Leveraging on past investment in understanding the immunology of COVID-19 – the South African experience

Share repurchases, rather than dividend payments, are increasingly becoming the globally favoured payout method. This has prompted a renewed interest in the field, and raises questions about the actual motivation for share repurchases and whether companies are now repurchasing shares in preference to investing in future growth. This study set out to ascertain whether South African company payout behaviour mirrors global company behaviour. Comprehensive data on share repurchases are, however, not compiled by South African financial data sources or by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Ltd. In preparation for this study, the authors thus compiled the first comprehensive share repurchase database for companies in selected JSE-listed sectors for the first 11 years (i.e. 1999 to 2009) since share repurchases were first allowed in this country.Share repurchases were found to be a popular payout method, especially in the more recent periods covered in the study. Payout value was dominated by a few companies paying dividends every year and regularly repurchasing shares. Aspects unique to the South African regulatory environment, however, resulted in the South African share repurchase experience not fully mirroring current global practice. The main constraint in the South African share repurchase environment is that comprehensive, actual-time-based share repurchase data are not available. Recommendations are made on how to align the South African regulatory environment with global best practice. Regulatory changes, as well as continued research in the field, will equip stakeholders to make informed decisions.

Integration of chiropractic education into a hospital setting: A South African experience

BackgroundClinical practice guideline (CPG) activity has escalated internationally in the last 20 years, leading to increasingly sophisticated methods for CPG developers and implementers. Despite this, there remains a lack of practical support for end-users in terms of effectively and efficiently implementing CPG recommendations into local practice. This paper describes South African experiences in implementing international CPG recommendations for best practice stroke rehabilitation into local contexts, using a purpose-build approach.MethodsComposite recommendations were synthesised from 16 international CPGs to address end-user questions about best practice rehabilitation for South African stroke survivors. End-user representatives on the project team included methodologists, policy-makers, clinicians, managers, educators, researchers and stroke survivors. The Adopt–Contextualise–Adapt model was applied as a decision-guide to streamline discussions on endorsement and development of implementation strategies. Where recommendations required contextualisation to address local barriers before they could be effectively implemented, prompts were provided to identify barriers and possible solutions. Where recommendations could not be implemented without additional local evidence (adaptation), options were identified to establish new evidence.FindingsThe structured implementation process was efficient in terms of time, effort, resources and problem solving. The process empowered the project team to make practical decisions about local uptake of international recommendations, develop local implementation strategies, and determine who was responsible, for what and when. Different implementation strategies for the same recommendation were identified for different settings, to address different barriers.ConclusionThe South African evidence translation experience could be useful for evidence implementers in other countries, when translating CPG recommendations developed elsewhere, into local practice.

Traditional healing remains an important aspect of many people’s engagement with healthcare and, in this, responses to the treatment of HIV/AIDS are no different. However, given the gravity of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, there has been much debate as to the value of traditional healing in this respect. Accordingly, this paper explores the extent to which meaningful accommodation between the biomedical and traditional sectors is possible (and/or even desirable). It does this through a consideration of Native American and South African experiences, looking at how the respective groups, in which medical pluralism is common, have addressed the issue of HIV/AIDS. The paper points to the importance of developing “culturally appropriate” forms of treatment that emphasise complementary rather than adversarial engagement between the traditional and biomedical systems and how policymakers can best facilitate this.

Mountainous terrain has distinctly influenced combat operations throughout history. Warfare at high altitude often takes place in extreme weather conditions and over difficult terrain, which is largely considered to be inaccessible, inhospitable, and at times lacking any apparent strategic or operational value. As a result, combat operations at high altitudes are traditionally infantry affairs. The South African deployment to East Africa during the Second World War was for the most part characterised by highly mobile operations, across deserts and scrubland, where infantry, armour and artillery deployed in a mutually supportive role. The penultimate battles of the East African campaign were, however, fought in extremely severe terrain, where the South African troops would experience the harsh realities of mountain warfare for the first time during the war. This article broadly investigates the exigencies of mountain warfare, and critically reflects on the South African wartime experience of mountain warfare in East Africa.

