Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T08:32:27.268Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A TRICKLE-UP ECONOMY: MUTUALITY, FREEDOM AND VIOLENCE IN CAPE TOWN'S TAXI ASSOCIATIONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2014

Erik Bähre
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mutuality is at the heart of the continued violence and inequality in South Africa. This historical and anthropological analysis of Cape Town's taxi associations reveals how mutuality has become strongly connected with violence and economic marginalization. The breakdown of apartheid led to new mutualities along the rural–urban divide, which resulted in taxi wars between ‘urban insiders’ and ‘rural outsiders’. After liberation from apartheid, mutuality within Cape Town's taxi associations became a central issue in government policy and commercial interests, which contributed to taxi associations becoming mafia-like organizations. This analysis reveals that taxi owners today find themselves in a trickle-up economy characterized by: violent and shifting mutualities; the embrace of illegality and informality as being vital to doing business; and strong economic intervention by the state.

Résumé

La mutualité est au cœur de la violence et de l'inégalité qui persistent en Afrique du Sud. Cette analyse historique et anthropologique des associations de taxis de Cape Town révèle comment la mutualité est devenue fortement liée à la violence et la marginalisation économique. La désintégration de l'apartheid a débouché sur de nouvelles mutualités construites sur le clivage urbain-rural qui ont entraîné des guerres de taxis entre les « autochtones urbains » et les « étrangers ruraux ». Après la libération de l'apartheid, la mutualité dans laquelle s'inscrivaient les associations de taxis de Cape Town est devenue un enjeu majeur, dans la politique gouvernementale et les intérêts commerciaux, qui a contribué à la mafiosisation des associations de taxis. Cette analyse révèle que les propriétaires de taxis se trouvent dans une économie qualifiée de « trickle-up » (ascendante), caractérisée par : des mutualités violentes et changeantes, l'acceptation de l'illégalité et de l'informalité comme essentielles à la conduite des affaires, et la forte intervention de l’État dans l’économie.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 84 , Issue 4 , November 2014 , pp. 576 - 594
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bähre, E. (2007) Money and Violence: financial self-help groups in a South African township. Leiden and Boston MA: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bähre, E. (2012) ‘The Janus face of insurance in South Africa: from costs to risk, from networks to bureaucracies’, Africa 82 (1): 150–67.Google Scholar
Bank, L. J. (1990) ‘The making of the Qwaqwa “mafia”? Patronage and protection in the migrant taxi business’, African Studies 49 (1): 70–93.Google Scholar
Bauman, Z. (2001) Community: seeking safety in an insecure world. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Bayart, J.-F. (1993) The State in Africa: the politics of the belly. London and New York NY: Longman.Google Scholar
Behrens, R. and Wilkinson, P. (2003) Metropolitan Transport Planning in Cape Town, South Africa: a critical assessment of key difficulties. Cape Town: Urban Transport Research Group, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Blok, A. (1974) The Mafia of a Sicilian Village, 1860–1960: a study of violent peasant entrepreneurs. New York NY: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Blom Hansen, T. (2006) ‘Sounds of freedom: music, taxis, and racial imagination in urban South Africa’, Public Culture 18 (1): 185–208.Google Scholar
Bonner, P. and Nieftagodien, N. (2001) ‘The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the pursuit of “social truth”: the case of Kathorus’ in Posel, D. and Simpson, G. (eds), Commissioning the Past: understanding South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Bourgois, P. (2004) ‘The continuum of violence in war and peace: post-Cold War lessons from El Salvador’ in Scheper-Hughes, N. and Bourgois, P. (eds), Violence in War and Peace: an anthology. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cape Argus (2008) ‘Commuters flee rampaging taxi drivers’, 9 December.Google Scholar
Cape Argus (2009) ‘Taxi strike sent a clear message – bosses’, 20 February.Google Scholar
Cole, J. (1987) Crossroads: the politics of reform and repression 1976/1986. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.Google Scholar
Daniel, V. E. (1996) Charred Lullabies: chapters in an anthropology of violence. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Bruyn, C. (2010) ‘SA to spend R14,5bn on Integrated Transport Networks’, Engineering News, 7 July.Google Scholar
Donham, D. L. (2006) ‘Staring at suffering: violence as a subject’ in Bay, E. G. and Donham, D. L. (eds), States of Violence: politics, youth, and memory in contemporary Africa. Charlottesville VA and London: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Dugard, J. (2001) From Low Intensity War to Mafia War: taxi violence in South Africa (1987–2000). Violence and Transition Series 4. Cape Town: Centre for Studies of Violence and Reconciliation.Google Scholar
Farber, T. (2007) ‘War over routes’, Mail and Guardian, 21 May.Google Scholar
