Constitutional Engineering and Economic Recolonization in South Africa

1984 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 30-34
Author(s):  
Heribert Adam
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
New South ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
White Voters ◽  
South African Constitution ◽  
White Control ◽  
Political Decision Making

On November 2, 1983, white voters in South Africa decided by a two-thirds majority in a nation-wide referendum to approve a new South African constitution. The new political dispensation still excludes the 70 percent African population from participation in central political decision making but includes symbolically the 10 percent so-called coloureds and 3 percent Indians in separate Parliaments. White control has been streamlined into a more technocratic, expanded executive state with greater powers for the ruling Nationalist Party and the office of the state president. The “coloureds” and Indians now play the minor role of educating whites in non-racialism.

scholarly journals Human Rights Commission Et Al: What is the role of South Africa's Chapter 9 Institutions?

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
C Murray
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Government Accountability ◽  
African Society ◽  
Government Action ◽  
South African Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Dominance ◽  
South African Constitution

The six independent institutions established under Chapter 9 of the South African Constitution have been heavily criticised recently. One of the reasons that they are vulnerable to criticism is a lack of understanding of their role, both on the part of members of the institutions and the public. This article argues that they share two distinct roles: To provide a check on government and to contribute to the transformation of South African society. In fulfilling the checking role, they differ from the three branches of government as they have no power to block government action. Their effectiveness lies in their ability to provide an authoritative account of government action and to cooperate with government in the correction of problems. Their position as an intermediary between the public and government ensures that they can contribute to enhancing government accountability in ways that complement the role of the courts and Parliament. The explicit mandates of transformation and mobilization make the transformation role of the HRC, CGE and CRL Commission very clear. But, in different ways, the other three institutions, can also act proactively.  Finally the article argues that, despite mandates that overlap to some extent, the six institutions complement each other.  Their greatest challenges are the newness of democracy in South Africa, the immensity of the demands which the state is expected to meet and the political dominance of the governing party. Each of these factors puts pressure on the chapter 9 institutions and on democracy in South Africa.

ROLE OF LIBRARIANS IN TEACHING INFORMATION LITERACY IN ZIMBABWEAN AND SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tinashe Mugwisi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
Information And Communications Technologies ◽  
Communications Technologies ◽  
Information Skills ◽  
The University

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the Internet have to a large extent influenced the way information is made available, published and accessed. More information is being produced too frequently and information users now require certain skills to sift through this multitude in order to identify what is appropriate for their purposes. Computer and information skills have become a necessity for all academic programmes. As libraries subscribe to databases and other peer-reviewed content (print and electronic), it is important that users are also made aware of such sources and their importance. The purpose of this study was to examine the teaching of information literacy (IL) in universities in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the role played by librarians in creating information literate graduates. This was done by examining whether such IL programmes were prioritised, their content and how frequently they were reviewed. An electronic questionnaire was distributed to 12 university libraries in Zimbabwe and 21 in South Africa. A total of 25 questionnaires were returned. The findings revealed that IL was being taught in universities library and non-library staff, was compulsory and contributed to the term mark in some institutions. The study also revealed that 44 per cent of the total respondents indicated that the libraries were collaborating with departments and faculty in implementing IL programmes in universities. The study recommends that IL should be an integral part of the university programmes in order to promote the use of databases and to guide students on ethical issues of information use.

scholarly journals Truth and reconciliation in South Africa: Hindu experiences and concerns

2004 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P.G.J. Meiring
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Hindu Community ◽  
The Way

The author who served on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), focuses on the Hindu experience in South Africa during the apartheid years. At a special TRC Hearing for Faith Communities (East London, 17-19 November 1997) two submissions by local Hindu leaders were tabled. Taking his cues from those submissions, the author discusses four issues: the way the Hindu community suffered during these years, the way in which some members of the Hindu community supported the system of apartheid, the role of Hindus in the struggle against apartheid, and finally the contribution of the Hindu community towards reconciliation in South Africa. In conclusion some notes on how Hindus and Christians may work together in th

Ethnicity and Voting Patterns in South Africa

1979 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 458-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Lever
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Categorical Data ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
Electoral Behaviour ◽  
Log Linear ◽  
Published Research

