Knotted memories of a betrayed sacrifice: Rethinking trauma and hope in South Africa

Different groups within South African society express disillusionment with the present through a discourse of betrayal in relation to the liberation movement-cum-governing-party of the African National Congress. This article focuses on a particular articulation of this discourse within two memory communities in the Western Cape (Bonteheuwel and Crossroads) who were embroiled in violence and political struggle during apartheid and continue to suffer conditions of structural violence in the post-apartheid era. It analyses the shared memory narrative of a ‘betrayed sacrifice’ to demonstrate a proposed theoretical concept of ‘knotted memories’ which describes the way in which past and present memories of suffering knot together to produce a lived affective condition of despair. It further considers what these everyday experiences of ‘knotted memories’ mean for re-thinking the nature of trauma and hope in relation to post-apartheid despair.

Profile of the Current Psychiatrist Workforce in South Africa: Establishing a Baseline for Human Resource Planning and Strategy

The WHO Global Health Observatory Data Repository reports South Africa with 1.52 psychiatrists/100 000 of the population among other countries in Africa with 0.01 psychiatrists/100 000 (Chad, Burundi and Niger) to more than 30/100 000 for some countries in Europe. The overall situation, while being cognizant that mental health care is not only provided by specialist psychiatrists and that the current treatment gap may have to be addressed by strategies such as appropriate task sharing, suggests that there are actually too few psychiatrists to meet the country’s mental health care needs. To address the need to develop a strategy to increase the local specialist training and examination capacity, a situational review of currently practicing psychiatrists was undertaken by the [BLINDED] and the [BLINDED], using the South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP) membership database. The number, distribution and attributes of practicing psychiatrists were compared with international figures on the ratio of psychiatrists/100 000 population. In April 2019 there were 850 qualified psychiatrists actively practicing in the country and based on the national population figure of 55.6 million people (2016 Census), the psychiatrists/100 000 ratio was 1.53. This indicates no improvement between 2016 to 2019. From the SASOP database, we determined that about 80% of psychiatrists are working in the private sector - a much higher proportion than is usually quoted. As the vast majority of psychiatrists are practicing in urban areas in two provinces, Gauteng (n=350) and Western Cape (n=292), the ratio of psychiatrists/100 000 in these areas is relatively higher, at 2.6 and 5.0 respectively. Whereas rural areas in South Africa are largely without specialist mental health expertise, at a rate of 0.03/100 000 population. This investigation provides a discipline-specific situational review of the attributes and distribution of the current workforce of specialists in the country.

Unmasking the enduring legacies of apartheid in South Africa through Phaswane Mpe’s Welcome to Our Hillbrow

Prior to the dispensation of democracy in South Africa, the country was presided by a system of apartheid that perpetuated colonial policies that discriminated against non-white (South) Africans. Nevertheless, the democratic jurisdiction dethroned and succeeded the apartheid regime in 1994. This galvanised South Africa to undergo a political transition from segregation (autocracy) to peace, equality and unity (democracy). The political emancipation engineered a shift of identity and also made a clarion call for South Africans to subscribe to a democratic identity branded by oneness and harmony. However, as South Africa sought to redress herself, it unearthed appalling remnants of the apartheid past. Twenty-seven years since democracy took reigns in South Africa, the country is still haunted by the horrors of the past. It is the apartheid government that has bred hegemonic delinquencies that encumber the South African society from extricating herself from discriminatory identities such as racial tension, division, inequality and socio-economic crises. This qualitative study sought to scrutinise the vestiges of apartheid in South Africa. It has hinged on the literary appreciation of Phaswane Mpe’s Welcome to Our Hillbrow, which reflects on the menace that the enduring legacies of apartheid pose to livelihoods in the democratic period. Mpe’s post-apartheid novel is chosen for this study by virtue of its exposure and protest against apartheid influence in the newly reconstructed democratic South African society. Scholarly attention has been satisfactorily paid to the implementation of socio-economic transformation in the country, however, there seems to be an inadequate scholarship to explore the pretexts or the genesis of socio-economic transformation setbacks, which this study aims to unmask.

