Is land tenure a significant variable for promoting agricultural productivity in rural villages?: the case study of Nonkcampa Village in the Buffalo City Municipality, Province of the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Gqokoma, Daniel Atwell
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Buffalo City (South Africa) , Local government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Municipal government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land tenure -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land reform -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land use -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agriculture -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3313 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003101 , Buffalo City (South Africa) , Local government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Municipal government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land tenure -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land reform -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land use -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agriculture -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: The research explored the causal relationship between the communal land tenure and the stagnant agricultural productivity in rural villages. It is assumed that there is covariance between the communal land tenure and the stagnant agricultural productivity. The communal land tenure deprived the villagers of the land ownership rights to mortgage their landholdings to secure agricultural credit from financial institutions, or to advance them as own contributions to obtain Government-provided grants under the ILRAD. Under such circumstances, the villagers could not raise the level of agricultural productivity. The Permit to Occupy (PTO) certificates, issued to the landholders, provided for usufruct rights only i.e. right to occupy and use an allotment. The related research was conducted at Nonkcampa village. The metatheory, “Positivism” and the quantitative paradigm were applied to collate and analyse the data. The research findings confirmed the correlation between the land tenure and the agricultural productivity, as the respondents claimed not to have had any access to agricultural inputs. Hence, the agricultural productivity on the arable land had stagnated.
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Isolation, purification and characterization of a novel glucose oxidase from Penicillium canescens Tt42
- Authors: Simpson, Clinton
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Penicillium , Glucose , Oxidases
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:3975 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004034 , Penicillium , Glucose , Oxidases
- Description: A novel glucose oxidase from Penicillium canescens (Tt42) was isolated, purified and characterised. The P. canescens Tt42 was cultivated using an optimised growth medium from literature, and maximum glucose oxidase activities of 11.5 U/ml and 6.9 U/ml for the intra- and extracellular fractions were obtained. Maximum glucose oxidase production was achieved after 72 hours at 28°C which coincided with glucose depletion. A total of 1104 U (from 60ml) of glucose oxidase was produced with a biomass specific glucose oxidase activity of 1.08 Umg[superscript -1] Four methods of cell disruption were evaluated for release of intracellular glucose oxidase from P. canescens Tt42 cells. These methods were; sonication, French press, Freeze-Thaw and a high pressure cell disrupter (Z-Plus Series) from Constant systems. All the methods were successful in releasing the intracellular glucose oxidase from P. canescens Tt42. The use of the Constant Systems high pressure cell disrupter was preferred, since it was the simplest and most rapid method. Ammonium sulphate precipitation was shown to be effective as an initial purification step for extracellular glucose oxidase from P. canescens Tt42. Comparison of the intra- and extracellular glucose oxidase fractions using isoelectric focusing showed 2 isoenzymes in both fractions. The pI values of the isoenzymes were determined to be 4.30 and 4.67, with the former being dominant. Since both the intra- and extracellular fractions contained the same isoenzymes of glucose oxidase, further purification studies were performed using the extracellular fraction. The glucose oxidase from P. canescens Tt42 was purified using 3 main techniques: ammonium sulphate precipitation (60% - 70% cut), anion exchange chromatography (Super Q 650M) and size exclusion chromatography (Sephadex S200HR). The glucose oxidase was determined to be ±80% pure by size exclusion chromatography. The final purified glucose oxidase was lyophilised, and an overall purification yield of 10.3% was achieved with an 8.6-fold purification. The purified glucose oxidase was confirmed to be catalase free. Glucose oxidase from P. canescens Tt42 was determined to be a dimeric protein (M[subscript r] ±148kDa) likely consisting of 2 equal subunits (M[subscript r] ± 70kDa). The temperature optimum range was shown to be 25-30°C. The optimum pH for the oxidation of β-D-glucose was pH 7. The enzyme was shown to be stable at 25°C for 10 hours, with a half life of approximately 30 minutes at 37°C. The lyophilised enzyme was stable at -20°C for 6 months. The properties of glucose oxidase from Tt42 were comparable to alternative glucose oxidase enzymes from Aspergillus and other Penicillium species. Glucose oxidase from P. canescens Tt42 was shown to have distinct kinetic characteristics. The V[subscript max] and K[subscript m] were shown to be 651 Umg[superscript -1] and 18.4 mM towards β-D-glucose. The catalytic kcat and specificity k[subscript cat]/K[subscript m] constants for glucose oxidase from P. canescens Tt42 were shown to be 791 s[superscript -1] and 40 s[superscript -1]mM[superscript -1] each respectively. The specificity constant (k[subscript cat]/K[subscript m]) of glucose oxidase from P. canescens Tt42 was determined to be 1.3-fold higher than that that of A. niger (Sigma Type VII) and 8.7-fold lower than that of P. amagasakiense (ATCC 28686) from literature.
