extreme measures to the case. The supervisor has had a there is a kind of rhythm to life in LEFT: Tripe being washed in a communal kitchen, probably to be cooked in a room and on the roof of Block B there is prevent this such as padlocks and request for permission to run such the hostel. ABOVE: Grafitti in the public spaces is an indicator that this is not ‘home’

56 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 57 Laundry AND THE APPROPRIATION OF SPACE

he physical space of Thokoza is fixed. In various tiny but significant ways, the Toccupants innovate to adapt it to work better for them. Drying laundry is a challenge, even though many lines are provided. It is never enough. Lines are strung between drain pipes, from rafters and satellite-dish brackets. Gates, balustrades and grille-block screens become impromptu drying structures. Most ingeniously, holes are picked in the mortar between the bricks on landings and verandas to hold hangers of drying clothing, fixed with personally identified pegs.

58 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 59 60 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 61 62 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 63 64 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 65 6.3 INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS month, and those in dormitories around R10.00 per month. Although access to Women are no 6.3.1 MANAGEMENT AND rooms or dormitories was restricted GOVERNANCE to women in formal employment, longer allowed to Hansmann found that even when a In more recent times, access to a woman lost her job, it was unlikely that sleep in the common space in Thokoza has usually been via she would leave (1993, 73). an introduction through an existing areas and must resident (often a family member), after The hostel was accommodating up to which the more or less formal process of four hundred casuals, placing additional either literally share application to accepted as a registered strain on the already stretched kitchen tenant ensues. This used to require a facilities, hot water and ablutions, a bed with another letter from an employer (Hansmann, particularly in the evenings and and Beatrice questionnaire), although mornings. Some 82% of Hansmann’s resident, or share the this no longer applies. Until the early respondents had been living in Thokoza 1990’s, initial permission was granted for for more than five years, and almost half space, pulling out a accommodation on the access corridors for more than fifteen years” (1993, 76). or in the courtyard at a daily rental “sponge” (mattress/ of 50c (Hansmann). These residents Casuals are still very much a feature were known as casuals or according of Thokoza, more than doubling the bedroll) (Busiswe) to the journey maps and according to official population of 1030. (Supervisor Phetheni, as ‘mbamba’. interview, 22 Feb 2019) Women are no to sleep on the floor longer allowed to sleep in the common Hansmann found that most of the areas and must either literally share a of the already very women sleeping in the rooms had bed with another resident, or share the formal employment – and earned space, pulling out a “sponge” (mattress/ congested rooms. enough to pay rent - whereas those in bedroll) (Busiswe) to sleep on the floor the corridors were generally involved in of the already very congested rooms. the informal sector. There was however However, we observed a few mattresses a process whereby women living on the in corridor corners that seem to be used corridors moved into dormitories and as bedspacesbed spaces. then into rooms. She also found that the women in the rooms tended to be It can take many months or even years older than those in the corridors (1993, to be allocated an official bed. (see 70). Women living in rooms paid R17.10 a Beatrice’s story, page …)

RIGHT: Although disallowed, some residents still sleep in the nooks and crannies off the corridors 66 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 67 The rental for casuals, dormitories and 3-bed rooms is R47/person/ The supervisor reflected in his interview that the monthly statements month, a bed in a 2-bed room is R105/month, and a single room costs are “not worth the paper they are printed on”. The reality is that for R165/month. It is worth noting for comparison, that basic utility costs many, accommodation in Thokoza is free. alone, accessed on a pre-paid basis, would cost more

Shortly after the current supervisor did not know. This is partly due to of an ‘informal’ electrical connection owing at source if the resident works for Nationally, the state has found itself documents/Resource_Centre/Reports/ started at Thokoza, his manager was the general shortage of housing is over R50/ week per shack or room the City, even via an EPWP programme, on the horns of an impossible dilemma Research Report National Rental unhappy with the number of people opportunities in the city, but even if (Supervisor interview). In response to but they are in a difficult situation regarding hostels. The desperate need Projects.pdf) sleeping on the floor, and an agreement there were alternative choices, none questions in our interviews regarding with those who do not. The supervisor for what Thokoza (and other hostels) was reached with residents to limit the would be as affordable as Thokoza. locality, transport costs were frequently reflected in his interview that the provides is clear, and the social and Some of the findings were as follows: number of newcomers and to register all cited as a significant obstacle in relation monthly statements are “not worth the political consequences of rendering ‘casuals’, for them to be prioritised for The rental for casuals, dormitories and even to relatively well-located informal paper they are printed on”. The reality hostel occupants homeless would be “The entire target market of the CRU beds that became available. Numbers, 3-bed rooms is R47/person/month, a settlements in Durban; but even if is that for many, accommodation in dire, but as a cruel relic of apartheid, programme is not being reached since however, continued to increase. The bed in a 2-bed room is R105/month, accommodation in such a settlement Thokoza is free. the continued existence of hostels is rentals of the projects visited was a Municipality tried to evict approximately and a single room costs R165/month. was free, and even if transport costs embarrassing. The intention to replace minimum of R500 ….” 200 women who had arrived after this It is worth noting for comparison, that were not a factor, utilities in an informal Sylvia candidly admits “I don’t pay”. all single sex hostels with family units agreement, and after a protracted legal basic utility costs alone, accessed on a settlement would cost more than even Toyz notes: “Rent is reasonable but it’s in terms of the CRU policy is simply “Based on the maximum of 25% of process managed to get eviction orders. pre-paid basis, would cost more, and the highest rental charged at Thokoza. hard to pay when others do not”. not viable in the long term. The policy income towards rental, the minimum In spite of notices being served, the we noted that many of the residents is flawed in many respects, not least qualifying income of tenants is R2000 orders were never enforced. Many of have multiple electrical appliances in Phetheni says, in her questionnaire Residents are completely cognisant of because it is based on a hetero- per month excluding any overtime.” the women confronted the management their rooms. Zanele, for example, had a responses, that she does not have the value of the hostel as a housing normative view of the household rather saying, “this is never going to happen”, fridge, TV, hi-fi, 2 plate stoves, a radio, money to stay anywhere else. Bongi opportunity, and in spite of the social than the actual diversity that exists. R500/month was the cheapest rental for and presumably for political reasons, it a microwave, and a cell phone charger. supports her mother and children. She costs of the compromised living a bachelor unit they found. never has. (Supervisor interview) Toyz’s room was similarly equipped, sends ALL her money to them. “I can conditions, will not willingly give this Even if the capital costs are including a commercial sound system save a lot of money here” she says. up. Some participants occupy beds completely written off, as per the Another significant finding is that “A As the supervisor rightly states “if you and more than one fridge. Monica is not sure where else she could allocated to their mothers, and although policy, an operating cost related common problem associated with all can’t evict anyone, you can’t live. Affordability is her top ‘good thing’ Toyz said she did not want her daughter rental would be beyond the means of hostels is the inability to collect rent do anything”. Utility costs in informal settlements about Thokoza. (Questionnaires) to live in the hostel now, talked of most hostel residents. and service charges from residents “ are also likely to be more expensive handing her room on to her one day. “I (KZNHS,2012) 6.3.2 BUDGET, RENTAL, COSTS than rental in Thokoza. Even access Many residents do not pay rent at moved out once” she says, “but couldn’t In 2012, the KZN Human Settlements AND AFFORDABILITY to illegal electricity and/or water via all. The culture of non-payment and cope. The rent was too high. This is why I Department undertook a study of CRU In 2016, in his Public and Development ‘informal’ entrepreneurial vendors resistance to rent increases across need this place. My daughter might stay projects across the country to inform Management Master’s thesis ‘Project Affordability is one of the biggest who facilitate the connections, comes hostels nationally is wide-spread and is here in the future”. The potential claim their own roll-out. Implementation of The Hostel attractions of the hostel. Most of at a cost. According to the hostel a significant challenge to government. to a thus-far elusive family unit makes a Upgrade Programme In The City Of the women, when asked during the supervisor’s own experience of working The eThekwini Municipality issues place in the hostel even more valuable, (KZN HUMAN SETTLEMENTS: RESEARCH Johannesburg’ Tebogo Fenyane (Wits questionnaire interviews where they in Lindelani informal settlement prior statements of account at the end of and the trade-offs people make to keep ON NATIONAL RENTAL PROJECTS (2012) University) found from his research would live if there was no hostel, to being appointed at Thokoza, the cost each month and may deduct any rent it seem worth it. https://www.kzndhs.gov.za/Uploads/ in City Deep that “… it happens quite

68 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Ῐ 69 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION BY FAMILY INTRODUCTION ACCOMMODATION BY FAMILY INTRODUCTION ACCOMMODATION NAME MEMBER BY FRIEND EMPLOYER SELF TRANSITIONS IN THOKOZA NAME MEMBER BY FRIEND EMPLOYER SELF TRANSITIONS IN THOKOZA

Shared with sister at first. Now has Nqobile sister Employer a bed in a 3 bed. Single arranged a Zanele Casual, then 3 bed Block A, now Malindi Access via a friend Still shares a bed place in the single in ‘new building’ Shared room hostel for her Thembeka mother Uses bed allocated to her mother Slept outside – casual – 50c per Uses aunt’s bed in a dormitory – Fezeka aunt Initially shared a night Thokoza 2 Veliswa bed with a friend Later (months) allocated a bed. Shared bed/room with friend from ‘home’ Dorm – Block 2 Gained access via Tsidi Lives between 2 rooms – 3 bed and a friend 2 bed, Sylvia employer Dorm - Rm 85 block A Thuli mother 3 bed room – shared by 5/6 people Inkatha war Phetheni 3 bed room aunt lord instructed Single relative Thandi Started as ‘imbamba’ (on the floor) hostel to grant Employer access Beatrice 3 bed. Casual 1st for 6 years applied single v Bongi cousin 2 bed - shares with cousin/sister Thando Thando shares with her and her 2 bed. Shares with one other cousin/ sister woman and a child Access via a friend mother – casual Single Monica Has moved rooms often (4 times) – shared her bed Toyz at first. Inherited Moved from shared room when she didn’t get on with room bed eventually after applying mates Access via ‘aunt Access via a Octavia who I met through Sharing a bed customer and Dorm - Block 2 Church’ colleague from Nokwanda Only resident for a year Applied to a political Single rm now admin organisation – Casual at 50c pn while on waiting Casual at ‘took me in’ Thembi list 50c pn Started in 22 -person dorm, then 3 bed while on 3 bed Nthombizele Started as a casual for 50c a night waiting list when she could afford i Resident since 1990 Single now Access via women Friend told her Shared ‘a sponge’ (mattress) with But started in a dorm – 22 beds, Busisiwe she met Nozipho how to apply for a one of them then 4 bed room Has single room now

Table 2 ACCESS AND LENGTH OF STAY Table 2 (continued) often that the person who is next on “with a range of accommodation that Many participants the waiting list might not prefer the could be affordable to people”. unit to be allocated. In such instances in our study said JOSHCO is forced to offer the (bigger) unit to a candidate that is willing and 6.3.3 PROPOSED HOSTEL they were waiting able to pay the required rent, departing UPGRADE from the waiting list and even from the for family units to beneficiary list (Mathoho, 2010). One The municipality has promised that PRIORITY IMPROVEMENT NO OF PEOPLE of the tenants interviewed by Mathoho Thokoza will be upgraded as per the be delivered, and (2010:29) revealed that “There are National Human Settlements CRU several units occupied by outsiders. (Community Residential Units) and 12 out of 22 named They were given to outsiders because that family units will be provided. Single Room    3 City Deep people did not like those It is abundantly clear that there is this as their priority units – they were so expensive”. insufficient space at the existing location for such an upgrade. improvement to Family Units              13 Http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/xmlui/ Alternatives are apparently under bitstream/handle/10539/23765/ investigation. In the most recent Thokoza. More Space    3 FENYANE RESEARCH REPORT 2015 2 court hearing about the legitimacy of %283%29 final5 %28002%29.pdf children in the hostel (March 2018), No Children   2 the court ordered the municipality One recommendation coming out of the to give dates and targets for the abovementioned KZN HS 2012 study, upgrade. At the time of his interview, Another Place for Older Women    3 is that a more integrated approach the supervisor was unaware of any that merges CRU and Social Housing programme having been submitted. Skills Development  1 policies, allowing for some cross- subsidisation. This was echoed in our Many participants in our study said Doctors  1 interview with the Thokoza supervisor, they were waiting for family units to who does not believe that family be delivered, and 12 out of 22 named units are the only solution. “A mixed this as their priority improvement Better Maintenance   2 development would be better” he says, to Thokoza. Table 3 MOST DESIRED IMPROVEMENT AT THOKOZA

72 Ῐ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 73 7. Chapter 7 ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK Hostels are at once places of extreme deprivation and often

Our approach to the analysis of our zz Agency | Acquiescence, assumptions about the gendered nature unacceptable living conditions, but they are simultaneously places findings at Thokoza Women’s Hostel zz Privacy | Sociability, of waged work and the heteronormative has been to apply a number of the zz Competition | Cooperation, and household. Elder’s analysis has inspired where people exercise personal agency, using the hostel as a different lenses suggested by our zz Pride | Shame our discussion of literature review, to assist in developing zz ‘Singles’ | ’Family’, and platform for survival and development. a nuanced understanding of both space Massey (quoted in Elder and Xulu- zz Collaboration | Competition. and gender in this highly confined Gama), and Bank argue that space is and gendered housing environment. a process and is constituted by social Bank alerts us to the role of hostels Notwithstanding the fact that most relations. This has alerted us to the as places where people often first of the available literature is based on importance of looking beyond the confront modernity and as sites of are a continuum: contingent on a very space as inherently gendered. defines the parameters of the space one research in men’s hostels, the various physicality of the hostel buildings, transition where residents negotiate wide range of factors. Every resident can legitimately appropriate for use…. perspectives of the hostels’ literature to see how the physical space has the urban and the rural, shuttling has a slightly different experience and 7.1 SPACE AS MULTI- It sets limits to the areas of legitimate has provided us with useful analytical impacted on social relations, and to frequently between the two spaces. perception of the hostel, and for each, DIMENSIONAL access, including the right to exclude tools to explore the complex conditions explore how the hostel constitutes He warns against essentialising home means something different. others from that space to ensure that characterize Thokoza. only one space amongst many in social either space, and demonstrates the Her writings have influenced our Space, for Ramphele, is a powerful unhindered or uninterrupted use. geography in the country. Women may porous connections between the two. understanding of determinant of social organisation. She Physical space clearly delineates inside Ramphele, Massey, Bank, Elder therefore occupy multiple spaces, Bank’s exploration of the rural|urban zz Urban | Rural and speaks of the “multi-dimensionality” from outside; private vs public; family vs and Xulu Gama all alert us to the moving frequently between these and tradition|modern continuum zz ‘Singles’ |’Family’ of space and its application in complex non-family; security vs insecurity; urban contradictory character of life in spaces and adjusting their behaviour evident in hostels, undermines many social settings. According to Ramphele, vs rural. “Physical space should be hostels, and help frame our perspective accordingly. We explore these issues in commonly held perceptions and There are two additional thematic the dimensions of space are physical, coordinated with time. For example, in of Thokoza. Hostels are at once places our categories entitled helps frame a perspective of hostels, sections in our analysis, which are political-economic, ideological- any dwelling, different social activities of extreme deprivation and often zz Privacy | Sociability, including Thokoza, as a “hybrid” space not directly related to the literature. intellectual and psycho-social. She are associated with particular parts or unacceptable living conditions, but zz Urban | Rural, and that encompass both, with complex They arose out of the fieldwork for this further differentiates between the micro rooms, such as eating-living space on they are simultaneously places where zz Permanence | Impermanence. intersections. Bank’s research, albeit study, but do talk to and expand on the and macro-level dimensions of these the one hand and sleeping space on people exercise personal agency, using confined to Eastern Cape has informed broader discourse: spaces. These dimensions are inter- the other. In situations where the same the hostel as a platform for survival Glen Elder alerts us to the gendered our discussion of zz Livelihoods (& remittances) | related and change over time (1993, space is used for different purposes, and development. nature of space and the underlying zz Urban | Rural and Location (& dislocation), and 2). The micro-level space dimension time-space coordinates are used to hetero-normative presumption that has zz Permanence | Impermanence. zz Amenity | Rules refers to those limits within the local define what activities are appropriate Ramphele highlight the need to look given rise to particular housing policy hostel environment which have an or can be anticipated in a particular at a variety of scales from the bedhold and forms. Urban areas were supposedly Xulu-Gama – as the most recent Although we present our analytical impact on people living in the hostel. setting. The delineation of physical (with all its limitations), the room, the preserve of men in waged labour, researcher on hostels – reaffirms themes as binaries, we actually The macro-level dimension refers to space gives, and is given, meaning by the hostel, the city, the region and with women confined to rural areas. the complexities that earlier writers understand them as continuities the larger space nationally, in South the pattern of social relations.” (1993, 4) national policy directives. She argues Both the movement of women into have identified, arguing that no single which are constantly be negotiated Africa as a whole, which has an impact that while the hostel is limiting, all-male hostels in the 1980s, and the narrative can explain the hostels. Based and re-negotiated. on the lives, as well as the capacity Political-economic space determines compelling people to adjust their existence of Thokoza, destabilise this on her study of the Kwa Mashu hostel, for transformative action, of people in the framework within which social dreams to fit the small space they essentialised geography, affording Xulu-Gama refers to hostels as “spaces The following section addresses three these hostels (1993, 2). relationships are conducted and occupy, they also exercise a measure women a measure of independence of perplexity”. The complexity revealed major themes that have informed legitimised. Policies set limits on of agency, making trade-offs and unimagined by policy-makers and through our fieldwork at Thokoza our understanding of space and According to Ramphele, physical space choices which individuals can exercise developing strategies to improve their housing providers. Thokoza, which was Women’s Hostel supports a view that the gendered nature of space in the is delineated in both architectural and within a certain jurisdiction. Formal lives. Ramphele’s writing has inspired explicitly designed to accommodate space, and hostel residents’ perceptions South African landscape: Space as geographical terms: “It sets the limits to and informal mechanisms are used to our themes of ‘single’ waged women, thus upends of and attitudes to space and home, multidimensional; space as fluid; and one’s physical location in the world and sanction and reward different types

76 Ῐ Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Ῐ 77 “They tell us to leave because we are old. This hurts us. We were once young when we arrived, so this is our home.”

anele must do a lot of climbing cleaner for the municipality, and finally is a metal tin, scarred and rusted with and it’s not easy for a 68 year as a cleaner here at Thokoza. age, which once belonged to her sister. old woman. First she has to get The rest of Zanele’s possessions are The other is a carved wooden meat to her room - no 3328 - on the piled up higgeldy-piggeldy along platter - a gift from her mother, who in Zthird floor of block C. She manages the the two side walls of her room: Old turn had received it from her mother first flight with a grace befitting a much cabinets laden with an assortment - an artefact with deep roots to her younger woman, but by the time she small electrical items and other things: ancestral home near uMzimkulu. Zanele has reached her floor, she has slowed a television, a portable radio, some has carefully stowed these items inside down, is holding onto the handrail pots and pans, a furry toy, a microwave, one of her cabinets, behind a frilly blue and is slightly out of breath. But the some artificial flowers, a DVD player, curtain. She reflects on these things most difficult climb still awaits - it’s some photographs, a kettle, and a when she’s feeling sentimental but the ungainly move that’s needed for vegetable rack with a missing leg that’s acknowledges that Thokoza “is home: Zanele to get up onto her bed, which been repurposed as a display case... this is where I’ve lived most of my life.” is raised well over a metre above the These items are testament the her She has no desire to join her two floor, each leg of the bed propped up many years in the city: working, buying, married daughters who live in Daveyton on multiple paint tins. Even with the getting, spending, scavenging and just east of Johannesburg and where help of a stool it requires some effort finding new uses for old things. She has she herself grew up. Nor is she keen to hoist herself up. lived in Thokoza for 24 years, initially to join her sons, one living in Ixopo This is because the underside of in the corridors, then in a three-bed and the other who reverted to the Zanele’s bed is used to store all the stuff dormitory, and now in a room of her ancestral home in uMzimkulu. But she that she doesn’t need on an everyday own. To see Zanele cocooned within has maintained her connections with basis: old clothes, extra blankets, the warmth of her hard-won goods is to her family. She regularly sends money Narratives plastic containers, buckets and boxes see a woman at home, here in Thokoza, to her grandchildren from her SASSA bursting at the edges, things she has here in the city. pension. “I am in debt today because of Zanele acquired working as a cleaner, first at But, Zanele also has two precious them. I give them all of it and I am left the Anjuman School nearby in “Leopard artefacts that provide an emotional with nothing.” Street” (Leopold Street), then as a connection with her rural past. The one Zanele has no complaints about hotel

78 Ῐ Narratives: Zanele Narratives: Zanele Ῐ 79 life: “I have gotten used to the life we are old. This hurts us. We were once also two small statues of the Virgin Mary here. I am satisfied with what I have.” young when we arrived, so this is our which look like they might light up at Although she’s tolerant of her next-door home.” night. On her cell-phone is a video-clip neighbour’s children, who are peeping St Faith’s Anglican Church, which is showcasing an event at the church - mischievously around the door come just around the corner from Thokoza in rows of gogos in red and white uniforms to see who’s visiting, she is concerned Carlisle Street, is an important anchor moving rhythmically to a hymn. Zanele that “now we’ve allowed children, next for Zanele in the city. It provides her attends services every Sunday morning there will be men: This worries me a with a sense of purpose, connects her to as well as on Wednesday evenings. lot.” She also feels threatened by the other members of the congregation, and But each and every day, she also takes young women in the hostel who want roots her in her surroundings. Amongst the three flights down the stairs of the the gogos out so that other women – the clutter in her room are icons, hostel to help out at the church, ironing workers or work-seekers - can also have relics and other souvenirs from the the clergies’ elaborate vestments. Then a chance at these highly valued bed- church including a calendar on the wall she must climb those three flights up spaces. “They tell us to leave because highlighting religious festivals. There are again to get back home.

