Efforts In South Africa Research Articles

Intent vs Reality: Dehumanization in the South African Corporate Landscape

Thirty years after apartheid’s abolition and the ascension of a new democratic leadership, South Africa continues to grapple with the discriminatory legacy of apartheid. Measures introduced by the post-apartheid government to combat historical marginalization, including legislative initiatives like affirmative action laws and diversity management policies, encounter inherent structural barriers within South African organizations shaped by prevailing cultural norms. Despite the legal framework in place, black employees often endure dehumanizing treatment, finding themselves sidelined from decision-making channels and lacking access to avenues for career advancement and professional development. This essay aims to better understand the lived experiences of South African workplace employees through the lens of organizational dehumanization. This work underscores the urgent need to reimagine transformation efforts in South Africa, moving beyond numerical representation toward a more inclusive work environment that promotes genuine empowerment. It emphasizes the importance of developing holistic diversity management strategies, implementing effective mentorship and sponsorship programs, and providing opportunities for meaningful participation and decision-making by black employees. Such an approach will ensure that legislative intentions are translated into practical workplace realities, ultimately fostering true equality and empowerment.

Shining As Illuminators Around A Shared Vision For Our World: A Conversation with Eli Ingraham

Riane Eisler interviews Eli Ingraham, recent CEO of the Center for Partnership Systems and currently working with the Transition Collective on bioregional efforts in South Africa and North America.

Exploring Flood Response Challenges, Training Needs, and the Impact of Online Flood Training for Lifeguards and Water Safety Professionals in South Africa.

Flooding is a significant cause of human and economic loss in the African region, including in South Africa. Flood mitigation and response in South Africa is challenging due to a range of environmental, infrastructure, and policy constraints. Lifeguards represent a potential additional workforce to bolster flood mitigation and response. This study aimed to explore the feasibility and acceptability of online flood safety training for water safety professionals in South Africa, as well as assess the current flood response capacity and future needs of this group. Online surveys were completed by a convenience sample of South African water safety professionals (including lifeguards) pre-and post a series of four online flood training workshops. Free text responses were thematically coded and flood knowledge was compared between the pre-and post-workshop survey respondents. Sixty-eight responses were analysed (64.7% pre-workshop phase; 63.2% male, 29.4% aged 50-59 years). A range of challenges in flood mitigation and response were identified including equipment, training, and a lack of government support. However, positives were also identified including respondents' willingness to assist in flood emergencies and good cooperation with neighbouring countries and across the region. Opportunities for better cross-municipal and government communication were discussed. In times of crisis, or in resource poor settings, water safety professionals can bolster traditional flood mitigation and response capacity. Opportunities exist to harness this willingness, but also improve cross-governmental and municipal knowledge sharing to improve future flood mitigation and response efforts in South Africa.

Digitization of Indigenous knowledge systems in Africa: the case of South Africa’s National Recorded System (NRS)

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to highlight the indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) preservation efforts in South Africa, with a focus on the National Recordal System and the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Documentation Centres (IKSDCs) across South Africa.Design/methodology/approachAnchored in the interpretivist paradigm, the qualitative research approach was adopted to explore the objectives of the study. The multiple case study method was considered appropriate and adopted for the study. The data for this study was collected through comprehensive face-to-face interviews and Web content analysis. The population of the study consisted of the staff at the IKSDCs in the selected academic institutions. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the following set of participants in each academic institution: IKS managers/coordinators, digitization officers and online collection administrators.FindingsThe findings provide an in-depth understanding of the IKS landscape in South Africa. The findings and recommendations of this paper would be useful to researchers who wish to know more about digitization efforts in South Africa. It would also be useful to all stakeholders and policymakers.Originality/valueThe paper brings to the fore the efforts of the South African government in preserving IKS through documentation and digitization. The paper highlights the sources of indigenous knowledge, types of indigenous knowledge captured, how the indigenous knowledge is ingested in the repositories and how the data is captured. Generally, the roles of the IKSDCs in the capture and preservation of IKS are highlighted.

Indicators for monitoring and evaluating climate change adaptation efforts in South Africa.

Insights from this article can provide actionable information for decision-making in climate change adaptation. This is one of the few studies that seek to narrow down relevant and applicable indicators and metrics used by South Africa when reporting climate change adaptation.

Perceived Health System Challenges of Implementing Cross-Border Malaria Preventive Measures at Ports of Entry in KwaZulu-Natal.

