School of Social Sciences (ETDs)

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    Azibuye Emasisweni: Exploring Everyday Notions of Zulu Nationalism Through the Women in the Hostels of Alexandra Township
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Makhathini, Sinqobile; Mngomezulu, Nosipho
    This thesis explores the lives of four women who ethnically identify as Zulu within the hostels of Alexandra. Hostels, which refer to the housing compounds that were established as ethnically segregated and gender-distinguished spheres for the colonial migrant labour system, have become an essential axis for Zulu nationalist revival away from Kwa-Zulu Natal. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, I examine how Mam’Dlamini (57 years), the Nduna of Madala hostel and three hostel residents: Nokukhanya (23years), Mam’Nzama (55 years), Nokwazi (21 years), engage and shape forms of Zulu nationalism within their everyday life. I further engaged in autoethnography, whereby I positioned myself as the fifth participant, undertaking self-reflexivity about my identification as a Zulu woman. My work is invested in ukuzwa ngenkaba, listening with the umbilical cord, which is to say, centring African epistemologies in the ways we research (Mkhize 2023). In this way, I think through Fox and Miller-Idriss’ (2008) four modalities of everyday nationhood (talking, choosing, consuming and performing the nation) within Zulu conceptual frames. In my research, I found that in “talking the nation'' women used ulimi and ukuncelisa both literally and figuratively to signal membership and centre the role of mothers in shaping Zulu subjectivity. The framing of choices as national is understood by participants as more than individual articulations of personal agency but importantly incorporates inherited traditions. Ordinary people are not simply uncritical consumers of the nation; they are simultaneously its creative producers through everyday acts of consumption (Fox et al 2008, 505). My research shows how rituals become fertile sites for enacting Zulu personhood through specific forms of consumption and production. Performing the nation was evidenced through the women’s embodied expressions of inhlonipho. These themes have allowed for the understanding of how women do not remain hidden within notions of co-constituting but rather preserve this order from and beyond their matriarchal hold of the hostel.
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    People’s Dignity is at stake: The Ambulance Availability Crisis in Lusikisiki, Ingquza Hill Local Municipality
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Bolitina, Sinovuyo
    Access to healthcare is and remains a challenge globally. In South Africa, the limited ambulance availability crisis is an example of this. The people affected the most rely on public healthcare in remote and rural areas, such as the small town of Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape Province. This study sought to investigate the research question, “How does the limited ambulance availability impact access to public healthcare for the people of Lusikisiki in the Ingquza Hill Local Municipality?”. I adopted a qualitative research approach and interviewed twenty participants identified through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Limited ambulance availability inhibits the people of Lusikisiki from accessing healthcare. This crisis exists and impacts clusters of communities already facing socioeconomic, political, and geographical issues. These factors are at play and impact people’s day-to-day lives. Recommendations entail implementing more strategies and policies, looking at a more holistic approach, and examining this crisis from a social and health context perspective to overcome healthcare access barriers; thereby ensuring access and the health and well-being of everyone.
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    Tutor-student interaction: how advice is requested, offered, and responded to in an online consultation.
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Tebele, Tebele Sharon; Tam, Catherine
    In many university courses, tutors and students engage in online consultations for tutors providing students with academic support. Part of a tutor’s responsibility in such an interaction is to give the student academic advice. Previous studies have been done on how students accept or resist advice in in-person interactions, but the online tutor-student consultation has not been investigated. I focus on advice giving and explore how advice is requested, offered, and responded to in an online tutor-student consultation using an ethnomethodologically informed conversation analytic approach. To do this, I examine a single 27-minute audio recording of an online tutor-student consultation. The session was voluntarily recorded on the online meeting platform and both the tutor and student consented to sharing it with me. Through a tutor-led interrogative sequence, the tutor builds a common ground and establishes an epistemic equilibrium where both tutor and student are knowledgeable about the student’s experiences. Thereafter, the student may issue a troubles telling that shifts the epistemic gradient so that the tutor is in a more knowledgeable position and able to offer advice regarding the trouble. I also investigate an instance where the student does not issue a troubleshooting, and the tutor does not offer advice. My findings align with the recommendations by a previous study that advice-giving can be evaluative: as the tutor only advised after the student had shared their thoughts and knowledge about the topic to determine if there was a need for advice. The findings contribute to the literature on advice sequences in institutional settings by reinforcing prior findings and demonstrating how the tutor used a series of techniques to build common ground and epistemic equilibrium and how the student used a troubles telling to shift the epistemic gradient so the tutor could move into a more knowledgeable position necessary for giving advice. While there has been limited research conducted on advice-giving in face-to-face T-S interactions to my knowledge, there has been no investigation of how advice is accomplished in online T-S consultations to highlight the originality of the current study.
