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Values and workplace expectations of young graduates in the private sector

  • Authors: Kriel, Caylin Jade
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Generation Y -- Employment , Generation X -- Employment Intergenerational relations Group relations training Teams in the workplace Personnel management
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/40500 , vital:36177
  • Description: Understanding the values and workplace expectations of young South African graduates, referred to in this study as Millennials, is vital for the future success of organisations. Organisations gain a competitive advantage by attracting, engaging and retaining top talent. Millennials are not always positively received in the workplace, due to the prevailing stereotypes held about this group. However, the Millennial generation has an important role to play in the workplace, both in contributing towards organisational success, and as future leaders. A greater understanding of this generation, more particularly in terms of their values and workplace expectations, is thus necessary for ensuring effective talent acquisition and management strategies. The aim of the study was to identify the values of Millennials, both within their personal and working lives. This is important; as individuals take their values into the workplace. Secondly, the expectations that Millennials have of their employers and workplaces in general was explored. With this understanding in mind, the purpose of the study was to advise organisations on how to better prepare for and accommodate Millennials’ values and workplace expectations, in order to enhance their role in contributing towards organisational success, as well as contributing towards their levels of engagement and job satisfaction. The study adopted a qualitative and phenomenological research design. The sample comprised eight young South African graduates working within the private sector, and residing in Port Elizabeth, within the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, who possessed an undergraduate tertiary qualification, and held at least one year’s work experience. It was further required that the participants fall within the Millennial generational cohort, aged between 22 and 30 years. The sampling technique used was non-probability purposive convenience sampling. One-on-one semi-structured interviews formed the data-collection instrument; and thematic analysis was used for the data processing and analysis. Congruence was identified between the values and the workplace expectations of young South African graduates in the private sector through the semi-structured interviews and the literature review; and between the identified values and the workplace expectations of the eight participants. This study contributes towards the field of knowledge used in describing the nature of the values and the workplace expectations of Millennials; and provides recommendations in terms of workplace implications.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Vernacular radio and peace building in Kenya: a study of popular vernacular radio stations in three conflict-prone regions

  • Authors: Kijana, Eunice Abuya
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Radio journalism -- Kenya , Radio broadcasting -- Kenya Documentary radio programs Peace-building -- Social aspects
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/42251 , vital:36639
  • Description: In Kenya, just like in most African countries, ethnicity-related conflicts are a common phenomenon. Often times, the media, especially vernacular radio has been accused of incitement to violence as was in the case of 1994 Rwanda genocide and the 2007 post-election violence in Kenya. As a result, numerous studies have focused on the role that the media, especially vernacular radio plays in perpetuating ethnic conflict, while very little has been done to establish its role in peace building. Therefore, this study was informed by the assumption that the media is a double edged sword; while it can fuel tension and lead to conflict, it can also contribute to peace between conflicting parties. It therefore sought to establish the role that vernacular radio play in peace building in Kenya. The literature reviewed showed that vernacular radio has the potential to promote peace in society. The study was therefore guided by the social responsibility theory which underpins the necessity for the media/ journalist to keep society’s interest as a top priority. This means that the society expects journalists to be accountable, liable and responsible in carrying out their duties. This study utilized both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Using a case study of popular vernacular radio stations in three conflict prone regions in Kenya, the researcher employed content analysis, questionnaires and interviews as tools for data collection. The results indicate that the stations have put in place specific policies aimed at ensuring impartiality in reporting and that journalists adhere to them in their work. The stations also work in partnership with other peace practitioners by developing programs that are aimed at promoting peace within and between communities. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the stations’ journalists largely understand and comply with the sections of the Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism in Kenya which addresses the need for responsible conflict reporting. Based on these findings, the study therefore concludes that vernacular radio stations working in conflict prone regions in Kenya play a positive role in peace building. However, the study recommends more specialized trainings for journalists in order for these stations to be more effective in this role of peace building.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Virtual Activism: internet memes and political discourse in Nigeria

  • Authors: Jimoh, Ganiyu A
  • Date: 2019
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146767 , vital:38555 , http://www.tajuniuyo.ng/Virtual Activism Internet Memes and Political Discourse in Nigeria.html
  • Description: This paper examines internet memes as a unique form of narratives about political discourse in Nigeria. Through the use of social media platforms as a vehicle of political communication, internet memes about politics explore issues that contain visual metaphors aimed at provoking discourse and stimulate political participation. By employing semiotic theory, this paper examines 200 pictorial internet memes on Nigerian politics between 2015 and 2018. I argue that internet memes about politics are related to political cartoons in form and context. But unlike cartoons, memes require less artistic prowess and figurative expression in rendition but could achieve the same desire in viewers. Owing to their composition of easily digestible visual elements, they appeal to more audience who in turn could easily lend their voices to a popular meme by adding more textual or visual enhancement to create more layers of meaning.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Virtual Gym Instructor

