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Hope Springs Eternal: The Image of South Africa in Swedish Media
Get PDFWhen South Africa is covered in the Swedish media, the focus is often on the history of South Africa, the role of Sweden in theanti-apartheid movement and, in more recent years, the political and socio-economic landscape of postapartheid South Africa, marked by increased wealth gaps, social unrest, and corruption. How South Africa is covered by foreign media is important and politicians, as well as businesses and organisations such as Investment South Africa, Brand South Africa, and South African Tourism, keep a keen eye on the media as a gauge for maintaining diplomatic relations, as well as for attracting foreign investment. As a former journalist who has covered South Africa for Scandinavian media, I have had ample opportunity to ponder and research the media coverage of SouthAfrica and the African continent in the Swedish media, as well as Scandinavian and wider international media. Drawing upon my own experience, as well as an analysis of coverage of South Africa in the Swedish news media, I ask what the image of South Africa isin the Swedish media, how this has changed over the last 30 years and, importantly, what this might mean for South African-Swedish relations
Gendered Institutions and Women\u27s Political Representation in Africa
No full textGendered institutions in this book are described as social structures, norms, and practices that maintain gender inequalities and stereotypes, often to the advantage of men. Many political systems in Africa are patriarchal, with traditional leadership structuresdominated by men. The book highlights the formal and informal political institutions that make it difficult for African women to gain access to political power or to have their voices heard within the African political establishment. Additionally, many of the rules and customs of African political institutions are biased against women and sometimes require candidates to have a certain level of education or financial autonomy that may be more difficult for women to attain. These gendered institutions have contributed to the under-representation of African women in politics. While there has been progress in recent years, women remain significantly underrepresented in African decision-making bodies such as African National Parliaments. This book has eight chapters, with each chapter representing a unique case study of a country in Africa. The eight African countries that the book focuses on are South Africa,Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Botswana
The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance? Whistleblowing within the Context of State Capture in South Africa
Get PDFCorruption has been a prevalent phenomenon in South Africa for an extended period, but it was during the presidential reign of JacobZuma that corruption evolved into state capture. South African whistleblowers were instrumental in detailing the breadth and depth of state capture during Zuma’s presidency. Their disclosures brought the epidemic of state capture into the public eye, making citizens aware of the crippling of state-owned enterprises and the brazen looting of state resources. The whistleblowers, however, did notexpect the backlash they would receive from the wrongdoers and their employers. This article presents the experiences of these whistleblowers, emerging from semi-structured interviews conducted with whistleblowers and civil society, as well as documentanalysis of relevant sources. The whistleblowers’ disclosure experiences were marred by various forms of retaliation: work-related retaliation; social retaliation; physical retaliation; and a form of retaliation identified from the narratives of South African state capturewhistleblowers—retaliatory lawfare
Preliminary results from archaeological investigations at Sudwala Caves, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Get PDFPeople seldom used deep cave systems during the late Holocene in South Africa. Consequently, excavations were conducted in 2010 to establish the origins of artefacts found during tourist infrastructure developments at Sudwala Caves. These excavations focused on an area near the mouth of the cave where there was, what appeared to be, intact deposit. Four squares were excavated, bearing cultural remains that point to three use episodes. The first use episode, indicated by Marateng pottery, related to the people of Bokoni. The second, characterised by undecorated pottery, could be linked to Swazi speakers, who were known to have used the caves as a refuge during the 1800s. The third use episode, associated with historical objects, signified cave usage during the second half of the 20th century as a tourist attraction. Material culture removed from the caves during the development of tourism infrastructure, however, might point to a much longer use history
Public Sector Contracting Model for Management of Construction Tender Price Volatility
Get PDFConstruction tender price volatility threatens desirable infrastructure push in the public sector. The damaging effects of escalating tender prices outweigh the socioeconomic benefits of such infrastructure. If not addressed, this harmful effect destroys construction sector productivity, causing it to lag behind other economic sectors, thereby decreasing its value in the national economy. Contractors use price to mitigate procurement and client-related risks at the tendering stage. The trend requires developing and implementing procurement strategies that consider price control implications at the project tendering phase, leading to the development of contract delivery models that inadequately address the impact and potential value of pricing in construction projects. This research focuses on implementing procurement strategies by developing a public sector contracting model considering price reduction implications at the project tendering phase. The study investigates pricing behaviours regarding implementing current contracting delivery models in Zambia and develops a conceptual model for managing tender price variability in the public construction sector. The study achieved this through a comprehensive literature review followed by semi-structured interviews with 14 purposively and snowball-sampled industry experts. The study utilises person-to-person interviews to collect data from interviewing 14 purposive identified respondents to attain relevant research results. The findings show that governments can maximise social gains from an infrastructure project by deriving accurate technical parameters and optimising procurement. The study identifies four pricing behaviours demonstrated by contractors during tendering: resistance, reactive, anticipatory, and Consultant-based. Consultant-based pricing was the least practised behaviour, whereas reactive was the most established among all behaviours. Emergent patterns for turnaround strategies include cost estimating and financing, mitigating external and internal interferences, providing incentives, providing training, and encouraging innovations. Others include revising legislation, contextualising procurement functions, improving project management practices, predicting market forces, and guaranteeing sustainability. The study further proposes the conceptual Negotiated Construction Approach (NCA) for public projects that summarises and weaves together identified strategies
