scholarly journals Beyond Literal Understanding: “Womb Theft” as Metonym – An Interpretation of the Language Used to Describe Caesarean Kidnappings

Obiter ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-238
Author(s):  
Maureen Mswela
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Legal Communication ◽  
Female Perpetrator ◽  
African Context ◽  
Legal Contexts ◽  
Legal Concepts ◽  
Do So

The author’s attention has, in recent years, been drawn to an article with the headline, “Womb theft accused testifies”, and to another titled “Sentence reduced for attempted womb theft”. Both articles referred to “womb theft” as the appropriation of a fetus from an expectant woman by a female perpetrator who fakes a pregnancy, and then brutally kills the pregnant woman in order to appropriate the unborn child to keep as her own. Such criminals literally slash open an expectant woman’s womb to reach for the fetus in what can be described as a bizarre replication of a Caesarean section procedure. The author was not entirely clear on what writers meant by “womb theft”, which, defined literally, indicates that the object of theft is the womb/uterus and not a fetus/newborn. If a womb in its literal sense qualifies to be an object of theft, a writer could surely foresee the confusion that would follow headlines such as “Sentence reduced for attempted womb theft” or “Womb theft accused testifies.” The failure to do so exposes a conceptual skew in the discursive construction of the nature of the crime. There has been little research into problems in the language used to describe Caesarean kidnappings from the standpoint of those interested in improving legal language construction. Perhaps a special category of figurative language is required to explain how “womb theft” is used and understood here. The author pursues this task through metonymic analysis, a method that has found little application in legal theory in the South African context. The author argues that figurative expressions are repeatedly used without critical reflection, thereby confusing the recipient and obscuring communication rather than enlightening it. The author does not argue that the use of metonym in legal contexts should be eradicated since, in some instances, they enhance the understanding of legal concepts; instead, legal scholars must see through figurative language, and develop critical dialogue on the stylistic use of metonym and in so doing, master the art of legal communication.

The dialogic construction of certainty in legal contexts

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Mininni ◽  
Rosa Scardigno ◽  
Ignazio Grattagliano
Keyword(s):  
Human Condition ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Legal Communication ◽  
Legal Contexts ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Rhetorical Structures ◽  
Specific Sense

The contexts of legal communication are characterized by the maximum strain between the spread of doubtfulness and the aspiration to certainty. The distance between the versions of events proposed by prosecution and defense is clear evidence of the sense-making dynamic that marks the human condition as “insecuritas”. The analysis of legal contexts allows us to capture the complex process of the discursive construction of (un)certainty, that interweaves references on both the epistemic and value axes typical of a specific sense-enunciative community. In the discursive sphere of the “court” institution, all the enunciative positionings enacted by those who incriminate, defend, testify, guarantee and judge, disclose the several ways to relate to (un)certainty of their textual worlds. As a consequence, the meaning of “evidentials” is overdetermined by specific rhetorical structures that set up a wide range of personal styles in the management of (un)certainty . The analysis of texts produced in a judicial debate aims to display the dialogical principle pertaining to a specific modulation of evidentiality expressed by deontic forms, performing a “dehumanizing” rhetoric. They can be interpreted as a trace of the opportunity to emphasize the ethical roots of each claim for certainty.

scholarly journals Information system strategies: The South African context

1991 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 46-52
Author(s):  
Neil Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
South African ◽  
Business School ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The South ◽  
Information Systems Strategy ◽  
Is Strategy ◽  
African Context ◽  
Do So

Many studies of information systems (IS) issues place IS strategy at the top of the list. In this article the development is sketched of IS strategy and then the relevant findings are summarised of a number of studies undertaken at the Wits Business School over the last five years which provide the South African context. From these studies it is possible to derive an information systems strategy profile of the respondent organisations and to trace the information systems issues that have concerned them. It is interesting to note that some of these information systems issues seem to have persisted through the years and seem likely to continue to do so.

