ABSTRACT

A large body of academic literature germane to service delivery protests has documented area-specific cases of protests and their targets. In the main, the focus of these studies has been the failures of the ruling African National Congress as elected leaders divert public funds aimed at improving the lives of townships and informal settlement dwellers. The emerging overall picture points to failure at the political level to deliver on key promises, urgent among these being the issue of high levels of unemployment. This has seen a marked increase in violent service delivery protests that at times morphed into xenophobic attacks and destruction of public property. Missing from the analysis however, is the impacts of service delivery protests on the South African commuter-worker. The article contends that by bringing the commuter-worker to the centre of analysis, we should be able to better appreciate the devastation of the service delivery protests beyond its locus of execution. The commuter-worker is a product of apartheid travel geography and at times a key participant in community mass demonstrations. Drawing on the notion of precarious society, I will show how service delivery protests and failure to deliver services produces precarity in other spheres of the commuter-worker’s life.

摘要

大量与服务提供抗议密切相关的学术文献记录了特定地区的抗议案例及其目标。总的来说，这些研究的重点是执政的非洲人国民大会的失败，因为民选领导人挪用了旨在改善乡镇和非正式定居点居民生活的公共资金。新出现的整体情况表明，在政治层面未能兑现关键承诺，其中紧迫的是高失业率问题。暴力服务提供抗议活动显着增加，有时演变为仇外袭击和破坏公共财产。然而，分析中缺少服务交付抗议对南非通勤工人的影响。文章认为，通过将通勤者置于分析的中心，我们应该能够更好地理解服务交付抗议在其执行地点之外的破坏。通勤工人是种族隔离旅行地理的产物，有时也是社区群众示威的主要参与者。借鉴不稳定社会的概念，我将展示服务提供抗议和未能提供服务如何在通勤者生活的其他领域产生不稳定。