Browsing by Title
-
Charman, Andrew; Petersen, Leif; Piper, Laurence (University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2012)[more][less]
Abstract: Small, home-based grocery stores, known as spaza shops, are ubiquitous throughout the township areas of urban South Africa, constituting an important business in the informal economy. In recent years, this retail market has become a site of fierce competition between South African shopkeepers and foreign entrepreneurs, especially Somalis, and is often cited in the media as one reason behind the xenophobic attacks on foreigners. Drawing on original data collected in the Delft township in the city of Cape Town, this paper demonstrates that foreign entrepreneurs, overwhelmingly Somalis, have come to own around half of the sizeable spaza market in Delft in the last five years. This increase is attributable to larger scale and price competitive behaviour as these entrepreneurs operate collectively in terms of buying shops, and stock, as well as in stock distribution. Also important are some more customer friendly services too. Compared to the more 'survivalist' local business model where individual owners look to supplement existing household income rather than generate an entire livelihood, the Somali business model has rapidly outcompeted local owners, bringing spaza prices down and forcing many locals to rent out their shop space to foreign shopkeepers. Consequently, while South African shopkeepers resent the Somali influx, most consumers appreciate the better prices and improved service. The rise of Somali shopkeepers thus represents a transformation of business practice in the spaza sector from survivalist to entrepreneurial modes URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/517 Files in this item: 1
CharmanSpazaDelft2012.pdf (3.113Mb) -
Thompson, Lisa; Conradie, Ina (Unisa Press, 2011)[more][less]
Abstract: This article examines how women organise themselves in community structures to claim socio-economic rights through participation. The discussion is based on case study research undertaken in Khayelitsha, Site C, where women involved in incomegenerating projects (IGPs) have also been involved in a dual strategy of trying to improve their living conditions through active engagement. The article looks at the intermediary institutions, the South African national Civics Association (SANCO) and the Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) which mediate the participatory spaces for engagement created by local government, and how these organisations serve ordinary men and women from the townships in terms of helping them to attain a better quality of life. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/575 Files in this item: 1
ThompsonWomenParticipation2011.pdf (1.631Mb) -
Piper, Laurence (Berghahn Journals, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: In recent times South African politics has come to exhibit features typical of many post-colonial contexts, not least the rise of acrimonious and confrontational politics based around personalities and forms of populism. In such contexts rational dialogue and democratic deliberation become increasingly difficult to get going and to sustain. Drawing on Richard Turner’s The Eye of the Needle, first published some forty years ago, the paper examines the role religion, and religious organisations, could play in returning such acrimonious public debate to more democratic and visionary grounds. The key point is that religion offers a form of transcendence from the divisive and bitter particularities that animate contemporary political conflicts. It does this through the spiritual affirmation of our shared human worth due to the love of God(s). From this recognition, achieved through spiritual appeals, the conditions for more rational and democratic debate can be retrieved. In addition, religious transcendence redeems the value of utopian thinking, and thus could help re-orientate public debate from a politics of blame for past wrongs to a politics of imagining of future rights. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/582 Files in this item: 1
PiperSouthAfricanPolitics2010.pdf (207.2Kb) -
Kapindu, Redson (Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape, 2009)[more][less]
Abstract: This research report demonstrates that international human rights law played a quintessential role in the drafting of the Constitution of South Africa, 1996, particularly the Bill of Rights, and that this was more so with regard to socio-economic rights where the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) highly influenced the guarantees of these rights under the Constitution, both in terms of language and content. The role of international human rights law has been even more pronounced in the South African socio-economic rights jurisprudence that has developed since 1994. Courts have referred to and applied international human rights law norms directly. This paper argues, however, that there are some areas where courts have fallen short in their appreciation and/or application of international human rights law. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/232 Files in this item: 1
-
Piper, Laurence (SUN Press, 2012)[more][less]
