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Home food gardens and poverty alleviation in the rural area of Macekane, KwaZulu-Natal
Get PDFAccess to food, water and nutrition is a constitutional right in South Africa, yet the state of food accessibility is questionable, particularly in rural communities. After South Africa achieved political freedom in 1994, development and prosperity were prioritised, and a number of policies were designed to eradicate poverty and inequalities. However, these policies have had little effect on food security, which is still precarious in many places, especially deep rural areas. This research explored the effects of home food gardens on food accessibility and poverty reduction in the rural area of Macekane in KwaZulu-Natal. It sought to investigate the circumstances of food insecurity in this area that prevail in the face of government-related food security interventions in rural areas. The focus of the research was a recent project initiated by the youth in the uMhlathuze Municipality's Ward 31, which falls under the Somopho Traditional Council. The youth initiated a ‘One home, one garden' project to address food insecurity and support self-sustainability in the community. The research employed a qualitative approach in which participants with food gardens were purposively selected and interviewed about their experiences of producing food to sustain their households. The findings revealed that water accessibility was a hindrance to the maintenance of home food gardens in Macekane. Home food gardens could contribute to the livelihood of the Macekane community, but water scarcity poses a major obstacle to achieving this goal. There is also a need for more systematic planning and implementation of community programmes such as this to ensure their success. This research brings a new perspective to the topic of food insecurity as its focus is on a specific rural community and their experiences. It therefore fills a gap in the discourse on poverty alleviation and food shortages in rural areas
Rethinking the meaning of a politically exposed person to promote substantive compliance of the financial action task force standards
Get PDFThis dissertation explores whether there is a need for a broader definition of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). It aims to enhance the understanding of PEPs to improve countries' abilities to substantially comply with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards. The dissertation observes that the current definition of PEPs is deemed too narrow, thereby hindering substantial compliance with the FATF standards. It highlights the need to broaden the scope of PEPs beyond natural persons to encompass legal entities, similar to the EU model implemented in the UK. The paper presents a brief comparative analysis of the Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorism Financing, and financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (AML/CTF) regimes of the FATF, South Africa, the EU, and the UK in relation to PEPs. It considers Recommendation 12 of the FATF, Mutual Evaluation Reports, domestic legislation of the respective jurisdictions, financial intelligence units' guidelines and international standard-setting bodies like Wolfsberg Group and Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and international instruments. The comparison reveals that the fundamental element of a PEP being a natural person is too restrictive, and thus ineffective in combatting ML/TF and hinders national efforts by countries like South Africa to promote substantive compliance with the FATF standards. Therefore, this paper suggests ways to respond to this and other challenges. It suggests that a broader definition of PEPs be adopted by the FATF on an international level and by South Africa, incorporating legal entities in the definition of PEPs to better comply with FATF AML/CTF standards
Impactful maps and associated visualisations on antimalarial drug resistance for malaria programmes and policymakers
Get PDFThe spread of antimalarial drug resistance threatens global, regional and national malaria elimination efforts. Despite being preventable and treatable, malaria still claims over half a million lives globally, with over 95% of malaria cases and deaths occurring in Africa. Antimalarial drug resistance threatens progress in malaria control and elimination, especially in less-resourced health systems in developing countries. Malaria control and elimination efforts are facing stagnation of funding and competing resources with other potential pandemic pathogens like COVID-19, HIV, tuberculosis and non-communicable diseases. Regrettably, the malaria programmes and policymakers who are at the forefront of confronting antimalarial drug resistance often lack timely monitoring tools for evidence-based decision-making. This thesis used an iterative, sequential, explanatory, mixed-methods design to strengthen evidence on Plasmodium falciparum antimalarial drug resistance in Asia and South Africa. Through four thesis chapters of peer-reviewed manuscripts, the thesis presents innovative approaches to developing impactful policymaker-friendly tools for detection, reporting and responding to antimalarial drug resistance. Through co-design techniques, the thesis addresses major data challenges and developed guidelines and tools to support near-real-time antimalarial resistance monitoring. The thesis also highlights important processes and pinch points in rolling out an early warning system for antimalarial drug resistance in a pre- elimination setting in South Africa. This research contributes to best practices in summarising evidence for antimalarial drug resistance for policymakers and decision-makers. Furthermore, this thesis provides insights on the process of establishing an early warning system in a pre-elimination malaria setting, a context reflective of where several Southern African countries and Island states are heading in this decade
