Thèses sur le sujet « South African Zionist Federation »

The period 1954 to 1958 saw an unprecedented level of mobilisation and active political campaigning by women of all races in South Africa. These campaigns were split along lines of race and class, as evidenced in the demonstrations against the extension of pass laws to African women by the Federation of South African Women [FSAW] and the campaign against the Senate Bill by liberal white women of the Black Sash. What they had in common is that both groups of women organised their action into separate structures exclusive to women, with independent identities from the male-dominated structures of the Congress Alliance and of white party politics. This separate organisation from men was not carried out with an explicit feminist agenda or a developed awareness of women's oppression, however. Nevertheless, their existence constituted a challenge to the dominant patriarchal discourse that constructed women's role as domestic and exclusive to the private sphere. Newspaper representations of the two organisations by both their political allies and their political opponents, provide evidence of this dominant discourse on "women's place" and insight on the public perception of political activity by women at the time. Within the texts of FSAW and the Black Sash one finds tensions between accepted notions of women's primary role as wives and mothers, and an emerging self-conception of women as politically active in the public realm. To an extent, the self-representation of these texts mirrors the patriarchal representations of women found in the newspaper reports. However, there are also definite departures from the traditional formulations of womanhood that can be conceived of as "contestations" to the dominant discourse. The patriarchal discourse was, therefore, a discursive constraint, both external and internalised, on women's ability to become active and effective in South Africa politics in the 1950s. Paradoxically, through the practical process of women's mobilisation in FSAW and the Black Sash, new space was opened on the political terrain that allowed for the alteration of the dominent discourse on women's place in society, as well as for the emergence of contestatory feminist discourses in South Africa.

The study is about a Zulu male vocal tradition called isicathamiya performed by 'migrants' in all night competitions called ingomabusuku. This is a performance style popularized by the award winning group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Isicathamiya, both in its symbolic structure and in the social and culturalpractice of its proponents has much in common with the ritual practices of Zionists. And Zionists are worshippers who integrate traditional beliefs and Christianity. This study will reveal that isicathamiya performance and Zionists are linked in three major areas:in the sqcial bases and practice of its proponents, in the structural properties of their performances and tn the meanings attached to these practices. Firstly, Zionists, who are also called a Separatist or African Independent church, and isicathamiya performers have minimal education and are employed in low income jobs in the cities. Most groups are formed with 'homeboy networks'. Furthermore, performers, unlike their brothers in the city, cling tenaciously to usiko [custom and tradition]. Although they are Christians, they still worship Umvelinqangi [The One Who Came First], by giving oblations and other forms of offerings. Amadlozi [the ancestors] are still believed to be their mediators with God. Also commonplace in this category is the practice of ukuchatha, [cleansing the stomach with some prepared medicine]; and ukuphalaza [taking out bile by spewing, which is also done as a way of warding off evil spirits]. These are rural practices that have meaning in their present domiciles. The second area of similarity consists in the structure of the nocturnal gatherings that form the core of the ritual and performance practices among isicathamiya singers and Zionists. Thus, a core of the ritual of Zionists is umlindelo [night vigil] which takes place every weekend from about 8 at night until the following day. Likewise, isicathamiya performers have competitions every Saturday evening from 8 at night until about 11 am the following day. Although Zionists night vigils are liturgical and isicathamiya competitions secular, the structures of both isicathamiya choreography and Zionists body movements appear the same. These movements are both rooted in a variety of traditional styles called ingoma. Thirdly, the meanings attached to these symbolic correspondences must be looked for in the selective appropriation of practices and beliefs taken to be traditional. Using present day commentaries in song and movement, ingoma and other rural styles performed in competitions and Zionists night vigils reflect a reconstruction of the past. Isicathamiya performers and Zionists see themselves as custodians of Zulu tradition, keeping Zulu ethnicity alive in the urban environment. This is why in this study we are going to see rural styles like ingoma, isifekezeli [war drills], ukusina [solo dancing] that were performed on the fields, now performed, sort of feigned and 'held in' as they are p~rformed in dance halls with wooden stages.