Cross-border movements, especially from a malaria-endemic neighbour, contribute to importation of malaria, as they provide favourable conditions for malaria transmission in the receiving country. In the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa (SA), the uMkhanyakude district is one of the endemic malaria areas where the borders are characterised by frequent cross-border movements of travellers coming into the province, mostly from Mozambique. Many studies have suggested that regional efforts through the implementation of cross-border measures are needed in both the high- and low-endemic countries to effectively address imported malaria. The implementation of cross-border measures to prevent imported malaria has led to a significant decline in malaria cases in KZN and SA; however, those measures are subjected to various challenges. This study sought to determine the health system challenges of implementing cross-border preventive measures for imported malaria at the Kosi Bay, Kwaphuza and Golela ports of entry in KZN. This inquiry consisted of a mixed methods approach, of which the qualitative component is reported here. In-depth interviews were conducted with four purposively selected health officers working at the legal and illegal ports of entry of the KZN province. Data were coded manually and then analysed using thematic data and descriptive analyses. This study identified operational and prevention challenges. The related operational challenges included travellers' non-disclosure and refusal, uncontrolled cross-border movements and poor coverage as well as shortage of staff. The prevention challenges included lack of novelty in the existing cross-border preventive measures, insecurity and illegal migration. Concerning travellers' non-disclosure and refusal to cooperate, these issues occur at the legal ports of entry of Kosi Bay and Golela, where travellers were less cooperative in disclosing their health-related information to health border officers. They were more eager to cross and attend to their business. The findings revealed a lack of new ideas in the existing cross-border measures for the prevention of imported malaria, which some scientists considered as the reason for the failure of the elimination efforts in SA. Because of the porous borders and the shortage of staff to cover all the uncontrolled entries, travellers constantly crossed without any hindrances. Porous borders exposed the people living at the border areas and travellers to insecurity, promoted criminal activities and encouraged illegal migration. Cross-border malaria preventive measures are meant to contribute to decreased travel-related disease. Failure to attain this purpose must be carefully examined and mitigation strategies implemented. The study revealed the challenges of implementing cross-border measures at the KZN ports of entry of Kosi Bay, Kwaphuza and Golela. The challenges occurred at the operational and prevention levels, which, if not effectively addressed, could impede the decrease of imported malaria in the malaria-endemic district of KZN and SA in general.

Risk Factors Associated with HIV Acquisition in Males Participating in HIV Vaccine Efficacy Trials in South Africa

In South Africa, HIV acquisition risk has been studied less in people assigned male at birth. We studied the associations between risk behaviors, clinical features and HIV incidence amongst males in two South African HIV preventive vaccine efficacy trials. We used Cox proportional hazards models to test for associations between demographics, sexual behaviors, clinical variables and HIV acquisition among males followed in the HVTN 503 (n = 219) and HVTN 702 (n = 1611) trials. Most males reported no male sexual partners (99.09% in HVTN 503) or identified as heterosexual (88.08% in HVTN 702). Annual HIV incidence was 1.39% in HVTN 503 (95% CI 0.76–2.32%) and 1.33% in HVTN 702 (95% CI 0.80–2.07%). Increased HIV acquisition was significantly associated with anal sex (HR 6.32, 95% CI 3.44–11.62), transactional sex (HR 3.42, 95% CI 1.80–6.50), and non-heterosexual identity (HR 16.23, 95%CI 8.13–32.41) in univariate analyses and non-heterosexual identity (HR 14.99, 95% CI 4.99–45.04; p < 0.01) in multivariate analysis. It is appropriate that prevention efforts in South Africa, although focused on the severe epidemic in young women, also encompass key male populations, including men who have sex with men, but also men who engage in anal or transactional sex.

South Africa’s Curriculum Transformation: Insights from Post-Independence Africa and Post-Civil Rights Movement in the United States

The #MustFall campaigns, student-led protests that began at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2015 and reverberated across South African universities, ignited calls for curriculum transformation, the abolition of Eurocentric epistemologies, and the embrace of indigenous knowledge systems. Given that despite more than two-and-a-half decades of majority rule, South African universities continue to promote hegemonic Western thought, the call for genuine curriculum transformation is understandable. Against this backdrop, this article investigates the challenges associated with curriculum transformation efforts in South Africa. It offers potential solutions by drawing lessons from transformation efforts in the humanities in postcolonial African states and African-American studies in the civil rights movement in the United States (US).

