OPINION PIECE
A sociologist’s perspective
What’s behind violence in South Africa?
By Lindy Heinecken, Chair of the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University
The 2018 Global Peace Index listed South Africa as one of the most violent and dangerous places on earth, and getting worse.
three main sources of violence: direct, structural and cultural. These provide a useful lens to understand the underlying causes of conflict that fuel violence and undermine positive peace.
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Direct violence
outh Africa has a long history of violence. It was used as a tool of power and governance by colonialists to repress and control the indigenous people. The apartheid regime from 1948 used violence as part of its repertoire to gain and maintain social and political control. Such a culture of violence is hard to stop, especially when it has become a legitimised and institutionalised form of coercion. South Africans are living with this legacy. But, to understand the level of violence in democratic South Africa, it is useful to engage with the work of the Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung. He identified
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Direct violence or personal violence includes a physical or psychological component to produce hurt and harm, to the point of killing. It can occur between individuals, groups and nations and is an act of violence with a clear subject, object and action. This includes war, torture, fighting, gun violence, and physical and emotional abuse. In South Africa, these acts of direct violence are reflected in the high levels of violent crime – including rape and murder as well as domestic and gang violence directed at people. While not peculiar to South Africa, direct or personal violence is facilitated by easy
SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA JANUARY 2020
access to weapons, a general climate of lawlessness, high levels of violent protests and corruption within the criminal justice system. Without doubt, this has contributed to the public feeling unprotected, and has increased distrust in the police, while allowing crime to flourish. But such direct, visible acts do not explain the underlying causes of the violence.
Structural violence Underlying direct violence is structural violence entrenched in unequal power relations embedded within society. Structural violence is defined as social and personal violence arising from unjust, repressive and oppressive political, economic, and social structures that affect people’s chances in life. These structures control access to quality education, employment and health care. They affect the basic human needs of survival and welfare. In education (the
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