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This paper highlights the embeddedness of xenophobia in institutions through a theoretical but empirically under-researched concept of structural violence. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interview data with refugee women in Gauteng, South Africa, we explore the empirical utility of the concept of structural violence in shaping refugee women's everyday experiences of xenophobia through three analytical themes: (a) unequal access to resources (b) constrained agency and (c) dehumanization. While keeping an empirical grip on experiential narratives on xenophobia, we draw attention to three public institutions that enhance the vulnerability of those already vulnerable: The Department of Home Affairs, The South African Police Service and Public Hospitals. Our paper elucidates how refugee women experience xenophobia and how they manage their "everyday" in these circumstances- an aspect that remains underdeveloped in existing research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With mega state housing projects needing large land parcels and that are often located in the periphery, this paper investigates what impact relocating residents to Golden Gardens housing development has had on the quality of life and their financial wellbeing. Using primary data obtained from residents living in the Golden Gardens housing development, the findings show that respondents' access to and quality of physical and social facilities, such as refuse services, water, and electricity, has improved. Respondents were also unanimous that staying in their Golden Gardens homes has significantly improved their security. However, many residents currently living in Golden Gardens used to live closer to work and social activities than they do now, which means that they used to spend less each month on transport than they do now. The high-commuting cost has increased household expenses, meaning that the respondents' financial wellbeing has been negatively impacted. These results imply yet unmet long-term objectives of human settlements as envisaged in various government policies and programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explored how vulnerable, immunocompromised groups and caregivers of the elderly experienced and perceived the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted remotely between the 5th andthe 18th of April 2020 in the three South African provinces hardest hit by Covid-19, namely Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. In total, 60 qualitative key informant interviews and one focus group discussion were conducted. Study participants expressed concerns for elderly people and people with underlying health conditions because of their increased vulnerability to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). People living with HIV expressed an increased fear of infection following the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa. The sidelining of healthcare services and stock-outs of medication proved to be an added concern in particular for vulnerable and immunocompromised groups. Overall, the data suggest that the fear of infection is ubiquitous for people who live in unstable environments such as overcrowded townships and informal settlements. Given the increased fears of infection brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the mental health of vulnerable communities and those caring for them becomes an added burden for people living in unstable environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing scholarship recognising every-day mobility and the manifestations of geographies of care of children and their caregivers, their practices are still under-researched and largely viewed as deviations from the norm. Cultural expectations, socio-economic conditions, and identities, amongst a host of other intersectional factors, influence how 'care' is understood and practised in different households and individuals. Based on significant fieldwork in 5 communities across the Gauteng city-region, South Africa, over a period of 9 months and using a mixed-method approach, this paper traces notions of 'good' parenting, the influence of gendered social norms and the specifics of urban morphology to explore the daily footprints of care. The Gauteng case, an exemplar of city-regions in the global south, offers insights into the complexities of care in a context of state absence in daily care and the consequent need for high levels of privatised responsibility. The method comprises focus groups, qualitative interviews as well as an innovative mobility tracking app on smartphones. Our analysis shows how relations of care within the domestic sphere influence mobility patterns, transport choices and spatial footprints at the urban scale, at locations of care as well as through materialities of care. The physical manifestations and spatial implications of parental geographies of care need to be understood and considered at both a theoretical and policy level to address the spatial and transport needs of parents and families in the urban environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is gripped by protests which have usually taken the form of service delivery protests that have become more manifest during election periods. However, each election cycle has different types of protests with varying degrees of intensity. Thus, the aim of this paper is to analyse the link between elections and service delivery protests in South Africa with a focus on the 2016 and 2021 local government elections in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. This qualitative study relies on relative deprivation theory to tease out socio-economic issues driving these protests and rational choice theory to explore the rationale behind the timing of protests. Findings are that, in both provinces, although protests were linked to poor service provision, other factors like intra-party tension were notable. This article recommends a re-visit of cadre deployment policy, because the lack of capacitated and skilled cadres has fuelled service delivery especially in local municipality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research draws from diary entries shared by participants across various urban neighbourhoods and dwellings in Gauteng Province in South Africa during the Level-5 lockdown period. Occurring between 27 March and 1 May 2020, the Level-5 lockdown was severely restrictive, as residents were confined within their