Political ecology and the Foucault effect: A need to diversify disciplinary approaches to ecological management?

While explicitly Foucauldian analyses have declined in recent years in the social sciences, Foucault’s ideas continue to strongly influence scholars’ approaches to power, governance and the state. In this article, we explore how Foucauldian concepts shape the work of political ecologists and social scientists working on environmental management, multispecies ethnography and the Anthropocene – often in an unrecognized way. We argue that – regardless of whether or not Foucault’s work is explicitly cited – his legacy of linking scientific projects, population management and state control continues to have an outsized impact on thinking in these fields. It is time, we assert, to directly consider how such theoretical inheritances are affecting the shape of political ecology, in particular, and the social sciences, more generally. How, we ask, are Foucauldian traditions at once enabling and constraining more-than-human scholarship? In this article, we explore the contributions and limitations of Foucauldian approaches in environmental contexts through empirical attention to trout introduction and management efforts in South Africa. Our overall aim is to call for a deeper conversation about how scholars working on environmental topics engage the science-governance nexus. The article ends with proposing landscape, as a material enactment of more-than-human politics, as a useful analytical category to this end.

The influence of culture on the development of youth entrepreneurs in a selected suburb in Cape Town

Coloured people's entrepreneurial efforts in South Africa are mostly survivalist. Although most of the selected suburb's youth have high entrepreneurial intentions, most do not become successful entrepreneurs. We are hoping to understand why people think this. Indisputable are the inadequacy of entrepreneurial education and training, a heavily skewed distribution of resources, a lack of mentorship, minimal support from parents, and a cultural upbringing in opposition to entrepreneurship. This study's objective was to gain insight into the cultural and educational limitations on entrepreneurial development and the entrepreneurial intentions of the selected suburb's youth. This paper employed quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. The quantitative data was collected from 470 youths through a survey questionnaire. Ten personal interviews were conducted within the qualitative ambit and served to validate the quantitative tool's results. The quantitative data was analysed using SPSS software, and the qualitative data was analysed by identifying common themes in relation to the quantitative findings. The study revealed a low level of tertiary education, a family orientated culture and a high level of entrepreneurial intention. The findings further revealed that many parents do not run their businesses, which indicated that most of the youth do not stem from entrepreneurially oriented households. The researchers recommend that business incubators be established within the suburb and that schools within the community should partner with the private sector and governmental structures, such as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), and Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) in order to expose youth to the practical application of entrepreneurship.

Tracking the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants in South Africa.

A large genomic surveillance effort in South Africa produced 1,365 high-quality whole genomes of SARS-CoV-2; this has identified 16 new lineages of the virus that had not been identified in other countries.

Emerging from Below? Understanding the Livelihood Trajectories of Smallholder Livestock Farmers in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

In the context of current agrarian reform efforts in South Africa, this paper analyses the livelihood trajectories of ‘emergent’ farmers in Eastern Cape Province. We apply a rural livelihoods framework to 60 emergent cattle farmers to understand the different capitals they have drawn upon in transitioning to their current class positions and associated vulnerability. The analysis shows that, for the majority of farmers, no real ‘transition’ from subsistence farming has occurred. However, they draw limited resilience from increased livestock holdings, continued reliance on social grants and connections with communal villages. A transition into small-scale commercial farming is apparent for a small number of farmers through the deployment of financial, human and social capitals. However, in following these trajectories, most of these farmers have been made more vulnerable to shocks and stresses than previously. We suggest that key to mitigating this vulnerability will be access to low-risk financial capital, more targeted support, and strategies to support farmers that might not transition from subsistence production.

Responses of carnivore assemblages to decentralized conservation approaches in a South African landscape

