South Africa’s Constitution and the Law of the Township

Looting from Below

Professor David Dickinson

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English

James Currey
25 November 2025

Social discrimination; Urban communities; Crime & criminology; Law & society; Constitutional & administrative law

Series: Law, Justice and Society in Africa

How are residents of South Africa's townships responding to socio-economic inequality and a pervasive sense that the country's democratic transition has not delivered on its constitutional promises of social justice?

Based on extensive fieldwork, this book challenges beliefs that the agency of township residents is limited to waiting for handouts or demanding delivery from the state, showing how they are instead assisting themselves by taking advantage of the opportunities, menyetla, available. In the kasi, or urban townships, where almost half of the urban population lives, there is limited state-enforced order; while the lex constitutional may be the law of the land, the lex lokasi governs day-to-day life in the township. The book opens with a description of life in townships and the interconnected crises facing the country before examining commonly practiced township menyetla to illustrate how the lex lokasi operates: stealing electricity, informal charges to access the Social Relief of Distress grant, fare evasion on the

Metrorail, the illicit sale of alcohol during COVID-19 prohibition, medical aid scams, and looting.

Exploring how this looting from below protects those looting from above, it provides a different perspective to the view that state capture is the primary cause of the country's current entropic trajectory and that the application of the much-vaunted constitution can bring South Africa back on track.

By: Professor David Dickinson
Imprint: James Currey
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781847014269
ISBN 10: 1847014267
Series: Law, Justice and Society in Africa
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 25 November 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

DAVID DICKINSON is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.