Social determinants of comorbid depression among patients living with diabetes and/or HIV at primary healthcare settings in Western Cape Province of South Africa
No full textThe co-occurrence of physical and mental health conditions poses a significant public health challenge globally especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In South Africa, diabetes, HIV, and depression frequently co-occur in an intricate manner, and the illness experience is largely shaped by the differences between individuals, communities, and provinces. Previous research highlights the influence of socioeconomic factors on the relationship between diabetes, HIV, and depression, although the focus has mainly been on the variability in health outcomes explained by individual-level factors. There is a need for evidence on the mental health outcome variations attributable to distinct contextual levels amongst patients living with HIV and/or diabetes. This dissertation assesses the socioeconomic determinants of depressive symptoms among patients living with HIV and/or diabetes accessing healthcare at the primary health care (PHC) level in the Western Cape province. Furthermore, it examines the variation in depressive symptoms attributable to individual, household, and community levels among this sub-population. Baseline data collected from participants in a cluster randomised controlled trial, named Project MIND conducted in the Western Cape, was used in this analysis. This study applied a three-level multi-level logistic regression analysis. Random intercepts were added at the household and community levels using grouping variables for household socioeconomic status and PHC catchment areas to account for the heterogeneity across the data hierarchy levels. Four random intercept multi-level models were fitted sequentially. The estimated intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were used to determine the proportion of the outcome variance attributable to the grouping- and individual-level variables for each model. Overall, the findings indicate that the variance in depressive symptoms among patients with HIV and/or diabetes can be explained by differences at the household- and community-levels when controlling for individual-level factors. Higher odds of moderate to severe depressive symptoms were significantly associated with being female, secondary level education, and food insecurity. Lower odds of moderate to severe depressive symptoms were associated with harmful/hazardous alcohol use, increased social support, and increased self-efficacy. This study highlights the importance of policies that simultaneously consider individual, household- and community-levels to address co-occurring mental and physical health conditions in the Western Cape. The findings support interventions at the PHC level and in the community to bolster social support systems and self-efficacy, promote mental health from early educational years, prioritise gender-sensitive health programs, and address household food insecurity among patients living with HIV and/or diabetes with depressive symptoms
Feminist judgments: interrogating Zimbabwean judgments using anti-essentialist feminist legal theory
Get PDFIn 2004, the first feminist judgments project was launched by a group of Canadian lawyers and scholars. This group, calling themselves the Women's Court of Canada, published a series of six rewritten opinions of the Canadian Supreme Court interpreting the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms from a feminist perspective. This model of rewriting original court opinions from a feminist perspective sparked the feminist judgments movement and has been taken up by feminist lawyers and scholars across the globe; in England, Ireland, Australia, the United States, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and Mexico, rewriting significant cases on an array of topics including criminal law, family law, international law, and constitutional law. In each of these projects, feminist scholars and lawyers apply their chosen strands of feminist legal theory to already decided cases to show the practical utility of feminist legal theory to a set of existing facts and laws. Loosely following on this model of rewriting existing judgments from a feminist perspective, this thesis offers commentary on how three Zimbabwean appeal judgments, selected from a reading and review of some of the most prominent cases in the last 20 years, could have been decided differently from an anti-essentialist feminist perspective. The three cases cover the following topics: matrimonial property rights, child custody rights and abortion rights. This commentary is offered as part of the exercise by feminist scholars around the world to put feminist legal theory into practice and to discuss the difference these differently decided judgments would have on women in Zimbabwe, the affected parties in each of the selected cases, and the Zimbabwean society at large. Beginning with a discussion on the development of feminist legal theory in courts, mainly starting in the United States before trickling down to other parts of the world, the thesis focuses on how the three selected judgments, retaining the same facts and legal principles they have been previously decided on, would be altered or bolstered using an anti-essentialist feminist legal theory interpretation. This commentary is followed by a concluding section commenting on the value of feminist legal theory to the Zimbabwean judicial system