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Izaci namaqhalo esiXhosa: Xhosa idioms and proverbs referring to plants
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Dold, Anthony P
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141326 , vital:37962 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC112940
- Description: Converging with the ecological extinction crisis, the planet has been experiencing a severe erosion of the diversity of human cultures and languages, reducing the pool of knowledge, behaviors and values from which individual communities and humanity at large can draw to respond to social and environmental stresses.
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JM Coetzee's Disgrace and the Task of the Imagination:
- Authors: Marais, Mike
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144126 , vital:38313 , DOI: 10.2979/JML.2006.29.2.75
- Description: In an early review of Disgrace, Jane Taylor first relates this novel's treatment of violence in post-apartheid South Africa to the European Enlightenment's legacy of the autonomy of the human subject (25), in terms of which each individual is conceived of as a living consciousness separated totally from every other consciousness, and then discusses J.M. Coetzee's postulation of the sympathetic imagination as a potential corrective to the violence attendant on monadic individuality. Taylor makes the telling point that, in the eighteenth century, the notions of sensibility, sympathy, and compassion, which the novel repeatedly invokes, were self-consciously developed as an ethical response to the instrumentalist logic of autonomous individuality and, in this regard, she cites Adam Smith's observation in The Theory of Moral Sentiments that "By the imagination we place ourselves in his situation, we conceive ourselves enduring all the same torments, we enter as it were into his body, and become in some measure the same person with him, and thence form some idea of his sensation" (qtd. in Taylor 25).
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Joking around in Zimbabwe, undoing and redoing participation
- Authors: Price, Leigh
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373715 , vital:66716 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122750"
- Description: In Zimbabwe, I teach a participatory course on environmental education to trainers. The course is an adaptation of a course designed by Rhodes University, South Africa. It gives participants a background in educational theories and has a strong theoretical component built around a focus on practice. During the time that the course was being delivered to non-industry participants, the theoretical component of the course was whole-heartedly embraced. We assumed that calling the course ‘participatory’ presupposed the need for this theory because within the theory were the tools for emancipation. And participation, we believed, had an emancipatory mandate. However, when we decided to redevelop the course for industry, we were uncomfortably surprised by the request from a majority of industry participants to reduce the theory and concentrate solely on skills-based training. This paper documents how this discomfort resulted in my adjusting my view of participation.
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Kappia lobulata (Apocynaceae, Periplocoideae), a new genus from South Africa
- Authors: Venter, H J T , Dold, Anthony P , Verhoeven, R L , Ionta, G
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6556 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006015
- Description: Kappia, a new genus from the Fish River Valley in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa is presented. At first described as Raphionacme lobulata Venter and R.L.Verh. [Venter, H.J.T., Verhoeven, R.L. 1988. Raphionacme lobulata (Periplocaceae), a new species from the eastern Cape Province, South Africa. South African Journal of Botany 54, 603–606.] based on a single specimen collected in 1936, recently discovered plants of this species proved it to be a new genus. In habit Kappia resembles Baseonema Schltr. and Rendle, Batesanthus N.E.Br., Mondia Skeels and Stomatostemma N.E.Br. However, as far as floral structure is concerned, Kappia reveals more affinity with Raphionacme Harv. DNA sequence data show Kappia to be distinct from Batesanthus, Mondia and Raphionacme Harv. and weakly supported as a sister to Stomatostemma.
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Karyology of the redfin minnows, genus Pseudobarbus Smith, 1841 (Teleostei: Cyprinidae): one of the evolutionarily tetraploid lineages of South African barbines
- Authors: Naran, Daksha , Skelton, Paul H , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6770 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008063
- Description: The karyotypes of six species of Pseudobarbus Smith, 1841, namely P. afer (Peters, 1864), P. asper (Boulenger, 1911), P. burchelli Smith, 1841, P. burgi (Boulenger, 1911), P. phlegethon (Barnard, 1938) and P. tenuis (Barnard, 1938), were examined by conventional Giemsa staining and described. All six karyotypes have 2n = 100 chromosomes, dominated by biarmed chromosomes, as does the only other member of the genus, P. quathlambae (Barnard, 1938). Sex-related intraspecific karyotype variation was not found. The shared chromosome numbers and general similarity of the karyotypes (FN = 186–192) provide a new synapomorphy to support their monophyly, which is already indicated by anatomical and mtDNA markers. Karyotype evolution within the genus has been accompanied by chromosomal inversions and centromeric shifts. Comparison of the diploid number found in Pseudobarbus with other African barbine cyprinines, which have in the region of 2n=50 and lower FNs, suggests a tetraploid evolutionary origin of the genus, possibly by allotetraploidy.
