Doctoral Degrees (Political Science)
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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Political Science) by Author "Dlakavu, Simamkele"
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- ItemFighting against erasure: the one in nine campaign and feminist movement building against sexual violence(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03 ) Dlakavu, Simamkele; Gouws, Amanda; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Political Science.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The rape trial against Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s former deputy president and deputy president of the governing party – the African National Congress, in 2006 drew wide social, media and political attention. The story of a powerful politician accused of sexual violence is not an unusual occurrence globally nor was it exceptional in South Africa. Unfortunately, South Africa has one of the world’s leading cases of sexual violence. However, what was truly profound about this political moment in history, which has not been sufficiently explored and studied in the field of social movement scholarship in South Africa, is the story of the feminist political response that was ignited by the rape trial. This response came from the One in Nine Campaign – a boldly feminist social movement organisation that was formed to demonstrate tangible, active, and intersectional solidarity with the rape survivor, Fezekile “Khwezi” Kuzwayo, as well as other women sexual violence survivors in South Africa. Guided by the New Social Movement and African Feminist theories, this study is a feminist social movement political biographical history of the One in Nine Campaign, and its political framings, strategies, and repertoires of action. Through qualitative feminist methodologies and a historical analysis, using primary archival research from the archives of the One in Nine Campaign and thirteen in-depth interviews with its members (past and present), this study documents the Campaign’s feminist political mobilisation that has lasted almost two decades. The study’s results indicate that the One in Nine Campaign sought to insert an intersectional feminist agenda in the struggle against the sexual violence crisis in South Africa by strategically focusing on sexual survivor programmes, feminist political education and arts activism for consciousness-raising, as well as direct action as part of movement building. The findings reveal that these strategic and political efforts led to and inspired a new wave of feminist movement building in South Africa, engaging in political direct action in sites such as universities and in relation to the #TotalShutdown movement. This is a movement that forced the state, through direct action and protest, to acknowledge that sexual violence is indeed a “pandemic” which demanded political intervention from the state. The findings also reveal contemporary challenges that impact feminist social movements against sexual violence in South Africa such as erasure, movement decline and economic precarity, caused by factors such as a lack of long-term and unrestricted funding and activist burnout which challenge movement sustainability. The focus on the political history of the One in Nine Campaign broadens the views of the ways in which feminists organise and mobilise in democratic South Africa. This dissertation therefore contributes to existing scholarship and a better understanding of social movements and gender in an African context.