Satellite change detection in the albany thicket biome
No full textThe Albany Thicket Biome has been subject to widespread transformation, with as much as 63% of the biome being severely degraded. The primary land use activity responsible for much of the transformation of the biome has been pastoralism and commercial agriculture land expansion (Mills et al., 2005; Powell, 2008; Stickler and Shackleton, 2015). There are primarily four traditional remote sensing based change detection frameworks: algebra, transformations, classification, and advanced models (van Oort, 2007, Asokan and Anitha, 2019). While these methods are able to detect changes in bi-temporal datasets they are inherently limited in that they are based on the assumption that each pixel's spectral signature is a linear combination of the features on the corresponding physical surface (Salih et al., 2017, Sun et al., 2015). These methods also suffer from the propensity for false positives resulting from differences in atmospheric conditions, viewing angles and illumination and soil moistures between the two images; another limitation of these methods is the observation interval between the initial and post-change or successive observations are often weeks or up to years apart. which makes the detection of transient changes difficult. Finally they are unable to provide information on changes in land cover that allows for timely intervention by the authorities. Continuous change detection on the other hand uses all available and usable observations to detect changes. Continuous change detection classifiers allocate pixels throughout a time series to predefined classes using labelled training data. The majority of tools that seek to perform continuous land cover change detection have been developed for forests and thus tend to perform poorly in thicket ecosystems. This study aims to use multi-temporal satellite imagery to detect transformation of Albany Thicket in near-real time. The first chapter seeks to generate a Thicket transformation map documenting the changes in the Thicket biome between 2016 and 2019 and to produce an online application to visualise and interpret these changes. Chapter two focuses on developing a change detection protocol for identifying clearings of Thickets using Temporal Convolution Neural Networks and comparing it against the Continuous Change Detection and Classification (CCDC) algorithm. Finally chapter three sets out to develop a Domain adaptive Temporal Convolution Neural Network for continuous change detection in the Albany Thicket biome. The study concluded that using medium resolution satellite imagery changes in Albany Thicket vegetation can be reliably detected and discerned from changes in other land cover types. The ability to continuously detect changes using TempCNNs was shown to outperform a state of art algorithm namely, CCDC. Albany Thicket cover dynamics were shown to be embedded within geographical contexts and that geographical gradients in biophysical variables influence the contextual representations learned by the TempCNNs and therefore fusing TempCNNs with biophysical variables such as surface dryness information can improve their performance. Finally, it was shown that using meta-learning the TempCNN can be adapted to be robust in shifting domains by learning the most optimal parameter initializations that allow for capturing the invariant embeddings that facilitate generalisation across domains possible
An exploration of factors that influence referrals to palliative care in oncology
Get PDFBackground: Globally, cancer is a leading cause of death. The impact of cancer is higher in low-middle income countries, compared to middle-high income countries. In Africa, the WHO projects a 403% increase in cancer between 2016 and 2060. There is convincing evidence that there are benefits to patients in providing palliative care together with oncology treatment. These benefits include understanding of prognosis, improvement in quality of life, and an increase in satisfaction with care for the patients. However, in South Africa, there is a paucity of early referrals to palliative care. Aim: The aim of the study was to determine factors that influence referral of patients with cancer, to palliative care services. Methods: This was a qualitative cross-sectional study allowing for in-depth exploration of participants' views. There were two groups of participants 1) adult patients diagnosed with cancer, and already informed of their diagnosis; 2) medical and radiation oncologists. Purposive sampling was undertaken with planned sample size of 10-14 patient participants and 8-10 oncologist participants The participants were fully informed regarding the research and asked to sign consent to take part in the research. In depth interviews were conducted following interview guides – for patients and for oncologists. Thematic analysis was conducted manually by the researcher with the support of the supervisor, and themes derived from transcripts of the participants' interviews. Results: Participants were twelve patients with cancer and eight practising oncologists. Five major themes were identified: 1) Experiences of care; 2) Relationship between oncology and palliative care; 3) Patient views on referral to palliative care services; 4) triggers for referral to palliative care services; 5) Practical considerations in referral to palliative care services. Key findings were the need for good effective communication, providing enough information to enable patients to make informed choices, a need met by palliative care services but not by oncologists whose communication manner was hurtful, without compassion and empathy and left patients unclear or overwhelmed. There is a difference in the understanding of palliative care by oncologists, while patients saw a need for early referral to palliative care services. Conclusion: The quality of life in patients with advanced cancer is negatively affected by oncologists' lack of effective communication. These patients, referred late to palliative care services, remain with unmet information needs. However, they are highly appreciative of palliative care services even when they are referred to these services near the end of their lives. Patients with advanced cancer may benefit more with early referral to palliative care services, while oncologists' communication skills and understanding of what palliative care is, may benefit from palliative care training