80 Ῐ Narratives: Zanele Narratives: Zanele Ῐ 81 Inhabited space has a major impact on the self-image of individuals consequences of such definitions.” beings are not hapless victims of circumstances, largely as a result of Ramphele concurs with feminist social structures but are active agents their capacity to take risks. They keep and their perception of their place in society. For hostel dwellers, architectural historian, Dolores Hayden, constantly interacting with their pushing against the constraints of in her understanding of the house. environment as informed calculative space and insist on roles as active interesting questions arise out of the constant assault on their For Hayden, “the house an image of beings, weighing up resistance or agents (1993, 131). Others adopt a the body, of the household and of the acquiescence, and evaluating the victim role as a survival strategy dignity in the work-place in their performance of menial jobs and household relation’s to society; it is a tensions between the universal which releases that person of physical space designed to mediate human need for ‘community’ and responsibility. The consequence is in their accommodation with its associated lack of privacy. between the landscape and the larger individuality” (1993, 11). She highlights that they fulfill the low expectations built environment.” But, asks Ramphele, the ability of people to find room to that others have of them with long- what is the situation when “the bed manoeuvre, to cope and to survive and term negative impacts. is the image that mediates between to extend their spaces. of behaviour selectively to ensure certain sanctions to enforce the notion ‘bedholds’, the spatial unit which the inhabitants of the hostels and the Ramphele concludes that “South Africa desired outcomes in social relations. of ‘appropriate’ spaces for various defines the parameters of ‘home’ life larger society”? The fact that “human As a communal survival strategy, hostel will have to acknowledge the legacy Within political-economic space, there members of a given social group.” in the absence of a ‘household’ for beings, as individuals or as families, can dwellers develop an elaborate ‘economy of apartheid, particularly the space is often room for strategic manoeuvre, (1993, 5) those who live in South Africa’s hostels. be reduced to ‘bedholds’ has serious of affection’ involving kin, home-people constraints imposed on black people. which depends on the resources She explains that in the hostels, “the implications for both these individuals and friends, which protect many from It is not going to be easy for a people available to contending forces in a Psycho-social space, for Ramphele “is common denominator of space is a bed. and society as a whole. They have to falling off the edge. These relationships who have had to ‘shrink’ to fit into the given political system. Hostel dwellers delineated by the ‘inhabited space’ Every aspect of life revolves around a either ‘shrink’ to fit this space or expand can be warm and supportive, but can limited space they found themselves in, – as Africans and migrants (and in that one finds oneself in… One is given bed. Access to this humble environment this space to accommodate their needs” also incur burdensome reciprocal to stand up and walk tall…” (1993, 134). the case of Thokoza, as women) – had certain cues by one’s environment that depends upon one’s access to a bed; it (Ramphele 1993, 22). relations. Conformism is also sometimes little room for manoeuvre within this encourage one to expand or narrow is the basis for relationships within the necessary to create harmony under 7.2 SPACE AS FLUID political-economic space because one’s expectations and aspirations hostel… One’s very identity and legal Ramphele argues that overcrowding severe space constraints, thwarting they were excluded from political in life. Inhabited space has a major existence depend on one’s attachment and degraded communal facilities individual initiative. Under such Doreen Massey’s conception of space systems and because their mobility was impact on the self-image of individuals to a bed. (1993, 20) On average, 2.8 do violence to “the primary purpose circumstances, mediocrity is rewarded opens up new ways of reading the circumscribed by legislative means. and their perception of their place in people share a bed; ‘personal’ space of housing, which is to delineate and excellence discredited. Other hostel. Massey argues that conceiving society. For hostel dwellers, interesting amounts to 1.8 square metres; and the domestic space as opposed to public collective strategies include individual of place as a process dispels its static Ideological-intellectual space relates to questions arise out of the constant ratio of people to toilets is sometimes space. By failing to delineate private, friendships, burial societies, credit character: “Rather, places become the symbolic framework within which assault on their dignity in the work- as high as fifty-six to one (Nutall 1994). personal space, hostels are a symbol clubs or religion, with hostel-dwellers constituted by the coalescence of social social interaction is conducted and place in their performance of menial These physical constraints “represent is of the denial of personhood of the expecting the church to provide interactions [themselves processes] is the space within which the norms jobs and in their accommodation an affront to the dignity and well-being people housed in them” (Ramphele, spiritual and material support. at specific locales. Through a vision of are set for ‘legitimate’ discourses. For with its associated lack of privacy. of residents” (1993, 29). 1993, 30). Her understanding of the hostel as a site of converging social Ramphele, “ideology is most effective These together are likely to impact psychological space, and the impacts Hostel-dwellers also adopt individual relations, we transcend the narrow, when it remains interred in habit negatively on a sense of self-worth For Ramphele, there is also a symbolic of shrinking dreams to fit this limited survival strategies including state-imposed idea of the hostel as and has no need for words. It thus and self-respect” (1993, 7). The poor question raised by the notion of space, helped us to understand the acquiescence; quiet calculative a purely physical building. Instead, becomes a way of life, without ever environment in hostels is likely to bedholds: “The very fact of defining high levels of acquiescence that we operations; or vocal militant processes like gender formation become attaining the level of discourse”. The compound these negative attitudes, people as members of bedholds witnessed in Thokoza. operations; or various combinations of intimately tied to its ‘placefulness.’” boundaries of domestic (as opposed to leading the victim to blame him/ has enormous implication for their these simultaneously. (Massey in Elder, 2003) public) space are determined by the herself, creating a sense of alienation. personhood. It touches on the At the same time Ramphele witnessed dominant ideological assumptions foundations of the definition of space high levels of agency amongst hostel Ramphele shows that many She argues that by viewing place as in any social setting and carry with it Ramphele introduces the notion of and the intended and unintended residents. For Ramphele, “human people thrive despite their dismal a process, constituted by a network

82 Ῐ Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Ῐ 83 of meanings and relationships, we socially powerful black woman is also Spatial arrangements are the result of However, with the arrival of women in the men’s only hostels see how the specificity of space is a refugee, a rural mother living in an balancing competing identities that continually reproduced. Accordingly, urban location, and an illegal hostel include mother, wife, sexual partner, during the 1990s, women started “breaking the rules of this secular the hostel becomes a place that is tenant. At the same time, these women labourer, farmer, and informal related to other places through a may have been supporting families business operator. heteropatriarchal social system” , alerting us to the gendered network of interrelationships. Here, left in rural areas requiring a complex the hostel becomes a distinct mixture set of compromises between domestic Massey also argues that space is assumptions underpinning these institutions and society at large. of national and local, historical and responsibilities and mobility. Women in fluid: the hostel should thus be seen contemporary, social relations. The both urban and rural thus come to rely as an unbounded physical space. juxtaposition of these relations on a set of informal, economic support, This allows us to examine the hostel specifically will relate in the formation usually women-dominated, networks as part of a series of other spatial 7.3 SPACE AS GENDERED understand the lives of hostel residents, to recognize the sexualized spatial of place and the unique spatial identity of support, outside of heteronormative relationships and linkages, such as observers must be mindful of how boundaries and moved into the hostel that it represents. (Elder, 2003, 78-79) social constructions (Elder, 2003, the spatially displaced, often split up Both Glen Elder and Leslie Bank alert heteropatriarchy shapes individuals’ during apartheid, became the focus of 97). This echoes Belinda Bozzoli’s rural households, and Thokoza a place us to the gendered nature of space actions. He defines heteropatriarchy as state-inspired moral censure because Space and place embody practices complex portrayal of women migrants of urban livelihood opportunities. She – Elder via his research in the Kwa “the social power structure that creates they were defined in sexual terms and processes of production that are in her book “Women of Phokeng: argues that places are not the result Thema hostel in the late 1990s and and maintains the heterosexist binary that were opposite to “the good wife.” simultaneously material and discursive: Consciousness, Life Strategy and of single, unique ideas: they are full of Bank via his research in the townships of masculinity and femininity and the (Elder, 2003). “If spatiality is conceived in terms of Migrancy in South Africa, 1900-1983”. internal differences and conflicts. By of the Eastern Cape in the first decade associated social expectations (gender space-time and formed through all For Bozzoli, “These young women were examining the hostel place as a site of the millennium. performances) determined according Jennifer Robinson in her book, “The social relations and interactions, place both willfully independent, and caught of conflict, we can examine how these to biological sex”. According to Elder, Power of Apartheid” reiterates the can be seen as neither a bounded up in the expectations of both the interpretations over meaning, future, According to Elder, hostels had modern motherhood, fatherhood, importance ascribed to the normative enclosure nor the site of meaning- rural and the urban social institutions occupancy, and history shape the traditionally reflected the symbolic and (nuclear, heterosexed) family life, family as an essential prop of Apartheid: making, but rather as ‘a subset of the in which they were involved. Their hostel as a place. and actual sexualization of space, insinuate their ways into cultural bodies, “If citizens were to be properly interactions which constitute [social] consciousness reveals their desire to reproducing the gendered rules of places and imaginings in South Africa; controlled, the family was a key modal space, a local articulation within a portray themselves as free agents, Massey’s conception of space alerts heteropatriarchy that apartheid had from constructions of nuclear normative unit through which this control was wider whole”. (Massey, quoted in Xulu- seeking to make sense of, and give us to the ways in which women set in place and that were publicly family life, to heterosexual framings to be exercised and proper citizens Gama, 2017, 6). This is echoed by urban cultural meaning to their experiences, move between spaces and alter and generally accepted as the norm. of the nation state, to the sexualised … were to be created. Houses were geographer Gillian Hart who argues but also shows their awareness their behaviour in relationship to However, with the arrival of women in language used by the media and policy built (if inadequately) for families, that, “…places are always formed that their efforts were shaped and the spaces in which they currently the men’s only hostels during the 1990s, makers to describe and make the world. and only families could inhabit them. through relations with wider arenas and sometimes thwarted by the demands find themselves. The hostel then women started “breaking the rules of (Bornier, 2005, 12) Women were persistently conceived other places; boundaries are always of their rural families, their own is simultaneously a place of this secular heteropatriarchal social of as ‘housewives’ by administrators socially constructed and contested and sense of duty, and the requirements confinement (enclosed, bound by system”, alerting us to the gendered Rendered passive by an oppressive in a community where women were the specificity of a place – however of urban employers. It is not easy to rules, characterized by compromise) assumptions underpinning these apartheid system in which identities frequently breadwinners, even if through defined – arises from the particularity characterize these women either as and a place of freedom (a springboard institutions and society at large. were acutely policed, women were informal work rather than formal of interrelations with what lies beyond collaborators in their own oppression… to livelihoods, freedom from men, seldom granted a subjectivity of employment. That the administrators it, that come into conjuncture in specific or resisters against it. It would seem escape from family ties), with hostel Elder argues that hostels should not be their own. The sexual landscape of were all men is perhaps unsurprising. ways.” (Hart quoted in Xulu-Gama, 2017) that the actual, historically constructed residents constantly negotiating seen is isolation. For him, hostels are the hostel defined women who had But the image of fatherhood, and the consciousness is too complex to be these conflicting tendencies as they essential components within a wider been spatially separated from their punitive characteristics of this social Within this new conception of space, forced into either of these two mutually carve out identities for themselves heteropatriarchal system which forms husbands in reproductive terms as and familial role, were central to the competing identities become possible. exclusive categories.” (Bozzoli, 1991, 104 depending on the spaces they occupy part of the “procreational geography obedient wives, mothers, and domestic exercise of power in locations is a For example, an economically and quoted in Elder, 2003, 99). at any given moment. of apartheid.” He argues that to homeworkers. Women, who refused direct consequence of the masculine

84 Ῐ Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Ῐ 85 She knows that some Thokoza residents disapprove of gays but generally has not had to suffer any indignities as a lesbian living openly in the hostel.

his,” says Tsidi, pointing Thokoza, which supposedly offers short- a professional boxer at Magundulela’s expansively, “is my land, term rental accommodation to women Boxing Academy. She fought in a few and that over there is who have left – or more likely – been matches, but didn’t do as well as she another land.” It might forced off the land. It is not clear from had hoped. After a year she was forced “Tsound like Tsidi is describing the vast the trajectory of Tsidi’s life as to where to leave the academy when her parents open plains outside her birthplace in she might ultimately find her “land”, diverted their money into paying for her Aliwal North, on the edge of the Karoo, but in the meantime, Thokoza provides younger sister’s education. but the space she’s talking about is the something of a refuge – particularly for She then spent the next few years tiny two-bed dorm – room 2409 – that a lesbian. shuttling between Johannesburg, the she shares with her partner and with Tsidi knew that she was gay at the age of Free State, the Eastern Cape and Durban, another woman. Tsidi and her partner nine. “I was always playing soccer when pursuing other options. She started occupy a bed next to the window: the I was growing up and my father said that out as a general worker at Transnet in other woman occupies the second I looked like a man.” She is confident Johannesburg, saving up for various bed near the door. An imaginary line, about her sexuality and from her courses to improve her prospects and stretching from Tsidi’s fridge against one teenage years was proud to announce within the next few years had acquired wall to her wardrobe against the other, that she “didn’t date boys.” She knows a formidable range of qualifications: constitutes the border between “this that some Thokoza residents disapprove fork-lift driver – “17 tons”, boiler-maker, land” and “the other land”. of gays but generally has not had to pipe fitter, code-10 driver, and most Tsidi who can speak seven languages suffer any indignities as a lesbian living impressively, crane operator working – Xhosa, Sotho, Shona, isiZulu, English, openly in the hostel. “Most people don’t both mobile cranes and ships’ cranes. Afrikaans and Venda - does not use have a problem. They realise that people Tsidi explains that mobile cranes move the word “land” lightly. She knows that have the right to do what they want. It’s goods weighing up to 45 tons whereas Narratives in South Africa the word is freighted, the older women who are less tolerant.” ships’ cranes can lift freight of up to a invoking a history of dispossession. She One day she would like to marry her hundred tons – “heavy stuff, containers, Tsidi is at once being sarcastic and ironic. partner, a woman who works at the aeroplane engines…” She currently works But she also realises the humour that Jockey underwear factory. nightshifts as a mobile crane operator in the word provokes in the context of Tsidi first came to Durban to train as the Durban docks.

86 Ῐ Narratives: Tsidi Narratives: Tsidi Ῐ 87 Tsidi first heard about Thokoza from a other bed in this two-bed dorm. It is this rape’. Although she personally has not friend while doing a first aid course in fastidiously tidy room on the second experienced homophobia in many of Durban: “My friend went to the office floor which Tsidi thinks of as her “land”, the places where she’s stayed – other to get permission for me to share a rather than the room upstairs which is than one incident in Queenstown – she bed”. But after “sharing for years and officially hers, which she now uses only appreciates life in a female-dominated years,” Tsidi was finally allocated a bed to store her clothes: “my wardrobe”. environment, saying that “it’s very of her own in a three-bed dorm, room She would obviously like more privacy good” to be living without men. But 3164 on the fourth floor. Unfortunately than her room affords, acknowledging then she’s also very skilled at fobbing things didn’t work out for Tsidi is this that it’s difficult to be in an intimate off the advances of her male colleagues room. One of her room-mates turned relationship and have to share a room. who flirt with her at work: “When the out to be an alcoholic, and Tsidi But she also feels sorry for her room- old madalas tell me, ‘You look so couldn’t cope with the weekend binges, mate: “She had moved out of her beautiful,’ then I say, ‘Do you really the broken bottles and the vomit. original room because of lesbians, but see me?’” “There are complications between us, she’s now landed up in a room with Tsidi also values the cheap rent in misunderstandings, fighting, drinking… us! Lesbians and straights shouldn’t be Thokoza. That, together with her well- To make it peaceful, I keep away. I don’t staying together. We should be telling paid, highly-skilled work has allowed want to spend my time in this situation.” the office that they should put lesbian her to put her two younger siblings So Tsidi went back to sharing a bed couples together.” through university. again, with the same friend who had Tsidi acknowledges that the hostel Is she expecting them to reciprocate introduced her to Thokoza, and who had provides an environment that is when she decides to study further? since become her partner. Tsidi and her significantly safer for gay women than Most definitely not: Tsidi is planning partner occupy one bed and another the township where lesbians are often to pay her own way. She’s a fiercely woman – “a straight” - occupies the stigmatised and subject to ‘corrective independent woman – a sovereign state.

88 Ῐ Narratives: Tsidi Narratives: Tsidi Ῐ 89 character of the state.” (Robinson played, particularly in cities, in the cracks of the crumbling apartheid women have negotiated their survival. quoted in Elder, 2003, 41). resistance organisations and in the system. Missing from the current plans Future hostel plans should actively emerging trade union movement. to upgrade hostels are the collective encourage the establishment of Such heteronormative constructions He writes that in the 1950s women spaces for child care organized by informal and formal retail activities. of the family rendered male same-sex often entered the cities with a women. Missing too are the attempts Along with providing space for relationships within urban hostels and strongly independent spirit and a to blur public and private spaces. these activities, short-term, low- female same-sex support and desire in determination to make new lives These planned spaces are designed interest loans or credit for collective rural areas all but invisible. for themselves. It was not only the solely as private spaces and so they business ventures by hostel dwellers escape from rural patriarchy that undercut any attempts whereby would be one way to build on the Thus, according to Elder, “at its most motivated women to remain single, families can gainfully work in the existing informal economy. Several basic, the pro-creational geography but also their desire to hold onto informal sector from their homes.” upgrading efforts have proposed of apartheid was one through which their own earnings (Bank 2011, 167). (Elder, 2003, 141) that unemployed hostel dwellers particular men (.. hetero-masculine) receive on-the-job training as builders were granted limited mobility in urban Elder argues that much of the existing Elder argues that conceptualising during the upgrading process. These spaces and women (symbolically literature, which does not study hostel housing from a gendered perspective innovative strategies must advance, marked as hetero-feminine, or residents through a sex-centred lens, means moving beyond the however, beyond the concept that maternal) were immobilised in rural misinterprets or misses a number of physicality and form of the building, all hostel dwellers are men. Women reserves. When women were found in important features of hostel life. For encouraging an understanding of are and always have been connected apartheid’s urban spaces, they either policy makers and many scholars, architecture “as an embodiment of to the hostels and must therefore fulfilled domestic responsibilities only formal waged work undertaken gendered social and physical spatial be involved in their transformation.” (as maids, for instance) or ran the by men, was seen as significant in relations” (2003, 144). While physical (Elder, 2003, 158) risk of strict social censure. Similarly, securing the material well-being of upgrades are important, they should men who did not move through the the household (Elder 2003) whereas in also address links to the apartheid Elder’s argument challenges housing geography of apartheid, opting to Thokoza this was clearly not the case past that represented hostel policy makers to move beyond stay in the feminine rural reserves, given that the hostel was intended to and hostel dwellers as marginal, heteronormative conceptions of sacrificed their heterosexual prowess. house working women. disempowered and heteromasculine. ‘family’. Our own research, captured These men – young boys, old men, and They should also recognize the in our discussion of ‘family’|’single’, the maimed – were clearly not ‘men The hostel upgrade initiatives which increasing numbers of single women demonstrated that there is a vast enough’ to move” (Elder 2003, 43). were being mooted when Elder was who are housed in hostels. array of household arrangements conducting his research failed to - ‘singles’, women living with their For Bank (2011) the urban landscape acknowledge the complexity of hostel Elder concludes by advocating a children, women separated from is similarly gendered, consisting of life and tended to exclude women female-centred approach to hostel their children, grandmothers taking both single sex hostel blocks and from the planning process: “Evident in conversions: “… Women’s survival care of grandchildren, sisters living “seried rows of 51/9 workmen’s houses the upgrading plans is a re-inscription networks provide planners with a map together etc. This raises questions accommodating a male-centred of heterosexual male-headed families of the flows of support that need to about the much-vaunted conversion urbanism based on the nuclear wherein ‘father knows best’ or, at be incorporated into future housing of hostel accommodation to family family” (Bank 2011, 71-73) constituted best, families visit for short periods. and not simply erased to be replaced units in current housing discourse. by a male breadwinner and home- This familial ideal inscribed in space with ‘family housing’. Stepping outside What is a family? What might a family maker mother. Yet, notwithstanding erases a history of resistance as heteronormatized patterns and unit be within the hostel when, this conservative gendering, he well as viable and prudent housing choosing to live in hostels, acting as for some residents, family might ABOVE: erchil ipsamet ex et ipsae nobis samet ex et rchil ipsamet ex et ips met ex points to the role that African women initiatives developed by families in care providers and earning income, reside elsewhere? To what extent

90 Ῐ Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Ῐ 91 There is a vast are family connections mobilised in accessing the hostel? To what extent is array of household sharing (rooms and sometimes beds) acceptable even within ‘families’? arrangements - Furthermore, what constitutes singleness? Are connections with family ‘singles’, women living necessarily desirable, particularly when family members may make demands on with their children, those who receive grants? women separated Both Elder and Bank also alert us to the important role that women from their children, play as income earners – supporting themselves and their dependents. grandmothers taking This raises questions as to how the hostel environment may help or care of grandchildren, hinder these endeavours. sisters living together Zulu-Gama concurs with Elder with respect to the hostel’s conversion etc. This raises programme with its over-emphasis on family housing. She points out questions about that the official policy seems to cater for nuclear families that have moved the much-vaunted permanently to urban areas, ignoring the ongoing importance of rural- conversion of hostel urban linkages. However, she is not entirely dismissive of the Community accommodation Residential Units (CRUs) currently being punted by government in their to family units in efforts to improve hostels. She points to some of the advantages of CRUs (the current housing government’s term for small family units) which include: healthy family discourse. life with better opportunities for the parent/s to be involved in the lives of their children; more affordable rental compared to other rental opportunities; and the promise of some stability with respect to housing conditions (2017, 73).

