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Many South African municipalities suffer servicedelivery problems that can usually be ascribed to inadequate management, skills, and budgets. The reasons for these, in turn, invariably include weak economic base, unwise spending of available funds, and difficulty in recruiting and retaining skilled staff. The White Paper on Local Government of 1998, to which Valli Moosa, the then Minister for Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development, referred as "almost [being] regarded as a 'mini- Constitution' for local government", together with the Municipal Demarcation Act of the same year, spelled out the framework in terms of which the local government system would be transformed. Municipalities, covering the entire country "wall-towall", were thereafter established and powers and functions were assigned to them. After more than two decades, there can no longer be any doubt that many municipalities are, to a significant extent, failing in their primary duty of delivering services. The author sought to investigate to what extent this failing is due to flaws in the 'mini-Constitution'. By examining aspects of the performance of municipalities, the article assesses key assumptions made by the drafters of the White Paper in respect of a number of key attributes for service delivery. These attributes include sufficient skills and funding, prudent budgeting and effective spending, good leadership, adequate systems and data, stability of the senior leadership, and the presence of trust and credibility. The article finds that many of the assumptions were flawed, with severe consequences for service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I consider a selection of photographs of a man of color from a luxury book of male nudes, Images (1982), aimed at white gay men and published in South Africa by Alternative Books (AB) in the late apartheid period. Given the exclusive association of assimilable homosexuality with whiteness in the national gay press and other homoerotic commodities available in South Africa at the same historical juncture, I propose that these photographs, which interrupted longstanding, racist homoerotic iconographies, elicited experiences of ambivalence (and thus critical reflection) amongst their historical audiences. To this end, I analyze the editorial and commercial content of the newspapers Link/Skakel and Exit for the period that AB was active (1981–1991), anticipating an overlap of readership between these papers and the publisher's titles. More precisely, I discuss the prevalence of the figure of the "good homosexual" and representations of classical (that is, white) male beauty in these papers to plot how apartheid logic was broadly reproduced (and same-sex desire disciplined according to such dictates) in mainstream South African gay movements, institutions, and print cultures during this time, but, notably, not in Images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While literature extensively examines waste management issues in urban areas, limited attention has been given to rural developing waste contexts. This paper aims to understand the policy/implementation nexus between national and local government within the rural waste management context in two rural municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The research utilizes a directed deductive content analysis applying a framework proposed by Pollans. Originally designed for urban contexts, this framework has proven valuable for comprehending solid waste management policy implementation challenges in rural settings. This paper proposes an adjustment to this framework, differentiating the disposal mode of governing into government-based and self-reliant-based approaches. The authors found a significant implementation gap in both municipalities, characterized by a predominant, incremental disposal-oriented governing mode. This contrasts with the visionary and aspirational modes of governing promoted by the national government, focusing on diversion and eco-efficient waste strategies. These divergent modes of governing influence current waste management practices, especially in rural municipalities. We recommend strategies towards narrowing the implementation gap by formulating policies tailored to local development needs. Finally, the research sheds light on the challenges and disparities in rural waste management policy implementation and provides insights into how rural areas can transition towards sustainable waste management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After many years of apartheid rule, South Africa held its first democratic elections in 1994. As evident in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996, a commitment to establish developmental and human rights became an imperative doctrine. Three government spheres were established here: national, provincial and local. The latter is the sphere closest to the public and is constitutionally mandated to render and deliver sustainable essential services. Since 1994, significant strides have been made by the local sphere of government with both successes and failures. South Africa's legal and policy framework transformation took place between 1993 and 2000 through changes in legislation, proclamations, white papers and by-laws. However, the elements of bad governance since 1994 have created a loss of confidence and service delivery hindrances in South African local government. Much of the population, especially the previously marginalised, face inadequate health services, unclean water and poorly maintained infrastructure and housing because some state institutions have become paralysed due to corruption and maladministration. This article aims to delve into the constitutional and legislative framework of local government in South Africa. The premise from which this article moves is that the quality of governance at the local government level directly impacts service delivery and is, therefore, critical to understanding some of the constitutional and legislative underpinnings driving local government. Municipalities should ensure that all actions and conducts comply with the statutes (acts of parliament, legislations and laws) and regulatory documents (white papers, official rules and regulations and by-laws) to local government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we aim to explore public reactions to non-normative expressions of masculinity within South African society. We argue that although society has become more accepting of such expressions, there still exists public criticism and heteronormative labelling of sexuality and gender. The case study of a local entertainment celebrity, Sivuyile Ngesi, is used to interrogate the illusion of the “real man” and the construction of heteronormative masculinities in the South African context. Ngesi’s personal portrayal of his masculine identity is unconventional and provides an example of an atypical expression of a Black African heterosexual identity. In the paper we draw on a range of local media sources, as well as an in-depth interview with Ngesi himself, to discuss an idiosyncratic vision of an alternative Black African masculine identity and the realities and implications around it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-four years ago, the National Heritage Resources Act, No. 25 of 1999 (NHRA) was enacted in South Africa. This was a moment of change, when the heritage of those marginalised during the colonial and Apartheid eras would finally be given its rightful place on the national heritage list. There was a sense of optimism amongst politicians that the African past was finally to be recognised in an inclusive and representative future. This was echoed in archaeology, given its central role in uncovering and telling the story of precolonial South Africa. The discipline slowly opened its doors to academics of all ethnic groups and new perspectives were identified. But an examination of the practical consequences and impact of this progressive legislation for transforming officially declared heritage in the past 24 years shows surprisingly little change in the overall body of recognized, listed heritage. Recent studies of transformation in South African archaeology have focussed on institutional transformation; possible transformation of the types and frequency of sites declared as national and provincial heritage sites has not yet been examined. It is this issue which our paper addresses. The paper presents analysis that relies on the South African Heritage Resources Information System (SAHRIS) database covering the period 1936 to mid-2022. Whilst sites associated with European colonialism still predominate, there has been a change in the frequency of types of heritage declared since 1999, with an increase in sites associated with the Black liberation struggle. Yet the list remains very unbalanced, with only a single heritage site connected to the precolonial