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The need for an urban ecology of the Global South

- Shackleton, Charlie M, Cilliers, Sarel S, du Toit, Marie J, Davoren, Elandre

Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M , Cilliers, Sarel S , du Toit, Marie J , Davoren, Elandre
Date: 2021
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , book chapter
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433744 , vital:72998 , ISBN 978-3-030-67650-6 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67650-6_1
Description: Urban ecology is a key discipline in guiding urban development, sustainability and consequently human wellbeing. However, most urban ecological research has, and continues to be, undertaken in the Global North, and thus urban ecological methods, principles and frameworks are dominated by contributions and understandings from the Global North. However, there are a multitude of local- and national-scale contextual differences between the Global North and the Global South that limit or question the universal application of Global North perspectives and knowledge. This chapter lays the foundation for the rest of the book in two ways. First, it explores the development and definitions of the terms ‘urban ecology’ and ‘Global South’. Second, it presents the major biophysical and socio-economic contextual characteristics of Global South towns and cities that differentiate them from those in the Global North. These contextual differences need to be accounted for in urban ecological research, theory and application towards the development of an urban ecology that is more relevant for the Global South, and when conjoined with understandings from the Global North allow for the exploration and development of truly universal urban ecology principles and frameworks.
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Microplastic leachates induce species-specific trait strengthening in intertidal mussels:

- Seuront, Laurent, Nicastro, Katy R, McQuaid, Christopher D, Zardi, Gerardo I

Authors: Seuront, Laurent , Nicastro, Katy R , McQuaid, Christopher D , Zardi, Gerardo I
Date: 2020
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/158200 , vital:40162 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1002/eap.2222. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.905qftthq
Description: Plastic pollution is ubiquitous with increasing recognition of its direct effects on species’ fitness. Little is known, however, about its more subtle effects, including the influence of plastic pollution on the morphological, functional and behavioural traits of organisms that are central to their ability to withstand disturbances. Among the least obvious but most pernicious forms of plastic-associated pollution are the chemicals that leach from microplastics. Here, we investigate how such leachates influence species’ traits by assessing functional trait compensation across four species of intertidal mussels, through investigations of byssal thread production, movement and aggregation behaviour for mussels held in natural seawater or seawater contaminated by microplastic leachates.
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Understanding the Pyrimethamine drug resistance mechanism via combined molecular dynamics and dynamic residue network analysis:

- Amusengeri, Arnold, Tata, Rolland B, Tastan Bishop, Özlem

Authors: Amusengeri, Arnold , Tata, Rolland B , Tastan Bishop, Özlem
Date: 2020
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/163022 , vital:41005 , https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25040904
Description: In this era of precision medicine, insights into the resistance mechanism of drugs are integral for the development of potent therapeutics. Here, we sought to understand the contribution of four point mutations (N51I, C59R, S108N, and I164L) within the active site of the malaria parasite enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) towards the resistance of the antimalarial drug pyrimethamine. Homology modeling was used to obtain full-length models of wild type (WT) and mutant DHFR. Molecular docking was employed to dock pyrimethamine onto the generated structures. Subsequent all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and binding free-energy computations highlighted that pyrimethamine’s stability and affinity inversely relates to the number of mutations within its binding site and, hence, resistance severity.
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Identification of Novel Potential Inhibitors of Pteridine Reductase 1 in Trypanosoma brucei via Computational Structure-Based Approaches and in Vitro Inhibition Assays

- Kimuda, Magambo Phillip, Laming, Dustin, Hoppe, Heinrich C, Tastan Bishop, Özlem

Authors: Kimuda, Magambo Phillip , Laming, Dustin , Hoppe, Heinrich C , Tastan Bishop, Özlem
Date: 2019
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124675 , vital:35647 , https://doi:10.3390/molecules24010142
Description: Pteridine reductase 1 (PTR1) is a trypanosomatid multifunctional enzyme that provides a mechanism for escape of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) inhibition. This is because PTR1 can reduce pterins and folates. Trypanosomes require folates and pterins for survival and are unable to synthesize them de novo. Currently there are no anti-folate based Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) chemotherapeutics in use. Thus, successful dual inhibition of Trypanosoma brucei dihydrofolate reductase (TbDHFR) and Trypanosoma brucei pteridine reductase 1 (TbPTR1) has implications in the exploitation of anti-folates. We carried out molecular docking of a ligand library of 5742 compounds against TbPTR1 and identified 18 compounds showing promising binding modes. The protein-ligand complexes were subjected to molecular dynamics to characterize their molecular interactions and energetics, followed by in vitro testing. In this study, we identified five compounds which showed low micromolar Trypanosome growth inhibition in in vitro experiments that might be acting by inhibition of TbPTR1. Compounds RUBi004, RUBi007, RUBi014, and RUBi018 displayed moderate to strong antagonism (mutual reduction in potency) when used in combination with the known TbDHFR inhibitor, WR99210. This gave an indication that the compounds might inhibit both TbPTR1 and TbDHFR. RUBi016 showed an additive effect in the isobologram assay. Overall, our results provide a basis for scaffold optimization for further studies in the development of HAT anti-folates.
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The ‘decolonial turn’: what does it mean for academic staff development?

