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Item The Power of naming: 'Senseless violence' and violent law in post-apartheid South Africa(Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation / Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, 2012-12) Thomas, Kylie; International Development Research CentreThis report focuses on vigilantism, on the practice of 'necklacing' as a form of punishment, and on police violence in South Africa post-apartheid. The report engages with a series of questions about how popular forms of justice are imagined and enacted and about what the persistence of forms of violent punishment that originated during apartheid signifies in South Africa today. The report explores some of the complex reasons why people understand violence to be a means for achieving justice. It considers issues related to collective violence, violence connected to service delivery protests, and violence widely understood by perpetrators, onlookers, and researchers to be punitive in intent. It contests the idea that such forms of violence are 'senseless', arguing that to do so is to evade the question of how violence is bound to the political order, both past and present.Item Homophobia, injustice and 'corrective rape' in post-apartheid South Africa(Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation / Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, 2013-02) Thomas, Kylie; International Development Research CentreThis report addresses homophobia, corrective rape and gender based violence in South Africa. The author offers a critique of the terms 'corrective rape' and 'curative rape' and argues for careful and nuanced application of the concept of 'hate crimes'. The report focuses on an individual life history and experience of trauma, as well as discussing gender-based violence in the context of structural violence.Item A progressive constitution meets lived daily reality: Sexuality and the Law in South Africa(Institute of Development Studies, 2013-06) Thomas, Kylie; Williams, Kerry; Lewin, Tessa; Government of the United KingdomThe Institute of Development Studies (IDS) programme on Strengthening Evidence-based Policy, works across seven key themes. This paper was developed under the Sexuality, Poverty and Law theme. It focuses on homophobic hate crimes in South Africa, and how they are dealt with by the legal system. The authors argue that recognising forms of violence motivated by prejudice as 'hate crimes' can serve as a powerful legal tool. LGBTQI people are not defined within current policy as a vulnerable group. Special courts dealing with cases of sexual violence were closed by the state (2007- 2008) due to a lack of funds.