Debby Bonnin

Training and development in the maritime industry: the case of South Africa

This article explores the state of, and prospects for, training and development within the South African maritime industry, and is based on a series of in-depth interviews conducted with employers, the principal union, training institutions and regulatory bodies. Findings are that a deeply embedded racial division of labour persists, that there is a serious shortage of employment opportunities, and that training and certification remain fragmented. The article concludes that the quality of training provided is of a high standard, but there is a vital need for a coherent overall policy linking initial training with employment opportunities, ongoing skills development and the promotion of greater equality.

Spatiality in the Construction of Identity: African Women and Political Violence in Kwazulu-Natal

This paper explores two themes through a case study of Mpumalanga, Kwazulu-Natal. Firstly it is interested in asking how the political territorialisation of space shapes the political identities of the people living in those spaces. Secondly it suggests that the particularities of those spaces, for example household or street are important in understanding the relationship between spatiality, identity and the way in which gender colours identity. The paper argues that as political violence marks out and then destabilises already gendered spaces, so the political identities created through the violence are also gendered.

“I am poor, I must start all over again” The impact of political violence on household economies; A case-study from KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract This paper using interview material from Mpumalanga Township, KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) examines the relationship between political violence and household poverty. It suggests that, because of the specific nature of the violence in this area, women have been forced to take on the position of household head and thus the burden of managing poverty has fallen on them. The paper is divided into four sections: firstly it provides an overview of political violence in KwaZulu-Natal; secondly it examines how women were affected by and involved in the violence; thirdly it looks at the impact of the violence on household economies; and lastly it considers the possibilities of starting over. It concludes by suggesting that while political violence might have accelerated broader social trends, for many individual households, prior to political violence, vulnerability to poverty did not seem to be part of their trajectory.

Towards a South African Sociology of Professions

The sociology of professions has not achieved much purchase within South African sociology. The revisionism of the 1970s (see for example Johnson 1976) and what Webster (2004) terms the ‘critical sociology’ of the late 1970s and 1980s took the sociology of work in the direction of engaging with the labour movement (Buhlungu 2009) and studying the conditions of production and reproduction of the black working class (see for example Sitas 1983; Webster 1985; Von Holdt 2003). This does not mean that there is no research on middle class occupations and white collar work – some of the classic studies that come to mind are those of Shula Marks’ book, Divided Sisterhood, examining the nursing profession, Blade Nzimande’s doctoral study of black managers (1991), Owen Crankshaw’s book (1997) on race, skill and occupations during apartheid, Leah Gilbert’s numerous studies of community pharmacists (1998a, 1998b, 1998c), and Liz Walker’s pioneering work on white female doctors (2001, 2003, 2005). However, the framing of these studies and the questions they have asked (with the exception of Gilbert’s work) has not resonated with some of the traditional debates concerning the sociology of professions (see Crompton 1990; Evetts 2003). It could be that in a society where so many were denied access to these professions, on the basis of their ‘race’, many sociologists saw such questions as irrelevant; or it could have been the turn to a more public sociology taken by so many sociologists of work (see the discussions by Buhlungu (2009), Burowoy (2004), Webster (2004)); or it could have been that the functionalist paradigm within which much of the sociology of professions operated was rejected by South African sociologists of work (Webster 2004). Social closure has always been fundamental to any professionalisation project. Historically South African professional occupations have used ‘race’ (and gender) to exclude black South Africans (see Vavi 2012; Walker 2001; 2003; 2005; Webster 2004) from skilled occupations and thus shape the labour market in particular racialised and gendered ways. The apartheid state was central to this project and through various legislation (from labour market to industrial relations to educational to petty apartheid) actively ensured the whiteness of the state bureaucracy and middle class occupations. We suggest that in post-apartheid South Africa an examination of professional occupations has become increasingly important in assessing the success of the state’s project to ‘deracialise’ the labour market. Furthermore, opening access to professional and expert occupations is vital to ‘growing’ an African (or black) middle class. Traditional professions such as medicine, law, accounting and engineering are still

‘Lwalulukhulu usizi la’—political violence and poverty in Kwazulu-Natal

They lost everything, refugees and survivors of the violence tell DEBBY BONNIN. The price in lives, livelihoods, and households looted or destroyed is not possible to quantify. The violence remains a contributing factor to the poverty of the province

Road to Beijing

Preparations are in full swing for the United Nations (UN) Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing 1995, but South African women have been slow to get involved. In this first of our regular features on the conference, Debby Bonnin explains why we should get moving on the road to Beijing, and Asha Moodley provides a critical reportback on the start-up preparatory meeting in Johannesburg

The Domestic Worker's Place in the ‘Madam's’ Space. The Construction of the Workspace in the Home of Muslim Madams

ABSTRACT Research on domestic work in South Africa has largely focused on the employee, however, here we focus on the ‘madam’ and explore the way in which the workspace of the domestic worker and the ‘private’ space of the employer are constructed. The paper focuses on the domestic workers’ place in the Indian Muslim madams space, revealing the contradictory nature of the home as a personal space for the employer and a workplace for the domestic worker. Within the home, emotional and physical boundaries produce spaces that may be more private than others. These spaces are further influenced by the way in which Indian Muslim women construct the religious uniqueness of their home, where some spaces are filled with sacred meaning and access is restricted at certain times. Based on the qualitative data, collected in the North Beach area of Durban, the paper investigates the sharing of the workspace between ‘the madam’ and the domestic worker and their negotiation of the boundaries within the home.