The Relevance of Theology and Legal policy in South African society in connection with violence against women

The theological question raised in this article violence against women theologically, drawing and incorporating the South African government’s response to it in terms of legislation and policing strategies and the need for greater participation of communities to combat gender-related crimes. The caretaker approach of the church as the custodian of the Hebrew Bible was also highlighted. Even though a church-based care approach may be limited, it still has the potential to support the efforts of law-enforcement agencies. When women in communities do not feel safe and fear violence at the hands of men, they are forced to resort to the state to provide protection. Crime, including crime against women, draws on insecurities about the level of safety and well-being in communities. It cannot be prevented or eliminated by the police alone but by the concerted collaboration of the private sector, NGOs, faith-based organisations such as churches and the community itself.

The Wafers Dumped: Lamenting a Bleeding Nation in Cry, the Beloved Country

Alan Paton’s wistful novel Cry, the Beloved Country which was released at the threshold of Apartheid in South Africa relates the South African socio-political instability at the time when racism and poverty are profoundly shaking the nation’s foundations [1]. The work explores the aftermaths brought by racial bondage that the subjugated black endures and the repercussions it casts on the whole South African society. This chapter examines how the writer grapples with the dangers brought by racial discrimination and urban life on the South African community as a whole. Paton’s view of Race and city projects a negative perception about the white racism and black crime that create tensions between the national forces [1]. This social polarity puts at risk the nation’s prospects that would build and maintain the “beloved country” which is gradually collapsing. It is this decaying state of the nation that Paton mourns in the novel. The study establishes that race and skin color do not have any relation that would define an individual’s nature and inner feelings to justify one’s deportment. The wrong or the right is a result of an individual’s moral predisposition coupled with the socio-cultural forces that feature his environment. It has also been noted that urban life corrupts; in some situations, it converts an individual into a rogue becoming a threat against society and an enemy against oneself to impair the common good.

WHO ARE THE TRUE BENEFICIARIES OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION? Solidarity obo Barnard v SAPS 2010 5 BLLR 561 (LC)

Affirmative action measures within the workplace seek to ensure equal employment opportunities and create a workforce that is representative of South African society. One of the issues faced by employers in implementing affirmative action is the question of who should be a beneficiary of affirmative action. This case note seeks to answer this question by looking at the definition given to beneficiaries of affirmative action and the concept of disadvantage. The first part of the article will explore the general objective ofaffirmative action and the two schools of thought on how we identify beneficiaries of affirmative action. I argue that recognition must be given to the fact that individuals who fall within the designated groups are not necessarily equally placed in terms of their experience of disadvantage. I further argue that in recognizing these differing experiences of disadvantage, we can avoid the creation of an elite middle-class black group that benefits from affirmative action to the exclusion of those that truly deserve the protection. The second part of this case note will focus on a landmark decision that highlights the difficulties encountered by employers in fulfilling their obligation of implementing affirmative action policies. In the last part of this case note I shall comment on the lessons that can be drawn from the case. I shall compare the development of affirmative action in the United States and India with that of South Africa in order to show the constitutional principles that need to be advanced within such a social transitional programme and recommend that affirmative action as a means to an end needs to evolve with the understanding that it functions within an ever changing social and economic environment. If such changes are ignored the true beneficiaries of affirmative action are not given recognition and the desired end of creating a workforce representative of South African society and thus reaching our goal of equality cannot be realized.

