Browsing by Author "Maluleke, Gavaza"

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    Colonial world-making in future technological landscapes: a qualitative comparative case study of the Sophia the Robot and Miquela Projects
    (2022) May, Abigail; Maluleke, Gavaza
    Future technologies are being produced by private actors in projects promising radical societal changes. Little attention is given to the intention of these private actors. This increases the risk of missing the ways in which private political and economic interests shape future technological imagining. From Jeff Bezos floating space coloniesto Mark Zuckerberg's reality bending ‘metaverse', private companies envision futures that will be far better than present society. However, factors that caused the need for societal transformation are being reworked into the imaginings of future landscapes promising. Through a comparative case study analysis of the robot projects of Sophia the Robot and Miquela Sousa, the argument presented in this research study is thatthe improved and inspiring future landscapes each robot project presents cannot be achieved. This is because the ideological framing of each project replicates the logic of modernity, which functions on structures of oppression. By applying colonial and modern examples from the past and present, this study illustrates the ways in which systems of oppression – such as white supremacy and enslavement- are reproduced in the imaginings of the future in private actors' technological projects as well as the technologies itself.
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    COVID-19 and the decline of autonomy: contact tracing in the age of surveillance capitalism
    (2022) Manne, Stephanie; Maluleke, Gavaza
    To develop successful COVID-19 pandemic response models, governments and policy makers are expanding on the known means of public health surveillance by collaborating with privately owned corporates and implementing new forms of surveillance technology, namely, contact tracing applications. This study examines the long-standing history of surveillance as well as the shifts in public health surveillance with the rise in technologically mediated solutions. In both research and public discourse, the overriding conversation is around the preservation of democracy and human rights and fearing the loss of “freedom” to the adoption of COVID-19 surveillance technologies. After analysing a series of academic journals and news articles that have been published since the beginning of the pandemic, this study highlights how a widespread use of such technologies has been encouraged in the name public health and safety, despite existing evidence of the shortfalls of contact tracing applications. By understanding the fundamental failures of democracy and the inequality that it perpetuates, this study argues that in the same way that the COVID-19 pandemic requires the creation of safe and unsafe bodies, so too does the system of democracy which depends upon creating fear and insecurity so that a reliance on the state is strengthened. As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating a world of technological solutionism and surveillance that yields very unequal social, political and economic power dynamics wherein biology and personal data are exploited and commodified. This study employs of the theoretical frameworks of Foucault in making sense of the politics behind pandemic response models and the guiding roles of power, governmentality and biopower. While outlining the dangers of surveillance capitalism, this study makes sense of the push to rely on and preserve the system of global capitalist democracy.
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    Invisible labour: the role of institutionalised xenophobia in shaping the experiences of migrant domestic workers in South Africa
    (2025) Fuma, Melany; Maluleke, Gavaza
    Xenophobia remains a persistent issue in South Africa, shaping the country's transition from apartheid to democracy and continuing to marginalise migrant workers, particularly in the domestic labour sector. Migrant domestic workers, many of whom come from neighbouring African countries, face systemic exclusion, precarious employment conditions, and, in some cases, outright violence. This dissertation investigates how institutionalised xenophobia has contributed to the exploitation and marginalisation of migrant domestic workers in both apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Existing scholarship on xenophobia in South Africa highlights its historical roots in colonial and apartheid-era policies, which entrenched racialised labour hierarchies and exclusionary nationalism. While much of the literature focuses on contemporary xenophobic violence, fewer studies trace the historical continuities between apartheid-era discrimination and present-day exclusionary labour practices. This study builds on works examining the intersections of race, gender, and migration in South Africa's labour market, contributing to the discourse by situating migrant domestic workers within this broader historical trajectory. This dissertation seeks to answer the question: How has institutionalised xenophobia, across both the apartheid and post-apartheid eras, shaped the marginalisation and exploitation of migrant domestic workers in South Africa? Using a comparative analysis of scholarly literature and historical policy documents, it examines the persistence of exclusionary labour practices and social attitudes toward migrant domestic workers. The findings reveal that xenophobia in South Africa is not merely an expression of individual prejudice but a systemic issue embedded in historical labour structures and nationalist ideologies. While the transition to democracy introduced legal protections for workers, migrant domestic workers continue to experience discrimination, social exclusion, and economic precarity. The study concludes that contemporary xenophobia is deeply rooted in the racialised labour regimes of apartheid and remains a structural force shaping the experiences of migrant domestic workers today. By tracing these historical continuities, this dissertation contributes to debates on migration, labour, and social justice, offering insights into the policies and interventions needed to create a more inclusive and equitable society.
