Does national sporting performance affect stock market returns in South Africa?
- Authors: Botha, Ferdi , De Beer, Carl
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/396023 , vital:69144 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC135922"
- Description: This study explores whether South African national sporting performance can influence investors in such a way that it has the ability to impact on market returns. Using standard event study methodology, this study determines the constant mean return using the daily All-Share price index on the JSE for the period of 1 January 1990 to 31 December 2010. This study focuses on three of South Africa's most popular sports, namely soccer, cricket and rugby, and examines if these three sports have the ability to influence market returns. Although there is some evidence of a relationship between stock returns and sporting performance in the descriptive analysis, the regression results indicate that sporting performance in South Africa does not significantly explain abnormal market returns on the JSE. The study provides a number of possible reasons for this finding and concludes by suggesting areas for future research.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Dog wars : a Victorian steampunk adventure
- Authors: Molino, Nicolene Chloe
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Creative writing , Fiction , South Africa , Creative writing (Higher education) , Short stories, South African (English) -- 21st century , South African fiction (English) -- 21st century , English language -- Writing
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:5965 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001815
- Description: We're in an alternate universe, circa Dickensian London. Leofric Lieven, a local crime lord, is about to find the past catching up on him. The Romany Carnival has come to town, and a gypsy woman, his former lover and partner in crime, demands from him a favour which will redress his betrayal of years before: he must secure a stolen object and return it to her. But things go horribly wrong when local delivery boy Cards Bennish is kidnapped by Leofric’s competitor before he can deliver the goods that will cover Leofric's debt to the gypsy. In this world, humans can shape shift into animals, entirely or only partially, dog fighting is the favourite pastime for high stakes betting, and power belongs to the highest bidder. The gypsy’s final bet, for the highest stakes yet, will seal the fates of a number of people, for better or worse
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- Date Issued: 2013
Dynamic geometry software as a dynamic tool for spatial exploration:
- Authors: Holzl, Reinhard , Schäfer, Marc
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140871 , vital:37925 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC146065
- Description: Dynamic Geometry Software (DGS) such as GeoGebra, Geometer's Sketchpad and Cabri Geometry offer a wealth of opportunities for an exploratory style of teaching and learning Mathematics, particularly in the exploration of space and shape. The new Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) foregrounds the use of spatial skills and properties of shapes and objects "to identify, pose and solve problems creatively and critically" (South Africa. DBE, 2011, p. 9). Although the South African Mathematics curriculum no longer places importance on traditional Euclidean construction by means of straightedge and compass, DGS can nonetheless be used to engage with fundamental ideas relating to geometric shapes, symmetry and transformations. This was the impetus behind encouraging the use of GeoGebra in four township schools in the Grahamstown Education District whose Mathematics teachers participate in an ongoing in-service research and development programme hosted by Rhodes University.
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- Date Issued: 2013
E-skills training on communal, fixed infrastructure as an activator of personal use of mobile internet
- Authors: Gumbo, Sibukelo , Terzoli, Alfredo
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/430716 , vital:72710 , https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6701781
- Description: In the second semester of 2012, training in computer literacy was of-fered in the Dwesa area, in deep rural South Africa, within the footprint of the Siyakhula Living Lab. Training of this nature is essential to make ICT access meaningful in such areas, and avoid wasteful `box drop-ping', unfortunately not uncommon. The training was done using com-munal fixed infrastructure located in schools but, interestingly, activated or deepened the use of mobile intemet among the people that attended the training. This paper contributes on the ongoing debate on whether mobile devices are the one and only solution to ICT access in rural (and peri-urban) poor settings in Africa.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Ecological niche modeling of the invasive potential of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus in African river systems: concerns and implications for the conservation of indigenous congenerics
- Authors: Zengeya, Tsungai A , Robertson, Mark P , Booth, Anthony J , Chimimba, Christian T
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124341 , vital:35596 , https://doi.10.1007/s10530-012-0386-7
- Description: This study applied ecological niche models to determine the potential invasive range of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, with a particular focus on river systems in southern Africa where it is now established and spreading. Computational tools such as niche models are useful in predicting the potential range of invasive species, but there are limitations to their application. In particular, models trained on native records may fail to predict the full extent of an invasion. This failure is often attributed to changes in either the niche of the invading species or the variables used to develop the models. In this study, we therefore evaluated the differences in the predictive power of models trained with different environmental variables, the effect of species range (native vs. introduced) on model performance and assessed whether or not there is evidence suggestive of a niche shift in Nile tilapia following its introduction. Niche models were constructed using Maxent and the degree of niche similarity was assessed using Schoener‘s index. Null models were used to test for significance. Model performance and niche conservatism varied significantly with variable selection and species range. This indicates that the environmental conditions available to Nile tilapia in its native and introduced ranges are not congruent. Nile tilapia exhibited broad invasive potential over most of southern Africa that overlaps the natural range of endemic congenerics. Of particular concern are areas which are free of exotic species but are now vulnerable due to the promotion of fish introductions mainly for aquaculture and sport fishing.