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Key editorial and business strategies: a case study of six independent community newspapers
- Authors: Milne, Claire , Rau, Asta , du Toit, Peter , Mdlongwa, Francis
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Book
- Identifier: vital:531 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008544
- Description: [From the introduction] The Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership (SPI) conducted this study with the goal of assisting small independent newspapers by exploring and publicising the many challenges that they face in their efforts to become sustainable enterprises. The intent is to reveal key business and editorial strategies successful publications have adopted to assist them in overcoming these challenges. To this end, the SPI conducted in-depth case studies of six successful South African newspapers serving their local communities. Newspapers were selected from a pool of twenty newspapers, which were nominated as successful ventures by the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) and the Association of Independent Publishers of South Africa (AIP). All twenty newspapers were sent questionnaires. These collected information on each newspaper’s background, money matters, the composition of staff, and the manager’s perception of the opportunities and difficulties facing the small independent community newspapers. Based on the researchers’ interpretations of responses in the questionnaires, the SPI selected six newspapers for the case study phase of the research. The selected newspapers are: KZN Community Newspaper, Southern and Soweto Globe, North Coast Courier, Eastern Free State Issue, Ikhwezi News and Limpopo Mirror. The SPI’s researcher spent a minimum of a week at each newspaper using interviews to gain an in-depth understanding of the information given in the questionnaires. Interviews were conducted with management, staff members, advertisers and readers. The issues covered in management and staff interviews ranged from those relating to business and editorial strategies to probing how people experience the workplace, their local media contexts and the wider media environment. Advertisers and readers were asked how they perceive the performance of the different publications. The value of these case studies is that they provide the reader with an overview of the challenges facing small independent community newspapers and the range of best practices and strategies they use to succeed. By sharing and disseminating this information the SPI hopes to contribute to the sustainability of small independent community newspapers.
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Key issues in public service broadcasting (PSB) in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Authors: Banda, Fackson
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Report
- Identifier: vital:532 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008545
- Description: This background paper discusses some of the key issues associated with the phenomenon of public service broadcasting (PBS) in selected sub-Saharan African countries. These issues include (i) the conceptualisation of PSB (ii) the international politico-juridical context for PSB (iii) the regulatory-cum-policy models for PSB and (iv) the funding models for PSB.
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Laboratory and field host utilization by established biological control agents of Lantana camara L. in South Africa
- Authors: Heystek, Fritz
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Lantana camara -- South Africa , Biological pest control agents -- South Africa , Weeds -- Biological control -- South Africa , Invasive plants -- Biological control -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:5725 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005411 , Lantana camara -- South Africa , Biological pest control agents -- South Africa , Weeds -- Biological control -- South Africa , Invasive plants -- Biological control -- South Africa
- Description: Varieties of Lantana camara (lantana) have been introduced into many countries of the world as ornamental plants and have become invasive weeds in many countries including South Africa. In South Africa, it mostly invades the sub-tropical eastern and northern range. Mechanical and chemical control options are expensive and ineffective. A biocontrol programme was initiated in South Africa in 1961. To date, 22 insect species, and a fungus have been introduced, of these 10, and the fungus have established. Three indigenous lepidopteran species and an exotic generalist pest mealybug are also associated with the weed. The variable success of some of the agents released on L. camara worldwide has been ascribed to a few factors. One important aspect is the large range of varieties encountered in the field. It is therefore essential to be able to predict the possible establishment and impact of agents on many varieties. Laboratory trials on five of the established agents showed clear varietal preferences. In the field, most of the biocontrol agents had limited geographic ranges, linked to altitudinal conditions, as higher populations were recorded at low lying warm summer rainfall areas. A pink and orange flower corolla lobe and throat colour combination and plants with few to medium leaf hairs were most abundant in South Africa. Most of the agent species had individual preferences towards different flower colour combinations, as the agents built up different population levels on varieties in the field, within the suitable geographic region for the insect species. Eight agents preferred smooth leaved varieties, while three preferred hairy leaves, and three had no specific preference to leaf hairiness. Varietal preferences thus did play a significant role in agent populations and accompanied impact achieved in the field. New candidate agents need to be proven specific under quarantine conditions and the results extrapolated to predict specificity in the field, while avoiding potential non-target effects. Many authors have questioned the validity of laboratory host specificity trials. The conventional wisdom is that insects portray a far wider host range in the laboratory than what they would do in the field. In other words, laboratory studies measure the physiological host range of an agent and are conservative and usually don’t reflect the ecological host range of agents in the field. To avoid unnecessary rejections of biocontrol agents, this study has made a retrospective study of the host specificity of agents established in the field. Their laboratory and field host ranges were compared and it was found that virtually all the agents reflect similar or less non-target effects in the field than predicted during multiple choice trials. Of the 14 agents, only one introduced species, Teleonemia scrupulosa, and the indigenous species, Hypena laceratalis and Aristea onychote were able to sustain populations on non-target species in the field in the absence of L. camara. Insect populations on non-target species were much reduced compared to that on L. camara. Furthermore non-target effects were only recorded on plant species closely related to the target weed. The multiple choice trials therefore predict field non-target effects accurately. Predictions of non-target effects of candidate agents can therefore be accurately predicted by laboratory studies, in terms of species likely to be affected and to what extent. One field that need further study though is the impact of non-target effects, especially on Lippia species by L. camara biocontrol agents.
