Struggle for urban citizenship in South Africa

294 Pages·2016·4 MB·English

Struggle for urban citizenship in South Africa: Agency and
politics in the Enkanini upgrading project, Stellenbosch
Scelo Zibagwe
Dissertation presented for the degree of Doctor of Social Anthropology in the
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University
Supervisor: Prof C.S. van der Waal
December 2016
Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za
Declaration
By submitting this dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work
contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to
the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by
Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not
previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification.
December 2016
Copyright © 2016 University of Stellenbosch
All rights reserved
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Abstract
As the world becomes increasingly urban and urban conditions carry promises of a
better life, significant categories of urban residents inhabit urban centres in cumulative
insurgent processes of gaining a foothold in the governance contexts that are
experienced as being indifferent to their living conditions. Through utilising an
ethnographic immersion into Enkanini informal settlement (Kayamandi, Stellenbosch)
and analysing the resultant qualitative data, the study identifies, describes, interprets
and explains the mobilisation of shack dwellers to access the axes of urban
citizenship: land and services. The core argument of this study is that, despite the
constraints put on Enkanini residents by the municipality and by those best described
as ‘former patrons’ to achieve their goals, the residents did make some gains –
particularly by establishing a sense of their urban citizenship for themselves and by
engaging autonomously in a struggle towards that end. An understanding of these
shack dwellers’ struggle for urban citizenship was gained from social and planning
processes that were observed in and around Enkanini settlement, including:
perceptions of improving lives, processes of articulating claims and engaging with the
municipality, and activities that portrayed patterns of engagement (meetings and
protests). In particular, the process of how Enkanini obtained its existing services and
residents’ pursuit of expanding them was closely studied. What emerged from the
story of Enkanini and is important in contributing to the understanding of urban
citizenship are the processes and discourses through which shack dwellers position
themselves as (un)worthy claimants of urban citizenship. In this dissertation, I present
contexts of exception and neglect that are contested by shack dwellers, initially
through clientelistic relations that are initially weakened, but later perceived to be
strong by the state. Patronage is positioned as a (de)mobilising element in the
genealogy of informal settlements within the context of the polarised electoral politics
of the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the African National Congress (ANC). Enkanini
residents’ recent demands are read by the DA-led municipal leadership as a mere
façade for ANC patronage and the politicisation of service delivery.
The study identifies and explains the current articulation of ‘improved life’ by Enkanini
residents who were haunted by historical legacies of neglect and the logics of
patronage that displaced their demands. The innovations in solar energy solutions for
shack settlements by Stellenbosch University are analysed with reference to the
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displacing processes that perpetuated the exclusion of shack settlements from service
provision. The solar energy initiatives were perceived by shack dwellers as a
dispossession of their upgrading discourse as well as a palliative response to their
envisioned improved lives that were woven around connection to the national
electricity grid. The study identifies a municipality perceived to be indifferent based on
how it responded to the demands of shack dwellers by positioning the latter as urban
outsiders whose settlement was seen as temporary, illegitimate or nonexistent. This
attitude is explained as being sustained by political attitudes that led to a discourse on
upgrading by the municipality that not only translated into maintenance of the
prevailing status quo of neglect but that also fostered abandonment. The study then
provides an analysis of shack dwellers’ engagement with the local state to counter and
disrupt processes of neglect by exposing perceived dishonesty of the local state,
visibilising their true conditions through self-survey, rebutting the political prejudices of
municipal leadership that viewed their mobilisation as a Trojan Horse of political rivals,
and articulating and asserting their own discourse on upgrading that was built upon
dignity.
In its analysis of these engagements with the local state, the study portrays the
practices and acts of Enkanini shack dwellers as those of citizens who have the right
to voice deficits in their substantive citizenship. Without falling into the trap of
romanticising the insurgent practices of shack dwellers, the study also presents the
influence of and reaction to local politicians who punished the emerging autonomous
mobilisation that bypassed them as brokers by endorsing the solar energy project in
ways that were experienced as divisive by Enkanini residents and that deflated their
mobilisation. The study site was unique in the sense that shack dwellers lacked the
presence of advocates and supporters such as nongovernmental organisations and
activists that have aided similar struggles elsewhere in the country.