92 Ῐ Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Ῐ 93 8. Chapter 8 ANALYSIS “How can this place ever be a home when there are so many people with different surnames in one bedroom?” 8.1 AGENCY | ACQUIESCENCE desire to be in Thokoza. peanuts in the communal kitchens; and doing washing in the communal laundry or MaSibiya, life in a three-bed own agency: “There is no rule I can pass work and come back and sleep. One Life in Thokoza is a constant dance Women who have chosen to live in areas, possibly for commercial gain. between what Ramphele describes Thokoza have, in many instances, defied room is a series of negotiations here. At home I can say that I don’t need cannot be stuck here in such a small as “agency” and “acquiescence”. She traditional culture as well as modern F - Use of hostel space for livelihoods? and compromises – often involving this. When I go back home, I go around room. No, that does not make one happy. reminds us that “human beings are hetero-normative household structures. the abnegation of self. So MaSibiya the whole yard. I am also able to ask all My aim is achieving a house at home. not hapless victims of social structures They have chosen to live without men. P - People do business here. It’s okay, and her two roommates are constantly kinds of questions. I can ask: “Who put That is the only house I need.” but are active agents constantly They have left their families in rural they are not affecting and they do what F interacting with their environment as areas, opting for urban life. Thuli, for they do, clean up then go. having to adjust their routines, habits, this here?” and “Who put this there?” “I love the life in the rural areas. I love informed calculative beings, weighing example, found a measure of freedom in and possessions in their efforts to live Here I cannot do that. When I see dirt, all it a lot. You work the land and eat fresh up resistance or acquiescence, and the city which allowed her escape from P - It’s good but others are not clean – together tolerably: “The three of us in this I have to do is to remove it. I can’t ask. I food that you take from the garden. You evaluating the tensions between the an abusive relative and an opportunity peanuts, veggies – they also make the room are mature woman. No child can do can’t talk... I can’t make any rules here. don’t buy food from the market when universal human need for ‘community’ to find work in the city. place look congested and dirty. and individuality.” (1993, 11) as she pleases. When we say we are going Here I come back from work and get on you don’t know when it was harvested. The women of Thokoza are fiercely (Notes from the Focus Group session) to sleep, we are going to sleep. When my bed…” And it’s dead-quiet sleeping in your In many respects Thokoza exists independen t, managing to support P = participant one of my neighbours says: ‘MaSibiya, But MaSibiya’s urban work – initially own home. There is nothing that causes at the extreme ends of this binary: themselves and often other family F = facilitator women who have chosen hostel life members. (e.g. Malindi, Toyz, Tsidi ) can you see that your stuff has crossed selling shibhoshi (disinfectant) in noise in the yard. Whereas here, you have demonstrated a fierce streak (Questionnaires). Zinhle says, “I am While many women expressed into my space?’ I would then gather my townships, then “doing piecework for sleep and hear noise; you wake up of independence, but having ended independent in my life. I am responsible dissatisfaction about housing stuff nicely because there is no one who Indians”, and later selling beadwork and only to find the kids playing. At home I up living in this densely-occupied for my children. I am also responsible conditions in the hostel, they were can say that this is her house… Because baskets at the beachfront - has delayed would call them in and say: “Come in. communal environment, must make a for myself. There is no one who looks also appreciative of the asset value of series of significant compromises and out for me.” (Zinhle oral history) For a bed in the hostel. Toyz, one of our we are old, we live ngokubonisana (we construction of the house that she would It’s dark now.” must suppress parts of themselves these women the hostel functions as respondents summed this up: “I might consult/negotiate). like to build in Ndwedwe, KwaNyuswa, “Here I am holding on because I am constantly to make life tolerable under a useful springboard to livelihoods – move for work, but I will not let go of “Yes,” says MaSibiya, “I have been here her ancestral home. “I have not gathered working. This is not my house. I am these conditions. for women in search of work and for this place” for a very long time but I can’t call this enough strength (money) to build so that renting here. I am only happy when I women who rely on inner city to access It became clear from our work in the economic opportunity. At the other end of the spectrum, our place my home… I am renting for this I can leave the city and stay at home”. reach my home and I know that I am at hostel that nobody lands up in Thokoza research also revealed the enormous bed ngiqashile (I hire it). How can this For MaSibiya, then, the hostel is a mere home.… I cannot say that life is good by chance. The desirability of a bed in Women also exercise agency within the compromises that residents have had place ever be a home when there are so convenience. “I am still here because of here. Sibekezelele ukusebenza (We are the hostel, and the procedures that confined space of the hostel, trying to to make in order to survive in Thokoza. aspirant Thokoza residents must follow carve out spaces for themselves. They By choosing to live in Thokoza, women many people with different surnames in work. It’s not that I am free. You are here enduring this for work)”. to gain access to the hostel suggest that lavish enormous amount of care on have had to forgo privacy; forgo sex; one bedroom? There is one person here because it’s closer to wake up and go to Source for base data: Oral Histories. choosing to live in Thokoza is a carefully their personal space (See Pride | Shame) forgo family life; and forgo living with with another surname. There is another thought through decision, albeit in the and in some instances also manage their children. They may also have had one there with another surname. I have a context of limited housing choice. The to operate commercial enterprises to give up various cultural practices. many ways that women use to gain from their rooms (Thuli, Toyz ). In limited space and the next part belongs access to the hostel – via family, through other instances, women utilise some The small spaces and inability to alter to somebody else. How can this ever be Narratives formal application processes and by of the more public areas for their own the built form of the hostel has meant a home?” relying on social networks – suggest purposes. We saw residents washing limited self-expression in terms of Home for MaSibiya is somewhere else. It MaSibiya a strong sense of agency and a strong cars in the hostel courtyards; roasting personalising space. This absence is a place in which she can exercise her 96 Ῐ Chapter 7 Narratives: MaSibiya Ῐ 97 of self-expression also extends to (See Sylvia’s story ). “there is freedom at home to do what interpersonal relationships. It is telling I want”. For her home means “to live that very few women claimed to have The overwhelming sense that emerged with my children, be at peace and friends in the hostel but nevertheless from our discussions with Thokoza have control.” managed to get on well with everyone. residents is that women are constantly (Beatrice, MaSibiya) This suggests having to edit themselves and their Many women in Thokoza have therefore that women engage in pragmatic behaviour in order to live with strangers become stoical about life in the hostel. relationships - borne of enforced in overcrowded conditions. Thokoza Thandi says, “Nothing is bad here now. It intimacy - rather than voluntary bonds residents have given up the freedom to could get worse. It is best just to accept.” of affection. Even when relationships ‘just be’. It is not surprising that many Thembi is equally acquiescent: “I can’t are adversarial, compromises will be women spoke wistfully of their rural say good things about the place. I am made in order to maintain the peace homes in this regard. Pheteni says just used to it now”

politics sexuality networks Church COMMUNITY INDEPENDENCE friends social rules disrupted remittances heteropatriarchy noise sleep extended family FAMILY support PRIVACY LIVELIHOODS children sharing too little affordability separated personal space families economic opportunities theft AGENCY no men ACQUIENCE cooking LOCATION cleaning safety overcrowding services no common transport security space allocations toilets housing shops AMENITY shortage health care water & INSTITUATION electricity laundry education hostel rules ABOVE: Advertising hostel-based business TOP RIGHT: Malindi’s diary showing her 13-day working week with only every 14th day off MIDDLE RIGHT: Peanuts being prepared for roasting in a communal kitchen ABOVE: Agency and Acquiescence map BOTTOM RIGHT: Tsidi showing us one of the huge cranes she drives 98 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 99 8.2 PRIVACY | SOCIABILITY or sleeping spaces on the floor or in or a ‘single’, take pride in their spaces the corridor (not officially allowed any and have gone to enormous trouble A severe absence of privacy is a more) at the bottom of the ladder. As a to personalise these spaces. Beds are characteristic of hostel life where many result, women are constantly submitting neatly made up, fastidiously tidy and residents are forced to share space applications to the office to improve clean . Due to space constraints, women – rooms, beds, floor areas - often in their circumstances and to progress up have devised ingenious ways of storing arrangements that they themselves the hierarchy. (See the stories about and displaying their possessions . Beds have not chosen. Thembi had lived in Beatrice, Nokothula and Tsidi). Most of are generally raised high off the floor on a dormitory accommodating up to 22 the women we spoke to expressed a paint tins so that the space underneath beds. Sylvia has inhabited a 13-bed desire to have a single room, (Thando, can be used for storage, and every ledge dorm for the last 15 years. We also Octavia, Beatrice), with only Sylvia who and surface around the bed is utilised encountered women who currently seemed to be accepting of life in her for something including cooking. The share beds (Tsidi, Thuli, Malindi, 13-bed dormitory , which she compared bed itself is used for multiple purposes, Octavia); mattresses on the floor to a student residence. (Questionnaires functioning as a storage space, an (Busisiswe); and floor spaces within and interviews). ironing board, a sitting space and a rooms (Phetheni). Nozipho and Zanele’s work surface (Buckland 2011). Areas housing circumstances were the most Aside from sleeping spaces in the surrounding beds are adorned with extreme: when the first come to Thokoza corridors, dormitories offer the least personal artefacts – particularly family they started out as ‘casuals’, sleeping in the way of privacy. In Thokoza 2 the photographs - that signify identity, in the corridors. There was also a time space is further constrained by the religion or political party membership in when women slept in the open yards, fact that the beds are double bunks, this otherwise impersonal institutional without any form of shelter or anywhere although the top bunks are for storage space. Active personalisation often to store their goods. rather than sleeping. Fezeka, a young extends into the corridors, with women student, said that she was unable to polishing the threshold outside the Given these conditions it is not study in her ten-bunk dorm, because doors to their rooms. The dismal quality surprising that all of our respondents of the ‘aunties’ constant chatter. Life in of the corridors is partially enlivened spoke of “overcrowding”, “living with the shared room that Tsidi was initially by women’s efforts to personalise too many people”, “sharing with people allocated proved to be particularly the doors to their rooms in ways that of many different backgrounds”, “space difficult: she was forced to share with indicate something about themselves being too small”, “lack of respect an alcoholic in a three-bed room, which – their political affiliation , church for each other and for the space” then compelled her to move in with membership, or the businesses they and “lack of privacy” as conditions her lover downstairs. Even this is by conduct from their rooms. which undermine any sense of home. no means ideal: she finds it difficult to (Questionnaires) conduct an intimate relationship in a Ramphele observed a similarly room which she shares with a stranger high level of attention to personal The need for privacy has created a (who is straight). She empathises with appearance and care for personal distinct hierarchy within the hostel. the room-mate as well. space while conducting her research Undoubtedly the most desirable in Langa men’s hostel. For her this was ABOVE: Bed raised on paint tins to enable additional storage underneath rooms are single, followed by two- Notwithstanding the absence of privacy, part of residents’ unceasing struggle TOP RIGHT: Malindi has little privacy which is difficult for a shift worker who needs to sleep bed rooms , then three-bed rooms , most women in the hostel, irrespective to affirm their humanity in the face of when her room-mates are awake then dormitories , then bed-sharing, of whether they are living in a dorm constant assault. At the same time, she BOTTOM RIGHT: Typical dormitory 100 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 101 OPPOSITE PAGE (TOP LEFT AND RIGHT): Fastidiously made up and personalized beds OPPOSITE PAGE (BOTTOM): Clothing suspended on the wall ABOVE (LEFT AND RIGHT): Typical Block C bathroom

noted she noted that the “impersonal that poor health is a consequence settlements as one possibility, which space of the hostel” (i.e. the common of having to share; and that women were seen as unsafe (Ntombizele area) was neglected because “people lack control over their own spaces. questionnaire), in comparison. are not motivated to take care of it, with These complaints were reiterated in residents seeing hostels as institutions the suggestions that our respondents Although almost every one of our not homes” (Ramphele 1993, 87). In made when asked how Thokoza could respondents complained about the lack Thokoza, neglect of the public areas be improved. Respondents wanted of privacy in the rooms/dorms, very few was partially mitigated through daily more space; individual rooms; and the complained about a lack of privacy in cleaning by a team of municipal workers promised family units. Some 12 out of 22 the communal areas such as ablution . However, on weekends, when there interviewees named family units as the blocks , kitchens , corridors, courtyards was no cleaning of the corridors and priority improvement they would like to or laundry rooms. In fact, an atmosphere ablution blocks, there was a noticeable see at Thokoza. (Questionnaires) of intimate domesticity prevails in the deterioration in the environmental See table 3 corridors , ablution areas and kitchens. quality of these spaces . Many women feel comfortable enough Almost invariably, women who share in each other’s company to walk around Privacy – and the need for more space - rooms say everyone should have their with very little clothing, wearing only loomed large when women were asked own space, and women who have their kangas and sometimes draped only in what could be done to improve the own rooms want more space and/ towels. Women also use the full-length hostel. Many residents said that the or space for families to live together. mirrors in the corridors of Block A hostel is overcrowded; that space is Many women answered that they did (possibly an amenity dating back to the too small; that there is too much noise; not know of a feasible alternative to benevolent matron, Mrs Nicolson, who too much drinking; too many children; the hostel. Some suggested informal ran the hostel in the 1970s) to apply their

102 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 103 LEFT: Innovative shoe storage and display ABOVE: Municipal cleaner at work 104 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 105 make-up before heading out into the city. At the same time the women respect for TOP AND BOTTOM LEFT: doing laundry each other’s need for privacy. When doors in the Block A laundry facility This sense of intimacy extends to are closed, we observed that the women TOP RIGHT: Washing up and preparing residents’ knowledge of one another’s will knock politely before entering a room. food in a communal kitchen lives. Most women seem to be aware These codes and behaviours contribute to BOTTOM RIGHT: personal items at one of who their neighbours are, what they an atmosphere of civility and politeness. of the showers do and where they might be when they are not in their rooms. Beatrice’s Nokwanda said, “I don’t like living in a flat. neighbours knew when asked that she I would like to have my own house, but I would probably be at church until late don’t like living in the township. I would on Sunday afternoon. Tsidi’s neighbours’ like to live in a city and a bit of communal children knew that she was most likely to space would be good. I would like to have TOP LEFT AND RIGHT, AND BOTTOM RIGHT: nudity is commonplace in Thokoza, but be found in her ‘friends’ room rather than a garden with flowers.” is increasingly an issue as more young men have access in her allocated room. (Questionnaire) BOTTOM LEFT: Mirrors at the ends of the corridors are well used

106 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 107 She points to one woman using a bed to do her ironing, to two other women who are sleeping in the middle of the day, to two other women conversing over a steaming pot. Half-jokingly she says she can always use her stick to pull them into line. “I love my stick so much”, she proclaims.

ylvia aged 68 is sitting at the She’s heavily outnumbered, and the live in Cape Town. She’s been living in doorway at the entrance to her young women appear to get on well with Thokoza for 17 years. She was prompted dorm. She’s wearing little other one another. They are now all clustered to move into Thokoza because “it is a than a nightie, but has taken together over lunch at the opposite good place for women”. She sees her Scare to draw two arches over her rheumy end of the dorm, sharing their food and future in Thokoza as long-term. But eyes, in lieu of brows. It makes her pointedly ignoring her. there are inconsistencies in her own look permanently surprised. “I am not It is clear that relations between Sylvia narrative as to whether Durban or worried to live with these young people, and her roommates are less than Cape Town constitute ‘home’. There are it’s like living in a student residence” she amicable. “They’re ANC, and I’m DA” she moments when she expresses a desire says, loud enough to be overhead. says in a stage whisper. And this time to have her one son come and stay She is pointing with a baton-like stick it’s hard to tell whether she does - or with her “when they build the family at the thirteen beds that are packed doesn’t - want her roommates to hear. units that they’ve promised”, but at the into her dormitory which she shares Sylvia’s mother - a teacher - was born same time acknowledges that her three with twelve younger women. She points in Clermont, Durban and her father - “a adult sons – all of whom have jobs - are to one woman using a bed to do her coloured man” was born in Wynberg, happy in Cape Town. She says she’s ironing, to two other women who are Cape Town. Her roots, on both sides of sending money to them to help build a sleeping in the middle of the day, to the family are distinctly urban. She was cottage for her in Cape Town and might two other women conversing over a married once and used to stay with her only leave Thokoza when the cottage Narratives steaming pot. Half-jokingly she says she husband. “That was very nice, but I never is finished. However she rarely visits can always use her stick to pull them got a home.” Cape Town, only keeping in touch with Sylvia into line. “I love my stick so much”, she Sylvia herself was born in King Edward her children by phone. Torn between proclaims. But it is unlikely that Sylvia Hospital and was schooled and grew up these tenuous links to Cape Town, and a is able to discipline her roommates. in Durban, although her children now lifetime spent in Durban, she is unsure 108 Ῐ Narratives: Sylvia Narratives: Sylvia Ῐ 109 There are no family pictures pasted on the walls and no objects that remind her of other places: “My house is here”