There is some controversy concerning the role of ethnicity in South African electoral behaviour. Since the society is segmented on ethnic lines it is to be expected that ethnicity would play a crucial role in affecting political choices. Some writers have gone so far as to suggest that ethnicity is the only significant factor affecting voting preferences. The controversy arose at a time when Goodman's method of log-linear analysis for hierarchical models had not yet been developed. This method provides the most powerful tool available for the multivariate analysis of categorical data. A re-analysis of previously published research using Goodman's method shows that ethnicity is not the only significant factor having a bearing on voting preferences. The first four-way table of voting preferences in South Africa is presented. The order of importance of the variables affecting party choice is: (1) ethnicity (2) socio-economic status (3) age of the voter. The recursive model suggested by the analysis explains approximately 98 per cent of the data.

Stellarioides littoralis (Asparagaceae, Scilloideae), a distinct new species from eastern South Africa

Phytotaxa ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 177 (5) ◽  
pp. 261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil R. Crouch ◽  
Mario Martínez-Azorín ◽  
Angela J. Beaumont ◽  
David Styles
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Species ◽  
South African ◽  
Endemic Species ◽  
New South ◽  
Morphological Features

A new South African endemic species, Stellarioides littoralis is described and illustrated, with data provided on morphology, ecology and distribution. The species appears to be closely related to S. longibracteata and whilst it shares in common an epigeal habit of the bulb with the latter species, several reproductive and vegetative morphological features clearly distinguish it. The affinities and divergences with other close allies are also discussed.

New South African Review 3: The second phase – tragedy or farce? (John Daniel, Prishani Naidoo, Devan Pillay and Roger Southall, eds)

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Kotzé
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
New South ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
The South ◽  
Negotiated Settlement ◽  
The Third ◽  
Direct Competition

As the title indicates this publication is the third issue in a series of reviews. The first issue was subtitled 2010: Development or decline? (2010) and the second was New paths, old promises? (2011). These publications are edited in the Department of Sociology at Wits University as part of its Strategic Planning and Allocation of Resources Committee (SPARC) Programme. The series is intended to be a revival of the South African Review edited by the South African Research Service and published by Ravan Press in the 1980s and early 1990s. Arguably one of the best known of these series was issue seven edited by Steven Friedman and Doreen Atkinson, The Small Miracle: South Africa's negotiated settlement (1994). The latest publication should also be seen as direct competition for the Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) regular publication, State of the Nation. The New South African Review 3 is organised into four parts, namely Party, Power and Class; Ecology, Economy and Labour; Public Policy and Social Practice; and South Africa at Large. The four editors introduce each of the sections, consisting of 16 chapters in total. Thebook's format appears to be that of a yearbook but it is not linked to a specific year. It is therefore not in the same category as for example the South African Institute of Race Relations' annual South Africa Survey. The Review is organised around a theme, albeit very general in its formulation, and in the case of the third issue it is also not applicable to all its chapters. At the same time, though, it is not a yearbook as the choice of chapters and their foci are on the latest developments. 

Conserving inequality: How private conservation and property developers ‘fix’ spatial injustice in South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 251484862110663
Author(s):  
Lerato Thakholi ◽  
Bram Büscher
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Structural Inequality ◽  
Conservation Property ◽  
Private Profit ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Housing Estates ◽  
Property Developers

In 2016, South Africa launched its National Biodiversity Economy Strategy. This strategy aims to facilitate the development of a ‘wildlife economy’ as a solution to unemployment, loss of biodiversity and rural development. Central to the strategy is the role of private conservation actors, who keenly posit their commercial model as the best way to achieve these objectives. This stands in sharp contrast to recent critiques that suggest that private conservation reinforces structural inequality by denying access to land and perpetuating unjust labour conditions. Using ethnographic data from the South African Lowveld region that includes the Kruger National Park, the paper takes these points further by arguing that a rapidly growing alliance between private conservation and property developers actively conserve inequality by maintaining and even extending spatial injustice in the region. Two popular recent manifestations of this alliance in particular, share block systems that distribute ownership of access to real estate in private reserves and wildlife housing estates, have established new conservation-property linkages that entrench capitalist socioecological fixes. Not only do these initiatives lead to further engrained spatial injustice, we conclude that this conservation-property alliance at the centre of the ‘wildlife economy’ also willingly sacrifices environmental sustainability on the altar of white conservation imaginations and private profit.

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