scholarly journals Migration and exile - some implications for mental health in post-apartheid South Africa

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
M C Marchetti-Mercer ◽  
J L Roos
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
Multicultural Context ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The One

<p>The age of globalisation and the socio-political changes that have taken place in South Africa in the past decade have created powerful contexts within which the issues of belonging and finding a ‘home’ have become very relevant to all South Africans.</p><p>This article explores the phenomena of migration and exile, which are strongly characterised by an attempt to find a place one can call ‘home’ and where one can belong, and then shows how these experiences can provide a useful framework for understanding a multicultural context such as the one in South Africa.</p><p>Some of the implications of these phenomena for mental health, specifically the link between schizophrenia and migration, will also be discussed.</p>

scholarly journals Employment Equity

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 69-83
Author(s):  
Barend Röges Odendaal
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Employment Equity ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
The Past

The Employment Equity Act, 1998, Act 55 of 1998 was created in order to bring about a paradigm shift in South Africa’s labour relations, transforming it into a system based on equality. This change in the political life of all South Africans has brought about huge challenges to employers and employees alike. Seen as a threat to some, others view it as a positive beacon. If the Act was correctly implemented, South Africa will be heading towards a better competitive market and the workforce should be equally representative of the population. This paper aims to illustrate whether the Act has achieved its goals over the past 13 years by means of analysis and assessment of reports and statistical reviews. An overview is offered in the form of a literature review of the Act and defining the current legislation thereof in conjunction with management theory. The paper challenges the perceptions of all South Africans and finding possible solutions to areas in which the Act has failed. The paper further proposes action steps for the effective implementation of the legislation and for the process to follow to ensure that is fair in the sense that all employees can compete on equal terms.

Understanding one’s rights when arrested and detained: An assessment of language barriers that affect comprehension

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Terrence R Carney
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
The Other ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
South Africans ◽  
South African Police Service ◽  
South African Police ◽  
The One ◽  
Readability Level

Difficult text formulations, on the one hand, as well as poor linguistic skills and comprehension on the other, can severely hamper the communication effort of basic human rights during the judicial process. The rights entrenched in s 35 of the Constitution of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996), as they apply to individuals who are arrested, detained and accused, and read out by a member of the local South African Police Service (SAPS), are written in a legal register that can be too difficult for additional language speakers to understand. This begs the question of whether arrested, detained and accused individuals are fully aware of their rights and whether they can exercise these rights if they do not understand the language that expresses them. This article appraises the potential comprehensibility of the notice of rights (SAPS 14A), as provided to arrested, detained and accused individuals by the SAPS. The researcher’s assessments indicate that the text is pitched at an English readability level suited to university graduates and could be too difficult for South Africans with limited schooling and linguistic abilities to comprehend. A revision of SAPS 14A is offered as an illustration of a possible improvement to increase readability and, subsequently, better access to the mentioned rights.

Restorative Justice as a Key for Healing Communities

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 53-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christo Thesnaar
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The Other ◽  
Economic Gain ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
Life Journey

AbstractSouth Africa is indeed a country of many contrasts, of extreme wealth and extreme poverty. All South Africans were deeply affected by apartheid and this had a huge effect on how communities (including both offenders and victims) on all levels took shape: where they lived, the quality of their housing and neighbourhoods, the resources they had or did not have at their disposal, what schools their children attended, what opportunities they had for economic gain and how they were emotionally affected by the policies of apartheid. This article specifically intends to argue that communities should deal in a positive and urgent way with the divide caused by the past so that victims and offenders do not stay victims and offenders but are assisted to move on in their life journey towards healing and wholeness. The author believes that the key for reaching this goal is justice, especially restorative justice. With this qualification in mind the article wants to argue that the Christian church in particular can play a central role in implementing restorative justice in local communities. This will ultimately help to break the destructive cycle of being a victim today and an offender tomorrow, or the other way round.

FC09-01 - ISoSCCiP Project: phase 1 systematic literature review

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1858-1858 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Seed ◽  
G. Lydall ◽  
A. Malik ◽  
D. Bhugra ◽  
R. Howard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
The Past ◽  
Education Group ◽  
Hierarchy Of Evidence ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
Critical Appraisal Tool ◽  
The One ◽  
Robust Evidence

IntroductionThe chronic worldwide shortage of psychiatrists has impaired the delivery of first class mental health care. The WHO produced a report on the Mental Health Gap, showing the high burden of mental health, neurological and substance misuse disorders worldwide, estimating a treatment gap of 75% between need and resources.Aims and objectivesResearch to date has highlighted key areas that influence students' choice of a career in psychiatry. There have been several key literature reviews summarising work in the area since the 1950s. The current study updates literature with a systematic review of the past 10 years.MethodsA five level search strategy was used.A standard Critical Appraisal tool was developed based on the one used by the Best Evidence in Medical Education Group in Dundee. Papers were coded and graded using hierarchies of evidence - Sackett Hierarchy of Evidence and Kirkpatrick Hierarchy.Results & conclusionsThe quality of published studies has risen over the past 30 years, with the past decade producing the most robust evidence. However, it is a complex area to research with many potential confounders, and large gaps in knowledge remain.