This contribution reviews the book entitled Laws against Strikes – The South African Experience in an International and Comparative Perspective edited by Bob Hepple, Rochelle le Roux and Silvana Sciarra.

In recent years Geography Information System (GIS) implementation in schools has emerged as one of the most important threads deserving academic inquiry globally. This paper seeks to draw lessons from the South African experience on GIS implementation by engaging in an in-depth documentary analysis of the Geography syllabus in the updated Zimbabwe curriculum and the South Africa (SA) Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) Geography syllabus. This paper draws from the Normalisation Process Theory (2009) and the Extended Normalisation Process Theory (2013). The researcher purposively selected the Ordinary Level Geography Syllabus in Zimbabwe and CAPS Geography Syllabus Grade 10 - 12. This paper argues that there are numerous lessons that Zimbabwe can draw from South African experiences. Among the lessons that can be drawn from the CAPS Geography syllabus are the following; the fusion of GIS across Geography topics instead of taking GIS as a standalone topic; allocating adequate financial resources to schools, allocating GIS more time in the syllabus among others. The researcher recommends that Zimbabwe adopt a paper-based GIS educational package.

AIDS Research and Human RetrovirusesVol. 30, No. S1 Pregnancy Intentions, Safe Conception and PMTCT“I Would Say it Does Concern Me and on the Other Hand it Doesn't.” Perceptions of South African Learners' Experiences with Sex, Pregnancy, and HIVCecilia Milford, Lizzie Moore, Mags Beksinska, Muriel Kubeka, Kedibone Sithole, Sibusiso Sibiya, Faith Smangele Luhthuli, and Jennifer SmitCecilia MilfordSearch for more papers by this author, Lizzie MooreSearch for more papers by this author, Mags BeksinskaSearch for more papers by this author, Muriel KubekaSearch for more papers by this author, Kedibone SitholeSearch for more papers by this author, Sibusiso SibiyaSearch for more papers by this author, Faith Smangele LuhthuliSearch for more papers by this author, and Jennifer SmitSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:30 Oct 2014https://doi.org/10.1089/aid.2014.5111.abstractAboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View article"“I Would Say it Does Concern Me and on the Other Hand it Doesn't.” Perceptions of South African Learners' Experiences with Sex, Pregnancy, and HIV." AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, 30(S1), p. A62FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byExtra mouths to feed: The odds of young mothers engaging in transactional sexual relationships in South Africa4 June 2018 | Cogent Social Sciences, Vol. 4, No. 1 Volume 30Issue S1Oct 2014 InformationCopyright 2014, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.To cite this article:Cecilia Milford, Lizzie Moore, Mags Beksinska, Muriel Kubeka, Kedibone Sithole, Sibusiso Sibiya, Faith Smangele Luhthuli, and Jennifer Smit.“I Would Say it Does Concern Me and on the Other Hand it Doesn't.” Perceptions of South African Learners' Experiences with Sex, Pregnancy, and HIV.AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses.Oct 2014.A62-A62.http://doi.org/10.1089/aid.2014.5111.abstractPublished in Volume: 30 Issue S1: October 30, 2014PDF download

In this study we focus on the South African experience with inflation targeting. We make two major claims in this paper. First, the South African experience with inflation targeting before the crisis was not successful, not in terms of advocates’ self-stated goals and certainly not in terms of key, ultimate real sector goals such as lower unemployment and higher economic growth. Second, as in a number of other countries, the SARB policy regime as well as its rhetoric about monetary policy significantly changed in response to the crisis of 2008. While these changes are an important step in the right direction of reorienting monetary policy toward important real goals of employment generation and economic growth, they are nevertheless still not adequate to the crucial task of creating a macroeconomic framework geared toward achieving these crucial goals.