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- Date Issued: 2013
ECOMAG Model: an evaluation for use in South Africa
- Authors: Mokoena, M P , Kapangaziwiri, E , Kahinda, J M , Hughes, Denis A
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438268 , vital:73447 , ISBN 978-1-4312-0408-3 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/TT%20555-13.pdf
- Description: The complexity of current approaches to water resource management poses many challenges. Water managers need to solve a range of interrelated water dilemmas, such as balancing water quantity and quality, flooding, drought, maintaining biodi-versity and ecological functions and the supply of water services to people. It is a sad fact in southern Africa that water availability is highly variable both spatially and temporally with low runoff coefficients of less than 9% conversion of mean annual precipitation (MAP) to mean annual runoff (MAR) known to be prevalent across large parts of the region (FAO, 2003). With predictions of water scarcity conditions, caused by rapid population growth, expanding urbanisation, increased economic development and climate change, (Rosegrant and Perez, 1997), water looks set to become a limiting resource in Southern Africa. The dynamics of demand and supply will have a large impact on the future socio-economic development of the region (Basson et al., 1997).
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- Date Issued: 2013
Editorial. Methodology, Context and Quality
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/387220 , vital:68216 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122254"
- Description: This edition of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education (SAJEE) is a ‘double volume’ and contains papers submitted in 2012 and 2013. The production of a double volume has been necessitated by administrative problems experienced by the journal production team in 2012, which affected the successful publication of a 2012 edition. However, the Council of the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) agreed to respond by producing a double-volume edition for 2012/2013. Journal readers are reminded that the production of this journal is voluntary and depends heavily on voluntary administration and other systems. The patience of authors and readers in the 2012/2013 years of production is much appreciated.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Editorial:
- Authors: Garman, Anthea
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/158840 , vital:40233 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC141608
- Description: If you've been a Rhodes Journalism Review reader for a while, you'll be surprised by the smaller magazine you are holding in your hands right now. RJR started off life as an A4 but has been big since no 9, December 1994, and the size I inherited when I started as editor in 1997. It's a format I've always loved; it stands (er, stood) out among the wash of pamphlets at international conferences, it gave designers and photographers a fantastic sweep of canvas, and it was distinctive in the world of magazines, a true original.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Editorial:
- Authors: Garman, Anthea
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/158851 , vital:40234 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC141608
- Description: If you've been a Rhodes Journalism Review reader for a while, you'll be surprised by the smaller magazine you are holding in your hands right now. RJR started off life as an A4 but has been big since no 9, December 1994, and the size I inherited when I started as editor in 1997. It's a format I've always loved; it stands (er, stood) out among the wash of pamphlets at international conferences, it gave designers and photographers a fantastic sweep of canvas, and it was distinctive in the world of magazines, a true original.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Educators ‘Perceptions of The Implementation of The National Curriculum Statement in Mt Fletcher District of The Eastern Cape Province
- Authors: Sikhunyana, Philiswa
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Masters theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/2957 , vital:43114
- Description: The National Department of Education has undergone drastically changes from 1994. This study is about teacher‘s perceptions of the implementation of NCS. This study seeks to reveal the perception, feelings and the beliefs of teachers towards the implementation of the New Curriculum Statement in Mount Fletcher District of Eastern Cape Province. A mixed mode approach was conducted in this study in a form of quantitative and qualitative methods. Stratified random sampling (schools) and purposive sampling was used to draw the participants (teachers) from different High schools in Mt Fletcher. Data was analyzed following this pattern of organizing, transcribing, coding, establishing themes or categories, structuring, findings which paved way for the recommendations of this study and conclusion. The findings of this study reveals that teachers are