School of Social and Political Science

Description

This event is a screening and discussion of “Waiting in a Platinum City” - a documentary film produced by Dr. Joseph Mujere in collaboration with Simon Gush and News from Home. The documentary film uses waiting as a lens through which to explore the everyday struggles of residents of informal settlements on the margins of platinum mines in Rustenburg town in South Africa. It demonstrates how waiting is a key feature of residents’ encounters with mining companies, the local municipality as well as grassroots structures in their struggles over jobs and basic amenities. The documentary captures how waiting in informal settlements is not characterized by passive acquiesce but is often an engaged activity that is informed by residents’ reflexive responses to the different structures and regimes of waiting.

Dr. Joseph Mujere, is a lecturer in the Department of Historical Studies, National University of Lesotho and a Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies, University of Johannesburg.