where she wants to die and to be buried: the health care facilities that she uses: with a bit of space on either side. She “God will decide”. Beatrice Clinic, Addington Hospital stores her cooking utensils - some In her working years, Sylvia was and Wentworth Clinic. But she would pots and a ‘two-plate’ - under her bed employed as a nurse at St Aidan’s be happier if the doctors came to even though less than a metre away Hospital and at the Morton Clinic in Thokoza “to check up and see that are two kitchen cupboards laden with Warwick, but had to stop working people are living well.” Her shops and shiny pots and plastic bowls: “the when she was injured by a car. She her church are further afield: When she wardrobe is mine; the bed is mine; the lives off a pension that she receives goes to Pick ‘n Pay at the Workshop, chair is mine” says Sylvia, enumerating from her previous employment and an she “spoils” herself by using a meter the items that define the parameters old-age grant. taxi. “I know I need to walk for exercise of her home... And the two kitchen Even though her seniority would have but I like taking a taxi, so I do it all the counters with the pots and bowls entitled her to progress to a three- time.” She also takes a taxi on the rare which are in arms’ reach? “That’s bed room, and then a two-bed room, occasions that she goes to church. She the ANC’s”. and ultimately to a room of her own used to regularly attend services at the For Sylvia the hostel is, in effect, her like many of the other old women in Methodist church in Manning Road, a only home. She talks of her father’s Thokoza, she has chosen to live in church in Wentworth and a church on house in Cape Town as a place to the dorm: the same dormitory room Aliwal, but since the accident which which she has ancestral ties, but she that she moved into in 2001. “I have damaged her leg she just “sits down”. hasn’t been there in years. Although never stayed in another room.” She has She would also like members of the Cape Town is a possible contender as chosen the bed that offers the least church to come to Thokoza to visit her. Sylvia’s home, she says “it is too cold. privacy, but which allows her to see Inside the hostel she has no friends, Durban is nice because it is warm.” It the comings-and-goings in the passage never visits anyone and never shares seems like she values the institutional and to police who enters the room. She her food: “I don’t have time for character of Thokoza, having made no says it’s also the bed that’s closest to people.” She grumbles that things effort to personalise her space or to the bathroom. have deteriorated in recent years: “The retain any artefacts that connect her Sylvia appreciates the free situation has gotten bad now. It’s only to other people or places. There are no accommodation – admitting to not Africans here, no more coloureds.” family pictures pasted on the walls and paying rent - and the convenient Sylvia occupies about 4 square metres, no objects that remind her of other location of the hostel. It is close to little more than her narrow single bed places: “My house is here.” 110 Ῐ Narratives: Sylvia Narratives: Sylvia Ῐ 111 8.3 COLLABORATION | social behaviour especially petty theft. euphemisms to hint at the discomfort COMPETITION of having to live with strangers and F – Things are stolen talk of people who have “different Friendships amongst women in the surnames” or people who come from hostel are a potential source of comfort P – Yes, too much – bras, underwear, “different cultures.” and a possible survival strategy. tights, shoes (Nqobile) However, when probed about whether We are not aware of any initiatives by residents had friends in the hostel, Not just residents but people from the the municipality to engender social most answered “no”, but said that they outside as well. Maybe paras are able to cohesion within the hostel other than managed to get along with most people. come in and steal the clothes here hosting an annual Christmas party (Fezeka, Phetheni, Nqobile, Slindile, for residents. This contrasts with the Beatrice, Thembi (questionnaires: Q 45) P – We can blame the paras, but I situation in the 1970s. According to believe it’s people from inside – how Clarissa Fourie who had conducted For Ntombizele, the absence of friends would paras access clothes/laundry research in the hostel in the mid-1970s, meant that she had “no-one to tell inside the then matron who had worked in secrets to”. Relationships appear to the hostel since 1952 encouraged the be those of convenience and mutual F – How do we manage stealing clothes? residents of the hostel to ‘treat it like tolerance because of the enforced a home’. She instituted a residents’ intimacy which the women must endure. P – There is nothing we can do. People committee to oversee personal (See MaSibiya’s, and Beatrice’s stories) from here are the ones stealing. When interactions in the hostel; formulated Although Nqobile claimed to have no they steal they take everything, even the rules “oriented to help the crowded friends in Thokoza, she manages to pegs. living conditions”; and raised money for share a fridge with her neighbour. the annual Christmas party (Fourie 1977, D – Sometimes people who know you quoted in Buys 2012). But there were also some hostel take your stuff. Those you washed your residents whose relationships are more laundry with. A significant tension has emerged in adversarial and where tensions emerge. Thokoza between young and elderly Phetheni says: “When you don’t know D – Yes, people steal and send the stuff residents. Many of the younger hostel people, you must look after yourself.” home. residents complain about the elderly She also worries about being poisoned, because some of them cannot take claiming that many people in Thokoza (Notes from the Focus Group session) care of themselves. Some of the have died of this before. Malindi also elderly are incontinent and confused. has no friends in Thokoza, although P = participant (Supervisor interview). In one instance she shares a bed as she has not been F = facilitator the supervisor had a complaint about allocated her own. She says she would ‘paras’ = addicts living on the streets a woman who fell asleep while cooking ABOVE: Beatrice shows us her clothes pegs that she has identified with her name. not bring her friends from outside the in her room, posing a real fire risk. He This is a common practice hostel to visit her in her room. Women in the hostel carefully mark also described incidents where younger (source: questionnaires) their clothes, label their clothes residents have set themselves up in pegs, and in some instances chain ‘carer’ relationships with older women, In some cases, the absence of social ties their laundry to the washing line. shopping and cooking for them. “This amongst the women manifests in anti- Hostel residents use a number of is often for ulterior motives” he says,

112 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 113 “as they retain possession of the bank is her real community, and gets on well an able-bodied woman, as a traditional assist. Eventually, some residents who card.” In some instances, this can be with other Thokoza residents. Zanele dancer and Inkatha fighter. knew the woman managed to contact a mutually beneficial exchange, but is says, “It is upsetting that young people her family and her body was finally obviously open to abuse. He tells of want us (older ones) to leave. We were Sylvia lives in a 13-bed dormitory, where removed later that day. one case when a young ‘carer’ went to young once and we have been here a she has stayed since her arrival at retrieve an elderly resident who had long time. This is our home now.” Thokoza 18 years ago. She came to the The supervisor said he felt traumatised been taken ‘home’ by her relatives city to work as a nurse and has retired. by the experience, especially as he because the carer had come to rely Thembi, who survives and supports her Due to her seniority and length of stay, had never even seen a dead person on the money that she ‘earned’ via children ‘at home’ on her pension and she could have been allocated a single before. There was no clear protocol to the elderly resident’s social grant. the sewing business that she operates room by now, but has chosen to remain deal with the situation, and he wonders (Supervisor interview) from her room has been a Thokoza where she is: possibly because it is what would have happened if no-one resident since 1985, starting as a ‘casual’ cheaper, although she acknowledges had known how to contact the family, Room allocations have compounded sleeping in the courtyard. She came that she now does not pay any rent; or if the family had been unwilling to these tensions: Many of the younger to the city for work as a seamstress in possibly because she seems to enjoy assist. He worries that because many residents are resentful that the prized various clothing and textile factories trying to discipline the much younger of the residents are estranged from single rooms are allocated to older and has now retired. She says, “I don’t women who share the space. From their families, this situation might residents who have lived in the hostel think I will leave here”. She grew up in the questionnaire and her interview, happen again. for many years, doing time on the the city and feels at home here: “I’m there is obviously no love lost between waiting list. Malindi says “old people used to it now.” She says that although them (see Sylvia’s story) but it is a Estrangement works both ways. There should not be in the hostel. It should be it would be nice to live with family, she form of entertainment for her. When are instances where distant families a working hostel. Not for families”. Her has no other home. She mentioned a interviewed, Sylvia’s answers about her reject their elderly relatives, but child lives with her mother/granny at daughter who also lives in the hostel, long-term plans were ambiguous and a also anecdotal evidence from Angela Mzinyathi near Ndwedwe. and they prepare food and eat together. little confused, but it seems likely from Buckland’s 2011 Thokoza project and (Thembi’s questionnaire, date) her responses that she will remain at from the hostel supervisor that some Predictably the older residents believe Thokoza until she dies. women prefer to keep their location that they deserve to be in the hostel: Thandi, who is disabled after a stroke, secret - possibly to avoid having “Old people should be accepted here has no home and no family to assist The problems with housing the elderly to share their pensions. The hostel – we have nowhere else to go,” says her. “Everyone has died” she said in in an institutional arrangement include supervisor tells the story of a former 68-year-old Zanele. She has lived in answering the questionnaire, although dealing with both chronic illness and Thokoza resident who died in an old Thokoza since 1984, and she says “I in the later in-depth interview, the consequences of death. In a recent age home and whose body – to his have lived here long enough it is home. indicated that she was estranged from incident, as told to us by the hostel knowledge – was unclaimed by her Though things have changed, there is her surviving family members. She is supervisor, an elderly lady sharing a family because she had never provided no respect here anymore. It helps that I wheelchair-bound and uses the staff three bed room died in the middle of her family with her contact details to have my own room.” She also says she is toilet in the administrative section the night. Both the police and municipal prevent them from preying on her. satisfied with what she gets there, and of the building near to her ground mortuary were unable to assist. The there is nowhere else to go. Her children floor single room. She relies on other mortuary official told the supervisor Younger women in the hostel object would like her to live with them in residents for daily assistance and is they could not remove the body, their to the large numbers of old people Daveyton near Johannesburg, but Zanele grateful for her place in Thokoza. “It is mandate being deaths in the public occupying the hostel, believing that is not keen to join them, having stayed bad here now. It could get worse. It is domain, and this woman had died beds should rather be allocated to in Durban for all her adult years. She is best just to accept.” She is saddened to within the hostel. Even though the working-age women. 30-year-old Malindi actively involved in her church, which tears by memories of her busy life as hostel is public property, they refused to says, “Old ladies should not be in the ABOVE: Thembi’s IFP curtain

114 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 115 hostel”, a sentiment echoed by 34-year- experience of gatekeeping. According for a place, suggesting that she used attend church services at the hostel, it old Bongi: “Old ladies should go to their to the hostel supervisor during his this network to gain access to the hostel afforded a feeling of belonging, of being homes or to a place where they can be interview, ANC-aligned Police Minister and is a member of a political party to ‘at home’. For Phetheni, faith helped looked after”. (questionnaires) Bheki Cele, intervened in hostel politics be part of something, to meet people, her with her life. For Beatrice, church by establishing an annex - Thokoza and to be informed. (source: Nokwanda reaffirmed her sense of identity: “It’s It was clear from our fieldwork, that it 2 - for ANC activists who were being questionnaire) an African church, so I can practice my is unlikely the old women currently in persecuted in the hostel. Competition culture”. For Veliswa, church is where Thokoza are going anywhere. In spite between rival factions within the Tensions between young and old, she feels accepted: “I get life there”. of the compromises associated with ANC, as well as between the ANC and mistrust of other hostel residents, party Voluntary work at the church during sharing space with so many, “it is best Inkatha is evident in the posters in the allegiances and overcrowding in private weekdays and attendance at services on just to accept” (Thandi). Thokoza is a courtyard and corridors, and in the spaces undermine social cohesion. Wednesdays and Sundays has helped reasonably comfortable place for elderly printed kanga’s and T-shirts hanging Yet hostel dwellers devise collective to anchor Zanele in the neighbourhood women to live out their retirement, on the washing lines . Many residents strategies to provide spiritual and and is integral to her sense of Thokoza retaining the independence that also proclaim their party allegiances material support. Those identified by as ‘home’. (source – questionnaires and brought them to the city in the first by displaying stickers on the doors to Ramphele in Langa included individual interviews) place. Some women reflect nostalgically their rooms. Thembi has an old IFP friendships, burial societies, credit clubs that if they could save enough money, banner as her curtain , and Sylvia is or religion (Ramphele 1993). they might like to build a house at their proud to differentiate herself as a DA ancestral or family homes, but this member within her predominantly According to Ramphele, hostel dwellers seems like an unrealisable dream, given ANC-supporting dorm. (see Sylvia’s develop an elaborate ‘economy of their obvious circumstances. As much as story). Busisizwe believes that affection’ involving kin, home-people the younger residents, they mostly cite people with different political beliefs and friends, which protect many from delivery of the promised family units should be allocated separate places falling off the edge. These relationships as the top priority improvement they (Questionnaire). can be warm and supportive but can would like to see at Thokoza. This would also incur burdensome reciprocal give them the “peace” and “freedom” For Nokwanda, one of the worst things relations. Conformism is also sometimes they want. about Thokoza is tribalism, tensions necessary to create harmony under between Zulus and Xhosas. “Some, they severe space constraints, thwarting Party politics may be another cause look down on others”. She joined a individual initiative. Under such of tensions between hostel residents. political party when she was looking for circumstances, mediocrity is rewarded Historically the hostel was Inkatha a place, suggesting that she used this and excellence discredited. dominated, affording Inkatha members network to gain access to the hostel and preferential treatment. Thandi, for is a member of a political party to be In Thokoza, church membership example a former Inkatha fighter, gained part of something, to meet people, and constitutes an important aspect of access to the hostel at the insistence of to be informed. (Questionnaire) social relations. Many women found an Inkatha warlord during the violent succour from their respective churches ANC/Inkatha battles. But there are now For Nokwanda, one of the worst things (Fezeka, Thuli, Phetheni, Nqobile, signs that the ANC is dominant, with about Thokoza is tribalism, tensions Beatrice, Ntombizele, Nozipho, Veliswa, TOP: Zanele’s religious icons the ANC Councillor wielding significant between Zulus and Xhosas. “Some, Sylvia, Octavia). For Fezeka, church BOTTOM LEFT AND RIGHT: political influence over what takes place in they look down on others”. She joined was a good place to meet people, affiliations are displayed on the doors Thokoza, as evidenced by our own a political party when she was looking whereas for Bongi and Toyz, who both of many rooms

116 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 117 8.4 PRIDE | SHAME on personal space as opposed to the hostel living conditions, and imagine neglect in the impersonal space of the that they too lived like that. Although our questionnaire did not hostel, believing that hostel residents explicitly probe whether people would have little motivation to look P – These are older boys – we were told experienced pride or shame living in after the common areas. Ramphele only 9 years but now they are old, boys the hostel, we observed evidence of viewed the care for personal space – as old as we are. both these emotions. particularly the attention that hostel residents devoted to their clothing P (Toyz) – we look people who are On the basis of our experiences - as part of a coping strategy used by desperate – people who are in a inside the women’s rooms, we noted hostel dwellers to protect their self- natural disaster, who need help – we that many women took extraordinary respect: “It is remarkable to see just do not want that – when we walk out pride in their bed-spaces. Even in how meticulously hostel dwellers dress we don’t look like where we come from. situations of extreme overcrowding, even for casual outings: the struggle beds were neatly made up with to affirm their humanity in the face F – We don’t use names when we do blankets carefully folded at the of constant assault is unceasing…” research – especially children. Only ends of beds, and other possessions (1993, 87). This was confirmed by our shown to people from Thokoza. carefully stored or displayed – under own observations. We frequently saw beds, or suspended on the walls, or women using the mirrors mounted P – It is important that we show this – on arranged on cabinets when there in the corridors of A-block to touch must show how things are – we was some available space. In most up their make-up or straighten need support. situations, these efforts were confined their clothes before going out into to the interior of the rooms. Passages, the city. Even within this dispiriting P – But this is just a project – what help stairways and yards – i.e. the shared environment, women were managing to is there. spaces of the hostel – were less well hold on to a sense of self. cared for. Graffiti and litter in the P – even a project can help – there stairwells and passages seemed to On the other hand, spaces that were could be support that can happen indicate a general lack of care for the messy or disorganised engendered – example – things you learn about public environment, although there was fierce disapproval. This was articulated cleaning and hygiene. We need to some evidence in the passages that in the focus group when the learn. People need to see how we live. some women were trying to improve participants were shown a photograph their environs by polishing the floor of an untidy dormitory and the mess P – That’s true – cleanliness is immediately outside their rooms. after a weekend when the cleaning important. TOP LEFT: Some people’s pride extends to polishing the corridor at their staff are off duty. The participants were room’s threshold The tidiness and pride in personal horrified that they might be associated (Notes from the Focus Group session) TOP RIGHT: Graffiti defaces some of the public areas space echo the findings of Buijs who with this image, suggesting a deep BOTTOM LEFT: Focus group participants were ashamed of how the messy was also impressed the neatness of the sense of shame. They were worried that dormitories might look to readers of this report spaces inhabited by the women (2012). people outside the hostel, on seeing P = participant BOTTOM RIGHT: The state of the bathrooms soon after cleaning is a source Ramphele also noted the care lavished this picture, might generalize about F = facilitator of irritation and blamed mainly on the presence of children 118 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 119 8.5 URBAN | RURAL form of identity, but always in some of Thokoza did not retire to Transkei sense a hybrid cultural form. but ended their lives in Durban (2012, Hostels are often the spaces in which 160). Thus, according to Buijs, “the rural people first encounter the city Xulu-Gama witnessed such processes rural birthplace became a source of and therefore play an important while conducting her research in the proclaimed identity rather than a role in determining the extent to KwaMashu hostel. She says that women reality to which any of the women which new urban dwellers will adopt strategically adjust their behaviour would return.” This echoes Bank’s aspects of modernity or will hold onto depending on their context: “For findings in the Eastern Cape men’s traditional practices (Bank 2011). Bank example, some go to church back hostels: Those migrants who were most warns against pitting the urban and home, but not when they are in the vociferous about wanting to return the rural against each other, arguing hostel. Some women do not wear permanently to their rural homes were that “the boundaries between urban trousers at home, but they do at the in fact the least likely to do so and and rural, modern and traditional are hostel. Most have a responsibility to often those who returned least often more porous and fluid than culturally their children (and younger siblings on visits (Bank, 2011). fundamental (Bank 2011, 9). This is perhaps) in the rural areas, but they do reiterated by Xulu-Gama, who says not generally have this in the hostel. Buijs argues that younger women, that the lives of migrant workers in Most importantly, most of their parents under thirty, had a very different view of urban areas should not be viewed are not in the hostel. Some find it the hostel to the middle-aged residents. separately from their lives they lead in easy to have multiple sexual partners They spent a major part of their leisure rural areas. Rather, they should be seen in the city, but this is something they time with their boyfriends, and since as intimately intertwined: the rural/ would rarely do back home in the rural they were not allowed to bring the men urban is not a contrasting binary but areas. All these differences have an to their hostel rooms, they often slept a continuum (2017). Mafeje too warns impact on the individual. This person with them in nearby Indian hotels, against any essentialising vision. His becomes a changed being, which results the boyfriend paying for the room. For research revealed that the process of in changed actions and reactions.” these women, the hostel was only a urban adaptation was shaped by who (2017, 159) A woman will redefine her place to keep their possessions, and do the migrants knew in the cities rather sexuality, gender role and relations in cooking and laundry (2012, 164). than by some kind of pre-existing the process of moving back and forth cultural identity (Mafeje quoted in between the two. Buijs argues that younger women, Bank, 2011). under thirty, had a very different Despite having left their rural homes view of the hostel to the middle-aged Thus, for Bank (quoting Bhabha and by necessity, most of the women residents. They spent a major part of Soja), the presence of the rural in the interviewed by Buijs claimed a strong their leisure time with their boyfriends, urban is never simply a matter of the attachment to their rural home. Despite and since they were not allowed to transposition of rural cultural materials the many years of working in Durban, bring the men to their hostel rooms, into the city, but involves reworking, 95% of the women Buijs interviewed they often slept with them in nearby reconstituting and renegotiating ideas said they intended returning to their Indian hotels, the boyfriend paying about the rural in the urban, in what homes in Transkei at some unspecified for the room. For these women, the might be defined as a ‘third space’. The future date – ‘when I get a pension’ hostel was only a place to keep their engagement of the rural in the urban or ‘when my children are working’. It possessions, and do cooking and ABOVE: Getting ready for the day is not a retreat into some pre-existing was apparent, however, that residents laundry (2012, 164).

