Reframing Xenophobia in South Africa as Colour-Blind: The Limits of the Afro Phobia Thesis

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-444
Author(s):  
Amanuel Isak Tewolde
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Black African ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Online Newspaper ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Realistic Conflict Theory

Many scholars and South African politicians characterize the widespread anti-foreigner sentiment and violence in South Africa as dislike against migrants and refugees of African origin which they named ‘Afro-phobia’. Drawing on online newspaper reports and academic sources, this paper rejects the Afro-phobia thesis and argues that other non-African migrants such as Asians (Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis and Chinese) are also on the receiving end of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa. I contend that any ‘outsider’ (White, Asian or Black African) who lives and trades in South African townships and informal settlements is scapegoated and attacked. I term this phenomenon ‘colour-blind xenophobia’. By proposing this analytical framework and integrating two theoretical perspectives — proximity-based ‘Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT)’ and Neocosmos’ exclusivist citizenship model — I contend that xenophobia in South Africa targets those who are in close proximity to disadvantaged Black South Africans and who are deemed outsiders (e.g., Asian, African even White residents and traders) and reject arguments that describe xenophobia in South Africa as targeting Black African refugees and migrants.

scholarly journals Probing the “global Reformed Christ” of Nico Koopman: An African-Kairos perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 495-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Urbaniak
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Black African ◽  
The Public ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
The Church

This study seeks to probe Nico Koopman’s Christological approach through the lens of the theological framework spelled out in the Kairos Document (1985), and in particular its understandings of church theology and prophetic theology, critically re-appropriated in the current socioeconomic context of South Africa. Four essential aspects of Koopman’s Christological perspective are examined: (1) the Reformed view of the lordship of Christ as the basis for the public vocation of theology; (2) Trinitarian and Christological foundations of human dignity; (3) Jesus as the epitome of divine and human vulnerability, and (4) the organic connection between the threefold office of Christ and the public calling of the church. In conclusion, I argue that Koopman’s Christ, albeit displaying an African veneer, upon scrutiny, appears to be unfamiliar with and unconcerned about the problems faced by most South Africans today, and thereby fails to constructively engage with African (especially black African) contexts of our day. This is due to four major factors, namely (a) Koopman’s choices regarding theological references; (b) his cursory and un-nuanced treatment of African theological notions; (c) his a-pathetic mode of theologising; and (d) his inability (or lack of willingness) to engage with structural (especially macro-economic) issues. I further suggest that my conclusions concerning Koopman’s “global Reformed Christ” may be (at least tentatively) extrapolated into a number of approaches developed by South African theologians under the umbrella of “public theology”. I also point to some promising (prophetically-loaded) insights coming from the chosen public theologians, including Koopman himself, as a way of illustrating the tension between civic spirit and public anger, inherent in this mode of theologising.

scholarly journals FRAX-based fracture probabilities in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Johansson ◽  
Sapna S. Dela ◽  
Bilkish Cassim ◽  
Farhanah Paruk ◽  
Susan L. Brown ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Hip Fracture ◽  
South African ◽  
Osteoporotic Fracture ◽  
Fracture Probability ◽  
Major Osteoporotic Fracture ◽  
Black African ◽  
South Africans ◽  
National Mortality ◽  
Increased Risk

Abstract Summary The hip fracture rates in South Africa were used to create ethnic-specific FRAX® models to facilitate fracture risk assessment. Introduction The aim of this study was to develop FRAX models to compute the 10-year probability of hip fracture and major osteoporotic fracture and assess their potential clinical application. Methods Age- and sex-specific incidence of hip fracture and national mortality rates were incorporated into a FRAX model for the White, Black African, Coloured and Indian population of South Africa. Age-specific 10-year probabilities of a major osteoporotic fracture were calculated in women to determine fracture probabilities at a femoral neck T score of -2.5 SD, or those equivalent to a woman with a prior fragility fracture. Fracture probabilities were compared with those from selected countries. Results Probabilities were consistently higher in Indian than in Coloured men and women, in turn, higher than in Black South Africans. For White South Africans, probabilities were lower than in Indians at young ages up to the age of about 80 years. When a BMD T score of −2.5 SD was used as an intervention threshold, FRAX probabilities in women age 50 years were approximately 2-fold higher than in women of the same age but with an average BMD and no risk factors. The increment in risk associated with the BMD threshold decreased progressively with age such that, at the age of 80 years or more, a T score of −2.5 SD was no longer a risk factor. Probabilities equivalent to women with a previous fracture rose with age and identified women at increased risk at all ages. Conclusions These FRAX models should enhance accuracy of determining fracture probability amongst the South African population and help guide decisions about treatment.

