3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Item Determination of the factors affecting the performance of grout packs(2007-02-26T13:31:18Z) Grave, Douglas Marcus HadleyIn tabular mining, common in South African gold and platinum mines, the removal of the tabular ore body by mining operations leaves behind excavations known as stopes. These stopes form the production areas of a mine and have to be supported in order that a safe working environment is created. Stopes generally have widths of close to a metre but, in some areas and on certain reefs, may be much wider. Prior to the 1980s, a combination of in-stope pillars and timber was used to support these stopes, but innovations from the 1970s have produced grout packs as a viable support option. These packs are cast in situ through the use of cemented classified tailings gravitated from surface and placed in reinforced geotextile bags at the stope face. As these packs cure and become rigid they are able to bear load when compressed by stope closure. In this way, the packs keep the working areas open. To quantify the load-bearing capacity of grout packs, a range of sizes and designs was tested in a laboratory press and, thereafter, a select few were tested underground. Initially, two aspects of grout packs that had not been adequately quantified previously were addressed. These were: the in situ load / compression characteristics of different forms of grout packs; and the relationship between laboratory test results and in situ performance. The laboratory test programme was extended to allow for an investigation into methods of improving the yieldability of grout packs and the possibility of using them to replace in-stope pillars. It was found that the factors that most affect the initial strength and post-failure characteristics of a grout pack are: the grout strength; the amount and type of steel reinforcement; the inclusion of ancillary columnar support; and the height and diameter of the pack. It was also found that grout packs could be used to replace in-stope pillars, but that pack strength and spacing should be conservatively calculated before implementation. A provisional relationship between the behaviour of packs tested in a press and those placed underground was determined.Item Children, Pathology and Politics:Genealogical Perspectives on the Construction of the Paedophile in South Africa(2006-11-17T10:51:47Z) Bowman, BrettThrough an analysis informed by the genealogical method as derived from Foucault (1980a), this study examines the discourses and material conditions that have produced the South African paedophile. Archival texts and contemporary discursive matter are critically analysed against the backdrop of the material conditions of political possibility with which they intersected to construct the paedophile of the South African present. The study traces constructions of the paedophile as a relatively innocuous nuisance in a selected sequence of past historical periods through to the recidivism, sexual malice and aggression that define its contemporary characterisations. In South Africa, practices such as surveillance and disciplines the likes of demography and psychology became integral to the effective management and regulation of a distinctly racialised population. It was precisely through these forms of apartheid governance and power that the conditions for the emergence of the paedophile in South Africa were produced. This early paedophilia threatened the future purity of South African whiteness and therefore the integrity of the apartheid state. The racialised constructions of sexuality of the time precluded the assimilation of blackness into the discursive matrix of paedophiliac desire. The impending collapse of apartheid signalled the reconstitution of black children. While apartheid constructed black children as posing a fundamental threat to white hegemony, discourses beginning in the mid 1980s repositioned them as vulnerable victims of apartheid itself. It was from within these discourses that child sexual abuse (CSA) as a public health concern began to crystallise. Paedophilia however, remained a powerful component of this burgeoning discourse. Locating blackness within the fields of discipline and desire, in turn produced the material conditions for an everexpanding net of paedophiliac suspicion. This new biopolitical dispensation affixes the paedophiliac crime to all in its scope, such that the symptomatic desire of the once peripherally pathological paedophile can now be insinuated into the fantasies and practices of all of the citizens of a recently “liberated” and democratic South Africa.Item The appropriateness of certification of patients to Sterkfontein hospital .(2006-11-14T11:58:31Z) Khanyile, Vusi NormanSection 9 and 12 of the South African Mental Health Act No. 18 of 1973 as amended, defines standards and procedures related to the involuntary commitment of mentally ill persons to mental institutions or care and rehabilitation centres. Despite these provisions in practice clinicians are faced with the challenge of appropriateness of certification of mentally ill persons to psychiatric hospitals. This study was undertaken to establish the number of patients regarded as inappropriately certified and admitted to Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital over one month during 2003. The clinical and demographic characteristics of this group were investigated. Its impact on hospital resources was assessed and commitment standards were compared. The patients’ hospital records were used to achieve the above objectives. About 20% of patients were found to be inappropriately certified as per definition, collectively they spent a total of 834 days in hospital at the cost of over half a million rands. It was concluded that in practice there may be patients who are inappropriately certified and that they significantly impact on hospital resources. Reasons for this need further investigations and the certification standards and procedure may need to be revised to minimize the problem.Item Let Me Be: Disclosure Among a Group of Black South African Homosexuals(2006-10-27T08:09:25Z) Mashaba, EmeldahThis study sought to explore the process of disclosure among a group black South African homosexuals. Specifically, the study investigated the factors that inhibit and/or facilitate disclosure, how obstacles to disclosure are dealt with, as well as consequences of disclosure. Snowballing sampling method was used to select appropriate participants. A sample was drawn from ACTIVATE; a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Club from University of the Witwatersrand. The sample comprised of six male participants, between the ages of eighteen (18) and twenty-five (25), who are living openly, either partially or fully, as homosexuals. Data was gathered using a semi-structured interview schedule. The face-to-face individual interviews were audio taped. The interviews were transcribed and data was analysed using the thematic content analysis method. The results of the study indicated that disclosure is a significant process that most homosexuals are bound to face or at least consider. Among the factors identified as playing a role in facilitating disclosure are self-acceptance and identification of self with the homosexual identity. Acceptance by family and society also proved to be important in facilitating the process of disclosure. Inability to acceptance one’s sexual orientation and lack of social support are among the factors that tend to hamper the process of disclosure. Difficulties faced with during the process of disclosure include rejection by family and society which is accompanied by discrimination based on sexual orientation. As much as disclosure brings about a sense of relief and the freedom to express one’s sexuality, it can also bring about feelings of ambivalence. An individual has to now reject the heterosexual orientation which is considered “normal” to pursue a homosexual identity that corresponds with one’s feelings but is considered “immoral”. Disclosure is a difficult process and individuals who wish to disclose often anticipate negative responses from their next of kin and society. Subsequently, it becomes undesirable to disclose under such circumstances. If society were more accepting towards homosexuality, homosexuals would be encouraged to disclose their sexual orientation without the fear of being rejected and discriminated against.