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The Usability of e-Government as a Mechanism to Enhance Public Service Delivery in the South African Government: Lessons from Practices
Get PDFIn the digital age, the electronic government has emerged as a transformative mechanism for ameliorating service delivery, promoting transparency, and promoting citizen participation. South Africa is rich in diversity and evolving in its socio-economic landscape, and it encounters unique difficulties in providing services to the society. The difficulties in service delivery are an important difficulty for the Government of South Africa because this problem spreads from local to national governments. Consequently, these often lead to countless issues, including protests concerning service delivery that usually result in property losses. Therefore, the introduction of e-government serves as a tool to foster efficient and effective service delivery. The purpose of this paper was to identify current barriers, successes, and areas for amelioration in the execution of digital government in South Africa. Therefore, the main focus was on the use of electronic government as a tool to ameliorate service delivery in South Africa. This paper identified the several current difficulties and successes of digital government practices across South Africa to seek preventive and corrective measures to ensure that the usage of e-government can be efficient and effective in delivering public services. The researcher employed a qualitative methodology and relied heavily on secondary data to generate a rich grasp and knowledge of the lessons learned from e-government practices in South Africa. The outcomes of this paper indicated that South Africa has made significant progress in implementing digital government initiatives. Although successful digital government initiatives are being implemented in South Africa, problems such as digital divisions, ICT personnel shortages, limited digital literacy, resistance to technological innovation and infrastructure limitations continue to exist. If these barriers and difficulties are not addressed adequately, the future of the South African digital government is at risk, and the implementation of electronic government initiatives to foster effective service delivery will be a mere dream
Youth Awareness of Facebook Users’ Data Commodification and its Business Model
Get PDFFacebook (Meta) is one of the world’s richest corporations, with about 98% of its revenue generated from advertising. Beyond its utilitarian function of connecting billions of people, Facebook is a global advertising machine that basically functions by commodifying users’ information and monetising their behavioural data. But are users aware of this? While studies have examined youth’s awareness of risks in online engagements, there are limited studies on youth’s awareness of the commodification of their information and target advertising directed at them as a trade-off for ‘free’ access to online platforms. This study investigated if educated youth with Facebook accounts in South Africa were aware of this commodification process and that Facebook uses their information for advertising revenue. Drawing theoretically from discourses on commodification and digital capitalism, we examined youth’s media literacy awareness about Facebook’s commercial operation. We conducted a survey of 103 university students and employed online ethnography to elicit responses from a community of university students. The online ethnography generated 24 comments. Findings showed that the majority of participants were unaware of this basic critical media literacy fact about the commercial operations of Facebook. This inspired the recommendation for a broader focus on critical media literacy for youth, whose sociability and sense of citizenship are increasingly shaped by engagements on digital platforms.
Deep diving towards a vison for social justice: a visual dream matrix
Get PDFThis article explores the utilization of Social Dreaming as a methodology to engage conference participants at the University of Johannesburg in understanding the interplay between individual and group psyche. Through group analytic techniques, participants shared nighttime dreams and free associations related to the conference theme of social justice, creating a collaborative space for reflection and new knowledge generation. The structured process, reminiscent of community gatherings, facilitated creative expression and collective resonance, fostering a democratic approach to learning and teaching. Themes such as trauma, repression, and societal injustices emerged, providing insight into both personal and collective experiences. The article highlights the transformative potential of Social Dreaming in eliciting deep reflection and societal awareness
“Ikwekwe yinja1 (a Boy is a Dog)”: Re-humanizing Children and Childhoods in Matthew 2:1-3 & 16-18 in Light of the Boy-child Debate in South Africa
Get PDFIn contemporary society, the status of children as fully human is often contested and/or not accepted. The idea that children are not fully human has resulted in a plethora of abuses, including the denial of children’s rights, voices, and agency both in biblical texts and in contemporary society. Notwithstanding, scholars like Marcia Bunge acknowledge that in the Judeo-Christian bible “infants and children are also whole and complete human beings made in the image of God” (2012:65). Many times, the ways in which children are treated in biblical texts (in so far as adults make decisions without their (children) approval, e.g., Abraham’s decision to sacrifice Isaac, Jephthah’s decision to kill her daughter in honour of his agreement with Yahweh, the killing of the boy children during the time of Pharoah and King Herod exhibit the idea that children are not fully human. Since Christians rely on the Bible for inspiration and conduct in both private and public life, it is necessary to study the ways in which children were treated in biblical times. Until recently, biblical scholars did not have much of a deliberate focus on studying children and how they are treated in the Bible
Violence Against Children: A Social-Ecological Perspective
Get PDFViolence against children (VAC) is a global phenomenon that needs deliberate attention. Children exposed to violence in their families, communities, and schools in their early years are likely to maintain this cycle of violence in their youth and adult lives if no efforts are made to break this cycle. Taking this into consideration the author adopts a social-ecological theoretical perspective in exploring global, regional, and South African literature on the risks and causes of VAC as well as the protective factors that can prevent VAC. Embedding VAC within a social-ecological perspective warrants the need to explore it at four crucial levels, namely individual, relationships, community, and society. The literature review embodies the relevance of these four levels since all risk and causal factors of VAC are easily categorised in one or more of these levels. As such, the author provides a social-ecological perspective comprising all four levels that holistically address the prevention of VAC. The literature review indicated that many of the risks and causes of VAC are a common trend across countries even though it is more prevalent within African contexts. This suggests that the preventive measures discussed are likely to have global value
Middle Stone Age fauna from the RS sub-member (MSA I) at Cave 1B, Klasies River Main site, South Africa
Get PDFKlasies River is an important site for the study of the evolution of Homo sapiens, understanding modern behaviour and human interaction with the environment during the Middle Stone Age. The faunal sample from the RS sub-member in Cave 1B (MSA I), dating to ca. 115 000 years ago and older, was recently analysed. The results indicate that humans were hunting a variety of prey. The most common taxa in the sample are indeterminate medium birds, indeterminate small mammals, rock hyraxes, and indeterminate medium mammals. Based on multiple lines of evidence including the presence of: cultural artefacts, shellfish, tortoises, large mammals, butchery marks, and burnt specimens; and, a lack of carnivore taxa compared to ungulates (as reflected in the low carnivore-ungulate ratio), hyena coprolites and beak damage, coupled with infrequent baboons and the absence of leopards (as reflected in the low leopard index), it is apparent that humans were the main agent of accumulation of the fauna. However, other agents of accumulation such as brown hyenas, leopards and raptors likely contributed some faunal remains, especially of smaller taxa.
