Search

The last 20 years has witnessed an explosion not only in the growth of private residential territories throughout the world, but also in the literature addressing them. The majority of research is centred on experiences in the United States and Latin America (although studies elsewhere are increasing) and suffers from a tendency to homogenise the processes and consequences of gating as synonymous whether experienced in Los Angeles, New York, Mexico City or São Paulo. Whilst axiomatic to state the unlikelihood of identical trends in such differing contexts, the absence of such a statement in the literature is significant. This paper addresses the social and spatial phenomenon of residential gated communities in three of South Africa’s major cities: Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Detailed background and discussion regarding the development and experience of ‘gating’ in each city is analysed, emphasising the uniqueness of each city’s gating experience. These indications, that gating is not a universal experience despite some common themes, serve to counter the homogenous discourse in both popular and academic parlance throughout the world and within South Africa. In addition, particular concerns related to the growth of residential forms based on exclusion and privatisation within the South African context, are considered. In essence, we conclude that while ‘gating’ may be an individually rational decision in the context of South Africa’s growing crime, its collective consequences produce a divided city, at odds with post-apartheid ideals of unity and equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the declining levels of respect for teachers in two communities in Cape Town, South Africa. Education has been identified as a key area of reform and redress, but a critical skills shortage and under-resourced schools are hindering progress. Data from current and former teachers illustrate how the social and institutional capital of education is being replaced by a focus on economic capital, undermining the prestige of teaching as a career. These problems reflect trends elsewhere in the world and require action to prevent further shortages in education. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Over the past two decades, chronic peritoneal dialysis (PD) has emerged as the first choice pediatric dialysis modality. A recent study visually identified the cause of malfunction of PD catheters at the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town. The reasons that could be found, lead to changed Tenckhoff insertion-techniques from open to laparoscopic. This included suturing of the tip, omentectomy and ovarian-pexy by laparoscopy. In the present paper we prospectively analyzed, if changed insertion technique lead to an improved outcome. Patients and Methods: 26 Patients required 36 laparoscopic Tenckhoff insertions during the period August of 2003 and July of 2006. Overall a total number of 222.5 catheter-months have been observed. Laparoscopic insertion technique required 3 port placements. The tip of the catheter was sutured to pelvic peritoneum, omentectomy performed through a port site and ovariopexy done when required. Results: The mean lifespan of all Tenckhoff's was 6.4 6.3 months. The tip of the catheter was sutured 20 times, omentectomy done in 9 cases and 6 patients underwent ovarian pexy. In the group where the tip was sutured to the pelvic peritoneum catheter life was 8.4 months compared to the non-sutured group which was only 4.1. Omentectomy lead to an overall catheter survival of 8.0 months compared to the no omentectomy group, which had a survival of 5.8 months. The complication-rate concerning early problems and malfunctions in the sutured and omentectomy groups was also lower. Patients who underwent both, suturing of the tip and omentectomy had no malfunctions at all. Conclusion: Omentectomy and suturing the tip can lower the complication-rate and prolong catheter survival. Using these procedures could decrease costs and morbidity and prevent patients from having further operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bullying is generally defined as largely unprovoked, negative physical or psychological actions perpetrated repeatedly over time between bully/ies and victims. Bullying can lead to fear of school, absenteeism, and stunted academic progress, which in turn are precursors to dropping out of school. This paper's aim is to report rates of bullying behaviour, and to investigate whether bullying behaviour predicts high school dropout in Cape Town, South Africa. Stratified, proportional sampling yielded 39 from a total of 214 schools, from which 40 learners were randomly selected from the combined class list of two, randomly chosen, Grade 8 classes in each of the 39 participating schools. Thus 1 470 learners (from a total of 181 018) completed a self-report questionnaire in 1997, and were followed-up in 2001. This report focuses on those learners who had dropped out of school between 1997 and 2001 (n = 776; 55.2%). Univariate and multiple logistic regression models were used to investigate the relationship between bullying behaviours and dropout, controlling for factors known to be strongly related to high school dropout, namely age, socioeconomic status, race, or ethnicity, being raised by a single parent, repeating a grade, and substance use. Odds ratios and 95 per cent confidence intervals were calculated, taking the clustering of schools into account. In1997, 52% of the boys and 37% of the girls had been involved in bullying behaviours. Of the three bullying categories (bully, victim, and bully-victim), girls but not boys in the 'bully-victim' category were significantly more likely to drop out of school (OR 1.82; CI 1.09-3.04, and when controlling for confounders OR 2.60; CI 1.32-5.10). The pervasiveness of both high school dropout and bullying behaviour points to an urgent need for future research, and intervention in these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: All the reported measures of sitting posture, as well as photographs, have one flaw, as these measures are external to the body. These measures use calculations from external bony landmarks to estimate spinal posture, on the understanding that what is being measured externally reflects the shape, health and performance of structures of the underlying spine. Without a comparative measure of the relative position of the structures of the spine, the validity