Untangling discrimination in the private sector workplace in South Africa: Paving the way for Black African women progression to managerial positions

2021 ◽  
pp. 135822912199056
Author(s):  
Motlhatlego Dennis Matotoka ◽  
Kolawole Olusola Odeku
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
South African ◽  
African Women ◽  
The South ◽  
Quota System ◽  
Black African ◽  
Managerial Positions ◽  
Action Measures

Black African women in South Africa are poorly represented at managerial levels in the South African private sector since the advent of democracy. Their exclusion at these occupational levels persists despite the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 (EEA) requiring that the private sector must ensure that all occupational levels are equitably represented and reflects the demographics of South Africa. The South African private sector demonstrates its lack of commitment to proliferating black African women into managerial positions by deliberately engaging in race-based recruitment and failing to develop and promote suitably qualified women into managerial positions. As such, the private sector is failing to create upward mobility for black African women to break the glass ceiling. The EEA requires the private sector to apply affirmative action measures in order to achieve equity in the workplace. It is submitted that since 1998, the private sector has been provided with an opportunity to set it own targets in order to achieve equity. However, 22 years later, black African women are still excluded in key managerial positions. However, the EEA does not specifically impose penalties if the private sector fails to achieve the set targets.This approach has failed to increase the representation of black women in managerial positions. However, the EEA does not specifically impose penalties if the private sector fails to achieve the set targets. Whilst this approach seeks to afford the private sector importunity to set its own target, this approach has failed to increase the representation of black women in managerial positions. Employing black African women in managerial levels enhances their skills and increases their prospects to promotions and assuming further leadership roles in the private sector. This paper seeks to show that the progression of black African women requires South Africa to adopt a quota system without flexibility that will result in the private sector being compelled to appoint suitably qualified black African women in managerial levels.

scholarly journals Total Quality Management (TQM): A Catalyst for Service Delivery in the South African Police Service

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Michael Reddy
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Total Quality ◽  
South Africans ◽  
South African Police Service ◽  
War Zone ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
South African Police ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors ◽  
Policy Solutions

September 2014 marked the release of the 2013/14 crime statistics in South Africa by the National Commissioner of the SAPS and the Minister of Police. Does a sense of safety and security fill the atmosphere? Do most South Africans, investors, and tourists alike believe that the crime rate in South Africa is reflective of a war zone and that South Africa is in a quagmire that engenders irretrievable damage to the lives of the citizenry and the economy? It is accepted that crime is a conflation of a number of economic, social and cultural factors; hence as a reviewable point, can the SAPS ensure the development of unassailable and perpetual policy solutions, underpinned with the highest quality that provides a guarantee of the citizen’s basic constitutional right to freedom and life. This article reviews literature on TQM and extrapolates lessons learnt to the practical functioning of the SAPS with a view to provide a myriad of TQM principles that may be considered by SAPS Management; this could serve as a catalyst for an improved policing service in South Africa.

As the Postcolonial Moment Deepens: A Response to Green, Sonn, and Matsebula

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Steyn
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
State Power ◽  
World Order ◽  
Whiteness Studies ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Racial Privilege

Green, Sonn, and Matsebula's (2007) article is useful in helping to establish and develop whiteness studies in South African academia, and thus to shift the academic gaze from the margins to the centre. The article is published in the wake of three waves of international whiteness studies, which successively described whiteness as a space of taken-for-granted privilege; a series of historically different but related spaces; and, finally, as part of the global, postcolonial world order. Green, Sonn, and Matsebula's (2007) contribution could be extended by more fully capturing the dissimilarity in the texture of the experience of whiteness in Australia and South Africa. In South Africa whiteness has never had the quality of invisibility that is implied in the ‘standard’ whiteness literature, and in post-apartheid South Africa white South Africans cannot assume the same privileges, with such ease, when state power is overtly committed to breaking down racial privilege.

State, Myth, and Agency in the Construction of Chinese South African Identities, 1948–1994

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoon Jung Park
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
African State ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Fourth Generation ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Chinese Descent ◽  
Racial Ethnic

AbstractBased on the author's PhD research, this article focuses on the fluid and contested nature of the identities — racial, ethnic, and national — of people of Chinese descent in South Africa in the apartheid and post-apartheid eras. The research focuses on the approximately 12,000-strong community of second-, third-, and fourth-generation South African-born Chinese South Africans. It reveals that Chinese South Africans played an active role in identity construction using Chinese history, myths and culture, albeit within the constraints established by apartheid. During the latter part of apartheid, movement up the socio-economic ladder and gradual social acceptance by white South Africa propelled them into nebulous, interstitial spaces; officially they remained “non-white” but increasingly they were viewed as “honorary whites.” During the late 1970s and 1980s, the South African state attempted to redefine Chinese as “white” but these attempts failed because Chinese South Africans were unwilling to sacrifice their unique ethnic identity, which helped them to survive the more dehumanizing aspects of life under apartheid.