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    Invisible labour: the role of institutionalised Xenophobia in shaping the experiences of migrant domestic workers in South Africa
    (2025) Fuman, Melay Asanda; Maluleke, Gavaza
    Background: Physiotherapy remains a female dominated profession, yet in certain professional spheres female physiotherapists are underrepresented. This is particularly evident in men's professional sport. Despite efforts to promote inclusivity and diversity in various professional men's sports, females in coaching, leadership and support roles remain underrepresented and continue to face significant challenges. While World Rugby, has put policies and development plans in place to address gender inequality, this does not necessarily extend to support staff, like physiotherapists. Lavoi's (2016) socio-ecological model has previously been used to explore the multidimensional barriers that affect the lived experiences of female coaches working in men's sports. However, the experiences of physiotherapists, faced with similar gender challenges, has not been explored. Purpose: This study aimed to identify the challenges and barriers of female physiotherapists working in professional men's rugby union. Guided by the socio-ecological model, it examined the individual, interpersonal, organisational, and sociocultural barriers, and challenges encountered by these therapists, and the facilitators or supports that have made female physiotherapists stay and develop in professional men's rugby union. Methods: A phenomenological qualitative study was undertaken utilising semi-structured interviews. Purposeful criterion sampling was used to identify potential participants who met the inclusion criteria. Participants were recruited through a professional acquaintance of the researcher who is associated with professional men's rugby union. The professional acquaintance was requested to circulate recruitment information to individuals who they identified as prospective participants, who then contacted the researcher. Semi-structured interviews were conducted via Microsoft Teams and transcribed for analysis. A stepwise inductive-deductive thematic analysis was performed to generate an initial list of codes aligned to the four levels of Lavoi's (2016) socio-ecological model. The codes were organised into subthemes by identifying patterns in the coded data and continuously reviewed to identify emerging deductive themes based on the model. Results: Participants included 12 physiotherapists, working globally in professional men's rugby for an average of 5.3 years. The thematic analysis identified 18 higher order themes, categorising them as either barriers or supports. The greatest barriers emerged in the societal and organisational dimensions, while the individual dimension provided the most supporting factors. As individuals, physiotherapists noted significant personal sacrifices which affected their work-life balance and negatively impacted on personal relationships. However, their job rewarded them and provided satisfaction particularly linked to returning athletes to play. At an interpersonal level, participants had a supportive and respectful relationship with the athletes but identified a lack of female role models in rugby union. Organisationally, participants faced significant challenges describing inadequate policies, particularly around maternity leave and family obligations. They were often overlooked and dismissed for better roles. At the societal level, barriers emerged relating to traditional gender roles, gender power dynamics, and gender stereotypes within their teams. Conclusion: Despite policies promoting gender equity in professional men's rugby structures, female physiotherapists working in these environments continue to face gender-related challenges which hinder their representation and career progression. This often forces them into leaving these roles. The findings underscore the importance of implementing and enforcing policy frameworks aimed at increasing female representation and breaking down gendered structures within rugby organisations. At the club level, offering mentorship programs, career progression pathways, and flexible work-life balance options can support female physiotherapists professional growth and retention. Promoting transparency in recruitment processes and increasing the visibility of females in these roles can not only normalise their presence but also inspire greater female representation in the field. Implications: Sporting codes need to improve their structures and policies to better support and retain female physiotherapists, therefore negating the masculine norm within certain sporting disciplines. Female physiotherapists are as capable as their male counterparts of fulfilling these roles and should be presented with equal opportunities to do so.
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    Mobilising restless radicals: the #AmINext movement and the formation of feminist digital counterpublics against gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa
    (2024) Senne, Busang; Maluleke, Gavaza
    The #AmINext movement in response to the sexual assault and murder of Uyinene Mrwetyana in 2019 reignited the public discourse of gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide in South Africa. The prevalent research on feminist hashtag activism has made critical links between the use of social media and the platforming of women's rage as a form of mobilising protests against GBV and femicide. However, less analysis has focused on the political significance of affects such as rage within feminist hashtag activism against GBV and femicide in South Africa. This research undertakes a literature review of feminist hashtag activism across the world to situate this form of mobilising in global feminist debates connected to how marginalised genders experience patriarchy differently in diverse contexts. A thematic analysis of 1,600 tweets is employed to investigate how affects form these movements through activists' responses to #AmINext. It uses theories of feminist digital counterpublics to show that digital responses to GBV and femicide may be new, but they are connected to histories of women's resistance. This study argues that #AmINext mobilises rage and grievability to contest the assumptions of how GBV and femicide operate within the coloniality of gender. It found that rage and grievability circulated by activists in #AmINext work to counter hegemonic discourses that render GBV and femicide as extraordinary, reflecting how stories of injustice are bound with emotions that make individuals act politically in ways they would not otherwise.
