Beyond black and white: black solidarity in post-apartheid South Africa
- Authors: Majavu, Phumlani
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Black nationalism -- South Africa , Race relations -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 21st century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2887 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016359
- Description: Almost 20 years after the white Nationalist government was voted out, some black South Africans believe that black solidarity is still necessary in South Africa. These people argue that since post-apartheid South Africa is still marred with racial injustice, it makes sense for blacks to advocate for black solidarity. Although it is true that black solidarity played an important role in the struggle against apartheid, in this thesis I argue that the struggle against current forms of racial injustice does not necessarily require black solidarity. This is not to deny the prevailing racialized oppression in the post-apartheid era, nor to deny the importance of black solidarity in the past; rather the point I am making is that the current form of racial oppression is somewhat different from the one before 1994. Hence I argue in this thesis that the current form of racial oppression requires us to do certain things differently. Doing things differently means improving upon the strategies of the past. For this to happen, I argue that every human being who believes in and is committed to racial justice ought to be included in the struggle for justice. Change, after all, is brought about when committed human beings work together for liberation and justice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Majavu, Phumlani
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Black nationalism -- South Africa , Race relations -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 21st century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2887 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016359
- Description: Almost 20 years after the white Nationalist government was voted out, some black South Africans believe that black solidarity is still necessary in South Africa. These people argue that since post-apartheid South Africa is still marred with racial injustice, it makes sense for blacks to advocate for black solidarity. Although it is true that black solidarity played an important role in the struggle against apartheid, in this thesis I argue that the struggle against current forms of racial injustice does not necessarily require black solidarity. This is not to deny the prevailing racialized oppression in the post-apartheid era, nor to deny the importance of black solidarity in the past; rather the point I am making is that the current form of racial oppression is somewhat different from the one before 1994. Hence I argue in this thesis that the current form of racial oppression requires us to do certain things differently. Doing things differently means improving upon the strategies of the past. For this to happen, I argue that every human being who believes in and is committed to racial justice ought to be included in the struggle for justice. Change, after all, is brought about when committed human beings work together for liberation and justice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Biochemical mechanisms towards understanding Alzheimer's disease
- Authors: Padayachee, Eden Rebecca
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Alzheimer's disease Nitric-oxide synthase Biochemical markers Amyloid beta-protein Peptide hormones
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4103 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011092
- Description: The start of the amyloidogenic pathway in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) begins with the deposition of the Aβ₁₋₄₂ peptide surrounded by astrocytes. High levels of arginine and low amounts of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) are associated with AD. These astrocytes store reserve arginine that is eventually metabolized by nNOS, within the vicinity of the Aβ₁₋₄₂ peptide. We propose the existence of an association vs. dissociation equilibrium between Aβ and nNOS such that nNOS is an amyloidogenic catalyst for fibrils. When Aβ binds to nNOS, it inhibits the activity of the enzyme (association phase). However when the amyloid peptide dissociates into a form that can no longer bind, later deduced as a fibril, the activity is restored. Thus, the interaction of Aβ with nNOS could serve to regulate the interaction between nNOS and arginine by restoring activity of the enzyme but at the same time promoting fibrillogenesis. Given this event occurring with the neuron, both nNOS and amyloid can serve as a biomarker for the early onset of AD. The enzyme nNOS catalyzed the formation of fibrils in the presence of Aβ peptides, while Ag nps were shown to reverse the fibril formation from Aβ peptides more so than Au and curcumin either through electrostatic or π-π stacking (aromatic) influences. Our studies have shown that the fragments of Aβ₁₋₄₂ i.e. the pentapeptide (Aβ₁₇₋₂₁) and the three glycine zipper peptides (Aβ₂₅₋₂₉, Aβ₂₉₋₃₃, Aβ₃₃₋₃₇) and the full length glycine zipper stretch (Aβ₂₅₋₃₇) all inhibited nNOS activity to varying degrees. The peptides Aβ₁₇₋₂₁ and Aβ₂₉₋₃₃ with their respective Ki values of 5.1 μM and 7.5 μM inhibited the enzyme the most. The Ki values for reversed sequenced peptides (Aβ₁₇₋₂₁r and Aβ₂₉₋₃₃r) were two fold greater than that of the original peptides while the Ki values for the polar forms (Aβ₁₇₋₂₁p and Aβ₂₉₋₃₃p) were between 3-4 fold greater than that of the original peptides. It was also found that Ag nps (Ki = 0.12 μM) inhibited the activity of nNOS the most compared to Au nps; (Ki = 0.15 μM) and curcumin (Ki = 0.25 μM). At 298K, all the ligands bound at a single site on the enzyme (n=1) and a single Trp residue (θ =1), (later identified as Trp678) was made available on the enzyme surface for quenching by the ligands. Increasing the temperature from 298K-313K, increased the value of Ksv and pointed to a dynamic quenching mechanism for Aβ peptides, nps and curcumin interaction with nNOS. The positive signs for entropy and enthalpy for all Aβ peptides nps and curcumin pointed to hydrophobic–hydrophobic interaction with the enzyme. The fact that Kd increased with temperature emphasized the endothermic nature of the binding reaction and the requirement of thermal energy to aid in diffusion of the ligand to the active site. It was concluded that the binding reaction between the ligands and nNOS was non-spontaneous and endothermic at low temperatures (+ΔG) but spontaneous at high temperatures (-ΔG). The two amino acids Tyr706 and Trp678 moved from their original positions, subject to ligand binding. Trp678 moved a minimum distance of 5 Å toward the heme while Tyr706 moved a maximum distance of 14 Å away from the heme. AutoDock 4.2 was a valuable tool in monitoring the distance of Trp678 within the enzyme interior and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) was efficient in monitoring the distance moved by Trp residues on the enzyme surface.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Padayachee, Eden Rebecca
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Alzheimer's disease Nitric-oxide synthase Biochemical markers Amyloid beta-protein Peptide hormones
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4103 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011092
- Description: The start of the amyloidogenic pathway in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) begins with the deposition of the Aβ₁₋₄₂ peptide surrounded by astrocytes. High levels of arginine and low amounts of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) are associated with AD. These astrocytes store reserve arginine that is eventually metabolized by nNOS, within the vicinity of the Aβ₁₋₄₂ peptide. We propose the existence of an association vs. dissociation equilibrium between Aβ and nNOS such that nNOS is an amyloidogenic catalyst for fibrils. When Aβ binds to nNOS, it inhibits the activity of the enzyme (association phase). However when the amyloid peptide dissociates into a form that can no longer bind, later deduced as a fibril, the activity is restored. Thus, the interaction of Aβ with nNOS could serve to regulate the interaction between nNOS and arginine by restoring activity of the enzyme but at the same time promoting fibrillogenesis. Given this event occurring with the neuron, both nNOS and amyloid can serve as a biomarker for the early onset of AD. The enzyme nNOS catalyzed the formation of fibrils in the presence of Aβ peptides, while Ag nps were shown to reverse the fibril formation from Aβ peptides more so than Au and curcumin either through electrostatic or π-π stacking (aromatic) influences. Our studies have shown that the fragments of Aβ₁₋₄₂ i.e. the pentapeptide (Aβ₁₇₋₂₁) and the three glycine zipper peptides (Aβ₂₅₋₂₉, Aβ₂₉₋₃₃, Aβ₃₃₋₃₇) and the full length glycine zipper stretch (Aβ₂₅₋₃₇) all inhibited nNOS activity to varying degrees. The peptides Aβ₁₇₋₂₁ and Aβ₂₉₋₃₃ with their respective Ki values of 5.1 μM and 7.5 μM inhibited the enzyme the most. The Ki values for reversed sequenced peptides (Aβ₁₇₋₂₁r and Aβ₂₉₋₃₃r) were two fold greater than that of the original peptides while the Ki values for the polar forms (Aβ₁₇₋₂₁p and Aβ₂₉₋₃₃p) were between 3-4 fold greater than that of the original peptides. It was also found that Ag nps (Ki = 0.12 μM) inhibited the activity of nNOS the most compared to Au nps; (Ki = 0.15 μM) and curcumin (Ki = 0.25 μM). At 298K, all the ligands bound at a single site on the enzyme (n=1) and a single Trp residue (θ =1), (later identified as Trp678) was made available on the enzyme surface for quenching by the ligands. Increasing the temperature from 298K-313K, increased the value of Ksv and pointed to a dynamic quenching mechanism for Aβ peptides, nps and curcumin interaction with nNOS. The positive signs for entropy and enthalpy for all Aβ peptides nps and curcumin pointed to hydrophobic–hydrophobic interaction with the enzyme. The fact that Kd increased with temperature emphasized the endothermic nature of the binding reaction and the requirement of thermal energy to aid in diffusion of the ligand to the active site. It was concluded that the binding reaction between the ligands and nNOS was non-spontaneous and endothermic at low temperatures (+ΔG) but spontaneous at high temperatures (-ΔG). The two amino acids Tyr706 and Trp678 moved from their original positions, subject to ligand binding. Trp678 moved a minimum distance of 5 Å toward the heme while Tyr706 moved a maximum distance of 14 Å away from the heme. AutoDock 4.2 was a valuable tool in monitoring the distance of Trp678 within the enzyme interior and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) was efficient in monitoring the distance moved by Trp residues on the enzyme surface.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Biological control as an integrated control method in the management of aquatic weeds in an urban environmental and socio-political landscape : case study : Cape Town Metropolitan Area
- Authors: Stafford, Martha Louise
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Aquatic weeds -- South Africa -- Cape Town , Aquatic weeds -- Biological control -- South Africa -- Cape Town , Water hyacinth -- Biological control -- South Africa -- Cape Town , Metropolitan areas -- South Africa -- Cape Town
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:5874 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013015
- Description: Aquatic weeds transform and degrade the ecosystems which they invade, impacting various aspects of their surroundings ranging from the community level to disrupting important processes affecting ecosystem services. All of the major aquatic weeds of South Africa are found in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area. Landowners, whether private or public, are legally obliged to manage the listed invasive species through applying environmentally acceptable methodologies. This thesis provides an overview of the strategic management options, prevention, early detection, rapid response and eradication of new invasions, and containment and control species of established species. It discusses the different control methods available for managing aquatic weeds, namely mechanical, manual, chemical and biological, and the integration of different methods to improve their effectiveness. Although various studies have shown that biological control is the most cost–effective, environmentally-friendly and sustainable method, it is not yet fully integrated into weed management programmes in South Africa. In addition, the successes achieved in other parts of the world with the control of water hyacinth through biological control have not been repeated in the urban environment, despite the fact that South Africa has the highest number of biological control agents available for the weed. Urbanisation puts pressure on the natural environment and ecosystem functioning. Nutrient-enriched waters support aquatic weed growth and pose a challenge to the management thereof, in particular with regard to integrating biological control into management programmes. The aims of this study were to determine the reasons for the lack of integration of biological control into weed management programmes in South Africa, to determine the feasibility of integrating biological control in aquatic weed management programmes in a complex urban environmental and socio-political landscape by means of three case studies in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area, which showed that biological control is feasible in urban environments and should be considered. Two surveys were conducted to determine the reasons for the lack of integration of biological control into weed management programmes. The surveys showed that there is a gap between research and implementation as a result of poor communication, non-supporting institutional arrangements and a lack of appropriate capacity and skills at the implementation level. Recommendations were offered to address these issues.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Stafford, Martha Louise
