KovsieJournals - University of the Free State (UFS)
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Integrating spatial and development planning for holistic development in Batu City, Indonesia
Full text linkTourism development in Batu City, Indonesia, has deviated from its official tourism master plan, highlighting the need for integrated regional planning as a critical component of successful development. A primary challenge lies in the capacity of stakeholders to implement development following established plans. This article aims to analyse the integration between spatial planning and development programme planning, focusing on cases of land-use inconsistencies such as the construction of the Jambuluwuk Resort on land designated for forestry, agriculture, and ecotourism under the 2010-2030 Batu City Spatial Plan. Data was collected through surveys involving stakeholders responsible for programme planning. The analysis employed descriptive spatial techniques alongside the SWOT-AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) method. The findings revealed that spatial planning served as a guiding framework for development planning, with programme alignment between spatial and development documents reaching 95.60%. However, infrastructure development planning did not fully optimise spatial planning regulations, as programme decisions were primarily driven by community needs and evolving development priorities. The study provides actionable recommendations for enhancing stakeholder engagement and planning synchronisation to support sustainable development in Batu City
Violence against women and infant abandonment in South Africa: Connecting the dots
Full text linkThis paper explores gender equality as it relates to abandonment, an offence regulated by the Children’s Act. This crime has common law origins and was intended to allow for the prosecution of offenders who abandoned infants. More women as mothers have been legally pursued for this crime than any other category of persons designated in statute, and if the mother cannot be traced, no arrest is made. The effect is the silencing of women on matters related to their maternity, particularly for mothers in relationships shaped by abuse and violence. This analysis interrogates the practice of abandonment as contradictory to the developing jurisprudence of gender equality. It explores the continuum of violence, from apartheid South Africa to the current constitutional dispensation, illuminating the complicity of criminal law in abandonment. The legal pursuit of mothers is constructed around moral blame, illustrating criminal law’s difficulty in conceptualising equality. This paper proposes a complementary legal framework on the existing jurisprudence of equality that specifically recognises maternity. It calls for a Constitution that is responsive to women’s needs, by including constitutional maternal clauses, thereby providing distinct support and protection to women as mothers
The Importance of Ethical and Responsible AI Training in Law Schools to Avoid Career-Ending Pitfalls for Aspiring Attorneys
Full text linkArtificial Intelligence (AI), particularly Generative AI (GAI), is transforming industries, including the legal profession. While AI enhances legal research and document automation, its unverified use presents serious ethical and professional risks, as seen in recent South African court cases. The case of Mavundla v MEC: Department of Co-Operative Government and Traditional Affairs KwaZulu-Natal and Others highlights the dangers of relying on AI-generated legal research without verification, reinforcing the duty of legal practitioners to ensure the accuracy and integrity of their work. This note argues that these ethical and professional responsibilities extend to law students as future legal practitioners and must be embedded in legal education. However, many educational institutions lack clear policies on AI use, leaving students uncertain about responsible engagement with these technologies. Rather than restricting AI use, law schools must integrate AI literacy into curricula, equipping students with the skills to critically evaluate AI-generated content and uphold ethical standards. By cultivating responsible AI engagement, legal education can ensure that future legal professionals navigate an increasingly AI-driven legal profession with competence and integrity
"Before the cock crows, you will deny me" (Matthew 26: 34): Betrayal and Redemption in The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
No full textThe Augustinian conception of memory as self-constituting compels an inquiry of how one remembers and how one employs memory to forge a moral and authentic human self. The characters in Aminatta Forna’s novel, The memory of love, are haunted by their memories, those experienced in an intensely personal way, and those witnessed in Freetown, Sierra Leone, before, during, and in the aftermath of the violent civil conflict during the 1990s. The multidimensional impact of memory in the characters’ lives recalls their loves and losses, and their embedded, often suppressed, deceit. It invokes an ancient self-betrayal that echoes again in the recensions,suppressions, and elisions of their narrative self-tellings in a novel that, ultimately, extends an invitation to the reader to re-member oneself redemptively
A short overview of the modern eras of historiography in church history: : Modernity, Postmodernity, and Metamodernity
Full text linkThis article offers a concise overview of the eras of the three modernities, namely modernity, postmodernity, and metamodernity, tracing developments from roughly 1500 CE to the present day. Each of these eras includes the term “modernity”, reflecting the continued influence of ideas first shaped in the 16th century, which still persist in the metamodern world. This article invites church historians – particularly those focusing on the African continent – to engage with and apply the diverse tools and insights offered by these historiographical periods. In doing so, they can contribute to the transformation, decolonisation, and Africanisation of the disciplines of Church History and Theology
Proud to be deaf
Full text linkBook review of: Proud to be deaf: Ministry, saintliness and the history of the Catholic deaf community in South Africa, 1874-1994James, M., (UJ Press, Auckland Park, 2025), pp. 461, ISBN 978-0-906785-53-
‘DeafSpace’ in the built school environment: A scoping review