- Vorster, Jo-Anne E, Quinn, Lynn

Authors: Vorster, Jo-Anne E , Quinn, Lynn
Date: 2017
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66612 , vital:28971 , https://doi.org/10.17159/1947-9417/2017/853
Description: publisher version , It has become increasingly evident that the discourse of transformation that has shaped the democratising of higher education institutions over the first two decades of the democratic dispensation in South Africa has now run its course. Over the past few years, and particularly during the tumultuous student protests of 2015 and 2016, students and some academics have been calling for the decolonisation of university structures and cultures, including curricula. Using concepts from Margaret Archer’s social realism we consider the failure of the discourse of transformation to lead to real change and examine a constellation of new discourses related to the decolonisation of universities that have emerged in South Africa recently. Furthermore, we critique the discourses that have underpinned our own practices as academic developers over the past two decades and then explore the implications of what could be termed a ‘decolonial turn’ 1 for academic developers and by implication for the academics with whom they work.
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Misfits in the margins transgression and transformation on the (South) African frontier

- Van Wyk Smith, Malvern

Authors: Van Wyk Smith, Malvern
Date: 2016
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/458282 , vital:75729 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC190705
Description: The story of the European encounter with Africa includes many liminal characters who mostly play little part in the larger sweep of events but everywhere suggest alternative scenarios that might have developed, or at least discordant readings of what did actually happen. They range from the Khoi interpreter Coree, who was taken to England in 1614, to a group of London women sent to Sierra Leone in the 1790s to marry local slave traders, or from various Cape avatars of Shakespeare's Caliban to several picturesque originals for Defoe's African eccentrics; from early African articulants of African independence and dignity, such as the Prince Naimbanna of Sierra Leone, to many intriguing individuals (both African and European) who emerge from the records of Portuguese shipwrecks along the southern African coast and the sixteenth-century Portuguese penetration of south-east Africa. Nor is the story short on the occasional African Queen and Sable Venus who not only enliven events but at times impact significantly on the developing politics of colonialism.
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Guarded visions: walls, watchtowers and warped perspectives in the Israeli occupied West Bank Palestinian territory

- Baasch, Rachel M

Authors: Baasch, Rachel M
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147281 , vital:38611 , https://0-hdl.handle.net.wam.seals.ac.za/10520/EJC176318
Description: This paper examines the relationship between Israel's fortification of physical space and narratives of division in the Israeli occupied Palestinian West Bank Territory. I argue that the fortification and separation of physical space deepens segregation, and increases fear, hostility and disconnection between people living in this context. Furthermore, I suggest that this relationship between narratives of division and insecurity and structural mechanisms of control within the West Bank influences and impacts on individuals such that personal perspectives become guarded and defensive. The mediation of subjects through a defensive lens can prevent individuals from forming connections that acknowledge the permeability of seemingly impenetrable distinctions between inside and outside, or self and an-other. The looking, recording and representation of people in a place that is guarded and framed from a position of insecurity reduces the capacity of individuals to locate openings that traverse restrictive boundaries. In order to contextualise my discussion, I have included personal documentation of defensive structures photographed in the West Bank between 2013 and 2014. I position my observations and analyses in relation to discussions about the Oush Grab Military Base presented by the Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (DAAR) in their recent publication Architecture after revolution (2013).
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Privilege, solidarity and social justice struggles in South Africa: a view from Grahamstown

- Matthews, Sally

Authors: Matthews, Sally
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142270 , vital:38064 , DOI:10.1353/trn.2015.0016
Description: The last decade has seen a significant increase in the number and prominence of social movements in South Africa. Many of these movements are supported by relatively privileged individuals who are not themselves victims of the injustices the movements oppose. In this paper, I draw out some of the possibilities and limitations of the role of privileged individuals in supporting social movements struggling for social justice, looking particularly at the role of students in supporting such movements. The paper is based on research on the relationship between one such movement, the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM), and a student organisation, the Students for Social Justice (SSJ), both of which are based in Grahamstown, South Africa. While acknowledging that privileged supporters of such movements can play a constructive role in social justice struggles, I use the experiences of the UPM and SSJ to explore some of the tensions that are likely to emerge and that need to be addressed when the relatively privileged participate in popular struggles. In particular, I discuss the likely difficulties privileged supporters will experience in bridging social divides and in contributing meaningfully to the theorisation of popular struggles.
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Steel Valley and the absence of environmental justice in the new South Africa: Critical realism's kinship with environmental justice

