Crisis In South Africa Research Articles

The Teenage Pregnancy Crisis in South Africa Among High School Students, Causes, Implications and Possible Solutions: A Literature Review

The objective of this paper was to examine the causes, implications, and possible solutions to the teenage pregnancy crisis in South African high schools. The paper employed a qualitative literature review using secondary data in order to answer the objective of this paper. The paper employed the Ecological Systems The theory proposed explanation for the high rate of teen pregnancy among south African high school students. The paper found that there may be a variety of ramifications from the rising incidence of teenage pregnancy among South African high school pupils. They are interrupted from progressing with their education; they may also experience health- and psychological-related risks and social distress. The paper suggested that making contraceptives more accessible should also involve providing thorough contraception counselling for young high school girls, allowing them to make informed choices. Finally, the Department of Education should consider revising subject policies to accommodate the necessary changes, such as comprehensive sex education in schools.

Laughing when the Lights Go Out: Humour and the Electricity Crisis in South Africa

As a dire consequence of complex problems, the centralised, state-owned power utility in South Africa, Eskom, has implemented so-called “loadshedding.” This is the name for a regime of scheduled power-cuts that has persisted since 2007, causing significant economic and psychological damage among South Africans. Nevertheless, despite the severity of the Eskom debacle, South Africans have produced an unending stream of social media humour in response to it. In this article, we ask what such humour might tell us about the nature of the collective South African psycho-social mindset. We collected 380 humorous items relating to the portrayal of Eskom in South African popular culture. These took the form of comic strips, comical memes, and satirical reels from various social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Twitter, and YouTube. The humorous responses, primarily in English as South Africa’s lingua franca, were produced by a range of content creators—from celebrities like Trevor Noah and other regular content creators to unknown beneficiaries of virality—representing a diversity of cultures, humour styles, contexts and audiences. We created a comprehensive list of all the humorous items that readily lent themselves to interpretive analysis in terms of an anthropomorphic portrayal of Eskom as the abuser in an ongoing abusive relationship with the South African citizenry suffering from a victim mentality. The main aim of the article is to demonstrate the pervasiveness of this portrayal, the significance of which lies in its capacity to open up avenues for further philosophical reflection and sociological research.

Assessing the Energy Crisis in South Africa: The Socio-Economic Implication and Challenges Ahead

Assessing the Energy Crisis in South Africa: The Socio-Economic Implication and Challenges Ahead

Modeling COVID-19 spread and non-pharmaceutical interventions in South Africa: A stochastic approach

The COVID-19 pandemic has exerted a pervasive worldwide influence, including on South Africa, which stands out as one of the African nations most substantially impacted. As of March 20, 2021, the nation has encountered a multitude of obstacles in its efforts to contain the virus’s transmission. Conventional approaches to forecasting the transmission of contagious illnesses frequently prove inadequate when it comes to comprehending the intricate dynamics of COVID-19, specifically with regard to stochastic disruptions and the efficacy of non-pharmaceutical interventions. The deficiency in predictive modeling has impeded the capacity to effectively evaluate and execute measures to reduce the spread of the virus. The principal objective of this study is to construct a novel stochastic model, denoted as SEIHR, that can effectively forecast the transmission of COVID-19 in South Africa while also assessing the efficacy of diverse non-pharmacological interventions. By conducting an extensive data analysis spanning from April 17, 2020, to September 13, 2021, this research endeavors to provide a comprehensive and nuanced comprehension of the dynamics of the epidemic, with a particular focus on its early surges. Using the idea of stochastic Lyapunov function theory, this study aims to find out if there is and is not a solution in the given model. It also wants to find out what conditions must be met in order to get rid of diseases when there are random disturbances, such as white noise. Using this model, the efficacy of interventions such as lockdowns in preventing the spread of the virus during the epidemic will also be critically evaluated. The primary objective is to furnish policymakers and health authorities with invaluable insights and tools that will enable them to more effectively manage and alleviate the COVID-19 crisis in South Africa and comparable settings.

Discourses on Opioid Addiction and Its Treatment and Management in South Africa Since 2000: A Systematic Review

In this article, we undertake a systematic review of the opioid addiction crisis in South Africa, with a particular focus on the country’s response since the emergence of the drug around 2000. The spotlight is on a specific opioid locally known as whoonga or nyaope, which has been driving a significant increase in addiction, particularly among youths in marginalised communities, including townships and squatter settlements. Drawing parallels with the past HIV/AIDS epidemic, characterised by delayed responses and enduring consequences, we provide a comprehensive overview of the ways in which South Africa has been dealing with this challenge. Driven by a solution-based approach, we present the prevailing discourses, extract insights from the country’s documented response, and invite innovative approaches for dealing with the drug that are tailored to the South African context.

