scholarly journals The 3Ps (Profit, Planet, and People) of Sustainability amidst Climate Change: A South African Grape and Wine Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2910
Author(s):  
Omamuyovwi Gbejewoh ◽  
Saskia Keesstra ◽  
Erna Blancquaert
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Wine Industry ◽  
Conventional Agriculture ◽  
Ecological Responsibility ◽  
Current State ◽  
Short Term Adaptation

Conventional agriculture has made the search for sustainability urgent, more so with regards to climate change. This has extended to the grape and wine industry, an important industry in South Africa in terms of labor employment and foreign exchange. This paper aims to review the current state of knowledge with regards to the three pillars of sustainability and with regards to climate change. In order to understand sustainability in South Africa, a historical context is needed, because the welfare of farm workers still retains vestiges of past Apartheid. Ecological responsibility and higher profits are the main reasons for sustainable practices. Additionally, water use, chemical use, and soil erosion are important environmental sustainability concerns. With regards to climate change, in terms of economic sustainability, there will be winners and losers and social sustainability issues will intensify as changes occur in farms. Table grape producers are relatively more profitable than wine grape producers. Furthermore, pest, disease, irrigation pressure will worsen as the climate warms. However, there are long- and short-term adaptation strategies such as changes in viticulture practices and grape cultivars, respectively, to stem the effects of climate change, but this may be stymied by cost and farmers’ perceptions of climate change.

An overview of the current state of interlibrary loans in South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-83
Author(s):  
Jenny Raubenheimer ◽  
John Stephen van Niekerk
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Current State ◽  
Computer Library ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Essential Service

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review interlending development in South Africa and current trends in interlending. Design/methodology/approach – Literature study and survey. Findings – Interlending is still an essential service in South Africa. Interlending systems must be used effectively to ensure rapid delivery of requested interlibrary loans. There is a significant use of WorldShare ILL, but there is a scope for substantial development. Research limitations/implications – This is not a comprehensive study but focusses on current interlending activities at some of the larger South African academic and special libraries and the use of Online Computer Library Centre systems. Practical implications – The paper provides some historical information and the extent of current interlending and systems used. Social implications – The paper gives an indication of the value of interlending in South Africa and its contribution to information provision. Originality/value – The paper provides a snapshot of interlending in South Africa and areas for development.

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.

“Experience that Generates Experience”: The Influence of the Comedy in three South African Writings

2021 ◽  
pp. 131-142
Author(s):  
Marco Medugno
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Creative Writing ◽  
South African ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Divine Comedy ◽  
The South ◽  
Literary Context ◽  
Divine Justice

This article aims to explore the intertextual relationships between Dante’s Divine Comedy and three pieces of creative writing: Chariklia Martalas’ “A Mad Flight into Inferno Once Again”, Thalén Rogers’ “The Loadstone” and Helena van Urk’s “The Storm”. By employing a comparative analysis, I argue that, even though decontextualised, the Comedy still represents a fruitful aesthetic source for representing particularly war-torn and violent contexts such as South Africa during apartheid and colonialism. I explore how the authors, through intertextual references and parodic rewriting, both re-configure the poem and challenge some of the Comedy’s moral assumptions and the idea of (divine) justice. I aim to show how Dantean Hell, far from being an otherworldly realm, is in fact transfigured and adapted to effectively represent (and make sense of) a historical context. In other words, through an intertextual analysis, this analysis tries to understand why and how the Comedy resonates with the South African socio-political (and literary) context.

PALESTINE, APARTHEID, AND THE RIGHTS DISCOURSE

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raef Zreik
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The South ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Apartheid Regime ◽  
Main Components

Since the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa, the oft-made analogy between the South African and Israeli cases has been extended to suggest the applicability to the Palestinian quest for justice through the rights discourse, arguably the most effective mobilizing tool in the anti-apartheid struggle. This essay explores the suitability of the rights approach by examining the South Africa––Israel analogy itself and the relevance of the anti-apartheid model to the three main components of the Palestinian situation: the refugees, the Palestinians of the occupied territories, and the Palestinian citizens of Israel. It concludes that while the rights discourse has many advantages, it cannot by its very nature——the focus on law at the expense of historical context——address the complexity of the Palestinian problem.

scholarly journals Carbon Risk Analysis Of The South African Banks’ Lending To The JSE100 CDP Companies

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 123-137
Author(s):  
Alfred Bimha
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Carbon Intensity

There is a pertinent concern over the continued lending to companies that are still pursuing projects that increase the amount of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. South Africa has most of its energy generation being done through coal thermal powered turbines. More so there are a number of new power stations being built in South Africa that are coal powered. Coal on the other hand is deemed as having the highest amount of carbon that contributes to the greenhouse effect which in turn affects the climate leading to climate change consequences. There is also a growing concern on the uptake of renewable energy initiatives by companies that are deemed carbon intensive. Banks are being castigated for not using their economic transformation role to champion the agenda of combating climate change caused by carbon emissions. In this study, the extent of lending in the short and long term to carbon intensive companies by South African banks is examined. Using a sample of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange top 100 companies that participate in Carbon Disclosure Project, an analysis is done through four carbon metrics –carbon intensity, carbon dependency, carbon exposure, carbon risk. The analysis used public information from the banks’ websites, South African Reserve Bank reports and other public databases that contain sustainability information of the JSE100 companies. The analysis was done by comparing the carbon metrics of the recognized seven (7) sectorial industry catergories (SIC) on the JSE, mainly Energy & Materials, Industrials, Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary, Financials, IT & Telecoms and Health Care. The major finding of the research is that there is a high carbon risk in short term loans compared to long term loans across the JSE100 companies that are analysed. More so, the Energy & Materials sector seem to have the highest carbon risk compared to the other sectors.

