Events in the last decade of contemporary South African history have ruptured the normalised regime of politics on the mines and in the universities. These events began with the Marikana strikes in 2012 and South Africa’s hashtag movements – #rhodesmustfall, #feesmustfall, #RUReferencelist, (and relatedly #metoo).The rejection of representative forms of politics signalled by the direct action of workers at Marikana and students in universities seemed to suggest that institutionalised structures, i.e., the trade union and student representative councils, were not capable of articulating political concerns on the ground. I am interested in how, in the absence of these organised political forms at Marikana and during #feesmustfall, women suddenly appeared visible on the frontlines of these struggles in these spaces.
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