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    Neoliberalism and rural exclusion in South Africa: Xolobeni case study
    (2021) Madiya, Sisanda Bongiswa; Maluleke, Gavaza; Lushaba, Siyabonga
    This study investigates the exclusion of rural communities from the postcolonial South African nation state as a result of the neoliberal agenda of the democratic government. This is a qualitative study that was conducted using a desktop analysis of literature and information on the case of the rural Xolobeni community and their resistance to mining. The secondary sources analysed included books, journal articles, news articles and online court documents. The study was also guided by the postcolonial concepts of the nation state and neoliberalism, which have both contributed to the conceptualisation of citizenship in the postcolonial world. The study found that economic growth-centred development in South Africa is often at the expense of those living in the poor communities of the country, such as in the rural areas (Capps & Mnwana, 2015; Kunnie, 2000). Rural communities, such as the former Bantustans, are often stripped of their land rights and livelihood strategies without their consent, at the hands of the democratic government of South Africa under the guise of development. This study argues that this is an injustice that results in the exclusion of rural communities from the postcolonial nation state. This exclusion is not only undemocratic – it resembles the oppression of these communities that characterised apartheid in South Africa.
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    Structures of Accumulation and Security: Understanding Contemporary Farm Attacks Through Autoethnographic Reflections and Historical Inquiry of the Cape Colony
    (2025) Botha, Carla; Maluleke, Gavaza
    This dissertation examines the complex relationship between settler accumulation and security within instances of violence on farms in the Cape Colony, employing a dual methodology of microhistory and autoethnographic inquiry. This study seeks deeper insights into the enduring patterns that characterise settler colonies, particularly in relation to the perception of persecution of the settler group. Through the lens of autoethnography, personal reflections are interwoven with microhistories of the early settler colonial period, revealing the structures that underpin settler security dynamics. By shedding light on historical precedents, the research aims to unravel the contemporary phenomenon of farm attacks. This interdisciplinary approach navigates through time and personal narratives to illuminate the settler colonial structure and its historic, as well as contemporary implications.
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    The Everlasting Plague of Settler Colonialism in South Africa: An Autoethnographic Study on the Settler Logic of Eliminations? Assimilative Projects and its Impact Upon Understandings of Identity and the Self
    (2023) Mohedeen, Alia; Maluleke, Gavaza
    Eyewitness testimonies are integral pieces of evidence in criminal justice investigations. This is because justified conviction and appropriate sentencing can flow from eyewitness testimony. However, research has demonstrated that eyewitness testimony is often unreliable, even more so, the testimony of eyewitnesses who have witnessed multiple perpetrator crimes. This is because eyewitnesses to multiple perpetrator crimes have the challenging tasks of recalling the crime scene, correctly identifying the perpetrators involved in the crime, and assigning the correct role to each perpetrator. Eyewitnesses in the current study viewed a mock crime video comprising one, two, or five perpetrators and were instructed to answer a number of crime-related questions and identify the perpetrator/s from the line-up. The line-ups were presented sequentially (with one perpetrator in each line-up) for eyewitnesses who viewed the multiple perpetrator crimes. Additionally, these eyewitnesses were required to pair each perpetrator to the role they played in the crime. Analysis of the sample (N = 226) revealed that the accuracy of eyewitnesses decreased as the number of perpetrators increased. The ‘post-identification feedback' effect has not yet been studied in multiple perpetrator crimes. Single perpetrator research demonstrates that any suggestion that the eyewitness chose the correct person from the line-up inflates eyewitness confidence. We hypothesized that the effect would also persist in eyewitnesses who viewed multiple perpetrator crimes. We analysed 1991 of the 226 eyewitnesses and found that postidentification feedback did not significantly affect eyewitness identification and role confidence
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    Transnational Mothering in South Africa A Contemporary Approach
    (2023) Glazer, Natasha; Maluleke, Gavaza
    Literature on migration has been largely saturated by Global North and Asian narratives which as a result has led to an umbrella approach to migration experiences - such an approach negates the reality that experiences and knowledge of migration are relational and contextual. This dissertation, through the use of the contemporary approach to migration and qualitative interviews, will attempt to mitigate the above universalism by focusing on contextual specificities in a migration pattern that has so far been sidelined. This migration pattern is South-South and hones in on the lived realities of poor black undocumented transnational mothers in South Africa from the SADC region. Macro-level factors such as documentation, access to services and the labor market will be reviewed in the analysis, as well as micro-level factors such as mothering practices and relational definitions of motherhood. After which, this dissertation calls for the conceptual renegotiation of transnational mothering and the meaning of motherhood. By investigating diverging experiences and understandings to what have thus far been global hegemonies, this dissertation achieves its aim of recentering theory on migration and shifting knowledge on gender ideologies.