120 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 121 Many of Thokoza’s residents are first is where the umbilical cord is buried, synthetic fabric. In the case of Zanele, In the course of our research in Thokoza, we were able to generation migrants from rural areas, and where one goes to be interred. the carved wooden meat platter that and interestingly in the mid-1980s one For a migrant, the urban township her mother had given her when she identify cultural artefacts and practices where the rural third of women had come to the hostel cannot possibly denote a ‘home’”. left her ancestral home, sat alongside from the then Transkei. According She argues that the rural home is plastic containers, her two-plate stove and urban came together in new and interesting ways. to Buijs, these women were forced more than a geographical location, and microwave oven. The peanut - rather than chose - to leave their but is part of a network of shared industry which dominates the hostel homes and to move from the Xhosa resources and embodies a wealth of in November/December is a clear ‘homeland’ to predominantly Zulu local knowledge, often dating back to example of the continuity between Durban in search of livelihoods. a pre-colonial past… The city is rarely rural and urban. Peanuts, brought in thought to provide an adequate place from rural areas, are roasted in the Buijs found that while most women for belonging, and even those who hostel and then sold all over the city to viewed their rural homes as ‘safety- have lived most of their lives as labour an urban market. Traditional beadwork nets’, they were clearly not a refuge migrants or were born abroad as the – catering to the tourist market they hoped to have to use. It was also children of labour migrants, usually along the beachfront - is a livelihood clear from the little they knew of their have no difficulty in stating their mainstay for many Thokoza residents. children’s circumstances that they had village and district of origin.” (Englund, not seen them recently. At the same 2002, 137 quoted in Xulu-Gama, 2017, This confirms Bank’s argument that it is time, they thought of their rural homes 182). It did not matter how long Xulu- no longer possible for local people to as their only ‘proper’ home and felt they Gama’s respondents had lived in urban enter and leave modernity at will since ought to be there, circumstances having areas, they still insisted on a cultural they are all defined within it. For Bank, propelled them to the city. Women connection to ‘home’ as constituted by there is no escaping modernity “where sent regular remittances to the families the rural homestead. heterogeneous temporalities intersect they had left, “reinforcing their claims in the complex process of intercultural to be accepted, responsible members This contradicts the findings of Buijs hybridisation and hybrid sociality and of the community, albeit more absent who had interviewed hostel residents where identity struggles unfold in a than present. It was this contribution in Thokoza in 1984/5 and those of common, connected cultural space”. that allowed the women to speak of the Hansmann, who had interviewed them importance to them of ‘home’ and their in 1993, who both found that women’s Bank alerts us to the fact that there homesteads, with the connotations of connections with their rural homesteads are not only rural-urban linkages, but personhood and ethnicity which being a were far more tenuous – emotional also urban-urban linkages: The urban member of the extended family or umzi rather than actual. past can be as powerful as the rural contained” (Buijs 2012, 154). Ramphele past in the remaking of urban culture suggests “There is often a good reason In the course of our research in Thokoza, and identity. This is an important point, to maintain a rural home, given the lack we were able to identify cultural particularly in African cities, where of proper housing in urban areas and artefacts and practices where the rural tradition is usually thought of in a the undesirability of the hostels for and urban came together in new and distinctly rural way (Bank 2011, 13). Our bringing up children. (1993,72) interesting ways. Thandi’s traditional findings confirmed that for many women dance attire, for example, was heavily in Thokoza home was not necessarily This echoes Xulu-Gama’s findings in adorned with traditional beadwork, an ancestral rural home but some ABOVE: Zanele is sentimentally attached to the traditional meat the Kwa-Mashu mens’ hostel. “Home although this had been applied to other urban place. Cape Town and platter she brought with her from home 122 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 123 Daveyton (near Springs in Gauteng) return to Flagstaff for events such Women who do move between the According to Buijs, were ‘home’ for Sylvia and Zanele as funerals and weddings. Veliswa, hostel and rural homes use the respectively, because they had grown who comes from Mount Frere, opportunity to transport goods “the rural birthplace up there as spent the early years of Pondomisa Ridge, only manages to between the two places. Women their married life there. For many of visit her family there once a year in take urban delicacies such as became a source of the Zulu-speaking residents, ‘home’ December. (Questionnaires) ‘Kentucky’, pizza and other take- outside the hostel were distinctly aways back to rural areas, and on the proclaimed identity urban or peri-urban areas – Many women send money home reverse journey bring back home- townships and informal settlements, to support relatives who still live cooked foods such as bread, roast rather than a reality located within the boundaries of the in rural areas (see the section on chicken and home-grown produce metro. (see Table 4…) livelihoods|remittances below for including madumbis, when they to which any of more on this) and almost all women return to the hostel. Towards the In Thokoza many women had say they go home at the end of end of the year when many hostel the women would embraced modernity whole- each year, and/or at other times residents go home to visit family, heartedly (Tsidi, Fezeka, Thuli) and of year for family events such as the corridors of the hostel fill up return.” expressed no hankering to return to weddings or funerals (e.g. Beatrice). with goods awaiting transportation, a rural past. Xulu-Gama observed in the Kwa including building materials. See Mashu hostel, that ultimately, table 4 …. below for details from the However, there was also evidence the ability to be buried at one’s questionnaire interviews. that women continued to maintain ancestral birthplace constituted an connections with their rural important aspect of ‘home’ for some The particular geography of KZN, homes. Thembeka who comes from hostel residents, although in our i.e. the proximity of the erstwhile Ndwedwe visits fortnightly, as sample this aspect of home was not Native Reserves, which allows does Ntombizele, who comes from explicitly mentioned. frequent movement between city, Highflats – past Umzinto - because township, informal settlement, and her children still live there and When children were still living in rural areas, and the persistence of admits to feeling most at home rural areas, women visited as often traditional leadership and tribal “back in the rural”. Nqobile visits as possible, or alternatively brought trust land, entrenched still in when she can; Malindi when she their children to the hostel during the Ingonyama Trust, facilitates has time off. Nozipho, who comes school holidays. Ramphele says this interpenetration of urban, from Ndwedwe, visits monthly even “For those women coming from peri-urban, semi-rural, and deep though most of her family have independent rural households, rural, that seems to give rise to passed away. She says she needs care for their school-going children ambivalent attitudes to ‘home’. to check the houses and tend the during their absence poses a serious By way of comparison, the shuttle garden, and that she feels at peace problem. Younger children tend to be movement between Johannesburg there, where her ancestors are taken along to town, which explains and rural Limpopo would involve buried. Beatrice, who comes from the high percentage of them in the journeys of over 400km. Migrants further afield – Flagstaff in the hostel population. In some cases moving between Cape Town and Eastern Cape – can only visit when desperate women even take school- rural areas in the Eastern Cape RIGHT: Thandi is proud of her has enough time and/or money going children with them, thus would also have to cover relatively traditional dress and has strong but will make a special effort to disrupting their education.” (1993,72) larger distances. tribal connections

124 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 125 “People would say they are going to their homes and I would really feel pain deep in my heart. When I heard somebody saying they were going home, I would also wish that I could go home but there was no home.”

handi sits in wheelchair, naked the 500,000 other people who were alive or not. Later that night a man came other than for a gown partially displaced in these destructive wars. in a car. The car lights were not on but draped over her shoulders. It’s The event which precipitated Thandi’s he knew the way… He put me out at the the best she can do to dress arrival in Durban in 1990 was a near-fatal Durban station. The police there called Therself because she is semi-paralysed assault by ANC-aligned comrades who an ambulance and… the ambulance as the result of a devastating stroke. were seeking revenge for some murders came and took me to King Edward. I was She’s trying to stir her breakfast committed by Inkatha. The attack there for six months without being able porridge with the one hand that she started when “some (ANC) guys [took] to talk or open my eyes. In the seventh can still use. But a closer look at over my shop... They had also found my month, I opened my eyes and I asked Thandi’s body tells another story: it pictures and IFP cards. They overturned myself where I was…” reveals a network of scars, wounds every table. They knew everything about Thandi’s family was convinced she had that she sustained as a female warrior me. There was another girl who told died and had even held a ceremony with an Inkatha hit squad. them everything about me… She spied to mark her passing. So it came as a Thandi had never intended landing on me. She told them I was IFP... They surprise to find that Thandi was still up in Thokoza hostel. As a member of caught me and kicked me... They slapped alive. “They had spent three months Thomas Shabalala’s Inkatha militia, me hard and said: ‘What are you looking mourning. When I came back, they were with a successful tuck shop in Inanda, at, klova (insulting name given to IFP already in the process of forgetting she had probably imagined a life supporters)?’ I started wondering how about me”. But when no family members somewhere on the outskirts of Durban, my family would find my body…” offered to take Thandi home, the then shuttling between Inanda, Lindelani – “When it became time for me to be powerful Shabalala organised a place for Shabala’s fiefdom, and her birthplace in killed, the councillor said to his brothers Thandi in Thokoza. “He went straight to Thafamasi where she was raised by her that they could be punished if they the office and he told them to give me a Narratives grandmother and great-grandmother. kill their target before taking all her room”. Like most newcomers, Thandi first But the violence which gripped the possessions…This man said, ‘instead of started out sleeping on the floor in the Thandi country in the late 1980s and early 1990s killing her, it’s better we leave her here’… passage, but at Shabalala’s insistence, scuppered Thandi’s plans - and Thandi, So they left me. When I tried to stand up, soon moved into a three-bed room, and both victim and perpetrator, joined I could not. I was not sure if I was still got a job as a cleaner in the hostel.

126 Ῐ Narratives: Thandi Narratives: Thandi Ῐ 127 Tragically Thandi’s fighting days were to drive her granny every Sunday disability. She now has a room of her by no means over. She returned to to church in Matebetulo. She also own on the ground floor, and has access Lindelani, and was joined by six other played a leadership role in the to the office toilets, one of which has women “fire-eaters” and trained how hostel, often representing the been converted for disabled use. “This to shoot. There they were issued police residents at public events. is my house, here at Thokoza.” But she uniforms: “Once we were in our uniform, But then tragedy struck in a different also regrets the absence of connection we were police. We would target you form. In 2012 Thandi suffered a stroke with other ‘homes’: “People would nicely with a gun, shoot and kill you and that paralysed the left side of her body. say they are going to their homes and move on.” Thandi set out get revenge on This time, it was Jehovah, rather than I would really feel pain deep in my her attackers, barring the man who had Shabalala who had been assassinated in heart. When I heard somebody saying bundled her into his car and driven her 2005, who came to her rescue. When she they were going home, I would also to Durban. was finally discharged, now confined to a wish that I could go home but there After the elections in 1994 things settled wheelchair, a man came to her room and was no home.” down in KwaZulu-Natal, and even violent offered her a bible: “I knew that I had Although Thandi realises that her life warlords like Shabalala, who became done wrong in the eyes of Jehovah. I was would be significantly harder outside a member of the provincial legislature, messing with the creation of Jehovah… the city, where she says she would have begun to talk of peace. The IFP became The bible is the thing which shows me to be pushed around in a wheelbarrow, “a normal political party”. Thandi flirted the way. It also gives me hope that one she bemoans the breakdown of briefly with switching her allegiances: day I will be healed from how I am now.” tradition – symbolised for her by “I started attending ANC meetings. I Although religion helped Thandi deal promiscuity, lesbianism which makes loved the ANC but it was not like IFP. The with her violent past, it didn’t improve her “vomit”, and by “women wearing reason I loved the IFP more: when we her relationships with her family. She pants, even in church”. When she wants had our meetings, we would put on our rarely sees her daughter or her son, to remember her earlier life she gazes traditional attire and we would fill up even though he’s living somewhere in wistfully at an old photograph that she’s busses and sing our songs. These people the city while training to be a security kept. It shows her in her traditional [the ANC] do not put on traditional guard. Both her granny and great- dancing regalia standing alongside then clothes. This is the main thing I liked grandmother have died, unravelling any KwaZulu Chief Minister Mangosothu about IFP. I did not necessarily know ties that she may have had with her Buthelezi in her glory days, close to the much about IFP as a political party. Even birthplace. And she no longer speaks to source of her power and legitimacy. when I lived at Lindelani, I did not know two of her sisters, one of whom is living At the same time she awaits the promise much, I only knew how to fight and how in Thokoza. For a brief period her grand- inscribed on the Durban Metro calendar to shoot.” daughter stayed in her room to take care that hangs on the wall in her room: “By By 2011, Thandi was earning enough of her, but now, even this relationship 2030 eThekwini will be Africa’s most money from her hostel cleaning job has been severed. caring and liveable city.” for her to start thinking about buying For Thandi, the hostel is both home and Additional material sourced from a second-hand car. She wanted institutional support in the face of her Oral Histories. 128 Ῐ Narratives: Thandi Narratives: Thandi Ῐ 129 PLACE OF ORIGIN MOVEMENT OF GOODS PLACE OF ORIGIN MOVEMENT OF GOODS

TOWNSHIP TOWNSHIP TOWN OR OR FREQUENCY GOODS TAKEN GOODS TOWN OR OR FREQUENCY GOODS TAKEN GOODS CITY SETTLEMENT OF BACK BROUGHT CITY SETTLEMENT OF BACK BROUGHT OUTSIDE INSIDE RURAL VISITS HOME ON BACK TO OUTSIDE INSIDE RURAL VISITS HOME ON BACK TO INFORMANT ETHEKWINI ETHEKWINI AREA ‘HOME’ VISITS THOKOZA INFORMANT ETHEKWINI ETHEKWINI AREA ‘HOME’ VISITS THOKOZA

Asks what Mother cooks eMzinyati, family need– meals to bring Visits iNanda Groceries, Visits when Phetheni close family in Nothing Nqobile Harding usually food back, chicken, weekly takeaways she can iNanda (takeaways, veggies from the snack, meat) garden Visits for events – Fruits and Home grown Asks what Beatrice Flagstaff uMzinyathi, funerals groceries veggies and fruit Visits when family needs Doesn’t bring Malindi near weddings etc has time off and brings it. anything back Ndwedewe Groceries, Toyz for kids Visits at month Bongi uMzinto house goods/ Nothing end Home grown furniture food, beans, Visits every 2 Fruits, meat, Thembeka Ndwedwe amadumbe Home grown weeks Takeaways Visits when veggies (yams), sweet Fruit, bread, Monica Ndwedwe she can afford (Avocados, potatoes and drinks it lemons, yams, Steam bread, Visits often sweet potatoes) uMzim Fruit and Toyz home cooked Fezeka Home is where -khulu for the kids chicken, baked Visits when Veggies family is misses home from the city scones Home made Nokwanda Bizana and when (especially bread Zulu things there are corn and also Visits for from the Home cooked events carrots) Tsidi Aliwal North events, not market, black chicken Groceries, just for a visit. and white Highflats – Visits 2x per Veggies from the Nthombizele meat, or sends stones past Umzinto month garden money Groceries, Visits once a Doesn’t bring Thuli iNanda Fast food/ Visits once per Paraffin, food, month anything back Nozipho Ndwedwe Nothing takeaways month candles

Table 4: SHUTTLE-MOVEMENT Table 4 (continued) Place of origin (urban settlement outside KZN, near-in township/informal settlement, deep rural); frequency of visits to ‘home’; movement of goods PLACE OF ORIGIN MOVEMENT OF GOODS

TOWNSHIP TOWN OR OR GOODS TAKEN GOODS CITY SETTLEMENT BACK BROUGHT OUTSIDE INSIDE RURAL FREQUENCY OF HOME ON BACK TO 8.6 LIVELIHOODS (& Many of the strategies we found are complex, or the beachfront (where INFORMANT ETHEKWINI ETHEKWINI AREA VISITS ‘HOME’ VISITS THOKOZA REMITTANCES) | LOCATION heavily dependent on location, and as hospitality jobs are concentrated); (& DISLOCATION) a location providing convenient access and a train, bus or taxi ride to almost to all of the amenities of the city, and anywhere. There is also easy access All of our participants initially decided a wide range of income generating to health care facilities, a range Doesn’t visit to come to the city looking for work, opportunities, Thokoza excels. of churches, schools and tertiary much, only for and have found Thokoza to be the education institutions. Yams Zanele eMzimkhulu events. Durban Atchar most viable accommodation they can The hostel is located on the edge of (amadumbe) is more like find, and when asked what was “good the inner city of Durban, in part of Malindi, Beatrice, and Phetheni, the home about Thokoza” almost everyone what was known as the ‘other’ (i.e. three shift workers in our participant explicitly included location, many non-white) CBD. It was a vibrant urban group, all said in their questionnaire Mount Frere Pumpkin, corn stating that it was their top priority. area which has suffered from neglect responses, that the location of Visits in Groceries and Veliswa Pondomisa and home cooked and is a shadow of its former self, Thokoza was the main advantage December clothes Ridge chicken Although the hostel was intended but still holds significant locational of the hostel. Malindi referred to for domestic workers who initially advantages. having accommodation near to the Rarely visits Cakes and Family home Grew up in Fruits from Cape comprised most of the residents, beachfront hotel where she once Sylvia family home – sends money in Cape Town Claremont Town life in Thokoza these days is more of It is a few minutes’ walk to Warwick worked as “necessary”, while Beatrice, once per year home a hustle, with residents employing Junction, the largest transport a general worker at an inner-city a very wide range of livelihood interchange in the country, close to hospital used the word “essential”. Doesn’t visit, all Meat, chicken Veggies from the strategies (see table 5 below). the city’s main fresh produce and Malindi has subsequently changed Thandi Ndwedwe family there are feet garden, home Changing economic trends have seen various other informal markets. It is jobs and works in uMhlanga, but dead Groceries cooked chicken the collapse of formal jobs (both only a few more minutes’ walk to the Thokoza’s proximity to metro-wide Visits for Food from the blue and white collar), and few of the centre of town, the central municipal public transport is still a significant Thando Stanger Nothing holidays garden residents in Thokoza seem to be in full-time formal employment. Meat, Nothing, when vegetables and Xulu-Gama points to the multitude mother was well Port fruits as well of livelihood strategies used by BEACHFRONT Toyz Visits monthly then bring home Shepstone as snacks and hostel dwellers which include formal THOKOZA cooked chicken employment; casual employment; sweets for the with dumplings support from family, relatives THOKOZA 2 kids and friends; informal and/or self- Veggies from the employment; social grants; the sexual Pieter- garden, cooked economy; criminality; livestock WARWICK 10 MINUTE WALK Octavia Visits monthly Bulk groceries maritzburg chicken and ownership; land/agriculture; and informal money-saving schemes such steamed bread as stokvels and umholiswano (2017, Highflats Visits family 124). In some instances, Xulu-Gama’s CBD Thembi Ndwedwe Groceries Nothing uMzumbe monthly respondents pursued as many as five of these strategies simultaneously. 10 MINUTE WALK Busisiwe uMbumbulu Visits for events Bread and fruit Nothing Table 4 (continued) 132 Narratives | Beatrice Chapter 8 Ῐ 133 “People like my music. They never complain. I play it on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. But during the week I can’t make noise when people are resting. I like noise, especially if I’m feeling down.”

t’s 11am on a Saturday morning – a she turns on her flat-screen TV - tuned Apparently, the hostel manager is relaxing time for Toyz. If it was a to Nollywood soapies - and her disco- aware of all these enterprises, but Sunday she would be off to church, size sound system, the louder the better. understands that hostel residents are and if it was a weekday she’d be “People like my music. They never operating businesses inside the hostel Ion her way to the gym – Body Lab in complain. I play it on Thursday, Friday to make a living. Field Street, just around the corner. So and Saturday nights. But during the Toyz sees self-employment only as she’s just gotten out of the shower and week I can’t make noise when people a stop-gap measure until she finds a is making her way along the corridor are resting. I like noise, especially if I’m formal job. “I’ve been applying all over from the ablution block to her room, feeling down.” The music, along with – I look on the internet on my phone completely naked, totally at home in her the poster on her door, advertises Toyz’ or check in the newspapers.” She has a Rubenesque body. business: doing nails and providing beautician’s qualification and worked for Nudity, or near nudity is something other beauty services to the 1000 or so nine years at MJ’s Xclusive Hair Salon at of a dresscode in Thokoza, especially hostel residents who constitute the bulk uShaka before transferring to an office amongst the younger residents. of her clientele. job at Group Five Construction. Now Women pad around in slippers or slip- Toyz is only one of the entrepreneurs she’s holding out hope that her newly slops, in kangas or dressing gowns, in operating within the hostel. There’s acquired diploma in safety management panties or bras in an atmosphere that a lady selling vegetables under the will give her the edge in the employment is both casual and intimate. A sense staircase; two other women who appear stakes. “All companies understand that of domesticity pervades the hostel, to be running a laundry service on the ‘safety comes first’?” allowing women a measure of freedom roof; some others operating shebeens Toyz gained access to her single-bed – both in their rooms and in the more out of their rooms; many seamstresses room in Thokoza some eight years ago. public areas, especially the passages and bead-workers; and one women She had started out in 1993 sharing Narratives from the first floor up, where men are hosing down a bakkie in the courtyard, with her mother, but after her mother explicitly excluded. “We’re all women which might belong to her, but is more decided to return to Port Shepstone, Toyz here. It would be different if there likely that of a customer. Peanuts seem Toyz applied to the hostel manager to were men.” to be a major business with sacks of raw take over her mother’s room. The moment that Toyz reaches her room, and roasted nuts lying in the passages. The hostel has been a useful base for

Narratives: Toyz 135 134 Ῐ Narratives: Toyz Ῐ Toyz is not keen to bring her daughter to the hostel, which she believes is an unhealthy place to rear children – TB, bad language, “people coming from different cultures”