homes, and their movement and social activity curtailed. Research has already indicated that this had a negative impact on the mental health and food security of ordinary people. In this paper, we illustrate how participants' diary entries offer a layered and longitudinal lens to support this emerging research. Notably, analysis of these diary entries illustrates that the 6-week lockdown took an emotional toll on participants across different urban neighbourhoods and dwellings. Furthermore, these diary entries point to the sources of frustration and anxiety being shaded by the spatial and structural location of participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This scoping review synthesises evidence on mHealth in South Africa specifically related to the use and application of mobile technology, the population groups targeted, and the health outcomes measured. Three scholarly databases were searched, data was extracted using standard scoping review methods. Of 287 peer-reviewed articles, 36 articles meeting inclusion criteria were analysed. Mobile applications and short-messaging services were the primary technologies employed by mHealth interventions which increasingly incorporates bi-directional communication. Published research has increased since 2016 with the majority of studies carried out in three provinces, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Gauteng. This paper provides an overview of mHealth in South Africa with recommendations for mHealth integration into private and public healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite implementation of several government policies since the dawn of democracy in South Africa, income distribution remains skewed in the country. This paper explores income distribution in the Gauteng province by addressing two important questions: first, what is the level and pattern of income distribution, and second, do the role of correlates in explaining income distribution differ across income groups? By employing quantile regression analysis, this paper's results not only show the explanatory role of various correlates, such as race, but it also confirm that the explanatory role of these correlates is heterogeneous across income groups. The paper by drilling down into the data established that there are variations across some identifiable groups (e.g. youth, pensioners, and adults) and quantiles. These results enable policy makers to tailor policies to specific income and other identifiable groups, rather than one-size-fit-all policy focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper is a result of a comprehensive survey conducted in Further Education Training Colleges (FETC) providing educational services to South Africans residing in the various regions of Gauteng Province in South Africa. The main theme of the research was barriers that undermine service quality in teaching and learning in FETC institutions. The principal stakeholders of the study are educational leaders and administrators who sit on board councils in FETC institutions. Leadership quality in FETC institutions was measured and quantified by using a benchmark introduced by Northouse [2018. Leadership: Theory and Practice. Sage publications]. Ordered logit analysis was used for estimating and quantifying key predictors of service quality in teaching and learning as well as the efficient management of FETC institutions. Findings of the survey revealed that there is a need for elements of good institutional leadership. Examples of desirable attributes of leadership are honesty, personal integrity, accountability and transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal unpaved roads in developing countries arise naturally through human movement without government authorities being informed. These roads are not authorized nor maintained by council, nor reliably mapped in quality-controlled online maps. Information on informal roads is critical for sustainable city growth, and may be gleaned from spatial big data. Attempts to extract such roads from satellite images are sparse, and no automatic or guided semi-automatic approach has yet been employed. In this paper, we consider possible definitions of informal roads, by investigating the effects of their often poorly defined boundaries. We aim to detect these roads using a state-of-the-art method and to address the uncertainties encountered. The method is applied to areas in Gauteng Province and North West Province, South Africa using very high resolution images. The conceptualization of informal road boundaries, and hence the definition of an informal road, must be adapted to address challenges of informal road detection. These include the existence of clear boundaries, the visibility of road edges, road surface heterogeneity, and whether or not it is desirable to use only the central part of the road for transport. This paper contributes uniquely by considering the conceptual and practical challenges of informal road extraction in remote sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature revealed that 70–80% of South African small businesses, including informal micro-enterprises, fail in the first year of their existence. Innovation has been recognized as a catalyst that can enhance informal micro-enterprises' probabilities to survive and transform them from survivalists to sustainable businesses that grow the economy and create jobs. As far as it can be reasonably determined, there has not been a systematic review of the literature on innovation activities of informal micro-enterprises in the Gauteng province, South Africa. This study aims to present a systematic review of the literature, as well as research gaps identified in the literature, and future research opportunities. This paper thus systematically reviews the literature on innovation activities of informal micro-enterprises in the Gauteng province. The study revealed that the innovation capacity of informal micro-enterprises is severely hampered by innovation tradition and social tax. Subsequently, informal micro-enterprises engage less in innovation activity and those that do innovate often engage in incremental rather than radical innovation. Radical innovations are more crucial than incremental innovations. Thus, there is a need for researchers and government organizations to establish initiatives that can aid the informal micro-enterprises to engage more in radical innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capacity to derive, analyse and communicate urban