Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements with Trevor Ngwane

In a study conducted in dozens of South Africa’s shack settlements, where more than 9 million people live, Trevor Ngwane finds thriving shack dwellers’ committees that govern local life, are responsive to popular needs and provide a voice for the community. These committees, called ‘amakomiti’ in the Zulu language, organize the provision of basic services such as water, sanitation, public works and crime prevention especially during settlement establishment.
Amakomiti argues that, contrary to common perception, slum dwellers are in fact an essential part of the urban population, whose political agency must be recognized and respected. In a world searching for democratic alternatives that serve the many and not the few, it is to the shantytowns, rather than the seats of political power, that we should turn.
Trevor Ngwane is a scholar activist from anti-apartheid days to the present. He obtained his PhD (Sociology) at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). He has a long history of activism in various civil society organisations including the trade unions, political formations and social movements in South Africa. He is a senior lecturer at the Sociology Department, director of the Centre for Sociological Research and Practice, both at UJ, and deputy-president of the South African Sociological Association.
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