18105 research outputs found
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Labour law and non-standard employment: case studies of selected workplaces in Makhanda
Get PDFWhile precarious and poorly-regulated forms of employment are on the increase worldwide, the patterns vary significantly over time and space. This study sought to understand employees’ perceptions of non-standard employment (NSE), the reasons why employers resort to NSE and why they use particular types of NSE. In addition, the research explored how labour law protections for NSE are applied in particular workplaces. Drawing on the regulation approach, which provides a conceptual framework to explain changes in production and employment relationships under specific spatio-temporal conditions, this study focused on three companies in Makhanda. Furthermore, this study employed a qualitative research method to explore the employees’ perceptions on non-standard work. This was done by using an interpretive approach to explore how workers experience NSE and how Eastern Cape citizens in Makhanda navigate the scourge of unemployment and exploitation in the labour market. Moreover, the research investigated how employees experience the efficacy of their employment rights in the workplace. The employment rights observed in the study include (among others) leave, contract of employment and collective bargaining; all of which are provisions in the Labour Relations Act. The findings in the study do validate the use of NSE as a ‘tool’ to curb high unemployment. However, the study finds that the positive result of job creation does not signify job security for non-standard workers, instead beneath the rhetoric of job creation and investment, lies hidden the exploitation of vulnerable groups of citizens and extension of precarious forms of employment. This is because businesses engage in economic competition locally and globally. Therefore, in order to successfully compete against other, employer’s cut on labour expenses by adopting a “race to the bottom,” the effect of which is paying employees below the minimum wage. Moreover, this study opposes the argument that NSE is a stepping stone to permanent employment. The conditions which prevail in NSE are distinctly different from those in the Standard Employment Relationship (SER), making it difficult for employees to transition to a new labour market. The latter is more aligned with the heterodox approach than it is to the orthodox approach to labour market.Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 202
Revisionist narratives: locating six Black artist-teachers onto the map of twentieth-century modern art in Zimbabwe
Get PDFJob Kekana (1916-1995) was a South African sculptor and teacher who moved to Zimbabwe in 1944, where he founded the Kekana School of Art and Craft in the early 1960s. There were also a few Black Zimbabwean artist-teachers, namely, Sam Songo (1929-1977), Cornelius Manguma (b. 1935), Lazarus Khumalo (1930-2015), Joram Mariga (1927-2000) John Hlatywayo (b. 1928), who were either working with missionaries Canon Edward Paterson (1895-1974) and Father John Groeber (1903-1973) at the Cyrene and Serima workshops respectively and later on at the Mzilikazi Arts and Crafts Centre, or with Frank McEwen (1907- 1994) at the National Gallery school. This thesis examines the relative invisibility of Kekana and the selected Black artist-teachers in the dominant discourse of the history and development of modern art in Zimbabwe. Employing the biographical approach as a methodology, and modernism as an analytical tool and foregrounding African thinkers like Chika Okeke-Agulu Elizabeth Georgis, Emma Wolukau- Wanambwa and Salah Hassan, this research exposes the possible reasons for their exclusion from the canon, which are rooted in a gatekeeping culture shown by actors in the local art scene, including art historians and scholars, as well as cultural workers in institutions like the National Gallery of Zimbabwe who have not sufficiently questioned and possibly shaken the enshrined legacies of Paterson, Groeber and McEwen. Canons mostly tend to tell a story that privileges and excludes others from the art narrative of a nation. With the arrival of Frank McEwen on the scene in the late 1950s the stone sculpture tradition rose to prominence in such a way that it overshadowed other forms of art produced in the two mission schools or workshops at Serima and Cyrene. In the process, Kekana and his students at the Kekana School of Art and Craft were relegated to the peripheries of the canon as they carved in wood and tended to work in a more representational style. While there is literature acknowledging the role of the missionaries in laying the foundation of modern art in Zimbabwe, local artists-cum-teachers working with them are only recognised as a footnote on the nation’s map of modern art. Recognising that canons are always evolving and shifting, and without discrediting the work of the three mentioned expatriates – and to an extent that of Tom Blomefield of the Tengenenge Workshop – this thesis attempts to expand the canon by arguing for the inclusion of the critiqued overlooked six. Citing the efforts of researchers, scholars and curators in multicultural South Africa to bring the previously marginalised generation of Black modernists into the mainstream, this thesis demonstrates that it is possible to spotlight the narratives of the Black artists and teachers who continue to occupy peripheral space in the history of Zimbabwe. This comparative analysis is done bearing in mind the temptation of falling into the trap of glorifying ‘South African exceptionalism’. In analysing the Black artist-teachers’ contributions as a counter-narrative, this research proposes a more heterogeneous modernism and revisionist art history.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 202
Click consonants in contact: a comparative sociohistorical analysis with special reference to Nama-Afrikaans contact