of any external spinal posture measure cannot be established. This paper reports on a study which tests the validity of photographs to measure adolescent sitting posture. Methods: The study was conducted in a laboratory at the Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town. A random sample of 40 adolescents were recruited from the Cape metropolitan schools, to detect differences of three degrees or more between the repeated measures of upright, normal or slouched posture (photographs) and between the posture photographs and LODOX measures. Eligible participants were healthy male and female subjects aged 15 or 16 years old, in Grade 10, and who were undertaking Computer or Computype studies at their schools. Two posture measurement tools were used in the study, namely: Photographs were taken using the Photographic Posture Analysis Method (PPAM) and Radiographs were taken using the LODOX (LODOX (Pty) Ltd) system. Subjects' posture was assessed in simulated computer workstations. The following angles were measured: the sagittal head angle, cervical angle, protraction/retraction angle, arm angle and the thoracic angle. Results: Data from 39 subjects (19 males, 20 females) was used for analysis (17 15-year-olds (7 boys and 10 girls), 22 16-year-olds (12 boys and 10 girls)). All but one photographic angle showed moderate to good correlation with the LODOX angles (Pearson r values 0.67-0.95) with the exception being the shoulder protraction/ retraction angle Pearson r values. Bland Altman limits of agreement illustrated a slight bias for all angles. The reliability study findings from repeated photographs demonstrated moderate to good correlation of all angles (ICC values 0.78-0.99). Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that photographs provide valid and reliable indicators of the position of the underlying spine in sitting. Clinically it is important to know whether a patient is showing true progression in relation to a postural intervention. Based on the results of this study, the PPAM can be used in practice as a valid measure of sitting posture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data on personal- and general-hygiene knowledge and practices among food handlers in the delicatessens of a major retail group in the Western Cape in South Africa. Food handlers were interviewed by means of a structured questionnaire. Although the majority of food handlers adhered to basic hygiene principles, there is definitely a need for proper and continuous training in personal and general hygiene, not only for food handlers, but also for management. The study reported here is of importance particularly in view of new local regulations governing the application of the hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) system. Management is responsible for the implementation of this system, and where supervision is not adequate, the manager of the outlet should intervene to ensure that staff conform to the requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent study on the growth potential of towns in the Western Cape evaluated the growth potential of 131 towns qualitatively and quantitatively (Van der Merwe et al., Growth potential of towns in the Western Cape, Cape Town, Department of Environmental Affairs and Planning, 2005). Two of the several outcomes of this extensive study were first to index, rank, and categorize the towns according to their development potential and, second, to use these categories of town profiles to develop an investment typology as prescribed in the National Spatial Development Phramework (NSDP). Compared with the provincial mean, 79 (60%) of the towns score negative (‘low’ and ‘Very Low’) development index values, whereas conversely, 16 (12%) towns register ‘high’ and ‘very high’ growth potential index values. Three of the four towns with a ‘very high’ status on both the quantitative and qualitative development ratings are well-known tourism towns (Stellenbosch, George, and Paarl). In other towns (Hermanus, Knysna, Mossel Bay, and Oudtshoorn) with “high” values for growth potential on both indices, tourism also contributes substantially to their local economic development. The main objective of this paper is to emphasize the special role that tourism plays in the growth and development of small towns in the Western Cape. Unfortunately, in some urban centers, unrealistic expectations abound regarding the role that tourism might fulfill as an economic growth mechanism for a town. Although many of the towns in the province possess the resources and attractions to support tourism development, competition is strong. Other prerequisites (tourism infrastructure, potential investors, appropriate services, and skilled labor) are absent from many Western Cape towns. Some of these towns possess a unique place identity, and it will be wise to preserve these towns to qualitatively enrich the province’s small town heritage that will complement tourism development in general and also contribute to economic growth over the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of leisure and tourism to re-image and redevelop cities has been interpreted as a mechanism for attracting capital and people. In a period of intense inter-place competition and urban entrepreneurialism, whole built environments become centerpieces of urban spectacle and display. Waterfront developments have become emblematic in this regard. Over the past two decades the redevelopment of the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (V&AW) in Cape Town has been transformed from ‘port’ to ‘playground’ and is internationally acknowledged as one of the most successful of these developments. This redevelopment has, as has been the case with numerous other waterfront developments, not been uncontroversial. New tensions and conflicts have arisen over the use, meaning, and ownership of this space. The acquisition of the waterfront by a consortium of London- and Dubai-based property developers in 2006 has renewed concerns about the ‘plasticization’ of the waterfront and signals the symbolic start of a new phase in this waterfront’s development trajectory. The paper tracks the development of the V&AW since its inception in the late 1980s and argues that general critiques of waterfront developments sit uneasily in the Cape Town context. It is also suggested that these developments can fulfil a very significant and positive role for developing world cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the