Abstract: This chapter argues that local government elections offer a unique opportunity in South Africa’s political system for voters to practice forms of democracy that are more local, plural and accountable in character than at provincial or national level. A key reason for this is the mixed electoral system where half of all councillors are directly elected from the wards in which they live. The 2011 election supplied significant evidence of voters attempting to make use of this opportunity, particularly around the candidate selection process of the major parties, and through the accountability talk that dominated public debate. However, analysis of both ‘supply’ (party behaviour) and ‘demand’ (voter choice) suggests that this democratic potential was outweighed by bipartisan politics between the ANC and DA which affirmed the national over the local, a choice between two parties over many, and reinforced identity-based political loyalties over the direct accountability of politicians. In short, the 2011 elections were rendered a proxy for a national competition, frustrating much of the unique democratic potential that local government elections offer, effectively taking local politics further from the people. The proposal to hold national, provincial and local elections simultaneously in the future will further impede the democratic potential of the local electoral system. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/549 Files in this item: 1
PiperElectoralSystem2012.pdf (150.9Kb) -
McMillan, Wendy; Laloo, R.; Gugushe, T.S.; Ligthelm, A.J.; Evans, W.G.; Moola, Mohamad H. (South African Dental Association, 2005)[more][less]
Abstract: This paper, written at the close of a decade of democracy in South Africa, sets out to analyse the demographic profile of dental graduates from 1985-2004 at the five Faculties/Schools of Dentistry in South Africa. A comparison of the profiles for the pre-democracy (1985-1994) and post-apartheid (1995-2004) periods has been made. The demographic profile of first year dental students from 2000-2005 is also presented. From 1985-1994, most dental graduates were male (79%), but this changed substantially from 1995-2004, with females comprising 46% of those graduating. In the pre-democracy period, more than three-quarters of all graduates were White (78%), decreasing to 46% in the post-apartheid period under review. Black graduates increased from 6% to 24% across the two study periods. Amongst the first year dental student intake from 2000- 2005, females comprised 57%. There was an almost equal distribution across the White, Black and Asian groups. Dental faculties/schools have made important strides in transforming the demographic profile of their students. The percentage of Black graduates, however, needs to be significantly increased if it is to reflect the national population. Faculties/schools must further ensure that able students from working class background are identified and considered for acceptance into the undergraduate dental programme, and should then be offered the necessary academic and mentoring support to enable success. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/56 Files in this item: 1
McMillan_distribution(2005).pdf (143.8Kb) -
Schneider, Helen; Govender, Veloshnee; Harris, Bronwyn; Cleary, Susan; Moshabela, Mosa; Birch, Stephen (Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2012)[more][less]
Abstract: Objectives: A mixed methods study exploring gender differences in patient profiles and experiences of ART services, along the access dimensions of availability, affordability and acceptability, in two rural and two urban areas of South Africa. methods Structured exit interviews (n = 1266) combined with in-depth interviews (n = 20) of women and men enrolled in ART care. results Men attending ART services were more likely to be employed (29% vs. 20%, P = 0.001) and were twice as likely to be married ⁄ co-habiting as women (42% vs. 22% P = 0.001). Men had known their HIV status for a shorter time (mean 32 vs. 36 months, P = 0.021) and were also less likely to disclose their status to non-family members (17% vs. 26%, P = 0.001). From both forms of data collection, a key finding was the role of female partners in providing social support and facilitating use of services by men. The converse was true for women who relied more on extended families and friends than on partners for support. Young, unmarried and unemployed men faced the greatest social isolation and difficulty. There were no major gender differences in the health system (supply side) dimensions of access. conclusions Gender differences in experiences of HIV services relate more to social than health system factors. However, the health system could be more responsive by designing services in ways that enable earlier and easier use by men. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/474 Files in this item: 1
SchneiderART-Services2012.pdf (66.55Kb) -
Manjengwa, Jeanette; Mazhawidza, Phides (PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, 2009)[more][less]
Abstract: A bolder policy approach and more vigorous implementation are needed to support women’s empowerment, transfer of land rights to women, and to ensure their productive utilisation of land. The land reform programme focussed on racial imbalances of highly skewed land holdings and discriminatory land tenure systems while failing to mainstream the interests of women. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/87 Files in this item: 1
Manjengwa_Gender2009.pdf (348.8Kb) -
