Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37997
Browse
74 results
Search Results
Item Labour led strategy towards the fourth industrial revolution: a critical appraisal of numsa’s approach to worker control(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Ntlokotse, Mamolaba Ruth; Satgar, VishwasThis research report would not have been possible without the efforts of many people. First, I would like to thank the Almighty God, who bestowed strength throughout the research journey. Embarking on a master’s journey was not easy, especially being a committed trade union leader with many union responsibilities. I am deeply indebted to my Supervisor, Professor Vishwas Satgar; the research report would not have been possible without the support, guidance, and feedback throughout the research project. I cannot begin to express my thanks to comrade Dinga Sikwebu, my mentor and source of inspiration throughout my shop steward journey. His help cannot be overestimated, as he introduced me to worker education and encouraged me throughout my studies. Let it not end with me. I owe a deep sense of gratitude to Professor Michelle Williams for her keen interest in me at every stage of my study. Thank you for being open-minded and constructive throughout. Thank you for giving me a shoulder to lean on when the road was bumpy. Your inspiration, motivation and suggestions have enabled me to complete my research report. I am incredibly grateful to my family who gave me unwavering support: my mom, Amelia; my siblings, Lebohang, Taelo and Thabang; my niece Bokamoso and my nephew, Bophelo. Most importantly, my son Bokang understood the sacrifice I had to make and sometimes did not spend time with him. To my late Dad, Ntate Mosuwe, I know you would be incredibly supportive if you were still alive. Finally, special thanks to everyone who offered invaluable practical contributions to the research project, particularly my comrades from NUMSA in Ekurhuleni. The leadership of SAFTU, especially the General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, and other sister unions, never let me down.Item Ethical Foundations For International Investments In Developing Poor African Countries(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Xate, Lulamile L.; Attoe, Aribiah DavidThere is a moral and ethical obligation for the rich and developed nations and their business corporations to invest in and trade ethically with Africa. This moral obligation extends to African leaders and elites who facilitate the continued exploitation of Africa and corruption in the post-independence period. To reveal this obligation and its basis, I begin by reviewing and exploring the history of African colonialism in pursuit of capital profit maximization within the imperialist framework and its consequences, focusing on its immoral and unethical practices. I then show that the moral foundations of colonialism and post-independence African leadership have not been considered in understanding African underdevelopment in relation to the prosperity of other nations, and the role of African leaders. Finally, I argue there are morally right actions that can plausibly change this. I explicate this using three moral philosophical approaches – Kantian, Utilitarian and Ubuntu African relational ethics.Item An analysis of the relationship between HIV-testing and cervical cancer screening uptake among females of reproductive age (15-49 years old) in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Madubye, Koketšo Tholo; Wet-Billings, Nicole DeBackground: Higher income countries (HIC) have threefold testing coverage over lower to middle income countries (LMIC). Cervical cancer is the 4th most prevalent cancer among females globally, and a key contributor to mortality in Southern Africa. In LMIC, including South Africa, only 9% of the eligible screening cohort had ever undergone cervical cancer screening. This study examined the gap in understanding the relationship between HIV testing behaviours and the uptake of cervical cancer screening. Methods: The study was conducted in South Africa, utilising the 2016 South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS), as a secondary data source. The sample size of this study was a weighted (n) distribution of 4,199 females. The study design is cross-sectional, the outcome variable of interest in this study was the uptake of cervical cancer screening and the predictor variable is HIV Testing. The data by SADHS (2016) was analysed through the three phases: univariate, bivariate and multivariate. At the bivariate level, contingency tables were employed, using the Pearson chi-square test of association which examined the strength of crude relationships between cervical cancer screening and the study of independent variables. In addition, a multivariate analysis through the employment of a binary logistic regression as the outcome of the study was categorised with ‘yes’ and ‘no’ binary responses. Results: The findings of this study indicated that 33% of females of reproductive age had ever undergone cervical cancer screening, while 62.5% responded affirmatively to having tested for HIV. Females who tested for HIV displayed a higher propensity to having undergone cervical cancer screening, 37.43% female respondents who tested for HIV had undergone screened for cervical cancer, as opposed to those who didn’t test, which only 10.19 % screened for cervical cancer. Conclusions: 37.43% female respondents who tested for HIV had undergone screened for cervical cancer. Among those who