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Aquatic weeds -- South Africa -- Cape Town , Aquatic weeds -- Biological control -- South Africa -- Cape Town , Water hyacinth -- Biological control -- South Africa -- Cape Town , Metropolitan areas -- South Africa -- Cape Town
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:5874 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013015
- Description: Aquatic weeds transform and degrade the ecosystems which they invade, impacting various aspects of their surroundings ranging from the community level to disrupting important processes affecting ecosystem services. All of the major aquatic weeds of South Africa are found in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area. Landowners, whether private or public, are legally obliged to manage the listed invasive species through applying environmentally acceptable methodologies. This thesis provides an overview of the strategic management options, prevention, early detection, rapid response and eradication of new invasions, and containment and control species of established species. It discusses the different control methods available for managing aquatic weeds, namely mechanical, manual, chemical and biological, and the integration of different methods to improve their effectiveness. Although various studies have shown that biological control is the most cost–effective, environmentally-friendly and sustainable method, it is not yet fully integrated into weed management programmes in South Africa. In addition, the successes achieved in other parts of the world with the control of water hyacinth through biological control have not been repeated in the urban environment, despite the fact that South Africa has the highest number of biological control agents available for the weed. Urbanisation puts pressure on the natural environment and ecosystem functioning. Nutrient-enriched waters support aquatic weed growth and pose a challenge to the management thereof, in particular with regard to integrating biological control into management programmes. The aims of this study were to determine the reasons for the lack of integration of biological control into weed management programmes in South Africa, to determine the feasibility of integrating biological control in aquatic weed management programmes in a complex urban environmental and socio-political landscape by means of three case studies in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area, which showed that biological control is feasible in urban environments and should be considered. Two surveys were conducted to determine the reasons for the lack of integration of biological control into weed management programmes. The surveys showed that there is a gap between research and implementation as a result of poor communication, non-supporting institutional arrangements and a lack of appropriate capacity and skills at the implementation level. Recommendations were offered to address these issues.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Bosman as Verbindingsteken: Hybridities in the Writing of Herman Charles Bosman.
- Authors: Leff, Carol Willa
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Bosman, Herman Charles, 1905-1951 -- Criticism and interpretation , South African fiction (English) -- 20th century -- History and criticism , Authors, South African -- 20th century , South Africa -- Social life and customs -- 20th century , National characteristics, South African
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2314 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013163
- Description: This thesis is concerned with how hybridity is created and interpreted by Herman Charles Bosman in his fiction and non-fiction. Bosman was a gifted writer and raconteur who captured the historical, socio-political context of his time by translating Afrikaans culture for the edification and pleasure of an English readership. Hennie Aucamp summed up this linguistic and cultural translation by pointing out that Bosman was a writer who acted as a “verbindingsteken” or hyphen (65) between Afrikaans and English. His texts contain many voices, and are therefore essentially hybrid. Firstly, by drawing on aspects of postcolonial theory, the terms ‘hybridity’, ‘culture’ and ‘identity’, are discussed. Homi Bhabha’s notion of ‘hybridity’ is the conceptual lens through which Bosman’s texts are viewed, and aspects of Mikhail Bakhtin’s cultural theory also serve the same function. Thereafter, biographies of Bosman are discussed in an effort to understand his hyphenated identity. Following this, specific attention is paid to a selection of Bosman’s essays, short stories, and a novel. Scholarly opinions aid interpretation of levels of hybridity in Bosman’s work. In analysing Bosman’s texts critically, it becomes clear that he believed in a united South Africa that acknowledged and accepted all races. However, analysis also reveals that there are some inconsistencies in Bosman’s personal views, as expressed particularly in his essays. His short stories do not contain the same contradictions. Critical analysis of the novel Willemsdorp attests that cultural hybridity is not always viewed as celebratory. It can also be a painful space where identities are split, living both inside and outside their environment, and subsequently marginalized. Bosman’s texts, although published decades ago, remain relevant today in post-apartheid South Africa as much of his writing can be seen as a record of historical events. His short stories and novels capture a confluence of languages, people and cultures. His essays illustrate a deep commitment to promoting South African culture and literature. When reading Bosman one is constantly reminded that differences are not only to be acknowledged, but embraced, in what he prophetically imagined as a hybrid, post-apartheid South African society.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Leff, Carol Willa
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Bosman, Herman Charles, 1905-1951 -- Criticism and interpretation , South African fiction (English) -- 20th century -- History and criticism , Authors, South African -- 20th century , South Africa -- Social life and customs -- 20th century , National characteristics, South African
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2314 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013163
- Description: This thesis is concerned with how hybridity is created and interpreted by Herman Charles Bosman in his fiction and non-fiction. Bosman was a gifted writer and raconteur who captured the historical, socio-political context of his time by translating Afrikaans culture for the edification and pleasure of an English readership. Hennie Aucamp summed up this linguistic and cultural translation by pointing out that Bosman was a writer who acted as a “verbindingsteken” or hyphen (65) between Afrikaans and English. His texts contain many voices, and are therefore essentially hybrid. Firstly, by drawing on aspects of postcolonial theory, the terms ‘hybridity’, ‘culture’ and ‘identity’, are discussed. Homi Bhabha’s notion of ‘hybridity’ is the conceptual lens through which Bosman’s texts are viewed, and aspects of Mikhail Bakhtin’s cultural theory also serve the same function. Thereafter, biographies of Bosman are discussed in an effort to understand his hyphenated identity. Following this, specific attention is paid to a selection of Bosman’s essays, short stories, and a novel. Scholarly opinions aid interpretation of levels of hybridity in Bosman’s work. In analysing Bosman’s texts critically, it becomes clear that he believed in a united South Africa that acknowledged and accepted all races. However, analysis also reveals that there are some inconsistencies in Bosman’s personal views, as expressed particularly in his essays. His short stories do not contain the same contradictions. Critical analysis of the novel Willemsdorp attests that cultural hybridity is not always viewed as celebratory. It can also be a painful space where identities are split, living both inside and outside their environment, and subsequently marginalized. Bosman’s texts, although published decades ago, remain relevant today in post-apartheid South Africa as much of his writing can be seen as a record of historical events. His short stories and novels capture a confluence of languages, people and cultures. His essays illustrate a deep commitment to promoting South African culture and literature. When reading Bosman one is constantly reminded that differences are not only to be acknowledged, but embraced, in what he prophetically imagined as a hybrid, post-apartheid South African society.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Can expansive (social) learning processes strengthen organisational learning for improved wetland management in a plantation forestry company, and if so how? : a case study of Mondi
- Authors: Lindley, David Stewart
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Mondi Group , Wetland management -- South Africa , Wetland conservation -- Study and teaching (Continuing education) , Employees -- Training of -- South Africa , Action theory , Critical realism , Social learning , Environmental education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2003 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015661
- Description: Mondi is an international packaging and paper company that manages over 300 000 ha of land in South Africa. After over a decade of working with Mondi to improve its wetland management, wetland sustainability practices were still not integrated into the broader forestry operations, despite some significant cases of successful wetland rehabilitation. An interventionist research project was therefore conducted to explore the factors inhibiting improved wetland management, and determine if and how expansive social learning processes could strengthen organisational learning and development to overcome these factors. In doing so, the research has investigated how informal adult learning supports organisational change to strengthen wetland and environmental sustainability practices, within a corporate plantation forestry context. How individual and/or group-based learning interactions translate to the collective, at the level of organisational change was a key issue probed in this study. The following three research questions were used to guide the research: 1. What tensions and contradictions exist in wetland management in a plantation forestry company? 2. Can expansive learning begin to address the tensions and contradictions that exist in wetland management in a plantation forestry company, for improved sustainability practices? 3. Can expansive social learning strengthen organisational learning and development, enabling Mondi to improve its wetland sustainability practices, and if so how does it do this? Cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) and the theory of expansive learning provided an epistemological framework for the research. The philosophy of critical realism gave ontological depth to the research, and contributed to a deeper understanding of CHAT and expansive learning. Critical realism was therefore used as a philosophy to underlabour the theoretical framework of the research. However CHAT and expansive learning could not provide the depth of detail required to explain how the expansive learning, organisational social change, and boundary crossings that are necessary for assembling the collective were taking place. Realist social theory (developed out of critical realism by Margaret Archer as an ontologically located theory of how and why social change occurs, or does not) supported the research to do this. The morphogenetic framework was used as a methodology for applying realist social theory. The expansive learning cycle was used as a methodology for applying CHAT and the theory of expansive learning; guiding the development of new knowledge creation required by Mondi staff to identify contradictions and associated tensions inhibiting wetland management, understand their root causes, and develop solutions. Through the expansive learning process, the tensions and contradictions become generative as a tool supporting expansive social learning, rather than as a means to an end where universal consensus was reached on how to circumvent the contradictions. The research was conducted in five phases: • Phase 1: Contextual profiling to identify and describe three activity systems in Mondi responsible for wetland management: 1) siviculture foresters; 2) environmental specialists; 3) community engagement facilitators. The data was generated and analysed through through document analysis, 17 interviews, 2nd generation CHAT analysis, and Critical Realist generative mechanism analysis; • Phase 2: Analysis and identification of tensions and contradictions through a first interventionist workshop. Modelling new solutions to deal with contractions, and examining and testing new models in and after the second interventionist workshop; • Phase 3: Implementing new models as wetland management projects and involved project implementation. This included boundary crossing practices of staff in the three activity systems, reflection and re-view in a further five progress review/interventionist workshops, and a management meeting and seminar; • Phase 4: Reflecting on the expansive learning process, results, and consolidation of changed practices, through nine reflective interviews and field observations; • Phase 5: Morphogenic/stasis analysis of the organisational change and development catalysed via the expansive social learning process (or not). The research found that expansive social learning processes supported organisational learning and development for improved wetland management by: 1) strengthening the scope, depth, and sophistication of participant understanding; 2) expanding the ways staff interact and collaboratively work together; 3) democratising decision making; 4) improving social relations between staff, reducing power differentials, and creating stronger relationships; 5) enhancing participant reflexivity through deeper understanding of social structures and cultural systems, and changing them to support improved wetland and environmental practice of staff, and developing the organisational structures and processes to strengthen organisational learning and development; and 6) using the contradictions identified as generative mechanisms to stimulate and catalyse organisational learning and development for changed wetland/environmental management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Lindley, David Stewart
