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Evaluation of Fungcoal as a bioprocess technology for self-cladding of waste coal dumps
No full textLow-grade coal, a poor source of energy, has long been regarded as waste material by the coal mining industry. Biological degradation of this coal material by ligninolytic fungal strains presents a viable strategy towards eliminating this unusable fossil fuel. To this end, a novel and patented bioprocess termed Fungcoal was developed. Fungcoal is a biological process utilised in the in situ treatment of waste coal and is based on the mutualistic relationship between the fungus Neosartorya fischeri and the graminaceous species Cynodon dactylon. The process facilitates the rapid conversion of waste coal into soil-like material that stimulates establishment of vegetation for eventual coal dump rehabilitation. While a number of in vitro studies have identified various fungal strains as efficient coal degraders, the mechanisms involved in the Fungcoal-stimulated degradation process have not been fully elucidated. Furthermore, implementation of Fungcoal at both pilot and commercial scale has not been achieved. Thus the objective of this work was to investigate Fungcoal as a bioprocess via examining the role of coal degrading fungi (CDF) and grasses as biocatalysts in coal biodegradation and for the self-cladding of waste coal dumps.
Initially, waste coal degradation by N. fischeri, strain ECCN 84, was investigated, specifically focusing on the mechanisms underpinning the process. In vitro studies showed the addition of waste coal induced active fungal colonisation resulting in increased fungal biomass. Increased extracellular laccase (LAC) activity, occuring concomitantly with an increase in hyphal peroxisome proliferation, was also observed in the coal supplied fungal cultures. Analysis of the colonised waste coal revealed a time dependent reduction in the percentage weight of elemental carbon coupled with an increase in elemental oxygen. The results supported metabolism and degradation of waste coal by N. fischeri strain ECCN 84 and involvement of fungal extracellular laccase.
The contribution of C. dactylon, a C4 grass species to in situ biodegradation of waste coal in the presence of coal degrading and mycorrhizal fungi (MF) was also investigated. Enhanced degradation of the waste coal into a humic soil-like material was observed within the rhizosphere. Analysis of the resultant substrate revealed an increased concentration of highly oxidised humic-like substances (HS). Fungi remained viable in the rhizosphere up to 47 weeks post-inoculation and cultivation of C. dactylon, indicating the resultant humic substance-rich rhizosphere provided an environment conducive for microbial proliferation and activity. Furthermore, humic substance enrichment of waste coal substrates supported germination and seedling emergence of several agronomic species including Zea mays (corn), Phaseolus vulgaris (bean), Pisum sativum (pea), and Spinacia oleracea (spinach).
Use of various cladding materials to support coal biodegradation, by fungus-grass mutualism and rehabilitation of waste dumps was evaluated at commercial scale. While substantial physico-chemical changes were not evident in the absence of cladding or where waste coal was used as cladding material, successful establishment of grass cover and diversity was achieved within three hydrological cycles on dumps cladded with weathered coal.
Work presented in this thesis successfully demonstrates the degradation of waste coal by N. fischeri. The biodegradation process included enhanced extracellular LAC activity coupled with increased 3
waste coal oxidation. Increased HS concentration of waste coal substrate supported germination and early seedling establishment of several agronomic species. At commercial scale a co-substrate in the form of carbon-rich weathered coal was essential to support fungus-grass mutualism and Fungcoal-induced rehabilitation. These findings support the developed Fungcoal concept and the underpinning rationale that the phyto-biodegradation of waste coal indeed depends on the mutualistic interactions between grass root exudates and the ligninolytic and mycorrhizal fungi. Taken together, these findings provide practical evidence of the contribution of fungi and grasses as mutualists in the biodegradation of waste coal and sustainable rehabilitation of waste coal dump
How content analysis may complement and extend the insights of discourse analysis: An example of research on constructions of abortion in South African newspapers 1978–2005
No full textAlthough discourse analysis is a well-established qualitative research methodology, little attention has been paid to how discourse analysis may be enhanced through careful supplementation with the quantification allowed in content analysis. In this article, we report on a research study that involved the use of both Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) and directed content analysis based on social constructionist theory and our qualitative research findings. The research focused on the discourses deployed, and the ways in which women were discursively positioned, in relation to abortion in 300 newspaper articles, published in 25 national and regional South African newspapers over 28 years, from 1978 to 2005. While the FDA was able to illuminate the constitutive network of power relations constructing women as subjects of a particular kind, questions emerged that were beyond the scope of the FDA. These questions concerned understanding the relative weightings of various discourses and tracing historical changes in the deployment of these discourses. In this article, we show how the decision to combine FDA and content analysis affected our
sampling methodology. Using specific examples, we illustrate the contribution of the FDA to the study. Then, we indicate how subject positioning formed the link between the FDA and the content analysis. Drawing on the same examples, we demonstrate how the content analysis supplemented the FDA through tracking changes over time and providing empirical evidence of the extent to which subject positionings were deployed
The effect of interest rates on investment spending: an empirical analysis of South Africa
No full textThis thesis investigates the nature and strength of the relationship between short-,
medium-, and long-term real interest rates and capital investment spending at both the
aggregate and disaggregate levels in South Africa in order to determine whether
changes in the real interest rate affect the level of capital investment in the economy.