scholarly journals The state of women’s rugby union in South Africa: Recommendations for long-term participant development

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
M Posthumus
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Rugby Union ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Current State ◽  
Specific Stage ◽  
Gender Specific Differences ◽  
Future Strategy ◽  
Gender Specific

Several international rugby unions, including the South African Rugby Union, have adopted the long-term athlete development (LTAD) model, which is based on physiological principles that categorise players into specific stages of development. The original model proposes different age categories for boys and girls within each specific stage of development. This review: (i) discusses the current state of junior female rugby in South Africa; (ii) discusses the evidence for gender-specific differences in the LTAD model; and (iii) recommends a future strategy for LTAD within female rugby in South Africa, considering the current approaches of other international unions.

scholarly journals CARBON TAX: PROGRESS OR PLATITUDE FOR SOUTH AFRICA?

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele N Dempster
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Carbon Taxation ◽  
Petroleum Sector ◽  
Combat Climate Change

In light of the 2009 United Nations Copenhagen climate change conference, South Africa announced that in order to combat climate change it would commit to reducing domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 34 per cent by 2020 and 42 per cent by 2025. Due to this commitment, a carbon tax will be implemented as from 1 January 2015. This market-based instrument has received broad attention sparking debate as industries most affected, namely Eskom and the petroleum sector, have rallied together in complaint. The main debate being that despite the politically ambitious commitment to reduce GHG emissions, little scientific, economic or comparative evidence has been given to show that an influence will actually be had on the amount of GHG emitted. The purpose of this article is not to provide a detailed analysis of the entire scope of the South African climate change policy. It focuses on the more limited issue of carbon taxation. This does not however mean that the numerous other competing policy options, which still beg for attention, are not viable or will not be implemented in the future.

scholarly journals MARIKANA, A PAST NEVER TRULY ESCAPED: A CRITIQUE ON THE COMMODIFICATION OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM AND THE LAW AS AN INSTRUMENT OF JUSTICE IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaughn Rajah
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
African Society ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
South African Society ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Black South Africans ◽  
History Of

This article demonstrates that the Marikana tragedy was not a departure from the norm, but a continuation of state and corporate behaviour that has oppressed black South Africans for hundreds of years. This will be done through an analysis of the historically discriminatory socio-economic patterns of South African society, and how they subjugate the poor by limiting their access to legal and physical protection. These trends portray a history of commodification of the legal system. I discuss a notable documentary on the massacre, Miners Shot Down, and examine its depiction of the causes and effects of the events. The film provides no mention of the historical context of the killings, nor does it comment on many of the factors contributing to the massacre. Despite this, it succeeded in bringing the events to the attention of the broader public. I analyse the notions of justice, the rule of law and their application in South Africa as well as norms in the nation’s legal culture. Additionally, I examine the Farlam Commission, and how its procedures and conclusions hindered the course of justice in the context of our democracy. Ultimately, I demonstrate how the Marikana massacre was not a change in dynamic, but a reminder of a past we have never truly escaped.

scholarly journals Urban tourism and climate change: Risk perceptions of business tourism stakeholders in Johannesburg, South Africa

Urbani izziv ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol Supplement (30) ◽  
pp. 229-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayde R. Pandy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Urban Tourism ◽  
Climate Change Risk ◽  
Current State ◽  
Climate Change Responses ◽  
Sustainability Initiatives

The nexus of climate change and cities is acknowledged as of growing importance for inter-disciplinary research. In this article the focus is upon the perceptions of climate change and responses by tourism stakeholders in Johannesburg, South Africa’s leading city and major tourism destination. Using semi-structured qualitative interviews with 30 tourism stakeholders an analysis is undertaken of the risk perceptions of climate change. Overall the results suggest a major disconnect between the climate change threats as openly recognised by Johannesburg city authorities and of the risk perceptions as revealed by local tourism stakeholders. The predominant view articulated by tourism industry stakeholders is that climate change responses and associated sustainability initiatives are something of a ‘nice to have’ rather than a necessity given current the current state of awareness and of climate change risk perceptions by businesses.

Violences in the South African Student Movement

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Buhle Khanyile
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Student Movement ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
African Student ◽  
Qualitative Exploration ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Current Experience

This essay draws attention to the complexities of understanding violence as a phenomenon and experience that almost always involves multiple parties, and contestations about violence itself and its use. It does so as both a theoretical and qualitative exploration of the concept and its lived experiences. The essay begins by puzzling over the intelligibility of violence and its definitional issues. Drawing on disciplinary approaches to violence (e.g., biological, sociological and political) as well as violence as spectacle, symbolic, embodied, systemic or implicit, it shows how violence has been and is mobilized to bring attention to sociopolitical and economic challenges currently and historically. Next it examines student experiences of violence during the recent student movement events in South Africa, and locates this event within the historical context of South Africa’s past and current experience of violence. Ultimately, the essay attempts to offer a way of thinking about violence less as an aberration to our peaceful existence but rather argues that violence might shape our very existence. It concludes by offering “existential violence” as a concept to help think through the relationship between existence and violence in a more nuanced way.

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