192 research outputs found
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Crime and Community Action: PAGAD and the Cape Flats, 1996-1997
No full textSeveral areas in the Cape Flats had plummeted into war zones. Attacks on police stations and the homes of alleged gangsters continued unabated, as did the gang related violence. While Pagad itself has undergone serious internal conflict between the moderate and more militant factions, a wide range of individuals, community organisations and leaders have criticised not only Pagad, but also expressed growing disillusionment with the legal and political institutions of the Western Cape and the National Government. This prompted the Public Opinion Service (POS) to undertake a two-year study of citizen action against crime in the Cape Flats. It focuses primarily on the dynamics, which led to the rise of Pagad in the Western Cape. This study looked into the people's perceptions of crime, their evaluations of the police and courts, and their willingness to co-operate with such institutions. It also examines the attitudes of people on the law, their willingness to take various forms of legal and illegal collective action against crime as well as their evaluations of Pagad
KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS), 1993 - 1998
No full textThe purpose of the survey was to collect hard statistical information about the conditions under which South Africans live in order to provide policy makers with the data required for planning strategies to implement such goals as those outlines in the Government of National Unity's Reconciliation and Development Programme (RDP) (1993 codebook). An important adjunct of apartheid has been the absence of credible and comprehensive data on which policy, such as poverty reduction strategies, can be grounded. The previous regime had little interest in collection information of this nature and, indeed, often surpassed data that depicted conditions in the former bantustan areas. This automatically excluded a large proportion of the poor from official statistics. It was not until the 1993 Project for Statistics on Living Standards and Development (PSLSD) that a comprehensive household database for development was created. Despite its usefulness, a cross-sectional study such as the PSLSD is unable to address a variety of questions, particularly those concerning dynamic processes, important to policy researchers and practitioners. KIDS 1993 - 1998 is a new longitudinal household survey based on the PSLSD that begins to fill this gap
Mobility of the Aged in Durban : the Effects of Environmental Barriers, 1986
No full textThe City Health Department of the City of Durban requested the Institute for Sociological and Demographic Research (ISODEM) of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) to conduct a survey among the White elderly population of Durban to assess their level of mobility in terms of perceived ability to negotiate the environment, and to determine what particular problems and difficulties elderly people experience in getting around in Durban. The purpose of the investigation was to obtain information to enable the Durban City Council to render at local level whatever assistance that might be possible to alleviate problems relating to environmental barriers to the mobility of the “well- elderly” population.
Several factors suggested that the proposed investigation was both relevant and desirable. Most Western countries are presently experiencing an aging of the population. In South Africa it was found that the percentage of persons 65 years and older in the White population was 7.8 in 1980.Projections indicated that by the year 2000 this percentage will increase to 8.6 and by the year 2050, to 15.6. A further phenomenon in most Western countries is the increasing number of “well-elderly” persons related to an increase in life expectancy largely as a result of developments in medical sciences. In the period 1980-1985 the life expectancy of South African White males was 66.8 years and White females 73.8 years. Projections indicated that these figures will increase to 69.6 years for males and 75.9 years for females by the year 2000. Implications of these phenomena were that resources would have to be redeployed to extend services for the increasing sector of the population, thus the conduction of this survey
Political Regimes and Regime Transitions in Africa, 1910- 1994
No full textThis data collection focuses on political regimes and regime transitions in 47 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The first part of the dataset contains information on the characteristics of post-colonial political regimes from independence to December 31, 1989 (63 variables). Economic variables include GNP per capita, inflation, structural adjustment programs, overseas development assistance, and external debt, while social indicators concern ethnic and religious fragmentation. Political variables provide a listing of every national election in Africa from independence to 1989, for totals of 106 presidential and 185 parliamentary contests, the number of political parties, association groups, and media outlets in each country in 1975 and 1989, and type of political regime, including the duration of each regime in years and the total number and mode of previous regime transitions up to 1989. The second part of the dataset covers the political dynamics of regime transitions for the five-year period from the beginning of 1990 to the end of 1994 (36 variables). The researchers created a standardized framework to identify and categorize the key events and features of political transitions, concentrating on landmark events such as political protests, liberalization reforms, elections, and changes of government in each country. In addition, the researchers assembled a complete set of standard election results for every multiparty contest in Africa between 1990 and 1994, along with information on whether observers ruled the vote as free and fair, whether incumbents were ousted, and whether losers accepted the results
