This paper seeks to analyse some of the dynamics which shape the character and intensity of violent behaviour in black schools, particularly in the years after February 1990. In order to examine this violence, this paper will attempt to revisit and re-examine the crisis in the township schools of the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vaal Triangle.
The year 1991 witnessed the continuation of trends in political violence which had been set in motion in the wake of the State President's speech in February of that preceding year. This paper argues that this violence occurred in the context of the deregulation of repressive forms of social control at precisely the time at which the process of political transition heralded an intensified political contest.
This paper looks at the effects of political and criminal violence on township children. It focuses on children as victims rather than perpetrators of violence, although the latter can also be said to be victims of violence.
This paper addresses the issue of violence against women and children in South African townships. It argues that the problems of domestic violence and the brutalisation of women and children cannot, except at very grave risk, be relegated to a structural problem within the environment of the homestead. It is intimately related to levels of violence in our society more generally – a society grappling with the legacy of apartheid and the fear-instilling process of socio-political transformation.
This paper examines the high incidence of rape in South Africa. The focus of the paper is on the phenomenon of gang rape, which in many ways crystallises the power issue which is at the nexus of rape.
Since the beginning of the negotiation process in South Africa, the civic movement has moved away from a culture of resistance towards one of development. This paper argues that development projects, even in coherent communities, can serve as a catalyst for a great deal of internal conflict. It also argues that the way forward is to recognise the conflictual nature of development, and to negotiate within the "community" on this basis.