  • Authors: Brown, Dane L , Ndleve, Mixo
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/465744 , vital:76637 , xlink:href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dane-Brown-2/publication/335378603_Virtual_Gym_Instructor/links/5d6118a892851c619d7268c1/Virtual-Gym-Instructor.pdf"
  • Description: The fourth industrial revolution and the continuous development of new technologies have presented a golden platter for sedentary living. Noncommunicable diseases such as, cancers, cardiovascular and respiratory deficiencies, and diabetes have reached epidemic levels as a consequence. A traditional gym instructor screens clients to prescribe exercise programs that can help them lower the risk of noncommunicable lifestyle diseases. However, gym instructors often come at a cost and are not always affordable, available or accessible. This research investigated whether modern computing power can be utilized to develop a system in the form of a cost effective alternative exercise program – Virtual Gym Instructor. The system demonstrated perfect realtime object detection and tracking up to four metres away from the camera and produced results for distances up to eight metres away.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Virtual reality bridging the gap between work experience required and university qualifications in South Africa

  • Authors: Gwatiringa, Tsitsi
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Employment forecasting -- South Africa , Labor supply -- South Africa -- Forecasting Work environment -- South Africa -- Forecasting
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/42331 , vital:36646
  • Description: Increasing technological evolutions are constantly requiring humankind to reform how we plan for the future. Pervasive technologies such as Virtual Reality are making our working life and education to become more digital, complex and interconnected. The job landscape has already been disrupted by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR). The way we work and learn is set to be transformed as the jobs people have and required skills necessary for success are some of the areas most impacted by technological advances such as the FIR and this is particularly concerning for the South African context. New ways of education are required in order to allow future employees to flexibly react to the future world of work and meet the demands of such a digitised working environment. The expected future trajectory of the job landscape may present challenges but there are also unique opportunities. By way of the futures methodology, the intention of this research was to systematically make inquiries, create, suggest and test foreseeable and desirable future visions. Ultimately, the purpose of the research was to assess and suggest plausible futures for the future of education and future of jobs in South Africa. The Six Pillars of Futures Studies approach to research by Inayatullah was applied throughout this study. The mapping (environmental scanning) of Virtual Reality technologies as a driver of change was done, highlighting the impact of such technology on tertiary education and on the world of work. The purpose of the environmental scanning was to uncover existing and driving forces that will influence the future of tertiary education and the future of work. The Causal Layer Analysis (CLA) was the primary futures methodology applied in this research. CLA was used to investigate deeper causal issues from various viewpoints in order to formulate scenarios for the future. The study developed four different future scenarios, namely, “Virtually Going & Thriving”, “Running on Fumes”, “Sneaky Turn” and “Oh Snap! Never Left”. These scenarios can be used as departure points for bridging the gap between education qualifications and skills requirement for jobs in South Africa. Formulated from the “Virtually Going & Thriving" scenario the recommended vision, "Future Vision of Education and Work in South Africa towards 2030" incorporates a realistic, attainable and desirable future that could foreground the improvement of the skills gap in the South African context. The desired future of education and future of work in South Africa is a result of transformation of the tertiary education sector and the acceptance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, of digital learning, of the new world of work, the demand for new skills - it is a future where Virtual Reality technology is being applied in an innovative approach to equip students with the right skills, to reskill and upskill workers in the workplace and technologies have been leveraged for a sustainable future. The preferred future offered by this research, the “Future Vision of Education and Work in South Africa towards 2030" envisages an education system that broadens access to opportunities and provides the skills and competences that people need to thrive in a new sustainable economy. Education 4.0 can bring a radical shift in the way people think, act and discharge their responsibilities to one another and to the planet. The programmes instituted by "Future Vision of Education and Work in South Africa towards 2030" will build knowledge, skills and values that will be pivotal for the sustainable future of South Africa as a nation.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Vision-based autonomous aircraft payload delivery system

  • Authors: Sewell, James Alderton
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Airplanes -- Control systems , Systems engineering Engineering -- Data processing Artificial intelligence
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MEng
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/43666 , vital:36960
  • Description: This research sought to design and develop an autonomous aircraft payload delivery system which utilised an onboard computer vision system for drop-zone identification. The research was tasked at achieving a modular system which could be used in the delivery of a given payload within a 5 m radius of designated drop-zone identifier. An integrated system was developed, where an autonomous flight controller, an onboard companion computer and computer vision system formed the physical hardware utilised to achieve the desired objectives. A Linux-based Robotic Operating System software architecture was used to develop the control algorithms which governed the autonomous flight control, object recognition and tracking through image processing, and payload release trajectory modelling of the system. The hardware and software architectures were integrated into a remote control fixed-wing aircraft for testing. Implementation of the system through simulation and physical testing proved successful and payload delivery was achieved at an altitude of 75 m, within an average displacement of 1.82 m from the true drop-zone location, where drop-zone detection and location were determined through autonomous survey over the approximate drop-zone’s location. This research furthered the development of autonomous aircraft delivery systems by introducing computer vision as a means of drop-zone location confirmation and authentication, allowing for greater payload delivery security and efficiency. The results gathered in this research illustrated the possible applications of modular airborne payload delivery systems into Industry 4.0 through the use of such a system in the service delivery sector.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Visual art education narratives in context: contribution by offenders in one correctional facility in the Eastern Cape