The study outlines five areas of intervention in the development of women&rsquo
s studies and politics on the continent. Firstly, it examines the problematic construction and the inclusion of women in the narratives of the liberation struggle in South Africa. Secondly, the study identifies the sphere of intellectual debates as one of the crucial sites in the production of historical knowledge about the legacies of liberation struggles on the continent. Thirdly, it traces the intellectual trajectory of Charlotte Maxeke as an embodiment of the intellectual contributions of women in the struggle for liberation in South Africa. In this regard, the study traces Charlotte Maxeke as she deliberated and engaged on matters pertaining to the welfare of the Africans alongside the prominent intellectuals of the twentieth century. Fourthly, the study inaugurates a theoretical departure from the documentary trends that define contemporary studies on women and liberation movements on the continent. Fifthly, the study examines the incorporation of Maxeke&rsquo
s legacy of active intellectual engagement as an integral part of gender politics in the activities of the Women&rsquo
s Section of the African National Congress. In the areas identified, the study engages with the significance of the intellectual inputs of Charlotte Maxeke in South African history.

M.A.
The study purports to trace and analyse how African women used local structures in the 1950's and 1960's to seek redress against the policies of racial segregation. This study intends showing how African women have piloted local organisations during the period under review, how they resisted all attempts by the local municipal council to have women removed from the location and how women rejected the authority of the local boards. Protest movements and organisations, and the type of political activity women engaged in before the 1950's, have been largely ignored by the few writers who have considered the matter at all. This has resulted in the assumption that there were no women's activities prior to 1950. C. Kros wrote: "...(that) there is a general assumption that until the 1950's women were passive and took a back seat in all spheres except forone or two outbursts of activity, like for instance the resistance against the passes in the Free State in 1913." 3 The study purports to dispel the myth that African women were inactive prior to 1950: This study shows that the emergence of the squatter settlement in the late 1940's was spearheaded by African women who had nowhere to settle, except by pitching up shacks. By early 1940 urban workers found it increasingly difficult to obtain suitably priced residential accommodation as no new houses were built. The study will analyse how Sofasonke Mpanza, a member of the Orlando Advisory Board and the leader of the Sofasonke Mpanza Party, was able to win adherents to his party, the majority of whom were women and why African women in Orlando defied the Municipal Council's regulations and pitched up "shelters" which came to be known as the "Shanty Town".

This study encompasses an anthropological investigation of healing practices in the Zion Christian Church with reference to the Marabastad congregation in Pretoria (Tshwane), South Africa. The Zion Christian Church functions as an extremely successful healing ministry, and can thus be characterised as a spirit-type African Initiated Church, a type known to attract members through healing activities. The concepts of ill-health, health, healing and curing are crucial to understanding the church’s role, as all activities at the Zion Christian Church revolve around the attainment of absolute health. The embedded nature of healing in the church is explored through an analysis of the spatial and material aspects of the church’s healing practices, including codes of conduct, roles of participants, religious services, and intangible and tangible instruments of healing. The study is further contextualised against the broader history of the emergence and growth of African Initiated Churches from the late 19th century onwards
Anthropology & Archaeology
M.A. (Anthropology)

This report is concerned with unpacking the influential yet misunderstood “workerist” phenomenon that dominated the major independent (mostly black) trade unions born in the wake of the 1973 Durban strikes. “Workerism” is widely recognized as being concentrated in the Federation of South African Trade Unions (Fosatu). Workerism remains a source of much controversy in labour and left circles; this is due to the massive influence it commanded within the with black working class in its brief heyday, and the formidable challenge it presents to the legitimacy of nationalist movements and narratives attempting (then and now) to stake claims on the leadership of the liberation struggle. This controversy has yet to be resolved: both popular and scholarly attempts to theorise its politics are marked by demonstrable inconsistencies and inaccuracies, often reproducing existing polemical narratives that conceal more than they reveal. This paper contributes to that debate by deepening our understanding of the core politics of the important workerist phenomenon – through an examination of primary documents and interviews with key workerist leaders. I argue that workerism was a distinctive, mass-based and coherent multiracial current, hegemonic in the black trade unions but spilling into the broader anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s and 1980s. It stressed class struggle, non-racialism, anti-capitalism, worker selfactivity and union democracy, and was fundamentally concerned with the national liberation of the oppressed black majority. However, it distanced itself from the established traditions of mainstream Marxism and Congress nationalism – coming to a quasi-syndicalist1 position on many crucial questions, although this ran alongside a far more cautious “stream”, akin to social democracy. It fashioned a radical approach to national liberation that combined anticapitalism with anti-nationalism on a programme that placed trade unions (not parties) centrestage – a notable characteristic that made it the object of much suspicion and hostility. In the longer term, workerists developed a two-pronged strategy. This centred on, first, “building up a huge, strong movement in the factories” – strategically positioned at key loci of power in the economy (key sectors, plants and regions), with a view to “pushing back the frontiers of control”; second, it incorporated an extensive programme of popular education to ignite the growth of a “counter-hegemonic” working class politics, consciousness, identity and culture, thereby “ring-fencing workers from the broader nationalist history of our country” and continent. Right at the epicentre of this radical project was the creation of a conscious, accountable and active (in workplaces and communities) layer of worker leaders or “organic intellectuals”. I contend that a simple conflation of workerism with a form of Marxism, although prevalent in the literature, is misleading and inaccurate. Rather, workerism cannot be understood unless in relation to the far more eclectic and varied international New Left – through which it drew influence (direct and indirect) from a variety of sources, including revolutionary libertarian currents like anarchism, syndicalism and council communism, as well as others such as social democracy, and dissident forms of Marxism. But the unhappy co-existence of these contradictory tendencies (quasi-syndicalism and social democracy) interacted with a New Left-inspired, at times anti-theoretical, pragmatism to leave workerism weakened - hampered by inconsistencies and contradictions, expressed in ambivalent actions that were at once libertarian and more statist, revolutionary and reformist, spontaneous and premeditated, “boycottist” and “engagist”. This left a vacuum in the liberation struggle, paving a way for the resurgence of nationalism under ANC leadership. 1 Here I refer to the historical tradition of anarcho- and revolutionary syndicalism, not the so-called “Leninist critique”.