past of Black South Africans having been declared as a national heritage site since 1999. We discuss and classify the types of heritage declared since 1999 and suggest reasons for the distortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major concerns of development in Africa is the issue of public health. In Africa, public healthcare has been and still is a problem most African countries are faced with. The problem of public healthcare seems to be unabated even though there are measures that are put in place for its effectiveness. There is hunger, malnutrition, high mortality rate, illnesses and deterioration of life expectancy in most developing countries of Africa. The dramatic unprecedented public health disparity has become a scourge in developing countries where it has purportedly impaired the developmental efforts, economic growth and prosperity. As a result, there is a need to scrutinize possible causes that exacerbates public health issues in developing countries. The paper argues that the current food production system (conventional) contributes to current status of public health as compared to the previous food production system (organic). The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize public healthcare disparities, juxtaposing organic and conventional food production that result as human food consumption. The paper employs literature-based analysis as a methodology to assemble data in respect of public healthcare disparities and food production systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rehabilitation services play an important role in the lives of persons who experience vision loss. These services provide necessary practical techniques for adjustment to visual impairment. However, there is insufficient research exploring the ways in which these services act at the level of meaning and identity. This paper summarises the findings from a study that investigated the operation of blindness discourses in rehabilitation services for adults with visual impairments in South Africa. The study posed questions concerning the meanings about blindness which are produced and reinforced in rehabilitation practice. It also considered the implications of exposure to these meanings for persons with visual impairments. Foucauldian discourse analytic reviews were conducted on digital documentary sources, as well as on data gathered through semi-structured interviews with rehabilitation service providers and service users. This paper discusses two overarching discursive practices in visual impairment rehabilitation, namely, ‘Journey discourse’ and ‘charitable discourse’. We conclude that, rather than an abstract exercise, considering the ideological assumptions embedded in rehabilitation practice is essential to uncover and address discursive systems that support the continued marginalisation of people with visual impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a sceptical look at the treatment of connected practices of commodification and consumption in some exemplary works of mainstream critical social theory that seek to identify cross-contextual historical logics linking economic action to socio-political life. Drawing on situated research from South and southern Africa that helps to complicate our understanding of these links, it argues that many influential claims in the mainstream critical literature remain poorly substantiated and pass silently over vast provinces of complex, situated thought and action. When analysing how markets function, recurrent critical tropes of highly manipulable consumer desire suffer from a tendency to argue by simple fiat, while also abstracting out the historically shifting forms of moral and legal regulation mediating commodification and consumption on most real-world markets. This paper also makes a case for greater scepticism towards categorical associations between market action and the reproduction of socio-political dispositions of power. Consumer behaviour undeniably can shore up distinction and domination, but it has often also been observed to tamper with them by indirect means, while concentrated consumer initiatives in the form of boycotts remain an under-theorised and largely forgotten form of resistance within mainstream critical social theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of foreign ownership on firm performance in the South African informal sector. Using the data of 1097 informal businesses sourced from the World Bank Enterprises Survey conducted in four Township provinces in South Africa (Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape) in 2020, the paper aims to address two issues: what is the effect of foreign ownership on performance in the South African informal sector and what factors drive foreign-ownership gap in the South African informal sector if it exists? The empirical analysis uses the multivariable decomposition technique and finds a performance gap between locally and foreign-owned businesses in the South African informal sector. A decomposition of factors shows that differences in endowments can explain the bulk of the gap. Discriminatory/unexplained factors, likely capturing the business culture, also play a significant role. Caution is given when seeking to curb foreign business participation in the informalsector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impact assessment (IA) follow-up is necessary to determine the environmental effects of a project or plan to inform ongoing management. No previous research confirms if visitor surveys may be used to this extent for developments within a protected. This paper explores if and how visitor surveys may be used as a tool for supporting EIA follow-up within protected areas. Relevant EIA documentation was appraised to determine EIA performance expectations for management of the Nombolo Mdhluli Conference Centre development in the Kruger National Park. Forty-four expectations were identified, translated into questions, and included in a survey scale. Eighty-nine conference delegates completed the survey whereafter an Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) method was used to map the responses in four IPA map quadrants: 1. Possible overkill, 2. Low priority, 3. Q3 Keep up the good work, and 4. Concentrate here. The IPA map displays 29 items of statistical significance in the four IPA map quadrants with 12 items in the 'Concentrate here' quadrant. The IPA results mapped the need for management to concentrate on responsible building, waste, water, energy, compliance, awareness, cumulative impact management. The paper shows that visitor surveys may be used as a simple but effective tool for supporting EIA follow-up monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically explores the use of satire and humour by fast-foods outlets in South Africa and Zimbabwe to advertise and market their menu through digital media platforms, Facebook and Twitter. Using Nando's South Africa and Mambo's Chicken, in Zimbabwe, as case studies, we examine how satire and humour are used as advertising strategies, and as a reflection of these countries' economic and political environments. Consumers are overwhelmed with information coming from different sources such as Television, radio, newspapers and Internet. The paper's theoretical approach is gleaned from advertising and satire. We argue that through their encounter with food, consumers tend to understand the reason behind their 'empty stomach', and mediate on prevailing socio-political and economic issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper explores different game design methodologies that can be used to translate the South African novel Souvenir by Jane Rosenthal, set in the semi-desert region known as the Karoo into a Virtual Reality experience, which can live on the Metaverse. The paper suggests that the translated Virtual Reality experience can be used as a tool for climate change action and awareness, as well as a way to preserve South African stories on the Metaverse. The paper focuses on various narrative design methodologies for storytelling in game design, suggesting which would work best for the translation of a novel into a Virtual Reality experience. Additionally, it explores practical methodologies for the production of 3D game objects and assets required to recreate the Karoo landscape as described in the novel. This encompasses an exploratory excursion conducted within the Karoo region itself, wherein the collection of primary data is executed for the creation of game assets. Additionally, this involves a comprehensive examination of Henry Jenkins’ methodologies in game design, particularly focusing on narrative elements within gaming. A meaningful impact on the Metaverse is pursued through the translation of this Karoo-based South African novel, into Virtual Reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the efficiency and potential of indirect freeze crystallization (IFC) as a valuable resource-recovery technology