Social education through the lens of Bakhtinian theory

A review of Bakhtin in the Fullness of Time: Bakhtinian Theory and the Process of Social Education, Edited by Craig Brandist, Michael E. Gardiner, E. Jayne White and Carl Mika. L.: Routledge. 2020. 160 p. The review of the collection of articles Bakhtin in the Fullness of Time: Bakhtinian Theory and the Process of Social Education represents an analysis of the perspectives, main trends, and interpretations of key points, ideas, and concepts of M. M. Bakhtin in the contemporary theory and practice of Social Education. The book’s nine chapters are grouped within three problem areas, researched by the book’s contributors. This is, in the first place, a re-establishment of those philosophical and sociological sources that trace back to the roots of Bakhtin’s early views that had defined the nature of his responses to the challenges of his time in his early philosophical texts, books about Dostoevsky and books about bildungsroman. Another field of examination is Bakhtin's late dialogue with his contemporaries. Sometimes this dialogue is active and obvious, as it happens in the situation with the latest aesthetic and literary trends in Russia at the beginning of the 1920s. Sometimes this dialogue turns out to be ambiguous, therefore researchers can only guess how to reconstruct it, basing their views on the complementarity of Bakhtin’s ideas and Lev Vygotsky or Paulo Freire’s ones. An equally important aspect of this collection is a number of articles devoted to how Bakhtin's theory is transformed into "classroom practice", whether it concerns the use of dialogue and its capabilities in interaction with foreigners, providing educational opportunities to the most economically vulnerable segments of South African society, or communication with preschoolers in kindergarten. The authors of the book managed to create a convincing picture of how Bakhtinian theory is becoming one of the most important elements of contemporary theory and practice of education. At the same time, not only Bakhtinian ideas, primarily the concepts of dialogue, polyphony, carnival, and chronotope, are important, but also that free polyphony, which puts into effect any creative practice.

BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT AS A MITIGATING FACTOR IN SENTENCING S v Latha 2012 (2) SACR 30 (ECG)

Supernatural belief does not sit easily with the law. Squaring such belief with legal concepts such as the reasonable person is a particularly vexing task. Nevertheless, it is necessary for the courts to take account of such belief as a fact of the South African society. Belief in witchcraft is an ongoing and widespread phenomenon, giving rise to the question whether such belief can play a role in exculpating, or mitigating the punishment of those who engage in criminal conduct as a consequence of such belief. A recurring problem for the courts is how to deal with the situation where a genuine belief in witchcraft provides the motivation for the killing of a suspected witch or wizard in order to protect or defend the interests of the accused or another person. Can such a belief mitigate punishment? This problem arose in the case of S v Latha (2012 (2) SACR 30 (ECG)).

The spiritual wellness of an intellectual, novelist, journalist and politician: The meaningful life of Sol Plaatje

The study investigates Sol Plaatje’s (1876–1932) spiritual wellness across his lifespan. He was purposively sampled due to his impact upon South African society. As an intellectual, novelist, journalist, and politician, Plaatje was also a founder member of the South African Native National Congress, which later became the African National Congress. His life history reflected a significant degree of spiritual wellness, which was uncovered through the systematic analysis of publicly available life-history materials, including primary and secondary sources. The Wheel of Wellness (WoW) model by Sweeney and Witmer was applied to interpret the biographical evidence of spirituality and meaning in his life. Spirituality, as the central life task of the WoW, and regarded as the most influential domain of a healthy individual, incorporates religious beliefs and other individualised aspects of meaning-making. Findings indicate that spirituality characterised Plaatje’s childhood years and continued to play a role throughout his adult years. His sense of meaning and purpose was personified in the promotion and preservation of human rights and dignity, which embraced inter-racial respect, compassion, and service to others.

Literary translation, symbolic development and inclusion in South Africa

Post-apartheid South African society remains characterised by significant social asymmetries and the need for development. Yet development should encompass not only meeting people’s material needs to ensure survival, but also the attainment of higher social ideals such as solidarity, citizenship and inclusion. Literary translation involving local languages has been posited as one way of attaining such ideals, yet this postulation requires further investigation. The main objective of this article is to investigate the intersections between literary translation and social transformation in South Africa from the perspective of symbolic development, which is accompanied and complemented by a consideration of symbolic exclusion. The focus is firstly on the theoretical connections between literary translation, development and inclusion and secondly on the practical disjunctions between these. The article finds that in theory, there is ground to promote literary translation as a means towards symbolic development because of its ability to equalise language statuses and promote intercultural appreciation. Yet, the highly commodified nature of literature amidst the continuation of socioeconomic inequalities as well as the position of English in literature detract from translation’s ability to foster symbolic development realistically within society at large, at least for the moment. From a theoretical perspective, the utility of incorporating development into translation studies remains significant, however, and translation studies could benefit from further investigation of translational development locally, mainly for its ability to direct research practically towards socially beneficial goals, specifically when combined with exclusion.