scholarly journals Race, class and violent crime in South Africa: Dispelling the ‘Huntley thesis’

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Silber ◽  
Nathan Geffen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Violent Crime ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Community Based ◽  
The Social ◽  
Distribution Of Resources ◽  
New Community ◽  
Basic Infrastructure

Brandon Huntley was granted asylum in Canada earlier this year based on the argument that whites are disproportionately affected by crime in South Africa. The decision was generally condemned, but it did receive support from various groups and individuals including Afriforum, the Freedom Front and James Myburgh (editor of Politicsweb). In this article we show the flaws in Huntley's argument by presenting evidence from several sources that demonstrate that black and poor people are disproportionately the victims of violent crime in South Africa. We are concerned that painting whites as the primary victims of South Africa's social ills is unproductive, ungenerous and potentially hampers the appropriate distribution of resources to alleviate crime. Furthermore, in order to move the debate on crime in South Africa into a more productive direction, we also describe the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) – a relatively new community based organisation that aims to mobilise communities around improving safety and security for all in South Africa, regardless of race or income. Campaigning for novel pragmatic and coordinated community and government responses to the broader lack of safety and security in the country, the SJC focuses on the introduction and development of basic infrastructure and services as a means of reducing crime.

Socio-Medical Indicators of Health in South Africa

1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Champak C. Jinabhai ◽  
Hoosen M. Coovadia ◽  
Salim S. Abdool-Karim
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Health Status Indicators ◽  
Indicator System ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Community Based ◽  
State Planning ◽  
Black And White ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
Health Care Indicators

Socio-medical indicators developed by WHO for monitoring progress towards Health-for-All have been adapted to reveal, clearly and objectively, the devastating impact of state planning based on an outmoded immoral and unscientific philosophy of race superiority in South Africa on the health of the disenfranchised majority within the context of social and economic discrimination; Health policy indicators confirm that the government is committed to three options (Bantustans, A New Constitution, and A Health Services Facilities Plan) all of which are inconsistent with the attainment of Health-for-All; Social and economic indicators reveal gross disparities between African, Coloured, Indian, and White living and working conditions; Provision of health care indicators show the overwhelming dominance of high technology curative medical care consuming about 97 percent of the health budget with only minor shifts towards community-based comprehensive care; and Health status indicators illustrate the close nexus between privilege, dispossession and disease with Whites falling prey to health problems related to affluence and lifestyle, while Africans, Coloureds, and Indians suffer from disease due to poverty. All four categories of the indicator system reveal discrepancies which exist between Black and White, rich and poor, urban and rural. To achieve the social goal of Health-for-All requires a greater measure of political commitment from the state. We conclude that it is debatable whether a system which maintains race discrimination and exploitation can in fact be adapted to provide Health-for-All.

Moral and Instrumental Rationales for Affirmative Action in Five National Contexts

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele S. Moses
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
News Media ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
State Legislation ◽  
The Social

The author’s primary aims are to clarify the differing rationales for affirmative action that have emerged in five nations—France, India, South Africa, the United States, and Brazil—and to make the case for the most compelling rationales, whether instrumentally or morally based. She examines the different social contexts surrounding the establishment and public discussion of each nation’s policy. Next, she examines four justifications for affirmative action in these nations: remediation, economics, diversity, and social justice. She offers philosophical analysis of the justifications for affirmative action in each country and synthesizes federal and state legislation, court decisions, news media sources, and research-based scholarship. She argues that the social justice rationale ought to be invoked more centrally, underscoring affirmative action’s role in fostering a democratic society.

scholarly journals Interface of Law and Medicine in Clinical Legal Education: Success story of the Women’s Law Clinic in improving the health of women and ensuring women’s access to Justice in Nigeria

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevwe Omoragbon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Success Story ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The Social

<p>Specialist law clinics now operate both in the developed and developing world. The historical background of these specialist law clinics can be traced to the United States. They also abound in South Africa, Europe and are fast emerging in several African countries. It is however outside the scope of this paper to describe the wide variety of specialist law clinic models that exist in other countries.</p><p><br />At present in Nigeria, there are seven Nigerian Universities with law clinics. These law clinics in enhancing the social justice frontier have developed projects addressing specific problems; making them specialists in service delivery, but the Women’s Law Clinic, is the only gender specialist law clinic.</p>

scholarly journals ‘PALE FACE’/ ‘POINTY FACE’: SA criminology in denial

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Henkeman*
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
South African ◽  
Violent Crime ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Human Psyche ◽  
Intersectional Theory ◽  
Key Aspects

This paper responds to key aspects of Bill Dixon’s article, Understanding ‘Pointy Face’: What is criminology for? It suggests that criminology should unambiguously be ‘for’ social justice in South Africa’s transhistorically unequal context. South African prison statistics are used as a conceptual shortcut to briefly highlight racialised constructions of crime, the criminal and the criminologist. A trans-disciplinary conceptual approach, as a more socially just way to understand violent crime in South Africa, is proposed. A methodological framework,which draws on the notion of cultural-structural-direct violenceand intersectional theory,is presented. These extend Bill Dixon’s call for criminology to include history, structure, human psyche and biography5 and resonates with Biko Agozino’s call for a ‘counter-colonial’ criminology.The paper ends by returning the Eurocentric gaze of most South African criminologists, calling them out on their denial about trans-historical violence that implicates ‘Pale Face’ in the violence of ‘Pointy Face’.