did not test for HIV, 10.19 % screened for cervical cancer. There is still much to be done to improve cervical cancer screening among females, while HIV testing remains high, cervical cancer screening is alarmingly low. The 2017 Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control Policy functions as a mediating apparatus, additional supplementations targeting females below the age of 30 remain a necessityItem Assessing how an alternative waste management system may facilitate subaltern and environmental justice: a thematic analysis of a zero waste pilot case study in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Van Biljon (née Swart), Johanna Yvonne (Jani)Waste is socio-political – a symbol of our economic and consumerist society. Since the Industrial Revolution, our manufacturing processes and materialist lifestyles produced more hazardous and nondegradable externalities than we were prepared to deal with. With environmental and consumer pressure building, we are at a crossroads between continuing with business-as-usual and justly transitioning over to a systemically different, zero waste society where the focus on waste management shifts to waste prevention so that, like Karl Marx, it challenges and eventually changes production processes, ownership, consumption, and ultimately, our connection with the natural environment and each other. South Africa’s waste landscape is characterised by two things: its reliance on landfills and the thousands of informal waste pickers reclaiming the value of discarded goods. So, what could a zero waste system that is just toward the environment and the subaltern look like in South Africa? In exploring this question, I considered the work of waste pickers, as well as the case of an urban composting initiative for an inner-city market supporting the zero waste philosophy. Synthesising these, I imagine a gradual, deep bottom-up transformation in attitude, behaviour and eventually infrastructure with regard to our relationship with the environment, ownership and use, as well as the revaluation of the material and therefore waste ‘management’. The role and insights of waste pickers and local, informal economies will be crucial and influential. Though South African waste pickers do not yet participate in the organic waste stream on a noticeable scale, the prioritisation of composting by the Warwick Zero Waste project and the National Waste Management Strategy sees the recovery and local, low-tech, low-cost composting of organic waste as a vital starting point in establishing a more regenerative food and waste system that will build solidItem A relational history of space, administration and economic extractivism in the Mogalakwena Local Municipality in Limpopo, South Africa (1948-2000)(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Pearson, Joel DavidThis dissertation seeks to contribute to existing local government scholarship by presenting a situated and relational historical study of the Mogalakwena Local Municipality in present-day Limpopo Province of South Africa. By adapting and extending Gill Hart’s spatial-relational methodology, this study draws out key mechanics of change over time in the Mogalakwena area since the early 20 th century. This historical analysis reveals that the shifting array of power relations which together structured the field of rural local governance came to be enacted and concretised through specific and identifiable processes of spatial transformation, administrative government, and economic extractivism. While existing scholarship has elaborated on aspects of these processes, the present study insists on analysing all three together, in relation to each other, attentive to forms of both mutual constitution and contradiction, and cognisant of how these processes feed into political dynamics of varying scales – local, regional, and national. As such, the thesis argues that these three sets of processes should be understood as axes of rural local governance. This analysis draws off an empirical foundation compiled from archival and oral history sources, and which points to three broad historical conjunctures of local governance in Mogalakwena over the apartheid and early democratic eras. The first, spanning the period between the early 1950s and early 1970s, is identified as an era of state-building and remaking the countryside under the ascendant National Party (NP), one in which the white central state initiated massive and sweeping transformations of rural areas to bring to life its “Bantustan strategy”. The second conjuncture, defined as the terminal phase of apartheid from the late 1970s through to the end of the 1980s, was one in which rural local governance came to be dominated by forms of resistance, reform and repression when bottom-up political forces challenged the reach and authority of the apartheid central state in rural localities. And during the third conjuncture, the transitional period of national negotiations and democratisation between 1990 and 2000, rural local governance came to be defined by uneven and contested initiatives towards institutional amalgamation, deracialisation and redress. In considering the field of rural local governance within which the Mogalakwena Local Municipality operates today, this study concludes that the three axes together remain key determinants in structuring local and regional power relations. While dramatic new power relations have unfolded within and around the municipality since its creation in the year 2000, this study concludes that these have continued to be materialised through intertwined spatial, administrative and extractivist processes which extend back into history. As such, it suggests a new systematic approach for the study of local government institutions, histories of the state in rural areas, and studies of the state more broadly.Item “They will never know what we lost when we lost our home”: How Do Women in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, Remember Forced Removals (1960-1990)?