knowledge is increasingly essential for decision-makers managing the complex pressures of rapidly expanding cities. This paper examines the importance of transdisciplinary boundary organisations in generating and mobilising this knowledge. It introduces 'urban observatories' as an example of institutions catalysing information that can shape urban governance, considering in detail the experience of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) in South Africa. Insights drawn from GCRO's recent work illustrate key operational considerations for these types of boundary institutions, highlighting opportunities and challenges in shaping the knowledge systems that underpin contemporary policymaking in and for cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal infrastructure asset operations and maintenance are critical for municipalities to provide basic services to communities in South Africa. The paper discusses the performance of municipal assets using Key Informants and literature review based on three metropolitan areas in Gauteng province and four rural municipalities in Limpopo province of South Africa focusing on asset operations and maintenance. Municipal assets in South Africa are saddled with poor performance because the infrastructure is aging in a context of rapid urbanisation and population growth and this impacts on the level of service delivery to the communities. The method used to analyse and unpack the findings were obtained from the review of literature and information obtained from Key Informants. The major official documents used includes the Sector Plans, Spatial Developments Frameworks, Integrated Development Plans as well as the review of books and journals on the general performance of the metros and rural municipalities with respect to municipal asset operations and maintenance. The information obtained from the Key Informants was used to refute or confirm the notion from the literature reviewed that inadequate operations and maintenance of municipal assets contribute to under performance in the provision of basic service delivery to the communities. The study shows that insufficient funding and low revenue base of the municipalities impacts on the renewal of municipal assets and provision of basic services to the communities in both metros and rural municipalities. The study recommends appropriate systems and asset management practices that can be put in place to improve on the under-performance of operations and maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa has a long-established independent left, outside the big traditions of nationalism and Marxism-Leninism. Post-apartheid its fortunes have varied considerably, as space opened up for movements to the left of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party, but opportunities declined as the state increased its legitimacy, penetration of civil society, and systems of patronage. This paper looks at cooperation, competition and convergence on the independent left, with particular reference to independent Marxists (mainly the well-established Trotskyist tradition) and revolutionary anarchists and syndicalists (a movement that revived in the 1990s). These intersections have taken place in study groups, popular education, student struggles, and post-apartheid social movements and unions, and indicate the vitality and fragility of the independent left, and the ongoing importance of cooperation and overlaps, as well as of long-standing divisions over theory and strategy. Particular attention is paid to Keep Left, the Socialist Group, the Democratic Socialist Movement, and the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is global recognition that competent and willing health care providers remain the most important determinant of safe abortion or termination of pregnancy services. The psychosocial well-being of providers is critical to the provision of responsive termination of pregnancy services. In light of the dearth of scholarly attention on termination of pregnancy providers' coping strategies in low- and middle-income countries, this paper explores coping strategies among these providers in the urban Gauteng and the mixed rural-urban North West provinces of South Africa. During 2015, in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 termination of pregnancy providers working at abortion facilities in these provinces. Questions focused on providers' lived experiences of abortion service provision, the meanings they attached to their work and their reported coping strategies. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the interviews. Interviewees' mean age was 45.8 years, all were professional nurses and the majority were female (82%), working for an average of 3.6 years in abortion services. Four overlapping themes emerged in relation to reported coping strategies: silence and concealing emotions; seeking support; detachment or disengagement; and belief systems. Study findings point to the need for effective, sustainable employee wellness programmes, within an overall context of positive practice environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article emanates from a study that assessed the depth and quality of public participation in the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) process and its impact on decision-making by officials, commissioned by the Gauteng Provincial Department of Local Government.1 It begins with a detailed analysis of the (voluminous) literature regarding public participation in development projects, starting with Arnstein's famous 'ladder', and seeks to understand where participation in South Africa is located on that ladder-at the base, where it rubber-stamps official decisions, or towards the top, where emancipatory notions are at play and power shifts from the bureaucracy to the people. The paper talks to issues of elite capture at one end, and debates about deliberative democracy and 'invited' spaces at the other. The paper includes findings from fieldwork that gave rise to a series of practical recommendations as well as broader recommendations about what is needed if participation in South Africa is to move to a (considerably) higher plane than it has currently reached, which the authors believe to be necessary, and thereby form a key part of the post-apartheid project. It concludes by arguing that participation involves more than drawing people into existing political and/or development processes; it transforms those processes in ways that boost people's