This thesis used quarterly data for the period 1987 to 2013. VAR modelling, variance
decompositions, impulse response functions and Granger causality tests are used to
explore the nature and strength of the relationship between interest rates and investment
spending. It is found that interest rates explain very little of the variation in investment
spending and seem to have little impact on investment (of any type). Furthermore,
short-, medium- and long-term interest rates have different effects on the level of
investment spending. A rise in short-term interest rates appears to decrease the level of
investment spending in the long-run, whereas a rise in long-term interest rates results
in an increase in investment
Where the Body Ends
No full textMy collection of stories explores the intersection of the human body and the body of text via the
tropes of disease and animality. Drawing on my experience of living with tuberculosis for many
years, I attempt to write disease differently – not merely to be survived, overcome, cured,
eradicated, but as something to be embraced via the Deleuzian affirmation of being worthy of what
happens to us. Taking my cue from Sontag, I use a creaturely approach to writing, “an infinitely
varied register of forms and tonalities for transporting the human voice into prose narrative”,
emphasising the shared embodiedness of humans and animals so as to challenge the omnipotence of
thought that subjugates and colonises the body as exclusively human
A corpus-based approach to writing in German as a foreign language in the South African tertiary context
No full textGerman Studies students at Rhodes University have normally never studied the German language before enrolling for the first-year course and face the challenge of a fairly rapid linguistic advancement in order to engage meaningfully with the literatures and cultures of German-speaking countries. This thesis investigates the process of teaching and learning to write in a more academic way in German as a foreign language at Rhodes University, using corpus linguistic tools for both analysis and instruction. The past 20 years have shown a shift from traditional teaching methods resting on notions of an underlying prescriptive grammar, to teaching based on insights from real-life language data (Gabrielatos, 2005; Krummes & Ensslin, 2012; Sinclair, 1997) and applications of corpora to teaching and learning have shown to be highly successful in many European contexts (Aijmer, 2010; Johns, 1991; Granger, et al., 2002; Varley, 2009). In the South African context however, this is a relatively new concept with few publications on the application of corpus linguistics to language teaching (Van Rooy, 2008), and one which does not seem to have reached its full potential. A writing course was instituted whose aim was two-fold: 1. to teach learners “every-day academic” German words (TAG words) and phrases (collocations) based on German mother-tongue corpus evidence; 2. to have learners write short assignments in German at regular intervals (Homstad & Thorson, 1996; Estes, et al., 1998); both aims with the overarching objective to improve the students’ academic register in German. After the writing course, 80% of the participants perceived that their writing had improved and specifically attributed this to the corpus-based instruction received during the writing course, and regular writing in German. Quantitative data (from the learner corpus created) shows a marked improvement in the use of the collocations taught. Moreover, participants (weaker students in particular) also found that their writing in English had improved as a result of the various exercises they had to complete as part of our German writing course.