history of South Africa, which has resulted in a significantly skewed pattern of access to scarce resources in favor of a wealthy racial minority, the issue of access to land and shelter is a central and emotive one. It is also a potential arena of conflict and social and political divisions. It is therefore important to understand, monitor, and resolve these conflicts. This paper is the first in a series of case studies, drawn from within greater Cape Town, which examine conflicts over land and housing and how these conflicts are being managed. This case is that of Wallacedene, a primarily informal settlement in the north of the city, which has been the subject of an informal settlement upgrading process. Different forms of conflict occur over the life cycle of an informal settlement. Community-based institutions form an essential component of conflict management strategies. However, there have to be checks and balances on how these institutions operate. Moreover, accurate, local level records of transactions in land rights, which are often informal transactions, are an essential part of land and housing delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the concept of the global city has become an important expression primarily used to characterise Western cities that have become key nodes for headquarter functions, financial services, information processing, and other activities that have been undertaken to announce their influence as world leaders. However, this paper parallels recent academic moves to look beyond the North and concludes that global cities also exist in the South. It further introduces Cape Town as a contemporary example of one such city that is becoming more worldly in both appearance and outlook. The city's position as an up-and-coming global city can be accredited to a range of comparative advantages and strategic interventions including successful rejuvenation strategies, gentrification of certain neighbourhoods, a rising number of foreign visitors, and the construction of a world-class international convention facility. While it may not be a top-ranked competitor, Cape Town does display global city characteristics such as a growing aggressiveness on the part of urban planners and development practitioners in foreign investment attraction, strategic marketing campaigns, and the hosting of high-profile events that provide valuable lessons for aspiring secondary global cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent environmental impact assessment of a proposed new toll road in Cape Town, South Africa raised some interesting questions, particularly with respect to the impacts of routing a road through an environmentally sensitive area. The paper discusses the challenges encountered in assessing the economic implications of this routing and how workable methodological solutions were arrived at. Our approach was to investigate the longer-term opportunity costs associated with the preferred routing. This was done through focusing on the strategic importance of the area without necessarily engaging in detailed quantification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines struggles for urban permanency in an informal settlement on the fringes of Cape Town in the run up to the South African national election of 2004. It focuses on the rapid emergence of the settlement of Nkanini (Forceful) and the key social, cultural, political and communicative dynamics that framed the ensuing bitter struggle between residents and local City of Cape Town authorities over claims to occupy the land. Analysis frames this struggle in terms of a local appropriation of basic human rights legislation that informs community action and therein claims to residential formality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the need for and contents of a course in forensic Information Systems and Computer Science at UCT. In order to do this, the reader is introduced to computer crime and shown how the forensic process of identifying, preserving, recovering, analyzing, and documenting computer data supposedly used in crimes committed using computers is helping in investigating and solving these types of crime. An actual forensic approach known as the End-to-End Digital Investigation is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we acknowledge that the literature has successfully articulated processes that have brought about environmental injustices. However, it remains weak in its engagement with processes that can or should contribute to the realisation of environmental justice, which can be attributed mainly to the limited but popular perspective that has been championed principally by the North American literature. We suggest that concerns with environmental justice should go beyond the preoccupation with the evidence of injustice to encapsulate processes and strategies for achieving environmental justice in its various forms. Empirically, this implies the need to move away from the preoccupation with toxic waste as the main central focus of the environmental justice literature. We argue that the processes and strategies for achieving environmental justice are as important as the end results that we strive for, particularly in areas of human settlements. To this end we used the case of Mfuleni Flood Relief Project in Cape Town, as an empirical evidence of the complexity of resettlement as a ‘just’ process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Urban agriculture is a contested issue in the larger South African debate on urban poverty alleviation. This paper investigates the economic viability of urban agriculture and informs the debate on the optimal use of open space in Khayelitsha. It compares the economic performance of the Scaga community garden in the low-income township Khayelitsha, predicted in a 1998 study by Fermont et al., with empirical results of a similar study by Fleming in 2003. It concludes that urban agriculture in Khayelitsha is potentially economically viable, subject to certain conditions being satisfied. However, as a land use, urban agriculture competes with housing, ecological corridors, the stormwater management system and nature areas and reserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is one of the six southern African countries where the HIV levels for childbearing women are 20% or higher. We conducted two focus groups aimed at developing an understanding of the intersections of substance abuse, sexual behavior, and