Social justice implications for educational psychologists working with orphans and vulnerable children in South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jace Pillay
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Educational Psychology ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
Orphans And Vulnerable Children ◽  
Educational Psychologists ◽  
Educational Challenges ◽  
The Social

The aim of this article is to discuss the social justice implications for educational psychologists working with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) who comprise 3.7 million of the population in South Africa. The author begins with a global conceptualisation of social justice and then discusses the nature of social justice in South Africa. This is followed by an exploration of social justice within the discipline of educational psychology and how it would apply to the contexts of OVC, especially taking their psychosocial and educational challenges into consideration. These challenges allude to the point that educational psychologists have to be active agents of social justice who advocate for better learning and development opportunities for OVC to succeed in life. Thus, the social justice implications for educational psychologists working with OVC are discussed. In concluding, the author points out the global value of this article noting that OVC and educational psychologists are prevalent across the globe.

scholarly journals Strategi Survival Masyarakat Pesisir dan Pedalaman Sumenep di Tengah Krisis Ekologi dan Industrialisasi

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 207
Author(s):  
Shohebul Umam
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Family Income ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Survival Strategies ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Community Based ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government

<p><em>This study discusses poverty, which until now is still a major problem for the Indonesian state. The effort to eradicate poverty becomes a big commitment through the projected Sustainable Development Goal's (SDG's) which are determined to reduce the number of poor people to 50% in the next 2030. Instead of alleviating poverty, SDG's which insinuate welfare are more and more pressed by poverty itself. Global warming which drives climate change is uncertain, causes an ecological crisis on one side, and creates a consumptive culture of society on the other side. This research uses a qualitative method, in which coastal communities and inland farmers become in Sumenep, Madura is the object of this study. due to climate change that is getting worse, fishermen and farmers, must rearrange their survival strategies to meet the needs of family income. The government, in this case, must be encouraged to be a catalyst for change, in order to realize the social welfare of the community through the development of community-based communities that are independent and sustainable. </em></p><p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p>Penelitian ini membahas tentang kemiskinan, yang sampai saat ini masih menjadi persoalan utama negara Indonesia. Upaya untuk mengentaskan kemiskinan menjadi komitmen besar melalui proyeksi Sustainable Development Goal’s (SDG’s) yang bertekad untuk menekan jumlah penduduk miskin hingga 50% pada 2030 mendatang. Alih-alih mengentaskan kemiskinan, SDG’s yang meng-insinuasikan kesejahteraan justru samakan terdesak oleh kemiskinan itu sendiri. Global warming yang mendorong perubahan iklim tidak menentu, menyebabkan krisis ekologi pada satu sisi, dan menciptakan budaya konsumtif masyarakat pada sisi yang lainnya. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif, di mana masyarakat pesisir dan petani pedalaman menjadi di Sumenep, Madura menjadi objek kajian ini. akibat perubahan iklim yang semakin buruk, nelayan dan petani, harus mengatur kembali strategi survival mereka untuk memenuhi kebutuhan nafkah keluarga. Pemerintah dalam hal ini, mesti didorong untuk menjadi katalisator perubahan, demi mewujudkan kesejahteraan sosial masyarakat melalui pengembangan masyarakat berbasis komunitas yang bersifat mandiri dan berkelanjutan.</p>

scholarly journals Empowering The Underprivileged: The Social Justice Mission For Clinical Legal Education In India

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuvro Prosun Sarker
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
The Social ◽  
Education In India ◽  
History Of ◽  
Clinical Models ◽  
Indian Law

<p>The 1960s and 1970s were an important time in the history of legal education in India, when the legal aid movement and various legal aid committees’ reports started to draw attention to the importance of experiential learning, or learning on the job, in legal education. The main aim of involving law students in the national legal aid movement was to make them feel more responsible for the considerable part of the Indian population who, because of their socio-economic status, couldn’t access justice. The history of how India’s clinical programs were introduced has a lot in common with the history of clinical programs in other parts of the world. There was a desire to create a pool of lawyers, who would serve as soldiers in the fight for social justice for underprivileged groups in the country.</p><p>While some prestigious universities started their clinical programs in the 1970s, most of the regulators of legal education took a long time to include clinical papers in the curriculum. In 1997 the Bar Council of India introduced four practical papers in the curriculum. The spirit of public service, and the widespread poverty in a country, has always been central to the push for clinical programs everywhere. But in India, the legal aid committees’ and other statutory bodies’ reports calling for clinical programs to support social justice, were always ignored. The National Knowledge Commission’s working group on legal education specifically mentioned the need to introduce students to issues relating to poverty, social change and social exclusion, through clinical legal education.</p><p>After the introductory section, the second section discusses the introduction of clinical programs with their roots in the search for social justice in the United States and India. The third section discusses the continuous deliberation by various bodies, commissions and committees about the need to introduce clinical programs with a social justice perspective in India. The fourth section discusses the social justice-based clinical programs in China and South Africa. This section tries to highlight some of the clinical models focused on serving underprivileged groups, that have been introduced and implemented in these two countries and which ~ after local modifications ~ could serve as a template for programs in Indian law schools. The fifth section tries to search for clinical models best suited to India with reference to clinical programs in China and South Africa. Several examples of clinical activities in a few Indian law schools have been highlighted in this chapter to explain these models’ effectiveness and suitability for Indian circumstances. The sixth section sets out some suggestions for law schools and stakeholders of legal education in India as to how to further the country’s social justice mission of clinical legal education.</p>