Toyz – close to the various places where hair. They’re worth thousands.” Toyz which is where her daughter lives, she’s worked, the various schools where updates her Whatsapp profile daily to to spend time with her and maintain she’s studied, and is now a source of showcase these different looks. contact. “When I go home, I buy her customers for her successful home- But the item that is most dear to Toyz is anything she wants. There is nothing business. “It’s the best, best place to an award given to her eleven year-old that I miss other than my daughter.” stay because I can save. I can pay less daughter for outstanding performance Significantly, these bonds of affection rent. Rent is only R165 a month. I can at the school that she attends in to not extend to the men in Toyz’ life: use the money I save for other things.” Hibberdene - Woodgrange-on-Sea - an she is estranged from her ex-husband, These other things are best represented upmarket private college, one hour’s who lives in Umlazi and works as a crane by the prized possessions that Toyz drive south of Durban. “I want her operator for Mediterranean Shipping keeps in her stylishly decorated to be a doctor, but she wants to be a Company. And her current partner – room, which is a symphony of white pilot. But she’ll be able to do anything: employed by Transnet - with whom she’s cabinets, white appliances (chest she’s brilliant”. Toyz is not keen to been in a one-year relationship “is not freezer, microwave, oven, fridge, toaster, bring her daughter to the hostel, which a serious thing. He asked me to move in kettle) and crisp white linen. There’s she believes is an unhealthy place with him. But today they are talking this, her gigantic music system of course, to rear children – TB, bad language, and tomorrow it’s another story. I prefer but there is also her collection of wigs. “people coming from different to be independent. I’m a strong woman “Wigs, oh my word, I put on this one and cultures” - and her daughter, likewise, and a tough lady.” I look like an African queen!” says Toyz. isn’t keen on coming to Thokoza. It’s only other women – potential clients “There are my three Brazilians – one Instead Toyz makes the journey “at for Toyz’ ministrations - who get to be eight-inch, one ten-inch, two Twists and least once a month” to her sister’s and called “darling”, “sweetie”, “honey” or my Pele Pele. Four are made with real brother-in-law’s house in Hibberdene, “dear” on Toyz’ regular Whatsapp chats. 136 Ῐ Narratives: Toyz Narratives: Toyz Ῐ 137 locational advantage. market in the hostel. She regularly which are generally not used by the goes to gym and to church and is very residents to cook meals, and he tries Nokwanda, a permitted street vendor, sociable. In-between our interview to allocate them bed-space together selling fresh produce says “I can session she was organising a boat trip as he gets complaints that they go do business in the city. There are on the harbour for a group of hostel out at 2am and wake up their room- opportunities to make money in the residents as a special outing. As a self- mates. Sewing repairs and making city. I would like to make things to employed entrepreneur she essentially pinafores; and beading to sell at sell, but I have no skills for that”. works from home, and her customers the beachfront are common income (Questionnaire) are literally on her door-step. generating activities taking place in the rooms, with beds doubling as Ntombizele came to the city looking Monica came to look for work and was work places during the day . for work as her “children’s’ father a security guard until 2014. She is now was not helping”. She does temporary unemployed and sells clothes from Not all the locational advantages are domestic work, and for a while she her room to supplement her social to do with work, but everyone saves slept rough on the street, staying in grant. (Questionaire) Zinhle says “… I money by walking as much as possible. Thokoza as a casual for 50c per night do not want to survive on one thing Most of our participants would walk when she could afford it. She now only… when I come back from selling up to 30 minutes, some more than has a room. “Thokoza is near all the peanuts at around 4pm, I will sit down that, before considering paying for things you need, and near work and and start doing my beadwork. I will transport. The elderly women say that transport. It’s all about the money work on two things at the same time…” they cannot walk far any more. here” she says. She roasts peanuts (Oral history) in the hostel which she sells over the Zanele says that most of what she weekends. She says she would like to Busisiwe told us how she resigned needs is very accessible, and her leave, but “I can do a lot of things if I from her job in housekeeping at the church is right next door to the stay here” …. “Life in Umlazi”, she says, Holiday Inn due to poor working hostel. Sylvia says she ‘treats herself’ “would be difficult”. (Questionnaire) conditions. She would like to start a with a metered cab on occasion. child care centre in Thokoza, looking The hostel also itself offers livelihood after other children, but her room but Thuli, who is unemployed and lives opportunities, irrespective of location, too small. in Thokoza with her mother and in the circular economy generated some of her children, says they need by nearly 2000 people all living The hostel supervisor says that as everything to be accessible within together - e.g. spaza shops inside the long as they are not illegal, running walking distance as they cannot hostel premises, the lady who sells businesses from the hostel is afford transport. vegetables under the stairs, shebeens, tolerated. “Everyone is just trying to the laundry, car-washing, and various survive”. He has had a request for Veliswa says “the location makes life personal services such as doing hair permission to run a laundry business, better here. It is close to doctors, and nails. and a crèche, and many people are transport – it is cheap to get around selling peanuts. There were piles – and is close to church”. For some, ABOVE: A peanut vendor’s stock, Toyz is a truly urbane resident and and sacks of peanuts all over the like Bongi, the inner-city location is waiting for roasting in the hostel takes full advantage of the amenities hostel every time we visited. The not only practical. “I want to be in the LEFT: A beadmaker uses her bed as of the city as well as the captive peanut sellers use the hostel stoves, city. It is central to things” she says. a workspace

138 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 139 “My real home, really home, is eMzinyathi. That is where I am an indigenous: here in Thokoza, I am an alien.”

t’s after 8.30pm, well after nightfall, was a significant decision. Whereas the the word “home” often when describing and Malindi, a cleaner at the Protea Maharani was in walking distance of her daily commute, and especially how Hotel in Umhlanga, is on her way Thokoza, she must now spend over R600 hard it is to reach home when she works back to Thokoza. She’s been working per month on transport taking the 18km the shift that ends at 11pm, she says that Ian eight-hour shift, cleaning twelve to taxi ride to the three-star Protea. She Thokoza can’t possibly be home: “it’s sixteen rooms per shift, for thirteen days says the money is slightly better only just shelter, a place to rest my head“. Her in a row and she’s looking forward to her because the hours are so much longer. shared bed-space fulfills a pragmatic single day off tomorrow. Then she will She’s also relieved to have escaped the need, providing her a with cheap place resume another thirteen-day stint, after jealousy of the other cleaners at the to stay while working in the city. And which she’ll get another day off. Maharani, who grumbled that her hard every cent that she saves on rent, she It’s a punishing routine, in an work was showing them up. But Malindi can send to her other home - which is environment where the management is stoical about the new job: “I need to where her mother, her sister, her nieces doesn’t even know the names of the grow... I need to survive.” and nephews, and her son all live. “My staff: “they call us chickens, because Now, after a long day, all she wants to real home, really home, is eMzinyathi. they won’t make us name tags...”, do is collapse into bed. That is where I am an indigenous: here something of an irony in an industry But the bed that awaits Malindi is a bed in Thokoza, I am an alien.” which supposedly trades on making that she will have to share with a friend, In an attempt to construct a semblance people feel welcome. Malindi is in their three-bed dorm. Her other two of home in the hostel she once tried employed by Super Clean, a company room-mates are still moving about, bringing her seven-year old son to stay that provides labour-intensive services and the glaring light from a single bulb with her, but he cried the whole night: to the big hotel chains in this age of floods the room. These conditions are “‘Mama, I don’t understand here: You’re increased outsourcing. not conducive to sleep after a grueling sleeping here, someone is sleeping But the more hours Malindi works, the day of trying to please her supervisor there. There’s no space to move here or more money she earns. She even gave and having to clean up after holiday- play. Early the next morning he said ‘I Narratives up her first commercial cleaning job makers and business travellers: “They want to go back home to my grandma.’” at the high-status, five-star Maharani don’t care.” Malindi would like to do more for her Malindi where she’d progressed to cleaning the It’s not surprising that Malindi has family in eMzinyathi - buy chicken and VIP suites, to take up this new job in reservations as to whether Thokoza meat, rather than just samp, beans Umhlanga just to work more hours. It constitutes a home. Although she uses and potatoes, send money to repair 140 Ῐ Narratives: Malindi Narratives: Malindi Ῐ 141 the leaking roof, buy nice things like in the hostel are there for the same and understanding each other.” It is clothes - but she says that the people reason: “to make a better life for their this extraordinary level of tolerance at home must realise that she is children.” - and generosity - that has enabled sacrificing and doing her best. Living “We understand that this is not a Malindi to shut out the noise, and the in Thokoza is part of this sacrifice. She place where you can have your own movement, and the light in her room, understands that many of the women space, so we are helping each other and get some sleep. 142 Ῐ Narratives: Malindi Narratives: Malindi Ῐ 143 “I do not like the townships.” Thembi Zanele and Thembi. says. She grew up and feels at home Almost all of our in the city”. Octavia says that the money she saves she uses to support her mother and respondents send (Questionnaires) puts into a stokvel. Tsidi and Toyz are making very conscious trade- some form of Our three student participants rely offs. They direct the savings they on cheap and convenient access to make by living in the hostel towards remittance ‘home’, their various institutions. Thando says better education for their children or she would prefer to be in a university siblings respectively. Nokwanda, a which means that residence, but doesn’t have a place 71-year-old street vendor who stays there, and home, which is in Mandini, in a dormitory in Thokoza Block 2, the extended benefits is too far. She goes home for the manages to support her daughter and holidays, but her place in Thokoza grandchildren, and also saves through of this low-cost with her aunt, allows her to study. a stokvel. Thembi, a pensioner who Fezeka doesn’t not use the Thokoza 2 does sewing repairs in her room, accommodation are bed, inherited from her aunt, all the says “No-one at ‘home’ is employed”. time. It is convenient during term time, Veliswa says she earns little, but significant, although especially during exams, although she supports her sister’s children, and is says the dormitory accommodation saving to build a house in Mt Frere. difficult to measure. has no place to study. Many of the (Questionnaires) children occupying the hostel are attending school within walking or These women have powerful agency. easy public transport distance. They are not victims. They have shared beds, slept on the floor, lived away Almost all of our respondents send from their families and children, some form of remittance ‘home’ (see continue to live in an overcrowded and table 5 below), which means that in many ways constrained environment the extended benefits of this low- in order to take advantage of this cost accommodation are significant, place, often at significant personal although difficult to measure. Even cost. They are very conscious of the the pensioners surviving on their trade-offs they are making while they meagre pensions help support their hold out for the promised family units children and grand-children e.g. in this very desirable location.

LEFT: The bed doubles as a work top for this pinafore maker 144 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 145 CURRENT EMPLOYMENT CURRENT EMPLOYMENT

INFORMAL/ FORMAL BUSINESS DEPENDENT INFORMAL/ FORMAL BUSINESS DEPENDENT SELF EMPLOY UN INSIDE RECEIVE ON SELF EMPLOY UN INSIDE RECEIVE ON INFORMANT EMPLOYED -MENT -EMPLOYED THOKOZA GRANT(S) RELATIVES STUDYING REMITTANCES INFORMANT EMPLOYED -MENT -EMPLOYED THOKOZA GRANT(S) RELATIVES STUDYING REMITTANCES

Nqobile   Sends most income home Phetheni  Social for mother and grant 40% of income son Malindi  goes into goes to food bank for home account Supports son (R1000 pm) Grant Supports goes into grandchildren; Thembeka   mother left bank Beatrice  account him, pays R1200 to someone to Fezeka   look after them. Supports her family as father has passed Social Supports grant mother and (brother  Hair Tsidi  Bongi  goes into children, all and sister at does hair dressing university) SASSA the salary goes Was studying card to them until father passed Sells Grant for Supports clothes, children Grant children, all of Monica  uses room goes into goes into money earned Thuli   to display SASSA bank goes to them account clothes card

Table 5 LIVELIHOOD/ REMITTANCES Table 5 (continued) CURRENT EMPLOYMENT CURRENT EMPLOYMENT

INFORMAL/ FORMAL BUSINESS DEPEN- INFORMAL/ FORMAL BUSINESS DEPEN- SELF EMPLOY UN INSIDE RECEIVE DENT ON STUDY- SELF EMPLOY UN INSIDE RECEIVE DENT ON STUDY- INFORMANT EMPLOYED -MENT -EMPLOYED THOKOZA GRANT(S) RELATIVES ING REMITTANCES INFORMANT EMPLOYED -MENT -EMPLOYED THOKOZA GRANT(S) RELATIVES ING REMITTANCES

Collects Sometimes old aged Disability help support Supports pension, Thandi  grant into brother’s Nokwanda  daughter and into SASSA card children (not grandchildren SASSA often) card Thando   Supports brother, wife and children (Gives them Child grant Nthombizele   Uses room to into SASSA R1500 pm) and Supports Toyz  do hair and card, goes daughter and family grandchildren nails to ATM to withdraw Collects Helps with Nozipho  old age sisters’ children Supports pension when needed family (child Grant via Octavia  and sister) SASSA card Pension Helps support and saves via into grandchildren, is Zanele retired stokvel SASSA in debt because card of them Pension Used to Earns little, into bank Supports Pension work as a but supports card, does children at into seamstress, Veliswa  sisters’ children Thembi  monthly home as well SASSA now does (between R500- withdrawals as sister’s card alterations in 600 pm) from children her room Shoprite Doesn’t support Pension anyone, all into children have Sylvia retired Pension Supports SASSA jobs. Sends Busisiwe retired into bank children and card money home to account grandchildren build a cottage

Table 5 (continued) Table 5 (continued) 8.7 PERMANENCE | whole family is there” She feels most imagined having to be moved about IMPERMANENCE at home there and misses home a lot. in a wheelbarrow if she were to return (Questionnaires) to her birthplace. Thandi’s inability Women have varying attitudes to to go back home is compounded by whether the hostel constituted a Although very few women expressed her estrangement from her family. permanent home. Many women in a desire to stay permanently in the Thuli is also unable to go back home – our sample viewed their hostel as hostel, there seemed to be no social although two of her sons are currently impermanent irrespective of how stigma attached to living there. living there – because the abusive long they had stayed there already, or However, residents do not want to uncle who had forced her to flee to the how long they would continue staying be associated with those aspects of city still lives there . there in the future. Although some the hostel which are seen as messy, women expressed a desire to return unattractive, and unkempt. This For Zanele, a sense of permanence to an ancestral home, other women emerged strongly in the focus group was afforded by her rootedness in the aspired to move to other places in the session organised as the conclusion of neighbourhood, largely as a result of city – inner city flats, or houses in the our fieldwork for this research project, her participation in the activities of her townships or in the formerly white where photographs of the hostel were church, located just around the corner suburbs (Beatrice, Fezeka). Monica used to prompt discussion. The hostel from Thokoza and by the accumulation says of her home in Ndwedwe: “My was portrayed mainly as a pragmatic of goods crammed into her tiny single choice because of the amenity that it room. Sylvia’s confusion about her offered – if only temporarily - before future plans (whether she would join women moved onto something better. some family members living in Cape For Malindi, for example, the hostel Town or bring them to Durban when “is just shelter”. Many women like her, family units are constructed) probably would move to better accommodation indicates that she has nowhere else to if they could afford it. go and is likely to end up dying in the hostel. Busisizwe says that Thokoza There were however some women for is her only home. She feels at home whom the hostel was undoubtedly a here but wants to live freely with permanent home. In some instances, children. “All my life is here in the city.” this sense of permanence is the result (Questionaires) of an inability of the respondent to return to an ancestral home, either Age has an important bearing on because of the physical characteristics whether the hostel constitutes of rural life or because of strained a permanent home. Our findings relationships with family members. mostly echoed those of Fourie’s Both Thandi and MaSibiya, who are who found that many of the older, both disabled, spoke about the sheer more conservative women were impossibility of a return to their more dependent on the hostel and FAR LEFT: Vigorous discussion in the focus group ancestral homes because they would its activities than younger women LEFT: Thandi is wheelchair bound and would not cope back be unable to survive physically in a residents. In the 1970s, Fourie noted in eNanda rural area. Thandi in her oral history that in the case of women over 55, their TOP RIGHT: Zanele is home BOTTOM RIGHT: Zanele is rooted in her Church community 150 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 151 “I don’t like living with so many people and I don’t have privacy. The aunties shout at us all the time about noise.”

ezeka, a glamorous 24-year another. “We use this as our wardrobe”, College - where she’s doing computer old student, has a bed in a Fezeka explains, demonstrating how studies - and especially when she has dormitory in Thokoza 2, an she and the other women in Thokoza early morning classes. annex of the main hostel, half 2 store their goods horizontally in the The hostel and college – which is in Fa kilometre away and opposite the absence of cupboards. It also means West Street - are close enough for Inanda taxi rank. Thokoza 2 came into that a ten-bunk dormitory, which in Fezeka to nip back home between existence when the City identified an theory could accommodate twenty lectures, a thirty minute walk or, if underutilised piece of land, near the women, rarely houses more than about she’s running late, a quick taxi ride Inanda taxi rank, and embarked on twelve or thirteen people, ten in the away. She appreciates the proximity: converting some old buildings into lower beds, and possibly a few short- “During the week I only have to wake dormitory rooms. The site has an term visitors sleeping on the floor. up at seven if I have a class at eight almost farm-like quality, with a series The top bunk above Fezeka’s bed is or nine.” Fezeka also appreciates the of sheds along the one edge and a somewhat messier that those of her convenience of the hostel’s inner city lot of empty land beyond. But what roommates. There are two suitcases, location, “the nice showers” in the distinguishes Thokoza 2 from the main some blankets, a few cardboard newly built ablution block, and the fact hostel is the arrangement of beds. boxes, some big black bin bags, a that “it’s safe and there’s no stealing.” Dormitories in the main hostel are jumble of clothes and shoes, and Otherwise she sees very few positive filled-to-overflowing with closely some paperwork wedged between the attributes to life in the hostel. She packed single beds, whereas dorms mattress and the steel frame of the says the hostel is overcrowded: “I don’t in Thokoza 2 are equipped with bunk bunk bed. And it seems nothing short like living with so many people and I beds. Significantly not a single one of a miracle that Fezeka can extract an don’t have privacy. The aunties shout of the top beds in Thokoza 2 is used elegant, well-composed outfit from the at us all the time about noise. I would for sleeping. Even when a resident in chaotic arrangement precariously piled like to get a place in a student res, Thokoza 2 has a visitor, the visitor will up above her sleeping space. but the private colleges don’t give us sleep on the floor rather than on the But then slowly, in conversation with accommodation.” top bunk. Fezeka, it emerges that she doesn’t It’s now October and exams are coming The top bunks are used exclusively for always sleep here – and that she up, and, according to Fezeka, the Narratives storage. That’s where the women keep isn’t sleeping here right now. She is hostel isn’t conducive to studying. It’s their clothes. Many of the women have currently bedding down at her sister’s too hot inside the shed-like building Fezeka taken care to arrange their possessions house in Magabeni, a 45-minute ride and too distracting with all her other in neat piles: Dresses in this pile, away. Fezeka only sleeps at the hostel roommates moving about. Now that underwear in another, sweaters in when it’s term-time at Howard FET the rains have started, she can’t even 152 Ῐ Narratives: Fezeka Narratives: Fezeka Ῐ 153 study outdoors. That’s why she has It is not clear whether Fezeka pays that might constitute home - the temporarily abandoned her bed at the rent for her bed in the hostel. For hostel, her sister’s township house and hostel and gone to stay in Magabeni quite some time, many of the hostel her ancestral village - in her highly – and she’s taken some of her clothes residents in Thokoza have been actively stretched out, mobile existence. with her, hence the disorganised boycotting monthly rental payments One day however she’s planning to residue on the top bunk of her bed- or just not bothering to pay, given the settle down. She might marry her long- space. Fezeka says she’ll come back municipality’s rather casual approach term boyfriend who is the caretaker to the hostel when her exams begin, to rent collection. If she was compelled at a school. And when she finishes when she needs to be near the college. to pay for her hostel accommodation, her studies in 2022, she wants to be a Then, after that, when the school year she might be inclined to use it more teacher. “I want to live here in Durban: is over, she will probably go back to regularly or not at all, freeing up her in town or in Umhlanga or in Ballito,” her birthplace which is in uMzimkulu, bed-space for someone else. big dreams that are unconstrained by where her mother, grandmother and In the meantime she comes and goes, the small bed-space that she occupies some of her siblings still stay. shuttling between the three places now and then.