  • Authors: Potelwa, Siphe
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Adult learning
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Education)
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/16665 , vital:40741
  • Description: This study sought a solution to close the gap of visual art education narratives under recognition and not taken into consideration in correctional facilities. The researcher’s original contribution to knowledge was to provide the theoretical framework as the lens of this study. This research questions the universal objective of how visual art education narratives contribute to the context of the offender’s voice of selfexpression, self-worth, personal identity and human right in a democratic South African as citizens of society. The aim and objectives were to determine if transformation is evidenced through visual art education and ascertain personal identity as a human right and self-worth for an offender. This study was a qualitative research in which perceptions of offenders in visual art education programmes are investigated in-depth regarding the programmes addressing rehabilitation, selfexpression, self-fulfilment and personal development. Eight respondents participated in this study voluntarily. The selection of respondents in this study was through purposeful sampling. Individual interviews, focus group interviews, observation, document review, open-ended interviews, and website data of correctional services were conducted to collect data. The target participants for this qualitative study were permanent employees of Department of Correctional Services and offenders found guilty of murder and sexual abuse against women and children enrolled in a programme of art education. This study found no anticipated risks to voluntary participation in this research, and the study was free from psychological harm. The study contributed and found adult learners bringing their experience and knowledge into creative artwork skills as voice of self-expression, self-worth and rehabilitation. Analysis of data and interpretation of findings revealed the results that visual art education narratives programme brought self-worth, self-expression, selfdevelopment, self-fulfilment, discipline, prevents conflict, boredom and offender recidivism. This study conclusion stressed, an approach to the solution of the adult learning visual art education in correctional centre were problems identified. It is recommended that the correctional facility, interactive relationships with other departments, and commitment should be implemented without delay
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Vowel harmony in isiXhosa: an OT and acoustic study of [ATR]

  • Authors: Kilian, Kelly
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Grammar, Comparative and general -- Vowel harmony , Xhosa language -- Vowels , Xhosa language -- Phonetics
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67678 , vital:29128
  • Description: The vowel harmony system in isiXhosa is centred on a process of vowel raising. All mid-vowels preceding a high vowel take on the feature advanced tongue root (ATR) (e.g. thɛnga ‘buy’ → thengisa ‘sell’; bɔna 'see' → bonisa 'cause to see') (Harris 1987). The process of mid-vowel assimilation for the feature [+ATR] is consistent in all instances in which the mid-vowel occurs preceding a high vowel trigger, unless harmony is blocked by the low opaque vowel [a]. This is the analysis presented in Jokweni & Thipa (1996) the only previous literature to address the vowel harmony process of isiXhosa in detail. As an alternative approach to the rule-based phonology applied in the analysis presented by Jokweni & Thipa (1996), I propose the introduction of Optimality theory (OT) (Prince & Smolensky 1993, Bakovic 2000, and Pulleyblank 2002). I will present a map of the harmony system of isiXhosa using OT, while also presenting acoustic data to supplement the selected examples provided in Jokweni & Thipa (1996). This acoustic investigation will determine whether the harmonic feature is ATR, and how this feature patterns among vowels in different phonological contexts. In this paper vowel harmony is achieved through the implication of numerous rules, and with very specific directional and prosodic limitations on the spread of [+ATR]. Using generalisations based on my own collected data as well as those reported in previous literature, I have developed a constraint ranking to account for the harmony process in isiXhosa. By adapting the No-disagreement approach to harmony (Pulleyblank 2002), the final constraint ranking has the capacity to derive the optimal phonetic candidate for every harmony case. A selection of spread constraints is used to account for the raising as well as blocking processes, by driving either regressive or progressive spreading. Within the original No-disagreement approach a spread constraint would recognised only one feature in its prohibition of disagreeing segments. However, in the adapted approach the spread constraint driving [+ATR] assimilation is combined with a feature of correspondence (Krämer 2001) which considers the height as well as the ATR value of the sequential segments. The constraint is therefore adapted to consider more than one feature and is not activated unless the sequential segments agree for this particular feature. The regressive spread constraint is therefore only activated when the consecutive segments have an agreeing height value. The introduction of this adaptation was necessary to provide a more nuanced OT approach with the capacity to effectively characterise the idiosyncrasies observed in this harmony pattern. The harmony constraints are therefore no longer contradict one another by simultaneously driving harmony in opposite directions. Furthermore, the direct acoustic analysis is completed by means of the PRAAT software, to answer the salient question of the definitive harmonic feature. To provide a multiplicity of empirical evidence I have recorded utterances containing a number of vowel combinations. Each combination positions the alternating mid-vowels in a particular phonological context from which instances of ATR alternations have been extracted and phonetically analysed. Using the generalisations reported in Jokweni & Thipa (1996) as a starting point, the acoustic signal of each mid-vowel within a set phonological context is annotated for a predicted ATR value. Hence, if a mid-vowel occurs preceding a high vowel it is annotated as [+ATR] etc. The data sets representing each of the mid-variants found in a specific phonological context are then plotted into vowel charts and compared by means of statistical analysis (Baayen 2008, Bluman 2000). The results are then used to determine whether any significant phonetic alternation is occurring, and what the acoustic distinction between [+ATR] & [-ATR] variants is essentially comprised of. The final acoustic results indicate a significant difference between the mid-vowel ATR variants extracted from specific phonological contexts. Hence, due to co-articulatory effects or some other phonological influence the realisation of [+/-ATR] variants exist along a spectrum, and are therefore not phonetically consistent, but indicate a different acoustic make-up across the various groups.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Vulnerability in surf tourism: surf break decline and its impact on Herold's Bay, South Africa