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Mondi Group , Wetland management -- South Africa , Wetland conservation -- Study and teaching (Continuing education) , Employees -- Training of -- South Africa , Action theory , Critical realism , Social learning , Environmental education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2003 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015661
- Description: Mondi is an international packaging and paper company that manages over 300 000 ha of land in South Africa. After over a decade of working with Mondi to improve its wetland management, wetland sustainability practices were still not integrated into the broader forestry operations, despite some significant cases of successful wetland rehabilitation. An interventionist research project was therefore conducted to explore the factors inhibiting improved wetland management, and determine if and how expansive social learning processes could strengthen organisational learning and development to overcome these factors. In doing so, the research has investigated how informal adult learning supports organisational change to strengthen wetland and environmental sustainability practices, within a corporate plantation forestry context. How individual and/or group-based learning interactions translate to the collective, at the level of organisational change was a key issue probed in this study. The following three research questions were used to guide the research: 1. What tensions and contradictions exist in wetland management in a plantation forestry company? 2. Can expansive learning begin to address the tensions and contradictions that exist in wetland management in a plantation forestry company, for improved sustainability practices? 3. Can expansive social learning strengthen organisational learning and development, enabling Mondi to improve its wetland sustainability practices, and if so how does it do this? Cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) and the theory of expansive learning provided an epistemological framework for the research. The philosophy of critical realism gave ontological depth to the research, and contributed to a deeper understanding of CHAT and expansive learning. Critical realism was therefore used as a philosophy to underlabour the theoretical framework of the research. However CHAT and expansive learning could not provide the depth of detail required to explain how the expansive learning, organisational social change, and boundary crossings that are necessary for assembling the collective were taking place. Realist social theory (developed out of critical realism by Margaret Archer as an ontologically located theory of how and why social change occurs, or does not) supported the research to do this. The morphogenetic framework was used as a methodology for applying realist social theory. The expansive learning cycle was used as a methodology for applying CHAT and the theory of expansive learning; guiding the development of new knowledge creation required by Mondi staff to identify contradictions and associated tensions inhibiting wetland management, understand their root causes, and develop solutions. Through the expansive learning process, the tensions and contradictions become generative as a tool supporting expansive social learning, rather than as a means to an end where universal consensus was reached on how to circumvent the contradictions. The research was conducted in five phases: • Phase 1: Contextual profiling to identify and describe three activity systems in Mondi responsible for wetland management: 1) siviculture foresters; 2) environmental specialists; 3) community engagement facilitators. The data was generated and analysed through through document analysis, 17 interviews, 2nd generation CHAT analysis, and Critical Realist generative mechanism analysis; • Phase 2: Analysis and identification of tensions and contradictions through a first interventionist workshop. Modelling new solutions to deal with contractions, and examining and testing new models in and after the second interventionist workshop; • Phase 3: Implementing new models as wetland management projects and involved project implementation. This included boundary crossing practices of staff in the three activity systems, reflection and re-view in a further five progress review/interventionist workshops, and a management meeting and seminar; • Phase 4: Reflecting on the expansive learning process, results, and consolidation of changed practices, through nine reflective interviews and field observations; • Phase 5: Morphogenic/stasis analysis of the organisational change and development catalysed via the expansive social learning process (or not). The research found that expansive social learning processes supported organisational learning and development for improved wetland management by: 1) strengthening the scope, depth, and sophistication of participant understanding; 2) expanding the ways staff interact and collaboratively work together; 3) democratising decision making; 4) improving social relations between staff, reducing power differentials, and creating stronger relationships; 5) enhancing participant reflexivity through deeper understanding of social structures and cultural systems, and changing them to support improved wetland and environmental practice of staff, and developing the organisational structures and processes to strengthen organisational learning and development; and 6) using the contradictions identified as generative mechanisms to stimulate and catalyse organisational learning and development for changed wetland/environmental management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Card games and containment : forensic psychiatric patients' experiences of a student-led initiative
- Authors: Higgins, Jane Marie
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Fort England Hospital Buddy Programme -- Grahamstown -- South Africa , Card games -- Therapeutic use , Mental illness -- Treatment , Mentally ill -- Rehabilitation , Group psychotherapy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3243 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013314
- Description: Despite South African forensic psychiatric institutions operating well over capacity, the urgent need for rehabilitation guidelines is neglected through lack of research in this area. This is further compounded by the constrained financial and professional resources available to the sector. The Fort England Hospital Buddy Programme (FEHBP) is a voluntary social and activity-based initiative involving 2 hourly visits between students and male forensic psychiatric patient volunteers. Through the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 1996), the participants’ experience of the programme was further contextualised within their lives pre and post admission. While further exploration through research is required, it appeared that within institutional confines the FEHBP acted in a substitutionary and surrogacy capacity, as a space for the development of social competence. While participants appeared to experience a sense of protectiveness from the programme, the limitations and restrictions are acknowledged as an increased number and variety of social network links would be required for a more sustainable sense of subjective wellbeing to develop. The FEHBP demonstrates the use of non-professional (community involved) interventions within a forensic psychiatric context.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Higgins, Jane Marie
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Fort England Hospital Buddy Programme -- Grahamstown -- South Africa , Card games -- Therapeutic use , Mental illness -- Treatment , Mentally ill -- Rehabilitation , Group psychotherapy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3243 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013314
- Description: Despite South African forensic psychiatric institutions operating well over capacity, the urgent need for rehabilitation guidelines is neglected through lack of research in this area. This is further compounded by the constrained financial and professional resources available to the sector. The Fort England Hospital Buddy Programme (FEHBP) is a voluntary social and activity-based initiative involving 2 hourly visits between students and male forensic psychiatric patient volunteers. Through the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 1996), the participants’ experience of the programme was further contextualised within their lives pre and post admission. While further exploration through research is required, it appeared that within institutional confines the FEHBP acted in a substitutionary and surrogacy capacity, as a space for the development of social competence. While participants appeared to experience a sense of protectiveness from the programme, the limitations and restrictions are acknowledged as an increased number and variety of social network links would be required for a more sustainable sense of subjective wellbeing to develop. The FEHBP demonstrates the use of non-professional (community involved) interventions within a forensic psychiatric context.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Cardiovascular disease risk in Black African females and the efficacy of a walking programme on blood pressure in a sub-sample
- Authors: Crymble, Tegan
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Cardiovascular system -- Diseases -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Women -- Health and hygiene -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Obesity -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Hypertension -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Walking -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Physiological aspects , Lifestyles -- Health aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Health attitudes -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:5152 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013234
- Description: The purpose of the study was to investigate the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profile of black African females in the Makana region, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Baseline measures from 40 participants, who met the criteria, were compared against the 2003 South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS) and the 2013 South African National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (SANHANES-1). The risk factors measured were anthropometric (stature, body mass and body mass index (BMI)), morphological (waist circumference (WC), fat mass and lean mass), cardiovascular (heart rate and blood pressure (BP)), physical activity (step count and energy expenditure), biochemical (glycated haemoglobin and full blood lipid profile) and behavioural (alcohol and tobacco use). Results showed significantly higher (p≤0.05) values for overweight/obesity (BMI 37.60 kg.m⁻²; WC 1130.58 mm; fat mass 45.23%) and high BP (130/88 mmHg) compared to the previous national surveys, highlighting these CVD risk factors as problematic. The subsequent sub-study aimed to assess the efficacy of a pedometer-based walking intervention on high BP. The walking programme (n=25) was based on individual step goals to be completed at a moderate-intensity on five days.week⁻¹ for 12 weeks. The same measurements were taken at monthly intervals, Week 0, Week 4, Week 8 and Week 12, with the addition of dietary intake and fitness level, and the exclusion of the behavioural variables. There were no significant differences (p≤0.05) in systolic and diastolic BP with the exercise intervention, although there was a strong, negative relationship with time for diastolic BP (r²=0.9857). This trend suggests that the lack of significance may be a result of poor compliance and/or the small sample size. Individual results, however, showed no compliance-result relationship for the two risk factors of interest: overweight/obesity and high BP. Future recommendations include supervised or group-based exercise interventions to improve compliance, and the addition of resistance training to the aerobic programme.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Crymble, Tegan
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Cardiovascular system -- Diseases -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Women -- Health and hygiene -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Obesity -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Hypertension -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Walking -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Physiological aspects , Lifestyles -- Health aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Health attitudes -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:5152 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013234