violence affecting the lives of women of color in Cape Town, South Africa. Both Colored and Black/African participants reported using cannabis, methaqualone, and alcohol, although they differed on other drugs used. Black/African women also used heroin, and crack cocaine, whereas Colored women used methamphetamines. For participants in both groups, relationships with men affected sexual and substance use risk behaviors. Although the Black/African women did not trust men to use condoms, the Colored women in the study believed that almost all men use condoms. Both groups of women reported high rates of violence, with Colored participants reporting more gang violence and woman-on-woman violence compared with Black/African participants. The paper discusses these issues, as well as the implications for adapting a culturally specific, brief woman-focused HIV prevention intervention for the South African context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reports on an ethnographic study of classroom practices in a township school in the Wesbank settlement near Cape Town, South Africa. Focusing on the ways in which a multilingual and highly diverse student population confronts English literacy, we argue for a view in which norms are seen as emergent and contingent on occasion, place, social and sociolinguistic environment. The school, Wesbank High, is by all standards a ‘peripheral’ school in a marginalised community struggling with very serious socio-economic marginalisation corroborated with a dearth of high-quality public provisions in the settlement. The school is one of these provisions, and teachers and learners share ideals of upward social mobility, often crystallised in discourses on English as an instrument of spatial and social mobility. Learners’ writing in English, however, displays many features of ‘grassroots literacy’—sub-elite literacy characterised by orthographic, syntactic, lexical and pragmatic peculiarities. These peculiarities – ‘errors’ when seen from a punitive and homogeneist viewpoint – appear to be shared by learners and teachers alike, both groups being inserted in a particular, peripheral economy of English. ‘Errors’, thus, are systemic, normal and hence normative, they do not preclude effective and differentiating assessments of learners’ performance but are a productive, positive mechanism that allows teachers to reach a degree of effectiveness with their marginalized and heterogeneous groups of learners. We witness the production of locality through peripheral normativity, as well as the creation of a problem of ‘mobility’ when such locally valid forms are deployed elsewhere. These findings have implications for globalisation theory and views of systemic power in Third-World classroom environments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper reflects on the ethical complexities of fieldwork ‘at home’ in Cape Town, South Africa and Namibia. It draws on Cheater's (1987) idea of the ‘citizen anthropologist’ to consider the obligations of resident anthropologists to the subjects of their research. It shows the shifts in understandings of research and the research relationship and explores the power dynamics of such relationships. It argues that anthropologists should be viewed in terms of situated identifications in order to lead the ethics debate towards more historically and politically conscious considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aircraft noise is a growing social, technical, economic and environmental problem, especially in developing countries like South Africa. It arises from the growth in air traffic, urbanization, uncoordinated planning around airports, and open-window living that makes physical insulation an ineffective mitigating solution. Cape Town International airport is a typical South African example of the phenomenon. Air traffic volume is steadily increasing and an additional runway has been proposed for the airport's efficient operation. The changing noise pattern requires the demarcation of a `noise-controlled area' around the airport as the planning framework that is legally prescribed to manage this type of environmental nuisance. This paper reports the application of geographic information system (GIS) technology to define a control zone using various spatial demarcation techniques. Each alternative zone has different spatial characteristics that define and incorporate the adjacent residential communities affected as well as vulnerable land in the vicinity. An aircraft noise generation model was used to map noise intensity contours. Different spatial noise footprints for six optional demarcation criteria were used to identify affected areas around the airport. The GIS methods were then compared and evaluated to select the optimum planning approach under South African conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological excavations conducted at the site of a former washing place in Cape Town, South Africa, resulted in the recovery of thousands of artefacts, many of which constitute the material signature of washing. In this paper, it is argued that clothing-related artefacts, such as buttons, buckles, and beads, should not be viewed merely as objects of personal adornment, but more broadly, as the by-products of women's labour. When considered as such, these artefacts not only help to engender archaeological interpretations of slavery, but can be used to explore the social, cultural and economic significance of slave women's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Architecture and the built environment in Cape Town provide clues and insight into the spatial models that inform continuities and contradictions in the structuring of rules regulating contact and conduct in urban dwellers' daily routines. This paper explores the transition from classical to modernist space in colonial and postcolonial Cape Town to address some of the tensions informing the use of race and gender distinctions to obscure the relations of production behind the organization of domestic space. It is argued that the transcendent nature of classical space is sustained in the modernist moment, but is obscured, in part, through the abstraction of rules separating public and private spheres of the body and the built environment. Transcendence is shifted from the divine to the secular through the incorporation of scientific principles of efficiency and hygiene into the definition and building of proper working-class housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiences of post-apartheid South Africa have often been used to open dialogue about Northern Ireland and the possible approaches to dealing with the legacy of the conflict. People in Northern Ireland have, for example, looked towards the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and policing in South Africa for further insights. This comparison of South Africa and Northern Ireland has now moved beyond being concerned predominantly with conflict resolution and has come to bear in the consideration of how we should present the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland’s museums and the value of preserving the built heritage of the Troubles. This paper uses the example of the ‘transformation’ in the South African heritage sector that came with the end of apartheid as a means to raise areas of concern that have resonance for Northern Ireland. It shows that for both Northern Ireland and South Africa it is important to think further about the impact of display, the power dynamics embedded in the construction of heritage, and the complexity of building a shared narrative from a contested past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on a paper about an immigrant experience in Caribbean youth literature, presented at the 2004 International Book for Young People Congress in Cape Town, South Africa. Presence of a reverse trend of migration to other countries since the late nineteenth century; Change of the pattern changed after World War II in the wake of the liberalization of the immigration laws in Great Britain; Economic gains and social advancement as reasons for the continued migration of Caribbean people.

The complex geomorphology of the southern Cape is founded on its ancient Gond-wana inheritance. This paper recounts this geomorphology. The development of the southern Cape coastal belt in its present form is traced through time from 600 Myr ago to the present. We outline the geomorphology between Cape Town and Plet-tenberg Bay, south of the continuous east-west-orientated Cape fold ranges of the Riviersonderend, the Lange and the Outeniqua mountains. We subsequently conce-ntrate on the sector between George and Plettenberg Bay, before focusing on the Knysna Basin. The gross geomorphology was well established by the Middle Pleis-tocene. The current landscape has been modified since the Late Pleistocene and into the Holocene by a series of sea-level and climatic fluctuations commencing 130 kyr ago during the Eemian Interglacial. We also address the issue of landscape sensitivity (defined as the potential for rapid, and often irreversible change) from a geomorphic perspective and consider why some catchments in the southern Cape, such as the Knysna Basin, demonstrate high landscape sensitivity. Under stress, such landscapes exhibit an inability to absorb change when comparatively low geomorphic thresholds are crossed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses McCormick's sociolinguistic study Language in Cape Town's District Six [McCormick, K., 2003. Language in Cape Town's District Six. Oxford University Press, Oxford] and locates it within the fields of South African sociolinguistics and language contact studies. McCormick's work raises pertinent questions about sociolinguistic historiography, fieldwork methodology, bilingualism, (socio-)linguistic meaning, and the permeability of linguistic boundaries in language contact. McCormick approaches bilingual speech first and fore- most from a code-switching perspective, broadly combining Myers-Scotton's markedness model with conversation-analysis approaches (Gumperz/Auer). However, there is also evidence in the data that conversational language use in this bilingual working-class community can be interpreted within the framework of mixed languages and bilingual convergence. This raises important questions about norm formation and stabilization in language contact situations, and about the diachronic trajectories of bilingual speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities have realized the need to equip students with appropriate information and computer technology (ICT) skills to prepare them for the workplace. This paper highlights a situation in which academics are uncomfortable with the new technological innovations being used to enhance teaching and learning. The need to integrate technology into teaching practices is an unavoidable reality. Used here is the lens of experiential learning to engage in a self-reflective case study of collaboration with the Multimedia Education Group at the University of Cape Town. The factors necessary for successful collaboration are underlined and emphasis is placed on the need for academics to reflect critically on their practice. It is argued that critical engagement with ICT provides academics with the opportunity to lead by example in the quest to enhance student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of conventional South African travel analysis practices to analyse adequately the travel needs of the poor is examined. The origins and nature of conventional practices are described, and it is observed that typically their scope has been limited to motorized modes, commutes and peaks. The paper reports on the findings of an activity diary survey administered in Cape Town that extended the conventional scope of analysis. An activity-based survey method was selected because it typically yields higher rates of trip recall than other methods and is therefore relatively well suited to investigating travel behaviour in its fuller complexity. Selected findings of the survey are presented to demonstrate that travel occurring by non-motorized modes, for non-work purposes and during off-peak periods, is considerable. It is argued that the conventional limitation in analytical scope can create serious misconceptions of the true nature of travel behaviour, particularly of low-income households. By restricting the focus of analysis to motorized, work and peak period trip-making, there is a risk of a routine bias being introduced in the way the urban passenger transport problem is understood, and in the nature of the interventions that are implemented as a result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Robert Putnam, social capital exists in a relationship of equilibrium. Its persistence or absence is infinite, locked in 'vicious' or 'virtuous' cycles. Using a fine-grained ethnographic account of the rise and