The upsurge of religious movements and independent churches in the Global South is bringing a new twist to world economic development not anticipated by many theologians and social scientists. With a syncretic soteriology geared toward the liberation of the whole person, religious movements and independent churches of the south are preaching to their adherents, mostly the poor and the marginalized, a message of faith in an omnipotent and compassionate God who is concerned for their weal and woes and who offers them an assured and holistic salvation. By placing their faith in God, the poor and marginalized people are discovering their true selves and are saved/liberated. This assured salvation (certitudo salutis), which is a total liberation of the physical and spiritual world, becomes, in turn, the motivational energy for capital development. The Zion Christian Church (ZCC) soteriological predicament stands at this juncture. Through processes of syncretization and purification, ZCC has managed to deconstruct the European/North American and African Traditional Religions soteriologies to construct a pure soteriology that is relevant to the socio context of its adherents. ZCC deconstructs these soteriologies by broadening, for example, the classic Christian soteriogical theory of Christus Victor in her notion of sin, death and the devil and the African traditional soteriological notion of uBuntu and spirit-power. The purity, or holistic salvation, generated out of these processes serves as grounds for identity and economic empowerment of its adherents. With a holistic salvation that centers on healing, personal integrity and spiritual power, ZCC members have been able to achieve considerable success in the labour market by becoming an army of potential employees. They have also distinguished themselves in their work ethic, where they are seen as hardworking, disciplined, obedient and sober. Empowering its adherents economically through a religious soteriology, the ZCC has become an example of a trend that is shaping the Global South and is reviving the interest of social scientists and theologians to further investigate the impact of religious and theological formulations on the economic conduct of individuals.
Theology
D. Th. (Theological Ethics)

With the rise of the new social movements and increasing number of protests over service delivery in South Africa’s poorest townships, many activists have started to question whether unions are able to relate to the demands of the unorganised and poor. It is argued that under the new democracy COSATU has become bureaucratic and is too closely aligned to the ANC to challenge government policies and play a transformative role in society. Such concerns are not entirely new. Labour historians and industrial sociologists have long debated the political potential and democratic character of trade unions and there is a vast literature documenting the organisational styles of unions in South Africa today and in the past. Based on examination of union archival records and interviews with key informants, this study traces the emergence of the ‘workers control’ tradition in South African trade unions. ‘Workers control’ is a unique approach based on non-racial, industrial trade unions, which are democratically organised on the factory floor. Such unions, which are ideally controlled by elected worker representatives at all levels and united nationally on the basis of sharing common policies and resources, create the basis for an autonomous movement that promotes the interest of workers. Although most closely associated with FOSATU (1979-1985), this study found that workers control had deeper historical roots. Workers control was a product of the ideological and organisational renewal that characterised the 1970s and was initially created by the Trade Union Advisory Coordinating Committee (TUACC) in Natal and, later, the Witwatersrand. TUACC, which included significant numbers of women employed as semi-skilled production workers and unskilled migrant men, reflected complex shifts in the labour market and the economy. It was in this context that ordinary union members together with a diverse layer of activists developed TUACC’s unique approach to organisation. The power of white university trained activists in determining union policies has been overestimated and worker leaders, particularly more educated women workers, played an important role in building TUACC unions. Based on a Gramscian analysis, TUACC maintained that democratic unions based on strong shop floor organisation could exploit loop holes in the law and participate in industrial structures without undermining union autonomy and democracy. TUACC, however, was less clear of how to relate to political movements and parties. TUACC distanced itself officially from the banned ANC to avoid repression, but some workers and unionists looked to homeland and traditional leaders for alliances. This tension between the creation of a democratic trade union culture and the workers’ support of more autocratic political and traditional leaders and populist movements was never resolved. All of TUACC’s affiliates were founder members of COSATU and this study gives us some insight into the traditions that inform COSATU’s responses to social movements, political parties and the state today. Drawing on the insights of the Anracho-syndicalism, this study also highlights some of the dangers of separating the economic and political activities of workers into unions and political parties respectively.

