South African Nuclear Necropolitics in Helmut Starcke’s Study for “Vaalputs Madonna”

Made Visible: Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity curated by Kathryn Gunsch

David Nthubu Koloane (1938–2019)

Healthcare facilities constitute one of the essential infrastructures in any community. It plays a critical role in achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 3, which aims to enhance the health and well-being of individuals. Nevertheless, the efficient upkeep of healthcare facilities in South Africa has encountered several obstacles, and one potential solution is the implementation of computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS). This study explored the benefits of the deployment of CMMS for healthcare facilities in South Africa. A quantitative methodology required data collection through a structured questionnaire distributed to professionals within the built environment. The collected data was analysed via exploratory factor analysis, utilising principal component analysis as the extraction method. The study’s outcome identified four components as the benefits of the deployment of CMMS for healthcare facilities in South Africa: maintenance efficiency and facilities uptime, asset and resource management, regulatory compliance and safety assurance, and sustainability adherence and strategic insights. In conclusion, the study offered suggestions that could facilitate the effective integration of computational systems like CMMS to maintain healthcare facilities in South Africa.

The study aimed to investigate the drivers of demand for healthcare in South Africa 26 years after democracy. The pattern healthcare demand by households in South Africa is that most households use public healthcare services particularly public clinics compared to private and traditional healthcare facilities. Using conditional probability models, the logit model to be more specific, the results revealed that households head who is unemployed, households who do not have a business, households who were not receiving pension money, had a greater probability of demand for public healthcare institutions. On the other hand, being male, being White, Indian and Coloured, being a property owner and being not a grant beneficiary, reduces the probability of demand for public healthcare facilities in South Africa. As a result, the study recommends more investment in public healthcare but more in public clinics in South Africa due to the high percentage of households using these services. Also, the government must consider investing more in the maintenance and improvement of the welfare of nurses in the country considering the huge role they play in the delivery of healthcare to the citizens.

The objective of the study was to assess the factors that motivate or demotivate households to choose among the three healthcare facilities, public healthcare, private health care and traditional healthcare facilities in South Africa as revealed by Statistics South Africa . The utilisation of healthcare facilities in South Africa is such that more households prefer public healthcare facilities more than other healthcare facilities. The multinomial logit model was used, with traditional/self-medication category as the reference or baseline category. The results indicated that gender, income and access to grants were significant in influencing the probability of a household choosing a public healthcare facility, while age, income, grants, salaries/wages/commission and pensions were significant in influencing the choice of private healthcare institutions. Therefore the study recommends that due to a large portion of households that are using public health facilities compared to private and traditional facilities, the government must invest more in public healthcare facilities in South Africa.

South Africa's Post-Apartheid era is characterized by the rhetoric of ‘unity in diversity’. However, numerous artist-led public interventions disclose alienating socio-economic conditions. Neoliberal reforms in the context of prevailing structural designs of Apartheid in South Africa weaken the democratization process, making it figurative rather than tangible and participatory. There is a pervasive perception that centres of power within the arts in South Africa are located in institutions of white proprietorship. As a result, young artists create independent establishments where they can have some control over cultural production and dissemination. This article debates the different strategies that are used by young practising artists to confront contemporary challenges in Post-Apartheid South Africa. One of these strategies promotes integration and deracialization through persistent engagement with predominantly white institutions in order to generate a sense of common purpose while the other opts for the power of provocative racialized but marginalized cultural movements.

African Vernacular Symbols of Black Intersex Children in Sinethemba Ngubane's Installations (2007-2016)

The genus Micaria Westring, 1851 (Araneae, Gnaphosidae) is a group of small (1.85-5 mm) ant-like spiders that can be distinguished from other gnaphosids by their piriform gland spigots that are similar in size to the major ampullate gland spigots. According to the World Spider Catalog, there are 105 species of Micaria in the world, of which only three species are known from the African part of the Afrotropical Region, namely M. chrysis (Simon, 1910), M. tersissima Simon, 1910 and M. beaufortia (Tucker, 1923). The objectives of this study were to revise Micaria in the Afrotropical Region, providing new and updated records for each of the species, evaluating the relationships between them using COI barcoding data, and providing information on their biology, mimetic relationships and feeding ecology. These objectives were met by collecting fresh material from the KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Northern Cape and Free State provinces in South Africa. Fresh material of M. tersissima and M. chrysis were collected from their type localities, Komaggas and Port Nolloth (Northern Cape Province), respectively, for identification and DNA analyses. COI sequences generated, together with those sourced from Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) and GenBank, were aligned using the CulstalW alignment algorithm in the Mega X software, and molecular phylogenetic analyses were performed using MrBayes for Bayesian Inference (BI) and RaxML for maximum likelihood (ML) analyses. Morphological examination of the collected and voucher material yielded 17 new species for the Afrotropical Region, namely M. basaliducta sp. nov. (♀, ♂, South Africa), M. bimaculata sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Mauritania), M. bispicula sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Namibia, South Africa), M. durbana sp. nov. (♀, ♂, South Africa, Zambia), M. felix sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe), M. gagnoa sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Mozambique, Tanzania), M. koingnaas sp. nov. (♂, South Africa), M. lata sp. nov. (♂, Namibia, South Africa), M. laxa sp. nov. (♀, South Africa), M. mediospina sp. nov. (♂, South Africa), M. parvotibialis sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Senegal), M. plana sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Ethiopia), M. quadrata sp. nov. (♀, Ethiopia), M. quinquemaculosa sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Namibia, South Africa), M. rivonosy sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Madagascar), M. sanipass sp. nov. (♂, South Africa) and M. scutellata sp. nov. (♂, South Africa). Furthermore, both sexes of M. beaufortia, as well as the male of M. tersissima, are redescribed. Both sexes of M. chrysis are described for the first time, as this species was only known from a juvenile. Of the previously known species, M. beaufortia (Botswana, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe) and M. chrysis (Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania) are widespread in the Afroptropics, while M. tersissima is only known from South Africa. Both the Bayesian inference and the maximum likelihood analysess recovered Micaria (sensu lato) as monophyletic with the inclusion of the subopaca group. The pulicaria species group was recovered as polyphyletic in both the BI and ML analyses. Four Afrotropical species, as well as the M. rossica Thorell, 1875/M. foxi Gertsch, 1933 group, formed a clade sister to M. formicaria (Sundevall, 1831). Eight of the Afrotropical species now have COI barcoding data uploaded to BOLD.