just shooting in the dark in the sense that few teachers are implementing NCS successfully using their own methods and strategies of teaching and learning with a very limited clear understanding of the policy documents related to NCS principles while most schools and teachers are implementing through trial and error method, policy documents are just ―blue print to them as they received no clarity of them. And above all, teachers are lamenting on systematic, pedagogical and societal challenges that hindering the process of thorough implementation of NCS. Based on the findings the researcher recommends that the National Department of Education must pay attention for the Systemic challenges e.g. thorough training of teachers on methods of teaching and learning so that they can be able to understand the policies and methods of teaching and learning. She also recommends that whenever the NDoE is introducing new reforms on education, advocacy and awareness must reach the level of implementers not the understanding of the delegates. The NDoE again must pay attention to overcrowded classrooms and classes that are not conducive for teaching and learning (poor infrastructure), lack of basic and appropriate learning materials; Societal challenges e.g. Lack of parental support and Pedagogical challenges e.g. inappropriate teaching methods as well as learning and teacher support material, unqualified and under-qualified teachers, inappropriate assessment procedures, lack of support for teachers. Key words: National Curriculum statement; Teachers; Department of Education; Implementation and Perception. , Thesis (MMED) -- Faculty of Educational Sciences, 2013
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- Date Issued: 2013
Effect of the relative humidity on the fibre morphology of polyamide 4.6 and polyamide 6.9 nanofibres
- Authors: De Schoenmaker, Bert , Van de Schueren, Lien , Zugle, Ruphino , Goethals, Annelies , Westbroek, Philippe , Kiekens, Paul , Nyokong, Tebello , De Clerck, Karen
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/242131 , vital:51004 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-012-6934-9"
- Description: To obtain uniform and reproducible nanofibres, it is important to understand the effect of the different electrospinning parameters on the nanofibre morphology. Even though a lot of literature is available on the electrospinning of nanofibres, only minor research has been performed on the effect of the relative humidity (RH). This paper investigates the influence of this parameter on the electrospinning process and fibre morphology of the hydrophilic polyamide 4.6 and the less hydrophilic polyamide 6.9. First, the electrospinning process and deposition area of the nanofibres is examined at 10, 50 and 70 % RH. Subsequently, the effect of the polyamide concentration and solvent ratio on the fibre morphology is investigated using scanning electron microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. It was found that the nanofibre diameter decreased with increasing RH. This resulted in less stable crystals for polyamide 4.6 while electrospinning of polyamide 6.9 at higher RH led to slightly more stable crystals. In conclusion, the water affinity of a polymer is an important factor in predicting the nanofibre morphology at different humidities.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Effects of gold nanoparticle shape on the aggregation and fluorescence behaviour of water soluble zinc phthalocyanines
- Authors: D'Souza, Sarah , Moeno, Sharon , Antunes, Edith M , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/232500 , vital:49997 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1039/C3NJ00146F"
- Description: The absorption and fluorescence response as well as the fluorescence quantum yields and lifetimes of sulfonated phthalocyanines and alkyl carboxylic acid substituted zinc phthalocyanines in the presence of differently shaped water soluble gold nanoparticles were studied. The respective phthalocyanines are known to be highly aggregated in water, which is reported to markedly reduce the excited state lifetimes. This paper shows that in the presence of star shaped gold nanoparticles, the degree of phthalocyanine aggregation in water is greatly reduced, but the aggregation status of the phthalocyanines does not change for spherical Au nanoparticles. Since gold nanoparticles have already proven to be useful in numerous nanomedicinal and nanomedical applications, the disaggregation of phthalocyanines is an added advantage.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Electrochemical impedimetric immunosensor for the detection of measles-specific IgG antibodies after measles infections
- Authors: Mashazi, Philani N , Tetyana, Phumlani , Vilakazi, Sibulelo , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/241677 , vital:50960 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2013.04.028"