- Munnik, Victor

Authors: Munnik, Victor
Date: 2015
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , book chapter
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437067 , vital:73328 , ISBN 9781315660899 , https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Realism-Environmental-Learning-and-Social-Ecological-Change/Price-Lotz-Sistka/p/book/9780367597689
Description: In this chapter I report work with critical realist perspective and tools to examine and review prevailing dispositions on indige-nous and institutional knowledge (Western science) in envi-ronmental learning. I open with a review of some of the macro social processes that have come to inscribe assumptions of incommensur able difference between the two kinds of knowledge. Whilst the previous hegemony of positivism would have resulted in the dismissal of much indigenous knowledge as mere superstition, contemporary intellectual perspectives (poststructural and hermeneutical) have shaped a proliferation of worldview modelling that has resulted in a macro-level ex-emplifying of indigenous knowledge as different from and op-posing Western science (Cobern and Aikenhead, 1998; Ai-kenhead, 2006). Here, the lack of adequate mediating tools has given rise to a problematic inscription of assumed differ-ence between the knowledge of indigenous peoples and that of scientific institutions. Furthermore, despite an overt emanci-patory intention in worldview discourses, the marginalization of indigenous peoples and knowledge remains. I then move into the micro arena with a case study of learning interactions in the South African science curriculum. Specifically, I explore some patterns of exclusion in relation to the manner in which stu-dents are able to gain access to the knowledge of scientific institutions. The experience and evidence reported is of a pre-liminary nature but the insights and emerging models of pro-cess provide a useful perspective on how assumed incom-mensurability of knowledge can be tenuous. The study suggests that a critical engagement with both indigenous knowledge and Western science can reveal integrative synergies.
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The representation of sex workers in South African media: danger, morals and human rights

- Hunt, Sally, Hubbard, Beatrice

Authors: Hunt, Sally , Hubbard, Beatrice
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/139101 , vital:37705 , DOI: 10.5842/46-0-618
Description: The ideological construct of gender typically positions women below men, and “others” certain types of women even more, especially those distinguished from idealised femininity by aspects of their sexuality. This paper explores the representation of sex work and sex workers in the South African media in 2009 and 2010, a time during which there was an increase in news coverage of sex work during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Analysis of the two data sets revealed that sex work is still often perceived as immoral and dangerous, and that sex workers – overwhelmingly represented as women – are criminalised for their actions while client agency is largely obscured, which is in line with previous studies of South African newspapers. However, a strong liberal representation of sex workers was also found in one data set, which advocates the decriminalisation of sex work in the context of human rights. The use of the term “sex work” and its derivatives, rather than “prostitution”, was found to index this progressive stance.
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Regulatory incoherence and economic potential of freshwater recreational fisheries: the trout triangle in South Africa

- Marire, Juniours, Snowball, Jeanette D, Fraser, Gavin C G

Authors: Marire, Juniours , Snowball, Jeanette D , Fraser, Gavin C G
Date: 2014
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68621 , vital:29295 , https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/JEI0021-3624480406
Description: Publisher version , We apply John R. Commons’s negotiational psychology, specifically his principle of sovereignty, to the development of a discordant regulatory culture and its likely impact on the economic potential of recreational fishing. Using South African environmental judicial precedents and other documentation, we formulate six plausible hypotheses. We argue that regulatory incoherence, entitlement insecurity, corporate-dominated social valuation, strategic power coalitions, lack of procedural fairness, and the extent of judicial enforcement of environmental rights help explain the economic potential and isolation of the freshwater recreational fisheries sector. We find a consistent pattern of extraction and monopolization of sovereign power by the Department of Mineral Resources from propertied parties. Thus, regulatory domination is a major mechanism affecting the economic potential of recreational fisheries in the Trout Triangle. While Commons postulated that private property is a sufficient condition for participation in the determination and use of sovereign power, we argue that private/public property is only a necessary condition. The conjunctive sufficient condition is the existence of both regulatory coherence between spheres of government and property.
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The incurious seeker: waiting, and the search for the stranger in the fiction of Samuel Beckett and JM Coetzee

