Punitive Welfare on the Margins of the State: Narratives of Punishment and (In)Justice in Masiphumelele
| Author | Gail Super |
| Published date | 01 June 2021 |
| Date | 01 June 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0964663920924764 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Punitive Welfare on the
Margins of the State:
Narratives of Punishment
and (In)Justice
in Masiphumelele
Gail Super
University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada
Abstract
While there is an established literature on the relationship between political economy
and state punishment, there is less work on how punishment is constituted from below
in contexts of inequality. This article analyses the discourse around incidents of lethal
collective violence that occurred in 2015 in a former black township in South Africa. I use
this as a lens for examining how punitive forms of popular justice interact with state
punishment. Whether via the slow violence of structural inequality or the viscerally
corporeal high rates of interpersonal violence, my interviewees were intimately
acquainted with violence. Although they supported long-term imprisonment, none of
them came across as stereotypical right-wing populists. Instead, they adopted complex
positions, calling for a type of punitive welfarism, which combined harsh solutions to
crime with explicit recognition of the importance of dealing with ‘root causes’. I argue
that when the state is perceived to be failing to both impose punishment and provide
welfare, violence becomes a technology of exchange, which simultaneously seeks both
more punishment and more welfare. The result is an assemblage of exclusionary penal
forms.
Keywords
Inequality, popular justice, populist punitivism, punishment, punitive welfarism,
vigilantism, violence
Corresponding author:
Gail Super, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, 6 Floor Maanjiwe Nendamowinan,
3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 1C6.
Email: gail.super@utoronto.ca
Social & Legal Studies
2021, Vol. 30(3) 426–447
ªThe Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/0964663920924764
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The procession started at Khoza square, it went past the church, all the way around, back to
the clinic. They dragged them like that, one perso n put tires on him, they told him to
walk while he had a burning tire on his body – around his neck and shoulders – like a
sling. ...There were lots of people in the procession, lots of singing, toyi toying, shouting.
You do feel like that – a sense of connection, as if you are part of a community when you are
all standing being against the baddies. It hasn’t been like that since then, it hasn’t completely
stopped though, every now and again it still happens
Thembeka (19 December 2018)
Introduction
In the early hours of 15 September 2015, Amani Pula, a 13-year-old boy, was brutally
murdered in his own home, by three intruders who were allegedly high on tik (a highly
addictive methamphetamine). That evening, at an emotion-laden mass meeting, held
outside in Masiphumelele’s Khoza Square, and attended by at least 500 people, there
was a ‘public denunciation’ (Garfinkel, 1956: 421) of d rug dealers and a collective
decision was made to search for Amani’s murderers. A delegation of young men, aged
between 20 and 35, was mandated to carry out this task. They were specifically looking
for someone who had been arrested earlier during the day as a suspect in a rape that took
place just prior to Amani’s murder. This person was released, because the victim could
not identify him, but a rumour was circulating that he had been seen with Amani’s
murderer and was somehow complicit. He was found while sleeping in a car, dragged
to the main square and beaten to death while a massive crowd looked on.
About 5 days after the first Khoza Square meeting, the Masiphumelele Youth Forum
emerged as the ‘formation’
1
at the forefront of a mass mobilization against crime.
Consisting of people between the ages of 20 and 25 it embarked on a ‘#DrugsMustFall’
campaign, aimed at publicly denouncing and acting against general criminality, drug
use, and drug dealing. Its members forced skollies (young boys who were known drug
users and who allegedly robbed in order to feed their drug habits) to reveal where they
were obtaining their supplies; the y conducted drug searches; and mete d out violent
punishments (ranging from purported expulsions to executions). At least 8 suspected
drug dealers were killed, although some claimed that the true figure was 22.
Eventually, on 22 October, the police arrested and detained Lubabalo Vellem.
Described in court as an ‘influential community leader’ (Dolley, 2015) and a chief
instigator of the violence, he was charged with multiple offences, including the murder
of a 32-year-old man in a ‘mob vigilante attack’ (Phaliso, 2015). Vellem’s arrest pre-
cipitated a series of mass protests resulting in 37 people being arrested for public
violence. After a highly charged hearing, where more than 1000 protestors singing
struggle songs and toyi toying,
2
disrupted the proceedings and demanded the release
of their leader, Vellem was released on bail, subject to stringent conditions. He was
prohibited from returning to Masi until the charges against him were finalized and he had
to stay with his sister in Khayelitsha (more than 30 km away), where he was to report to
the police station three times a day. After his release, and the withdrawal of the public
violence charges against all but eight people, the protests died down. In June 2019, more
Super 427
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