(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Isaack, Jeaneth Samantha; Julian BrownThis thesis focuses on the enduring impact of forced removals and the significance of land dispossession in present-day South African politics. It is based on interviews I conducted with women who experienced forced removals in the 1970s from areas surrounding Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal. Much of the literature on forced removals focuses on the event of the removals and less on the aftermath of the event particularly from the perspective of the women who have often had to lead the rebuilding of households, communities and local economies. Access to land and land ownership is today still a contested topic despite government initiatives to remedy the injustices of the past. Using a feminist lens in conducting this research means identifying the need to highlight and put forth women’s experiences of land dispossession in ongoing land debates. Moreover, the study is a contribution to the limited literature on the long- term effects of dispossession for those who experienced forced removals in the country. Furthermore, this study illustrates the limits of the current land reform policy in addressing the far-reaching effect of the removals as is revealed through interviews with the women who experienced forced removals. In this study, I argue that the current approach of restitution cannot be successful unless it acknowledges the ongoing nature of the experience of forced removals. Remembering and referring to the past is part of the initiative to establish a better future for the vast majority of previously (and often still) disadvantaged people.Item Changing Patterns of violence in the Western Sahel(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Krienke, HannahThis dissertation investigates how changing patterns of violence in Mali and Burkina Faso have resulted in the formation of alternative government systems by jihadist groups and community militias. By analysing the interactions between these non -state actors, state institutions, and foreign intermediaries, the study highlights the significant impacts of socioeconomic problems, corruption, ethnic and religious tensions, and climate change, which have given rise to space where power and control of the state is contested. In Mali, violence erupted in 2012 with an insurgent movement that was exacerbated by subsequent coups and political crises, eroding state authority and supporting the growth of multiple armed groups most notably via jihadist insurgency. Violence in Burkina Faso began to grow in 2015, and it was exacerbated with the 2022 coup, which altered the dynamics of domestic and foreign alliances, including the Russian Wagner Group's involvement. Both countries are currently governed by the military, although in both cases the military has struggled to calm violence. The frequency of attacks increasing drastically between 2015 and 2024. Therefore, the dynamics of violence in both countries are examined in relation to the restructuring of local and state interactions and the emergence of new forms of governance. This involves drawing on theories such as Mary Kaldor's t "new wars," who emphasises the relationship between identity politics and armed conflict. Through a comparative examination, the study reveals parallels as well as differences in the ways that violence has impacted state formation and impacted Sahelian populations in Mali and Burkina Faso.Item Fluid Justice: Tracing The Experiences Of Women Navigating Urban Water Insecurity In Luveve In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Dube, Gugulethu Violet; Joynt, KatherineWater insecurity, exacerbated by population growth and climate change, poses significant global challenges. Especially in developing countries, where decreasing water supply, contaminated sources and inadequate infrastructure disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. Women, often primary caregivers, bear the brunt of these challenges as they are typically responsible for water collection, impacting their educational and economic opportunities. This report delves into the complex impact of water insecurity on women in an urban township in Luveve, Bulawayo, while also addressing the broader issue of global water insecurity and advocating for water access as a fundamental human right essential for poverty reduction. Employing a combination of semi-structured interviews, critical reading, and a feminist lens rooted in Social Reproduction Theory (S.R.T.) and Feminist Political Ecology (F.P.E.) alongside urban vulnerability theory, I explore the interplay between gender and water access. Our findings challenge the conventional narrative surrounding women's vulnerabilities to water insecurity, revealing diverse experiences shaped by factors like gender, socio-economic status, and household and community dynamics. Informed by these insights, the report identifies key challenges and proposes context-specific interventions to address women's needs in urban townships. By incorporating these