Thesis submitted to the faculty of arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of arts.
This thesis examines the political trajectories of the Independent union movement from 1970-1993. It argues that the political strategies adopted by tbe unions' leadership reflected significant difterences with regard to the political contest over the democratic form of South African society. The political ideology of the unions' leadership was made up of two contrasting 'logics' of political struggle. The one, which we characterise as "simple polarisation", viewed the objective of the unions' struggles primarily in terms of a competition for political dominance which involved a simple dichotomy between the apartheid state and a unified opposition movement. In this view the opposition was conceived of as a homogenous, collective subject, unified in its common assault on the state. Underlying this logic of opposition was a denial of specific and different identities and interests and democracy was seen to be directly associated with the destiny of one distinct social actor. The logic of "simple polarisation" was dominant within the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) throughout the 1980's. It was nourished primarily by COSATU's close relationship with the charterist section of the wider opposition movement There existed within the unions a second political tradition which emphasised a logic of "institutionalised pluralism". This current viewed the organisation of opposition primarily in institutional terms. It emphasised the building of union independence outside the aegis of the wider opposltlon movement. Underlying this tradition was a pluralist conception of democracy, Associated with the early Federation of South African Trade Unions legacy of institutional independence, this logic reared its head within COSATU towards the late 1980's when the federation entered a series of corporatist arrangements with employers and the state. Although there seems to be evidence that there existed (at least some) support within the ranks of FOSATU of a form of workers' control more easily reconellable with an anti-pluralist than pluralist conception of democracy, the nature of FOSATU was such, that. when sufficiently pressed on the issue of which logic of democracy - "simple polarisation" or "institutionalised pluralism" - it endorsed, the latter would have been selected over the former.
Andrew Chakane 2019

Estimates of the value of manufacturing sector output enter into many economic indices, especially those measuring productivity. The South African Central Statistical Services has twice made substantial errors in the output series. Revisions to correct the first of these raised the growth rate in manufacturing over the period 1970-80 from 2,6 per cent per annum (compound) to 5 per cent. This episode is not common knowledge. After examining the conceptual difficulties involved in producing output stimates, a practical technique for detecting errors in the series , the Euler Consistency Test, is presented. Developed, refined, and then applied to the South African data, it predicted, retrospectively, the first set of errors (using only the information available at the time those errors were made), then detected another set of errors , not previously known to exist. The study records the process by which the CSS was made to concede this second error. Acknowledgement only came after protracted correspondence and an examination conducted by a special committee formed to investigate my complaints. With 1979 set equal to 100, the output level in 1988 was originally given as 113,8. After investigation, the CSS raised this to 126,1. The magnitude of this second error is equivalent to the omission of the total output of the two SASOL plants commissioned during the early 1980s. Estimates of productivity growth by the National Productivity Institute using these incorrect figures are shown to have created a misleading picture of the sector's performance, especially in the sensitive debate over the relationship between wage and productivity growth. An attempt is made to lay the groundwork of an analytical framework for comprehending (from a Marxist point of view) the activities of ideological state apparatusses like the NPI. A review of the literature on theory choice is conducted, and the necessarily political nature of this activity is explored. The relative impotence of I science' in the face of ideology in a conflict-ridden society is considered. The question of the significance of disagreements between economists is examined, and prospects for convergence and consensus on certain issues are weighed.
Thesis (Ph.D.)-Unversity of Natal, 1994.

