Browsing by Author "Waiganjo, Anthony Gathambiri."

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Commission on gender equality : drawback or progress for rural disadvantaged women in South Africa.
(2014) Waiganjo, Anthony Gathambiri.; Muthuki, Janet Muthoni.
The issue relating to women‘s empowerment has received increased attention from scholars in recent years. The recent studies seem to be favouring policies which appear attractive only on papers with less attention on how these policies translate into reality. This study is a critical analysis of the South African Commission on Gender Equality (CGE) which in its papers claims to empower rural women but in reality continues to encounter a series of setbacks. The study argues that CGE cannot claim to be successful to rural women if its link with other sister machineries nationally is tenuous, for instance its collaboration with other civil society organisations such as the Women Society Organisation (WSO), Women Empowerment Unit (WEU), and National House of Traditional Leaders (NHTL) among others. The study has adopted the theories of state feminism and theory of gender interests as the analytical engine used to scrutinise the impact of CGE in fulfilling its mandate to rural women as delegated by the Constitution towards enhancing and the realisation of equality in the current democracy. The study used non-empirical qualitative methods as it critically examined the CGE operational documents ranging from its modus operandi, minute books, policy papers and meeting agendas, monetary and evaluation reports, and the constitutional provisions. The CGE is charged with the mandate of monitoring government and the private sectors institutions and the public education of society (SA.info 2014). However, the researcher has identified that the link between the CGE and the other gender machineries has indeed been declared tenuous according to recent reports. The researcher thus maintains that representation of women by the CGE has rather been politically inclined than developing the disadvantaged people in the society especially the rural women citizenry. The study hence considers various strategic interventions that the commission has undertaken towards emancipating the rural women, in spite of the lack of proper consultations and contribution from the rural women. Thus, the presumption that rural women do not know what they need and /or how to go about it in the context familiar to them could be the cause of procedural hegemony that arises in CGE pattern where the ―elitist women‖ develops the rural women. The study as such recommends that, in order to directly relate to local or rural women the rural women must be consulted from grassroots. The members of CGE and sister commissions and machineries should elect some representatives from rural women that better understands the interests of rural women. Also CGE needs to intensify monetary and evaluation aspect of their operations with rural women and with other sister machineries and commissions in South Africa.
Gender complexities in the context of xenophobia-afrophobia in the transnational space: the experiences of Somali women in Mayfair and Pretoria West in Gauteng Province, South Africa.
(2017) Waiganjo, Anthony Gathambiri.; Muthuki, Janet Muthoni.
The migration of Somali women into South Africa is a fast growing phenomenon due to migrants fleeing intersecting factors of socio-political and economic nature. As compared to Somalia and Kenya, where they encounter socio- political and economic destabilization, these women arrive in South Africa with many expectations for a better life. Somali women leave their countries of origin due to civil wars, Al-Shabaab menace, economic crisis, a lack of opportunities and the need for the transit route to Europe and America. Despite this, women encounter several complexities within the transnational space, such as Xenophobia-Afrophobia. This study focuses on the Xenophobia-Afrophobia related complexities of Somali women in the transnational space. While Xenophobia is the fear of foreigners, Afrophobia is the fear of Black foreigners of African origin. The term Xenophobia-Afrophobia is adopted into the study because, in South African context, both Black Africans who are non-South Africans and foreigners from outside Africa are soft targets of the antiforeigner’s bigotry. Bigotry among anti-foreigners poses a current problem facing contemporary South Africa, damaging the image of Africa and other counties who are resisting immigrant’s influx into their countries. Due to Somali businesses being established amongst the poorest communities in South Africa, natives brand them as ‘job stealers’ and competitors of scarce opportunities manufacturing them as the main victims of Xenophobia-Afrophobia. (Niyigena, 2013). The upsurge of violence against foreign nationals in 2008 and 2015, and the isolated incidences of 2010, 2013 and 2014, are some of the examples that vividly speak to the issues of Xenophobia-Afrophobia in South Africa. This study ushers in a gender perspective of the complex phenomenon of Xenophobia-Afrophobia, as it centres around Somali women. Existing studies in Xenophobia-Afrophobia tend to categorise migrants as a homogeneous entity. However there is a huge diversity among foreign nationals with reference to their different social locations. This study examines women’s multiple social locations by accentuating the diversity of their experiences of Xenophobia-Afrophobia. It also unearths underlying interconnected power factors that either impede or empower their capacity to navigate a transnational context. This is an empirical qualitative study that adopts in-depth interviews for the data collection of Xenophobia-Afrophobia experiences of Somali women in the Gauteng province. The in-depth interviews were purposively conducted with forty interview participants that comprised 2 Action Support Centre officials. There were 38 Somali participants within and outside SASOWNET that were interviewed. The sample included Somali academics from various South African universities. The analysis of the datum, which was intended to give meaning to the social phenomenon facing complexities amongst Somali women, adopted a thematic analysis that capitalized on the salient themes throughout the analysis process. The study employed the theories of feminist intersectionality, Gendered Geographies of Power, and Social Network. This study found out that within the transnational space, women experienced overt and covert Xenophobia-Afrophobia within the intersections of their nationality, gender, clan, education, religion differently, because their social locations affected how they negotiated their spaces within the context of Xenophobia. Despite the Xenophobia-Afrophoba complexity affecting Somali women, this study rules out that women are helpless victims. However it proposes the thinking that women have agency which facilitates the negotiation within the transnational space. Within the transnational space, women experience covert Xenophobia-Afrophobia in the Department of Health, Department of Home Affairs, law enforcement and educational institutions. Futher, overt Xenophobia is also manifested in the violent attacks that have been prevalent in the province.