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Labouring to love: romantic love and power in the construction of middle-class femininity
- Authors: Vincent, Louise , McEwen, Caryn
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141783 , vital:38004 , DOI: 10.1177/097152150501300102
- Description: South Africa is 10 years into its new democratic order. An aspect of the country's political transformation has been an official political commitment to gender trans-formation. While great strides have been made towards greater gender equality at the institutional and legal level of society, the present article suggests that highly unequal power relations between men and women continue to be perpetuated in unexpected ways among those whom we would most expect to be capable of resistance. This paper is about how subtle yet deeply embedded ideologies and practices within heterosexual relationships serve to keep highly educated, apparently empowered and liberated women ‘in their place’, ensuring that they do not fulfil their potential. Traditionally women were socialised into assuming their positions in the home as caregivers and unpaid household labourers. The hope of feminism was that education, economic empowerment and an ideology of ‘can do’ independence would liberate women. However, for many women, it is in the most intimate aspects of their lives—in their sexual relationships with men—that this hope continues to be thwarted.
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Language and learning science in South Africa
- Authors: Probyn, Margie J
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:7023 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007204 , http://dx.doi.org/10.2167/le554.0
- Description: South Africa is a multilingual country with 11 official languages. However, English dominates as the language of access and power and although the Language-in- Education Policy (1997) recommends school language policies that will promote additive bilingualism and the use of learners' home languages as languages of learning and teaching, there has been little implementation of these recommendations by schools. This is despite the fact that the majority of learners do not have the necessary English language proficiency to successfully engage with the curriculum and that teachers frequently are obliged to resort to using the learners' home language to mediate understanding. This research investigates the classroom language practices of six Grade 8 science teachers, teaching science through the medium of English where they and their learners share a common home language, Xhosa. Teachers' lessons were videotaped, transcribed and analysed for the opportunities they offered learners for language development and conceptual challenge. The purpose of the research is to better understand the teachers' perceptions and problems and to be able to draw on examples of good practice, to inform teacher training and to develop a coherent bilingual approach for teaching science through the medium of English as an additional language.
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Larkin’s Church Revisited
- Authors: Mann, Chris
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , poem
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468829 , vital:77132 , ISBN 0028-4459 , https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.10520/EJC47784
- Description: New Coin is one of South Africa's most established and influential poetry journals. It publishes poetry, and poetry-related reviews, commentary and interviews. New Coin places a particular emphasis on evolving forms and experimental use of the English language in poetry in the South African context. In this sense it has traced the most exciting trends and currents in contemporary poetry in South Africa for a decade of more. The journal is published twice a year in June and December by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA), Rhodes University.
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Larval development of the carrion-breeding flesh fly, Sarcophaga (Liosarcophaga) tibialis Macquart (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), at constant temperatures
- Authors: Villet, Martin H , MacKenzie, Bernard L , Muller, Nikite W J
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:7091 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012422
- Description: Larvae of Sarcophaga (Liosarcophaga) tibialis Macquart were raised on chicken liver under six different constant temperatures. Maximum survival indicated an optimal developmental temperature of near 20°C, while trends in mortality, larval length and larval mass implied that the thermal window for successful development lay between 15°C and 30°C. Using a recently described method to estimate a simple thermal summation model, it was found that the timing of the end of the feeding phase could be estimated by a developmental zero (D0) of 5.2°C (S.E. = 1.21) and a thermal summation constant (K) of 106.4 d°C (S.E. = 8.31) and of the end of the wandering phase by D0 = 4.1°C (S.E. = 0.39) and K = 126.7 d°C (S.E. = 3.28). Published development times at constant temperatures were compiled for 19 other species of flesh flies, and the developmental constants were calculated for six species for which sufficient data were accumulated.