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    Evolution of Enforcement: United Nations Enforcement Actions Under Article 42 of Chapter VII
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Custer, Scott; Brosig, Malte
    This dissertation presents a comprehensive examination of the evolution of peace enforcement operations under the framework of the United Nations Charter's Chapter VII, Article 42. Through a qualitative research methodology, incorporating in-depth case study analysis and process tracing, the dissertation explores the changing actor constellations in peace enforcement, highlighting the shift from predominantly Member State-led operations to more complex arrangements involving Regional Arrangement and the United Nations Department of Peace Operations (UNDPO). By analyzing seven specific cases in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Libya, and Mali, the research identifies key causal mechanisms that have shaped the actor constellations of peace enforcement missions. The findings contribute to a nuanced understanding of the conditions under which peace enforcement operations are initiated and the strategic considerations that guide the international community's response to threats to peace and security. The study concludes by discussing the implications of these evolutions for future peace enforcement endeavors and the broader study of peace and conflict resolution within the field of International Relations.
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    A Critical Inquiry into The Ethical Justification(s) For Decriminalising Cannabis Use In South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Moolla, Sadiyyah; Attoe, Aribiah David
    The right to privacy, as contained in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, grants individuals the right to engage in certain activities, insofar as those activities are private, without infringement by individuals or the state. The said right is what was relied upon by the Constitutional Court in the decision to decriminalize Cannabis, for private use. However, there is a marked difference between that which is legal and that which is moral. In this thesis, I will grapple with the ethical justifications for the decriminalization of Cannabis. Using the Ubuntu ethical theory, I will show that there is in fact no ethical justification for impeding on a moral agent’s right to consume cannabis. I will begin by providing some arguments for and against the legalisation of cannabis use, showing their merits and their demerits. I will then provide an account of Ubuntu ethics and show how its tenets bear on the right to consume cannabis.
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    Role of Men in Teenage Pregnancy in the Bojanala district, North West province, South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Petlele, Rebaone; Mkwananzi, Sibusiso; Odimegwu, Clifford
    To Professor Odimegwu, words aren’t enough to express my appreciation for your guidance, support and enduring patience. Thank you, Prof, for guiding me through this journey, not only during my PhD, but from my undergraduate years. Thank you for not giving up on me. You have been instrumental in my career progression and achievements. I am most grateful. Dr Mkwananzi, thank you so much for being there for me. You have been my sounding board, you have been rooting for me from day one, thank you for giving of your time, your grace, and all you’ve shared with no reservation…including the laughs. Thank you. To my DPS family, you have been a source of motivation and my constant support system. Thank you to all staff members, past and present. Dr Sasha and Prof Nicole, you have been a constant and positive feature in my academic journey. You have taught me, mentored me and became a great example of what I could achieve. I appreciate you both very much. Ms Gloria, thank you for everything you do. To my fellow PhD brothers and sisters, what an amazing bond we share, thank you for the camaraderie, this journey was so much better with you by my side. You’ve been there and I cannot thank you enough, I know our journey doesn’t end here. To everyone at Community Media Trust (CMT), I am most grateful. Your organisation’s support has been immeasurable. Thuso Molefe, thank you for saying yes, thank you for facilitating all the reinforcement I needed to see through my fieldwork. Boitumelo, ka leboga (thank you) Sistas, your assistance opened so many doors, thank you for all that you did for me and with me. Mam’Wendy, thank you for being there when we needed you. The work you do is a calling, I appreciate all the counsel you provided during this time, not just to my study participants, but those moments I needed to debrief too. I know your work isn’t done yet, thank you for everything. Levite Solomon Mabolawa, you have gone far beyond the call of duty. You were there during all the phases of my fieldwork, you took on multiple roles, you used your resources and time to ensure I achieved what I was there to do. Thank you for being selfless, this would not have been possible without your daily acts of kindness. Thapelo Moloto, you’ve been more than a fellow researcher but a big brother. Thank you for nurturing this process like you would your own. I am so grateful. You never hesitated to take on this task, and I am so happy that it was you who accompanied me on this journey.
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    The Role of International Commitments in Combating the Illicit Distribution of Cocaine
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Bacta, Raquel; Alence, Rod
    Theoretical studies claim that states’ adherence to international drug control treaties may impact the enforcement of cocaine seizure regulations. However, this study found no significant relationship between commitment to United Nations Conventions and cocaine seizures. The study employed two multi-level regression models to investigate the poten- tial correlation between state adherence to drug control conventions and cocaine seizures between 1996 and 2019. The results suggest that other factors, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), trade openness, military expenditure, and governance indicators, may play a more important role in explaining the variation in cocaine seizures. Furthermore, the findings imply that practical outcomes may not meet expectations despite efforts to ad- here to international agreements on drug control. Other factors such as national interests, domestic politics, and resource allocation might play a more crucial role in determining the effectiveness of drug control measures. Therefore, comprehensive strategies beyond gov- ernance indicators alone are necessary to address drug trafficking, requiring multifaceted approaches considering socio-economic dynamics, law enforcement capabilities, and inter- national cooperation.