De Ville, Jacques (Springer, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: In this essay the relation between justice and the gift in Derrida’s thinking is explored. The essay shows that an understanding of the ontological difference or the relation between Being and beings in Heidegger’s thinking as well as Freud’s speculations on the death drive are essential to comprehend the ‘concept’ or ‘notion’ of différance as well as the gift in Derrida’s thinking. The analysis points to the complexity of Derrida’s thinking in his contemplation of the relation between justice and law and the need for a broader investigation to understand what is at stake in this regard. An exploration of the gift shows that Derrida’s thinking on justice is not ‘relativistic’ as is often assumed and that the gift can in a certain way function as a ‘guide’ in questions of constitutional interpretation. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/411 Files in this item: 1
DeVilleGivenTime2010.pdf (323.4Kb) -
Zarowsky, Christina (BioMed Central, 2011)[more][less]
Abstract: The papers in this important collection reflect a mature and confident way of doing global health research which is anything but business-as-usual. In the context of increasing competition for individual or institutional “leadership” of the field (and business) of gobal health, these contributors instead speak of active and sustained collaboration -- listening, responsiveness, flexibility, willingness and capacity to follow as well as to lead -- in learning what to transform or sustain, and how, in order to move towards greater equity in both health and health research. Each paper and the collection as a whole is an important contribution to the evidence base for a range of issues from maternal health, HIV and access to services, to chronic disease, health system strengthening, occupational health, ecosystemic approaches to health, and social inclusion, exclusion, and neglect. In addition, they challenge conventional models of research focused on narrowly defined research questions and a narrow range of pre-specified research methods, documenting instead how both the research questions and the methods most appropriate to address them change over time. Finally, they challenge both the idea of “pure” science undertaken by independent researchers on behalf of science and specific communities, and the conventional wisdom that North-South and research-research user-community partnerships are necessarily either North and researcher-driven, or scientifically dubious. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/460 Files in this item: 1
ZarowskyGlobalHealthPartnership2011.pdf (155.1Kb) -
London, Leslie; Schneider, Helen (Elsevier Ltd, 2012)[more][less]
Abstract: While neoliberal globalisation is associated with increasing inequalities, global integration has simultaneously strengthened the dissemination of human rights discourse across the world. This paper explores the seeming contradiction that globalisation is conceived as disempowering nations states' ability to act in their population's interests, yet implementation of human rights obligations requires effective states to deliver socio-economic entitlements, such as health. Central to the actions required of the state to build a health system based on a human rights approach is the notion of accountability. Two case studies are used to explore the constraints on states meeting their human rights obligations regarding health, the first drawing on data from interviews with parliamentarians responsible for health in East and Southern Africa, and the second reflecting on the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. The case studies illustrate the importance of a human rights paradigm in strengthening parliamentary oversight over the executive in ways that prioritise pro-poor protections and in increasing leverage for resources for the health sector within parliamentary processes. Further, a rights framework creates the space for civil society action to engage with the legislature to hold public officials accountable and confirms the importance of rights as enabling civil society mobilization, reinforcing community agency to advance health rights for poor communities. In this context, critical assessment of state incapacity to meet claims to health rights raises questions as to the diffusion of accountability rife under modern international aid systems. Such diffusion of accountability opens the door to 'cunning' states to deflect rights claims of their populations. We argue that human rights, as both a normative framework for legal challenges and as a means to create room for active civil society engagement provide a means to contest both the real and the purported constraints imposed by globalisation. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/475 Files in this item: 1
LondonGlobalInequalities2012.pdf (178.5Kb) -
Combrinck, Helene; Wakefield, Lorenzo (Institute for Security Studies, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: As anticipated by the drafters of the Domestic Violence Act (DVA), the South African Police Service holds the key to the successful implementation of the Act. Over the past ten years, researchers and independent bodies tasked with monitoring the implementation of this legislation have consistently called for more training for police officials on how to deal with domestic violence. However, the reality is that police officials already receive such training. The question that therefore arises is why these training programmes appear to be ineffective in ensuring compliance with the DVA. A recently completed research and advocacy project found that although the majority of SAPS members interviewed had a basic understanding of the DVA and its key concepts, their ability to apply its provisions in practical problemsolving scenarios was often limited, leading to the recommendation that training methodologies should be more practice-oriented if they are to improve DVA compliance. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/576 Files in this item: 1