- Description: The purpose of the study was to investigate the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profile of black African females in the Makana region, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Baseline measures from 40 participants, who met the criteria, were compared against the 2003 South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS) and the 2013 South African National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (SANHANES-1). The risk factors measured were anthropometric (stature, body mass and body mass index (BMI)), morphological (waist circumference (WC), fat mass and lean mass), cardiovascular (heart rate and blood pressure (BP)), physical activity (step count and energy expenditure), biochemical (glycated haemoglobin and full blood lipid profile) and behavioural (alcohol and tobacco use). Results showed significantly higher (p≤0.05) values for overweight/obesity (BMI 37.60 kg.m⁻²; WC 1130.58 mm; fat mass 45.23%) and high BP (130/88 mmHg) compared to the previous national surveys, highlighting these CVD risk factors as problematic. The subsequent sub-study aimed to assess the efficacy of a pedometer-based walking intervention on high BP. The walking programme (n=25) was based on individual step goals to be completed at a moderate-intensity on five days.week⁻¹ for 12 weeks. The same measurements were taken at monthly intervals, Week 0, Week 4, Week 8 and Week 12, with the addition of dietary intake and fitness level, and the exclusion of the behavioural variables. There were no significant differences (p≤0.05) in systolic and diastolic BP with the exercise intervention, although there was a strong, negative relationship with time for diastolic BP (r²=0.9857). This trend suggests that the lack of significance may be a result of poor compliance and/or the small sample size. Individual results, however, showed no compliance-result relationship for the two risk factors of interest: overweight/obesity and high BP. Future recommendations include supervised or group-based exercise interventions to improve compliance, and the addition of resistance training to the aerobic programme.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Career choices of Rhodes University academics : internal and external influences on the decision making process
- Authors: Rippon, Tamsyn
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Vocational guidance , Vocational guidance , Career development -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , College teachers -- Job satisfaction -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Universities and colleges -- Faculty , Qualitative research
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3229 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013074
- Description: The career choice process, which emphasises the term ‘choice’, is one which is characterised by an ever changing multi-layered progression (Ozbilgin, Kusku & Erdogmus, 2004). This is due to the choice being a result of the on-going interaction between an individual and their social and organisational contexts. It is then safe to assume that this career decision making process involves an awareness of an individual’s surrounding environment and an ability to acknowledge and understand what they regard as being important to them. In support of this understanding, this research project seeks to draw attention to the career influences of a specific group of professionals rather than researching career choices across a range of professionals within different contexts in efforts to broadly predict career choice behaviour. This study rather focuses on the factors that actively influenced the career choices of ten Rhodes University Academics across a range of disciplines and faculties and their individual career decision making processes. In drawing on “mainstream and heterodox” (Ozbilgin et al., 2004, p. 2) literature, this research aims to apply existing notions presented by past researchers to South African academics, now residing and working at Rhodes University, which is located in the small town of Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. The methods of qualitative inductive research are discussed and the results are explored within the settings and contexts unique to each individual who has been drawn to the specific University context. The purpose of the study is to therefore adopt an inductive thematic analysis approach in seeking to examine the internal and external factors that served to influence the sample of academics into their chosen discipline, their decision to become and academic and their employer of choice, in light of the increasing pressure on higher education institutions to contribute to social and economic transformation within the South Africa (Tettey, 2006).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Rippon, Tamsyn
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Vocational guidance , Vocational guidance , Career development -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , College teachers -- Job satisfaction -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Universities and colleges -- Faculty , Qualitative research
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3229 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013074
- Description: The career choice process, which emphasises the term ‘choice’, is one which is characterised by an ever changing multi-layered progression (Ozbilgin, Kusku & Erdogmus, 2004). This is due to the choice being a result of the on-going interaction between an individual and their social and organisational contexts. It is then safe to assume that this career decision making process involves an awareness of an individual’s surrounding environment and an ability to acknowledge and understand what they regard as being important to them. In support of this understanding, this research project seeks to draw attention to the career influences of a specific group of professionals rather than researching career choices across a range of professionals within different contexts in efforts to broadly predict career choice behaviour. This study rather focuses on the factors that actively influenced the career choices of ten Rhodes University Academics across a range of disciplines and faculties and their individual career decision making processes. In drawing on “mainstream and heterodox” (Ozbilgin et al., 2004, p. 2) literature, this research aims to apply existing notions presented by past researchers to South African academics, now residing and working at Rhodes University, which is located in the small town of Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. The methods of qualitative inductive research are discussed and the results are explored within the settings and contexts unique to each individual who has been drawn to the specific University context. The purpose of the study is to therefore adopt an inductive thematic analysis approach in seeking to examine the internal and external factors that served to influence the sample of academics into their chosen discipline, their decision to become and academic and their employer of choice, in light of the increasing pressure on higher education institutions to contribute to social and economic transformation within the South Africa (Tettey, 2006).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Challenging desire : performing whiteness in post-apartheid South Africa
- Authors: Smit, Sonja
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Performance art -- South Africa , Bailey, Brett, 1967- , Cohen, Steven, 1962- , Antwoord (Musical group) , MacGarry, Michael , Eurocentrism -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2164 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016358
- Description: The central argument of this thesis asserts that in the process of challenging dominant subject positions, such as whiteness, performance creates the possibilities for new or alternative arrangements of desire. It examines how the creative process of desire is forestalled (reified) by habitual representations of whiteness as a privileged position, and proposes that performance can be a valid form of resistance to static conceptions of race and subjectivity. The discussion takes into account how the privilege of whiteness finds representation through forms of neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism in the post apartheid context. The analysis focuses on the work of white South African artists whose work offers a critique from within the privileged “centre” of whiteness. The research is situated within the inter-disciplinary field of performance studies entailing a reading and application of critical texts to the analysis. Alongside this qualitative methodology surfaces a subjective dialogue with the information presented on whiteness. Part Two includes an analysis of Steven Cohen’s The Cradle of Humankind (2011), Brett Bailey’s Exhibit A (2011) and Michael MacGarry’s LHR-JNB (2010). Each section examines the way in which the respective works engage in a questioning of whiteness through performance. Part Three investigates South African rap-rave duo, Die Antwoord and how their appropriation of Zef interrogates desires for an essential authenticity. Part Four focuses on my own performance practice and the proposed value of engaging with a form of practice-led research. This is particularly relevant in relation to critical race studies that require a level of self-reflexivity from the researcher. It presents an analysis of the work entitled Villain (2012) as a disturbance of theatrical desire through a process of ‘becoming’. This notion of meaning and identity as ‘becoming’ is argued as a strategy to challenge prevailing modes of perception which can possibly restore the production of desire to the viewer. The thesis concludes with the notion that performance can offer a mode of immanent ethics which is significant in creating both vulnerable and critical forms of whiteness.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Smit, Sonja
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Performance art -- South Africa , Bailey, Brett, 1967- , Cohen, Steven, 1962- , Antwoord (Musical group) , MacGarry, Michael , Eurocentrism -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2164 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016358
- Description: The central argument of this thesis asserts that in the process of challenging dominant subject positions, such as whiteness, performance creates the possibilities for new or alternative arrangements of desire. It examines how the creative process of desire is forestalled (reified) by habitual representations of whiteness as a privileged position, and proposes that performance can be a valid form of resistance to static conceptions of race and subjectivity. The discussion takes into account how the privilege of whiteness finds representation through forms of neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism in the post apartheid context. The analysis focuses on the work of white South African artists whose work offers a critique from within the privileged “centre” of whiteness. The research is situated within the inter-disciplinary field of performance studies entailing a reading and application of critical texts to the analysis. Alongside this qualitative methodology surfaces a subjective dialogue with the information presented on whiteness. Part Two includes an analysis of Steven Cohen’s The Cradle of Humankind (2011), Brett Bailey’s Exhibit A (2011) and Michael MacGarry’s LHR-JNB (2010). Each section examines the way in which the respective works engage in a questioning of whiteness through performance. Part Three investigates South African rap-rave duo, Die Antwoord and how their appropriation of Zef interrogates desires for an essential authenticity. Part Four focuses on my own performance practice and the proposed value of engaging with a form of practice-led research. This is particularly relevant in relation to critical race studies that require a level of self-reflexivity from the researcher. It presents an analysis of the work entitled Villain (2012) as a disturbance of theatrical desire through a process of ‘becoming’. This notion of meaning and identity as ‘becoming’ is argued as a strategy to challenge prevailing modes of perception which can possibly restore the production of desire to the viewer. The thesis concludes with the notion that performance can offer a mode of immanent ethics which is significant in creating both vulnerable and critical forms of whiteness.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Challenging hegemony? : a provincial perspective on the limits of policy challenge in the South African state
- Authors: Reynolds, John
- Date: 2014 , 2014-06-24
- Subjects: Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1994-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3372 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013031
- Description: This thesis provides a provincial perspective on the limits of policy challenge within the post-apartheid South African state. This perspective is located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, which is one of the poorest of the nine provinces into which the national territory was divided during the constitutional negotiations prior to the landmark democratic elections of 1994. The empirical foundation for this perspective is an analysis of the process of developing the Eastern Cape Provincial Growth and Development Plan 2004-2014 (PGDP), which took place in 2002-2004. Starting with a broader theoretical discussion, followed by a brief contextual analysis of the South African economy, the structure of the post-apartheid South African state, and key growth and development policies, the more detailed engagement with the PGDP process is undertaken. Drawing on Jessop’s (2008) strategic-relational approach, this thesis argues that the PGDP process arose within a particular spatio-temporal context where new opportunities for policy challenge were possible, but that such challenge had to be negotiated on a strategically selective terrain on which that challenge was neutralised. The PGDP process unfolded as a complex dialectic of agency and a range of path-dependent institutional processes with varying temporal and spatial horizons (cf. Pierson, 2004, 2005) in which no particular outcomes were guaranteed, but in terms of which some outcomes were more likely than others. Although the organisation of state power was expressed in the content of the PGDP, that power had to be understood as fractured across a range of state and non-state institutions, but with the state as the primary site of the contingent organisation of power. The provincial sphere of government faces particular constraints with the South African state, which has implications for its policy scope and the possibilities of policy challenge, even where wider social support is achieved.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Reynolds, John
- Date: 2014 , 2014-06-24
- Subjects: Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1994-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3372 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013031