fall of collective action in a small neighborhood of Cape Town, South Africa, this paper seeks to explore alternative forms, uses, and sources of social capital. First, I seek to unpack the definition of social capital, disaggregating networks of civic engagement, trust, and collective action, and probing the relationship between them. In particular, I try to construct an account of the creation of trust through collective action, in the absence of previously existing networks of civic engagement. Generalized feelings of trust in turn prolong participation beyond collective action and may institutionalize the type of civic engagement that holds government accountable. As mobilization ebbs, so do the heightened levels of trust that characterize relations during the period of collective action. Nevertheless, a residue of civic engagement persists, making it more likely that residents will engage in collective action in the future. Social capital may be a more fluid resource than researchers have supposed. In particular, this article suggests at least one way in which nascent democratic societies with weak institutions and scant history of civic engagement might be able to produce the type of social capital that may be an important component of democratic consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. This paper examines the effect of pro- and antisocial opinions about communities on cigarette use by Black, Colored, and White 8th- and 11th-grade students in Cape Town, South Africa.Methods. This analysis consists of 1,328 students who completed a questionnaire in 1997 on sociodemographic characteristics, substance abuse, adolescent behaviors, and opinions about their communities. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess hypotheses related to the social development model positing direct and indirect associations between community constructs and smoking within the previous 31 days.Results. White students had the highest proportion (36.3%, P < 0.01) of past-31-days smokers compared to Colored (29.7%) and Black (9.7%) students. SEM analysis showed that among all groups the strongest association (β = 0.29, Whites, P < 0.01; β = .14, Coloreds, P < 0.01; β = 0.05, Blacks, P < 0.05) with recent cigarette smoking was the personal knowledge of adults who engaged in antisocial behavior.Conclusions. Youth smoking behavior may be affected by antisocial adult behavior, subjective adult norms, and community affirmation. Thus, in addition to other factors, social norms and community influence should be considered in preventing adolescent smoking. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Presents a paper on the different approaches to public participation in service delivery in Cape Town, South Africa. Factors influencing the construction of a democratizing state; Examination of the role of local government in fostering public participation in service delivery; Concept of the development of local government; Efforts of the community development directorate to build citizens as customers.

In response to the failure of existing means of service provision, environmental health policy is increasingly adopting a framework of governance for providing sanitation. Governance refers to the patterns of interaction between civil society and government. It is viewed here in terms of four dimensions: political, institutional, technical and cultural. The interactions are often described as partnerships and imply a balancing of joint responsibility. A number of issues can be identified in the literature as requiring consideration when adopting a joint responsibility for environmental health issues. These include, the need to distinguish between community and individual rights; the extent to which there is a shared interest in a community rights issues; the institutional framework for upholding the rights of citizens and the need to guard against new inequalities. The research question was: what are the factors that may inhibit or promote the involvement of community-based organisations (CBOs) in the sanitation provision process? From October 1996 to March 1997, an exploration of these factors was conducted in Cape Town, South Africa. A multiple-case study, with an embedded design, of two CBOs was conducted. This paper focuses on the extent to which there was a shared responsibility between local government and CBOs towards sanitation provision in the context of a bill rights which provides people with a right to a healthy living environment. It was found that institutional and technical capacity, political will and cultural diversity will impact on the balance between rights and responsibility. The four dimensional framework of governance is thus a useful tool for exploring the dynamic and diverse nature of environmental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the progress made since 1994 to reduce the deep social and spatial divisions in South African cities, focusing on the impact of current development trends in Cape Town. Basic public services are gradually being extended to the historically neglected townships. However, the character of economic and social development differs markedly across the city. Private-sector investment and jobs continue to be concentrated in the affluent north and west, while low-income subsidised housing is focused on the poorer south-east. Institutional practices and market forces are tending to reinforce spatial divisions, with costly consequences for the poor majority of the population and for the wider urban economy and society. The broad statements from policy-makers about the need for urban integration are not being translated into consistent action, apparently because of a lack of political will and institutional capacity. The new Unicity authority provides scope in principle for a more coherent approach, based in part on a strategic framework to manage land development in the interests of the whole city, and a more proactive approach towards building a stronger employment base in the south-east. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the Windermere squatter settlement during the 1940s and 1950s, and seeks to contribute to the meagre literature on Africans in Cape Town and challenge the uncritical separation of ‘urbanites’ from the amakhaya (migrant contract workers) so common to the historiography of Cape Town. This division was far more blurred and complex than is usually recognised. Very few Africans in Cape Town had a purely urban or purely rural identity by the 1950s (see Mayer 1971, and revisionist historians such as Beinart 1982; Delius 1989; Bonner 1990). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the discursive practices employed by property owners and the state to justify the exclusion of mostly black squatters from three ‘white’ suburbs in Cape Town, South Africa. In these suburbs, Noordhoek, Hout Bay and Milnerton, property owners voiced nearly identical objections to justify the exclusion of the squatters from ‘their’ neighbourhoods. The main justifications, couched mostly in race-neutral terms, was that the squatters would increase crime, decrease property values, spread disease and despoil the natural environment. It is argued that while these discursive practices often camouflage racial prejudice, this does not explain the occurrence of similar discursive patterns in areas where race has not been a major factor. A satisfactory explanation for these discursive commonalities should thus embrace both class and racial dynamics and must be situated within the context of property relations within a capitalist land market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Muslims in Greater Cape Town are mainly the descendants of two waves of migration to the southern part of South Africa; one wave came as part of the British and Dutch colonial slave trade between 1652 and 1807, and the other as voluntary immigration mainly from India at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. This paper considers the problem of identity amongst these Muslims in the light of the very peculiar socio-political circumstances prevalent in the country. The study suggests that although the religious identity of these Muslims appears to be the most overriding form of identity, this does not necessarily exclude other forms of group or national-origin identity, and that the lack of any significant expression of national identity within the group could be partly attributed to the socio-political conditions in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on several papers discussed at a workshop held December 13-15, 2011 at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa on the conventional disciplinary and academic frameworks in Africa is presented. Topics include knowledge and language formations, popular culture, and the importance of conversation. The workshop featured several speakers including Deputy Vice Chancellor Crain Soudien, theorists Gayatri Spivak and Anthony Bogues.

Due to severe droughts and rapid urbanization, Cape Town municipality including small towns along the West Coast of South Africa are facing water shortages. Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) seems to offer a solution to improve water security in this drought-prone area. This paper presents a conceptual framework within which numerical modelling of the aquifers system is operated to improve water security of West Coast. The ModelMuse software that included MODFLOW and MODPATH packages was used. Scenarios which considered recharge aspects were used to evaluate suitable sites and appropriate scheme of implementing MAR. The result showed that it is feasible to implement MAR in the upper unconfined aquifer unit (UAU) which had estimated available space for MAR of 915.7 million m3. For the semi-confined lower aquifer unit (LAU), the clay-missing window area located at west of Hopefield was a suitable site to implement MAR. However, the prevailing little space in LAU to store recharged water was a limiting factor to support the implementation of MAR scheme. Details on the possibility of implementing MAR scheme for West Coast aquifers system were discussed based of the simulations that were carried out. Although the modelling approach does not provide precise areas but a management tool, it provides key insights that are applicable in aquifer systems of similar characteristics. • It is feasible to implement managed aquifer recharge in the upper unconfined aquifer unit. • The available space for recharge in the upper unconfined aquifer is 915.7 million m3. • Infiltration pond with infiltration rate of 0.003 m/d at the west of Hopefield is suggested. • The clay-missing window is suitable site to artificial recharge the confined lower aquifer unit.. • There is little space to support managed aquifer recharge in the confined lower aquifer at present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Low- and middle-income countries often lack the fiscal, infrastructural and human resources to conduct evidence-based research; similar constraints may also hinder the application of good clinical practice guidelines based on research findings from high-income countries. While the context of health organizations is increasingly recognized as an important consideration when such guidelines are implemented, there is a paucity of studies that have considered local contexts of resource-scarcity against recommended clinical guidelines.Methods: This paper sets out to explore the implementation of the NICE Guideline 11 on family interventions when working with persons with intellectual disability and challenging behavior by a group of psychologists employed in a government health facility in Cape Town, South Africa.Results: In the absence of evidence-based South African research, we argue that aspects of the guidelines, in particular those that informed our ethos and conceptual thinking, could be applied by clinical psychologists in a meaningful manner notwithstanding the relative scarcity of resources.Conclusion: We have argued that where guidelines such as the NICE Guidelines do not apply contextually throughout, it remains important to retain the principles behind these guidelines in local contexts. Limitations of this study exist in that the data were drawn only from the clinical experience of authors. Some of the implications for future research in resource-constrained contexts such as ours are discussed. Smaller descriptive, qualitative studies are necessary to explore the contextual limitations and resource strengths that exist in low- and middle-income settings, and these studies should be more systematic than drawing only on the clinical experience of authors, as has been done in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the ICOTS-6 statistical education conference in Cape Town, South Africa from July 7 to 12, 2002. Enhancement of paper quality through voluntary refereeing system; Number of papers presented; Scientific products.