CombrinckDomesticViolence2010.pdf (1.122Mb) -
Tucker, William D.; Keats, Derek (Telkom, 1998)[more][less]
Abstract: Grafting an ATM network onto an existing Ethernet network is a non-trivial exercise in network configuration. The process of mating ATM technology to an Ethernet network without tampering the underlying backbone and network configuration gives rise to a variety of networking issues including addressing, compatibility, security, efficiency, administrative effort, and scalability. Examples of actual situations serve to illustrate these issues. We have designed several scenarios to tackle the topological problems of an ATM graft. A dual IP approach works but suffers from a lack of scalability. We expect an edge routing solution, with subnetting, will be the most elegant and scalable. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/448 Files in this item: 1
TuckerKeatsATM1998.pdf (612.2Kb) -
Lalu, Premesh (Blackwell Publishing, 2000)[more][less]
Abstract: This article focuses on colonial accounts of the killing of the Xhosa chief, Hintsa, in 1835 at the hands of British forces along what came to be known as the Eastern Cape frontier. It explores the evidentiary procedures and protocols through which the event came to be narrated in colonial frames of intelligibility. In proposing a strategy for reading the colo¬nial archive, the paper strategically interrupts the flow from an apartheid historiography to what is commonly referred to as "alternative history." The aim in effecting this interrup¬tion is to call attention to the enabling possibilities of critical history. This is achieved not by way of declaration but rather through a practice whereby the foundational category of evidence is problematized. The paper alludes to the limits of alternative history and its approaches to evidence on the one hand, and the conditions of complicity within which evidence is produced on the other. Whereas alternative history identifies its task as one of re-writing South African history, critical history, it is suggested, offers the opportunity to reconstitute the field of history by addressing the sites of its production and also its prac¬tices. In exploring the production of the colonial record on the killing of Hintsa, the paper seeks to complicate alternative history's slippage in and out of the evidentiary rules estab¬lished by colonial domination even as it constitutes the category of evidence as an object for a politics of history of the present. URI: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2678049 Files in this item: 1
Lalu_Grammar2000.pdf (707.6Kb) -
Tilley, Susan; Nkazane, Ntombizabantu; Lahiff, Edward (PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, 2007)[more][less]
Abstract: This report examines the efforts of the Groenfontein-Ramohlakane Trust to develop and use the land in (Mpumalanga) that has been restored to the community in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 (‘Restitution Act’). It examines the nature and content of the post-settlement support received and draws lessons from the community’s experience that might inform the development of a strategy for post-settlement support provision involving land reform institutions and associated agencies. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/79 Files in this item: 1
Tilley_Groenfontein2007.pdf (1.241Mb) -
Julius, Elroy P.; Tucker, William D. (Telkom, 2005)[more][less]
Abstract: This paper presents an empirical solution for guaranteeing the delivery of synchronous and asynchronous messages within a semi-synchronous IPbased communication domain. The communication infrastructure that is needed between Deaf and hearing communities forms the application domain within which the research is situated. SoftBridging is a framework for multi-modal bridging as well as multi-user, multi-modal conversation sessions. An implementation of this concept called SoftBridge for Instant Messaging Bridging Application (SIMBA), is a communication platform that allows a hearing and Deaf person to communicate inside a single uniform space. The system makes use of various web services to do the actual data conversions such as voice to text and text to voice. Publish-subscribe systems are an emerging paradigm for building a range of distributed applications. The architecture of publishsubscribe systems make use of Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) to guarantee reliable delivery of messages within a communication domain. We have incorporated a publish-subscribe system within the overall architecture of SIMBA. We have thus modified the existing architecture of SIMBA to reliably transport semi-synchronous data over a synchronous established session. We have chosen to use the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for the establishment of a synchronous session between various users and SIMBA. The system is currently being used as a basis for developing a Deaf telephony application that guarantees the delivery of messages no matter the synchrony. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/509 Files in this item: 1
JuliusTuckerSoftBridging2005.pdf (589.9Kb) -
Julius, Elroy P.; Tucker, William D. (Telkom, 2004)[more][less]