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Lattice-valued continuous convergence is induced by a lattice-valued uniform convergence structure
- Authors: Jäger, Gunter
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6824 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012332
- Description: We define a stratified L-uniform convergence structure on the set of all continuous mappings from a stratified L-limit space to a stratified L-uniform convergence space. This structure induces L-continuous convergence. This shows that the category of all L-limit-uniformizable spaces is cartesian closed.
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Launch of 'Popular Music and Censorship in Africa'
- Authors: Badat, Saleem
- Date: 2006 , 2014-06-12
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:7613 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011814
- Description: Address at the launch of 'Popular Music and Censorship in Africa', edited by Drewett, M and Cloonan, M.
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Leading strategic change: driving the transformation in the provision of legal services to the Eastern Cape Provincial government
- Authors: Beningfield, Perry Guy
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- Politics and government Legal services -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Organizational change Strategic planning Leadership
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:755 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003876
- Description: Effective change leadership is important to any organisation undergoing fundamental transformation. In particular, the ability of senior public sector leaders to successfully drive strategic change is crucial to meeting the developmental and service delivery challenges faced by the Province of the Eastern Cape in ensuring the effective, efficient and innovative government demanded by all its various stakeholders. The creation on 3 October of a Shared Legal Service situated in the Office of the Premier provided a unique opportunity to examine the leadership of this change initiative in the context of the organisational culture that existed in the provincial public service. This thesis consequently probes the phenomenon of effective change leadership by means of an examination of the understandings of the three change agents involved in driving the transformation of the provision of legal advisory services to the provincial administration and its constituent departments. The picture which emerges from the insights of the participants is one that casts a shadow over the validity of the contemporary theory of transformational leadership. Furthermore, the research conducted has identified the need to view the nature of effective change leadership through a more nuanced, situation-specific lens: one that appreciates the role of relationships and emotions, and that recognises the importance of culture and its impact on the success of organisational transformation. The case study of the Shared Legal Service change initiative provides useful insights into the many and varied challenges faced by public sector leaders in driving strategic transformation in the provincial administration. It offers an example of successful change leadership and demonstrates the need for change agents within the public service to harness more emotionally resonant and relational forms of leadership if they are to soar to new heights in meeting the service delivery expectations of all who look to provincial government to deliver the fruits of democracy.
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Learning (dis)advantage in matriculation language classrooms
- Authors: Prinsloo, Jeanne
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Book chapter
- Identifier: vital:529 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008479
- Description: During the first decade of democracy in South Africa formal education has been characterised by sweeping policy shifts and consequent curriculum revision. In many instances, curricular revisions are criticised for failing to effect desired or anticipated changes. In this chapter the focus is on the language curriculum and the associated practices, or what I refer to as the literacy practices that have become naturalised over decades and persist in the present. The argument that is presented here contends that to enable effective change, it is essential to understand better what has historically constituted literacy practices and to recognise their social, cultural and economic implications.
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Learning about participation in integrated water resources management: A South African review
- Authors: Burt, Jane C , du Toit, Derick , Neves, David , Pollard, Sharon
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433025 , vital:72924 , xlink:href="https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/TT293-06.pdf"
- Description: The National Water Act (1998) opens the way for ordinary people to take part in water resource management (WRM). This is a significant move towards a more social orientation and away from an approach that focused almost exclusively on the technical aspects of WRM. This set of two books asks what a social orientation means in practice. Since the National Water Act became law in 1998, how have WRM practitioners involved people in the process of managing water? What have we learnt so far? And how can we use these lessons to move forward? The content of the books is based on research that looked in some depth at national and local participatory practice in South Africa, and also broadly at international trends. The research was conducted by three WRM practitioners and two researchers in the field of participatory approaches.
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LibQUAL+™ at Rhodes University Library: an overview of the first South African implementation
- Authors: Moon, A E
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:6979 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012407
- Description: When Rhodes University Library closed its LibQUAL+™ survey on 29 August 2005, it became the first of seven university libraries in South Africa to complete this Web-based survey, which measures library users’ perceptions of service quality and identifies gaps between desired, perceived, and minimum expectations of service. This paper focuses on the Rhodes Library’s implementation of the 2005 LibQUAL+™ survey. Results are looked at within the broader context of aggregate scores and score norms from the South African cohort. The library’s first efforts to address areas where perceptions of service quality differed from users’ expectations are described and plans for future efforts are indicated. The paper also details some lessons learnt by other LibQUAL+™ participants, as documented in published case studies.
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