opportunities and capacities generally to claim their rights. It therefore becomes an aspect of a wider transformative and redistributive project. It is not enough to redesign or adjust processes beforehand in order to facilitate greater participation; they must be amenable to being reshaped by participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Department of Housing released a new Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme in 2004 that makes in situ upgrading of informal settlements possible with minimal disruption to residents' lives. To date, the new programme is not necessarily the municipalities' choice when intervening in an informal settlement. This paper reflects on the treatment of informal settlements in current urban discourse and practice in South Africa. It presents the case of three informal settlement communities in Gauteng Province that have struggled for recognition of basic principles of the informal settlement upgrading programme. Their requests have been met with great reluctance by local government. Through these cases, the paper points to some of the critical re-skilling and capacity-building areas that are needed before local government can roll out the informal settlement upgrading programme at scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In essence, this paper aims to provide a historical overview of some weaknesses in the taking of actions (such as environmental management), and/or the lack of achieving progress after having taken action. The process of environmental conservation in the West Rand, with specific reference to the Merafong municipal area is discussed. Merafong is situated in the Gauteng Province. Decades ago the area featured a number of natural springs of which the Wonderfontein Spruit (WFS) is one. WFS is close to several gold mines in the Merafong, Mogale City and Randfontein areas. It is also regarded as one of the most complex catchments in South Africa. Since the start of goldmine production (1930s) uranium (and thus the daughter product radium)—as part of the mining process—has settled in the sediment of the WFS. Although voices of concern have featured prominently since the 1960s, no extraordinary environmental management action is recorded in history. Bibliographic sources of the WFS currently amount to over 5000 entries. Despite this impressive production especially resulting from research, reports and whistle blowing, in the past 50 years the area was exposed to limited and insufficient actions of environmental management. As a consequence a process of pollution and radiation exposure continued in ignorance of the facing dangers. Pollution poses a considerable hazard to human health and calls for urgent action to be taken. This paper explores the history since the early 20th century of the absence of, or weak and ineffective, environmental monitoring and management. It is suggested that the reason for this can be found in the priority given to the contribution of gold mining to economic growth, at the expense of the environment and people's well being. At present the challenge for government and environmental experts/activists is to seriously find solutions together in order to at least support ideas that will contribute towards stabilizing the WFS environment. More funds for research on the health status of WFS inhabitants should also be considered to assure proactive environmental management control, and to provide some form of support to at least the economically active injured population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanisation in the South has contributed to the growth of informal housing on a large scale. South Africa’s experience is somewhat unusual in that the growth of informality appears to have taken the form of backyard shacks in established townships rather than free-standing shacks in squatter settlements. This is potentially important for household well-being (e.g. better access to services) and for the efficient functioning of urban areas. The paper develops a framework for assessing the impacts and applies it to the country’s leading metropolitan region, Gauteng. It finds that people are slightly better-off in backyards than in shacks elsewhere, although the wider benefits for urban areas are equivocal. In some respects backyard shacks are a stopgap for poor households desperate for somewhere to live. In other respects they represent a kind of prototype solution to the urban housing crisis. The government could do more to improve basic dwelling conditions and to relieve the extra pressure on local services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The housing delivery plans of the South African province of Gauteng and two of its metropolitan municipalities broadly respond to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for improving the lives of slum dwellers and eradicating poverty. This paper evaluates some South African responses to the MDGs by considering the housing delivery and settlement upgrading plans of the provincial and local authorities for two major cities in Gauteng. In the face of pressure to demonstrate progress in meeting the MDGs, public servants have resorted to devising strategies that will present a positive picture. These include semantic changes such as subscribing to a narrow definition of informality as illegality and shifting responsibility away from particular organs of the state and onto residents, the private sector and other spheres of state. These strategies are unlikely to bring significant improvement to the lives of poor people living in informal settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-term effect of vegetation changes on the distribution of terrestrial gamebirds is poorly understood. This paper discusses the driving forces of range contraction and population decline of Swainson's Spurfowl Pternistis swainsonii in the 1 400 ha Krugersdorp Game Reserve. Spurfowl sighted, counted and recorded on standard maps offered useful data for statistical comparisons between two periods: 1979-1982 and 2002-2005. The gradual replacement of weeds with grasses in the old vegetable gardens is regarded as the prime population limiting factor of spurfowl. The core areas from where chicks were resourced shrank and, consequently, no young birds were evicted from the population to forage in marginal habitat so their overall range decreased substantially. To ensure a viable population in the reserve, stream and river banks must be protected from erosion and an excessive overgrowth