The literature on the South African political and economic system is expansive, yet theoretical analyses are surprisingly underdeveloped in relation to the plethora of descriptive studies concerned with the state. This dissertation situates the violence and the operation of Inkatha in a larger theoretical framework that focuses upon state-society relations.

A significant part of the dissertation centres on an attempt to answer the question: why is it that certain Zulu choose to join Inkatha, while others do not, and some choose to join the African National Congress? Ultimately this rests on the question of what makes a Zulu a Zulu? The main argument here is that dislocation of old communities creates a chasm in cultural evolution and production, raising questions about morality, duty, respect, the acquisition of adulthood and the status of men and women under new conditions of living. It is this debated ethnicity, that lies as the heart of my explanation of Inkatha and violence in townships.

Despite the fact that with each new political transformation of the state, numerous new revelations regarding corruption within the state and the malefic exploits of Inkatha are exposed, the contention of this study has not been to unravel current political events as they unfold. Rather, an attempt has been made to provide a structural explanation as to why an organisation like Inkatha thrives in the South African context, and why it is that such an organisation is not only open to manipulation by the state, but also exhibits a tendency towards violence when other political movements attempt to organise against the state.