Projekt

The removal of apartheid era spatial controls in the 1980s coupled with the post-apartheid platinum mining boom have seen many migrants, both local and regional, coalescing in informal settlements around platinum mines in Rustenburg. This research deploys Holston (2008)'s concept of insurgent citizenship, Auyero (2007)'s concept of 'gray zones', Chatterjee (2004)'s concept of 'political society' as well the concept of belonging (Cooper with Brubaker 2005) to examine processes of community formation and how residents of informal settlements around platinum mines in Rustenburg stake claims, submit to certain moral economies and negotiate their belonging in these spaces. It particularly examines how members of these communities deploy categories such as citizenship, residency and ethnicity to articulate belonging and make claims. One of the features that characterize informal settlements is the emergence of community leadership structures. It is, therefore, important to analyse how leadership structures are established and how they relate to external authority, especially civil society organizations, local municipalities and political parties that provide patronage. The study will enrich and deepen our understanding of migration, citizenship, belonging and democracy in post-apartheid South Africa. This is a comparative study which makes use of three case studies to analyse community formation and politics of belonging. The three case studies are Luka village (Royal Bafokeng), Ikemeleng settlement and Number Nine informal settlement (Freedom Park).

• Prof. Dr. Brigitte Reinwald

  Universität Hannover
  Philosophische Fakultät
  Historisches Seminar
  Fachgebiet Geschichte Afrikas
  Hannover
  

• Dr. Joseph Mujere

  University of Zimbabwe
  Harare
  History Department
  Harare
  Simbabwe (Zimbabwe)