Full text linkAs a recognised disability, deafness affects speech, language, and cognitive development, influencing educational access and employability. While suitable physical environments for learners are well studied, limited research addresses architectural design for deaf learners. The concept of ‘DeafSpace’ extends universal design principles to reflect how deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals experience and communicate within space. When architectural designers overlook these spatial differences, it can hinder the developmental, social, and emotional needs of deaf children, leading to isolation and stigmatisation. In South Africa, deaf learners are accommodated in specialised schools; however, the effectiveness of these environments remains underexplored. This scoping review employs the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology to map existing literature addressing architectural provisions and spatial challenges within schools for the deaf. Eleven studies from six countries are identified, with 72.7% originating from North America, indicating a marked geographical and cultural bias. Three principal architectural paradigms are discerned, namely universal design, inclusive design, and DeafSpace, reflecting divergent epistemological positions on general accessibility versus specificity of deaf experience. Consensus emerges around key spatial parameters: visual connectivity (100%), lighting quality (81.8%), and acoustic management (72.7%). Nonetheless, significant implementation gaps persist, particularly concerning post-occupancy evaluation, economic analysis, and cultural contextualisation. The review further identifies an overreliance on technical rather than sociocultural approaches, with minimal participatory engagement of deaf users. This article highlights the absence of South African architectural research on deaf education and identifies urgent priorities for empirical validation, cross-cultural adaptation, and practical frameworks bridging theory and implementation
Land management and real estate dynamics for urban growth in Nigeria: Towards a conceptual framework
Full text linkRapid urbanisation in Nigeria has exposed significant weaknesses in land-management and real estate systems, including fragmented institutions, insecure land rights, limited technology use, and weak legal enforcement. These issues contribute to volatile property markets, rising informality, and unsustainable urban growth. Despite these challenges, efforts to adapt international best practices to Nigeria remain minimal. This study addresses the research gap, by examining land management models in Australia, Germany, the United States, and China to identify lessons for Nigeria. Using a comparative qualitative approach, the research integrates evidence from 28 peer-reviewed articles, policy documents, and international reports through systematic review and thematic analysis. Guided by the Land Governance Framework, Institutional Economics, and Urban Growth theories, the findings reveal consistent patterns in governance structures, tenure systems, technology integration, and environmental considerations. Three critical pillars for effective land governance emerge, namely secure and efficient tenure regimes, digitised land administration, and environmentally sensitive planning. These elements strengthen property markets, improve housing affordability, and enhance urban resilience. The article proposes a Nigeria-specific policy roadmap emphasising institutional reform, digital transformation, and inclusive strategies for informal settlements to promote sustainable land governance
Turning land into property: Caste, speculation, and social inequality in India’s peri-urban areas
Full text linkSpeculative urbanism has become a defining feature of contemporary city-making in India, yet the role of local actors in shaping speculative landscapes remains underexplored. This article examines the transformation of land into property in Delhi’s peri-urban frontier, with a focus on Noida Extension. Drawing on 65 semi-structured interviews and field observations, it examines how dominant caste landowners leverage political ties, financial capital, and social networks to convert agrarian land into rental housing and speculative ventures. Territorial practices such as informal development, partnerships with builders, and symbolic constructions illustrate how speculation is simultaneously a material, social, and political process that produces new hierarchies while reproducing older ones. For marginalised groups, particularly Dalits, these transformations result in exclusion from emergent property regimes and limited access to urban accumulation. By situating grassroots speculation within wider state-capital assemblages, the article argues that peri-urban transformation is not only about dispossession but also about differentiated accumulation. In doing so, it contributes to the existing literature on speculative urbanism and territorialisation, by highlighting how peri-urban development in India is a process of property-making that reshapes social inequality and reconfigures caste politics
Book review : Sun, Liu and Moratto’s Translation Studies in The Age of Artificial Intelligence
No full textSanjun Sun, Kanglong Liu and Riccardo Moratto’s edited volume, Translation Studies in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, advances an apt and broad response to the systemic challenges posed by Generative AI (GenAI), specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), to the discipline of Translation Studies. The editors aim to examine ‘the multifaceted impact of AI on translation studies, practice, and education, providing insights into how the field can adapt and thrive in the age of AI’ (Sun, Liu and Moratto 2025:2). The book affirms that this new paradigm necessitates a radical reconceptualisation of translation’s fundamental concepts, scope, methodologies, as well as the translator’s role, thereby positioning AI not merely as a tool but also as an integral subject within the disciplinary sphere. Eliciting mainly from the intellectual space of Chinese scholarship, the distinctiveness of this book lies in its empirical and conceptual engagement with the tripartite interface of human, GenAI and translation. It is a significant and purposeful contribution to the emerging scholarship on translation in a sophisticated technological environment. The ten chapters jointly elucidate the dichotomy of prospect and concerns emanating from the integration of AI into Translation Studies