Borders Of South Africa Research Articles

The Cinema of Manie van Rensburg (Part 1)

INTRODUCTIONThe name, Manie van Rensburg, is virtually unknown in Europe and the United States of America. Recently, some of his work was screened at a South African film festival in Amsterdam at the Kriterion cinema and I had the honour to present a lecture there on 7 October 1995 regarding Van Rensburg and his presence in the cinema. His film work was also highlighted in a small retrospective during October 1996 at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. IT WAS NOT THE FIRST TIME a Van Rensburg film was screened outside the borders of South Africa. During the 1980s Van Rensburg received an International Film Festival of New York award for his historical TV drama series, Heroes, and a Merit Award from the London Film Festival was given to him for his filmed play, The Native who Caused all the Trouble. His mammoth production, The Fourth...

Hipposideros caffer (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) in Zimbabwe: morphology and echolocation calls

The results of this study of morphological variation and variation in echolocation calls indicate that only specimens with narrow lateral nasal inflations (=Hipposideros caffer) have been reported from Zimbabwe to date. In both Zambia and Mocambique, single localities yielded both specimens with narrow or wide lateral nasal inflations (nominally, H. caffer and H. ruber, respectively). There are significant differences in echolocation calls between one site in Zimbabwe and another near the Zimbabwe South Africa border that are not paralleled by significant morphological differences.

Tourism and dependency in Southern Africa: the prospects and planning of tourism in Lesotho

During the 1970s tourism in Lesotho developed rapidly, representing a vital source of foreign exchange to a country where economic options are severely constrained. However, an analysis of the spatial and temporal patterns of tourist movements reveals a serious downswing in fortunes in recent years. The number of arrivals, length of stay and bed occupancy are all declining. An explanation for this is sought in the highly specific nature of Lesotho's tourism and in its dependence upon the South African market and externally controlled corporate strategy within the hotel industry. Despite its considerable scenic attractions, Lesotho in fact relies almost exclusively upon its two casinos to generate tourism. Before gambling was legalized within the borders of South Africa's ‘Bantustans’ these kind of operations were monopolized regionally by Holiday Inns and located on the Republic's periphery. However, in the late 1970s Southern Suns successfully invaded this market through investment within the Bantustans and, as an outcome of this competition, the future planning of both corporations is now to transfer development from the traditional arenas to the Bantustans where profitability is higher. Lesotho's inability to compete with these newer units is clearly demonstrated by the data, particularly in the loss of Witwatersrand punters to Bophuthatswana. Nevertheless, tourism planning in Lesotho is still based upon consolidation of its casino trade. In the light of these and parallel observations in Swaziland this prospectus must be seriously reappraised.

A Palaeomagnetic Study of the Gaberones Granite of Botswana

Summary Thirty-two cores were drilled at eleven sites in a variety of granitic rocktypes. Meaningful results were obtained from seven sites after alternating field demagnetization and there is good evidence for the stability of the magnetization observed. The specimens exhibit a wide range in initial intensity of magnetization but no relationship exists between rock-type, initial intensity and behaviour under a.f. demagnetization. In all cases the within-site scatters are large and the possibility that this is a fundamental property of the remanent magnetization of large granitic bathyliths is discussed. The location of the mean palaeomagnetic pole for the Gaberones granite (103E, 34N, A,,= 16) is compatible with the smooth polar wandering path deduced from other ancient African poles. It is also consistent with the radiosotopic age for the granite of 2350 million years. 1. Geology The Gaberones granite occurs in the southeastern corner of the Republic of Botswana (previously the Bechuanaland Protectorate) on the border of South Africa (Fig. 1). It is exposed as a number of large plutons (Poldervaart 1952) which consist of a central rapakivitic granite surrounded by two border phases comprising an inner zone of red or grey granite (Marginal granite) and an outer zone of porphyritic granophyres (Wright 1958). The Central granite is usually porphyritic and contains large phenocrysts of white felspar with idiomorphic or ovoidal outlines and in large outcrops it is seen to be foliated. The Marginal granite is typically a coarse-grained equigranular rock almost entirely composed of anhedral red or grey felspar and quartz. Beyond the Marginal granite, the porphyritic granophyres show a perfect transition into fine-grained felsites which were previously correlated on lithological grounds with the Dominion Reef System of South Africa. In recent years a number of radioisotope age determinations have become available and some of these ages have led the Botswana Gcological Survey to tentatively regard the felsites as pre-Dominion Reef S: stem in age. In view of this uncertainty. the maximum age of the Gaberones granite is set by the age of the Modipe gabbro into which it is intrusive. This gabbro has been dated by McElhi~y (1966a) who obtained an age of 2630+ 470 million years from Rb : Sr decay.