- Description: This thesis provides a provincial perspective on the limits of policy challenge within the post-apartheid South African state. This perspective is located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, which is one of the poorest of the nine provinces into which the national territory was divided during the constitutional negotiations prior to the landmark democratic elections of 1994. The empirical foundation for this perspective is an analysis of the process of developing the Eastern Cape Provincial Growth and Development Plan 2004-2014 (PGDP), which took place in 2002-2004. Starting with a broader theoretical discussion, followed by a brief contextual analysis of the South African economy, the structure of the post-apartheid South African state, and key growth and development policies, the more detailed engagement with the PGDP process is undertaken. Drawing on Jessop’s (2008) strategic-relational approach, this thesis argues that the PGDP process arose within a particular spatio-temporal context where new opportunities for policy challenge were possible, but that such challenge had to be negotiated on a strategically selective terrain on which that challenge was neutralised. The PGDP process unfolded as a complex dialectic of agency and a range of path-dependent institutional processes with varying temporal and spatial horizons (cf. Pierson, 2004, 2005) in which no particular outcomes were guaranteed, but in terms of which some outcomes were more likely than others. Although the organisation of state power was expressed in the content of the PGDP, that power had to be understood as fractured across a range of state and non-state institutions, but with the state as the primary site of the contingent organisation of power. The provincial sphere of government faces particular constraints with the South African state, which has implications for its policy scope and the possibilities of policy challenge, even where wider social support is achieved.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Change in narrative therapy : a pragmatic hermeneutic case study
- Authors: McLean, Neville Terence
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Narrative therapy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3235 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013164
- Description: The client of this case study was a twenty two year old female in her first year at university. The client had come into therapy because she had felt depressed, lonely and riddled with selfdoubt. The author used a Narrative Therapy approach with the client and was focussed on helping the client generate new meanings and stories that were more useful and empowering for the client. In this case study, the author was interested in exploring the process of change that the client underwent during the therapy process and he would rely on identifying innovative moments to track these changes. This interest informed the research question; what is the process of change in narrative therapy as tracked through the therapeutic dialogue? How does the change process in this case study track with the heuristic model of change put forward by Gonçalves and his colleagues? The author chose to use a pragmatic hermeneutic case study method in order to analyse the data and the results were organised into a coherent narrative. The data was collected from twenty two therapy sessions and these were grouped together into themes, namely a quick start, the beginning of change, thickening the innovative moments and lighting the fire. The results of this study reveal that despite being considered a good outcome case by the author, the process of change differed somewhat to that proposed by the heuristic model of change.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: McLean, Neville Terence
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Narrative therapy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3235 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013164
- Description: The client of this case study was a twenty two year old female in her first year at university. The client had come into therapy because she had felt depressed, lonely and riddled with selfdoubt. The author used a Narrative Therapy approach with the client and was focussed on helping the client generate new meanings and stories that were more useful and empowering for the client. In this case study, the author was interested in exploring the process of change that the client underwent during the therapy process and he would rely on identifying innovative moments to track these changes. This interest informed the research question; what is the process of change in narrative therapy as tracked through the therapeutic dialogue? How does the change process in this case study track with the heuristic model of change put forward by Gonçalves and his colleagues? The author chose to use a pragmatic hermeneutic case study method in order to analyse the data and the results were organised into a coherent narrative. The data was collected from twenty two therapy sessions and these were grouped together into themes, namely a quick start, the beginning of change, thickening the innovative moments and lighting the fire. The results of this study reveal that despite being considered a good outcome case by the author, the process of change differed somewhat to that proposed by the heuristic model of change.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Changes and continuities in the labour process on commercial farms in post-Apartheid South Africa : studies from Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal Provinces
- Authors: Kheswa, Nomzamo Sybil
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- Rural conditions , KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) -- Rural conditions , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Social conditions , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal -- Social conditions , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Apartheid -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3366 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011978 , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- Rural conditions , KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) -- Rural conditions , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Social conditions , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal -- Social conditions , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Apartheid -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis examines the agricultural labour process on commercial farms in post-apartheid South Africa with a particular focus on systems of labour control on these farms. Considerable literature exists about the labour process in capitalist society but the capitalist labour process does not exist in any pure form. Rather, different labour processes exist and the specific form they take depends on spatial and temporal conditions. Additionally, labour processes are often economic sector-specific. Because of variation in capitalist labour processes, differences in systems of labour control (or labour control regimes) also arise. Historically, up until the end of apartheid in 1994, the labour control regime on commercial farms in South Africa was marked by a paternalistic despotism of a racialised kind. This in part reflected the fact that commercial farms were simultaneously sites of both economic production and social reproduction and, further, they were very privatised agrarian spaces largely unregulated (specifically with regard to labour) by the state. Since the end of apartheid, commercial farms have been subjected to multiple pressures. Notably, the South African state has strongly intervened in labour relations on commercial farms, and commercial farms have been subjected to ongoing neo-liberal restructuring. This has led to the prospects of changes in the prevailing labour control system on commercial farms. In this context, the thesis pursues the following key objective: to understand changes and continuities in the labour process on commercial farms – and particularly labour control systems – subsequent to the end of apartheid in South Africa. It does so with reference to four farms in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal Provinces.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Kheswa, Nomzamo Sybil
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- Rural conditions , KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) -- Rural conditions , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Social conditions , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal -- Social conditions , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Apartheid -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3366 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011978 , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- Rural conditions , KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) -- Rural conditions , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Social conditions , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal -- Social conditions , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Apartheid -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis examines the agricultural labour process on commercial farms in post-apartheid South Africa with a particular focus on systems of labour control on these farms. Considerable literature exists about the labour process in capitalist society but the capitalist labour process does not exist in any pure form. Rather, different labour processes exist and the specific form they take depends on spatial and temporal conditions. Additionally, labour processes are often economic sector-specific. Because of variation in capitalist labour processes, differences in systems of labour control (or labour control regimes) also arise. Historically, up until the end of apartheid in 1994, the labour control regime on commercial farms in South Africa was marked by a paternalistic despotism of a racialised kind. This in part reflected the fact that commercial farms were simultaneously sites of both economic production and social reproduction and, further, they were very privatised agrarian spaces largely unregulated (specifically with regard to labour) by the state. Since the end of apartheid, commercial farms have been subjected to multiple pressures. Notably, the South African state has strongly intervened in labour relations on commercial farms, and commercial farms have been subjected to ongoing neo-liberal restructuring. This has led to the prospects of changes in the prevailing labour control system on commercial farms. In this context, the thesis pursues the following key objective: to understand changes and continuities in the labour process on commercial farms – and particularly labour control systems – subsequent to the end of apartheid in South Africa. It does so with reference to four farms in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal Provinces.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Characterization and application of phthalocyanine-magnetic nanoparticle conjugates anchored to electrospun polyamide nanofibers
- Authors: Ledwaba, Mpho
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/54610 , vital:26593
- Description: This work presents the syntheses, photophysical and photochemical characterization of zinc tetracarboxyphenoxy phthalocyanine (ZnTCPPc, 3) and its gadolinium oxide nanoparticle conjugate (4). By means of spectroscopic and microscopic characterization, the conjugation of the ZnTCPPc to the silica coated gadolinium oxide nanoparticles (Si-Gd2O3 NPs, 2) through an amide bond was confirmed. The thermal stability, morphology, nanoparticle sizes and their conjugates with the Pc were studied using ThermoGravimetric Analysis (TGA), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and powder X-ray diffractometry (XRD). Conjugation of ZnTCPPc to the magnetic nanoparticles, proved to have a negligible effect on the photophysical parameters of the phthalocyanine, where a slight decrease in fluorescence and triplet quantum yields and lifetimes was observed. The singlet oxygen quantum yield, however, increased slightly upon conjugation, suggesting that the overall efficiency of the ZnTCPPc as a photosensitizer had improved. Physical mixing of the ZnTCPPc and the silica-coated gadolinium nanoparticles also showed an improvement in the singlet oxygen quantum yield and triplet lifetime, also showing an enhanced efficiency for the photosensitizer and therefore photocatalysis. ZnTCPPc (3) alone and the Pc-gadolinium oxide nanoparticle conjugate (4) were therefore electrospun into nanofibers to create a solid support. The fibers were characterized and their diameter sizes and composition was studied confirming the incorporation of the phthalocyanine and gadolinium oxide nanoparticle. Increased singlet oxygen generation resulted in increased Photodegradation of the environmental pollutant Orange G and the fibers were found to be more efficient as photocatalysts compared to the photosensitizer in solution. The nanomaterial may therefore be applied to the photodegradation of Orange G.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Ledwaba, Mpho
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/54610 , vital:26593
- Description: This work presents the syntheses, photophysical and photochemical characterization of zinc tetracarboxyphenoxy phthalocyanine (ZnTCPPc, 3) and its gadolinium oxide nanoparticle conjugate (4). By means of spectroscopic and microscopic characterization, the conjugation of the ZnTCPPc to the silica coated gadolinium oxide nanoparticles (Si-Gd2O3 NPs, 2) through an amide bond was confirmed. The thermal stability, morphology, nanoparticle sizes and their conjugates with the Pc were studied using ThermoGravimetric Analysis (TGA), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and powder X-ray diffractometry (XRD). Conjugation of ZnTCPPc to the magnetic nanoparticles, proved to have a negligible effect on the photophysical parameters of the phthalocyanine, where a slight decrease in fluorescence and triplet quantum yields and lifetimes was observed. The singlet oxygen quantum yield, however, increased slightly upon conjugation, suggesting that the overall efficiency of the ZnTCPPc as a photosensitizer had improved. Physical mixing of the ZnTCPPc and the silica-coated gadolinium nanoparticles also showed an improvement in the singlet oxygen quantum yield and triplet lifetime, also showing an enhanced efficiency for the photosensitizer and therefore photocatalysis. ZnTCPPc (3) alone and the Pc-gadolinium oxide nanoparticle conjugate (4) were therefore electrospun into nanofibers to create a solid support. The fibers were characterized and their diameter sizes and composition was studied confirming the incorporation of the phthalocyanine and gadolinium oxide nanoparticle. Increased singlet oxygen generation resulted in increased Photodegradation of the environmental pollutant Orange G and the fibers were found to be more efficient as photocatalysts compared to the photosensitizer in solution. The nanomaterial may therefore be applied to the photodegradation of Orange G.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Characterization of the Hsp40 partner proteins of Plasmodium falciparum Hsp70
