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Improving integrated waste management with community education programmes : the case of New Brighton in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality
No full textMunicipal solid waste management is gradually becoming a major challenge that is confronting governments in all spheres. This can be attributed to urbanisation and startling population escalation. Each and every member in a community is a contributor to this dilemma and a generator of waste. The essence of this study is to investigate whether the utilisation of education programmes can assist to improve how communities handle and dispose their household waste and its contribution to the effectiveness of the integrated solid waste management system for the New Brighton Township in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.
A theoretical framework is developed using the systems theory in trying to address the challenge. The study used the qualitative research method. Data were gathered using questionnaires and face-to face interviews.
The empirical survey was employed for the purposes of the study and the interpretation of the research findings were analysed and described. As a metropolitan municipality, it is envisaged that this research will assist the NMBM, to identify how to manage solid waste efficiently and effectively and thus enhancing service delivery that will ensure communities of their well-being and dignity. Various recommendations are presented, based on the findings of the study.
It is hoped that these recommendations If are adopted, the NMBM will be able to deal more effectively and efficiently with the challenges that the NMBM is faced with in dealing with waste management issues thereby enabling the NMBM to deliver the most basic need to the communities of the New Brighton Townships
Food choices of tactile defensive children
No full textBackground. This research explores a different view of the picky or fussy eater. Although occupational therapists and speech therapists are aware that children with sensory defensiveness and specific tactile defensiveness have different eating habits, this has not been described befor
"Due to recent budget cuts the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off"
No full textOn Wednesday, 21 October 2015, Rhodes University closed in solidarity with the higher education sector as students and staff embarked on nationwide protest action against the shortage of funding in the South African higher education sector. #FeesMustFall is a national student led protest movement that began in mid-October 2015 in response to proposed increases in fees at South African universities. These images depict the peaceful march and illustrate the extent of solidarity among staff, students and community members who joined in support of the protest
"Education should not be a privilege"
No full textOn Wednesday, 21 October 2015, Rhodes University closed in solidarity with the higher education sector as students and staff embarked on nationwide protest action against the shortage of funding in the South African higher education sector. #FeesMustFall is a national student led protest movement that began in mid-October 2015 in response to proposed increases in fees at South African universities. These images depict the peaceful march and illustrate the extent of solidarity among staff, students and community members who joined in support of the protest
"Paying 4 school 2 get a job, just 2 get a job 2 pay 4 school"
No full textOn Wednesday, 21 October 2015, Rhodes University closed in solidarity with the higher education sector as students and staff embarked on nationwide protest action against the shortage of funding in the South African higher education sector. #FeesMustFall is a national student led protest movement that began in mid-October 2015 in response to proposed increases in fees at South African universities. These images depict the peaceful march and illustrate the extent of solidarity among staff, students and community members who joined in support of the protest
Accounting For Personnel Prac 1: APP1000
No full textExamination on Accounting For Personnel Prac 1: APP1000, Nov 201
Review of two sustainability learning programmes for industrial settings in relation to emerging green learning aspects
No full textDriven by the needs of growing populations, industrial and governing powers are
successfully accelerating the rate of industrial consumption, production and employment as if
the earth’s resources are in unlimited supply. In contrast, a range of international sustainable
development forums, inspired by visionary individuals, have made significant progress in
creating awareness that the footprint of human activity is exceeding the earth’s sink and
source capacity; and educating people in government, workplaces and communities to slow
down industrial consumption and clean up production.
Turning around conventional and short sighted ‘business as usual’ logic, and directing
economies toward greener, long-term sustainability outcomes, still meet with resistance and
hidden unsustainable agendas. The ‘green economy’ drive nevertheless since 2008 attracts
financial and human resources and bold action in favour of more sustainable management of
human-nature relations. The sustainable development movement for example advocates a
‘triple bottom line’ approach, holding that socially and ecologically responsible economic
development would be sustainable. The sustainability movement has attained significant
buy-in among governments and business communities. It forms the under-labouring
philosophy of the programmes reviewed in this case study.
The thesis reviews social-economic events paving the way for a global green economy.
Taking a leadership role in the sustainable development movement the United Nations (UN)
and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) concurred to
respond to the 2008 world-wide economic meltdown with a two-pronged ‘Green New Deal’
(UNEP, 2008). The Green New Deal financial package helps restore multi-national
economic growth, employment and markets while re-shaping economies to follow an
ecologically and socially responsible growth trajectory. South Africa implements green
economy principles as part of the 2010 The New Growth Path overarching policy framework,
with an implementation strategy embedded in the 2011 National Development Plan (NDP)
(RSA. The Presidency, 2010; 2011).
The New Growth Path emphasises that the transformation of South Africa’s un-sustainable
economic and educational legacy to a more sustainable future is not expected to follow a smooth, linear process. The transition to a green economy is rather expected to be an event
of “… noisy, healthy democracy” (RSA. The Presidency, 2010).