Project performance affecting claim events under the JBCC Principal Building Agreement in South Africa
Get PDFThe JBCC Principal Building Agreement is the leading construction contract in South Africa, and it is common for claims to arise during The Joint Building Contracts Committee Principal Building Agreement is the leading construction contract in South Africa, and it is common for claims to arise during projects where this agreement is used. This research aimed to investigate the claim events that most severely impact project performance under the agreement in the South African construction industry. The study employed a quantitative research approach and distributed an online structured questionnaire that was completed by 380 respondents, which included principal agent practitioners and contractors in South Africa. The collected data was analysed using descriptive statistics. The results revealed that the most impactful claim events are contract instructions, additional work, and adverse weather. On the other hand, the least impactful claim events are the exercise of statutory power, opening and testing of work, materials and goods, and the insolvency of a nominated subcontractor. This study addresses the knowledge gap around the types of claims that most severely impact project performance under the Joint Building Contracts Committee Principal Building Agreement in South Africa. It provides especially principal agents with a good base level understanding of the critical claims under this agreement, assisting them to prevent and effectively manage such claims to mitigate potential damages for all parties involved. Although this study focused on South Africa, the findings may also be applicable to users of the agreement in other contextual settings especially neighbouring countries
Contributors to this edition
Get PDFThe University of Johannesburg acquired The Thinker in April 2019 from Dr Essop Pahad. Over the last decade, The Thinker has gained a reputation as a journal that explores Pan-African issues across fields and times. Ronit Frenkel, as the incoming editor, plans on maintaining the pan-African scope of the journal while increasing its coverage into fields such as books, art, literature and popular cultures. The Thinker is a ‘hybrid’ journal, publishing both journalistic pieces with more academic articles and contributors can now opt to have their submissions peer reviewed. We welcome Africa-centred articles from diverse perspectives, in order to enrich both knowledge of the continent and of issues impacting the continent. 
‘If I Can, We Can’: Honouring Myrtle Witbooi and the History of Domestic Worker Organising
Get PDFMyrtle Witbooi, a pioneering leader of the domestic worker movement, died on January 16 in Cape Town at age 75. Under South Africa’s apartheid rule, she began to organise women in the garage of her employer and went on to become president of the first global union led by women. For 52 years she advocated for the rights of domestic workers, upholding her presidency in both South Africa’s national union of domestic workers and the International Domestic Workers Federation, throughout her struggle with a rare form of bone cancer. Ms. Witbooi’s experience as a domestic worker under apartheid guided her life on the front lines of both a national and global movement to recognise and protect women once considered ‘servants’ without rights. She fought for domestic workers’ first legal protections in South Africa’s democracy, which set basic conditions of employment and allowed over 100,000 women to receive maternity and unemployment insurance over the past twenty years
A Sensor-Based Data Acquisition System for Soil Parameters to Determine Suitable Crops
Get PDFSoil parameters monitoring is significant in sustainable crop and food production. The standard strategy of soil parameters monitoring in developing and underdeveloped nations uses manual labor, resulting in wrong decisions in soil management. Inaccurate measurements due to sensor miscalibration or low sensor quality can lead to incorrect soil management decisions and negatively impact crop yield and environmental sustainability. Due to the mentioned challenges, this work aims to develop a Sensor-based Data Acquisition System for Soil Parameters that will enable users to observe various soil parameters like temperature, humidity, water level and soil pH. The system was developed using the combination of hardware and software components. The hardware component comprises of sensory and processing parts. The study calibrates sensors using known pH, moisture, and temperature values for specific crops to grow in Nigeria. The system will aid farmers in determining suitable crops for their farmland and increasing crop yield. The system collects data through a network of sensors installed in the soil and wirelessly transmits the data to a cloud-based server. The collected data is then analyzed and visualized in through a web-based dashboard, providing farmers with information about the state of their soil. The performance evaluation of the system was carried out using response time and accuracy. The average response time of the system was 4 seconds, and the percentage error for temperature and humidity readings when compared to weather forecast readings were 8.20% and 5.08%, respectively. The results show that the proposed system can provide accurate and reliable measurements of soil parameters and can be easily deployed and operated by small-scale farmers. Using this system can result in improved crop yields, reduced wastage, and better overall efficiency in agricultural operation
A Feasibility Study on the Implementation of a Solar Powered Water Desalination Plant
Get PDFWater desalination plants powered by solar energy represent a viable solution for addressing a part of the water needs in areas without a reliable water supply. In this case extending the electric grid and water delivery to remote communities remain challenging for some countries. Using Namibia as a case study, this work carried out a feasibility study on the extent of which, solar energy could be used to power the entire desalination process thereby aiding groundwater usable for human consumption. This process includes but not limited to desalination of underground wells and boreholes as solution to the water shortage problem in remote places. In this study, a solar-powered desalination technique that could enhance the process of clean water provision to villagers is proposed. It further compares and analyzed various desalination technologies to determine the best fit based on the dryness of areas. Ohawuwanga Village in Namibia was used for evaluation purpose with a sampling instrument-questionnaire which determine the village\u27s daily water consumption and corresponding power required. Modelling, simulation and analysis of the system was carried out using MATLAB Simulink in terms of energy consumption. Other parameters considered in this research are cost, water recovery ratio, salt removal factor, durability and market analysis. The research revealed that electrodialysis is the best technology for desalination in terms of efficient power consumption amidst other factors compared