154 Ῐ Narratives: Fezeka Narratives: Fezeka Ῐ 155 Even though some Thokoza residents we interviewed had lived there LIVING IN THOKOZA LIVING ELSEWHERE for a very long time - and were likely to die there - very few women MOTHER GRANNY AND AUNT AND AND identified strongly with the hostel. It is just the place where they live CHILD(REN) CHILDREN CHILDREN WITH CHILDREN PARTNER rather than an essential component of their identity. IN SAME IN SAME IN SAME PARTNER IN LIVE LIVES INFORMANT ALONE ROOM ROOM ROOM SAME ROOM ELSEWHERE ELSEWHERE ties with their rural homes had faded, respondents had similar pragmatic we interviewed had lived there for and even when they had adult children, relationships to the hostel citing a very long time - and were likely to they had to remain in the hostel as their proximity to work or college including die there - very few women identified children ‘did not want them’ (Fourie Nqobile, Malindi and Thembeka. “This strongly with the hostel. It is just the Nqobile  1977, quoted in Buys 2012). The converse is home in Durban. I would move for place where they live rather than an may also be true, that the elderly have better conditions if it was affordable” essential component of their identity. Has a no desire to live with their children. (Nqobile) (Questionnaires) Notwithstanding residents’ permanence, child who This is borne out by the supervisor, and there was a notional sense that home Malindi  stays with anecdotes from Angie Buckland’s 2011 Conversely, there are women whose was somewhere else. grandmother photography project. relationship with the hostel is extremely in uMzinyathi tenuous. Fezeka uses her hostel bed Hansmann’s research in 1993 revealed Convenience also contributes to a sense infrequently, only during term times and the relative permanence prevailing in  of permanence – particularly when the when she has early lectures, but mostly the hostel. Some 82% of Hansmann’s Thembeka (mother’s hostel itself provides residents with lives with her sister in another part of respondents had been living in Thokoza room?) income-producing opportunities and Durban. She says she has no intention for more than five years, and almost half Partner where continued residence is essential of staying in the hostel beyond her for more than fifteen years” (1993, 76). Fezeka  Aunt’s bed lives in for the success of the business. student years. Toyz, who has a lucrative manicurist Some of our participants arrived in Chesterville enterprise in the hostel would not be The differing attitudes of the young and Thokoza very young. Nqobile is only 22 keen to move because she has a large old to Thokoza have led to tensions as but has been there 5 years, since she Tsidi  captive market within the hostel. Tsidi’s to who is entitled to accommodation was 17. Monica is 39 and arrived at 15. sense of permanence has to do with the in the hostel. Zanele for example says, Thuli is 42 but has been there since One child lives in security it provides for her as a lesbian, “Old people need to be accepted here she was 19 – more than half her life, as Husband but she also appreciates the location – we have nowhere to go. I tried to has Thembi who has lived in Thokoza Joburg, two Thuli   lives in of the hostel relative to her work in the look but I could not find it”. Younger for half of her 69 years. Nokwanda, the others live eNgonweni docks, as does her partner who works at hostel residents, in contrast, believe fresh produce seller in Warwick, is the in eNanda/ the Jockey underwear factory in Umgeni that hostel accommodation should anomaly. She is 71 but has only lived in eNgonweni Road. Although Tsidi talks of her family be prioritised for people working or Thokoza 2 for a year. home back in Aliwal North as her real studying in town. Phetheni  home, Durban is where she lives, and See table 6 for information on the whole she sees no reason to move. Many other Even though some Thokoza residents sample group. Table 6 ‘FAMILY’ CONFIGURATION: Living in the Hostel (Alone; Mother and child/ren; Granny and Child/ren; Aunty and child/ren; Living with partner) Living elsewhere: Child/ren; partner. Note, where the informant is living in a room shared with other hostel residents who are not family or a partner, we consider them to be living alone for the purpose of this table 156 Ῐ Chapter 8 LIVING IN THOKOZA LIVING ELSEWHERE LIVING IN THOKOZA LIVING ELSEWHERE

MOTHER GRANNY MOTHER GRANNY AND AUNT AND AND AND AUNT AND AND CHILD(REN) CHILDREN CHILDREN WITH CHILDREN PARTNER CHILD(REN) CHILDREN CHILDREN WITH PARTNER IN SAME IN SAME IN SAME PARTNER IN LIVE LIVES IN SAME IN SAME IN SAME PARTNER IN CHILDREN LIVE LIVES INFORMANT ALONE ROOM ROOM ROOM SAME ROOM ELSEWHERE ELSEWHERE INFORMANT ALONE ROOM ROOM ROOM SAME ROOM ELSEWHERE ELSEWHERE

Son lives in One son lives Flagstaff, in eMzimkhulu, daughters live Beatrice  daughter Zanele  lives in town in Daveyton and (Durban) other son lives in iXopho 3 kids at Partner lives Children live in Bongi  uMzinto with Veliswa  elsewhere Mount Frere her mother

Children live in Husband live Four children Sylvia  Cape Town in Cape Town Monica  live in Ndwedwe Son lives in eNanda and Nokwanda  Daughter Thandi  daughter lives in uMlazi Two daughters Thando  Nthombizele  live in Highflats Child is in Port Toyz  with brother Shepstone

Partner lives Daughter lives in Nozipho  in Mowutana Pieter- Octavia  near eNanda maritzburg with sister Son lives in Thembi   Highflats Children live in Busisiwe  uMzumbe Newlands

Table 6 (continued) Table 6 (continued) 8.8 ‘SINGLES’ | ‘FAMILY’ abandoned, with children and without time, leave, their schooling and friendships children, but presently alone, without are likely to be disrupted. Ramphele describes “A legacy of men and without children (1993). distorted family relations” in single From our own research it is clear that some sex hostels (1993,78). “Loving family The value of hostels is that they have women have indeed chosen – or been relationships are inhibited by hostels. indeed provided accommodation for forced – to leave their children at ‘home’ or Lack of private space; too little time at ‘singles’, particularly during those times with other family members. Malindi, Bongi, the end of the day to engage in activities when housing policy placed emphasis Toyz and Octavia all have school-going that engender closeness. The greatest on the male-headed nuclear family in children who live with relatives. Bongi, difficulty occurs when children are which the wife would perform domestic whose three young children live in uMzinto sent back to the rural areas and are labour. The movement of African with her mother, worries constantly about then cared for by relatives in return for women to the city demonstrates that her children: “They are too small” and she remittances. These children then only women have rejected this role, defying would like to live with them. In Toyz’s case, come to the hostels as visitors during the heteronormative expectations her decision to leave her daughter in the school holidays or see their parents of policy makers. Women have acted care of her sister is because the hostel is during annual visits home.” autonomously, leaving their families not conducive to rearing children. She cites and households in search of better of overcrowding and the spread of disease Historically, the African household has opportunities. as problems. Furthermore, her daughter is undergone a series of radical disruptions not keen to come to Thokoza. Her decision as a result of colonialism, Christianity, Prior to the High Court judgement to leave her daughter with her sister in racial capitalism and more recently of 2014 children were expressly Hibberdene is partially mitigated by the with the emergence of female headed forbidden from living in the hostel. private school that her daughter attends. households as a significant demographic This compelled women to sacrifice (See Toyz’s story). cohort (Ramphele, Hansmann, Goebel, family life forcing them to abandon Elder, Xulu-Gama). This has brought into their children, leaving them in the Ramphele alerts us to the problems of question commonly accepted notions of care of relatives. This had the effect of separating children from their parents: both ‘singleness’ and ‘family’. undermining an essential attribute of “the greatest difficulty occurs when home: a place in which to raise your children are sent back to the rural areas Initially Thokoza hostel was intended children. But since the relaxation of and are then cared for by relatives in to accommodate ‘single’ women and the rules, many women have elected return for remittances. These children there were strict regulations prohibiting to bring their children to the hostel then only come to the hostels as visitors visitors, “reflecting the notion that the and have been able to construct during school holidays or see their need for social relationships amongst a semblance of family life – albeit parents during annual visits home. These single women does not exist” (Hansmann without husbands or male partners. circumstances erode intimacy between 1993). This notion of singleness included parents and children.” any relationships that the women But there are still punitive rules which may have had. “Singles” according to undermine the idea of home as a place to In 1993, Hansmann recorded some 42% of Hansmann “is used in the sense of being raise a family. The rule which forbids male women wanting to live with their children, alone, regardless of marital status. Single children over age 11 from living in hostel although not necessarily in the hostel, women include married women, divorced undermines the notion of family: When because either the city or the hostel was women, never been married, widowed, boys who have lived in the hostel until this seen as unsuitable for children. Many ABOVE: Children of all ages live in Thokoza

160 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 161 mothers expressed the importance of A large number of Thokoza residents having their children with them and worried about leaving their children are now choosing to have their children, behind in rural home or townships because of inadequate care or supervision. grandchildren, nieces or nephews live But women also worried that the hostel was a bad place to raise children. There with them in the hostel which has helped was a fear of contagious diseases, that children would develop bad habits, or these women feel more at home. be exposed to immoral behaviour. When mothers do decide to bring children to the hostel, especially if they are already at school, they might also disrupt their children’s education.

Notwithstanding these concerns, a large number of Thokoza residents are now choosing to have their children, BELOW AND RIGHT: Mabel lives with 3 of her grand-children in a single room grandchildren, nieces or nephews live with them in the hostel which has helped these women feel more at home. Busisizwe and Thembi have both brought their grandchildren to live with them in the hostel. Busisizwe acknowledges that it’s not easy or safe to stay with children at the hostel. She would like to start a child care centre at Thokoza and would “look after other children” in her room if it wasn’t so small.

Thuli lives with the three youngest of her five children, having had to send her two oldest sons back to her ancestral home when they turned 11, when hostel rules prohibit male children from staying on. Even though she has managed to establish some semblance of ‘home’ in her room, which she also shares with her mother and sister, she would like to be re-united with her sons. (See Thuli’s story).

162 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 163 huli* is setting up her of whom are intertwined like kittens paint-tins. In this tiny room - which constitutes in town or renting a shack in Cato Thuli has worktable in the tiny two-bed around a cell-phone game. The room The act of furniture moving inevitably both home and factory - Thuli has Manor. Thokoza “is very better” - closer room that she shares with her also contains a fridge and a stool, wakes Lindiwe who moves to the other set up a semblance of family life. But to everything including hospitals and managed mother, her cousin and her where Thuli is sitting. bed, displacing the two youngest kids not all Thuli’s family are here. Her schools, and of course near to her to carve Tthree youngest children - six people But then all these arrangements who are sent to play in the passage. first-born, a daughter who lives in clients who bring her clothes to alter. altogether. The space in this L-shaped need to shift to accommodate Thuli’s Then the table is manouvered into Germiston is the primary breadwinner, Notwithstanding the success of her out a viable room is already filled with bodies and tailoring enterprise. How will all the small space between the fridge and it’s the remittances that she sends sewing business, Thuli is still in search with furniture, so it seems almost these tightly interlocking elements be and the wall. When it’s in place, Thuli to Thuli each month that sustain of the formal jobs she once had business. impossible that this overcrowded room reconfigured to accommodate a new can take down her machine from the the family. Her other children, also when she first arrived in Durban in - currently functioning as a living- spatial configuration? How will Thuli top of the fridge, remove it from its dependents, live in a room near Thuli’s 1996: working as a merchandiser for She brings room, a kitchen, a bedroom and a play- set up her sewing machine, which original packing, climb over the second ancestral home in Umbumbulu. It’s Checkers, Woolworths and Spar. She space - can now also be converted into currently has pride of place on top bed to plug it in, and get to work. But a home that Thuli fled because of an would even settle for some piecework, in R3000 a workspace. of the fridge, and how will she get there isn’t enough space for her to sit abusive uncle, who chased her and her like when she was employed as a One narrow leg of the L-shaped room to work on the blue overall that she properly behind the machine, so she mother away when Thuli fell pregnant cashier at KFC. But jobs like this a month, accommodates a kitchen counter needs to alter? has taught herself to sew sideways, while still at school. These children are are increasingly hard to find as the where Thuli’s mother, Khanyisile, is The first step involves extracting Thuli’s crouching on her low stool, and both male and too old to be allowed to formal economy contracts. So in altering preparing lunch. It is wedged alongside worktable from under Lindiwe’s bed. bending over her machine which is stay on at Thokoza where there’s a rule the meantime Thuli is getting by on the single bed that is occupied by It’s actually a glass-topped coffee table sitting on a table that is too close to prohibiting boys over 11 from living in some money from her daughter, some clothes at R20 Thuli’s cousin, Lindiwe, who is currently on elaborate chromed legs that would the floor. the hostel. Thuli worries about them money from her mother’s old age sleeping. Squashed into the other leg look more at home in an upmarket Notwithstanding this back-breaking constantly. Thuli explains that she pension, four child support grants, a shot - letting of the L is a metal wardrobe (standard living room. But its value here in arrangement, Thuli has managed to was once married, but it didn’t work and the money that she earns from out, taking in, issue in Thokoza) and another single Thokoza is that it’s low enough to fit carve out a viable business. She brings out: “He is doing nothing. I don’t know her sewing business. bed occupied by all three kids, two under a bed - albeit a bed perched on in R3000 a month, altering clothes where he is. I am alone.” Thuli’s hostel room is not quite home. shortening, at R20 a shot - letting out, taking in, Even though Thuli’s family is She would like to bring all her children shortening, lengthening and mending. stretched out over multiple places to Durban, especially her two older lengthening Narratives She’s very proud of her sewing she appreciates her accommodation sons in Umbumbulu, which for Thuli is machine, but particularly proud that it in the hostel. It is better than some a place of bad memories. She would and mending. took her just over a month to pay off of the other places where she stayed like to live in Musgrave or Davenport or Thuli the R3500 that she laid out for it when when she arrived in Durban in search ideally in the centre of Durban. “I need starting her business. of a job: squatting in an old building a house with all my heart”. 164 Ῐ Narratives: Thuli Narratives: Thuli Ῐ 165 Significantly not all the women in the no amenities for older children such as in relationships with men (Toyz) were hostel are living with their own children. homework rooms. Children are forced somewhat cynical about the prospects Some on the children are living with to play in the passages and courtyards for these relationships, and certainly did their grandmothers and some with their where they wreak havoc. These hard not feel that hostel life compromised aunts. This indicates that some mothers spaces have the effect of amplifying this relationship in any way. are expressly choosing for their children the noise that children inevitably to stay in Thokoza. This is probably due make. Since allowing children into the Beatrice, who thinks “it’s fine with no to the relatively good location of the hostel, access control has been relaxed, men (and) nice to live just with women” hostel with respect to schools or to compromising security in the hostel. worries that the new permissive regime public transport. This was articulated by Tsidi, a lesbian which now allows children will soon in the hostel who has no children. She be extended to men too. She claimed The ability to live with one’s family also complained that children ‘from the that some of the younger women were – and especially with one’s children - farm’ create a mess. already sneaking their boyfriends into seems to be an important constituent the hostel in order to sleep with them. of what defines ‘home’ for many of While there seems to be little consensus If this is the case, it contrasts sharply Thokoza’s residents. Even though Toyz on whether children should or shouldn’t with Gina Buijs’s findings from the mid- runs a lucrative business inside the be in the hostel, women consistently 1980s. Buijs found that women under hostel she says “home is where my expressed a view that it was good to thirty spent a major part of their leisure child is.” For Ntombizele, “home is to be living without men. Even those time with their boyfriends, and since be with family, close to the ancestors”. respondents who had boyfriends who they were not allowed to bring the men For Tsidi, Aliwal North only counts as were living elsewhere (Toyz, Fezeka, to their hostel rooms, they often slept home because some members of her Nozipho) did not bemoan the absence with them in nearby Indian hotels, the family still live there, even though she of men. Nokwanda said that it was fine boyfriend paying for the room. For these is equally at home in Durban, which is without men. For Octavia there was women, the hostel was only a place to where she works and where her partner another good reason for not wanting keep their possessions, and do cooking ABOVE: There are no suitable play lives, and in Johannesburg where she men in the hostel: “No-one can fight and laundry (2012, 164). See Table 6. spaces for the children has many friends and where she started over the men.” Thandi was the most LEFT: Thokoza 4 women only her working life. emphatic about not wanting men in the Although men are not permitted to hostel: “A place with no men is good. stay in the hostel, they are not entirely Not all the residents are enthusiastic Those who want men can move out.” absent. The current hostel supervisor about the idea of children in the hostel. Many women expressed cynical views is male, as are the security guards. They are seen as noisy and destructive. about the uselessness of men and their There are also men who use the hall There are also concerns that once unreliability. Not a single one of our for church services, meetings and children are permitted men will follow. respondents missed the presence of events. Men also wait in the lobby for The negative impact of children on men in any way. Most of the women we women residents to come downstairs the environment is a consequence of interviewed had either separated, were to meet them. Other than male the fact that they are not adequately estranged from, or had fled from their cleaners who venture onto the upper accommodated. There are no playing male partners and they didn’t miss them floors, men are generally confined to spaces other than the paved courtyards at all. Only Fezeka would ultimately like the ground level. “Thokoza,” to quote between the buildings. There are no move in with her boyfriend, but only Buijs, “(is) in effect, a female world…” green spaces, no play equipment and after marriage. Even women who were (2012, 168)

166 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 167 Due to the breakdown in security and - most of our respondents expressed a mentioned infrastructure are access control, there are some young desire for family units including Thuli, mentioned, although often with men who are currently residing in the Thembeka, Beatrice, Bongi, Monica, acknowledgement that this is largely hostel. This is a source of concern, as Ntombizele, Nozipho, Zanele, Veliswa, due to overcrowding, and in particular was communicated emphatically at the Toyz, Octavia and Thembi. Interestingly to the presence of so many children. focus group session which concluded many of these women could be defined our fieldwork; and acknowledged as single in that they were widowed Nokwanda in her questionnaire reluctantly by the hostel supervisor (Beatrice, Sylvia, Zanele) or estranged interview, lists “safety, inside toilet, during his interview. from their family (Sylvia) or whose and laundry space” as good, but goes grown children had established homes on to complain that in Thokoza 2 there The women-dominated character of the elsewhere (Zanele, Beatrice), but is no space to cook so she relies on hostel is highly valued by the residents nevertheless were awaiting the family take-aways, and “no ironing board and is seen as contributing to the units that they had been promised. even!” Fezeka, also at Thokoza 2, says safety of the hostel. It is particularly This desire for family units was most “the showers and toilets are nice” important for lesbians who must often frequently articulated by single (the ablution block was newly built endure persecution in predominantly women who had children, suggesting when Thokoza 2 was established), but heterosexual environments. But that the notion of ‘family’ may be a “the dormitory floods in heavy rain”. lesbians are not universally accepted in woman-headed household and the (Questionnaire) Thokoza. While some women professed absence of men. to tolerant ‘live-and-let-live’ approach, Cleaning of the common areas is done others were disparaging. Thandi 8.9 AMENITY | RULES by the municipality, and the residents said that lesbians made her “vomit”; are only responsible for cleaning their Busisizwe said that lesbians should Amenity vs. rules is not necessarily a own rooms. It is a significant advantage have their own floor; Beatrice isn’t “keen straight forward position when reflecting that Thokoza hostel offers, in that on lesbians”; and Bongi was concerned on the conditions that make Thokoza the domestic burden of traditional that if children witnessed lesbians in ‘home’ or not. As with everything else, ‘women’s work’, is reduced. Women the hostel they would be “seeing and it’s complicated. in the hostel do not have to spend learning things.” time collecting water or fuel which When asked to name what is good they would be expected to do in a Toyz said “it is comfortable and safe about Thokoza, invariably respondents rural or informal setting. This leaves living with no men, you can do what you mention at least some of the many more time for a wide range of other want, you can walk about naked, and services that are provided in the hostel, activities – making a living, spending people would be fighting for men”. For namely: (good) electricity , (inside) time with children, studying, and Malindi too, “it is better without men - toilets, water, (hot) showers, stoves, socializing with friends. Although the there is no jealousy”. Nokwanda stated lockers, security, laundry facilities , and residents complain that cleaning could “It is best without men. They make too although no-one stated the obvious - be better, is not frequent enough, and much noise.” (Questionaires) beds, and a (relatively) well-maintained that children mess up the bathrooms TOP LEFT: The substantial laundry on the top floor of Block B building. (Questionnaires) soon after they have been cleaned, the BOTTOM LEFT: Free electricity being put to good commercial use Notwithstanding the differing attitudes cleaning service is appreciated. TOP RIGHT: Hot water is a much appreciated amenity although to children in the hostel – or what might When asked what needs improvement, many geysers are out of order constitute a family in the 21st Century the shortcomings of the above- Inadequate cooking space is a common BOTTOM RIGHT: Laundry sinks