Abstract: This research aims to find an empirical solution for guaranteeing the delivery of synchronous and asynchronous messages within a semi-synchronous IP-based communication domain. The communication infrastructure that is needed between the Deaf and hearing communities forms the application domain within which the research is situated. SoftBridging is a framework for multi-modal bridging as well as multiuser, multi-modal conversation sessions. An implementation of this concept called SoftBridge, is a communication platform that allows a hearing and Deaf person to communicate inside a single uniform space. The system is based on an asynchronous transport mechanism that makes use of various web services to do the actual data conversions such as voice to text and text to voice. Publish-subscribe systems are an emerging paradigm for building a range of distributed applications. The architecture of publish-subscribe systems make use of Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) to guarantee reliable delivery of messages within a communication domain. We will choose one of these systems and incorporate it within the overall architecture of a SoftBridge system. We will modify the existing architecture of a SoftBridge system to reliably transport synchronous as well as asynchronous data over a synchronous established session. We will use the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to establish a synchronous session between various users and a SoftBridge system. The system will then be used as a basis for developing a Deaf telephony application that guarantees the delivery of messages no matter the synchrony. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/463 Files in this item: 1
-
Muntingh, Lukas (Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: The Correctional Services Act (111 of 1998) was promulgated in 2004 creating a rights-based framework for South Africa’s prison system. In 2008 the Correctional Services Act was amended by the Correctional Services Amendment Act (25 of 2008). The purpose of this guide is to describe the human rights framework pertaining to inmates in South Africa based on the Constitution, Correctional Services Act and the Regulations accompanying the legislation. Large parts of this Act deal,for instance, with the operations and management of the Department of Correctional Service and do not have a direct bearing on the rights of inmates. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/227 Files in this item: 1
MuntinghCPA2010.pdf (949.5Kb) -
Adesemowo, A. Kayode; Tucker, William D. (Telkom, 2003)[more][less]
Abstract: As mobile devices and networks become more data-centric, text messaging requires an extension of co-presence capabilities for better interactive discussion between input/output handicapped handheld users and their free form desktop counterparts. Given some degree of co-presence (online presence and awareness) in text-based Instant Messaging, we hope to increase this co-presence on a handheld with fast-track feedback (FF) mechanisms. These are user-defined gestures, such as emoticons, and prioritised messages. We are building a system that facilitates gesture input within an interactive text-based chat over a wireless network running Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The chat bridges a robust desktop environment and a small number of handhelds. This work in progress looks into the SIP Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions as a platform to provide fast-track interactive and co-presence feedback. The aim is to rubberise a hitherto plastic and limited instant messaging conversation. We shall measure co-presence levels between FF and standard IM environments in and without desktop and handhelds by engaging two groups of users in chats session. We expect to demonstrate that there exists high co-presence notion in open (work by Sun Research Awarenex Group and AT&T Hubbubme in similar domain were in closed systems) FF text messaging open environment as we would like to show that this higher presence brings a much more enhanced interactive discourse. The envisaged results are intended to extrapolate to online aware co-presence in the up and coming smart phones on 3G packet networks. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/539 Files in this item: 1
AdesemowoTuckerMobileDevices2003.pdf (180.9Kb) -
Njoki, Emma; Frantz, Jose M.; Mpofu, Ratie (Informa Healthcare, 2007)[more][less]
Abstract: Purpose. To determine the health promotion needs through an exploration of health-related behaviours and the factors that influence the behaviour of physically disabled youth with spinal cord injury. Methods. A descriptive and exploratory study that utilized a qualitative approach was carried out among ten participants aged between 15 and 29 years who were purposely selected. Information was obtained from individual face-to-face interviews and a focus-group discussion. Results. The participants were involved in risky health behaviours including sedentary lifestyles, use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. Various factors that influenced their participation in these behaviours were identified including personal struggles with identity and adjustment issues. Conclusions. The results emphasize that participants were involved in health-risk behaviours, which are associated with development of secondary conditions such as respiratory problems, heart diseases, and stroke. Health-promotion strategies employed for these individuals should address the psychological impact of spinal cord injury (SCI) on the individual as an influence to participation in health risk behaviours. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/399 Files in this item: 1
FrantzHealthPromotion2007.pdf (246.3Kb)