Leadership Qualities to Foster a Sustainable South African Democracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Liezel Lues
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Wealth Creation ◽  
Leadership Qualities ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
African Context ◽  
Unique Approach ◽  
Leadership Approaches ◽  
Thabo Mbeki

A democracy requires leaders who demonstrate skills that will strengthen the dispensation, set an example and gain respect, nationally and internationally. Since 1994, South Africa (SA) has had three presidents, each responsible for shaping the country according to his own unique approach. Their leadership has played a crucial role in determining the future of the country over the past 23 years, some areas have been strengthened, but unfortunately others have become weaker than before. It seems that President Nelson Mandela focused on reconciliation. The approach of Thabo Mbeki, his successor, was strategically different in that it focused on the realization of the importance of economic development and wealth creation. During the consequent Zuma era, the concept of leadership was transformed to focus on charisma and populism. The aim of this paper is to review the fundamental, prevailing leadership approaches in SA in the period since the country became a democracy in 1994. The challenges facing South African leaders will be clustered in two themes, namely leadership and economy. Against this backdrop, a theoretical, yet practical discussion is conducted in an attempt to answer the following question: What fundamental leadership qualities are required to ensure a sustainable democracy in the Southern African context?

Trinity in the Temptation Narrative and the Interpratation of Noordmans, Dostoyevski, and Mbeki

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-222
Author(s):  
Johann Theron
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Memorial Lecture ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The South ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
African Context ◽  
Thabo Mbeki

AbstractFirst, this article gives a biblical theological account of the use of the term 'temptation' through out the Bible and relates it to the temptation narrative in Luke. It proposes to show that there is a trinitarian structure in the temptation narrative in Luke. It is argued that the temptation narrative is primarily concerned with the person and work of Christ from a Christological perspective, while it can be related to the believer only from a secondary Pneumatological perspective.Second, this article will focus on the way the temptation narrative has been interpreted by Oepke Noordmans, Fyodor Dostoyevski, and in the South African context by President Thabo Mbeki in his Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture. Noordmans, the theologian, emphasizes the Christo logical aspects of the temptation narrative, while Dostoyevski explores the Pneumatological aspects by looking at humankind in its concrete socio-political and religious situation. President Thabo Mbeki refers to the temptation narrative from an anthropological perspective to indicate how a citizen must live responsibly in South Africa.

scholarly journals Practical theology as ‘healing of memories’: Critical reflections on a specific methodology

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian A. Nell
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Theoretical Construct ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The Past ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
African Context ◽  
Practical Theological ◽  
Healing Of Memories

When developing new perspectives and paradigms for practical theology in South Africa, we obviously have to take our South African context seriously. We live in a post-conflict society in which gigantic sociocultural shifts have taken place since 1994. Many institutions and groups endeavour to address the conflict, injustices and pain of the past, including the Institute for the Healing of Memories (IHOM). The Institute makes use of a specific methodology in their workshops. Having participated in these workshops in congregational contexts as well as in the training of theological students, in this article I investigated the methodology of the Institute as a framework for new perspectives on practical theology in South Africa. Making use of Victor Turner’s theoretical construct of ‘social drama’ as one way of looking at the methodology of the IHOM, I reflected critically on the challenges that it poses to practical theology by making use of a ‘rhetorical frame’ and trying to delineate some constructive proposals for further reflections on practical theological paradigms and perspectives.

scholarly journals Historical Jesus research and relevance in South Africa

2009 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter J.J. Botha
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The South ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
African Context

A brief review of significant developments in South African historical Jesus research during the past three decades is given. Although historical Jesus investigations are not characteristic or even dominant in South African New Testament scholarship, some of the achievements of the scholars working in this field are not only significant contributions to the discipline but are also of considerable relevance to the challenges facing biblical scholarship in general in the South African context. South African historical Jesus publications show a distinct development from the almost unproblematic application of Jesus’ words and actions at the earlier stage to a sophisticated and nuanced juxtaposing and interrelating of modern and ancient settings at the present time. It is suggested that these developments can contribute to the exploration of alternative and appropriate theological discourses.

scholarly journals Teologiese opleiding in Suid-Afrika: ’n Toekomsblik

1994 ◽  
Vol 50 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Burden
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Theological Education ◽  
Academic Excellence ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The Past ◽  
African Context ◽  
Critical Enquiry ◽  
Character Building ◽  
Definition Of

Theological training in South Africa: A preview What makes theological education theological? This question has been discussed from different perspectives in the past as well as in the present. The author concludes with his own definition of theological education: it is a dialogical event through which people partake in critical enquiry, testing the validity of religious witness. The unity and diversity - as well as the character-building and academic excellence - of theological education is discussed. The implications of this dialogue for our South African context is briefly considered.