Get PDFDespite their ubiquity across southern Africa, click consonants are among the world’s most poorly understood speech sounds. Details of their phonological behaviour during language contact remain unclear, in large part because of the under-documentation of contact events of marginalised languages in rural contexts. Working within a sociohistorical linguistic framework with reference to material socioeconomic theories of language contact, this thesis compares and contrasts the diachronic phonological outcomes of various click loan events. The primary event under investigation is the donation of loanwords from an endangered click language, Nama, via substrate interference with the lexicon of a socially dominant clickless language, Afrikaans, in the Namaqualand region of the Northern Cape. The phonological adaptations employed to integrate donated lexical material into a host grammar ought ordinarily to be fairly regular, but the cross-linguistic rarity of click consonants complicates this process. The twenty click consonants expected of Nama undergo phonemic neutralisation when realised in Namaqualand Afrikaans, such that contrast embedded in click ‘type’ and click ‘accompaniment’ is collapsed. Speakers of Namaqualand Afrikaans employ any click type when uttering any click word, and may even use different click types in different tokens of the same lexical item. This unpredictability neutralises contrast. Nonetheless, there is some evidence of a diachronic trend from the unpredictable use of multiple click types and accompaniments toward the stable use of only the linguopulmonic dental click. When these novel data are set against the phonological outcomes of other contact events between a click language and a clickless languages across southern Africa, the normal outcome of click loan under is shown to be the collapse of ‘type’ contrasts. An important outlier is the large ‘type’-contrasting click inventory still shared by isiXhosa and isiZulu long after the extinction of donor click languages in the Khoekhoe branch, suggesting that this contact event must historically have entailed sustained community-wide bilingualism. These comparative observations are used to develop a cross-linguistic typology of click loan events that aims to improve our understanding of the precolonial linguistic landscape of southern Africa. The improved documentation of click consonants in rural language varieties is urgently recommended.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 202
Developing and exploring a career education programme for disadvantaged FET-phase learners in the northern areas of Gqeberha: a developmental-contextual approach
Get PDFCareer development theory and assessments in South Africa have often been unscientifically applied to traditionally disadvantaged individuals, with little consideration of the diverse contexts of indigenous groups in the country. Assessment measures were not suited to the needs of learners from resource-constrained environments, nor could learners from these communities access these due to the associated financial costs. Recent research developments (using more holistic approaches) suggest that career counselling in South Africa should move towards better contextualized approaches to understanding and informing career development. Follow-up research projects show the value of such approaches with youth. Postmodern career development theories and models recognise that career counselling and development should focus on supporting individuals in constructing their careers from their own experiences within their environments, particularly for learners from disadvantaged communities whose career decisions and career development are inextricably influenced by their environments. The present study therefore employed the Developmental-Contextual Framework (DCF) to explore the perspectives of FET-phase Life Orientation (LO) educators on the LO curriculum (LO CAPS) for careers and career choices; as well as contextual factors influencing the career development of disadvantaged learners in public schools. The overall aim of the study was to co-construct and explore a customised career education programme, alongside LO educators, and determine whether FET-phase learners from disadvantaged public schools could benefit from such a programme. The DCF emphasises the dynamic relationship between an individual and the environment and the influences thereof on career development. The study draws from previous South African studies with disadvantaged learners and students that acknowledged the applicability of the DCF in the design of career programmes. This framework acknowledges the embeddedness of the individual in their proximal and distal environments and the role of these environments in the career decisionmaking of learners. The study was conducted in disadvantaged secondary schools in the Northern Areas of Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape, with LO educators in the FET-phase and the LO subject advisor at District level. At the initial interview stage the sample consisted of 9 participants and reduced to 6 participants in the focus group stage. The study underlined the impact of various contextual factors on career decision-making and the inclusion of these in career education programmes, particularly when working with learners from disadvantaged environments. Furthermore, the study illustrated that the career education of FET-phase learners in public high schools is lacking in many ways and that LO educators are not adequately trained to teach careers topics and therefore lack skills to support learners with their career development needs. The lack of, as well as poor and outdated career resources, impact negatively on the career education of learners in many public schools. Underpinned by Action Research, over a series of seven focus group meetings, an applicable and relevant programme of career-related activities based on the DCF was planned and evaluated by educators. The cumulative data were thematically analysed and the study revealed that the customised programme could potentially address the career development needs of learners from disadvantaged public schools, if educators are adequately trained to apply it. Recommendations are made for further piloting and implementation.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 202
Spatiotemporal ecology and potential displacement of white sharks in southern Africa