Keywords: Academic literacy, everyday academic writing, corpus linguistics, learner corpora, German studies, case study, writing-to-learn, transferrable skills/procedure
Nascent Desires: Gendered Sexualities in Life Orientation Sexuality Education Programmes and Popular Music
No full textFormal school-based sexuality education is one medium, amongst others, that recognises young people’s
sexuality, but usually as at-risk and/or risk taking subjects, or as innocent subjects. I analyse the gendered
sexualities of young people as represented in: Grade 10 Life Orientation sexuality education programmes and
popular music, as two mediums of sexual socialisation in Grade 10 learners’ lives, and as engaged with by
Grade 10 learners and educators. I collected data from two schools in the Eastern Cape that included: (i)
sections on sexuality from two Life Orientation manuals used by educators in classrooms: ‘Oxford Successful
Life Orientation’ (2011), and ‘Shuters Top Class Life Orientation’ (2011); (ii) videos and lyrics of three songs
voted most popular by learners which were ‘Climax’ by Usher, ‘Beez in the Trap’ by Nicki Minaj, and ‘Where
Have You Been’ by Rihanna; (iii) observations of seven sexuality education classes; and, (iv) in-depth semistructured
interviews conducted with eight learners and two educators. I draw on an integrated theoretical and
methodological approach – Foucauldian, feminist poststructural and psychosocial psychoanalytic perspectives –
to conceptualise and analyse gendered sexualities in terms of: (i) the dominant gendered discourses found in
sexuality education manuals, and music videos and lyrics; (ii) the reflexive and interactive gendered subject
positions taken up and/or resisted by learners and educators during classroom lessons and one-on-one
interviews; and, (iii) learners’ and educators’ conscious and unconscious investments in particular gendered
subject positions during one-on-one interviews. These three sets of analysis produced four major themes. The
first theme centres on responsible sexuality; young women are expected to assume more sexual responsility than
young men, thus curbing their sexual agency. The second theme outlines three types of pleasure – sexual,
romantic and dating and/or relationship pleasure – that accord young men and women active and passive ways
of exercising pleasure. The third theme highlights the heteronormative transitioning adolescent subject that
constructs young women as reproductive subjects and young men as sexual subjects. The last theme focuses on
gendered power relations and raunch culture, and maintains that young men are powerful and likely to commit
acts of sexual violence against young women because they are powerless. The central argument developed when
viewing all the themes is that dominant gendered discourse, gendered subject positions, and conscious and
unconscious investments in these positions challenge the extent to which the gendered meanings that underpin
adolescent learners’ sexuality are stable and fixed. The gendered discourses in the Life Orientation sexuality
education programmes showed that gender is expressed rigidly, thus privileging masculine over feminine
sexuality. However, the gendered discourses in the popular music contested rigid gender binaries and produced
fluid and equitable masculine and feminine sexualities. The classroom practices depicted multiple and more
equatable gendered sexualities, highlighting just how contested gender is. Finally, educator and learners’
personal biographies illustrated how conflicting masculine and feminine sexualities present a signficant source
of emotional conflict for them. It may benefit policymakers and stakeholders to consider informal mediums of
sexual socialisation for learners, such as music, when drafting the Life Orientation sexuality education
curriculum, whilst also taking into account learners and educators personal lives
Facebook, Youth and Political action: A Comparative Study of Zimbabwe and South Africa
No full textThis comparative multi-sited study examines how, why and when politically engaged youths in distinctive national and social movement contexts use Facebook to facilitate political activism. As part of the research objectives, this study is concerned with investigating how and why youth activists in Zimbabwe and South Africa use the popular corporate social network site for political purposes. The study explores the discursive interactions and micro-politics of participation which plays out on selected Facebook groups and pages. It also examines the extent to which the selected Facebook pages and groups can be considered as alternative spaces for political activism. It also documents and analyses the various kinds of political discourses (described here as digital hidden transcripts) which are circulated by Zimbabwean and South African youth activists on Facebook fan pages and groups.
Methodologically, this study adopts a predominantly qualitative research design although it also draws on quantitative data in terms of levels of interaction on Facebook groups and pages. Consequently, this study engages in data triangulation which allows me to make sense of how and why politically engaged youths from a range of six social movements in Zimbabwe and South Africa use Facebook for political action. In terms of data collection techniques, the study deploys social media ethnography (online participant observation), qualitative content analysis and in-depth interviews.