- Description: The detection of measles-specific primary antibodies (IgG) using electrochemical impedimetric immunosensors is reported. The optimum conditions for electrode saturation were reached after 40 min for 1 μg ml−1 antibody concentrations. Surface roughness using AFM increased with each immobilization or antigen-antibody reaction step clearly confirming the surface modification and recognition between antigen and antibody. The human serum (HS) and new-born calf serum (NCS) spiked with antigen-specific antibody were studied to mimic the real sample analysis. The HS and NCS sera containing antibodies due to measles exhibited correlation between the increasing antibody serum concentrations and the charge-transfer resistance (electrochemically measured). This work clearly showed the potential use of impedance as the preferred electrochemical method for detecting measles-antibodies in label-free manner.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Electrospun fibers functionalized with phthalocyanine-gold nanoparticle conjugates for photocatalytic applications
- Authors: Tombe, Sekai , Antunes, Edith M , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/193769 , vital:45394 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcata.2013.01.033"
- Description: The heterogeneous photocatalytic activity of Zn(II) phthalocyanine-gold nanoparticle conjugates immobilized on electrospun polystyrene fibers was investigated using 4-chlorophenol and Orange G as model pollutants. The phthalocyanine-gold nanoparticle conjugates were synthesized via a ligand exchange reaction and characterized using spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. The interaction between the gold nanoparticles and phthalocyanines did not restrict the formation of excited singlet states, triplet states and hence the formation of singlet oxygen required for photocatalysis. The conjugates showed significantly higher singlet oxygen quantum yields and enhanced photocatalytic activity compared to the phthalocyanines. It was concluded that hybrid electrospun fibers provide great potential as active photocatalysts for oxidizing organic pollutants using singlet oxygen as an oxidant.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Engineering Education Research for educational change: the possibilities of critical realism for conceptualising causal mechanicsms in education
- Authors: Case, Jennifer , Blackie, Margaret A
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426637 , vital:72374 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocontrol.2013.07.023"
- Description: Engineering Education Research (EER) grew in prominence from the late 1990s as purposes for this field were espoused in relation to the necessity of change for engineering education in the newly globalising world. Arguments centred on overall challenges with recruitment to engineering, specifically in relation to historically underrepresented populations, as well as with the forms of education (both in terms of quality of teaching and relevance of curricula) offered to students, and the needs of employers as reflected in newly-emerged global accreditation systems. In a field that is at least partly directed towards educational change, there is a need to understand how change typically happens in education systems. This article first draws on findings from the sociology of education to show that causality in relation to educational change is complex. It then turns to the philosophy of critical realism for a way of thinking about change that can inform EER, and concludes by outlining how this might change the research questions that drive the field, and how these might be approached.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Environmental ethics as processes of open-ended, pluralistic, deliberative enquiry
- Authors: Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437309 , vital:73368 , ISBN 9780203813331 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203813331-15/environmental-ethics-processes-open-ended-pluralistic-deliberative-enquiry-lausanne-olvitt
- Description: By the very nature of their work, environmental education re-searchers must engage with environmental philosophy and questions of values and ethics. But this terrain, despite being resourced with an apparently endless supply of typologies, an-thologies, and handbooks, can remain a vast and daunting philosophical sea—at least in my experience as a newcomer to the field, and possibly for many other scholars and re-searchers. This essay makes no claim to altering that and in-stead optimistically pursues Ball’s (2001, p. 89) suggestion that “there is much to be learned about, and from, the philosophical life-forms inhabiting these thickets and swamps.” My intention here is to review a relatively small but growing cluster of work in environmental ethics that proposes that:“Ethical positions are always open for discussion, re-examination, and revi-sion”(Jickling, 2004, p. 16) and are thus, by their very nature, open-ended, relational processes. My starting point in writing this essay is as an educator-researcher-environmentalist trying to explore what the field of environmental ethics has to offer in response to the question:“As educators, how can we learn and do more with others in the face of an unprecedented socioeco-logical crisis?”