A participatory data-driven approach for unpaved road condition monitoring
Get PDFUnpaved roads, usually found in rural and sparsely populated areas, are prone to dust, potholes, corrugations, rutting and loose gravel and deteriorate faster than paved roads. Thus, they require regular condition monitoring to keep them at the required level of service. However, the cost of condition assessment could be huge, considering how vast and far away they are from the cities. Currently, subjective visual surveys and manual methods for monitoring and assessing the condition of unpaved roads dominate, while data-driven objective methods are not commonly applied for maintenance planning and decision-making. The paper proposes a participatory data-driven approach for unpaved road condition monitoring based on the literature and an exploratory case study of road maintenance practices in Sweden and Zambia. Participatory data collection empowers regular unpaved road users to collect road condition data, for instance, by equipping their vehicles with the relevant data acquisition devices embedded with a global positioning system (GPS) as they drive on unpaved roads on a typical day. By integrating open data collection aligned with sustainable practices, regular unpaved road users (garbage collectors, postal service providers, and road owners) share the collected condition data with the road governing bodies and process it for Nowcasting and Forecasting the unpaved road condition, thus providing valuable information for condition monitoring of unpaved roads. Thus, road users can support long-term maintenance planning and decision-making, potentially improving unpaved road management and minimising the cost of collecting and evaluating unpaved road condition data. However, the participating road users require training in data acquisition, and the vehicles must be calibrated according to the sensor properties, vehicle vibration response and speed to ensure quality data collection. Based on the literature and the case study findings, participatory data collection for unpaved roads can provide an efficient and effective alternative for collecting road condition data, accomplishing broad coverage
Estimation of pavement layer moduli of thin-sealed roads for use in pavement management systems
Get PDFCondition assessment and maintenance of vast road networks is a challenge both technically and financially in many low and middle-income countries (LMICs). It often requires rapid data collection techniques, quick analysis of the data, accurate defect identification, and appropriate allocation of scarce funds. The Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) equipment can be used for rapid non-destructive techniques of assessing the condition of road pavement layers. Many road agencies in LMICs are acquiring FWDs and Pavement Management Systems (PMS) for data collection and maintenance planning. The analysis of FWD data requires rigorous back-calculation techniques that cannot be easily integrated into PMS. Surface deflection bowl parameters (DBP) have since been used for classification of pavement conditions. However, DBP do not yield values of layer elastic moduli, that are increasingly being used in rehabilitation design. Moreover, the DBP that are currently in use are applicable to roads with at least 50 mm asphalt concrete surfacing and have not been checked for validity on roads incorporating thin bituminous seals such as chip seal, and cape seal. Thus, a system that rapidly estimates layer elastic moduli from DBP and that can be easily integrated into PMS is required now and in the near future, for LMICs. Defective sections or pavement layers identified through this approach can then undergo more rigorous analysis using FWD specialist back-calculation software. This study developed equations that reliably estimate the layer moduli from DBP of pavements surfaced with thin bituminous seals. This was done through conducting FWD tests on selected road sections, conducting back-calculation using specialist software, and testing which DBP best correlates with the back-calculated elastic moduli. These equations are used to rapidly identify pavement layers and sections that are deteriorating season by season, and hence, target and plan appropriate maintenance interventions
Female figurines in Sudan from the Neolithic to Meroitic period (4600 BC to 350 AD): A review of their chronological and typological development
Get PDFClay female figurines recovered from central and northern Sudan suggest there are cultural similarities between the Neolithic (5000-2800 BC) and Meroitic periods (400 BC-AD 350). Female figurines were recovered from several Meroitic sites, including from the elite cemeteries in el-Bagrawwaya west, the domestic strata in the royal city of Meroe, the Meroitic settlement in Karanog at lower Nubia, and at el-Muweis south of the Meroitic Town. Here, I argue that female forms in the Meroitic period, like some of the Neolithic samples, and their continuation in the archaeological record, show the social importance of females across the cultural history of ancient Sudan. The paper describes the figurines and uses a comparative method to study and reassess the Meroitic female figurines according to their similarities with other samples from the Neolithic and prehistoric periods.