  • Authors: Schröder, Klaus
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Surfing -- South Africa , Tourism -- Environmental aspects Climatic changes -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/43501 , vital:36900
  • Description: Surfing has increasingly become a mainstream and demographically diverse activity that holds substantial economic worth. It also holds substantial social, cultural and spiritual value for participants and related communities. It is therefore not surprising that the maintenance of surf breaks has become an important element of coastal tourism, and that tourism management has had a growing concern with anthropogenic impacts on the shoreline. In line with these developments, this study investigates the vulnerability of surf tourism given the general consensus that there has been a human-induced decline of the river-mouth surf break in Herold’s Bay. An adapted ecological services model is used, and in line with such models, the status of the three types of capital (natural (physical) capital, climatic capital, and built capital) and their effect on recreation capital (surfing’s participation, market, and non-market values) over a twenty-year period is tracked. The findings identified alterations to the river bed morphology, beach morphology, wind direction, and swell intensity and frequency as the main determinants in surf break decline. The corresponding increase in vulnerability of Herold’s Bay’s surf tourism industry is also given as having negative socio-economic impacts. This study has underlined both the potential and the imperative to conserve, utilise and develop surf breaks and the surf tourism industry within South Africa.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Wand plant architecture in the Fynbos: Testing the rodent herbivory hypothesis

  • Authors: Bailey, Lauren A , Potts, A J , Cowling, R M , Whitfield, Maxine C , Smit, Ben
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/440583 , vital:73795 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2019.03.035
  • Description: Throughout the Cape Floristic Region, in a range of local environments, can be found a distinctive growth form: “wand” plants. This curious plant architecture comprises perennial plants which have slender (wand-like) stems that extend high above the matrix vegetation. We explore whether the evolution of wand-plants may have been driven by plant–herbivore interactions with rodents, where such architecture reduces access to nutrient rich flowers and seeds. To test this idea, we determined if (i) wand-plants were more flexible than non-wand congeners, and (ii) a stabilised wand plant was favoured for climbing (by laboratory mice) over a free-standing wand plant in a laboratory setting. Under a phylogenetic independent contrast framework, wand-plants were not more flexible (across a range of diameters) than non-wand congeners.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Water utility efficiency and stated choice responses: status quo effects, effects of presentation format and response time

  • Authors: Murwirapachena, Genius
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Water utilities -- Finance , Waterworks -- Finance Waterworks -- Management
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/41741 , vital:36577
  • Description: Water regulators and policymakers around the world are increasingly influencing water systems towards efficiency and sustainable consumption. In pursuit of these, most regulators mainly use traditional economic-analysis methods to benchmark water utilities and elicit water-service preferences. There have been discussions of several other techniques that extend the commonly used traditional economic analysis tools in the literature. Regardless of these discussions, the practical application of new economic analysis tools in the water sector remains relatively low. This study intends to extend the existing literature by providing more robust methods that could be useful to water regulators. The study asks four research questions to shed light on whether more robust methods are the way forward in water regulation. More precisely, the study investigates the consistency of efficiency scores obtained from the data envelopment analysis (DEA), stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and stochastic non-parametric envelopment of data (StoNED) techniques on a sample of South African water utilities. Additionally, the study examines the impact of status quo bias, presentation format and response time on results from discrete choice experiments conducted using a case of the South African water sector. The study reports four main findings. First, we find that the StoNED method (based on the methods of moments estimator) outperformed both SFA and DEA. However, SFA outperformed StoNED, when the latter was based on the pseudolikelihood estimator. Second, we find that including a partially relevant status quo reduced status quo bias but did not significantly affect empirical estimates. Major differences are noted in the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) estimates reported for one of the sub-samples. Third, we find that presenting attributes and levels using the visuals format generated more statistically significant coefficients than presenting them as text or text-and-visuals. Generally, we find that the presentation format significantly affects choice. Finally, we find that removing fast or slow responses from the sample did not significantly affect both utility function and MWTP results. Based on these findings, the study makes four main recommendations. Firstly, the study argues that StoNED (method of moments estimator) and SFA are more appropriate for estimating efficiency in heterogenous water sectors. The study makes recommendations for future studies that seek to do a methodological cross-checking of the three efficiency analysis techniques in the water sector. Secondly, the study argues that a text-and-visuals experiment improves choice task clarity and yields more robust estimates. Thus, more research on the effects of presentation formats is required in environmental economics so that guidelines on developing valid presentation formats for choice tasks can be established. Finally, the study argues against the exclusion of fast and slow responses from the dataset; and recommends approaches for future studies that investigate the impact of response time on choice.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