What do the narratives of five Cape Coloured women of three generations reveal about issues of race and identity in post-apartheid South Africa? This question is the essence of this study. Identity in apartheid South Africa was strictly and legislatively framed around race, defined by physical characteristics of skin colour and hair texture. Whiteness was the epitome with socio-economic privileges, which invariably created aspirations for this body or proximity to it among some Coloured South Africans in the pursuit of social-economic upliftment. But in a free, post-apartheid, and multi-racial South Africa, do the colonial constructions of identities still linger? Through a critical theoretical lens of postcolonial discourses about race and identity, this study explores intergenerational phenomenological expressions of five Coloured women between the ages of 48 and 104 born during South Africa’s colonial and apartheid eras. The aim was to explore if colonial narratives of hair still influence hair trends, self-presentation, race and identity. It seems racist ideologies of the past are generational, and still shape the perception of hair amongst this cohort of Coloured females.

Women and Photography in Africa: Creative Practices and Feminist Challenges

In his 2001 Biko Memorial Lecture, Zakes Mda defines “raising-consciousness poetry” as a self-empowering poetry performed by young South African spoken word artists, young “conscientized” poets who (often) operate at the margins of the mainstream industries of culture. Mda calls these young artists the “children of Biko”, thus identifying the members of this fluid community as today's heirs and innovators of the Black Consciousness leader's unforgotten tradition. This paper critically analyses selected musical and poetic texts written by four representative young performing poets and songwriters of South Africa, and suggests that their works are re-invigorating the arts scene by infusing it with the ethos of self-empowerment that stands at the very core of Biko's philosophy of liberation.

This paper looks at the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of healthcare workers (HCWs) in public health facilities in South Africa. The pandemic's massive caseload forced HCWs to work longer hours and multiple shifts without any breaks, frequently with fewer resources, and in questionable facilities. Methodology: The qualitative study used evidence-based bibliometrics to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the mental health of HCWs in public health facilities in South Africa. A world-curated search was conducted on Google Scholar and Scopus to obtain a relevant sample of peer-reviewed journal articles from March 2020 to August 2022. Through content analysis, the research presented in this paper highlights the lived experiences of HCWs at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic. Study findings and conclusions: The study found five themes that emerged from the contents: 1) Perceptions of COVID-19. The HCWs did not have much knowledge of COVID-19, which brought about a lot of fear and anxiety. 2) Working experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports of HCWs from the studies analysed showed that the HCWs' had to work longer hours and sometimes without the required PPE to protect them from contracting the virus. 3) Mental health support from health facilities: while mental health support services were offered, not all HCWs sought assistance for various reasons. 4) How mental health support can be improved: more support was suggested in the form of fostering a culture of health and wellness because burned-out and distressed HCWs typically do not seek help. 5) Mental health impact. This study, based on the papers analysed, concludes that COVID-19 had a negative impact on the mental health of HCWs in public health facilities in South Africa. The content analysis revealed that many HCWs developed PTSD while others developed anxiety and depression.

The study’s objective was to give a critical analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic, while also assessing the influence of Covid-19 on correctional facilities in South Africa. The correctional society was not immune to the detrimental impacts of COVID-19, and its arrival forced all South African correctional facilities to take several measures, including limitations on correctional facility visitation and the early release of some offenders. Therefore, the study ought to review the impact measures devised to address this global scourge. A literature review analysis was adopted by the authors. The study critically analysed existing papers, which included; government documents/reports and scholarly papers. Thus, a qualitative content analysis was adopted for the data analysis. The study discovered that the measures that were implemented in correctional centres to address the spread of COVID-19 resulted in some incarcerated persons being released while not fully rehabilitated. The release of some of the inmates was based on the urge to reduce the overpopulation within the correctional centres. The study also discovered that the South African Correctional facilities had challenges with physical social distancing due to overcrowding. The study recommends that the administration and functions of prisons be objectively measured by the number of stakeholders and the gradation of specialist bodies to maximise the culture of efficient governance that is human rights oriented. This study adds to the existing literature on ensuring the safety of inmates of correctional facilities in South Africa. Keywords: COVID-19, Correctional Facilities, Prisoner, Incarcerated Person, South Africa

Estimates of radioxenon released from Southern Hemisphere medical isotope production facilities using measured air concentrations and atmospheric transport modeling

The “Black Art” Renaissance:African Sculpture and Modernism Across Continents