A green, low carbon economy particularly constitutes a pledge to slow down and turn the
human induced climate change trajectory around. McKinsey (2009) argues that this pledge is
attainable on a world-wide scale, as sufficient and suitable environmentally sound techniques
and technologies are already in place. Attaining buy-in from business stakeholders toward
re-thinking and amending an economy’s self-defying large environmental footprint (inclusive
of carbon, water and waste footprints) however requires education starting with awarenessraising
followed by educational programmes and official curricula aimed at implementation
and continuous improvement of green practices in day to day ‘doings and beings’ (Sen,
1997). This study at implementation level reviews two green economy training programmes
and their emergence in South Africa around this rationale.
The awareness generation and training programmes elected as case study examples are the
‘Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production’ (RECP) and ‘Industrial Energy Efficiency’
(IEE) programmes, of the hosting agency National Cleaner Production Centre of South
Africa (NCPC-SA). The RECP and IEE teams reach out to decision makers, engineers and
artisans at industrial workplaces and workplace related events to add green competences to
their business-as-usual skill sets. Implementing green options in industry typically slows
down industrial scale resource consumption, pollution, waste generation and green-house gas
(GHG) emissions while optimising resource productivity and enterprise excellence.
Optimised supply side systems allow industry to reduce energy and material intensity of
products thus reducing cost and producing more with less. In transitioning to a ‘Green GDP’
economy South Africa is awakening to the reality that natural resources constitute the
original, albeit limited feedstock for growth and employment. The RECP and IEE approach
also contribute to reduction of industrial waste, waste-to-landfill, and energy and resource
security.
Literature reviewed for this research provides evidence that the green economy’s triple
bottom line philosophy is quantifiable thus manageable. A range of green economy
management tools are emerging, including guidelines for carbon, water and environmental
footprinting and the green-house gas abatement cost curve (see section 2.2.5) (McKinsey and
Company, 2009). Transitioning from business as usual to ecologically sustainable industrial sectors however requires visionary, educated leadership, willing and capable of introducing
modern and more efficient techniques and technologies.
The boundaries of this half thesis embrace the globally and historically significant Tbilisi
Declaration and other education and sustainable development agreements produced by United
Nations and OECD mechanisms. Participating nations like South Africa incorporate the
essence of these agreements into domestic policies and strategies, and align industries to
remain competitive in international markets, which are increasingly enforcing green
standards like ISO 14001 and ISO 50001.
The focus of this case study guided by inductive, abductive and retroductive inference is to
understand how the two sustainability learning programmes for people in industrial
workplaces, supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO)
and relevant donors, and overseen by the South African Department of Trade and Industry
(the dti), relate to emerging green learning aspects. Producing a review of this nature
requires a framework of laterally understanding emerging green learning aspects, for which I
have reviewed green economy literature and also green learning and conventional education
and training literature respectively. Themes emerging from the literature review informed an
analytical instrument (questionnaire) in Phase One. In Phase Two the questionnaire was
applied through nested case study methodology to show how the educational content and
approaches of the RECP and IEE programmes relate to emerging green learning aspects and
as such is suitable for mainstreaming in the national educational system. From an explicit
educational perspective potential partners for collaboration include the Department of Higher
Education and Training (DHET) the South African Qualifications Authority’s (SAQA’s)
Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) and the Sector Education and Training
Authorities (SETAs) representing the training needs of the industrial workforce but affiliated
to QCTO and SAQA. In the extended scenario the NCPC-SA as a dti programme recognises
the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) as lead agency guiding implementation of
South Africa’s green economy, and specifically DEA’s National Environmental Sector Skills
Planning Forum (NESPF), a national leader in green skills development in South Africa, as
conduit for productively mainstreaming relevant RECP and IEE content and approaches
toward green skills development for the green economy
Critical fanonoan understanding of black student identities at Rhodes University, South Africa
No full textSouth African history is rooted in racial identities, inequalities and injustices, which the post-apartheid government has sought to address for twenty years since 1994. The transition to a post-apartheid society though has been a difficult one with the social structure and everyday life still marked by the racial past. Though racial classifications on an official basis no longer exist, racial identities continue to pervade the country. Of particular significance to this thesis are black identities including the possibility of black inferiority, which I examine in relation to black post-graduate university students in contemporary South Africa, specifically at Rhodes University.
In examining this topic, I draw extensively on the work of Frantz Fanon, who wrote about both colonial society and the emerging post-colonial experience. Fanon was a young black intellectual whose work was in part based on his own experiences of being a once-colonised black person in a world which he perceived as being dominated by whiteness. In his work he expresses his own perceptions of whiteness and how the black identity has come to be shaped by and around this dominant white foundation. Fanon extensively discussed the lives of black intellectuals and elites, and demonstrated how the black identity becomes shaped by and around the world of whiteness. In doing so, he raised a range of themes, such as black inferiority, mimicry and double consciousness.
I draw upon the work of Fanon in a critically sympathetic manner to delve into the experiences of black postgraduate students as they negotiate their way through a university setting dominated by a white institutional culture. I bring to the fore the argument that the racial identities of these students is not fixed and sutured but, rather, is marked by considerable fluidity and ambiguity such that black identity must be understood not just as a state of being but also as a process of becomin