Abstract Conservation efforts in South Africa play out across multi‐use landscapes where formal protected areas coexist with private wildlife business (ecotourism and/or hunting) in a human‐dominated matrix. Despite the persistence of highly diverse carnivore guilds, management idiosyncrasies are often orientated towards charismatic large predators and assemblage‐level patterns remain largely unexplored. We conducted an extensive camera‐trap survey in a natural quasi‐experimental setting in KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa. We sampled across a protection gradient characterized by a provincial protected area (highest and formal protection status), a private ecotourism reserve, game ranches and traditional communal areas (lowest protected status). We evaluated assemblage‐level and species‐specific responses of free‐ranging carnivores to the varying management contexts and associated environmental gradients. Despite similar assemblage composition between management contexts, site‐scale carnivore richness and occupancy rates were greater in the formal protected area than adjacent private reserve and game ranches. Carnivore occupancy was more similar between these private wildlife areas, although putative problem species were more common in the private reserve, and contrasted with depauperate assemblages in least protected communal lands. Variation in carnivore occupancy probabilities was largely driven by land use contexts, that is, the level and nature of protection, relative to underlying fine‐scale landscape attributes (e.g. distance to conservation fences) or apex predator populations. Synthesis and applications. Our findings provide convincing empirical support for the added value of multi‐tenure conservation estates augmenting and connecting South Africa's protected areas. However, our emphasis on free‐ranging carnivores exemplifies the importance of maintaining areas under long‐term formal protection and the risks with viewing lucrative wildlife business as a conservation panacea. We suggest that unmanaged carnivore species be the formal components of carnivore reintroduction and recovery programmes to better gauge the complementary conservation role of South Africa's private land.

Integrating the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV into primary healthcare services after AIDS denialism in South Africa: perspectives of experts and health care workers - a qualitative study

BackgroundIntegrating Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) programmes into routine health services under complex socio-political and health system conditions is a priority and a challenge. The successful rollout of PMTCT in sub-Saharan Africa has decreased Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), reduced child mortality and improved maternal health. In South Africa, PMTCT is now integrated into existing primary health care (PHC) services and this experience could serve as a relevant example for integrating other programmes into comprehensive primary care. This study explored the perspectives of both experts or key informants and frontline health workers (FHCWs) in South Africa on PMTCT integration into PHC in the context of post-AIDS denialism using a Complex Adaptive Systems framework.MethodsA total of 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted; 10 with experts including national and international health systems and HIV/PMTCT policy makers and researchers, and 10 FHCWs including clinic managers, nurses and midwives. All interviews were conducted in person, audio-recorded and transcribed. Three investigators collaborated in coding transcripts and used an iterative approach for thematic analysis.ResultsExperts and FHCWs agreed on the importance of integrated PMTCT services. Experts reported a slow and partial integration of PMTCT programmes into PHC following its initial rollout as a stand-alone programme in the aftermath of the AIDS denialism period. Experts and FHCWs diverged on the challenges associated with integration of PMTCT. Experts highlighted bureaucracy, HIV stigma and discrimination and a shortage of training for staff as major barriers to PMTCT integration. In comparison, FHCWs emphasized high workloads, staff turnover and infrastructural issues (e.g., lack of rooms, small spaces) as their main challenges to integration. Both experts and FHCWs suggested that working with community health workers, particularly in the post-partum period, helped to address cases of loss to follow-up of women and their babies and to improve linkages to polymerase-chain reaction (PCR) testing and immunisation.ConclusionsDespite organised efforts in South Africa, experts and FHCWs reported multiple barriers for the full integration of PMTCT in PHC, especially postpartum. The results suggest opportunities to address operational challenges towards more integrated PMTCT and other health services in order to improve maternal and child health.

Synthesizing Nile crocodile Crocodylus niloticus attack data and historical context to inform mitigation efforts in South Africa and eSwatini (Swaziland)

AbstractConflicts with wildlife are a major challenge for conservation across Africa, and Nile crocodiles Crocodylus niloticus are allegedly responsible for more attacks on people than any other species; however, there is a lack of data regarding such attacks. We analysed reported attacks on people by Nile crocodiles in South Africa and eSwatini (Swaziland) during 1949–2016, identifying spatial and temporal patterns in attack incidence, as well as victim demographics. Through a literature review and archival searches we identified records of 214 attacks. Most attacks occurred in natural water bodies, with attacks in dams increasing since 2000. Most victims were attacked while swimming or bathing, others while fishing, doing domestic chores, and crossing waterways. There was a significant relationship between gender and activity when attacked. Children (&lt; 16 years old) accounted for 51% of all attacks, with a higher fatality rate compared to adults. Most victims were male (65%), with teenage boys being the largest individual category. We make recommendations for conservation policy and management to mitigate attacks by Nile crocodiles.

Gender and poverty in South African rural areas

In this article, we elicit the effects of gender on poverty reduction efforts in South Africa. Gender plays a huge role in the household decision-making process, as a result, it can determine if wh...