Objective. The objective of this descriptive study was to assess the practices of South African dietitians regarding the dietary treatment of patients with chronic renal failure. Subjects and design. A questionnaire was mailed to 600 randomly selected dietitians registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. Practices were compared to international standards for pre-dialysis, haemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. Results. A 26% response rate was obtained, with only 28% of these dietitians indicating that they counsel renal patients. The majority of dietitians met the international dietary recommendations, but a substantial number deviated from them. This was especially evident in PD patients, where the deviation ranged from 20% (4 dietitians) in the case of energy and phosphate, to 55% (11 dietitians) in the case of calcium. Parameters used for the assessment of nutritional status included body mass index (45% of dietitians), serum albumin (44%), clinical examinations (43%), bioelectrical impedance (37%) and diet history (36%). Methods used to monitor dietary compliance included biochemistry, dietary history, anthropometric measurements and clinical investigation. The most frequently used approaches in the management of protein-energy malnutrition included supplemental drinks (86%) and dietary enrichment at household level (76%).

The factors that have encouraged the emergence and clustering of high‐technology activities are investigated in the international and South African experience. This article focuses specifically on the significance of improved transport and telecommunication facilities for the development of high‐technology manufacturing. In line with international patterns, high‐technology manufacturing in South Africa is strongly agglomerated in the Pretoria‐Witwatersrand region. Central to the historical establishment of this cluster were the infrastructural advantages of Gauteng. Strengthening of the Gauteng cluster is linked to agglomeration economies deriving from the spatial concentration of both high‐technology production and non‐producer enterprises. Two distinct subclusters are identified: in Midrand and in the East Rand

Thank you for the opportunity to reply to the letter from Morris (2012) entitled “Biosecurity risks to New Zealand: Lessons from the South African experience with porcine reproductive and respirato...

Justiciability of the Right to Housing – The South African Experience

For European property lawyers, property is the law of things and this has been so for the past centuries. In this perspective, property law focuses on transactions of these things and is therefore transactional law. Increasingly there is a number of lawyers that considers property in a constitutional context. However, this is mostly done at a national level, or by comparing national constitutional property law, usually constitutional property provisions, to other countries. Constitutional property, I submit, is much more than just the national constitutional provision, and concerns the way in which property is to be understood, organised and applied in a legal order.In the EU legal order, which has a single or internal market, which is more than a mere sum of its components, there is a great need to rethink the position of property. The EU internal market is a social market economy to which fundamental principles of property law (freedom of ownership, free circulation of goods and freedom of contract) are inextricably linked. A change away from the market economy will bring great difficulties in the current composition of the EU legal order, as too many aspects are dealt with at the national level. The EU legal order relies heavily on the existence of these fundamental principles of property law in the systems of the Member States that ‘upload’ these to the EU level. EU economic constitutional law as well as EU social constitutional law can provide guidance for the development of EU (constitutional) property law. There is - borrowing from the South African experience - an algorithm for the development of property law in the EU, in which the primacy of regulation is with private parties, followed by the Member States who are all bound by the economic and social context provided for by EU law. That normative framework is not to be followed voluntarily, but comes with the method and thus with the force of supranational EU law, including direct effect, effet utile, and the principle of sincere cooperation between Member States. This is all balanced by the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality that keep the EU out of matters it should not concern itself with.

The African continent is increasingly becoming part of the global debate on denuclearisation. Renewable energy supply in the form of nuclear energy has become a matter of debate on the continent, and new ways of providing electricity is of utmost importance for many Africans. Africa is a continent that is free of nuclear weapons as formally established by the Pelindaba Treaty. South Africa is also the only country in the world to have voluntarily disbanded its nuclear weapons program. The dismantling of the South African nuclear weapons program occurred under very specific circumstances, and the South African experience is not necessarily transferable to other international denuclearisation scenarios. While other countries facing pressure to end their nuclear weapons programs may be confronted with a completely different set of challenges, there are certainly valuable lessons to be learned from the South African experience. The intricate tensions in the Middle East, for example, demonstrate that nuclear armament is usually a symptom of greater political instability and not a cause in itself. There is thus a need for greater focus to be placed on negotiation and diplomacy efforts in order to arrive at the root causes of the imbalances that prompt States to want to establish or expand their nuclear arsenals. However, negotiation and diplomacy efforts should also take into account the differing approaches to the issue of denuclearisation to be able to reconcile such concerns and finally come to a solution which is agreeable to all States.KeywordsAfricaDenuclearisationNuclear EnergyNuclear WeaponsPelindaba TreatySouth Africa