‘Farming God’s Way’: Evangelical Cosmologies of Land and ‘Crisis’ in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Social conditions in post-apartheid South Africa have been widely seen as marked by persistent and often racialised inequalities. The country has also been viewed through the prism of crisis, in economic, social, ecological and political spheres. Such language of crisis is increasingly reflected today among religious actors that reconstitute religious publics in the post-apartheid dispensation. Focusing on the growing public presence of Pentecostal-Charismatic and Evangelical Christianity, this article analyses how cultivating food ‘God’s way’ interplays with discourses of crisis in South Africa. The study employs ethnographic observation and interviews of practitioners and instructors of the Farming God’s Way network, a parachurch organisation operating in promoting regenerative agricultural principles as authentic Christian practice. Biblically authorised land practices address Christians’ emotional attachments and personal histories of agricultural production, land use and ownership. The study argues for understanding such farming as encompassing a space of both mediation and contestation between hopes of restoring an ideal past based on a biblically based agrarian and ecological order and frustrations with attempts at transforming a morally degraded present. Addressing Farming God’s Way as an emotional project entangled in discourses of (non)belonging and questions of change reveals tensions around representations of race, class and gender in Charismatic Christians’ approach to biodiversity. Here, adherence to regenerative farming principles reveals practices through which Christian farmers attempt to remake themselves as moral citizens through ecological care. Rearticulations of the responsible steward, however, pinpoint the persistence of racialised tropes at the core of the religious public project of redeeming the present.

A disaster of politics: The energy supply crisis in South Africa

On 09 February 2023, the South African government declared and classified the energy supply crisis in South Africa as a state of disaster. This is directly the opposite of what the president announced a few months before the event (Ramaphosa 2022). To answer the question posed in the title of this opinion piece, it is necessary to take a brief look at the build-up to the declaration and classification of the state of disaster of 09 February 2023. Then I will discuss what a disaster entails according to South African legislation, and I will conclude with closing comments.

A disaster of politics: The energy supply crisis in South Africa

A disaster of politics: The energy supply crisis in South Africa

Resilience is not enough: The mental health impact of the ongoing energy crisis in South Africa

Resilience is not enough: The mental health impact of the ongoing energy crisis in South Africa

Exploring a contemporary picturebook with young readers in the foundation phase

Background: Given the ongoing literacy crisis in South Africa, there is a need for teachers, as well as teacher education programmes, to explore various means to enable learners to develop reading comprehension. This study sought to examine the intricacies of a series of small group literacy activities that hinged on the in-depth and repeated engagement with a contemporary picturebook. Furthermore, it aims to evaluate whether children can develop an affinity for these books.Aim: The aim of the study was to explore the ways young readers engage with a contemporary picturebook by way of their oral and painted responses.Setting: The study was a qualitative case study, which took place at an urban public school in the Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg.Methods: The research design followed that of a case study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews during two paired readings, as well as a focus group discussion (FGD). Additional data were collected through children’s painted artefacts and their subsequent individual interviews on these paintings.Results: The findings indicate that learners initially had superficial verbal engagements with the picturebook, which was complemented by more creative responses on further readings. Another finding was that the facilitation by the researcher and the interaction with peers improved the learners’ depth of engagement. Lastly, the learners’ initial basic descriptions of what was visible was complemented by a more nuanced appreciation of the aesthetic features of the picturebook.Conclusion: Based on the findings, it is concluded that full depth of picturebooks and their affordances in classroom literacy programmes be introduced in detail to pre-service and in-service teachers in order to foster rich and meaningful reading experiences for learners.Contributions: This research functions to contribute to the limited body of literature surrounding children’s reading experiences of picturebooks and overall learning specifically in South Africa.