Abstract: Phytoplankton composition and biomass was investigated across the southern Indian Ocean. Phytoplankton composition was determined from pigment analysis with subsequent calculations of group contributions to total chlorophyll a (Chl a) using CHEMTAX and, in addition, by examination in the microscope. The different plankton communities detected reflected the different water masses along a transect from Cape Town, South Africa, to Broome, Australia. The first station was influenced by the Agulhas Current with a very deep mixed surface layer. Based on pigment analysis this station was dominated by haptophytes, pelagophytes, cyanobacteria, and prasinophytes. Sub-Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean were encountered at the next station, where new nutrients were intruded to the surface layer and the total Chl a concentration reached high concentrations of 1.7μgChl a L−1 with increased proportions of diatoms and dinoflagellates. The third station was also influenced by Southern Ocean waters, but located in a transition area on the boundary to subtropical water. Prochlorophytes appeared in the samples and Chl a was low, i.e., 0.3μgL−1 in the surface with prevalence of haptophytes, pelagophytes, and cyanobacteria. The next two stations were located in the subtropical gyre with little mixing and general oligotrophic conditions where prochlorophytes, haptophytes and pelagophytes dominated. The last two stations were located in tropical waters influenced by down-welling of the Leeuwin Current and particularly prochlorophytes dominated at these two stations, but also pelagophytes, haptophytes and cyanobacteria were abundant. Haptophytes Type 6 (sensu), most likely Emiliania huxleyi, and pelagophytes were the dominating eucaryotes in the southern Indian Ocean. Prochlorophytes dominated in the subtrophic and oligotrophic eastern Indian Ocean where Chl a was low, i.e., 0.043–0.086μg total Chl a L−1 in the surface, and up to 0.4μgChl a L−1 at deep Chl a maximum. From the pigment analyses it was found that the dinoflagellates of unknown trophy enumerated in the microscope at the oligotrophic stations were possibly heterotrophic or mixotrophic. Presence of zeaxanthin containing heterotrophic bacteria may have increased the abundance of cyanobacteria determined by CHEMTAX. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Reports that the majority of the City of Cape Town council's New National Party councilors have signed papers saying they have left their party and intend joining the African National Congress during the two-week floor crossing period. Deadline of submission of the prescribed Independent Electoral Commission papers.

Information about several papers discussed during the one-day Symposium on Nutrition and HIV/AIDS held at the MRC Conference Centre in Parow, Cape Town in South Africa is presented. The event was hosted by the Western Cape Branch of the Nutrition Society of South Africa (NSSA) in collaboration with the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), aimed in forging dialogue in advancing knowledge about the role of nutrition in AIDS-related disease progression and health promotion.

This paper identifies barriers to HIV risk reduction among women street sex workers in Cape Town. To gain access to the study population, investigators undertook observational fieldwork for 9 months. This initial trust-building period allowed for the mutual identification of issues to guide the remainder of the research. Twenty-five individual interviews and four focus groups were then conducted. The following were identified as barriers to the uptake of risk reduction: the role of regular partners and 'special clients' in determining condom use; client resistance to condom use; accessibility of condoms and lubricants; client violence and forced unprotected sex; police violence and lack of protection; substance use among workers; access to health care services; inappropriate genital hygiene practices; inappropriate assessment by workers for sexually transmitted diseases in themselves and clients; and, the role of gatekeepers. Future interventions need to better understand the social context in which street-based sex workers are exposed to HIV risk. They need to be designed and implemented in partnership to develop sex workers' capacity to reduce the risk of HIV transmission among themselves, and their clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]