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- Date Issued: 2013
Epidemic transmission of intestinal schistosomiasis in the seasonal part of the Okavango Delta, Botswana:
- Authors: Appleton, C C , Ellery, William F N , Byskov, Jens , Mogkweetsinyana, S S
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144364 , vital:38339 , DOI: 10.1179/136485908X311867
- Description: A well documented epidemic of human intestinal schistosomiasis caused by Schistosoma mansoni occurred at Maun in the seasonal part of the Okavango Delta, Botswana, building from very few cases in the 1950s and early 1960s to a peak prevalence of greater than80% in the 1980s. A retrospective analysis was performed on all available records of the prevalence of S. mansoni in the Maun area and the corresponding flow records of the Thamalakane River. These revealed a statistically significant correlation between prevalence and flow, but only when a lag period was introduced. The correlation was greatest with a lag period of 5–6 years between the rise and fall of discharge and the rise and fall of transmission. Since the hydrological events in the delta follow a cyclical pattern, another epidemic around 2020 appears likely.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Explaining the endurance of poverty and inequality : social policy and the social division of welfare in the South African health system
- Authors: Du Plessis, Ulandi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Health system , Private health , Public health , Poor , Subsidies , Profit motive , Quality , Efficiency , Public health -- Finance -- Research -- South Africa , Medical care -- Research -- South Africa , Poverty -- Research -- South Africa , Equality -- Research -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2755 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002002
- Description: This thesis examines the structure and flow of public funding between the public and private sectors in the South African health system and the consequences thereof for the achievement of equity. The conceptual framework used to undertake the analysis derives from Richard Titmuss’ core theoretical framework, the Social Division of Welfare. The application of the Social Division of Welfare applied to the South African health care context demonstrates how state resources end up benefitting the non-poor and, as a result, reproduce inequality. Those who access public institutions such as public health care are assumed to be ‘dependent’ on the state, whilst those who access private health facilities claim to be ‘independent’ of the state. However, this thesis shows that these assumptions are flawed. Access to the formal labour market, and subsequently the paying of taxes, authorises one to access state subsidies not available to those who do not. The application of the Social Division of Welfare shows that tax-paying private health care patients benefit considerably from state resources. This thesis argues that due to cost escalation in the private health sector, a consequence of the commodification of health care, these private health care ‘consumers’ as well as the private health industry in general are dependent upon state resources. This thesis analyses the role played by the profit motive present in the private health industry and the consequences for equity, quality, access and efficiency in health care provision
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- Date Issued: 2013
Exploring a systems approach to mainstreaming sustainability in universities: A case study of Rhodes University in South Africa
- Authors: Togo, Muchaiteyi , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182857 , vital:43886 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2012.749974"
- Description: This paper explores the use of systems theory to inform the mainstreaming of sustainability in a university’s functions as it responds to sustainable development challenges in its local context. Offering a case study of Rhodes University, the paper shows how the use of systems models and concepts, underpinned by a critical realist ontology and an understanding of morphogenetic change processes, have the potential to enable universities to mobilise their operations to respond to local sustainability challenges. In this instance, the success of such an approach is shown to depend on commitments from the university community and the availability of enabling inputs, such as financial and human resources. The paper concludes with reflections and recommendations to inform further development of a newly emerging systems approach in sustainability mainstreaming at Rhodes University, and other institutions pursuing similar approaches and goals.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Exploring options in reforming South African land ownership: opportunities for sharing land, labour and expertise
- Authors: Dlamini, Thula S , Verschoor, Aart-Jan , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69331 , vital:29500 , https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2013.770951
- Description: In many developing countries, land ownership remains a subject of contention. In South Africa, notwithstanding the strides that have been made to foster equitable land ownership, land reform policies have been unsuccessful in delivering land to the poor majority. Due to the nature of agriculture as a source of food production and national security, and the lack of farming skills and related competencies’ equilibrium, programmes intended to deliver land to black people have been inadequate in their reach. Whereas policy has emphasised the urgency of solving equity issues in land ownership, equally challenging has been finding the right set of programmes to achieve this without triggering a perennial land ownership squabble. After 18 years of democracy, a need remains to find a balance between continuity in food production and equitable redistribution of land in South African agriculture. In this paper, we argue that it is possible to achieve equitable and fair redistribution of land without inhibiting agricultural production, through land sharing. We show that sharing land could help fast-track the development of a farming skills and related competencies’ equilibrium between black and white farmers. The paper further demonstrates that the gains in land sharing far outweigh other programmes of land reform that have been used and suggested thus far.
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- Date Issued: 2013