Community Policing as a Panacea for Gender Based Violence Impasse

Abstract Among the many other crimes that flood South Africa, gender-based violence (GBV) is increasingly becoming a major problem facing the country. Studies have revealed that women and girls are much more likely to be victims, and, in most instances, the perpetrator is known to the victim. This crime has irrepressibly posed great threats to the human rights of women and girls, both locally and internationally, laying serious foundations for engrained progress on women`s rights. This study adopts a qualitative document analysis to examine the phenomenon and suggest a community policing approach—among other preventive policy recommendations—as a paradigm shift in strategy to resolve the crisis in South Africa as well as prevent the future occurrence of such a menace in the country. The findings highlight that the preponderance of criminal justice interventions has resulted in gender-based violence being framed as a problem of criminal law and procedure, police investigation, and appropriate counselling programmes for both victims and perpetrators. However, this approach emphasises amelioration rather than prevention. Hence, the need for community policing as a prevention strategy against gender-based violence. Moreover, this paper recommends the establishment of a stronger partnership and the continuation of seeking ways for closer cooperation between law enforcement agencies and communities for a better prevention of gender-based violence in societies.

Utilisation of ICT Tools for School Governance amid COVID-19 Crisis in South Africa

Teaching and learning activities in South African schools are a focus of several research on the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) resources during the COVID-19 crisis. However, more studies are required to examine how the school principals and the parent-members of the School Governing Bodies (SGBs) used the ICT tools to undertake communication on school governance activities during the COVID-19 lockdown. In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis in South African schools, this study examined the use of ICT technologies for decision-making communications relating to issues of school governance between the principals and the SGBs. Utilising a quantitative research methodology, information was gathered from 126 school principals who were chosen at random from the Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) in East London, South Africa. The data analysis method employed was descriptive statistics. The findings showed that the majority of SGB parent members had basic ICT skills, could read and write, used ICT tools like smartphones, voice calls, and SMS messaging, which enabled them to interact with school principals and take part in decision-making related to school governance activities during the COVID-19 crisis. The participants described some of the difficulties associated with their choice of ICT tools, including broken smart phones, a lack of expertise with WhatsApp and Telegram, and slow message answers. The study concludes that the SGBs need to align their school policies with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and adopt more ICT platforms for effective communications, governance, teaching, and learning activities in the new normal. It also recommends that, school principals and other SGB members still need to be trained and retrained for the use of ICT tools for efficient virtual or online participation in meetings; and there is also a need to equip SGB members with digital devices such as tablets, laptops, smartphones, and internet data subscriptions to encourage their participation in meetings from homes, offices or any other locations outside of school premises.

Solar water heating based on Bellville weather conditions in winter

Hot water supply is a daily necessity for various purposes ranging from industrial to domestic usage. However, the availability of hot water supply is dependent on reliable energy systems to heat the water. The load shedding plan declared the energy crisis in South Africa. Therefore, exploring alternative energy methods for hot water supply is critical, especially renewable energy resources. The use of natural resources such as solar energy to heat water is highly impacted or limited by the resources and environmental conditions existing at the area of interest. The use of the solar water heating system based on Bellville; South Africa was the undertaken study. This study reports on the experimental investigation that was conducted on a 50 L water geyser, which was solar-based. The test rig that was constructed and tested was an active solar water heating system. It was tested over a period of 10 days under the environmental conditions experienced in mid-winter season of South Africa. A 20 tubed evacuated tube collector unit was used, and it was found that in mid-winter of the highest water temperature that the system could reach was above 65 °C and the lowest was 30 °C. Intriguing outputs were found in the study which revealed that, on the days that yield the highest solar irradiation did not necessarily produce the hottest water temperature. Therefore, scrutinizing the impact of other parameters that contributed to the overall water temperature output was necessary. From the tests it was observed that the wind velocity together with other environmental parameters effectively had an impact on the water temperature yield by an evacuated tube system.

Preparing South African Foundation Phase Preservice Teachers to Teach Reading for Meaning

Scholars have widely documented the current reading crisis in South Africa. This crisis has drawn attention to the need for adequately prepared teachers to teach reading for meaning, particularly in the Foundation Phase classroom. However, little is known about how South African teacher education institutions prepare preservice Foundation Phase teachers to teach reading for meaning. This article addresses this gap by offering recommendations on how South African teacher education institutions can prepare preservice teachers to teach reading for meaning in the Foundation Phase classrooms. The article argues that there is an urgent need for South African teacher education institutions to rethink their curricula to prepare teachers to teach reading for meaning in the South African Foundation Phase classroom. By focusing on preparing Foundation Phase teachers to teach reading for meaning, the article seeks to contribute to a reconceptualization of the content and structure of the South Foundation Phase teacher education curriculum. It also lays the groundwork for further research on the preparation of South African Foundation preservice teachers to teach reading for meaning.