We are yet to kill the cattle

  • Authors: Orleyn, Rithuli
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: South African fiction (English)
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92769 , vital:30746
  • Description: My novella comprises inter-linked fragments that combine fiction, autobiography and creative non-fiction. Ranging fluidly from pre-colonial times to the present, and largely set in South Africa but cutting across the native/diaspora divide, the project draws on historical and archival documents, found and fictive letters, oral testimonies and inadmissible facts, mythologies, ghost voices and fictional speculation. It uses the slim slippery voice of autobiography to cast a big shadow of doubt on the certitudes of authorial truth, harnessing multiple voices to disorient settled notions about self/other, black/white and man/machine. My intention is to explore possibilities of being that exceed the human. I draw inspiration from Zoë Wicomb's novella, You Can’t Get Lost In Cape Town, Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter and Mikhail Shishkin’s letter-narratives in Maidenhair. The narrative voice that threads stand-alone fragments seeks to express the demotics of subjects in search of a language for their unlanguaged ‘grammar of suffering’.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

What meanings a selection of South African legal practitioners make of their role in the emerging digital media ecosystem

  • Authors: Robertson, Heather Lillian
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Public sphere -- South Africa , Lawyers -- South Africa , Citizen journalism -- South Africa , User-generated content -- South Africa , Social media -- Authorship , Digital media -- South Africa , Online journalism -- South Africa , Liminality , Journalism, Legal -- South Africa , Gatewatching , New media ecosystem
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/114854 , vital:34042
  • Description: This dissertation explores what a sample of South African lawyers understand about the roles they play in digital public spaces, and whether they perceive their contributions as impacting on journalism in general and legal knowledge among the public more broadly. The communications revolution triggered by web 2.0 interactivity has created a new media ecosystem in which mainstream media journalists co-exist with a variety of non-journalist content producers - including professionals like lawyers, who contribute to media content. This study specifically explores current debates about how the media ecosystem is changing in the digital age, including journalistic practices and routines and the role of journalism within a democracy and daily life. Thomas Hanitzsch and Tim Vos’s recent taxonomy of journalistic functions and roles in society is adapted by combining the domains of politics and daily life, to better describe the roles of non-journalists like the eleven digitally active members of the South African legal community in this study. Using qualitative interviews and content analysis research methods, the study suggests lawyers’ practices and routines challenge current theorisation about the new media ecosystem and digital public sphere in particular ways, suggesting that the affective nature of social media interactions between the lawyers and members of the public is more usefully understood via drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s concept of agonistic public spaces and Axel Bruns and Tim Highfield’s theorisation of ‘public sphericules’ than Jurgen Habermas’s conceptualisation of a rational public sphere. The study found that all of the digitally active lawyers played one or more active roles in contributing news, opinion and debate about legal and social justice matters on different digital public spaces, even though most were reluctant to describe what they do as journalism. The study concludes that this select group of lawyers do complement and enhance the work of journalists covering the legal field in the new media ecosystem in South Africa. It suggests that much more can be done by both journalists and the legal community to deepen co-operation to further enhance public knowledge about the workings of the South African legal system, in relation to legal rights and the rule of law. This dissertation explores what a sample of South African lawyers understand about the roles they play in digital public spaces, and whether they perceive their contributions as impacting on journalism in general and legal knowledge among the public more broadly. The communications revolution triggered by web 2.0 interactivity has created a new media ecosystem in which mainstream media journalists co-exist with a variety of non-journalist content producers - including professionals like lawyers, who contribute to media content. This study specifically explores current debates about how the media ecosystem is changing in the digital age, including journalistic practices and routines and the role of journalism within a democracy and daily life. Thomas Hanitzsch and Tim Vos’s recent taxonomy of journalistic functions and roles in society is adapted by combining the domains of politics and daily life, to better describe the roles of non-journalists like the eleven digitally active members of the South African legal community in this study. Using qualitative interviews and content analysis research methods, the study suggests lawyers’ practices and routines challenge current theorisation about the new media ecosystem and digital public sphere in particular ways, suggesting that the affective nature of social media interactions between the lawyers and members of the public is more usefully understood via drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s concept of agonistic public spaces and Axel Bruns and Tim Highfield’s theorisation of ‘public sphericules’ than Jurgen Habermas’s conceptualisation of a rational public sphere. The study found that all of the digitally active lawyers played one or more active roles in contributing news, opinion and debate about legal and social justice matters on different digital public spaces, even though most were reluctant to describe what they do as journalism. The study concludes that this select group of lawyers do complement and enhance the work of journalists covering the legal field in the new media ecosystem in South Africa. It suggests that much more can be done by both journalists and the legal community to deepen co-operation to further enhance public knowledge about the workings of the South African legal system, in relation to legal rights and the rule of law.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Where dreams become reality: professionalism in flight training in the Eastern Cape