scholarly journals Hair salons and stylist–client social relationships as facilitators of community-based contraceptive uptake in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a qualitative analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nafisa J. Wara ◽  
Christina Psaros ◽  
Sabina Govere ◽  
Nosipho Dladla ◽  
Ashley Stuckwisch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Young Female ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Social Barriers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Kwazulu Natal ◽  
Client Relationships ◽  
Social Facilitators ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract Background South Africa faces a high burden of unmet contraceptive need, particularly among adolescent girls and young women. Providing contraception in community-based venues may overcome barriers to contraceptive access. Our objective was to explore the potential impact of the social environment and stylist–client interactions on perceived accessibility of contraceptives within hair salons. Methods We conducted 42 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with salon clients (100% identified as female, 100% identified as Black, median age 27.1 years) and 6 focus groups with 43 stylists (95% identified as female, 98% identified as Black, median age 29.6 years) in and around Umlazi Township, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal to explore perspectives on offering contraceptive services in hair salons. We used an inductive and deductive approach to generate the codebook, identified themes in the data, and then organized findings according to Rogers’ Individual Adoption Model as applied to community-based health prevention programs. Twenty-five percent of transcripts were coded by two independent coders to ensure reliability. Results We identified elements of the salon environment and stylist–client relationships as facilitators of and barriers to acceptability of salon-based contraceptive care. Factors that may facilitate perceived contraceptive accessibility in salons include: the anonymous, young, female-centered nature of salons; high trust and kinship within stylist–client interactions; and mutual investment of time. Stylists may further help clients build comprehension about contraceptives through training. Stylists and clients believe salon-based contraceptive delivery may be more accessible due to contraceptive need facilitating client buy-in for the program, as well as a salon environment in which clients may encourage other clients by voluntarily sharing their own contraceptive decisions. The non-judgmental nature of stylist–client relationships can empower clients to make contraceptive decisions, and stylists seek to support clients’ continued use of contraceptives through various adherence and support strategies. Some stylists and clients identified existing social barriers (e.g. confidentiality concerns) and made recommendations to strengthen potential contraceptive delivery in salons. Conclusion Stylists and clients were highly receptive to contraceptive delivery in salons and identified several social facilitators as well as barriers within this setting. Hair salons are community venues with a social environment that may uniquely mitigate barriers to contraceptive access in South Africa.

scholarly journals A Critical Investigation of the Relevance and Potential of IDPS as a Local Governance Instrument for Pursuing Social Justice in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 220
Author(s):  
Oliver Njuh Fuo
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Local Government ◽  
South African ◽  
Basic Needs ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Integrated Development ◽  
The Poor

Unlike the situation in the past, when local government’s role was limited to service delivery, local government is now constitutionally mandated to play an expanded developmental role. As a “co-responsible” sphere of government, local government is obliged to contribute towards realising the transformative constitutional mandate aimed at social justice. South African scholars and jurists share the view that social justice is primarily concerned with the eradication of poverty and extreme inequalities in access to basic services, and aims to ensure that poor people command sufficient material resources to facilitate their equal participation in socio-political life. In order to enable municipalities to fulfil their broad constitutional mandate, the system of integrated development planning (IDPs) came into effect in South Africa in 2000. Each municipality is obliged to design, adopt and implement an integrated development plan in order to achieve its expanded constitutional mandate. The IDP is considered to be the chief legally prescribed governance instrument for South African municipalities. The purpose of this article is to explore and critically investigate the relevance and potential of IDPs in contributing towards the achievement of social justice in South Africa. This article argues inter alia that the multitude of sectors that converge in an IDP makes it directly relevant and gives it enormous potential to contribute towards social justice because, depending on the context, municipalities could include and implement strategies that specifically respond to diverse areas of human need. In this regard, the legal and policy frameworks for IDPs provide a structured scheme that could be used by municipalities to prioritise and meet the basic needs of especially the poor. Despite its potential, it is argued that the ability of IDPs to respond to the basic needs of the poor is largely constrained by a series of implementation challenges partly attributed to the underlying legal and policy framework.

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