scholarly journals Respiratory infections due to Streptococcus pneumoniae and the influenza virus in South Africans undertaking the Hajj

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salim Parker ◽  
Anwar A. Hoosen ◽  
Charles Feldman ◽  
Amgad Gamil ◽  
Jerusha Naidoo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Influenza Virus ◽  
Streptococcus Pneumoniae ◽  
South African ◽  
Pneumococcal Disease ◽  
Respiratory Infections ◽  
Mass Gathering ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Causes Of Disease ◽  
Prophylactic Vaccines

The Hajj is the largest annual mass gathering on Earth. Respiratory infections are one of the leading causes of disease and hospitalisation during the pilgrimage, with pneumonia and influenza most common among these infections despite the availability of prophylactic vaccines. In fact, immunisation against influenza and pneumococcal disease is currently not a requirement for South African pilgrims entering Saudi Arabia. This review examines the burden of respiratory infections during the Hajj, particularly pneumonia and influenza, with a focus on pilgrims from South Africa. Although the number of South African pilgrims attending the Hajj has been capped at 2 000 since 2013, 30 000 South Africans perform the minor Umrah pilgrimage annually. Understanding the aetiology of disease in this group could have implications for medical resourcing during the Hajj.

scholarly journals Rapid and Successful Implementation of a COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Programme—The South African Experience

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2050
Author(s):  
Tanya Nadia Glatt ◽  
Caroline Hilton ◽  
Cynthia Nyoni ◽  
Avril Swarts ◽  
Ronel Swanevelder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
The South ◽  
South Africans ◽  
African Experience ◽  
Antibody Titres ◽  
Investigational Therapies ◽  
Set Up

Background: COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) has been considered internationally as a treatment option for COVID-19. CCP refers to plasma collected from donors who have recovered from and made antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. To date, convalescent plasma has not been collected in South Africa. As other investigational therapies and vaccination were not widely accessible, there was an urgent need to implement a CCP manufacture programme to service South Africans. Methods: The South African National Blood Service and the Western Cape Blood Service implemented a CCP programme that included CCP collection, processing, testing and storage. CCP units were tested for SARS-CoV-2 Spike ELISA and neutralising antibodies and routine blood transfusion parameters. CCP units from previously pregnant females were tested for anti-HLA and anti-HNA antibodies. Results: A total of 987 CCP units were collected from 243 donors, with a median of three donations per donor. Half of the CCP units had neutralising antibody titres of >1:160. One CCP unit was positive on the TPHA serology. All CCP units tested for anti-HLA antibodies were positive. Conclusion: Within three months of the first COVID-19 diagnosis in South Africa, a fully operational CCP programme was set up across South Africa. The infrastructure and skills implemented will likely benefit South Africans in this and future pandemics.

South Africa and Scotland in the First World War

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hyslop
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
British Empire ◽  
The South ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Battle Of The Somme ◽  
First World

This chapter discusses the powerful and long-lasting impact Scottish military symbolism on the formation of military culture in South Africa. Drawing on the work of John MacKenzie and Jonathan Hyslop’s notion of ‘military Scottishness’, this chapter analyses how Scottish identity both interacted with the formation of political identities in South Africa, and ‘looped back’ to connect with changing forms of national identity in Scotland itself. In particular, it addresses how the South Africans’ heroic role at Delville Wood, during the Battle of the Somme, became a putative symbol of this racialised ‘South Africanism’. The South African Brigade included a battalion of so-called ‘South African Scottish’ which reflected the phenomenon of military Scottishness. Overall, the chapter looks at the way in which the representations of the role of the South African troops involved an interplay between British empire loyalism, white South African political identities, and Scottishness.

Facial Social Risks in IT Development in South Africa - Learning from Scandinavia

2002 ◽  
pp. 268-289
Author(s):  
Helana Scheepers ◽  
Lars Mathiassen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
South African ◽  
Systems Development ◽  
Problem Area ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Trade Unionist ◽  
African Perspective

South Africa is undergoing a number of changes, which has an effect on every aspect of society from the workplace to everyday life. South Africans need to reflect on this situation and determine how to proceed. The purpose of this article is to consider the development and implementation of information technology, one particular problem area, in this broader context. The article draws an analogy between the trade unionist systems development tradition in Scandinavia and the possible application it might have in South Africa. The article describes the situation in South Africa, presents the trade unionist approach to systems development, and describes the underlying principles that have been identified by Scandinavian researchers. It then evaluates these principles from a South African perspective and discusses the possible uses they might have in the South African situation.

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