  • Authors: Allison, Martin
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Professional socialization , Flight training -- South Africa , Flight schools -- South Africa -- Case studies , Air pilots -- Training of -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95376 , vital:31150
  • Description: This study explores the construction of the identity of professional pilots through a case study of a flying school in South Africa. Here, a 15-20-month period of intensive study and training of students, fresh from school or college, leads in most cases to the attainment of a Commercial or Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence. The construction of identity is a continuous process and a lifelong project and hence this study can only reflect upon the factors influencing the early stages of a pilot’s career, until the point where the licenced Pilot leaves the Air School and enters full time employment with a commercial undertaking, but it is argued that this is a crucial step in the formation of professional identity, habitus in Bourdieu’s terms. The culture of the air School reflects the military background of the founders of the school and the staff employed in senior positions. The school, which is residential, observes a strict regime of Ground School and Practical Flying Training and a high standard of performance and personal conduct is demanded, both during training and in off duty hours and excessive consumption of alcohol and smoking are discouraged, and drug use absolutely taboo. Progress with training at the school is closely monitored and a disciplined environment maintained by surveillance cameras, house monitors and security guards; in Foucauldian terms, a modern version of the Panopticon, but somewhat less than Goffman’s Total Institution. It was found that the construction of a flying identity for most of the students entering the air school commenced in childhood or early adulthood, through the influence of friends and relatives and they enter the school with the firm intention of becoming Professional pilots. Full participation of the author in the Ground School revealed how professionalization is implemented through the discipline and rigor of the training methods employed. Through mastery of a complex body of theoretical knowledge in the Ground School and the practical skill of learning to fly in a one-on-one relationship with an instructor, the students gain confidence and efficacy which contributes to their self-respect and maturity. The international reputation of the school, confers prestige upon its graduates and they benefit from membership of a profession which commands respect and a high level of income. In large measure, the thesis shows, the success of the School is a function of the founders’ ‘invention of tradition’ focusing on the wartime training school that existed on the site and the many echoes of those times in the (re)construction of its buildings and facilities, continuing in the approach of the multinational that now owns the School.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Who is a refugee? a philosophical account

  • Authors: Oteng, Onalethata
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Refugees -- Philosophy , Refugees -- Government policy , Refugees -- Legal status, laws, etc. , United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons (1951 : Geneva, Switzerland)
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92854 , vital:30755
  • Description: This thesis comprises two sections: the first section considers who is a refugee and who is not a refugee; and the second section illustrates the necessity of amending the present international laws and conventions to include other people who should also be recognised as refugees. The critical issue regarding the definition of a refugee, is whether or not there is adequate evidence concerning the current understanding of the notion of who a refugee is. Therefore, in order to reach these goals, this thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter explores the definitions pertaining to what it means to be a refugee. The second chapter takes into account the different types of victims that are excluded from the notion of refugee. The third chapter considers the consequences of having a restricted understanding who qualifies to be a refugee. The fourth chapter provides alternative solutions that would assist in providing a more comprehensive definition. Furthermore, chapter five discusses the necessity to further expand the refugee concept to include other forms of victims that are not already included. Overall, this thesis seeks to support expansion of the term ‘refugee‘ since the reasons for forced migration have changed, and individuals are not only fleeing from individual persecution, for instance, but from other situations that can be considered to fall under forced migration. Consequently, extending the definition of the term ‘refugee‘ should occur, because refusing to consider revising the term amounts to a refusal to show acceptance and empathy to today‘s other migrants who are also experiencing survival challenges in their home countries.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2019

Wild edible fruits: A systematic review of an under-researched multifunctional NTFP (non-timber forest product)

  • Authors: Sardeshpande, Mallika , Shackleton, Charlie M
  • Date: 2019
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177752 , vital:42856 , https://doi.org/10.3390/f10060467
  • Description: Wild edible fruits (WEFs) are among the most widely used non-timber forest products (NTFPs), and important sources of nutrition, medicine, and income for their users. In addition to their use as food, WEF species may also yield fiber, fuel, and a range of processed products. Besides forests, WEF species also thrive in diverse environments, such as agroforestry and urban landscapes, deserts, fallows, natural lands, and plantations. Given the multifunctional, ubiquitous nature of WEFs, we conducted a systematic review on the literature specific to WEFs and highlighted links between different domains of the wider knowledge on NTFPs.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

With or without you: stem-galling of a tephritid fly reduces the vegetative and reproductive performance of the invasive plant Chromolaena odorata (Asteraceae) both alone and in combination with another agent