in wastewater treatment, particularly focusing on acid mine water and hazardous material wastewater-treatment plants. Wastewater treatment poses challenges to recovering valuable resources effectively, enforcing the need for sustainable and resource-efficient technologies like freeze crystallization. Through a thorough examination of IFC principles and mechanisms, this paper aims to highlight its applications, advantages, and limitations. The investigation includes a comprehensive literature review and detailed methodology from one of the IFC pilot plants, as well as a critical analysis of the environmental and economic implications of IFC. By addressing scaling challenges in reverse osmosis and proposing an environmentally friendly brine disposal method through IFC, this paper contributes to reducing the environmental footprint associated with wastewater treatment. Additionally, this paper highlights the importance of extracting valuable resources from highly saline water and emphasises the potential economic and environmental benefits of resource recovery, particularly focusing on the promising technology of IFC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The persistence of intense conflicts over land belonging to indigenous communities is a pressing issue in South Africa. This would resonate even more with the lived experiences of mine communities that are often having to grapple with the collateral socio-economic hardships and impoverishment effects. Matters can get even worse when the State has weak legal and institutional frameworks to regulate the use and possession of such highly contested lands. This paper explores the principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC); its relevance and significance to South African extractive sector; its possible bottlenecks and implementation challenges; and suggestions for practical interventions and policy advances to facilitate its incorporation into law and policy. Displacement is the limited context within which this exploration is undertaken. The paper argues that the FPIC – as an envisaged future for the country's extractive policy – is more desirable than a mere duty to consult as currently framed in the empowering legislation namely, the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Act (MPRDA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the place and role of chiefs and their institution in the governance and development of rural society in South Africa, using a case study of six tribal authorities in the Moses Kotane Local Municipality, North West Province. It examines whether chiefs have taken active development roles in their communities, and how they are perceived by society vis-à-vis community councillors. It argues that active roles and endorsement by the people are evidence of the significance of chiefs in the rural governance structures. In the studied tribal authorities, chiefs assumed central development roles, by initiating development projects, mobilizing stakeholders, and providing information to their people that ensured compliance with government COVID-19 regulations. While development and service delivery issues are the mandate of the community councillors and council, people saw the chiefs as best suited to spearhead development in their areas, because of their proximity to society and knowledge of their needs. The paper argues that the institution of the chiefs constitutes an accountable leadership that acts in the interests of all people, and chiefs should be incorporated in rural governance structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by new feminist materialism, this paper seeks to reimagine existing knowledge of girls, sexuality and playgrounds by considering how the socio‐material reality may unlock girls' capacities for what is possible through play. Focusing on semi‐structured interviews of girls (aged 12–13), the paper draws attention to the playground as an 'assemblage' of human and non‐human matter that connect to illuminate other ways of being, feeling and doing. We argue that the assemblage not only creates spaces for girls to disrupt hetero‐patriarchal ideologies but simultaneously serves to reinforce them. Interventions require attention to the oppressive materialities that underpin play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the ambitions of Africa's first independent nonprofit school of architecture—the School of Explorative Architecture—in light of the decoloniality ideas that were galvanized by the Rhodes Must Fall protests at the University of Cape Town in 2015. The paper describes the School's three modes of teaching and learning architecture, namely the thing (professional competencies of designing a building), the shadow of the thing (theorized and critical thinking around buildings and architecture), and the painted shadow of the thing (creative acts engaging architecture in ideas and critical thinking). The paper explains the nuances of teaching and learning architecture in the South African context and the importance of teaching professional competencies while surfacing 'other' conditions through the painted shadow. The paper ends by asking if a radical spatial alterity—the folding of the thing, the shadow, and the painted shadow into each other—is possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for qualitative researchers since many countries had to implement lockdown policies to control the spread of the virus. Within the South African context, research on sexual minority identities and experiences is automatically sensitive and risky given the extent of intolerance and high regard for heteronormative ideologies and beliefs that continually exclude sexual minorities from the "normal." The sensitivity is intensified during a national lockdown since there is an excessive reliance on digital public spaces to recruit participants and conduct interviews. Based on the experience of Ph.D. fieldwork, this paper pays attention to a sexuality researcher's experience of conducting research on gay men's experiences in the South African military and police services during a national lockdown. Particular attention is given to the dilemmas posed by the government's restriction on physical movement and reliance on digital spaces, particularly social media to identify gay men who work in the two organizations and form virtual relationships of mutual trust. Ultimately, this paper holds that reflexivity is critical to feminist research on vulnerable sexual minorities when the relationships between the researcher and the researched are established and maintained through digital platforms. While digital spaces offer opportunities to reach vulnerable populations, they present some challenges that may compromise the credibility of the study if not identified by the researcher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubuntu has been defined as a moral quality of human beings, as a philosophy or an ethic, as African humanism, and as a worldview. This paper explores these definitions as conceptual tools for understanding the cultural, educational, and philosophical landscape of post-apartheid South Africa. Key to this understanding is the Althusserian concept of state apparatus. Louis Althusser divides the state apparatus into two forces: the repressive state apparatus (RSA); and the ideological state apparatus (ISA). RSAs curtail the working classes, predominately through direct violence or the threat of violence, whereas ISAs function primarily by ideology, including forms of organised religion, the education system, family units, legal systems, trade unions, political parties, and media. This paper discusses the link between increasing inequality in post-apartheid South Africa and education, with specific reference to Althusser's ISAs and the abuse of Ubuntu as a subterfuge for socio-economic inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) in the context of limited resources will require prioritising the most vulnerable and ensuring health policies and services are responsive to their needs. One way of addressing this is through the engagement of marginalised voices in the priority setting process. Public engagement approaches that enable group level deliberation as well as individual level preference capturing might be valuable in this regard, but there are limited examples of their practical application, and gaps in understanding their outcomes, especially with rural populations. Objective: To address this gap, we implemented a modified priority setting tool (Choosing All Together—CHAT) that enables individuals and groups to make trade‐offs to demonstrate the type of health services packages that may be acceptable to a rural population. The paper presents the findings from the individual choices as compared to the group choices, as well as the differences among the individual choices using this tool. Methods: Participants worked in groups and as individuals to allocate stickers representing the available budget to