In the Name of Comparative Constitutional Jurisprudence: The Consideration of German Precedents by South African Constitutional Court Judges

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 1539-1577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christa Rautenbach ◽  
Lourens du Plessis
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
The South ◽  
True Nature ◽  
National Courts ◽  
African Context ◽  
Constitutional Adjudication ◽  
Constitutional Jurisprudence ◽  
Cross Fertilization ◽  
Do So

Judges involved in constitutional adjudication often engage in comparative analyses of foreign cases. The judges of South Africa's Constitutional Court [hereinafter Constitutional Court] do so, too. The phenomenon has been given many names such as “transjudicialism,” “transjudicial communication,” “constitutionalist dialogue,” “judicial globalization,” “constitutional cross-fertilization,” “transnational contextualization,” “globalization of judgment,” “globalization of national courts,” “constitutional borrowing,” “constitutional comparativism,” and “judicial comparativism.” All these terms have merit, especially within their appropriate context, but for the purposes of this contribution we will use the term “comparative constitutional jurisprudence” to name the phenomenon we wish to describe and discuss. First, in the South African context, the terms “dialogue,” “cross-fertilization,” and “globalization” do not reflect the true nature of the exercises in drawing comparisons in the South African Constitutional Court. These terms imply a reciprocal dialogue between two or more courts from different jurisdictions. It is evident, however, that the South African Constitutional Court has been considering far more foreign jurisprudence than any non-South African constitutional court has been considering South African jurisprudence—in other words, this has largely been a case of one-way traffic. S v. Makwanyane, in many ways the inaugural decision of the Constitutional Court, contains 220 foreign case citations from 11 countries and three supranational courts. To our knowledge no other foreign court can boast a comparable statistic.

Exploring recidivism in the South African context.

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Bedell ◽  
Nicholas Challis ◽  
Charl Cilliers ◽  
Joy Cole ◽  
Wendy Corry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The South ◽  
African Context

What Matters to South African Bank Customers? A Case Study of four Main South African Banks

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1and2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingstone Mutsonziwa
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
South African ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Bank Resolution ◽  
African Context ◽  
Key Drivers ◽  
Investment Advice

This paper is a follow-up article based on the first article titled Customers speak for themselves: A case of Customer Satisfaction in the four Main South African Banks. Customer satisfaction within the banking industry is very important in the South African context. Although banks are trying their best to give their customers the best service, it is important to continuously measure customer satisfaction and identify service attributes that contribute to overall customer satisfaction for the banks. The data used in the analysis is based on a quantitative survey of 500 randomly selected customers in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town were interviewed using a face to face methodology. The key drivers of overall customer satisfaction based on regression analysis for the different banks were helpfulness and innovativeness (ABSA), helpfulness, innovativeness of the bank, resolution of problems and investment advice (FNB), language usage and friendliness of service consultants (Nedbank), innovativeness of the bank, investment advice and use of language (Standard bank). These attributes were important to the overall customer satisfaction and need to be closely monitored by the management of these banks.

‘Limping, Yet Made to Climb a Mountain!’ Re-Reading the Vashti Character in the Hiv And Aids South African Context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan’A Mphahlele)
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
External Factor ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
African Women ◽  
South African Context ◽  
Land Grabbing ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
African Context

The history of the Christian Bible’s reception in South Africa was part of a package that included among others, the importation of European patriarchy, land grabbing and its impoverishment of Africans and challenged masculinities of African men. The preceding factors, together with the history of the marginalization of African women in bible and theology, and how the Bible was and continues to be used in our HIV and AIDS contexts, have only made the proverbial limping animal to climb a mountain. Wa re o e bona a e hlotša, wa e nametša thaba (while limping, you still let it climb a mountain) simply means that a certain situation is being aggravated (by an external factor). In this chapter the preceding Northern Sotho proverb is used as a hermeneutical lens to present an HIV and AIDS gender sensitive re-reading of the Vashti character in the Hebrew Bible within the South African context.

Barriers to Entry and Implications for Competition Policy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Roberts
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Vertical Integration ◽  
Competition Policy ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Productive Capacity ◽  
Barriers To Entry ◽  
Access To Finance ◽  
African Context ◽  
Regulatory Barriers ◽  
Consumer Switching

Competition requires rivals. While this rivalry may come from imports, the development of local capabilities and productive capacity for rivalry, including by black industrialists in the South African context, means understanding the barriers to entry that local producers must overcome. Barriers to entry are also critical for the correct balance between the risks of over- and under-enforcement and are one reason why it has been recommended that countries should adopt different standards for competition evaluation. This chapter draws on studies of barriers to entry in different markets in South Africa to consider the nature and extent of these barriers and the implications for competition policy. It highlights issues related to regulatory barriers, consumer switching costs and branding, routes to market, and vertical integration, as well as economies of scale and access to finance.

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