interventions, development practitioners can advance more equitable and practical solutions, driving the empowerment and resilience of women grappling with water insecurity in developing country contexts. At the heart of this objective lies the concept of "fluid justice," which I define as the dynamic and context-specific pursuit of fairness and equity in water access, distribution, and management. This principle underscores the commitment to exploring nuanced and responsive approaches to tackling water insecurity, ensuring that interventions are sensitive to affected communities' diverse needs and experiences.Item Hugging the Crocodile: South Africa’s (RSA’s) tense relationship with the International Criminal Court (ICC)(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Bux – Williamson, Fatima Bee BeeThis qualitative research delves into the Republic of South Africa's (RSA) foreign policy framework concerning its involvement in the International Criminal Court (ICC), focusing on the cases of Uhuru Kenyatta and Omar al-Bashir. Rooted in the constructivist paradigm, from Sikkink and Finnemore's (1998) theoretical framework, the study examines the interplay of RSA’s domestic political considerations, regional dynamics, international pressures, and legal and political considerations, and domestic intricacies that have shaped RSA’s dynamic position vis-à-vis the ICC. The research scrutinises RSA’s initial compliance with and advocacy for the ICC trial, utilising the context of the Uhuru Kenyatta case. It conducts an analysis of the roles played by norm entrepreneurs, civil society actors, and the intricate domestic sociopolitical landscape. The study, equally, engages in a thorough exploration of diplomatic missions and negotiations, critically assessing their effectiveness and influence on RSA’s foreign policy paradigm. Moreover, the research assesses broader regional dynamics, with an acute focus on the African Union (AU) and its pivotal role in guiding (RSA’s) strategic decision-making processes. On the contrary, the inquiry into the Omar al-Bashir case ventures into RSA’s intricate web of domestic political considerations, regional dynamics, international pressures, and legal and political variables. This discussion aims to identify similarities and differences between the cases, shedding light on their implications for the fluctuating relationship between South Africa and the ICC. This research study enriches the academic dialogue by conducting a comprehensive qualitative analysis of (RSA’s) engagements with the ICC. Meticulously examining (RSA’s) diplomatic evolution within the ICC framework, the study offers valuable insights into the dynamics that have influenced its foreign policy development over time. By addressing existing literature gaps, this research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the factors shaping South Africa’s evolving relationship with the ICC.Item Exploring the involvement of HIV patients in person-centred care: The case of Nancholi Youth Organization (NAYO) in Blantyre, Malawi(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Magola, Delipher; Dickinson, David; Lewins, KeziaThis research report explored the involvement of HIV patients in person-centred care (PCC). PCC is the collaboration between healthcare providers, patients, and their support system to achieve the desired goals of quality treatment and care. PCC has been implemented in high- income countries where definitions, theories, and frameworks have been made. The literature review focuses on six major concepts namely PCC, expert patient, Greater Involvement of People with HIV/AIDS (GIPA), community-based care, patient support system, and stigma. PCC, expert patient and GIPA are core to understanding community-based initiatives and the need to implement PCC and community-based care. Community care, patient support systems and stigma drive person-centred care implementation, especially in low-income countries. The main research question was: What is the involvement of HIV patients in the Malawian Nancholi Youth Organization (NAYO) Programmes in Blantyre? In its methodological considerations, the study used the following research approaches: (1) A qualitative design to explore the involvement of HIV patients in NAYO Programmes; (2) A purposive sampling technique in the identification of seven respondents from NAYO staff and five community volunteers; (3) A stratified sampling technique in recruiting 11 HIV patients on the first line of HIV treatment; (4) Semi-structured interviews to gather information from NAYO staff members, HIV patients, and community volunteers; (5) Adopted the participant observation method in observing interactions between patients and healthcare providers; (6) Thematic analysis was adopted to draw themes based on research-specific questions and NAYO programmes. Findings reveal that NAYO uses a community-based approach for the implementation of its services and much of the involvement of patients is on a community level. NAYO Community volunteers facilitate and coordinate the collaboration between patients and healthcare providers. NAYO relies on community volunteers to implement its programmes. Finally, the research revealed that patients’ support system includes family relations, friends, church members and community leaders who provide psychosocial-moral support. Felt and enacted stigma are barriers to the implementation of community-centred care. Financing programmes and services is a major challenge for NAYO in the implementation of its activities.