WIReDSpace

Welcome to WIReDSpace (Wits Institutional Repository on DSpace)

For queries relating to content and technical issues, please contact IR specialists via this email address : openscholarship.library@wits.ac.za,
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Communities in WIReDSpace

Select a community to browse its collections.

Now showing 1 - 5 of 20

Recent Submissions

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    Redefining elderly care: Community-based care facilities in Maclear, Eastern Cape
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-02) Matebese, Sazi; Janse Van Rensburg, Ariane
    The study, based in Maclear, Eastern Cape, focuses on the challenges faced by elderly people in rural areas of South Africa. As younger generations migrate to urban areas, traditional family based cultural care models are no longer sufficient. The State only provides a medical clinic, the elderly struggle to access social and cultural activities and are left isolated and vulnerable without adequate support. The research aims to understand the needs of the rural elderly community and develop strategies to effectively address them by providing physical, social, and cultural support for day visitors and residents. A proposed solution is a culturally appropriate service centre for the elderly in Maclear. The centre will consist of a cluster of buildings, each serving different functions and supporting traditional social and cultural practices. The focus on harmonious coexistence with nature, using spatial principles from vernacular Xhosa homesteads, aims to promote a sense of belonging for the rural elderly community.
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    E//Sports an alternative tertiary education model as a form of urban regeneration
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2025) Mahomed, Ibraheem; Toffa, Tahira; Hansen, Ludwig
    Not Available
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    1 Third Temple - a rehabilitation and reintegration facility for parolees
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Kubheka, Thami; Judin, Hilton
    One Third Temple: The research outlines a design proposal for a typology concerned with rehabilitation using decolonization and related ideologies on potential parolees from the Krugersdorp Correctional Services Institution. The traumatic realities of incarceration can be an architectural responsibility. The project aims at providing relief and rehabilitation to offenders using the parole system as a point of access. Attention to an improved parole system would be beneficial for both the community (taxpayer) and incarcerated. A working incarceration system can save the state money while managing issues within the incarceration system such as colonization, trauma, recidivism and overcrowding. Parole is a system that helps the previously incarcerated reintegrate into society, the architecture will explore possibilities for a new model of a “pre parole system” a system that prepares approved parole applicants for parole while serving as a parole system at the same time. The building will need to incorporate themes of spirituality and integration through parole related philosophies and various concepts of therapy in design (Therapeutic Architecture). Several parole systems exist in different parts of the world, some more successful than others. The parole system in South Africa is fairly up to date regarding the fact that it was amended less than 16 years ago. A new Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998 came into effect during October of 2004.This meant that rehabilitation would be the primary concern of the Correctional Services Department, however today South Africa still remains a country with an alarming amount overcrowded prisons and high levels of recidivism.
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    Resilient Roots: Unemployment & the legacy of group areas act in South African Communities, South of Johannesburg
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2025-10) Ally Kotty, Sumaiyah; Goncalves, Kevin
    During Apartheid, the Group Areas Act enforced rigid racial segregation across South Africa, profoundly affecting communities by limiting access to economic opportunities, social development, and public resources. This thesis focuses on the southern regions of Johannesburg, particularly Lenasia, a historically segregated area, to explore the long-term impacts of this systemic division on employment and community development. Despite the end of Apartheid, many of these communities continue to face challenges related to unemployment and underdevelopment. The thesis proposes an architectural intervention aimed at addressing these enduring issues through innovative use of public spaces. Specifically, it introduces a plan to transform a city park in Lenasia into a multi-functional facility designed to foster job creation, skills training, and community engagement. This space will serve as a center where local residents can acquire practical skills, such as furniture making using recycled materials, while also functioning as a hub for social interaction and community growth. By piloting this intervention in Lenasia, the project seeks to demonstrate how sustainable, community-focused design can play a pivotal role in overcoming socio-economic barriers and fostering resilience in post-Apartheid South Africa.
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    Locality Shaping the Institution: Genesis Connection Youth Skills Multimedia, Riverlea, Johannesburg
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Pather, Jodie; Ntombela, Nontobeko; Khan, Sharlene
    Following the rich history that community art centres have had in South Africa, this research questions how locality may ideologically shape community-based arts institutions and have a bearing on how they operate and what they have access to. Specifically, this study looks at the community-based arts organisation, Genesis Connection Youth Skills Multimedia (Genesis), in Riverlea, Johannesburg. This research report is carried out to ascertain the extent to which Genesis and the work that they do is influenced by their home community of Riverlea, and how this locality may affect or determine their curriculum, programming, and access to funding. Through episodic interviews, I explore the significance of locality to community-based art centres as is experienced directly by facilitators of different initiatives. The first chapter in this report deals with an overview of scholarship on community art centres; defining and contextualising them, including a historical overview of community art centres that have existed in Johannesburg. Locality, as a concept and its associated literature as related to community art centres is discussed and incorporates perspectives from facilitators working in the field. The second chapter presents a historical overview of the area of Riverlea and builds on the description from Chris Van Wyk’s autobiographical work Shirley, Goodness and Mercy (2004), as a way of complementing, enriching and humanising the academic perspectives on the area of Riverlea. These upfront chapters provide the context for the birth of Genesis, and the terrain that it operates in. Lastly, the third chapter looks at the funding landscape that has sustained community-based arts in South Africa, with specific attention paid to government-funded community-based arts centres, alongside a discussion of how Genesis is funded. The purpose of this is to establish an understanding of the accessibility of funds for arts organisations, what their unique challenges may be, as well as to highlight the sustainability of government-funded organisations in comparison to that of self funded organisations, such as Genesis.