- Marais, Mike

Authors: Marais, Mike
Date: 2014
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143971 , vital:38299 , https://mediatropes.com/index.php/Mediatropes/article/view/22380/18161
Description: In J.M. Coetzee and the Novel: Writing and Politics after Beckett, Patrick Hayes argues that Coetzee, while influenced by Beckett’s prose style, assimilates it in such a way that his writing not only departs from the latter’s solipsism but also provides “an anti-foundational imagining of moral community” (71). While there is much merit to this argument, Hayes’s distinction between Beckett’s solipsism and Coetzee’s concern with community downplays the extent to which the human subject’s conception of herself depends on the differential process through which community establishes itself. In the first section of this paper I show that, already in Murphy, we find evidence in support of Ileana Marculescu’s argument that Beckett inscribes solipsism in his writing only to subvert it. Murphy’s attempts at solipsistic knowledge fail precisely because he has been estranged from himself by language and community. What appears to be solipsism is, in fact, a search for the self from which he has been divided by community. In Beckett’s writing, the self’s concern with its ability to know itself is always a concern with community.
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Form over function? The practical application of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 1998 in South Africa

- Kruuse, Helen

Authors: Kruuse, Helen
Date: 2013
Language: English
Type: Article , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/54094 , vital:26389 , http://journals.co.za/content/ju_jur/2013/1/EJC148455
Description: The Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 120 of 1998 is a major legislative measure for the development of customary marriages in line with the constitutional principle of equality, specifically for women. The article explores the interactions between this ideal in the Act with empirical observations and the latest judicial decisions concerning its application. It considers various examples of the lack of protection of women in relationships of a customary nature, and it concludes that both the state and courts favour a formal or definitional approach to customary marriage. In considering alternative approaches that could adequately protect vulnerable parties, two conclusions emerge: First, the article recommends a wholesale revision of the South African family law approach from a focus on form to dependency. Second (and as a short-term measure), the article advocates for the putative marriage doctrine to be applied in the customary marriage context to protect many women who are denied access to 'customary marriage' as a form, and as a result, all of the benefits that flow from such marriage.
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South African quality of life trends over three decades, 1980–2010

- Moller, Valerie

Authors: Moller, Valerie
Date: 2013
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67145 , vital:29040 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0120-y
Description: publisher version , The South African Quality of Life Trends study has tracked the subjective well-being of South Africans in ten waves from 1983 to 2010. The paper presents the SAQoL trendline of life satisfaction, happiness and perceptions of life getting better or worse against the backdrop of the transition from apartheid to democracy. Subjective well-being peaked in the month following the first open elections in April 1994 when black and white South Africans were equally satisfied and happy at levels found in other democratic societies. But post-election euphoria was short-lived and levels of well-being dropped the following year and racial inequalities in evaluations of life re-emerged. The tenth and latest wave in the study was conducted a few months after South Africa’s successful hosting of the Soccer World Cup. In 2010, the proportions of all South Africans expressing satisfaction, happiness and optimism was among the highest since the coming of democracy—just over half stated they were satisfied, close on two-thirds were happy, and half felt life was getting better. Nonetheless, while the standard of living has increased for a minority of formerly disadvantaged South Africans and a small black middle class has emerged, there are still huge disparities in both material and subjective well-being. In 1997 and 2010, South Africans were asked what would make them happier in future. In 2010, the majority of citizens still hoped for basic necessities, income and employment, to enhance their quality of life.
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Microbial monitoring of surface water in South Africa: an overview

- Luyt, Catherine D, Tandlich, Roman, Muller, Wilhelmine J, Wilhelmi, Brendan S

Authors: Luyt, Catherine D , Tandlich, Roman , Muller, Wilhelmine J , Wilhelmi, Brendan S
Date: 2012
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71636 , vital:29927 , https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9082669
Description: Infrastructural problems force South African households to supplement their drinking water consumption from water resources of inadequate microbial quality. Microbial water quality monitoring is currently based on the Colilert®18 system which leads to rapidly available results. Using Escherichia coli as the indicator microorganism limits the influence of environmental sources on the reported results. The current system allows for understanding of long-term trends of microbial surface water quality and the related public health risks. However, rates of false positive for the Colilert®18-derived concentrations have been reported to range from 7.4% to 36.4%. At the same time, rates of false negative results vary from 3.5% to 12.5%; and the Colilert medium has been reported to provide for cultivation of only 56.8% of relevant strains. Identification of unknown sources of faecal contamination is not currently feasible. Based on literature review, calibration of the antibiotic-resistance spectra of Escherichia coli or the bifidobacterial tracking ratio should be investigated locally for potential implementation into the existing monitoring system. The current system could be too costly to implement in certain areas of South Africa where the modified H2S strip test might be used as a surrogate for the Colilert®18.
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Sex work: discussion document 27-29 March 2012

- Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)

Authors: Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
Date: 2012
Subjects: Uncatalogued
Language: English
Type: book , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68748 , vital:29311
Description: The aim of this paper is to resuscitate the debate on the need for decriminalization of sex work and ensure that COSATU and its affiliates further engage within structures, alliance, non -governmental organizations and with the Government in terms of the need for law reform and identify alternative policy framework. However, whatever outcome of the legal processes pertaining to sex work, should be abide by the spirit of the Constitution which is committed to advancing human rights and social justice. Sex work in South Africa is currently criminalised and is restricted by the Sexual Offences Act of 1957 (an un-amended apartheid-era law) which prohibits all activities associated with it. The criminal offences related to sex work include amongst them the keeping or participating in the management of a brothel, procuring someone to become a sex worker, soliciting or selling sex or living of the earnings of a sex worker. In 2007 through the Sexual Offences Act their clients were also criminalised In 2007, the Act was amended to criminalise buyers of sexual services too (SALRC 2009). We therefore argue that the existing laws on sex work are nothing but hypocrisy of the conservatives and elites. They do not improve the conditions of women; instead they worsen the miserable conditions that women in the sex trade already find themselves in. The missing fact is that sex work is a by-product of our patriarchal capitalist society-not something created by some “immoral prostitute” The current oppressive legislation on sex work has stimulated a lot of debates and has led to an upsurge in advocacy work by individuals and organizations around the need to either legalise or decriminalize sex work. Likewise, Cosatu as a key civil society player has also played a leading role in its endeavor to unite the working class and to defend workers from exploitation as well as finding workable solutions to the plight of the most vulnerable people in our society who find themselves with no choice but to engage in sex work. The sex industry is by nature exploitative and inherently dangerous. Women in the industry experience different degrees of abuse, coercion and violence, but all of them are harmed physically and psychologically. As a trade union movement, COSATU has an interest in the debate about sex work, from the point of view that sex work targets mainly the working class and the poor, predominantly black women. High levels of unemployment, poverty and gender inequality are key factors driving sex work. The global economic crisis has aggravated the situation for the poor majority through job losses, casualisation and ultimately increased feminization of poverty. Cosatu has already started some debates and campaigns aimed at devising ways of protecting sex workers through collective workers struggles. As such, the sex work discourse and campaign among Cosatu affiliates for decriminalization was tabled at the Federation’s 10th Congress though it was deferred because of contestation and opposition amongst delegates. However, affiliates had the responsibility to go back and make further consultations, sensitization with their structures and open up a discussion at the level of the COSATU Central Executive Committee. Indeed, it is high time that the debate on decriminalization should be concluded and that sex work be recognized as work as Arnott and Crago (2009) argue that: “The criminalisation of sex work has precluded the enforcement and protection of sex workers’ Labour rights. This disregard for sex workers as workers has left many of those employed in brothels in South Africa vulnerable to labor abuses such as withheld wages, arbitrary fines, restrictions on mobility, and confiscation of belongings including medication. Sex workers on the street or working in brothels and other agencies have no recourse if customers refuse to pay them’’1 The decriminalization of sex work should take the course of a rights- based approach which means that sex workers would be able to enjoy their basic human & labour rights and be protected against sexual harassment, violence, rape and unfair working conditions. By so doing, sex workers would be able to access non-discriminatory health care services, be more empowered and operate within the ambit of protective labour and occupational health & safety laws.
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"A teaspoon of milk in a bucketful of coffee": the discourse of race relations in early twentieth-century South Africa

- Cornwell, Gareth D N

Authors: Cornwell, Gareth D N
Date: 2011
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/458175 , vital:75721 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC119350
Description: This year, 2010, marks the centenary of the creation of the Union of South Africa (and the modern South African state). From our vantage point, the South Africa Act of 1909 and the formal event of Union on 31 May 1910 cannot but seem shabby milestones in the country's long shabby history of racially discriminatory legislation. But it may be salutary to be reminded of just how far the public discourse on race and race relations has shifted over the past century. In this essay I canvass a range of popular contemporary English-language sources, mainly non-literary, in order to adumbrate the discourse in which, in the years between the South African War and the First World War (and beyond), white South Africans discussed the politics and future of race relations in the country.
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