Community Policing Pilot Project : Witbank, 1997
No full textThe purpose of this project was to measure the community's attitude towards South African Police Services at Witbank Police Station. Questions were concerned with the way the police officials handled the complaints fron the community, the handling of calls and the willingness of the police officials in helping with the reported cases
Attacks and Murders of Police Officials in Gauteng, 1993–1996
No full textThe aim of this study was to describe the phenomenon of attacks and murders on police officials statistically. Furthermore, it was envisaged that the results of this investigation could contribute to a plan to curb this phenomenon. According to Conradie (1998:7), if one counts the number of murdered police officers - even after the elections of April 1994 - it seems as if the quest for democratising the sometimes so-called police state of South Africa, had little positive influence on this phenomenon. Although there was an initial decrease of the figures, the murdering of these servants of society was still unacceptably high in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging region (changed to Gauteng on 1 July 1995 to include the former Northern Transvaal Region), which was served by 123 police station commands. When this area was still known as the WWR-command, it only consisted of 90 station commands. The average number of police officials working in this area for this three year period were 29 116 (Freislich 1995). Of these, 15 079 were Blacks, 9 801 Whites, 805 Coloureds and 431 Asians. From 1990 - 1994, there were 371 murders on police officials (Freislich 1995). This amounts to an average of 74 per annum over this five year period, which is about 6 per month. The significance of this figure was understood against the background of, for example, the fact that during the whole of 1994, there were only two police officials of the London metropolitan police (serving only a part of London) murdered in London. What happened during one week in the Witwatersrand, took one whole year to be equalled in London only. In addition to these murders, there were 938 incidents of attacks on police officials during 1994. Against this backdrop, the statement by Chapman (1976:141) that there is an urgent need to implement specific measures to reduce assaults on police, was far overdue. This study was undertaken with the aim of trying to understand this phenomenon better. It was an extension of the study of the attacks on South African Police officials in Gauteng, which was conducted in 1994. The results suggested a further in depth study on attacks on police officials and the murder of police officials. Therefore this study was undertaken
Community Policing Pilot Project: Loate, 1997
No full textThe purpose of this project was to measure the community's attitude towards the South African Police Services at Loate. Questions were concerned with the extent of feedback the community was expecting from the Police Services concerning the reasons for arresting or not arresting the suspects, dates of the court hearings, recovery of stolen goods, procedure for claiming the stolen goods, bail grants, intervention of fingerprints experts and general service rendering by the South African Police Services at Loate
Multidimensional Survey of Elderly South Africans, 1990-1991
No full textA multidimensional study was conducted during 1990-1991 of the living circumstances of elderly persons in South Africa. The main objective of the survey was to collect baseline data on the current status of, sociodemographic characteristics, living circumstances and life satisfaction of elderly people in South Africa. The data were collected separately for the four population groups and therefore would be available for comparison of the circumstances of the elderly in the different groups. The survey was undertaken to provide a better understanding of the interrelationship between population ageing and the development process in South Africa. Within this context the data would indicate the opportunity structures and constraints to successful ageing experienced by the more advantaged and disadvantaged groups of seniors. This understanding was necessary for formulating future policy options and implementing effective programmes for the elderly in the country. A secondary objective was to provide data on the elderly and ageing in South Africa for comparison with similar categories of data available in other developed and particularly developing countries
Community Policing Pilot Project : Bethal, 1997
No full textThe purpose of this project was to measure the community's attitude towards South African Police Services at Bethal Police Station. Questions were concerned with the extent of feedback the community was expecting from the Police Services concerning the particulars of the suspects and witnesses, date of the trial, progress of the case
African Coup Events Data, 1986-1990
No full textThis survey focuses on coup events in African countries where a state's military, security, or police force was involved. Annual data were collected for coup events between 1986 and 1990 in 45 sub-Saharan African countries. This study replicates McGowan's coding scheme and method of collecting African coup data (see the Publications section). Variables include number of successful, attempted and plotted military coups, as well as year and country name