- Authors: Njunge, James Mwangi
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Plasmodium falciparum , Heat shock proteins , Malaria -- Chemotherapy , Protein-protein interactions , Erythrocytes -- Biotechnology , Molecular chaperones , Host-parasite relationships , Mitochondria
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4117 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013186
- Description: Human malaria is an economically important disease caused by single-celled parasites of the Plasmodium genus whose biology displays great evolutionary adaptation to both its mammalian host and transmitting vectors. This thesis details the 70 kDa heat shock protein (Hsp70) and J protein chaperone complements in malaria parasites affecting humans, primates and rodents. Heat shock proteins comprise a family of evolutionary conserved and structurally related proteins that play a crucial role in maintaining the structural integrity of proteins during normal and stress conditions. They are considered future therapeutic targets in various cellular systems including Plasmodium falciparum. J proteins (Hsp40) canonically partner with Hsp70s during protein synthesis and folding, trafficking or targeting of proteins for degradation. However, in P. falciparum, these classes of proteins have also been implicated in aiding the active transport of parasite proteins to the erythrocyte cytosol following erythrocyte entry by the parasite. This host-parasite “cross-talk” results in tremendous modifications of the infected erythrocyte, imparting properties that allow it to adhere to the endothelium, preventing splenic clearance. The genome of P. falciparum encodes six Hsp70 homologues and a large number of J proteins that localize to the various intracellular compartments or are exported to the infected erythrocyte cytosol. Understanding the Hsp70-J protein interactions and/or partnerships is an essential step for drug target validation and illumination of parasite biology. A review of these chaperone complements across the Plasmodium species shows that P. falciparum possesses an expanded Hsp70-J protein complement compared to the rodent and primate infecting species. It further highlights how unique the P. falciparum chaperone complement is compared to the other Plasmodium species included in the analysis. In silico analysis showed that the genome of P. falciparum encodes approximately 49 J proteins, 19 of which contain a PEXEL motif that has been implicated in routing proteins to the infected erythrocyte. Most of these PEXEL containing J proteins are unique with no homologues in the human system and are considered as attractive drug targets. Very few of the predicted J proteins in P. falciparum have been experimentally characterized. To this end, cell biological and biochemical approaches were employed to characterize PFB0595w and PFD0462w (Pfj1) J proteins. The uniqueness of Pfj1 and the controversy in literature regarding its localization formed the basis for the experimental work. This is the first study showing that Pfj1 localizes to the mitochondrion in the intraerythrocytic stage of development of P. falciparum and has further proposed PfHsp70-3 as a potential Hsp70 partner. Indeed, attempts to heterologously express and purify Pfj1 for its characterization are described. It is also the first study that details the successful expression and purification of PfHsp70-3. Further, research findings have described for the first time the expression and localization of PFB0595w in the intraerythrocytic stages of P. falciparum development. Based on the cytosolic localization of both PFB0595w and PfHsp70-1, a chaperone – cochaperone partnership was proposed that formed the basis for the in vitro experiments. PFB0595w was shown for the first time to stimulate the ATPase activity of PfHsp70-1 pointing to a functional interaction. Preliminary surface plasmon spectroscopy analysis has revealed a potential interaction between PFB0595w and PfHsp70-1 but highlights the need for further related experiments to support the findings. Gel filtration analysis showed that PFB0595w exists as a dimer thereby confirming in silico predictions. Based on these observations, we conclude that PFB0595w may regulate the chaperone activity of PfHsp70-1 in the cytosol while Pfj1 may play a co-chaperoning role for PfHsp70-3 in the mitochondrion. Overall, this data is expected to increase the knowledge of the Hsp70-J protein partnerships in the erythrocytic stage of P. falciparum development, thereby enhancing the understanding of parasite biology.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Njunge, James Mwangi
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Plasmodium falciparum , Heat shock proteins , Malaria -- Chemotherapy , Protein-protein interactions , Erythrocytes -- Biotechnology , Molecular chaperones , Host-parasite relationships , Mitochondria
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4117 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013186
- Description: Human malaria is an economically important disease caused by single-celled parasites of the Plasmodium genus whose biology displays great evolutionary adaptation to both its mammalian host and transmitting vectors. This thesis details the 70 kDa heat shock protein (Hsp70) and J protein chaperone complements in malaria parasites affecting humans, primates and rodents. Heat shock proteins comprise a family of evolutionary conserved and structurally related proteins that play a crucial role in maintaining the structural integrity of proteins during normal and stress conditions. They are considered future therapeutic targets in various cellular systems including Plasmodium falciparum. J proteins (Hsp40) canonically partner with Hsp70s during protein synthesis and folding, trafficking or targeting of proteins for degradation. However, in P. falciparum, these classes of proteins have also been implicated in aiding the active transport of parasite proteins to the erythrocyte cytosol following erythrocyte entry by the parasite. This host-parasite “cross-talk” results in tremendous modifications of the infected erythrocyte, imparting properties that allow it to adhere to the endothelium, preventing splenic clearance. The genome of P. falciparum encodes six Hsp70 homologues and a large number of J proteins that localize to the various intracellular compartments or are exported to the infected erythrocyte cytosol. Understanding the Hsp70-J protein interactions and/or partnerships is an essential step for drug target validation and illumination of parasite biology. A review of these chaperone complements across the Plasmodium species shows that P. falciparum possesses an expanded Hsp70-J protein complement compared to the rodent and primate infecting species. It further highlights how unique the P. falciparum chaperone complement is compared to the other Plasmodium species included in the analysis. In silico analysis showed that the genome of P. falciparum encodes approximately 49 J proteins, 19 of which contain a PEXEL motif that has been implicated in routing proteins to the infected erythrocyte. Most of these PEXEL containing J proteins are unique with no homologues in the human system and are considered as attractive drug targets. Very few of the predicted J proteins in P. falciparum have been experimentally characterized. To this end, cell biological and biochemical approaches were employed to characterize PFB0595w and PFD0462w (Pfj1) J proteins. The uniqueness of Pfj1 and the controversy in literature regarding its localization formed the basis for the experimental work. This is the first study showing that Pfj1 localizes to the mitochondrion in the intraerythrocytic stage of development of P. falciparum and has further proposed PfHsp70-3 as a potential Hsp70 partner. Indeed, attempts to heterologously express and purify Pfj1 for its characterization are described. It is also the first study that details the successful expression and purification of PfHsp70-3. Further, research findings have described for the first time the expression and localization of PFB0595w in the intraerythrocytic stages of P. falciparum development. Based on the cytosolic localization of both PFB0595w and PfHsp70-1, a chaperone – cochaperone partnership was proposed that formed the basis for the in vitro experiments. PFB0595w was shown for the first time to stimulate the ATPase activity of PfHsp70-1 pointing to a functional interaction. Preliminary surface plasmon spectroscopy analysis has revealed a potential interaction between PFB0595w and PfHsp70-1 but highlights the need for further related experiments to support the findings. Gel filtration analysis showed that PFB0595w exists as a dimer thereby confirming in silico predictions. Based on these observations, we conclude that PFB0595w may regulate the chaperone activity of PfHsp70-1 in the cytosol while Pfj1 may play a co-chaperoning role for PfHsp70-3 in the mitochondrion. Overall, this data is expected to increase the knowledge of the Hsp70-J protein partnerships in the erythrocytic stage of P. falciparum development, thereby enhancing the understanding of parasite biology.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Citizenship rights : still a long road to travel - Graduation Ceremonies address 2014
- Authors: Badat, Saleem
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:7872 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016421
- Description: The 20th anniversary of our democracy is a good time to reflect on the progress that we have made with respect to citizenship in post-1994 South Africa. 1994 was a revolutionary breakthrough. From being a racially exclusive authoritarian society in which millions were downtrodden subjects, we became a democracy in which for the first time almost all inhabitants became citizens. Critical here was a commendable Constitution, including a Bill of Rights, which held out the promise of an extensive range of human, social and economic rights that did not exist for all or at all prior to 1994. During the past 20 years there have been significant economic and social gains and achievements. At the same time, there continue to be many challenges, and key institutions of our democracy have come under strain as a result of too many in power seeking to use the state as their private piggy bank. Still, a relatively independent judiciary, free media, autonomous universities and the like remain intact. Witness in this regard the magnificent performance of the Public Protector’s office under Thuli Madonsela. However, a number of contemporary realities, compromise the ideal of full and substantive citizenship rights for all that the Constitution promises. Indeed, they condemn large numbers of people to conditions that are associated with subjecthood and being subjects.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Badat, Saleem
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:7872 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016421
- Description: The 20th anniversary of our democracy is a good time to reflect on the progress that we have made with respect to citizenship in post-1994 South Africa. 1994 was a revolutionary breakthrough. From being a racially exclusive authoritarian society in which millions were downtrodden subjects, we became a democracy in which for the first time almost all inhabitants became citizens. Critical here was a commendable Constitution, including a Bill of Rights, which held out the promise of an extensive range of human, social and economic rights that did not exist for all or at all prior to 1994. During the past 20 years there have been significant economic and social gains and achievements. At the same time, there continue to be many challenges, and key institutions of our democracy have come under strain as a result of too many in power seeking to use the state as their private piggy bank. Still, a relatively independent judiciary, free media, autonomous universities and the like remain intact. Witness in this regard the magnificent performance of the Public Protector’s office under Thuli Madonsela. However, a number of contemporary realities, compromise the ideal of full and substantive citizenship rights for all that the Constitution promises. Indeed, they condemn large numbers of people to conditions that are associated with subjecthood and being subjects.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Classification of the difficulty in accelerating problems using GPUs
- Authors: Tristram, Uvedale Roy
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Graphics processing units , Computer algorithms , Computer programming , Problem solving -- Data processing
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4699 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012978