of reeds Phragmites australis and poplar wood. These damp areas provide the soft soil in which this species dig for food, especially during winter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the diverse understandings of HIV/AIDS and people living with HIV (PLHIV) revealed by school managers in a selection of public schools in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Discussions with school managers emerged as part of a larger investigation into the interplay of culture and gender in people's experience of HIV. The respondents from five public schools comprised head teachers, school board members, educators and adult learners. The data were assembled from semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, comments on rumours and gossip, and informal conversations. Mary Douglas's (1966) analysis of the theory of cultural risk has provided the main approach for explaining the prevailing understandings of HIV and AIDS among the South African educators. Despite good knowledge of HIV and AIDS, the respondents' understanding of the disease and the experiences of PLHIV were commonly drawn from six categories of meaning: biomedical, cultural, religious, witchcraft, race, and eschatology. Social constructs were strong in terms of the ways HIV/AIDS and PLHIV were understood in these South African education workplaces. The findings imply that new strategies are required from the government and agencies that are involved in developing responses to the HIV epidemic, especially in the education sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study is an investigation into tourism entrepreneurship of small, medium and micro enterprises in Gauteng and Mpumalanga. Through Principal Factor Analysis, the paper identifies a three-factor instrument that could be used as a diagnostic tool to investigate how government policies and support, the tourism industry's products and services, and perceptions about South Africa could advance or constrain the development of small, medium and micro tourism in South Africa. Such a tool can be used to identify problematic areas in order to take remedial action to manage sustainable tourism in South Africa and prevent the leakage of profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for traditional medicinal plants and products in South Africa has created an extensive cross-border industry involving thousands of harvesters and traders. The market values of individual taxa vary considerably. Pricing structures fluctuate between markets and over time as the cost of harvesting species varies depending on a gatherer's access to the resources and the proximity of markets to the harvesting sites. This paper estimates trade values, describes the prices paid for 22 plant resources, investigates pricing structures relative to the mass/volume sold and the factors that influence the market price for plants. There is an inverse and disproportionate relationship between the price per kilogram (R/kg) and mass of the product sold. The smaller the quantity sold, the higher the R/kg sale values are relative to sales of larger quantities. This relationship is evident in different plant part types (e.g. bark and bulbs), species and markets (shops and street markets). Given the high mass sold relative to the price, bulbs, like bark, have the lowest R/kg values compared to other products like roots, fruits and leaves. The prices paid for heavier/denser species is thus disproportionate to the mass sold. If the relative values are used as an indicator of plant vulnerability (assuming high values indicate greater vulnerability), then bias is created in favour of 'lighter' and less dense plant parts typically sold in small quantities because of the nature of the plant part and the manner in which it is marketed and required by customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses data from a recent study of ex-prisoners and prisoners in Gauteng Province, South Africa, to consider the moral economy established by hegemonic inmate culture in which sexual interactions are negotiated. It argues that while this system is based on outside norms of heterosexism, ruptures with these norms occur. Male prison populations are rearranged into gendered categories through intricate inmate rituals, causing dramatic breaks in the ways that some prisoners are understood by others and themselves. The rituals and rules involved in the constructions appear to be unfamiliar from an ‘outside’ perspective, but have roots beyond prison walls. Similarly, the gendered positions generated are distinct from those they imitate, but also emerge in relation to them, beyond mere imitation. Even as new structures of identity emerge then, breaks with the outside are never total. Neither is the hold of the moral economy that inmate culture works so hard to create. Another order of rupture happens when prisoners transgress the rules of this economy, and subvert the meanings on which both the oppressive gender-sex status quo of the inside and that of the outside, rely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports part of the findings of the study which investigated sexual violence at two schools catering specifically for learners with mild intellectual disability in Gauteng Province. It looks particularly on participants’ suggestions for addressing sexual violence in such school. A multiple case study within the qualitative research paradigm was followed to investigate the problem posed. Data were collected using focus groups and individual interviews with 16 learners (11 females and 5 males) with mild intellectual disability. Individual interviews were also conducted with the two school support members, namely the school nurse and social worker. An analysis of school documents (the book of incidents) was also carried out as a strategy to augment data collected by means of interviews. Data was analysed for content and the findings are presented under the following headings: a) education on sexual violence campaigns; b) single-sex discussion groups addressing relevant topics; c) provision of appropriate sexuality education; and (d) intensification of supervision at particular areas considered as ‘hot spots’ for sexual violence at schools. Intervention strategies are proposed, which could be effective if they occur alongside clear and functional rules and policies addressing sexual violence in schools, and teacher training programmes to empower them in handling reported incidents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]