Experiences of returning to campus in the COVID-19 pandemic among administrative faculty staff: a job demands and resources approach
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to explore and develop deep understanding of return to campus experiences of administrative faculty staff- from their remote working to in person working conditions at a South African university. Administrative faculty staff play a crucial role in service delivery of the university, however, their return to campus following COVID-19 was layered with psychological and emotional experiences. A phenomenological focus group study with 11 administrative faculty staff was conducted. Thematic analysis on the focus group data revealed key themes: (1) Remote work as shaping return-to-work; (2) We don't have much choice or voice”: decision-making as one-sided and (3): Long-haul covid: returning to work as a ‘different' person
Is it practically possible to comply with the qualifying interest requirement when entering into a section 42 asset-for-share transaction concerning immovable property, given the applicable time of disposal rules and the application of the Companies Act?
No full textThe South African Income Tax Act No 58 of 1962 (“the ITA”) contains several group relief provisions aimed to facilitate corporate restructuring. In the ITA there are various examples of roll-over relief provisions generally that contain no time restrictions, nor which are determined with reference to a specific moment in time. That notwithstanding, section 42 of the ITA, colloquially known as referring to asset for-share transactions, requires a transferor company (the company disposing of an asset) to hold a qualifying interest in a transferee company (the company receiving the asset in exchange for the issue of shares) at the close of day on which the asset is disposed of. Accordingly, the ITA is prescriptive regarding the timing provision and when a qualifying interest in section 42 is required to be held. In this study, the author considers the practical application of the qualifying interest requirement and how compliance with this requirement is problematic when considering other legislative enactments. In doing so, the author identifies possible impediments for compliance with the section 42 qualifying interest requirement and furthermore attempts to adopt an interpretation in which the legislative enactments can either be reconciled or interpreted widely to ensure that the requirements of the ITA are complied with. The aim of this study and the question that the author attempted to address in its analysis above is whether it is practically possible to comply with the qualifying interest requirement when entering into a section 42 asset-for-share transaction concerning immovable property, given the applicable time of disposal rules and the application of the Companies Act? In this study and as part of the key findings of this paper, the author identifies several ambiguities arising from the application of various legislative enactments. The Companies Act and the impediments imposed by it to comply with the “qualifying interest” requirement enacted in section 42 of the ITA, specifically insofar as the issue of shares for adequate consideration is concerned in clearly highlighted by the author. To align the provisions of the various legislative enactments and in an attempt to reconcile them the author argued that a purposive approach to statutory interpretation should be adopted in which the practical application and functionality of the provision should be called into question
The classic sound of Rudy Van Gelder. An investigation of the recording techniques used to create the iconic blue note sound
Get PDFThe Blue Note Sound, a “classic sound” created by Rudy Van Gelder in his Hackensack home during the 1950s, is characterized by the techniques he employed in his recordings, imparting warmth, clarity, and precision. This dissertation explores and evaluates Van Gelder's techniques, their effectiveness, and their potential application in the modern era. This work aims to raise awareness and offers insights and comparisons regarding the unique aesthetics of recordings in jazz. This dissertation takes a self-reflexive approach as it explicitly examines the Blue Note Sound and its effectiveness. To support this, data was collected through critical listening analysis and a comparison of literature, articles, and media captions. The techniques used were based on exploration and experimentation, leading to the creation of the Blue Note Sound, which became the signature sound of the Blue Note Records label in the 1950s and 1960s. This label featured some of the most iconic jazz records of all time. The dissertation aims to demonstrate a clear understanding of the creation of the Blue Note Sound, the evolution of jazz recording sound, and the aesthetics based on specific techniques