- Description: Scientists continually require additional processing power, as this enables them to compute larger problem sizes, use more complex models and algorithms, and solve problems previously thought computationally impractical. General-purpose computation on graphics processing units (GPGPU) can help in this regard, as there is great potential in using graphics processors to accelerate many scientific models and algorithms. However, some problems are considerably harder to accelerate than others, and it may be challenging for those new to GPGPU to ascertain the difficulty of accelerating a particular problem or seek appropriate optimisation guidance. Through what was learned in the acceleration of a hydrological uncertainty ensemble model, large numbers of k-difference string comparisons, and a radix sort, problem attributes have been identified that can assist in the evaluation of the difficulty in accelerating a problem using GPUs. The identified attributes are inherent parallelism, branch divergence, problem size, required computational parallelism, memory access pattern regularity, data transfer overhead, and thread cooperation. Using these attributes as difficulty indicators, an initial problem difficulty classification framework has been created that aids in GPU acceleration difficulty evaluation. This framework further facilitates directed guidance on suggested optimisations and required knowledge based on problem classification, which has been demonstrated for the aforementioned accelerated problems. It is anticipated that this framework, or a derivative thereof, will prove to be a useful resource for new or novice GPGPU developers in the evaluation of potential problems for GPU acceleration.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Tristram, Uvedale Roy
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Graphics processing units , Computer algorithms , Computer programming , Problem solving -- Data processing
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4699 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012978
- Description: Scientists continually require additional processing power, as this enables them to compute larger problem sizes, use more complex models and algorithms, and solve problems previously thought computationally impractical. General-purpose computation on graphics processing units (GPGPU) can help in this regard, as there is great potential in using graphics processors to accelerate many scientific models and algorithms. However, some problems are considerably harder to accelerate than others, and it may be challenging for those new to GPGPU to ascertain the difficulty of accelerating a particular problem or seek appropriate optimisation guidance. Through what was learned in the acceleration of a hydrological uncertainty ensemble model, large numbers of k-difference string comparisons, and a radix sort, problem attributes have been identified that can assist in the evaluation of the difficulty in accelerating a problem using GPUs. The identified attributes are inherent parallelism, branch divergence, problem size, required computational parallelism, memory access pattern regularity, data transfer overhead, and thread cooperation. Using these attributes as difficulty indicators, an initial problem difficulty classification framework has been created that aids in GPU acceleration difficulty evaluation. This framework further facilitates directed guidance on suggested optimisations and required knowledge based on problem classification, which has been demonstrated for the aforementioned accelerated problems. It is anticipated that this framework, or a derivative thereof, will prove to be a useful resource for new or novice GPGPU developers in the evaluation of potential problems for GPU acceleration.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Cloud information security : a higher education perspective
- Authors: Van der Schyff, Karl Izak
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Cloud computing -- Security measures , Information technology -- Security measures , Data protection , Internet in higher education , Education, Higher -- Technological innovations
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4692 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011607 , Cloud computing -- Security measures , Information technology -- Security measures , Data protection , Internet in higher education , Education, Higher -- Technological innovations
- Description: In recent years higher education institutions have come under increasing financial pressure. This has not only prompted universities to investigate more cost effective means of delivering course content and maintaining research output, but also to investigate the administrative functions that accompany them. As such, many South African universities have either adopted or are in the process of adopting some form of cloud computing given the recent drop in bandwidth costs. However, this adoption process has raised concerns about the security of cloud-based information and this has, in some cases, had a negative impact on the adoption process. In an effort to study these concerns many researchers have employed a positivist approach with little, if any, focus on the operational context of these universities. Moreover, there has been very little research, specifically within the South African context. This study addresses some of these concerns by investigating the threats and security incident response life cycle within a higher education cloud. This was done by initially conducting a small scale survey and a detailed thematic analysis of twelve interviews from three South African universities. The identified themes and their corresponding analyses and interpretation contribute on both a practical and theoretical level with the practical contributions relating to a set of security driven criteria for selecting cloud providers as well as recommendations for universities who have or are in the process of adopting cloud computing. Theoretically several conceptual frameworks are offered allowing the researcher to convey his understanding of how the aforementioned practical concepts relate to each other as well as the concepts that constitute the research questions of this study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Van der Schyff, Karl Izak
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Cloud computing -- Security measures , Information technology -- Security measures , Data protection , Internet in higher education , Education, Higher -- Technological innovations
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4692 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011607 , Cloud computing -- Security measures , Information technology -- Security measures , Data protection , Internet in higher education , Education, Higher -- Technological innovations
- Description: In recent years higher education institutions have come under increasing financial pressure. This has not only prompted universities to investigate more cost effective means of delivering course content and maintaining research output, but also to investigate the administrative functions that accompany them. As such, many South African universities have either adopted or are in the process of adopting some form of cloud computing given the recent drop in bandwidth costs. However, this adoption process has raised concerns about the security of cloud-based information and this has, in some cases, had a negative impact on the adoption process. In an effort to study these concerns many researchers have employed a positivist approach with little, if any, focus on the operational context of these universities. Moreover, there has been very little research, specifically within the South African context. This study addresses some of these concerns by investigating the threats and security incident response life cycle within a higher education cloud. This was done by initially conducting a small scale survey and a detailed thematic analysis of twelve interviews from three South African universities. The identified themes and their corresponding analyses and interpretation contribute on both a practical and theoretical level with the practical contributions relating to a set of security driven criteria for selecting cloud providers as well as recommendations for universities who have or are in the process of adopting cloud computing. Theoretically several conceptual frameworks are offered allowing the researcher to convey his understanding of how the aforementioned practical concepts relate to each other as well as the concepts that constitute the research questions of this study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Combating corruption while respecting human rights : a critical study of the non-conviction based assets recovery mechanism in Kenya and South Africa
- Authors: Obura, Ken Otieno
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Human rights -- Kenya , Human rights -- South Africa , Corruption -- Kenya , Corruption -- South Africa , Reparation (Criminal justice) -- Kenya , Reparation (Criminal justice) -- South Africa , Political corruption -- Kenya , Political corruption -- South Africa , Corruption investigation -- Kenya , Corruption investigation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3719 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013159
- Description: The thesis contributes to the search for sound anti-corruption laws and practices that are effective and fair. It argues for the respect for human rights in the crafting and implementation of anti-corruption laws as a requisite for successful control of corruption. The basis for this argument is threefold: First, human rights provide a framework for checking against abuse of state’s police power, an abuse which if allowed to take root, would make the fight against corruption lose its legitimacy in the eye of the people. Second, human rights ensure that the interest of individuals is catered for in the crafting of anti-corruption laws and practices thereby denying perpetrators of corruption legal excuses that can be exploited to delay or frustrate corruption cases in the courts of law. Third, human rights provide a useful framework for balancing competing interests in the area of corruption control – it enables society to craft measures that fulfils the public interest in the eradication of corruption while concomitantly assuring the competing public interest in the protection of individual members’ liberties – a condition that is necessary if the support of the holders of these competing interests is to be enlisted and fostered in the fight against corruption. The thesis focuses on the study of the non-conviction based assets recovery mechanism, a mechanism that allows the state to apply a procedure lacking in criminal law safeguards to address criminal behaviour. The mechanism is thus beset with avenues for abuse, which if unchecked could have debilitating effects not only to individual liberties but also to the long term legitimacy of the fight against corruption. In this regard, the thesis examines how the human rights framework has been used in Kenya and South Africa to check on the potential dangers of the non-conviction based mechanism and to provide for a proportional balance between the imperative of corruption control and the guarantee against arbitrary deprivation of property. The aim is to unravel the benefits of respecting human rights in the fight against corruption in general and in the non-conviction based assets recovery in particular. Kenya and South Africa are chosen for study because they provide two models of non-conviction based mechanisms with different levels of safeguards, for comparative consideration.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Obura, Ken Otieno
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Human rights -- Kenya , Human rights -- South Africa , Corruption -- Kenya , Corruption -- South Africa , Reparation (Criminal justice) -- Kenya , Reparation (Criminal justice) -- South Africa , Political corruption -- Kenya , Political corruption -- South Africa , Corruption investigation -- Kenya , Corruption investigation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3719 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013159
- Description: The thesis contributes to the search for sound anti-corruption laws and practices that are effective and fair. It argues for the respect for human rights in the crafting and implementation of anti-corruption laws as a requisite for successful control of corruption. The basis for this argument is threefold: First, human rights provide a framework for checking against abuse of state’s police power, an abuse which if allowed to take root, would make the fight against corruption lose its legitimacy in the eye of the people. Second, human rights ensure that the interest of individuals is catered for in the crafting of anti-corruption laws and practices thereby denying perpetrators of corruption legal excuses that can be exploited to delay or frustrate corruption cases in the courts of law. Third, human rights provide a useful framework for balancing competing interests in the area of corruption control – it enables society to craft measures that fulfils the public interest in the eradication of corruption while concomitantly assuring the competing public interest in the protection of individual members’ liberties – a condition that is necessary if the support of the holders of these competing interests is to be enlisted and fostered in the fight against corruption. The thesis focuses on the study of the non-conviction based assets recovery mechanism, a mechanism that allows the state to apply a procedure lacking in criminal law safeguards to address criminal behaviour. The mechanism is thus beset with avenues for abuse, which if unchecked could have debilitating effects not only to individual liberties but also to the long term legitimacy of the fight against corruption. In this regard, the thesis examines how the human rights framework has been used in Kenya and South Africa to check on the potential dangers of the non-conviction based mechanism and to provide for a proportional balance between the imperative of corruption control and the guarantee against arbitrary deprivation of property. The aim is to unravel the benefits of respecting human rights in the fight against corruption in general and in the non-conviction based assets recovery in particular. Kenya and South Africa are chosen for study because they provide two models of non-conviction based mechanisms with different levels of safeguards, for comparative consideration.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Comparative phylogeography of five swallowtail butterfly species (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) in South Africa : ecological and taxonomic implications.