different health topics and interventions using the CHAT tool. The allocations were recorded at each stage of the study. We calculated the median and interquartile range across study participants for the topic totals. To examine differences in individual choices, we performed Wilcoxon rank sum tests. Results: The results show that individual interests were mostly aligned with societal ones, and there were no statistically significant differences between the individual and group choices. However, there were some statistically significant differences between individual priorities based on demographic characteristics like age. Discussion: The study demonstrates that giving individuals greater control and agency in designing health services packages can increase their participation in the priority setting process, align individual and community priorities, and potentially enhance the legitimacy and acceptability of priority setting. Methods that enable group level deliberation and individual level priority setting may be necessary to reconcile plurality. The paper also highlights the importance of capturing the details of public engagement processes and transparently reporting on these details to ensure valuable outcomes. Public Contribution: The facilitator of the CHAT groups was a member from the community and underwent training from the research team. The fieldworkers were also from the community and were trained and paid to capture the data. The participants were all members of the rural community‐ the study represents their priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores teenage girls' engagement with digital images on social media. Using new feminist materialism, we foreground digital images as an assemblage of materialities (human and more‐than‐human) filled with affective potentials that materialise in/capacities. Drawing from interviews and focus group discussions, we show how the production and sharing of selfies through posting and sexting unlocked new ‘becomings’ through expressions of heterosexual desirability and pleasure but also generated fear through sexual objectification, sexual double standards and harassment. A recognition of digital images as materially embodied through which unequal gender power relations materialise is vital to addressing online sexual risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South African students have since 2015 returned to the forefront of the country's social movement struggles. Central to this wave of contention was the #RhodesMustFall (#RMF) movement at the University of Cape Town (UCT), which coalesced with uprisings at universities across the country under the banner of #FeesMustFall, focusing demands on abolishing tuition fees, decolonizing education and society, and ending campus worker exploitation. In the process, students imagined how education and society could be different. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between social movements, occupations, and imagination, by examining a crucial event in the #RMF movement: the student occupation of an administrative building at UCT. Because social movement theory has an underdeveloped conception of the imagination, we draw on Sartre's and Fanon's understanding of the imagination and apply it to students' activism. Based on original qualitative research we demonstrate how imagined futures guide movement activity, while their prefigurative practices in the occupation enacted these in the present. The #RMF occupation was seen as a break from reality that catalysed students' imaginations, honing their critiques of society and shaping two central imaginaries of alternative futures, decolonization and intersectionality. The #RMF movement's imaginaries and enactments were influential in reshaping the South African higher education landscape and even inspired movements internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community health workers (CHWs) are central to the global health response to crises like the AIDS epidemic. Yet community health work remains undervalued and undercompensated worldwide owing in large part to the gendered and racialized contexts of care work. This paper investigates the possibility of occupational security for CHWs by comparing two cases from South Africa's response to AIDS. The first draws on ethnographic research (2007–2009) in rural KwaZulu‐Natal province and documents the fraught formation of a union representing CHWs. The second examines legal action in the Free State province for a group of CHWs known as the Bophelo House 94, who were arrested and criminally charged in June 2014 after protesting their sudden dismissal by the government. This case comparison finds that collective action has thus far had limited effects on CHWs' position as a nascent occupation. The South African Ministry of Health has obstructed CHW professionalization, and non‐state actors' involvement has been a mixture of benefit and impediment: some social justice agencies have facilitated CHW advocacy, while many AIDS service organizations have cooperated with the state and exacerbated the precarity of CHWs' working conditions. However, the consolidation of CHW work roles—owing to advances in AIDS prevention and treatment—holds promise for future CHW collective organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars examining racial stereotyping and prejudice in racially organised social systems have largely focused on how non-White ethnic and racial groups experience racial stereotyping in White-majority national contexts such as the US, Australia and European countries. There is only scant scholarship on experiences of ethno-racial communities in Black-majority countries such as South Africa, a country where Whites are a minority. Even though there is ample scholarly work on racial stereotyping of racial groups in South Africa such as Coloured people, much of it is focused on their experiences during colonial and Apartheid eras. Little is understood about how Coloured people experience racial stigmatisation in post-Apartheid South Africa. This paper addresses this gap. Based on interviews with fourteen Coloured participants from Westbury, Johannesburg, this study found that many interviewees claimed that Coloured South Africans were negatively racially stereotyped as people who use drugs, as aggressive and violent people, as alcoholics and as criminals. Many participants also resisted and countered the negative stereotypes by talking about Coloured people in positive ways, which shows their agency. The negative stereotyping of Coloured people which prevailed during colonial and Apartheid times is still deployed by society to describe Coloured people in post-Apartheid South Africa. To capture the continuity of negative stereotyping in South Africa about Coloured people, I developed the analytical term of 'perpetual racial stereotyping'. Many decades after the end of the Apartheid system, negative racial stereotyping of Coloured South Africans still continues in everyday life, and Coloured people are still associated with racist prejudices, narratives, discourses and stereotypes that were invented many decades ago by settler colonialism and Apartheid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sub-Saharan cities are growing and changing due to immigration and modernization. One of the consequences of the current urbanization is that an increasing number of families residing in peri-urban areas of small rural towns lack access to basic municipal and ecosystem services. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the impacts of peri-urban expansion on municipal services provided by the governments and on ecosystems services through a case study of a small rural town called Makhado Biaba in Limpopo Province of South Africa. Makhado Biaba has been experiencing incessant rapid physical expansion over the years. Such spatial expansion into the peri-urban zone impacts the provision of municipal services such as water, electricity, sewerage, and refuse collection. In 2020, an exploratory mixed-methods study of some anthropocentric and ecosystem changes in Makhado Biaba Local Municipality in northeast South Africa was executed. Land use was mapped for the time period of 1990–2020, data were gathered through a household questionnaire in six villages, and interviews were held with municipal officials. Among others, the study showed that several municipal services are available in the peri-urban villages of Makhado Biaba Town despite the distant locations outside the urban core. However, services are not uniformly distributed due to that new peri-urban developments that are leapfrogging into vacant land without supporting infrastructure. The pace of the municipality in providing the necessary municipal services such as water and energy supply, as well as sanitation and refuse removal, is lagging behind the development of new and unplanned housing areas. The findings bring about information about the suburban livelihoods and how the administration