  • Authors: Aigbedion-Atalor, Pascal O , Day, Michael D , Itohan Idemudia , Wilson, David D , Paterson, Iain D
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/418093 , vital:71508 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-018-09917-x"
  • Description: With or without another biological control agent, the specialist folivore Pareuchaetes pseudoinsulata, the stem-galling fly Cecidochares connexa reduced the performance of the invasive alien plant, Chromolaena odorata in Ghana. There was a strong significant negative relationship between gall densities of the gall fly and stem height, and the number of stems and flower heads of C. odorata. Pareuchaetes pseudoinsulata had very little impact on any C. odorata parameters. However, at sites where both C. connexa and P. pseudoinsulata occurred simultaneously, the performance of C. odorata was significantly reduced when compared with control plants. Increasing densities of both agents had a strong significant negative correlative effect on C. odorata plant parameters. Cecidochares connexa was recorded in all five regions of the country sampled, while P. pseudoinsulata was recorded in four regions. Densities of both agents declined in the dry season, but galls were persistent throughout the study period. This is the first report of the impact of C. connexa on C. odorata in the West African sub-region since its introduction to Cote d’Ivoire in 2003 and it is clear that the agent has a significant impact on C. odorata in Ghana. Further surveys are required to determine the impact of both biological control agents in other parts of the sub-region where they have established.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Women teachers leading change against intimate partner violence at a state university in Zimbabwe

  • Authors: Matope, Nogget
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Women teachers -- Zimbabwe , Sex discrimination in education -- Zimbabwe Women college students -- Crimes against -- Zimbabwe Campus violence -- Zimbabwe Rape in universities and colleges -- Zimbabwe
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DEd
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/41021 , vital:36283
  • Description: This study responded to the following research question: How can participatory and visual methodology enable women teachers to lead change against intimate partner violence at a state university in Zimbabwe? The study was qualitative and informed by the critical paradigm and employed visual participatory research methodology (PVM). The participants in this study were six women teachers from a state university who were selected by means of snowballing. The visual methods of data generation that were employed were memory accounts, drawings, participatory videos and focus group discussions. Memory accounts expressed the participants’ experiences and understanding of IPV as they made meaning of their lived realities. Data generated from the drawings depicted the participants’ positioning and the way in which they were positioned in intimate relationships. The participatory video was used to express the participants’ understanding of IPV and the critical steps that can be taken to address the issue. The findings indicated that the participants understand IPV as a complex issue and they can engage in and explore issues that affect them. The participants’ voices can initiate change by breaking down barriers as they address the issue. The participants also indicated that students’ voices should be heard in the drafting of policies to include issues that affect them directly. The findings suggest that engagement with women, listening to one another, being listened to and working collaboratively to offer solutions to problems as agents of change, empowers the women. The findings have implications for the university community in that they show that the women teachers are actors who are aware of IPV and can participate and inform intervention programs. The participants can lead change through their work as educators as they continue to share with the community. This could enhance knowledge co-production. I conclude by arguing that using PVM provided a safe space for the women to talk about their lived realities of IPV with a wider audience and propose solutions to a phenomenon that has always been taboo; thus leading change towards an IPV free society.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Women’s narratives about alcohol use during pregnancy: a narrative-discursive study

  • Authors: Matebese, Sibongile
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Pregnant women -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Pregnant women -- South Africa -- Alcohol use , Pregnant women -- South Africa -- Psychology
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95196 , vital:31126
  • Description: While research has explored the risk factors that contribute to alcohol use during pregnancy among South African women, such studies have mostly been quantitative in nature. There is a growing body of research that contextualises and articulates the attitudes, beliefs, and underlying motivations that influence drinking during pregnancy. However, few qualitative studies explore the cultural, economic, familial, and social contexts within which drinking during pregnancy takes place. Studies which have explored these contexts have been conducted in other geographical regions such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States but their findings are not generalisable to South Africa. Drawing on a feminist poststructuralist as well as a narrative-discursive approach including Foucault’s (1978) theory of power, this study sought to explore women’s narratives of the personal and interpersonal circumstances under which drinking during pregnancy takes place in terms of the discourses used to construct these narratives and the subject positions made available within these discourses. This allowed for the practice of alcohol use during pregnancy to be understood within the social and cultural narratives, practices, and discourses around pregnancy as well as gendered and social relations. Using the narrative interview method set out by Wengraf (2001), thirteen, unemployed ‘Black’ women from an area in the Eastern Cape were recruited and interviewed. Seven discourses emerged from the narratives namely, a discourse of ‘stress and coping’ ‘hegemonic masculinities’, ‘peer pressure’, ‘disablement and developmental delay’, ‘good mothering/appropriate pregnancies’, ‘culture’, and ‘religion’. These discourses informed the five narrative categories which emerged: narratives about the pregnancy, narratives about the drinking, narratives that justify/explain drinking, narratives that condemn the drinking, and narratives about the women knowing the effects of drinking during pregnancy. Within these narratives, the women mainly positioned themselves as dependent on alcohol during their pregnancies in order to cope with stress caused by various circumstances which were mainly centred on a lack of support from their partners, paternity denial, infidelity and unreliableness. As such, the women in this study mainly justified their drinking during pregnancy and in constructing this narrative, the ‘stress and coping’ discourse as well as the ‘male/masculine provider’ discourse were mainly drawn upon. In reflecting on this analysis, this study argues that alcohol use during pregnancy should be understood within the broader environmental and social context that makes a pregnancy challenging and/or difficult and thus necessitates drinking during pregnancy. Recommendations for future research include expanding the diversity of participants as well as interviewing healthcare providers and women who are currently pregnant, drinking, and part of an intervention aimed at addressing alcohol use during pregnancy so as to obtain a holistic understanding of engaging in this practice. The study makes key recommendations for interventions in practice to help work towards ensuring that the practice of alcohol use during pregnancy is not individualised, decontextualized, and stigmatised.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Workplace health promotion at Rhodes University: harmful use of alcohol