- Authors: Neef, Götz-Georg
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Swallowtail butterflies , Papilionidae -- South Africa , Phylogeography -- South Africa , Swallowtail butterflies -- Effect of habitat modification on , Biodiversity -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4266 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013574
- Description: With current biota under constant threat of extinction, it is important to ascertain where and how biological diversity is generated and partitioned. Phylogeographic studies can assist in the identification of places and processes that indicate the origin and maintenance of biodiversity. Forest fragmentation has a big effect on local extinction and loss of genetic diversity of forest-restricted taxa, along with divergence and speciation of forest biota. This study aims to understand the effects of these processes on a number of forest-dwelling butterflies using a comparative phylogeographic approach. Mitochondrial DNA of five different Papilio species with different degrees of forest specificity was analysed using phylogenetic methods. In addition, the subspecific taxonomy of P. ophidicephalus was investigated using morphometrics of discal spots on the wings and nuclear DNA analysis along with mitochondrial DNA analysis. The results show that the forest-restricted species (P. ophidicephalus and P. echerioides) have more genetic structure and less genetic diversity than the more generalist species (P. dardanus, P. demodocus and P. nireus). This could be due to inbreeding depression and bottlenecks caused by forest fragmentation. As forest patches become smaller, the population size is affected and that causes a loss in genetic diversity, and increasing habitat fragmentation disrupts gene flow. The intraspecific taxonomy of P. ophidicephalus is far from revealed. However, this study shows there is evidence for the different subspecies when comparing morphological results and genetic results. From the evidence provided here it is suggested that P. ophidicephalus should be divided into two separate species rather than five subspecies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Neef, Götz-Georg
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Swallowtail butterflies , Papilionidae -- South Africa , Phylogeography -- South Africa , Swallowtail butterflies -- Effect of habitat modification on , Biodiversity -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4266 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013574
- Description: With current biota under constant threat of extinction, it is important to ascertain where and how biological diversity is generated and partitioned. Phylogeographic studies can assist in the identification of places and processes that indicate the origin and maintenance of biodiversity. Forest fragmentation has a big effect on local extinction and loss of genetic diversity of forest-restricted taxa, along with divergence and speciation of forest biota. This study aims to understand the effects of these processes on a number of forest-dwelling butterflies using a comparative phylogeographic approach. Mitochondrial DNA of five different Papilio species with different degrees of forest specificity was analysed using phylogenetic methods. In addition, the subspecific taxonomy of P. ophidicephalus was investigated using morphometrics of discal spots on the wings and nuclear DNA analysis along with mitochondrial DNA analysis. The results show that the forest-restricted species (P. ophidicephalus and P. echerioides) have more genetic structure and less genetic diversity than the more generalist species (P. dardanus, P. demodocus and P. nireus). This could be due to inbreeding depression and bottlenecks caused by forest fragmentation. As forest patches become smaller, the population size is affected and that causes a loss in genetic diversity, and increasing habitat fragmentation disrupts gene flow. The intraspecific taxonomy of P. ophidicephalus is far from revealed. However, this study shows there is evidence for the different subspecies when comparing morphological results and genetic results. From the evidence provided here it is suggested that P. ophidicephalus should be divided into two separate species rather than five subspecies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Conflicts in the role of business as a social partner in the South African economy : a study of skills development in the Border-Kei region
- Authors: Delport, Kandi Sue
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Social responsibility of business -- South Africa , Industries -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Conflict management -- South Africa , Occupational training -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Human capital -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Labor laws and legislation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3364 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011784 , Social responsibility of business -- South Africa , Industries -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Conflict management -- South Africa , Occupational training -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Human capital -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Labor laws and legislation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: This thesis analyses conflicts in the role of business as a social partner in the South African economy by studying skills development in the Border-Kei Region. Skills development is a key component of the South African government’s programme of labour market regulation and is founded on a participatory approach. The skills development framework requires the participation and co-operation of multiple social partners but relies heavily on the role of business in the attainment of national and sectoral skills development objectives. Unfortunately, however, there are significant conflicts in the role which business is expected to play which consequently hinder the efficiency of the framework and the likelihood that that these objectives will be realised. One of the most pertinent examples of these conflicts is the voluntary nature of the skills development framework, which incentivises but does not compel organisations to invest in training and development. Other conflicts include dissonances between national and employer led strategies and organisational disincentives to engage in training and development. This qualitative study uses an interpretive approach to study how and to what extent the Skills Development Act is implemented in selected organisations in Buffalo City as well as studying the issues pertaining to the implementation process. By using a purposive sampling approach, this research includes both primary data in the form of semi-structured interviews and secondary data in the form of documentary sources. The data represents the perspectives of business, labour and government and provides significant depth of insight into the discussions and issues surrounding skills development in Buffalo City. This dissertation argues that South Africa’s vocational training system, institutionalised through appropriate legislation, may not be sufficient to mobilise social partners, and of primary concern in this research – business – to invest in skills development. It suggests that extensive reliance on business is an insufficient way in which to upskill the labour market. However, with few alternatives to this approach, it is subsequently essential that business is encouraged to buy into the collective interest of skills development objectives. This primarily entails overcoming the challenges that embody the framework and increasing state emphasis on skills development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Delport, Kandi Sue
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Social responsibility of business -- South Africa , Industries -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Conflict management -- South Africa , Occupational training -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Human capital -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Labor laws and legislation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3364 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011784 , Social responsibility of business -- South Africa , Industries -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Conflict management -- South Africa , Occupational training -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Human capital -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Labor laws and legislation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: This thesis analyses conflicts in the role of business as a social partner in the South African economy by studying skills development in the Border-Kei Region. Skills development is a key component of the South African government’s programme of labour market regulation and is founded on a participatory approach. The skills development framework requires the participation and co-operation of multiple social partners but relies heavily on the role of business in the attainment of national and sectoral skills development objectives. Unfortunately, however, there are significant conflicts in the role which business is expected to play which consequently hinder the efficiency of the framework and the likelihood that that these objectives will be realised. One of the most pertinent examples of these conflicts is the voluntary nature of the skills development framework, which incentivises but does not compel organisations to invest in training and development. Other conflicts include dissonances between national and employer led strategies and organisational disincentives to engage in training and development. This qualitative study uses an interpretive approach to study how and to what extent the Skills Development Act is implemented in selected organisations in Buffalo City as well as studying the issues pertaining to the implementation process. By using a purposive sampling approach, this research includes both primary data in the form of semi-structured interviews and secondary data in the form of documentary sources. The data represents the perspectives of business, labour and government and provides significant depth of insight into the discussions and issues surrounding skills development in Buffalo City. This dissertation argues that South Africa’s vocational training system, institutionalised through appropriate legislation, may not be sufficient to mobilise social partners, and of primary concern in this research – business – to invest in skills development. It suggests that extensive reliance on business is an insufficient way in which to upskill the labour market. However, with few alternatives to this approach, it is subsequently essential that business is encouraged to buy into the collective interest of skills development objectives. This primarily entails overcoming the challenges that embody the framework and increasing state emphasis on skills development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014