The ‘sewer rats’: homelessness, health and the Johannesburg Subunit for Displaced Persons
Date
2020
Authors
Taylor, Danielle
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Abstract
Black migrant labourers, cross border and from within South Africa, living in the city of Johannesburg, reflect the experiences of populations everywhere subject to structural violence and vulnerability. Their homelessness or displacement in the inner city renders them vulnerable and excludes them directly and indirectly from accessing basic services such as health care and affordable accommodation. Drawing on narratives of daily life and past experiences, I highlight the variabilities and similarities of homeless people, in particular Lesotho nationals, and their ways of ‘being’ that are framed by institutional, interpersonal and social subjectivities of homeless people who negotiate the city streets. Their accounts of their experiences reveal the barriers to accessing health care. I highlight how the government-run Johannesburg Subunit for Displaced Persons, a unit established to intervene in homelessness, plays a contradictory role that both helps and hinders homeless people. Members of the Subunit are co-opted into society’s stereotypical thinking, which places homeless people as outside of society and underserving of care. However, they still work to move homeless people off the streets and into an overnight shelter, and into self-improvement and reintegration initiatives. I highlight how notions of kin are used to refuse and withhold care by health care providers and Subunit members. This master’s thesis examines homeless people’s experiences of exclusion, the social and structural factors that shape them, and their interactions with society, health care providers and the Johannesburg Subunit for Displaced Persons’. These experiences, shape the health risks and negative health outcomes of homeless people, including mundane health problems such as respiratory infections and minor wounds
Description
A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts, in the Faculty of Humanities, Department of Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand, 2020