  • Authors: Marara, Praise
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Chronic diseases -- South Africa , Health education -- South Africa , Drinking of alcoholic beverages -- Health aspects -- South Africa , Employees -- Alcohol use -- South Africa , Employee health promotion -- South Africa , Rhodes University -- Employees -- Health and hygiene
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MPharm
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67444 , vital:29088
  • Description: Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are responsible for 38 million deaths annually, which translates to 68% of global deaths every year. Incidence and prevalence of NCDs are increasing rapidly and the poor bear a disproportionate burden. The increase in NCDs has been primarily due to a proliferation of modifiable risk factors, such as unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption. Substance abuse, mainly of alcohol, is a common cause of health problems in almost all countries across the globe. Alcohol abuse is a major contributor to the global burden of diseases and accounts for 3.3 million deaths, approximately 5.9% of all global deaths, annually. Alcohol misuse is the fifth leading risk factor for premature death and disability and is the top risk factor among people between 15 and 49 years of age. The rise of harmful use of alcohol in South Africa contributes to the disease burden faced by the country, with alcohol-related disorders making up 44.6% of all alcohol-attributable disabilities. Strategies to reduce harmful use of alcohol include national policies and educational interventions including health promotion. Health promotion is a common practice in the prevention of NCDs, but workplace health promotion has not yet been well established in many workplaces. Identification of past workplace initiatives and exploring their facilitating and limiting factors is thus important to consider when planning future initiatives. Raising awareness on harmful use of alcohol through workplace health promotion projects can help to prevent and reduce alcohol-related problems. For these health promotion activities to succeed, they need to be developed with consideration of factors such as the environment, culture, and socio-economic standing of the intended target population. Method: This study, conducted at Rhodes University, followed a mixed methods research approach and consisted of two phases. The first phase of the current study was a needs assessment and involved working with the key stakeholders. Using the Community Based Participatory Research approach and the Centres for Disease Control and prevention workplace health model to guide the research, five semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders to identify factors affecting workplace health promotion, and their opinions on how to improve these initiatives were sought. The participants were asked to identify areas on which the intended intervention should focus, as well as to identify their preferred means of communicating health messages. During this phase, a group of peer educators who volunteered their involvement in the health promotion project focusing on harmful use of alcohol was also identified. The second phase of this project aimed to address concerns raised in the first phase through a health promotion initiative for support staff that focuses on the prevention of NCDs diseases through reducing alcohol related harm. During the educational health promotion phase of the study, three health information leaflets based on harmful use of alcohol were designed. These leaflets went through a series of evaluations by the researchers’ peers, support staff during a pilot study, peer educators and other health professionals to assess content validity, context specificity, and cultural appropriateness for the target group. The health information leaflets were then used as written materials in the educational intervention of the project and were also used to design a poster. Through participatory involvement, a facilitator’s manual on harmful use of alcohol was developed, which was used during the workshops in the implementation phase of the research. The facilitator’s manual was modified based on provided feedback on improving the content of the facilitator’s manual. The readability of the manual was also performed to make it suitable for the end users. The peer educators were also trained through workshops to enable them to promote and raise awareness on harmful use of alcohol to others in the workplace. Workshops were participatory in nature and were also equipped with the completed health information leaflets to distribute to their peers and to use as reference sources of information when needed. Results: Participants in the semi-structured interviews reported that some health promotion initiatives have previously been attempted and advertised to support staff, but there was poor participant participation. Peer educators reported that these initiatives were not communicated to them and venues and work commitments sometimes were barriers to participation in these projects. The peer educators suggested incentivising initiatives for better participation. Another key suggestion was to inform and to include their managers and supervisors in these initiatives so they are permitted to take time off work. Health education material like posters or leaflets were also proposed as modes of delivering health information. During the design of the material to be used for this project’s intended intervention, the health information leaflets were deemed readable, suitable, actionable, context-specific, and culturally appropriate. Workshops conducted during Phase 2 of the study proved to be valuable in training peer educators. Peer educators also deemed the workshops useful, and reported their readiness to be agents of change in the workplace. Conclusions: Based on the input of key stakeholders and peer educators, there is currently no health promotion policy at Rhodes University, especially with respect to NCDs health promotion policies and protocols for NCDs. Health promotion initiatives, especially for support staff, that address NCDs have previously been attempted at the university but were not successful. Factors affecting workplace health promotion were identified. Knowledge of these factors was useful when implementing the health promotion project on harmful use of alcohol. The health leaflets were deemed suitable for use by the target population. Peer educators who went through the workshops and were provided with the facilitators’ manuals concluded that the sessions were useful in their continued participation in the health promotion project. Continued involvement of the Wellness Office and peer educators can assist in ensuring the sustainability of this workplace health initiative.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2019
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