This paper demonstrates that the search for mono-causal explanations of violence in South Africa is fruitless. The convenient terms in which the violence has been labelled, by politicians and the commercial media, often does more to disguise complex causation than it does to explain it.
This paper draws on interviews held in October and November 1991 with 34 residents of Alexandra and 18 key informants associated with defence, policing, health and welfare, education and the administration of the township. The paper attempts to profile how violent crime has impacted upon the lives of people living in an area of Alexandra, Gauteng. The research locates the broader questions about the nature, extent, impact and control of violent crime within the narrow context of a small, community-based study focusing on the respondents' perceptions of, and reactions to violent crime.
This paper considers some of the psychological factors leading up to strikes and explores some of the psychological variables which contribute to collective violence and the killing of non-strikers in particular.
This paper, which contains excerpts from interviews with hostel dwellers, seeks to unveil some of the reasons behind their participation, and so presents the 'human face of violence.' It attempts to contextualise direct questions about the violence within, first, the broader historical conditions that have characterised the hostel community and, second, the broader political processes that have had an impact on the lives of hostel dwellers.