No full textThe white shark Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus, 1758) is one of the largest predatory sharks, with a cosmopolitan global distribution. The objective of this thesis was to explore the spatiotemporal ecology of this species in coastal South Africa, from both a fine and large-scale perspective (a bay versus the entire coastline). Furthermore, this study aimed to identify and quantify the impacts of a novel biological driver on white shark movement in the region. This study revealed that two hunting modes were employed by white sharks to hunt seals. Mixed Hidden Markov models (HMMs) were applied to acoustic tracking data of 14 white sharks in the aggregation area, to quantify changing movement states (area-restricted searching vs. patrolling) and the factors that influenced them. White sharks demonstrated individual preferences for fine-scale movement patterns, which may be related to their use of different hunting modes. As such, individual variability should be considered when modelling the behavioural effects of predators on prey species. Risk-induced fear effects exerted by top predators are pervasive in terrestrial and marine systems, with lasting impacts on ecosystem structure and function. The loss of top predators can disrupt ecosystems and trigger trophic cascades, but the introduction of novel apex predators to ecosystems is not well understood. In 2017, during the middle of the data collection period of this study, a rare shark-eating morphotype of killer whale Orcinus orca appeared along the Western Cape coast. This highly distinctive pair of killer whales preyed on at least eight white sharks, seven at Gansbaai. Sightings per unit effort and telemetry data revealed that white sharks emigrated from the site, following these attacks, in response to further sightings of the killer whales. White sharks responded rapidly to risk from a novel predator, and their absence triggered the emergence of another meso-predator, the bronze whaler shark Carcharhinus brachyurus, demonstrating trophic changes in mesopredator composition at the site, determined by sightings data from shark dive operators. Unique aerial footage was analysed on the same killer whales hunting white sharks at another aggregations site, 300 km east, Mossel Bay. This footage substantiated the hypothesis that killer whales are hunting white sharks in South Africa and it revealed the hunting behaviour of the killer whales in additional to the evasive strategies utilised by the white sharks. Cage diving vessel and drone survey data confirmed that white sharks exhibited flight responses for at least 45 days from Mossel Bay and were similar to the behavioural patterns observed in Gansbaai. Furthermore, cultural transmission was documented, with other adult killer whales hunting white sharks in Mossel Bay, together with the known pair. Large-scale movement data from 118 individual white sharks fitted with with V16 R-coded acoustic tags between 2012 and 2022 were examined. Spatial network analysis was applied to note if any differences occurred in coastal space use between white sharks pre- and post-killer whale presence. Declines in white shark acoustic detections were noted after 2018, along the coast, and the complete disappearance of detections in the Western Cape hotspots of False Bay (Cape Town) and Gansbaai between 2015 and 2018. There are broader ecological, economic, and bather safety impacts of white sharks being displaced by killer whales in South Africa, and while there are no clear solutions, suggestions for management are proposed as these interactions are likely to continue.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Ichthyology and Fisheries Science, 202
Prediction of mass spectra using an ab initio approach
Get PDFAccess restricted. Expected release date in 2025.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Chemistry, 202
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with maize in South Africa, under conventional and conservation agricultural cultivation
Get PDFAccess restricted. Expected release date in 2025.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 202
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with wheat under conventional and conservation agricultural cultivation
No full textAccess restricted. Expected release date in 2024.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Chemistry, 202
South African supratidal microbialites: prokaryote communities, metabolic capabilities, and biogeochemical processes
Get PDFAccess restricted. Embargoed until 2025.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 202
Coastal movements and estuarine use of sub-adult and adult leervis, lichia amia: results from long-term acoustic tracking
Get PDFInformation on fish movement is important not only for understanding a species’ ecological importance, but also for developing appropriate conservation and management policies that are critical for food security and biodiversity preservation. This information is particularly important for species that occupy different habitats at different life history stages, and display predictable movement patterns, such as an annual spawning migration. Leervis Lichia amia is an estuary-dependent fishery species of high ecological and recreational importance in South Africa. There has been a steady decline in catch-per-unit-effort in the marine recreational fishery for this species over the past 20 years, and the most recent stock assessment classified the adult stock as collapsed. This study investigates L. amia multi-year coastal migrations and estuarine habitat use of sub-adult and adult fish tagged with long-life acoustic transmitters Seventy-eight L. amia (two juveniles, fifty-four subadults, and twenty-one adults) were tagged throughout their South African distribution and monitored between 2011 and 2020 producing a decade long dataset. Results show that regardless of the tagging region, clear migration patterns were observed, demonstrating that both sub-adult and adult L. amia migrate annually to KZN in the austral winter and predictably return to the WC and EC waters in the summer. The likelihood of partial migration was also identified, with the coexistence of migratory and resident behaviors within a single L. amia population. In addition, Overwintering behaviour was also observed with L. amia adults that remained resident throughout the year, foregoing the annual migration, phenomenon known as skipped spawning, and homing behaviour, where L. amia, particularly those tagged in the EC and WC, were recorded returning to previously occupied tagging locations and surrounding areas. The importance of estuaries to sub-adult and adult fish was also assessed and identified the importance of estuaries not only to subadults but also to adults. Estuary visits were strongly influenced by the environment which the fish was tagged in, temporal and seasonal changes, and life-history stages. The predictability of their migrations (almost to the day), the varied migratory behaviour (overwintering), returning to sites of familiarity post-migration, and long-term dependency on estuaries even as sub-adults and adults, provide motivation for increased protection of this species, including extending the network of estuarine protected areas in the country, and a closed fishing season, particularly during the annual winter migration.Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Ichthyology and Fisheries Science, 202