Land Redistribution/Restitution in South Africa: A Model of Multiple Values, as the Past Meets the Present

2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Gibson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Land Policy ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Land Redistribution ◽  
The Past ◽  
Redistributive Policies ◽  
Black South Africans ◽  
Large Survey ◽  
Simple Economic

This article investigates support for redistributive land policy in contemporary South Africa. From a large survey conducted in 2004, the author assesses whether contemporary policy preferences reflected egocentric instrumentalism – direct and immediate profit from redistributive policies – or symbolic justice – non-instrumental concern for contemporary and historical injustices against groups. Analysis of the data decidedly favours the symbolic justice hypothesis. Land redistribution is a symbolic issue for most black South Africans, grounded in values connected to land as a symbol and in concern for the historical injustices of apartheid and colonialism. Because land policy preferences are so strongly associated with concerns for historical injustices against groups, the land issue remains volatile and resistant to ‘simple’ economic solutions. Land is thus an example of historical injustices colliding with demands for contemporary fairness.

The Photographic Presentation of South Africa, 1874 and 1923

Itinerario ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 25 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 143-153
Author(s):  
Robert Ross
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Single Person ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The One ◽  
White Minority

What is, and was, South Africa? This is clearly not a question which has a single answer, nor has it ever had one. On the one hand, there is a constitutional answer. In these terms, South Africa did not exist before the creation of the Union in 1910 and since then has been the state created then, transformed into the Republic of South Africa in 1961 and transformed once again with the ending of white minority rule in 1994. On the other hand, there are innumerable answers, effectively those to be found in the minds of all South Africans, and indeed all those foreigners who have an opinion about the country. Nevertheless, these opinions are not random. Clearly, there are regularities to be found within them, such that it is possible, in principle, to describe at the very least the range of answers to this question which were held within particular groups of the population, either within the country or outside it, and also to use specific sources, emanating from a single person, or group of individuals, as exemplary of the visions held by a far wider group.

‘Race’ and Racism in South African Psychology

1991 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 203-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Foster
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
South African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Divide

In this paper the author sketches how the issues of ‘race’ and racism have been taken up on the psychological terrain in South Africa over the past century. Racism manifested as both segregation and inequality in mental health provisions, and was actively promoted by leading psychologists. Psychologists on the other side of a political divide however turned attention to analysis of race relations mainly through the study of prejudice. Three areas of research are reviewed. While some useful findings have emerged, certain criticisms may be directed against this liberal framework of ‘race’ as prejudice.

scholarly journals The Omnipresent Past: Dystopian Trends in Nadine Gordimer’s No Time Like the Present

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. p27
Author(s):  
Emmerencia Beh Sih ◽  
De Noumedem Peter Caleb
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Evolution ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
The Way ◽  
Economic Inequalities

This paper seeks to analyze the dystopian character of Nadine Gordimer’s No Time Like the Present and demonstrate the claustrophobic nature of post-apartheid South Africa. The problem in this paper is to investigate the way in which Gordimer’s novel interprets the perceived socio-political evolution of her country. Our point of departure is that post-apartheid South Africa is not healed of its turbulent past and this past haunts and torments it till date. This article foregrounds the argument that the dystopian nature of Gordimer’s last novel is evident in the fact it captures the crash of dreams for an egalitarian, non-racial society; it portrays the repression and failure of individual efforts to improve society; and it describes poverty, violence and anarchy as society’s unchanging norms. Using postcolonial literary theory, this paper shows how No Time Like the Present narrates the entanglement of South Africans at a time when political morass and socio-economic inequalities abort anti-apartheid expectations. This paper arrives at the conclusion that No Time Like the Present is a dystopian novel in which grim, absurd realities are portrayed to show how remote and unfamiliar the present is when compared with expectations nurtured in the past.

scholarly journals Trauma and Migration

2021 ◽  
pp. 29-65
Author(s):  
Gail Theisen-Womersley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
And Migration ◽  
General Populations ◽  
Forms Of Violence

AbstractOver the past two decades, there has been an increasing interest in the question of trauma among refugee populations. This body of research has largely focused on the immediate psychological aftermaths of armed conflicts in light of the well-described associations between these psychiatric disorders, displacement, and generalized forms of violence (Morina et al., Morina et al., .Frontiers in Psychiatry 9:433, 2018). In general, the literature attests to the greater mental health difficulties among refugees compared to general populations within host communities.

scholarly journals COVID-19: Two sides to the story

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juanita Mellet ◽  
Michael Pepper
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Infected Person ◽  
Personal Lives ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
Significant Negative Impact ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
Two Sides

Since the report of the first COVID-19 infected person in South Africa, COVID-19 has moved from being a distant threat to a new reality that resulted in a nationwide lockdown. Though the lockdown was necessary to prepare health facilities for when the country reached its peak, it had a significant negative impact on the economy. In other areas such as the environment, work and education, and the personal lives of South Africans, the consequences have been varied. This article will highlight the positive and negative impact of the past 18 months of lockdown from a South African perspective.

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