of the peri-urban areas can respond to the needs of the inhabitants as well as to future challenges. For instance, to facilitate local development, recurrent and well-structured citizen dialogs with local groups to identify delivery failures are strongly recommended. In addition, the impact on ecosystem services by the city development and land use change stresses the need for guided urban development and expansion and also settlement upgrading programs in peri-urban zones to limit the bad effect on ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Later Stone Age (LSA) site of Zuurberg in the Cape Fold Mountains of South Africa was excavated in the 1920s by F.W. FitzSimons. As with his other excavations, not much is known about the exact provenance and detailed archaeological context of the remains. This paper reports the re-analysis and dating of the human skeletal remains from Zuurberg. The remains were commingled but here sorted according to previously published sources. The remains of eight individuals are present, of which only one (Zg3) is fairly complete. The assemblage includes four older adults, two younger or middle-aged adults, an adolescent and a child. Two of the three individuals who could be assessed showed signs of enamel hypoplasia, which probably attests to some hardship. One of the individuals was dated to 4795 ± 42 BP (Ua-61976), which places this site into the Wilton period of the South African LSA. However, the different levels of burials, as well as the presence of potsherds, may suggest an extended use of the site. Isotopic analysis suggests a mixed diet, which was not depleted of protein. The reassessment, sorting and dating of these remains add value to the collection, especially as they come from an open-air, non-coastal forager site. This assemblage can now be included in future studies of southern African Stone Age foragers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a life-threatening, chronic, autoimmune disease requiring long term subspecialty care due to its complex and chronic nature. Childhood-onset SLE (cSLE) is more severe than adult-onset, and the cSLE population in South Africa has been reported to have an even higher risk than patients elsewhere. Therefore, it is critical to promptly diagnose, treat, and manage cSLE. In this paper, we aim to describe and evaluate barriers and enablers of appropriate long-term care of cSLE South Africa from the perspective of caregivers (parents or family members). Methods: Caregivers (n = 22) were recruited through pediatric and adult rheumatology clinics. Individuals were eligible if they cared for youth (≤ 19 years) who were diagnosed with cSLE and satisfied at least four of the eleven ACR SLE classification criteria. Individual in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted between January 2014 and December 2014, and explored barriers to and facilitators of ongoing chronic care for cSLE. Data were analyzed using applied thematic analysis. Results: Four barriers to chronic care engagement and retention were identified: knowledge gap, financial burdens, social stigma of SLE, and complexity of the South African medical system. Additionally, we found three facilitators: patient and caregiver education, robust support system for the caregiver, and financial support for the caregiver and patient. Conclusion: These findings highlight multiple, intersecting barriers to routine longitudinal care for cSLE in South Africa and suggest there might be a group of diagnosed children who don't receive follow-up care and are subject to loss to follow-up. cSLE requires ongoing treatment and care; thus, the different barriers may interact and compound over time with each follow-up visit. South African cSLE patients are at high risk for poor outcomes. South African care teams should work to overcome these barriers and place attention on the facilitators to improve care retention for these patients and create a model for other less resourced settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid waste constitutes one of the most pressing environmental problems, requiring urgent action from urban managers to find appropriate management mechanisms. The rapid increase in municipal solid waste generation is undoubtedly due to the accelerated population growth rate triggered by massive rural-to-urban migration. This paper analyses solid waste management challenges in low-income communities in South Africa, using a case study from Alexandra, Johannesburg. Using qualitative and quantitative research approaches, findings revealed that solid waste is not reliably collected and transported in low-income communities in South Africa. The main obstacles include the scarcity of resources and equipment necessary for waste treatment. To widely involve residents of Alexandra Township in the waste management process, the municipal council should embark on a public awareness campaign. The findings further encourage effective waste sorting techniques, such as separating biodegradable from non-biodegradable waste, so that valuable goods can be taken to the local government recycling centre. The results further encourage the involvement of the homeless and unemployed in the recycling and waste management process, thereby reducing the shortage of human resources and creating jobs. These issues are analysed within the context of evolving arguments that focus on developing a pro-poor approach in solid waste management that may present an opportunity for achieving sustainable solid waste management in Johannesburg, South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision of the South African Constitutional Court in AK v. Minister of Police has implications for law enforcement agencies that fail the victims of crime. In this matter, the plaintiff sued the Minister and others for damages after officers had failed to rescue her from the perpetrator(s) of a protracted sexual assault and to conduct an adequate criminal investigation afterwards. The judgment deals with a noteworthy psycholegal issue, namely, whether the police are liable for any harm resulting from the plaintiff’s continued trauma exposure beyond the moment a competent search would have likely resulted in her rescue, when her trauma exposure was already prolonged. In this paper, we consider whether the interpretation of the expert evidence is consistent with the relevant research. Research suggests the psychological harm caused by police negligence may have been more than a matter of extended trauma exposure but also of supplemental trauma appraisals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy responses to the challenges associated with environmental change, including more frequent and severe climatic events, have interlinked environmental and social impacts. Less attention has been afforded to the latter, and specifically to the question of not just whether but how such responses create or entrench inequality. This paper examines policy responses to drought events in California, United States, and the Western Cape Province, South Africa, in terms of their effects on inequality, revealed in relationships to water access networks. We use concepts of water justice and hydraulic citizenship to evaluate how and why these policy responses reproduced water injustices in the two settings. We focus particularly on two mechanisms linking responses to widened inequalities: values‐reinforcement and strategic communication. Using interviews, policy documents, and media reports, we employ process tracing methods to illustrate these mechanisms through which drought policy impacts hydraulic citizenship experiences, manifesting water injustice. We contribute to emerging examinations of environmental policy responses and maladaptation by demonstrating how concepts of hydraulic citizenship and an emphasis on mechanisms can help us better understand and identify experiences of water injustice. We note policy implications and areas for future research, highlighting droughts as consequential policy sites for advancing social and environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents and men are two populations that perform poorly within the HIV cascade of care, having worse AIDS-related health outcomes, and experiencing higher levels of HIV-related stigma. This paper explores institutional health system discrimination as experienced by adolescent boys with perinatally-acquired HIV, situating them within the social and gendered contexts of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Life history narratives (n = 36) and in-depth semi-structured interviews (n = 32) with adolescent boys living with HIV aged 13–22 were conducted in 2017-2018. In-depth semi-structured interviews with biomedical and traditional health practitioners (n = 14), analysis of health facility files (n = 41) and clinic observations were also conducted. Together, triangulated sources point to an incongruence between the complex needs of adoelscent boys and young men living with HIV