Socio-economic drivers of violence

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In January, Oxfam International released a report indicating that 82% of the income generated last year went to the richest 1% of the global population. In South Africa, attempts to regulate income inequality have included a push for living wages rather than the proposed R20 offered by the introduction of the National Minimum Wage Bill passed by the National Assembly on May 29. The lack of living wage has contributed to the highest levels of inequality in the world with 10% of the South African population possessing 69% of the resources. Inequality is still occurring along racial lines in a country where 47% of black South African households were poor, 23% of coloured South African households were poor, and less than 1% of white South African households were poor in 2015. Instead of narrowing the income gaps, the recent economic policies carried out under the presidency of Cyril Ramaphosa such as the VAT increase and the continuous rise in the fuel price are having a direct impact on the poor and simultaneously increasing inequalities. Following the July fuel increase, social media in South African fashion both mocked and critiqued the rising inequality through jokes and memes going viral among many other tweets. The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) understands how inequality is in itself a form of structural violence which contributes to interpersonal violence in contexts of poverty, hopelessness and relative depravation within South Africa.

Although access to income is an important indicator, other factors such as access to health, education or food security must be understood in analysing inequality and its role as a driver of violence.

In June, CSVR organised a round-table to discuss the link between inequality and violence in South Africa.

Specifically, panellists explored ways in which hunger, poverty and inequality were related to violence by examining the psychology of inequality and its effects on violence.

While poverty measures provide important insights, it is often the contrast between the rich and poor that tell us more about the causes and dynamics of violence. Both public authorities and civil society need to avoid pathologising communities that are chronically poor and stereotyping them as inherently violent. Instead, we need to understand the ecosystem of privilege that generates this poverty and inequality.

It is time to focus on analysing the structural inequality and structural violence to inform and implement progressive policies.

Steven Rebello, senior researcher at CSVR, pointed us to the need to conduct more research on the psychological experiences of inequality and the drivers of violence in South Africa.

Rebello highlighted the lack of qualitative research on psychological factors such as relative depravation, flagging how narrow quantitative assessments of income inequality were unable to offer comprehensive explanations for the socio-economic drivers of violence.

Kim Harrisberg, a multimedia journalist for Health-E news, presented a documentary on “food apartheid”, analysing why a hungry nation is a violent one by exploring the long-term impact of hunger on inequality and violence. Overall, she argued that apartheid created the foundation of inequality and contributed to the development of a vicious cycle in which malnutrition is responsible for cognition problems and subsequent challenges in education, which in turn fuel unemployment.

The framing of inequality in a context of great deprivation is one that requires considered and ethical investigation - where many South Africans faced hunger each day, the structural violence of this challenge, presents a necessity to destigmatise hunger to facilitate greater activism for government accountability.

Similarly, media needs to re-imagine the way it portrays challenges around hunger and structural violence in communities when reaching diverse audiences on television.

Abigail Hatcher from Wits University School of Public Health presented her research findings on the huge levels of domestic violence in South African communities.

In her study carried out in Diepsloot, she found that more than half of the men used violence against women.

These high rates of violence were explained by multiple issues, including lack of livelihood strategies, access to health and mental health services and more importantly hunger. Diepsloot only had two clinics, none of which provided post-rape care, and these were serviced by only four psychologists employed by NGOs.

This scarcity represents a huge limit, for both men and women, in a place where 84% of the men had experienced physical abuse or were neglected in childhood, triggering lifetime traumas.

Hatcher’s research examined the psychosocial factors affecting the relationships between hunger and violence. It found that hunger had a direct statistical relationship to domestic violence. In the absence of food, masculinities were potentially undermined, fuelling desperation and violence.

In the context of great food insecurity and inequality, the resultant effects on violence along class, race and gender lines become apparent: cognitive, social and economic deprivation thus contributed to experiences of violence by women and men.

Deepening this investigation would require an understanding of how hunger affected men and women differently, with the latter seldom enacting domestic violence while still experiencing relatively higher levels of structural violence.

The seminar provided useful entry points for analysing the relationship between poverty, inequality and violence - demonstrating how the ways in which basic human rights, like that to food, were undermined continuously for many South Africans.

Compromised nutrition had immediate and long-term effects for communities, and ultimately unequally reinforced experiences of violence along race, class and gender lines.

We need to begin to challenge this structural inequality, it is necessary for society to investigate how the economy was structured to contribute to the socio-economic drivers of violence.

A better understanding, through qualitative analysis, of inequality in terms of psychosocial behaviour, social cohesion or interpersonal relationships, could shed light on the ill-effects of structural inequality, beyond income differences, facilitating equitable policies and providing with practical tools and solutions especially given the rising cost of “thumaring” Cyril Ramaphosa.

Alexandre Marcou holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Amsterdam with a focus on Conflict Resolution and Human Rights and is a research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.