Theoretically, this study jettisons the Habermasian theory of public sphere in favour of Fraser’s (1990) concept of the subaltern counter-publics, Scott’s (1985) metaphor of hidden transcripts and some insightful views on popular culture gleaned from African studies. Melding these ideas into a synthesised theoretical frame, this study argues that Facebook fan pages and groups can be conceptualised as parallel discursive arenas where marginalised groups (including politically active youths) have a political life outside the dominant mediated public sphere often in ways that are generally viewed as “irrational” and “non-political” in mainstream Western literature. This study also proposes ways of enriching Fraser’s concept of subaltern counter-publics by incorporating elements from Scott’s metaphor of hidden transcripts in order to analyse the various kinds of political discourses which are circulated on social media. The findings demonstrate that youth activists in Zimbabwe and South Africa are using Facebook to engage in traditional and alternative forms of political participation. Findings show that Facebook in both political contexts is deployed for transmitting and accessing civic and political information, as a conduit for online donations and fundraising, for contacting political decision makers, as a venue of political activism, as an advertising platform for social and political events and as a platform for everyday political talk. It demonstrates that the broader political context shapes and constraints the localised appropriations of Facebook for political purposes in ways that deconstructs some of the postulations of the cyber-optimist and pessimist approaches. The study also found that youth activists in Zimbabwe and South Africa used Facebook in their own unique ways as shaped and dictated by the broader political and mediated opportunity structures. It argues that youth’s engagement with social media platforms for political purposes should be understood in their own terms without necessarily imposing inflexible boundaries on what counts as political participation. Although Facebook like other social media platforms foster avenues for cognitive engagement, discursive participation and political mobilisation, these political practices are not immune to the influences of offline processes. Youth activists in all the six case organisations used Facebook as a complementary and supplementary space for political processes rather than as a standalone platform. The study also argues that compared to South Africa, the political uses of Facebook in Zimbabwe are largely influenced by practices of state surveillance. It also found that whilst youth activists in South Africa are deploying Facebook to supplement traditional methods of political activism, their counterparts in Zimbabwe are using the same technology to circumvent the restricted political and media environment. The findings also indicate that youth activists in both countries are using Facebook as a change agent tool within the broader media ecology which is characterised by the increasing interpenetration of older and newer media platforms.
In terms of micro-politics of participation and discursive interactions, this study found that Facebook pages and groups should viewed as a “sites of power” where corporate forces and platform specific code coalesce together fostering “algorithmic” gatekeeping practices and the favouring of paid for content over non-paid for user-generated-content which ultimately affects activists’ visibility and reach within the online media ecology. These gatekeeping practices therefore further complicate claims by cyber-optimists that social media platforms are the sine qua non spaces for symmetrical and democratic participation. This study argues that “subtle forms of control” characterise the much glorified participatory cultures on Facebook in ways that defy optimistic accounts of the role of new media in political change
Industrial policy, institutions and industrial financing in South Africa: the role of the IDC and DBSA, and lessons from Brazil’s BNDES
No full textInstitutions, particularly development finance institutions (DFIs) have been instrumental in economic development and the implementation of industrial policy throughout history. In 2007, the South African government identified the country’s DFIs as key to the implementation of its new industrial policy framework with the main objective of job creation. This thesis examines the impact that South Africa’s DFIs, particularly the IDC and the DBSA, have had on employment creation from 2010 to 2014. A comparative institutional approach is adopted in a case study analysis examining the role of the state in industrial financing. The financing activities of Brazil’s BNDES are explored by comparison to determine if there are possible lessons for South Africa. An analysis of the DFIs’ financial and annual reports and government policy documents is conducted. The political settlements framework is used as a basis for understanding the balance of power within the country and the impact this has had on the country’s industrial policy and industrial finance.