and their experiences within the health system. Two institutional discrimination-related deterrents to retention in care were identified: (1) lack of confidentiality due to health facility layouts and practices that visibilised people living with HIV; and (2) mistreatment in the form of shouting. This article contributes to the limited literature on the experiences of young men within the HIV continuum of care, focusing on how stigma influences how young men experience and engage with the health sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminist scholars have focused on paid domestic labour as a site of gendered inequalities structured by race, gender, class, and citizenship. However, men are largely absent from feminist intersectional understandings of everyday interactions within paid domestic labour. This paper draws on an interview study of South African domestic workers focusing on their talk about interactions with male employers. The analysis demonstrates that talk about routines of the physical and symbolic absence of men can become normalised within domestic labour discourse. This is a narrative that is only brought to light once men's (lack of) presence is made a topic. The conspicuous absence of analyses of this kind within paid domestic labour studies points to unfinished and troubling feminist projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of expert perspectives on groundwater governance arrangements in South Africa is presented, particularly those arrangements that are pertinent to the complex and socially and ecologically significant implications of exploiting unconventional oil and gas (UOG). The paper presents a detailed assessment of literature on groundwater governance research, the findings of which are applied as a framework for a series of expert interviews, comprising hydrogeologists, lawyers, engineers, and governance specialists. This methodological approach was adopted as a means to enable an analysis of opinions on the current situation of groundwater governance in South Africa and how fit-for-purpose this is for managing the exploitation of UOG. The analysis was also informed by observation of participants at several relevant decision-making and stakeholder events. Whilst the findings indicated a generally positive evaluation of the initial steps taken to assess UOG impacts and engage relevant communities, recurrent criticisms also are featured across the interviews. Key implications arising from the research include: (1) the need for continued stakeholder engagement, and government follow-through on the outcomes of these processes, (2) the necessity for detailed groundwater-specific regulations to be drafted at the earliest opportunity, to ensure that the energy policy vacuum does not have a negative knock-on effect for effective groundwater management, and (3) the prevalence of significant governance gaps, particularly regarding regulatory and institutional capacity, and the need for continued development of a functional network of institutions to effectively manage UOG exploitation alongside groundwater resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: South Africa has the highest reported prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) globally. The most recent study reported a weighted, estimated FASD prevalence of 310 per 1000 in a community in the Western Cape Province. Because there is as yet no reliable estimate of the national burden of FASD in South Africa, further epidemiological studies are needed in diverse settings. This paper reports on a multiyear, multisite FASD epidemiological study that took place from 2015 to 2022 at eight study sites in four provinces. Methods: The cross‐sectional epidemiological study used an active case‐ascertainment method, specifically in primary schools. All children were recruited when they were enrolled in Grade 1 at a participating school. All consented participants progressed through a tiered‐screening recruitment and diagnostic process. Results: Overall, 3033 children were included in the study. A total of 3001 children were screened for FASD in the first tier, with 1086 progressing to the second and 495 to the third tier. Of the 495 children referred, 475 were discussed during the final case conference. A total of 309 participants were diagnosed with FAS across the eight study sites. The highest reported prevalence was in the Northern Cape Province, with a rate of 199.3/1000 (95% CI, 147.6–251) using all eligible participants as the denominator. The lowest prevalence was in the Eastern Cape Province, with a rate of 57.4/1000 (95% CI, 36.5–78.3). The pooled FAS prevalence for the eight study sites was 80.2/1000 (95% CI, 70.4–89.9). Conclusions: As with previous studies, we found a concerningly high prevalence of FASD in South Africa. Given the scope of the problem it should be a high priority for health and welfare services to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial body of research has examined the role of English in South Africans' linguistic repertoires. Many of these studies have investigated whether a language shift towards English might be underway among first-language (L1) speakers of the indigenous languages. At the same time, the role of English in the repertoires of L1 English speakers has received little attention, the implicit assumption being that English remains dominant for them. This paper presents an empirically informed comparison of English experience within and across L1 and non-L1 (Ln) English speakers in order to shed light on the importance of English in these individuals' repertoires. Cluster analysis is employed to analyze language background data from bi-/multilinguals (n = 200). The analysis produces two clusters, which differ in extent of English exposure and preference for English use. All but one of the L1 English speakers belong to the 'higher exposure, higher preference' cluster, while the vast majority of the Ln speakers fall into the 'lower exposure, lower preference' cluster. The results indicate that English experience is relatively homogeneous across L1 speakers but differs, for the most part, across L1 and Ln speakers. The findings are relevant to our understanding of language use in multilingual South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the South African Revenue Service and National Treasury firm-level panel data for 2009–2017, this paper investigates how trade related to the global value chain (GVC) affects the performance of manufacturing firms in South Africa. The paper uses extant classifications of internationally traded products to identify different categories of GVC-related products and compares the productivity premium of international traders for these different categories. Also, the paper investigates possible differences in learning-by-exporting effects across the identified categories of GVC-related products by estimating the effect of exporting before and after entry into foreign markets. The results confirm that GVC-related trade is associated with a higher productivity premium compared with traditional trade. However, within the categories of exporters, only the firms that trade in GVC-related products and simultaneously engage in research and development in the post-entry periods appear to learn from exporting. Our results underscore the gains of GVC integration in terms of the associated productivity premia and highlight the need for GVC-integrated firms to invest in building technological capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the growing literature on technological upgrading along global value chains, by focusing on the adoption of automation and digital technologies at different functional stages of the automotive value chain. It explores the constant tension that firms in emerging economies face between linking up to international trade and ensuring the upgrading of indigenous firms, which depends on the relationship between lead international firms’ operations and capabilities at the local level. Drawing on extensive qualitative research in South Africa, including 39 interviews and observations at the shopfloor level, this paper examines the determinants for automation and digital technologies adoption. The finding extends existing knowledge of technological upgrading along global value chains, by examining both final assemblers and lower-tier suppliers. Four production specific drivers are identified: volume, quality, material-led adoption, and ergonomics. This paper suggests policymakers should consider sector heterogeneity and specific sector-technology combinations when designing policies to sustain digitalization and production upgrade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) is a globally recognised publication outlet for the field of Computer Science, including in South Africa. In this study, spanning from 1973 to 2022, we investigated the research participation of South African based authors in LNCS. The publication output and citation impact of