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    Travelling hair pains of the past: The continued impact of colonialism on the construction of black women's hair
    (2024) Zulu, Buhle; Maluleke, Gavaza
    The study of Black women's hair politics is recent. It refers to the existing social discussions and analyses of Black women's hair by Black women. And focuses on Black women's racial, gendered, political, and personal experiences with their hair. It explores how their views relate to dominant societal meanings attached to their hair. Over the years, this conversation has helped Black women voice and uncover how others perceive their hair. They explore these perceptions in the context of race, gender, location, and class. One dominant narrative that has emerged out of this discourse is the recurring issue of emotional pain experienced by Black women with African textured hair. From the early 1980s to the late 2000s, academic studies showed that Black women's pain about their African-textured hair came from historical racial discrimination and Euro-American beauty standards. Furthermore, these studies showed that western biases informed by discrimination target Black women and their hair. The dissertation analyzes the historical relationship between African and American experiences of Black women and Black hair. It explores how slavery connects these contexts. Furthermore, it examines three critical gaps in the association of Black women's African textured hair with pain. Firstly, the dissertation examines how African textured hair got to be associated with pain over the years. Secondly, it traces how racial historical perceptions on Blackness transformed the pain of having African textured hair to be solely centered on Black women. Thirdly, the dissertation explores how biological determinism during the American slavery era led to the perception of associating African textured hair with pain to be a Black female problem. This dissertation argues that the historical habitual tendency to associate Black women's African textured hair with pain, travels and is a repetitive issue that still affects Black women today. This dissertation used the postcolonial feminist research method. It included an in-depth discourse analysis of existing academic literature on Black women's hair discourses. It also analyzed the work of post-colonial (feminist) theorists in the areas of Black Feminist Thought and Transnational Feminism. This dissertation also analyzes contemporary material data from academic journals, newspaper articles, and YouTube material from the early 2000s Natural Hair Movement (NHM).
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    Women s Reproductive Bodies and Labour as The Premise for The Survival of The Capitalist System: A Transnational Feminist Inquiry into Contemporary and Speculative Future Forms of Capital Accumulation
    (2024) Fredericks, Saskia; Maluleke, Gavaza
    This dissertation examines how capitalism has remained predicated upon women's reproductive bodies and labour in the contemporary moment and its possibilities for the future. Relevant to the current aftermath of overturning Roe v. Wade, this research incorporates the concepts of gender, race, geopolitics, religion, and technology into investigating the transnational reliance of varied capitalist logics of accumulation on women's procreative capabilities. Utilizing a transnational feminist theoretical framework, and a qualitative secondary analysis methodological approach to extract data from secondary literature sources such as academic journal papers and online news articles, this study contends that an abortion ban in the Global North has had a ripple geopolitical effect on the Global South and beyond, exposing the current transnational connection between nation-states to implement foreignaided family planning, biocapitalism, surveillance capitalism, and terror capitalism via the carceral system, as tactics for extracting capitalist profit from the reproductive bodies and labour of women. Furthermore, this research argues, that as emerging logics of capitalist accumulation are becoming increasingly permeated with advancing technologies, the uterus has materialized as a technologized object, with capitalist elites testing the possible replacement of women's procreative abilities and bodies through present technologies such as agricultural breeding, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, and transnational commercial gestational surrogacy – and speculative nearby-future technologies such as the artificial womb. As tech elites begin to tout the possible creation of the artificial uterus as an emancipatory tool to escort in a post-capitalist gender-equal dawn, this thesis asserts that the quandaries of these technologies begin to transcend national borders, revealing that such problems now exist on an ever-developing interlinked transnational scale and further arguing that artificial wombs could additionally drive the concentration of wealth into fewer hands, not liberate all women from reproductive capitalist exploitation, and plausibly expedite a postcapitalist society with intensified inequalities. The research thus culminates with the contention that women's procreative liberation from a capitalist system that relies upon female reproductive bodies and labour to accrue financial gain does not exist in expropriating and replacing the progenitive capabilities of women – it lies in the alteration of patriarchal control via evoking and instituting the social and political modifications that shall lead to the eventual disruption of the misogynistic capitalistic structure and the elites who continue to engross the past, present, and future of the capitalist system.