The thesis finds that the financing activities of South Africa’s DFIs, particularly the IDC, have been directed at large scale capital intensive projects, with a large portion of disbursements channelled towards mining and mineral beneficiation. These sectors have also facilitated the most number of jobs. Even though the activities of the country’s DFIs are consistent with South Africa’s industrial policy and have facilitated job creation, it is evident that these efforts have not been on a scale that is large enough to reduce unemployment. Despite the DFIs’ efforts, there has been an increase in the number of unemployed South Africans between 2010 and 2014
Financial characteristics of the nonprofit organisation: theory and evidence for the assessment of the financial condition of South African public universities
No full textIn this thesis, an analytical framework is developed for the assessment of the financial condition of South African public universities.
Foundational constructs of nonprofit economics are applied in the consideration of financial theories of nonprofit organisations in general, and public universities in particular. From this review, a number of hypotheses are developed. Each of these specifies a positive or negative association between a university's financial condition and a particular dimension of its assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses and surplus. From the nonprofit financial analysis literature, ratios and indicators relevant to these hypotheses are selected. Audited data from the annual financial statements of the universities for the seven year period 2007 to 2013 are substantially transformed in mitigation of failures in accounting, auditing and accountability. The adjusted accounting numbers are used to calculate the financial indicators applicable to each university. Exploratory factor analysis is implemented to categorise and organise this large indicator set on the basis of identified associations with a smaller number of factors.
It is found that the financial condition of South African public universities is defined by two broad financial characteristics, capital and revenue. Assessment of the capital dimension is informed by a focus on institutional equity, with particular emphasis on expendable equity and its proportionate relationships with surplus, total capital, and total expenses. The revenue dimension is appropriately evaluated in the context of a comparative and interactive consideration of the three main components of South African public university revenue, as well as the proportionate relationship between non-staff operating expenses and total expenses. The framework displays considerable levels of stability and consistency over the seven year review period, and its constructs are, in addition, robust to the application of multiple alternative confirmatory tests involving financial data that are independent of the factor solutions.
The financial condition assessment framework developed in this thesis offers a contribution to a broader discourse in nonprofit finance and accounting, with a focus on public university finance
The role of leadership in shaping organisational culture in a school in Namibia.
No full textThe purpose of this study was to investigate the role of leadership in shaping the culture of a
rural combined school in Oshikoto Region, northern Namibia. This school had previously
performed poorly in terms of Grade 10 examination statistics for many years. However, after
the appointment of a new Principal, the academic performance of the school has improved
tremendously over for the past five years. Having been a teacher, Head of Department, Deputy
Principal, Principal, and later an Inspector of Education, I had long held the view that the
academic performance of the school depended entirely on the type of leadership the school
had. Equally, I have always been aware of the negative impact of the past segregation and the
discriminatory education provided by the colonial masters in South Africa and South West
Africa/Namibia. The poor education provided to South Africans and the then South West
Africa /Namibia posed a serious challenge to the leadership and management of schools as the
majority of Principals, if not all, were poorly and inadequately trained to provide the necessary
skills needed for one to be a successful Principal.
Given this background, I tried to use a case study to explore the role of leadership in shaping
the culture of the organisation. Research suggests that there is a strong relationship between
organisational culture and school effectiveness. This study was guided by Schein’s three levels
of organisational culture namely artifacts, espoused values and basic assumptions (Schein,
1992, p. 17). From these arise the following research questions: What do artifacts (symbols,
structures, procedures and policies) reveal about the school culture? What are the espoused
values shaping the school culture? What basic assumptions underpin the leadership of the
school culture? How does leadership contribute to the creation and maintenance of a positive
organisational culture at a school?
The data was collected by using three different data collection methods namely, observation,
document analysis and interviewing different people who hold leadership positions in the
school. These were the Principal, a Head of Department, School Board chairperson, a teacher
in the school management team (SMT) and a class monitor.
With regard to data analysis, I first immersed myself in the data and I developed themes that
formed the basis of my discussion with my research questions in mind. The analysis revealed
that leadership plays a pivotal role in shaping the culture at the case study school.
However, it emerged that despite the existence of a strong culture at the case study school, as
with all other organisations, there are some challenges that limit the school to realise its goal
of 100 % A-B symbols in all subjects