“Lest We Forget”: A Postapartheid Perspective on Remembering in Liturgy for Healing and Justice

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-72
Author(s):  
Hilton Scott
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
South African ◽  
South African Context ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Future ◽  
African Context

The idea of Remembrance Day (also known as Armistice Day) in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries carries two important notions: (1) to remember significant tragedies and sacrifices of the past by paying homage, and (2) to ensure that such catastrophes are prevented in the future by not forgetting. This concept can be applied to the South African context of a society and young democracy that is living in the wake of apartheid. In certain spheres this will include decolonizing the long-standing practices of Remembrance Day in South Africa, ritualizing the event(s) to be more relevant to those who partake by shifting the focus to tragedies caused during apartheid, and remembering that such a deplorable catastrophe should never be repeated. The important liturgical functions and pragmatic outcome(s) of this notion are reconciliation, restoration, transformation and, ultimately, liberation, as South Africans look to heal the wounds caused by the tragedies of the recent past and prevent such pain from being inflicted on others in the future.

Shakespeare’s Tragedies in Southern Africa

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colette Gordon ◽  
Daniel Roux ◽  
David Schalkwyk
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
South African ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Titus Andronicus ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Shakespearean Tragedy ◽  
Thabo Mbeki ◽  
Robben Island

This chapter discusses the place of Shakespeare’s tragedies in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. It begins with the imposition of apartheid in 1948 and Afrikaans Shakespeare; it goes on to look at Sol Plaatje’s Setswana translations of Shakespeare; and then considers rhetorical and allegorical treatments of Shakespearean tragedy in relation to Robben Island, Nelson Mandela, and Thabo Mbeki. This is followed by an account of the reception, in South Africa and abroad, of three landmark South African productions in the twentieth century: Janet Suzman’s Othello, Gregory Doran’s Titus Andronicus, and Welcome Msomi’s Umabatha. It concludes with a brief discussion of the representation of Africa in the Globe-to-Globe 2012 festival at Shakespeare’s Globe in London.

Towards a Theology of Place in the South African Context: Some Reflections from the Perspective of Ecotheology

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 3-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst Conradie
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The South ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Spatial Turn ◽  
The Past ◽  
African Context

AbstractA theology of place has deep roots within the Jewish-Christian tradition. However, a theology of place has become obscured as a result of various trends in modernity. It has re-emerged through a number of theological strands over the past few decades, including various branches of ecotheology. Indeed, it would not be inappropriate to identify a widespread “spatial turn” in current intellectual discourse, including Christian theology. Such developments are specifically important within the South African context where, in the theme of the 2008 annual meeting of the Theological Society of South Africa, “grace, race and space” have become deeply entangled with each other.

The Final ‘Thank You’

Derrida Today ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-36
Author(s):  
Grant Farred
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
The Other ◽  
World Cup ◽  
The Core ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Black President ◽  
The Moment

‘The Final “Thank You”’ uses the work of Jacques Derrida and Friedrich Nietzsche to think the occasion of the 1995 rugby World Cup, hosted by the newly democratic South Africa. This paper deploys Nietzsche's Zarathustra to critique how a figure such as Nelson Mandela is understood as a ‘Superman’ or an ‘Overhuman’ in the moment of political transition. The philosophical focus of the paper, however, turns on the ‘thank yous’ exchanged by the white South African rugby captain, François Pienaar, and the black president at the event of the Springbok victory. It is the value, and the proximity and negation, of the ‘thank yous’ – the relation of one to the other – that constitutes the core of the article. 1

A Review of Medical Waste Management in South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olaniyi FC ◽  
Ogola JS ◽  
Tshitangano TG
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
South African ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Medical Waste ◽  
African Government ◽  
The Past ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
Medical Waste Management

Background:Poor medical waste management has been implicated in an increase in the number of epidemics and waste-related diseases in the past years. South Africa is resource-constrained in the management of medical waste.Objectives:A review of studies regarding medical waste management in South Africa in the past decade was undertaken to explore the practices of medical waste management and the challenges being faced by stakeholders.Method:Published articles, South African government documents, reports of hospital surveys, unpublished theses and dissertations were consulted, analysed and synthesised. The studies employed quantitative, qualitative and mixed research methods and documented comparable results from all provinces.Results:The absence of a national policy to guide the medical waste management practice in the provinces was identified as the principal problem. Poor practices were reported across the country from the point of medical waste generation to disposal, as well as non-enforcement of guidelines in the provinces where they exit. The authorized disposal sites nationally are currently unable to cope with the enormous amount of the medical waste being generated and illegal dumping of the waste in unapproved sites have been reported. The challenges range from lack of adequate facilities for temporary storage of waste to final disposal.Conclusion:These challenges must be addressed and the practices corrected to forestall the adverse effects of poorly managed medical waste on the country. There is a need to develop a medical waste policy to assist in the management of such waste.

‘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.

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