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    An ethnographic study of outside-circularity and deconstructive creation from the waste reuse practices of the urban waste precariat
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Reyneke, Pierre
    The study consists of an ethnographic inquiry into the waste reuse practices performed by the urban waste precariat on the landfill and streets of Pretoria East, City of Tshwane. I analyse the contribution of this social grouping to the urban circular economy and environment by conceptualising of these waste reuse practices as value-production processes not rooted in capitalism, practised outside of state and formal market recognition and support. I term these forms of existing circularity “outside-circularity” and identify an alternative value-production process termed “deconstructive creation”. The deconstructive creation process produces life from capitalist ruins, an alternative form of value to capitalism. This form of value draws on new formations of kinship and exchanges in a subsidiary and care economy, and functions on principles of everyday communism. Life from the capitalist ruins finds expression in two ways. Firstly, urban life that is more than mere material sustenance is produced, and a form of social solidarity as new kinship formations develop between Zimbabwean migrants in the City of Tshwane. Secondly, urban space is produced in the form of street craft markets and garden beautification to transform the suburban aesthetic. I problematise portrayals of waste reclaimers as an undifferentiated group exclusively performing reclaiming and recycling of paper and packaging materials. For this I develop and apply the social categorisation ‘urban waste precariat’, to move beyond the term ‘reclaimer’ with its singular focus on paper and packaging recycling. The term urban waste precariat incapsulates both recycling and reuse practitioners and hereby, I portray the complexity of the urban waste economy to include waste reuse practices, a cluster of waste work excluded from the literature in South Africa, thus far. Methodologically, I identify points of transition that are seminal to the circularity of the practices seen as meshwork. These points are discard, salvage, disassembly, transformation, exchange, and use. In addition, I trace circuits of material flow, both human and nonhuman, to portray the meshwork that entangles to form waste reuse practices. Through critical ethnography and by viewing waste reuse practices through the concept of skill, I show how space is relationally produced by tracing the socio-spatial history of traditional craft making skill development. The ethnographic data illustrate how this skill is employed in waste reuse practices, from artist hubs in Zimbabwe (Mbare and Chitungwisa) to its emergence through migration in Pretoria East’s informal iii street markets and suburban gardens. The study thus argues for the potential of sustainability and circularity to emerge from such skilled waste reuse practices of deconstructive creation.
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    The role of intersecting identities in career development and progression in the core disciplines of the South African mining industry
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mahobe, Patience Ntsoaki; Dey, Sayan
    The study sought to contribute to scholarship in the South African mining industry related to career development and progression in the core disciplines. Using qualitative research methods and applying intersectionality as a theoretical framework, the study examined whether, and how social identity plays a role on career development and progression in the core disciplines (mining & technical services, metallurgy, and engineering) of the South African mining industry. The study further examined whether there has been a change in the experiences of the different social identity groups related to career development and progression in the nearly thirty years since the promulgation of various pieces of legislation in South Africa in the mid- to late 1990s across industries and the mining industry in the early 2000s to transform the demographic profile across various occupational levels. The study lastly determined whether historical and current organisational, industry and societal systemic issues and dynamics impact career development and progression in these core disciplines. Thematic analysis was used to systematically identify and organise the data from the narratives of the participants provided through semi-structured interviews. This study confirms that intersectional identities have an impact on the career development and progression in core disciplines in the South African mining industry. The application of intersectionality as a theoretical framework brought to the fore different career development and progression experiences, challenges, and outcomes for the different social identity groups. Some progress in changing the demographic of the industry was noted, although progress is seen as being slow, particularly at executive level, with historical systemic issues related to entrenched ways of working and a leadership style that is not people-centric being the most difficult to change. The outcomes of the study and recommendations challenge the industry to think differently about transforming their cultures and ways of working, to create a focus on macro-level organisational systems and structures that continue to produce and reproduce unequal outcomes whilst also creating awareness and dealing with micro-level individual behaviour
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    Food Riot? Analyzing the July 2021 Unrest in South Africa Using Topic Modeling
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Khoza, Palesa; Kesselman, Brittany
    The July 2021 unrest in South Africa trended on Twitter between the 9th and 31st of July 2021. The unrest received attention from different groups of society, it was interpreted by the media, government, and scholars. This paper explores whether the July 2021 unrest was framed as a food riot by the affected communities across KwaZulu–Natal and Gauteng provinces in South Africa. A dictionary-based analysis and STM topic modeling were conducted on 8264 geo-tagged tweets extracted from the 9th to the 31 of July 2021 to capture the views of the communities in areas affected by the unrest. The findings indicate that conversations concerning the unrest were around collective action, food disturbances, political dissatisfaction, looting, and socio-economic stressors. This study found that political dissatisfaction is linked to a lack of governance response to the deteriorating socio-economic conditions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of this study suggest that loss of income and high food prices associated with the pandemic contributed to food disturbances. In addition, food price increases were expected in the aftermath of the social unrest. In conclusion, the views on Twitter revealed conversations around multiple interlinked issues.