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Opsomming
Aangesien die wêreld al meer verstedelik en omstandighede in stede beloftes van ’n
beter lewensgehalte inhou, leef ʼn beduidende sektor van die samelewing in stedelike
gebiede in toenemende indringingsprosesse om ʼn aandeel te kry in
regeringskontekste wat skynbaar onverskillig teenoor hulle lewensomstandighede
staan. Op grond van diepgaande etnografiese betrokkenheid in die Enkanini-
informele woonbuurt (Kayamandi, Stellenbosch) en ontleding van die kwalitatiewe
data wat dit opgelewer het, identifiseer, beskryf, vertolk en verduidelik dit hoe
plakkershutbewoners gemobiliseer is om toegang tot die dimensies van stedelike
burgerskap te kry: grond en dienste. Die hoofargument van hierdie studie is dat ten
spyte van die beperkings wat deur die munisipaliteit en ‘vroeëre beskermhere’ op die
bereiking van die doelwitte van die inwoners van Enkanini geplaas is, die inwoners tog
ʼn aantal suksesse aangeteken het – veral deur vir hulself ʼn bewussyn van stedelike
burgerskap te vestig en outonoom in die stryd vir daardie doel deel te neem. Insig in
plakkershutbewoners se stryd om stedelike burgerskap is verkry deur sosiale en
beplanningsprosesse in en rondom die Enkanini-woonbuurt waar te neem,
byvoorbeeld: persepsies van verbeterde lewensomstandighede, prosesse
waarvolgens eise verwoord en met die munisipaliteit gesprek gevoer word, en
bedrywighede wat patrone in gesprekvoering uitgewys het (vergaderings en
protesoptrede). Daar is in die besonder gelet op hoe Enkanini sy bestaande dienste
bekom het en hoe inwoners te werk gaan om dit uit te brei. Wat uit Enkanini se verhaal
na vore gekom het en vir ’n begrip van stedelike burgerskap belangrik is, is die
prosesse en gesprekke waardeur plakkershutbewoners hulleself as (on)waardige
aanspraakmakers op stedelike burgerskap posisioneer. Hierdie proefskrif hou
kontekste van uitsondering en verwaarlosing voor wat deur plakkershutbewoners
beveg word, aanvanklik deur kliëntistiese verhoudinge wat lateraan verswak, maar
wat die regering mettertyd reken sterk is. Begunstiging funksioneer as ’n
(de)mobiliserende element in die genealogie van informele woonbuurte binne die
konteks van die gepolariseerde verkiesingspolitiek wat die Demokratiese Alliansie
(DA) en die African National Congress (ANC) bedryf, waarvolgens die DA-beheerde
munisipaliteit die inwoners van Enkanini se onlangse eise sien as ’n blote fasade om
die ANC te begunstig en dienslewering te verpolitiseer.
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Die navorsing toon en verduidelik hoe ‘verbeterde lewensomstandighede’ tans
outonoom verwoord word deur die inwoners van Enkanini, wat belas is met historiese
nalatenskappe van verwaarlosing en die logika van patronaatskap wat hulle eise
verdring het. Die Universiteit Stellenbosch se vernuwende sonkragoplossings vir
plakkersbuurte is ontleed met verwysing na die verdringingsprosesse wat meebring
dat plakkersbuurte steeds van dienslewering uitgesluit is. Plakkershutbewoners
beskou die sonkrag-inisiatiewe as ’n onteiening van hulle opgraderingsdiskoers asook
’n tydelike susmiddel in reaksie op hulle vooruitsigte van verbeterde
lewensomstandighede, wat rondom die verbinding met die nasionale
elektrisiteitsnetwerk opgebou is. Die navorsing toon dat die munisipaliteit skynbaar
onverskillig staan – te oordeel na die manier waarop hulle plakkershutbewoners se
eise hanteer asof hierdie dorpsbewoners in die posisie is van buitestaanders in die
dorpslewe wat hulle tydelik of onregmatig kom vestig het of glad nie gevestig is nie.
Die verklaring vir hierdie ingesteldheid was dat dit deur politieke ingesteldhede gevoed
word, wat veroorsaak het dat gesprekke met die munisipaliteit oor opgradering nie
slegs daarop uitloop dat die huidige stand van sake gehandhaaf word nie, maar ook
verwerping in die hand werk. Vervolgens ontleed die navorsing hoe
plakkershutbewoners met die regering omgaan om prosesse van verwaarlosing teen
te werk en te ontwrig deur bloot te lê wat hulle as oneerlikheid by die plaaslike regering
beskou, hulle ware omstandighede voor te hou deur self opnames te doen, die
politieke vooroordele te weerlê van munisipale leiers wat hulle mobilisasie as ’n
Trojaanse perd van politieke teenstanders beskou, en hulle eie gesprek te voer wat
verwoord en benadruk dat opgradering op waardigheid gegrond moet wees.
Die navorsing sien die plakkershutbewoners van Enkanini se praktyke en optrede in
hierdie gesprekvoering met die plaaslike regering as burgers wat die reg het om
gebreke in hulle substantiewe burgerskap te verwoord. Sonder om in die slaggat te
beland wat die indringingsaktiwiteite van plakkershutbewoners verromantiseer, toon
die navorsing ook die invloed van en reaksie op plaaslike politici wat die opkomende
outonome mobilisasie wat hulle makelaarsposisie gesystap het, gepenaliseer het deur
die sonkragprojek te onderskryf op maniere wat die inwoners van Enkanini as
verdelend ervaar en hulle mobilisasie laat momentum verloor het. Die navorsingsplek
was uniek in die opsig dat plakkershutbewoners hulleself sonder die gewone
voorspraak en hulp in die vorm van nieregeringsorganisasies en aktiviste moes
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uitdruk, terwyl sodanige hulp in soortgelyke strydsituasies elders in die land wel
beskikbaar was.