these authors were compared to the global Computer Science and LNCS output. The authorship patterns and collaborative behaviour of South African LNCS papers were explored, and a keyword or topic analysis also conducted. Of the total of 518 662 LNCS papers published globally between 1973 and 2022, South African based researchers contributed 1150 papers (0.22%). The LNCS papers from South Africa exhibit a strong collaborative publication culture, with 1043 (91%) co-authored and 107 (9%) singleauthored works. Local LNCS researchers prefer institutional collaboration (43%), followed by international (37%) and national collaboration (11%). Europe emerged as the most significant collaboration partner for LNCS researchers in South Africa. Of the 1150 papers, 836 (73%) had received citations, while 314 (27%) had not. On average, papers published by South African based authors received 6.05 citations, compared to the global LNCS average of 9.49 citations per paper. A keyword analysis revealed that the majority of papers by South African authors focus on artificial intelligence. The results indicate that, although LNCS serves as a reputable dissemination platform for Computer Science research output both globally and locally, South African authors should consider publishing more journal articles to build and improve their researcher profiles. Significance: * The study shows that LNCS is the most frequent publication outlet for Computer Science researchers, globally and in South Africa. * The study offers insight into the publication output, authorship patterns, collaborative behaviour and citation impact of South African based Computer Science researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: South African public archives have not been able to transform into active documenters of society. As a result, they cannot carry out their mandate of collecting non-public records of lasting value and national significance and recording aspects of the country's experience that have previously been ignored by archives repositories. This paper aims to discuss efforts by the Gauteng Provincial Archives to transform the archival landscape in South Africa by collecting sports memories. This is because, in democratic South Africa, the archival landscape was expected to change and reflect the nation's diversity, despite the fact that it still largely reflected the Western-dominated global mainstream. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on the authors' personal experiences with the development and operation of the Gauteng Provincial Archives. The authors are also involved in the Gauteng Provincial Archives' oral history project, which aims to build an inclusive archive by recording oral histories of sports memories across the province. Findings: The construction of the Gauteng Archives Repository has ushered in a chance to decolonise South African archives by collecting sports memories. These are windows of opportunity through which ordinary people can include their own experiences, filling in the gaps left by colonial and apartheid archives. Originality/value: This paper offers practical experience in transforming and decolonising archives through collecting sports memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa's Just Energy Transition (JET) from coal to renewable energy in response to climate change mitigation policies comes packaged with social costs that these mitigation policies tend to overlook, considering their focus on carbon emission reduction. The paper argues that Social Impact Assessments (SIAs), a component of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) focused on social impact mitigation, can be a long-term approach to closing the social cost gap. Against this backdrop, the paper's arguments were informed by a literature analysis on SIAs and the Just Energy Transition, semi-structured interviews, and surveys with 230 participants, including experts, from Kriel and Carolina in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The findings point to skills development barriers such as poor school attendance, a lack of alignment between existing curriculum design and labour markets, and students' low aptitude for STEM subjects. It also identifies community sustainability issues linked to poor public participation, gender inequalities in land reform and economic participation, and culturally disruptive displacements that will intensify as the energy shift unfolds. The paper submits that SIAs, if incorporated into mainstream energy transition planning, might be a long-term approach to mitigating societal costs and can support socially responsible policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Globally, mobile technology is a significant factor influencing how libraries are changing the ways of delivering services to today's users. This paper aims to explore academic librarians' perceptions of the usefulness of mobile technology in delivering library services and the efforts required for its successful adoption. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted within an interpretive paradigm. The research objectives were underpinned by the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology as a theoretical framework. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyses using NVIVO for thematic analysis. Findings: Results show that, in general, academic librarians support the use of mobile technology to provide services such as access to eBooks and Journals, Online Public Access Catalogue, Bookmyne application, information literacy consultations and training. Library managers, fellow librarians and users were identified as encouraging the adoption of mobile technology to enhance library services. The paper further confirms that the successful adoption of mobile technology requires some effort. However, due to some of the challenges presented in the study, a majority of respondents felt that their libraries are not yet ready to fully embrace mobile technology the way it is envisioned in today's world. Practical implications: The study endeavours to address the divergence between students and academic librarians' viewpoints regarding the application of mobile technology in the provision of library services. Originality/value: This paper highlights numerous ways that academic librarians could adopt and embrace mobile technology, which can benefit both academic libraries and other institutions of higher learning. The knowledge presented in this paper could assist academic librarians in assessing their institutions' vulnerabilities, challenges and strengths in using mobile technologies to provide library services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to education for undocumented migrant children in South Africa remains a significant challenge. While the difficulties related to their inability to access education within the country have been highlighted elsewhere, there remains a lack of clarity on an approach to how this basic human right can be achieved. In this conceptual paper, we draw on the distinction between equality and equity, and describe the various ways in which education has been conceptualised in the South African Constitution – which in part contributes to the existing confusion on education for various groups, including undocumented migrant children. In this paper, we critically reflect on the need to develop an integrated approach for creating a platform that allows all undocumented migrant children access to education in South Africa. We argue that an integrated approach – which entails ways through which access to education can be delivered through the lens of equity – will enhance the right to education for undocumented migrant children in South Africa. We conclude that the South African government must urgently consider this integrated approach to enable access to education for undocumented migrant children, so that they can achieve their full educational potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on South African teenage girls’ engagement with pornography. Using a decolonial approach and drawing upon new feminist materialism, this study focuses on the ways in which bodies, gender and sexuality configure to produce and constrain girls’ capacities for sexual expression. The paper makes three claims. First, the article turns away from a one-sided representation of girls as only possible to know through the lens of sexual suffering while challenging childhood sexual innocence. Second, the online pornographic field is situated in a gendered and racialised system of organisation whereby the perfect body is naturalised as an esteemed object of desire. Third, the desire for the perfect, slim, blemish-free, hairless body through self-surveillance constricts capacities in line with normative standards of female beauty. A decolonial porn assemblage is harnessed to illustrate the contradictions produced as girls both desire and object to idealised bodies that are naturalised through heterosexual and racialised hierarchies. The paper concludes by considering the implications of approaching girls’ engagement with pornography in relation to the expansion and limitation of their capacities and the body as an intense site of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Stuart Hall's concept of articulation and the concrete with Bridget O'Laughlin's reminder of a focus on the struggles of living labour, this paper theorizes racial capitalism in South Africa from the concrete relations of retail labour in Johannesburg. The paper examines ways in which white working class women constituted retailing, struggling for their own claims in relation to gendered family and workplace orders, which in turn conditioned how black women organized when they entered front-line service jobs in the late 1960s, which then disrupted this order to explain a very different class politics and to constitute anew these meaningful spaces. These processes happened through multiple mediations. Retail capital not only contributed to economic expansion; labour relations in shops constituted specific affective spaces as meaningful terrains of collective belonging, projecting ideologies and explaining differentiated "subjects in struggle". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multimorbidity is an increasing global public health challenge, however, most existing research focuses on high‐income countries, with limited evidence from low‐ and middle‐income countries. This paper aims to estimate the prevalence of multimorbidity in South Africa and analyse the associations between multimorbidity and social determinants of health in the adult population. Multimorbidity will be defined as the coexistence of two or more chronic diseases in an individual throughout this paper. Data from the South African National Income Dynamics Survey of 2017 was used with a total sample of 20,833. A binary logistic regression was performed to analyse the associations between multimorbidity and several social determinants of health indicators based on the Commission on Social Determinants of Health Framework. Multimorbidity was prevalent in 5.4% of the South African adult population surveyed, with 71.35% of those with multimorbidity being female. Hypertension was the most common NCD and the highest contributor to multimorbidity. Multimorbidity was found to have statistically significant associations with age, obesity, being female, being of Colored or Asian/Indian ethnicity, being in employment, and having no schooling. This study highlights the importance of analysing the associations between multimorbidity and the social determinants of health. Further research on multimorbidity is required in low‐ and middle‐income countries to understand the specific challenges not identifiable in the existing research predominately based in high‐income nations. Key Points: Prevalence of multimorbidity was 5.4% in South Africa's adult populationThe prevalance of multimorbidity was found to be higher in women.Hypertension was the most common non‐communicable disease and the highest contributor to multimorbidity.A positive association was found between age, obesity, female, being of Colored or Asian/Indian ethnicity, employment, and no schooling status and experiencing multimorbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1996, South Africa adopted the Growth, Employment, and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy. Twenty-seven years later, conclusive evidence suggests that GEAR was not a genuine strategy for growth, employment creation, and poverty reduction but a mere consolidation of neoliberalism in South Africa. This paper considers the key targets of GEAR and trend data from 1996 onward to explain the contributions and failures of GEAR in the development of South Africa. The paper is informed by secondary data, and desk-top research was conducted to elicit data. Drawing from the lenses of a people-centred development approach, this paper argues that future development policy formulation and implementation processes should be based on substantive participation. Despite the role of GEAR in reducing the national debt and stabilising the country’s inflation, its contribution to economic growth was insignificant and only benefited the few. In fact, GEAR contributed to social and economic problems, includingunemployment, poverty, poor education, health, and the welfare system in South Africa. This paper concludes that GEAR was simply a consolidation of neoliberalism, which benefited the few better-off minorities at the expense of the poor majority. Thus, this paper eventually draws key lessons and recommendations for future development policies in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of lockdown measures as a response to the spread of COVID-19 has increased the vulnerability of households to several human security issues. Using a desktop systematic review approach, the paper attempts an explanation of violence and unrest from the theoretical lens of the frustration-aggression theory. It discusses violence as a form of agency in South Africa and contextualises contemporary experiences in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic and the July 2021 protest, as well as the implication of such violence for the South African socio-political and economic sphere going forward. The paper argues that while South African history is bedevilled by violence, the vulnerability of the people due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic provided a breeding ground for frustration and the eventual violent unrest in many parts of South Africa. Therefore, the extensive looting of malls, warehouses, and distributors that greeted the July 2021 protest was only a product of South Africa's historical inequality and worsening state of affairs. The paper concludes that the unrest was mainly triggered by structural and historical socio-economic configurations rooted in extreme poverty and wide economic inequality. That becomes apparent in unemployment, deprivations, physical hardships, a failing or collapsing state, and state institutions and services underlined by neo-patrimonial practices and political failures, thereby leading to violence as a response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a public space, the environment of public transportation services is maintained by an ordered set of rules and conditions. Such rules and conditions are prescribed by law as they are in generally-accepted norms of social behaviour within public space. Through the examination of the Conditions of Carriage that govern bus transportation in Cape Town, South Africa, using Golden Arrow Bus Services, this paper seeks to highlight the myriad ways that urban public space on the move is mediated, negotiated and controlled through rules of conduct that differentiate mobile public space from its counterpart in the environment outside the bus. Understood as a mundane part of the social life of the city and its inhabitants, mobility in the form of public transportation is constituted by micro-communities whose publics are in a constant state of flux and negotiation. Using analysis of the Conditions of Carriage and an ethnographic case study of bus passengering, this paper demonstrates how the Conditions mediate the situated and lived assemblage of actors in mobile public space that is a liminal zone between inclusion and exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the effects of migration-induced male absence on the upbringing of children in selected communities of Zimbabwe. We argue that migration scholarship places more emphasis on the economic benefits of migration such as remittances and imported innovation, but is largely silent on the emotional hardships it causes for the family, especially the children who are left behind. We locate this work in the context of Zimbabwe where men from Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces have traditionally migrated to South Africa in search of employment in the gold mines and agricultural farms. We use the case of Tsholotsho district in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe to explore the impact that the physical absence of fathers had in the socialization of children. Taking a historical narrative angle, the paper uses family histories gathered in Zimbabwe and South Africa over a 12-month period to explore the lived realities of families with migrant fathers. We use data from in-depth interviews with the affected children, the absentee fathers and the women who stayed behind to take care of the children. We observe that there are many children who grew up without their fathers and other male figures because of historical labour migration to South Africa. We conceive the migration-induced absence of fathers and other male relatives as the "missing masculinities", although we are cognisant that masculinities and masculine roles are not entirely constituted by the presence of men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]