German text
Die vorliegende wissenschaftliche Arbeit befasst sich mit den amaZioni, die den größten Teil der südafrikanischen AIC-Bewegung („African Independent/Indigenous/Initiated Churches“) ausmachen. Für die meisten Theologen stellen die amaZioni eine synkretistische christliche Kirchenbewegung dar, die in ihren Ritualen und Gottesdienstformen starke Einflüsse von traditionellen afrikanischen Religionen (ATR) aufweist. Nicht desto trotz öffnen sich viele der amaZioni-Kirchen gegenüber biblischer Lehre durch Missionare. Um eine solide Grundlage für die Missionsarbeit zu schaffen, befasst sich die vorgeschlagene Arbeit damit, wichtige Bedürfnisse der amaZioni zu erforschen, so dass diese als Anknüpfungspunkte für die weitere Evangeliumsverkündigung genutzt werden können.
The proposed research examines the needs of the amaZioni, who are part of the South African AIC-movement. The amaZioni, as one of the largest religious groups in South Africa, are viewed by most theologicans as syncretistic christian churches. It is obvious that their common believe system as well as their rituals show a strong influence of african traditional religions (ATR). But nevertheless, many of the members of the Zion-churches are opening up for bible teaching provided by missionaries. In order to establish a solid base for the future mission work the proposed research focuses on finding out the amaZioni's needs, so that this needs can be used as reference points in the endeavour of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the missionaries.
Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology
M. Th. (Missiology)

This dissertation is based on research undertaken on the role of the housing group savings schemes that provide end-user finance to the poor households to address their housing needs with special reference to South African Homeless People's Federation (SAHPF) at Piesang River outside Durban. The housing conditions inherited by the new Government in South Africa were characterized by backlog. In order for the Government to address housing shortage, housing subsidy assistance was introduced, which only provided the 'starter house', which was not sufficient enough for the poor in terms of size and quality of the house. It was hoped that the traditional financial institutions would come to the party and provide small-scale loans to the poor to incrementally improve the condition of their housing. The poor households have been seen as "unbankable". Basically the study bids to explore and establish the effectiveness of the savings schemes as an intervention in making end-user finance available to the poor households in S.A. to meet their shelter needs. The study revolves wholly around the group housing savings clubs as an intervention for proving housing for the poor. Practice has proved that incremental upgrading of a core unit using incremental finance is more suitable than long-term loans and does not bind the poor into long-term financial agreements. Given the fact that the poor are not willing to subject themselves into long-term financial commitments, consequently, the poor households have initiated financial self-help groups of the likes of ROSCAs, Stokvels, RCAs and ASCRAs as a mechanism to deal with the predicament that they are facing. The study explores the circumstances under which these saving schemes have evolved and the cause of their proliferation, looking at the international and local experiences. The study draws successful lessons from SAHPF of Piesang River about group lending and the possible expansion of its activities to other parts of S.A. Lending groups have the potential to provide affordable credit to the poor and the group members will use peer pressure to encourage repayment. Group lending is capable of making an individual repay that would have easily defaulted under individual lending. The researcher uses the combination of sample survey and case study to argue that the success of SAHPF particularly in making end-user finance available to its members is due to its strong, central focus on savings and loans. Finally the recommendations are that savings for housing purposes should be seen as an appropriate mechanism, to augment the housing subsidy given the fact that formal end-user finance is not forth coming especially to the poor as anticipated.
Thesis (Arch.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

Jews were present in Pietersburg [Polokwane] from the time of its establishment in 1868. They came from Lithuania, England and Germany. They were attracted by the discovery of gold, land and work opportunities. The first Jewish cemetery was established on land granted by President Paul Kruger in 1895. The Zoutpansberg Hebrew Congregation, which included Pietersburg and Louis Trichardt was established around 1897. In 1912, Pietersburg founded its own congregation, the Pietersburg Hebrew Congregation. A Jewish burial society, a benevolent society and the Pietersburg-Zoutpansberg Zionist Society was formed. A communal hall was built in 1921 and a synagogue in 1953. Jews contributed to the development of Pietersburg and held high office. There was little anti-Semitism. From the 1960s, Jews began moving to the cities. The communal hall and minister's house were sold in 1994 and the synagogue in 2003. Only the Jewish cemetery remains in Pietersburg.
Religious Studies & Arabic
M.A. (Judaica)