Gudeman, S. (2008) The Anthropology of Economy: community, market, and culture. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gudeman, S. (2009) ‘Neccessity or contingency: mutuality and market’ in Hart, K. and Hann, C. M. (eds), Market and Society: the great transformation today. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Guyer, J. I. (1999) Marginal Gains: monetary transactions in Atlantic Africa. Chicago IL and London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hart, K. (1973) ‘Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana’, Journal of Modern African Studies 11 (1): 61–89.Google Scholar
Hart, K. and Hann, C. M. (2009) ‘Introduction: learning from Polanyi’ in Hart, K. and Hann, C. M. (eds), Market and Society: the great transformation today. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hart, K., Laville, J.-L. and Cattani, A. (2010) ‘Building the human economy together’ in Hart, K., Laville, J.-L. and Cattani, A. (eds), The Human Economy: a citizen's guide. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Herzfeld, M. (2009) ‘The cultural politics of gesture: reflections on the embodiment of ethnographic practice’, Ethnography 10 (2): 131–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, E. and James, D. (2012) ‘Introduction: local economies and citizen expectations in South Africa’, Africa 82 (1): 1–19.Google Scholar
James, D. (2011) ‘The return of the broker: consensus, hierarchy, and choice in South African land reform’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 17 (2): 318–38.Google Scholar
Khosa, M. M. (1992) ‘Routes, ranks and rebels: feuding in the taxi revolution’, Journal of Southern African Studies 18 (1): 232–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knorr Cetina, K. and Bruegger, U. (2002) ‘Global microstructures: the virtual societies of financial markets’, American Journal of Sociology 107: 905–50.Google Scholar
Lee, R. (2005) ‘Reconstructing “home” in apartheid Cape Town: African women and the process of settlement’, Journal of Southern African Studies 31 (3): 611–30.Google Scholar
Lee, R. (2012) ‘Death in slow motion: funerals, ritual practice and road danger in South Africa’, African Studies 71 (2): 195–211.Google Scholar
Maniscalco, M. L. (1997) ‘A new global risk: the rise of the killer sects’, International Review of Sociology 7 (3): 485–97.Google Scholar
Maurer, B. (2005) Mutual Life, Limited: Islamic banking, alternative currencies, lateral reason. Princeton NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mlandu, L. (2009) ‘Taking on the taxis’, iAfrica.com News, 13 March.Google Scholar
Mtyala, Q. (2013) ‘Cape taxi rank faces shutdown over violence’, Times Live, 28 March. <http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/03/28/cape-taxi-rank-faces-shutdown-over-violence>, accessed 18 July 2014.,+accessed+18+July+2014.>Google Scholar
Niehaus, I. (2006) ‘Doing politics in Bushbuckridge: work, welfare and the South African elections of 2004’, Africa 76 (4): 526–48.Google Scholar
Ntsebeza, D. (2005) Committee of Inquiry into the Underlying Causes of Instability and Conflict in the Minibus Taxi Industry in the Cape Metropolitan Area: report to the Premier 31 August 2005. Cape Town: no publisher.Google Scholar
Ramphele, M. (1991) ‘The politics of space: life in the migrant labour hostels of the Western Cape’. PhD thesis, University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Reno, W. (1995) Corruption and State Politics in Sierra Leone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ross, R. (1999) A Concise History of South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
SAPA (2009) ‘Taxi boss gunned down’, South African Press Association (SAPA), 5 September.Google Scholar
SAPA (2012) ‘Santaco president axed’, IOL news, 21 May.Google Scholar
Schalekamp, H. and Behrens, R. (2010) ‘Engaging paratransit on public transport reform initiatives in South Africa: a critique of policy and an investigation of appropriate engagement approaches’, Research in Transport Economics 29: 371–8.Google Scholar
Schalekamp, H., Behrens, R. and Wilkinson, P. (2010) ‘Regulating minibus-taxis: a critical review of progress and a possible way forward.’ Proceedings of the 29th Southern African Transport Conference (SATC 2010), 16–19 August, Pretoria, South Africa.Google Scholar
Sibanda, J. J. (2013) ‘Taxi violence hits Cape Town’, News 24, 14 November. <http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Taxi-Violence-Hits-Cape-Town-20131114>, accessed 18 July 2014.,+accessed+18+July+2014.>Google Scholar
Sibanyoni, M. (2012) ‘Taxi stake uproar: Chinese not keen to offer share in plant’, Sowetan, 20 November.Google Scholar
Stokes, G. (2011) ‘Local roads claim 1551 lives this Christmas’, FA News, 18 January.Google Scholar
Walters, J. (2008) ‘Overview of public transport policy developments in South Africa’, Research in Transport Economics 22: 98–108.Google Scholar
Walters, J. (2010) ‘Is the bus transport contracting system in South Africa leading to trusting relationships between contracted parties? An analysis of funding issues and the impact on relations between government and operators’, Research in Transport Economics 29: 362–70.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, P. (2010) ‘The regulatory cycle stalled? An assessment of current institutional obstacles to regulatory reform in the provision of road-based public transport in Cape Town, South Africa’, Research in Transport Economics 29: 387–94.Google Scholar
Xaba, V. (2012) ‘ANC MP in taxi petrol dispute: claim that deal was to benefit executives’, Sowetan, 13 January.Google Scholar
Zaloom, C. (2006) Out of the Pits: traders and technology from Chicago to London. Chicago IL and London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Zuma, J. G. (2009) State of the Nation Address of June 3 2009. Cape Town: Parliamentary Monitoring Group.Google Scholar