AMAKOMITI, grassroots democracy in South African shack settlements

209pp., illus., paperback, First SA Edition, Johannesburg, 2021

First published in the UK in 2021.

"A powerfully compelling account of grassroots democracy and forms of self-organisation in shack settlements [that] makes vividly clear the diversity, dynamism, and significance of these committees. Wonderfully illuminating" Gillian Hart, Distinguished Professor at Witwatersrand University and author of Rethinking the South African Crisis

"A work of great erudition and elegance, it writes shack dwellers and their committees into the history of the working class movements and democratic theory" Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South, University of Bayreuth, Germany

"One of the most exciting and provocative books that I've read in a long time, Amakomiti challenges the stereotype of shanty-dwellers as a powerless underclass without social power. Ngwane unveils instead a defiant working-class world with rich traditions of resistance and a genius for self-organization" Mike Davis, author of Planet of the Slums

Sociologist and activist Trevor Ngwane spent twenty years as a full-time organiser in South African trade unions, community organisations and social movements before and after the defeat of apartheid. He teaches and conducts research at the University of Johannesburg.