An Interdependent Literacy Model to Assist with Critical Reading Comprehension in the English First Additional Language Classroom

Various attempts have been made to assist the multitude of South African learners who experience literacy challenges, particularly critical reading challenges, in the classroom. Although a number of critical literacy models that focus on reading literacy have been developed to alleviate the reading comprehension crisis in South Africa, poor reading comprehension continues to prevail among South African learners, as shown in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study reports. This article argues for a focus on critical reading comprehension in the classroom. Based on a review of the Four Resources Model of Critical Literacy and the Interdependent Model of Critical Literacy, the researchers propose a new model to the literacy debate, the Critical Reading Interdependent Literacy Model (CRILM), which is designed to be used at school level and is suitable to be used from Grade 4 and beyond. CRILM is based on an instruction and learning framework that promotes a participatory-interactive-interdependent relationship between educators, learners, the text, and the author. Through the text and author, learners will be able to initiate critical insight and societal knowledge development from within the English First Additional Language classroom. Centred on the educator, the learners, the text, and the author, as well as their relation to reality, this proposed new model hypothesises the interaction and interdependence of all the participants during the reading process for the successful development of classroom critical reading comprehension.

Creativity and partnership

Creativity and partnership

The Public Transport Crisis in South Africa: Through the Eyes of the Four Revolutions

Debates on the Fourth Industrial Revolution have tended not to focus on the direct relationship between all four technological revolutions and transportation – a crucial element of all technological surges. At the same time, scholarship on transportation has generally ignored the significance of transportation in all the revolutions. This article therefore seeks to strike a balance between these two extremes by showing that all the technological revolutions were also about transportation. In other words, the debates on the technological advances provide scholars, researchers, engineers, and working-class organisations with the space to foreground transport as an issue requiring special attention, especially in South Africa where the public transport system faces many challenges. Critically applying the prism of the four industrial revolutions, the article demonstrates that South Africa lags behind from a transport perspective, and still relies on the transportation of the Second Industrial Revolution when other countries are utilising technologies ofthe Fourth Industrial Revolution. Compounding matters is that even transport technologies invented in the 1800s are being stolen and vandalised, and the maintenance of the system is extremely poor. The article then submits that these transport problems may be solved by mobilisation and advocacy led by working-class and poor communities negatively affected by the crisis.

Postcolonial Disaster: Narrating Catastrophe in the Twenty-First Century By Pallavi Rastogi

Reviewed by: Postcolonial Disaster: Narrating Catastrophe in the Twenty-First Century by Pallavi Rastogi Charles Kipng'eno Rono Postcolonial Disaster: Narrating Catastrophe in the Twenty-First Century BY PALLAVI RASTOGI Northwestern UP, 2020. ix + 289 pp. ISBN 9780810141742 e-book. Pallavi Rastogi's Postcolonial Disaster: Narrating Catastrophe in the Twenty-First Century is a compelling analysis of disaster literature within postcolonial studies. It boasts four chapters systematically divided between three parts, including an introduction and a coda that serves as a conclusion. For readers interested in domesticated concepts of disaster studies into literature, the book provides significant insights. Through its astute creation of narratology for Anglophone postcolonial disaster fictions, the text traces a "dialectic tension" between the Story, i.e., literary elements of the narrative, and the Event, the real-life disaster that the story registers. While rightly observing that this tension is determined by the temporal distance from the inaugurating event, it demonstrates how, on one hand, the narrative tends toward a more imaginative reinvention of the catastrophe when the disaster is more distant from the time of writing and how, on the other hand, disaster predominates over literary when the Event is more recent. As she gathers solid fictions on the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the economic disaster in Zimbabwe, the AIDS crisis in South Africa and Botswana, and the geopolitical conflict between India and Pakistan to consolidate this claim, Rastogi revivifies old concerns of postcolonial theory that were prematurely dismissed. The result is a ground-breaking book that offers refreshing accounts of disaster that exceed ineffective ethnographic explanations that postcolonial nation-states relied on as interventions in mitigating effects of disaster. [End Page 152] Partitioned as "Explosion," "Slow Burn," and "Simmer," it ends not with a conventional conclusion that signifies closure but with a brief coda on the Syrian contemporary refugee crisis that canvasses her arguments as she invites the reader to conceive of the book as an emblem for future studies. To achieve her goal, Rastogi develops "Disaster Unconscious," a judicious dialectic interventionism that she reformulates from the works of Fredric Jameson and Neil Lazarus as a check and balance that returns the Event not "to define entirety of the text" (13; emphasis added), but to teach us all "to live with all-pervasiveness of catastrophe while simultaneously resisting it" (11). Her theorization expands the purview of the Unconscious by emphasizing that no matter how far the Story moves from the original Event through genre, style, or time, the Disaster Unconscious refuses "subordinations even in fiction that takes flamboyantly literary claims" (83). While the first chapter foregrounds the issue of temporality in discussing a burst of short lyrical poetry and genre fiction as a diverse assemblage that focuses on rebuilding and reconstructing the havoc wrecked by Sri Lanka's explosive tsunami disaster, those that explore a historically distant Event like the geopolitical conflict between India and Pakistan in Jaspreet Singh's Chef (2008), Mohsin Moni's The Diary of a Social Butterfly (2008), and Manil Suri's The City of Devi (2013) are discussed in the last chapter. The second part, which comprises two chapters, is of striking interest because the Story and the Event in the texts discussed appear to be collapsing under each other, sometimes appearing to be undermining and troubling each other's disaster unconscious. Rastogi's keen sense of austerity helps her out to maintain this push-and-pull balance. In a remarkable example, Rastogi reads economic crisis in Zimbabwean fictions and analyzes how these novels are "Buying Out," i.e., they "consciously turn away from crisis-ridden Zimbabwe" by prioritizing the Story, but the economic disaster can still permeate the texts, rendering attempts to separate the Story from the Event quite impossible. Despite minor conceptual weaknesses, like her presumption that the book is the first to create narratology, it compliments other disaster-related studies. In a close-down ending that disposes scholars to be passively acquiescent in future disaster-related studies, Rastogi deserves kudos for her scholarly erudition, the readability of her original text, and her ability to reorient the reader to the usefulness of a more reparative understanding of disaster literature. Though I would have liked to see more examples...