168 Chapter 8 Ῐ Chapter 8 Ῐ 169 complaint, and very few residents use have take-aways at all” She only cooks no stoves any more, and lockers are the communal kitchens, except for for herself, steams veggies, sometimes damaged” …. “If health inspectors come roasting peanuts for sale. The Thokoza with meat, and has no starch. “I need it will be bad” she adds. Apparently, residents prefer to cook in their rooms, to lose weight”. Thando, who lives with there was an uproar when the laundry and some have prioritised space for family, says they cook and eat together drying area on the roof was out of small kitchen cupboards in their rooms, every day. Fezeka says she cooks about bounds due to maintenance. Space to although this is not always possible. twice a week. She has her own stove dry laundry is an ongoing struggle . and has a fridge which she shares with In many instances, the bed plays the a friend in her room. She says she Security is contradictory issue. The role of kitchen counter when it’s time doesn’t eat much. Ntombizele says she safety of Thokoza is seen by our to cook, echoing Ramphele : “Physical cooks twice a week, in her room, and respondents as a very important space should be co-ordinated with shares with her daughter. She has a amenity, however the very time. For example in any dwelling, fridge. (Questionaires) sophisticated access control system different social activities are associated is not operational due to the current with particular parts of rooms, such as The supervisor says that the stoves impasse over children in the hostel. eating-living space on the one hand provided in the kitchens are large flat Security guards at the entrance offer and sleeping space on the other. In plates that can accommodate many a semblance of control and are a situations where the same space is pots at once, but have proven ideal for deterrent, but in reality, anyone used for different purposes, time-space peanut roasting, and sometime run all may enter . At the focus group with co-ordinates are used to define what night, at huge (unrecoverable) cost to our participants, there was much activities are appropriate or can be the Municipality for the electricity. This discussion about this. anticipated in a particular setting. The abuse of the facilities is problematic delineation of physical space gives enough that as these stoves eventually F - Gates – are they helpful? and is given meaning by the pattern of break, they are not being replaced. social relations. “(1993,4) The electricity consumption of literally P – Gates are a sign of apartheid – hundreds of “two- plates” must also we don’t see how they are useful Most women only cook two or three be significant. for – they don’t even work. Spent a times a week due to the inconvenience, lot of the money. They don’t help storing left-overs for the following The inadequacy of the cooking with security days if they have access to a fridge , or arrangements is also reflected in what eating takeaways in-between. our participants most like to bring P – They are not helpful. People are back to Thokoza with them after a visit able to come in as they please. Beatrice says she cooks every second home: home cooked (roasted) chicken, day, in her room, and keeps food in the and/or home-baked bread (see table 3) P – Spaces are small – leave the doors fridge. She only cooks for herself. Tsidi open – sometimes you see a man cooks about 3 times a week, for that Nozipho appreciates all the amenities standing there stealing. Not safe. day, and on other days eats out or gets of Thokoza but is frustrated that TOP LEFT: the foyer is desperately in need of upgrading and is the only place to receive takeaways. She is happy to share meals maintenance is poor “the Municipality F – Gates – does not make it like visitors other than in the bedrooms with the other people in her room. ignores it if a problem is reported”. a fear? TOP RIGHT: The large flat plate communal stoves are mainly used for roasting peanuts She says “there is no hot water on my BOTTOM LEFT AND RIGHT: The sophisticated bio-metric security system is not Toyz says “I cook usually and do not floor, the foyer looks bad , there are P – Gates wasted money – these operational at present 170 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 171 are useless. those in tertiary. night making it difficult to sleep. The Journey Maps that were there is evidence in our findings The most difficult Octavia would like the old ‘lights produced in a facilitated session that this does happen, however F – Would be happy if gates are P – They are the babies, especially out’ at 10pm rule to be reintroduced. with Gcina Hlope as part of Angela it would be impossible to please form of control working infants. Noise is frequently mentioned as one Buckland’s 2011 photography project everyone. Tsidi’s story testifies to of the most difficult things to live at Thokoza, bear this out. Note that how this both works and doesn’t imposed by the P – Yes, this will be good. It will limit F – What about when they grow up? with. most of the participants in that work. Her roommate had asked to the number of people who have access process were ‘gogos’. move away from lesbians in her Thokoza ‘institution’ to the place. That’s good – now we P – No, when they grow up they need P - Churches, the noise. previous room and is now sharing are overcrowded. The management to be sent somewhere else. All of the journey maps and the with a couple again – Tsidi and her is the way that beds would know how many – when there P – We don’t say much – we are used translated text are attached as partner. Tsidi’s actual room-mates is fire – wouldn’t know how many they (Notes from the Focus Group session) to it. But people who work night shift Appendix 1 . frequently party, drink and make are allocated. This are. Management does not know the but it’s church what can you say. a mess in the room, so she mainly number of people. P = participant F = facilitator At some point in the late 1990s uses her room for storage. means that people P – They don’t complain. It starts at or early 2000s, the management P – This makes me very angry. Housing around 2000 occupants, 10h00 then stops at 10h00 is the time structure did change, and the matron The supervisor tries to be sensitive have little control Thokoza needs some rules to achieve for quiet. Even if you walk you were was replaced by a supervisor. The to different needs when allocating (Notes from the Focus Group session) even moderate functionality. Since the asked to be quiet but now people can current supervisor’s title is ‘Senior beds that become available, and over who their most fundamental ‘contract’ between do whatever they want. Administrative Officer’ which gives in the absence of a committee P = participant F = facilitator residents and management is that rent a strong indication of the shift in has been relying on the ‘on the room-mates are. will be paid for the right to occupy, it P – Church songs – difficult to mandate, however most residents ground intelligence’ of his staff Security straddles our binary - is clearly difficult to enforce any rules complain – it’s the way they worship. still refer to him as the supervisor. ‘team leader’, who he says is like an Cultural and language perceived as an amenity by some, and at all, and for many, total freedom “induna”, to advise him. an unacceptable control by others would be their preferred state. P – They need to keep it down. We are The most difficult form of control differences, tension e.g. those with boy children staying not in church. When you work shifts imposed by the Thokoza ‘institution’ Since October, for the first time in with them. Thuli has her girl children The majority of the respondents in you can’t rest well. This affects us but is the way that beds are allocated. the current ‘supervisor’s’ tenure, between older and living with her, but her boys live at our study however, would appreciate also it ends soon. This means that people have little there is a functioning committee, the ‘home’ that she fled. The presence a little more control than there is control over who their room- comprising elected residents from younger residents, of older boys, especially young adult at present, some referring to a time (Notes from the Focus Group session) mates are. Cultural and language each floor. (Supervisor interview). male children, is the source of major “before” when “things were better differences, tension between older and not wanting to tension, and even fear. because the rules were stricter” (Tsidi P = participant F = facilitator and younger residents, and not Possibly in response to things – before children were allowed; Sylvia wanting to share with lesbians seem obviously starting to deteriorate share with lesbians P – (Malindi) These boys are horny. “was good in the olden days – things Most women ascribe the change to to be the most common issues, but (reported widely in our interviews), have changed”; Toyz “it was better allowing children in, but in Toyz’s we were also told of women fighting, there appears to be a swing seem to be the most P – We need to look at this very before”. opinion, it’s to do with management and even stabbing each other. towards more rules and stronger carefully. Gender violence. Had a changing. There is definitely nostalgia (Nozipho S’s questionnaire). Pheteni, management. common issues seminar. One women’s daughter was (Questionnaires) among the older women for a time in her questionnaire says she is raped once. Left the daughter alone. long ago when Mrs Nicholson was afraid of being poisoned. The pendulum swings. There is resentment that “some do the ‘matron’, however it is likely that They make the place unsafe. not even pay rent” (Toyz in depth many of the younger residents would It is possible to lodge a request to interview), and that drunken partying not take kindly to a matronly eye move to a different room if there is F – But you demand for children - not and noise continues long into the over them. conflict (Supervisor interview), and

172 Ῐ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Ῐ 173 9. Chapter 9 CONCLUSION “Maybe the RDP houses only went to people who are well connected.”

okuthula is understandably for those houses. They said that there RDP, I would sleep there, but there Thokoza Hostel fulfils many roles in the supportive environment and functions All women in the hostel have had lives of its inhabitants, and in many as a home in the institutional sense. to learn to live with strangers in a cynical about government is no space in the city for RDP houses. are people who have been given respects offers attributes of home. It It plays this role in a context where variety of circumstances that enforce promises. She never got But our councillor talks to other RDP houses who are still here. For fulfils the basic need of shelter, but specialised facilities for the elderly unwanted intimacy – from having compensation from the councillors in different areas and asks example, there is a woman who has more significantly it is a launch-pad for and disabled, along with student to share a bed with a stranger to Road Accident Fund when she was for RDP houses to be allocated to us… an RDP and she is renting it out independent women intent on carving residences are in short supply. have to share communal ablutions. N out a life for themselves. Thokoza also provides a supportive Although there appeared to be no injured in a car crash, and she’s yet in Welbedacht, next to Chatsworth, while she continues to rent here at environment for lesbians who might stigma associated with hostel life, to receive the RDP house or family and Moriya, closer to Veralum.” Thokoza… That woman is actually THE BENEFITS otherwise face discrimination and women did not want to be publicly accommodation promised by the “We were also advised to register for really doing well. One of her sons gender-based violence in township associated with messiness. Although local councillor. family units by a councillor called works for the electricity [department]. Amongst the many the many environments. In addition, it provides we encountered some women who advantages that Thokoza offers is its a refuge for women fleeing domestic cited jealousy, petty theft, and in some But Nokuthula has received other Themba Chonco. But we have not seen One is a professional nurse at the location, providing women access abuse or political violence, and a instances more serious interpersonal government services that have proved anything. He was here for five years. hospital. They live in their own to accommodation close to urban place for women who have chosen crimes, most women had devised ways essential to her survival: the disability Maybe the RDP houses only went houses. Even at Mtubatuba, in the amenities including public transport, to live away from needy dependents to live in relative harmony amongst education, health facilities, and jobs who make excessive demands on their themselves. We were conscious of grant that gets each month because to people who are well connected rural areas, she has a house. She is particularly in the informal sector. resources. The women that we spoke women constantly having to make her accident, and the single room that [omtakabani]. Also, they said the somebody who really does not have a Accommodation in Thokoza is also to affirmed these advantages, and compromises and adjust their she occupies in Thokoza. Both provide municipality was going to buy us an problem. I don’t know why they gave highly valued because it is cheap (and were largely appreciative of Thokoza behaviour in order to live under a measure of support: a little bit of old building in town, renovate it and her a house. This means that they do in many instances free) and offers as an environment where women conditions of extreme overcrowding, a better alternative to equivalent could exercise a high degree of agency enforced intimacy, and an absence of money and a relatively good place turn it into family units. Thokoza not do checks on a person before low-cost accommodation. This and independence. private space. Women raised these from which to conduct her beadwork would also be renovated and some they give them an RDP house. Maybe gives the women an opportunity to issues frequently, pointing to the need business. And according to Nokuthula, people would remain here. Those they just liked her and they gave it accumulate savings which are often THE SACRIFICES for a high degree of acquiescence Thokoza is better than Ndwedwe, are the kinds of things they tell us in to her…” used as remittances to support family that is required to survive under members elsewhere. Hostel-living However, in order to live in Thokoza, these difficult living conditions. This her ancestral home: “I could not go community meetings, but they have Sadly Nokuthula lacks the kind of offers women a higher level of safety residents are also compelled to make raises important questions about back to the rural areas to live there not happened.” contacts that will take her to the than other accommodation options enormous sacrifices. For many years, the psychological and social impacts because our yard is really bad and What particularly irks Nokuthula is top of the application list, so she such as informal settlements, squatting when the rules forbade children in that might arise when people have to in badly managed inner-city flats, the hostel, women were forced to reduce their dreams to fit into such I could not walk on crutches there. the unfair allocation of RDP houses: continues to stay in Thokoza. or sleeping rough. The maintenance abandon their children, although policy small spaces. (Ramphele, 1993). Even when I [put away] the crutches, “Personally, if they gave me an Source for base data: Oral Histories. services provided by municipality such has recently changed to allow some it was difficult for me to walk around. as the cleaning of bathrooms and the children in, under certain conditions. CRISIS OF OVERCROWDING So I continued living here at Thokoza.” sweeping of corridors, frees women In some instances women have had from some domestic responsibilities. to leave their husbands/boyfriends, The collective agency displayed by But ideally, Nokuthula would like a forgoing intimate relationships – residents in avoiding evictions even home of her own. “Here at Thokoza Narratives For particular groups of women, although none of the women we if not paying rent, and achieving the you sometimes hear that people were including aged and disabled women interviewed explicitly mentioned this is right to have their children with them, given RDP houses. You find that you Nokuthula and students, Thokoza provides a a problem. has a flip side which manifests as do not know how people are selected 176 Ῐ Chapter 9 Narratives: Nokuthula Ῐ 177 overcrowding, severely compromised (peripheral) ‘slum clearance’ and RDP/ between personal and common space. privacy and comfort, strained services BNG projects for the last decades, This will require a more creative and reduced security. Our overall although attention is shifting to the built-form, including a spectrum of sense, based on observation over a inner city and other urban centres spatial configurations that address the period of 18 months compared with in the Metro. The recently completed actual needs and desires of women the situation in 2011, is that the hostel Local Area Plan for the Inner City who want or need to live in the city, in seems to be on the brink of ‘tipping’ is largely driven by the proposal to whatever unique household formation into a situation where the benefits of increase the inner-city population from is part of their survival strategy. This the hostel are so eroded that the trade- approximately 70 000 currently, to up would be preferable to a formulaic offs (acquiescence) that residents are to 450 000 within the next 20-30 years. roll-out of anything the CRU policy making to live there become untenable. Facilities such as Thokoza must be an unimaginatively envisages and may Given that the situation arises out important component of any inner- finally transcend the old hetero- of huge pressure and need for the city housing strategy, but the planned normative view that Thokoza so niche housing option provided only time-frames for that quantum of perfectly critiques. by this hostel, it may be possible that development seem optimistic. residents will deploy their independent AN AFFORDABLE AND SAFE spirit and agency towards finding more It would be a positive step if residents OPTION creative solutions to the dilemma. start to self-regulate numbers, realising Currently, the route seems to be to that the gains around admission of In a context of extremely limited increase pressure on the municipality children start to be a pyrrhic victory choice, Thokoza women’s hostel to deliver on their promises of once the carrying capacity of the hostel provides one of the best options for upgrading and family units. Thokoza is is exceeded. A participatory approach those who have managed to secure a highly politicised environment and it to upgrading and management, where space there. It is an affordable, is possible that if the situation in the residents are treated as real partner convenient, and relatively safe place to hostel continues to deteriorate, it may stakeholders, would be the best live, but only addresses some aspects indeed elicit a faster response. way forward, not only because it is that we associate with home. politically correct and best practice, but FUTURE PLANS because it is pragmatic.

Construction of a new facility, intended It is unfortunate that the current as an extension of Thokoza, is said rhetoric (and stand-off) around the to be imminent, but will only offer 64 promise of family units dominates rooms/beds (according to anecdotal the current discourse. It is misleading evidence), so is not at a scale that and limiting. Our observations in the would really offer relief. Unfortunately, hostel reveal that there are few - if Human Settlements budgets are any – ‘families’ that fulfil an imagined inadequate in the face of massive heteronormative ideal. What the backlogs. eThekwini Municipality’s women of Thokoza want is more space, housing priorities have been on more privacy and clearer definition

178 Ῐ Chapter 9 References

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(2005) Review of Glen Ramphele’s “A Bed Called Home - Life Natal Press RESEARCH REPORT 2015 2 %283%29 final5 %28002%29.pdf Profit in the American City : Penguin Elder’s Hostels, Sexuality and in the Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Books the Apartheid Legacy: Malevolent Town”. Journal of Southern African Geographies. Africa Today, Vol. 51, No. Studies, Vol. 20, No. 2 (June, 1994), pp. Elder, G.S. (2003) Hostels, Sexuality and the 3, Youth and Citizenship in East Africa 341-343. Published by Taylor & Francis, Apartheid Legacy: Malevolent Geographies. (Spring, 2005), pp. 130-132. Published by: Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/ Athens: Ohio University Press. Indiana University Press stable/2637403 Appendix 1: JOURNEY MAPS (2011)

1. zz In 1990, competition to decide new zz Don’t pay a lot for transport 5. 7. 11. zz House burnt down name organised by Miss Nicholson. zz But far from their families THE THING THAT MADE ME UNHAPPY NOT WANTING GOGOS IN THE IT IS GOOD HERE. NOT ENTIRELY zz Only child dies “Thokoza” happened but now we zz Space is too small – 1973 – CHEST PROBLEMS, HIGH HOSTEL SATISFIED. I AM OLD NOW zz Couldn’t finish school – no money have gone back to being unhappy BLOOD [PRESSURE], LEG INJURY zz She likes to be near the health care zz The place discriminates against old for fees zz Things were much better with people zz Hostel noisy to the point that it’s SELECTED POSTERS 4. zz Mother/Matron Nicholson. zz Near everything she needs – banks, unbearable  No. 2 Ngcobo zz From Eastern Cape Christmas party. But now things shopping, beach (?) zz Wants a house of her own like an  No. 3 zz When she arrived she lived near are bad 8. zz Good to live in the city RDP – but she can also contribute No. 4 Nothemba taxi rank, new women selling herbs zz At 2000 when things got bad people zz Liked the old matron (??) zz Worse day – missing my daughter to her house  No. 5 Zodwa Dludlu Ngwane (??) lost respect for each other zz Bad in the rooms zz (Drawing of the city, factory home, No. 6 Tholakele Mthembu zz She heard about Thokoza but she zz Hostel wasn’t maintained zz We want family units house) No. 7 needed to find work/money (??) zz 1965 she left home to work as zz Went to school until standard 3 2.  No. 11 before she could live there domestic worker in Rossburgh zz Selling paraffin in Grey Street 12. UMVOTI RIVER (SEPTEMBER 1939) No. 12 zz Found work in Berea zz Her employer applied for her to zz Pregnant at 14 zz Mapumulo zz When she returned home the first stay at the hostel zz Stay with my children zz Parents died time her brother chased her and zz Didn’t have a home – so lived with her kids away. She had nowhere to 9. other people (they were still 3. take her kids zz Arrived 1980. Things were good kids at the time). These people THOKOZILE ZACA zz Eventually stayed at Thokoza as a 6. zz Now things are not good 13. were unemployed zz Born at Impendle causal until she got a room STAYING IN THOKOZA IS GOOD zz Can’t get children to visit – own I LOST 3 THREE CHILDREN, MY zz Sick with high blood-pressure zz Farmer in Durban. He came to zz Kids stayed with her brother FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE WORKING, place HUSBAND AND MY WORK. THEY zz Moved into hostel --- hostel took Durban to visit zz She kept sending things to her kids. ESPECIALLY AS TRADERS. BUT NOT zz Paying rent but don’t have stoves CHASE US AS I’M OLDER BECAUSE OF old people/people waiting to give zz Came to Durban – wanted to find This makes her feel bad – she wants GOOD FOR ME BECAUSE THERE IS NO PLACE TO GO (?) birth work, worked for offspring of the a place where she can live with her NO PLACE FOR MY CHILDREN zz First slept outside white family where my dad worked children zz Her child was singled out to leave zz No electricity? Firewood and a pot employed me zz She wants a place of her own near zz Arrived in Durban in 1969 10. to cook zz Had a child in 1968 her ancestral home zz Worked at Parkland Hospital MY THREE CHILDREN DIED WHEN I 14. zz Electricity shut down at 10pm zz She wants a place of her own zz Doesn’t want to stay at Thokoza zz Maternity ward in 1970 WAS LIVING HERE. I WANT MY OWN DRAWING OF PEOPLE IN BEDS/ON zz Curfew at 10pm and electricity off zz Worked in a factory (1984 to 2008 anymore zz Stayed in Thokoza in 1975 HOUSE. GOVERNMENT CAN HELP. THE FLOOR at 10pm zz Rented in Umlazi zz Her daughter who she left behind zz Lost the work at the hospital in 1998 zz Packed in the rooms like sardines zz Induna (chief) Matron (?) zz “Man-about-town?? Factory” was soon pregnant and had 4 zz Too old – love to go stay with zz Wanted kitchen that works children my children zz Wanted hot water zz Son was mentally unstable zz Own place with garden, big enough zz Wanted intercom system zz Youngest child unemployed for me zz Need stoves Appendix 1: JOURNEY MAPS (2011) Appendix 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FORM

Try to get a sense of how many Try to get a sense of how many people would really be in people would really be in difficulty if they did not receive difficulty if they did not receive money? money?

23 How far/how long are you happy to walk before you decide to pay for transport? Women may answer this 23 How far/how long are you happy to walk before you decide to pay for transport? Women may answer this 40 What is good about Thokoza – 3 top things? question by referencing a place, question by referencing a place, We are looking for issues like or length of time. It talks to the or length of time. It talks to the safety, family, independence importance of the location of importance of the location of etc. but do not want to prompt the hostel the hostel specific responses 24 Do you use your room as a workspace, and if yes, how? 24 Do you use your room as a workspace, and if yes, how? 41 What do you like least about Thokoza - 3 worst things e.g beadwork, spaza, hair e.g beadwork, spaza, hair dresser, roasting peanuts etc. dresser, roasting peanuts etc.

Is the hostel your only home ? 25 Is the hostel your only home ? 25 42 What social/religious/other groups or associations do you belong to, and where do you meet?

26 do you see the hostel as a temporary or long term home? Under what circumstances would you move? Probe for some detail here 26 do you see the hostel as a temporary or long term home? Under what circumstances would you move? Probe for some detail here 43 Does belonging to such a group make you feel more at home in the city?

27 Do you visit your family/ancestral home? 27 Do you visit your family/ancestral home? 44 Who would you ask for help in a crisis, or for a loan? e.g friend, someone from home, social/religious group?

28 How often do you visit, and for what types of events/occasions? 28 How often do you visit, and for what types of events/occasions? 45 Are most of your friends in Thokoza? If not where do they live?

29 Where do you feel most at home? 29 Where do you feel most at home? 46 Are most of your friends from the same ‘home’ place as you?

Where do you access medical care? 30 Can you name 2-3 things that make a place feel like home? 30 Can you name 2-3 things that make a place feel like home? 47

48 Do you collect any form of social grant? 31 Can you name 2-3 things that make the hostel NOT like a home? 31 Can you name 2-3 things that make the hostel NOT like a home?

49 Where do you collect your social grant if you get one?

32 Did you bring anything special with you when you came to the city to remind you of home? 32 Did you bring anything special with you when you came to the city to remind you of home?

50 Where do you shop for food and toiletries?

33 What is it? 33 What is it?

Do you cook most of your meals or purchase ready to eat food? If you cook, how often, and where in the hostel do you 51 cook? 34 Do you still have it? 34 Do you still have it?

35 What do you take from the city to your ancestral home when you visit? 35 What do you take from the city to your ancestral home when you visit? 52 Do you share meal preparation with anyone else in the hostel? If yes, who? probe if you can to see the extent to which the cooking arrangements affect the perception of the hostel as home What do you brinbg back to the hostel with you when you return? 36 What do you brinbg back to the hostel with you when you return? 36 53 Do you share food, and/or eat together with anyone else in the hostel? If yes, who?

37 Where do you think you would you live if there were no hostels? 37 Where do you think you would you live if there were no hostels? 54 If you could do one thing to improve Thokoza as a place to live, what would it be? This may be difficult to answer? This may be difficult to answer? Probe and give this time. Probe and give this time.

38 How does it feel living in a place without men? 38 How does it feel living in a place without men? Ask about both good and bad Ask about both good and bad things. things.

39 How do you feel about lesbians in the hostel? 39 How do you feel about lesbians in the hostel?