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Acknowledgements

My acknowledgement goes to the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences for
the financial support for this doctoral study, as well as the Sustainability Institute and
the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology for additional funds and support.
I express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof C.S. van der Waal, for his
untiring and continuous guidance to me during this study, particularly in the
discontinuity from full time to part time. I also extend my appreciation to Prof Steven
Robins who introduced me to the Slum Dwellers International, Community
Organisation Resource Centre and Informal Settlement Network teams who
welcomed me to their collaborations with informal settlements in Cape Town and
Stellenbosch. The introduction to the Stellenbosch University Centre for
Transdisciplinarity, Sustainability, Assessment, Modelling and Analysis by Prof Van
der Waal and Prof Robins played an important role in my first knowledge of and
encounter with the Enkanini informal settlement through the Sustainability Institute. I
am greatly indebted to the Enkanini community who hosted me and opened their lives,
conversations and desires to my observations. All their calls, hints and invitations to
me concerning their engagements with Stellenbosch Municipality granted me
privileged access to the events and interactions that informed this study. Many thanks
also to Stellenbosch Municipality’s Informal Settlements Unit for its willingness to
assist me and its openness to my research.
During my study I have been motivated by my fellow students in the Graduate School
and the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology. Special thanks also go to
my colleagues at the University of Johannesburg’s Sociology, Anthropology and
Development Studies Wednesday Seminar and participants in the 13th Network-
Association of European Researchers on Urbanization in the South Conference whose
comments enriched my study. I am also grateful to Angela Udoh for her editorial input
into my dissertation.
I cannot forget the support of my mother, brothers and sisters whose prayers were
always offered for me. I thank my late dad, who departed during my study, and my
mom for their inspiration and investments in my life. Finally, I passionately thank my
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wife Thulani Zibagwe and my sons (Thabiso, Andile and Loyiso) for their support and
the ‘visas’ that they gave to me to be away from them.

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Dedications

This thesis is dedicated to the lovely Thulani, Thabiso, Andile and Loyiso; my
siblings; my mother; and the memory of my late father who passed away during the
writing stage of my study.

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