An evolution of virtual training: implications for talent development in the post-pandemic period

PurposeThis study examines the effectiveness of virtual training programs in times of crisis at a public institution in South Africa for an enhancement of talent development via virtual training in the post-pandemic period.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a survey research design following a quantitative approach for data collection and analysis procedure. The respondents (employees receiving virtual training and the facilitators providing the training in times of crisis) were selected using a stratified random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was designed and administered to 119 respondents in the participating public institution in South Africa. The data were analyzed using a variance-based structural equation modeling via SmartPLS, version 3.3.3.FindingsThe results showcased the impact of information technology and virtual training platform on the effectiveness of virtual training programs during the pandemic in South Africa.OriginalityThere is a dearth of literature on the evolution and effectiveness of virtual training in times of crisis in South Africa. The outcomes of this study contribute to the extant literature on talent development, virtual training, and HR effectiveness in the digital age.

Frontline Support: Responding to the COVID-19 mental health crisis in South Africa through online arts and music therapy

COVID-19 rendered South Africa reeling from the ramifications of the pandemic. Lockdown restricted movement, placed significant strain on healthcare workers, and profoundly impacted the socio-economic state of the country. Increased unemployment, reports of gender-based violence and suicide threats were among some indications of a resultant mental health crisis. In response, Frontline Support (FS), a collaborative volunteer-based arts therapy initiative was established. This report presents the documented process of establishing and implementing FS. The concept and structure of the organisation as well as the triage and treatment intervention are described. Descriptive statistics drawn from triage data, a client evaluation, and a therapist survey, as well as the themes emerging from the thematic analysis thereof are presented. The inclusion of two vignettes, drawn from documented clinical case studies, illustrate the online therapeutic offering of FS. A summary of quantitative data includes: the triage allocation, number of clients accessing FS, breakdown of sessions and geographical reach for the period March 2020 to July 2021. The thematic analysis of the client evaluation yielded five themes: i) Perceived personal gains through online therapy, ii) Enhanced personal insight, iii) Clients’ experience of the therapist, iv) Difficulties experienced by clients, and v) Reflections and recommendations. The therapist survey yielded the following six themes: i) Access and awareness, ii) Client access to and engagement with therapeutic arts resources, iii) Possibilities and restrictions of the Online Platform (OLP), iv) Arts therapies techniques adapted for the OLP, v) Therapists’ challenges, and vi) Establishing and maintaining the therapeutic relationship. The discussion reflects on the benefits, challenges and learnings of FS, and concludes with recommendations for its ongoing development, sustainability and accessibility within South Africa.