Democracy & its Discontents: Vigilantism, Sovereignty & Human Rights in South Africa

Lars Buur

Review of African Political Economy, 2008, vol. 35, issue 118, 571-584

Abstract: This article argues that due to the particular position of crime in South Africa, the resurgence of vigilantism needs to be re-evaluated in light of the country's attempt at institutionalising human rights as the new society's founding values. Because many township dwellers see vigilantes as their protection against crime, vigilantism should be seen as a criticism of and a comment on human rights as the new expression of the country's most intimate values. The article begins by introducing an ethnographic case study of a vigilante group from Port Elizabeth's townships, which has become incorporated as an official ‘Safety and Security’ structure under the Community Policing Forum. The article suggests that fighting crime relates to wider questions of the perceived need for discipline and corporal punishment in response to the erosion of social authority.

Date: 2008
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03056240802569250 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:revape:v:35:y:2008:i:118:p:571-584

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CREA20

DOI: 10.1080/03056240802569250

Access Statistics for this article

Review of African Political Economy is currently edited by Graham Harrison, Branwen Gruffydd Jones, Claire Mercer, Nicolas Pons-Vignon, Aurelia Segatti and Ray Bush

More articles in Review of African Political Economy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().