Towards a Municipal Infrastructure and Finance Model for Local Government: a Case of uMgungundlovu District Municipality

Local government institutions in South Africa have had to endure a perpetual bout of service delivery protests. Protests are a public manifestation of conflict; hence the terms 'conflict' and 'protest' are used interchangeably in this article. Local government is a key element in the reconstruction and development effort in South Africa. This article proposes an infrastructure and finance model for service delivery by evaluating service delivery at uMgungundlovu District Municipality as a case study. The objective of the article is to analyse elements that contribute to municipal distress, assess municipal service delivery mechanisms and evaluate the Local Government Turnaround Strategy. The complex process of service delivery is viewed to be of national importance and requires an immediate developmental solution through innovative service delivery models. An attitudinal survey determined the perceptions of local communities on levels of service delivery. Another survey was conducted on officials to ascertain the root causes and elements contributing to municipal distress. The findings here reveal that national government grants are not sufficient in addressing service delivery backlogs. Timely delivery of municipal infrastructure is constrained by limited municipal resources. Therefore, municipalities can form Municipal Service Partnerships (MSP) with the private sector. The article underlines the need for a holistic approach to development planning through service delivery models and well-structured planning and implementation strategies for municipalities to fulfil their mandates. Finally, the article recommends that municipal services must be sustainable and that municipal business models remain at the core of sustainable service delivery.

An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Poverty and Household Welfare in South Africa

The data used for our analysis is drawn from the first four waves of the National Income Dynamic Study to determine the factors that influence poverty and household welfare in South Africa. Contrary to most existing studies, which have applied ordinary least squares and probit/logit models on cross-sectional data, this analysis captures unobserved individual heterogeneity and endogeneity, both via fixed effect, and via a robust alternative based on random effect probit estimation. The results from fixed effect and random effect probit indicate that levels of education of the household head, some province dummies, race of the household head, dependency ratio, gender of the household head, employment status of the household head and marital status of the household head are statistically significant determinants of household welfare. Consistent with previous research, we also found that, compared to traditional rural areas (used as reference category), households living in urban and farms are less likely to be poverty stricken, which implies that rural areas (traditional rural areas) should continue to be a major focus of poverty alleviation efforts in South Africa.

Integrity: The Key Stone to Good Tax Administration

This paper argues that corruption has a corrosive impact on the well-being of a nation, and is especially damaging to tax administrations. The paper compares descriptively the contrasting fortunes of countries that are perceived to be afflicted by substantially different levels of corruption, with particular reference to South Africa and Australia. This is done to support efforts in South Africa to reduce perceived levels of corruption. The paper explores the causes of corruption both from the perspective of the design of tax systems and from the perspective of tax administrations. It outlines a range of generic remedies that can be used to minimize the risk of corruption. In giving life to these generic remedies the paper follows the approach taken by the Australian Taxation Office to reinvigorate its integrity framework as a result of the improper conduct of an assistant commissioner (Petroulias) in the late 1990s.

Physiological response of Parthenium hysterophorus to defoliation by the leaf-feeding beetle Zygogramma bicolorata

The annual shrub, Parthenium hysterophorus L. (Asteraceae), is a severe noxious weed of global significance, having been the target of control programmes in several affected countries. Biological control efforts in South Africa have seen a total of four agents released to date, one of the most promising of which is the leaf-feeding beetle, Zygogramma bicolorata Pallister (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), first released in 2013. Detailed study of the ecophysiological interactions of insect herbivores and their target weeds are under-represented in the biological control literature. Extensive leaf-feeding by Z. bicolorata adults metabolically impaired P. hysterophorus leaves, resulting in a ∼36% reduction to photosynthesis in remaining leaf tissue. However, in response to Z. bicolorata herbivory, adjacent undamaged leaves showed an up-regulation in photosynthesis of ∼11%. Photosynthetic reduction was attributed to the removal of leaf tissue, physiological impairment and increased microbial abundance resulting from Z. bicolorata. Zygogramma bicolorata was found to increase the number of bacterial and fungal microbes present on P. hysterophorus leaves. Despite the ability to photosynthetically up-regulate in response to herbivory, P. hysterophorus is unlikely to overcome the physiological implications associated with continued Z. bicolorata feeding and the increase in microbes. Given the potential effectiveness of Z. bicolorata as a biological control agent, efforts should be made to maximise incidence of the beetle in the field.