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A noticeable tendency in the first generation of scholarship on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression (SOGIE) in Africa has been the focus on urban or modern institutional settings. A dominant theme is to document people's struggles against stigma, fear and violence to better inform interventions to strengthen human rights and sexual health for all. In some cases, unintentionally, the impression conveyed of Africa is of a continent with cultures that are uniformly, hostile to SOGIE rights. The present study arises from a large survey among boys and men in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa that problematises that impression. The study revealed unexpectedly high levels of same-sex sexual experience among boys and men in a mostly rural, culturally conservative setting. Following from that revelation, we conducted in-depth interviews to gain insight into their lives. Informants did indeed recount many incidents of discrimination and violence and admitted to sometimes severe emotional health problems. Yet they also spoke of finding love, acceptance, allies, resources, humour and hope for the future. In this paper, we tease out key themes from the interviews in relation to trends in the scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In democratic South Africa, many Black African women are still subjugated by being employed as domestic workers. Increasing evidence emerged amid the COVID-19 pandemic revealing unmistakable signs of modern-day slavery among South African Black domestic workers. This paper proposes a clinical model which examines how gender, class, and race intersections affect the ways in which specifically identified change agents offer new, transforming interventions via clinical intervention. Adopting a clinical approach augments identification of a specific social problem from a scientifically systematic applied approach built on applied theory. We report on the conditions facing vulnerable Black African women using a bricolage research approach. The resulting model explicitly identifies systemic inequalities and indicates how to reduce exploitation and protect workers. The bricolage approach aided the secondary qualitative analysis of complex bonded-labour intersections. The problem of Black African women living as bonded domestic labour is augmented by the girl children's primary socialisation, Western patriarchal re-socialisation which sustains apartheid, and race, class, occupational, and gender inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business incubation is a growing phenomenon in South Africa. Using a qualitative research approach, specifically in-depth interviews with business incubator (BI) managers (CEOs, directors, executives, founders, and sponsors), this study reports on the perceived economic value of Johannesburg-based, fintech-focused BIs and the business gains achieved from the activities of BIs. Applying theory related to business incubation, this paper finds that business incubation is equally about assisting and developing start-ups and entrepreneurs as it is about the business gains that BIs extract from the process. Moreover, private sector stakeholders, particularly banks, are perceived as the primary sponsors of fintech BIs in South Africa, and they invest for various business and socio-economic reasons. Foremost among these is business diversification and compliance with South Africa's affirmative action policies, which feature prominently as the primary benefits the banking BIs gain from the process. We discuss this as the positive duality of business incubation. Finally, we suggest several managerial and policy level implications related to our findings, including the importance of strengthening triple helix partnerships and using regulatory sandboxing to facilitate fintech innovations. Overall, this study contributes to our empirical understanding of BIs in emerging economies broadly and fintech-focused BIs in South Africa in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations in 2015, aspirations towards creating more inclusive and sustainable cities became global standards of urban development. This presents an almighty challenge for policymakers and urban planners, particularly in the rapidly developing cities of the global South, which have historically been known to possess higher levels of segregation and inequality. This article focuses on an analysis of patterns of accessibility, created through different systems of transport, in relation to potential opportunities they may provide for interaction between different social and racial urban population groups, using Cape Town in South Africa, as the primary case study. It examines the relationship between specific social and spatial variables and the geographic positioning of stops and stations of the public Railway, MyCiti Bus Rapid Transit systems and the paratransit, privately-owned Minibus Taxi system. A relational approach was required in order to address both the physical and social aspects of this paper, thus drawing on the discursive and analytical techniques offered by space syntax. The Minibus Taxi system, born out of the informal sector in South Africa, has widely been stigmatised as "chaotic" and "haphazard", however the empirical evidence shown by this analysis of accessibility, suggests that it possesses an inner spatial and social logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The centring of Muslim women in Islam resides in an intertwining historico-politico -theological narrative of gender reform, first promulgated in a seventh century revelation of the Qur'an. Significantly, the gains derived by the women of Islam's first community, have become lost in the dominance of contemporary androcentric-patriarchal interpretations. The argument advanced by this paper is that Muslim educational institutions have a responsibility in (re)-scripting gender justice as an imperative of the scripture; and in establishing resonance between identities of faith and citizenship. I commence by looking at the disjuncture between what Islam says about gender equality, and how it unfolds under the predominant auspices of a patriarchal gaze. As an example of this disconnection, I focus on the trajectory of the 'women in mosques' campaigns in South Africa, spanning from an apartheid to a democratic context – noting that despite, or perhaps, because of far-reaching political change, the resistance encountered by Muslim women has remained the same. Thereafter, I turn my attention to an intertwining consideration: the responsibility of Muslim education in (re)-scripting gender justice as an imperative of the scripture; and the obligation of Muslim education in establishing resonance between identities of faith and citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the limits to participation in community-based approaches (CBAs) for rock art heritage management. The construction of a tourism development project at a rock art site (Wildebeest Kuil, Kimberley, South Africa) in 2001 involved two San communities in order to provide economic and cultural support. Based on the assumption that CBAs are closely linked to participation issues, which are themselves linked to past inequalities, this article analyses the multiple obstacles to community participation despite the goodwill of managers and highlights the limits of CBAs from a critical analytical perspective. To do so, we build on qualitative data from field observations and semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders. Hence, by drawing a conceptualized framework from the Wildebeest Kuil example in CBAs for heritage management, we suggest focusing on the conditions that CBAs impose on the community participation that justify them. Finally, this article draws lines toward a sustainable perspective between CBAs and community participation, and may be transferred to other case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agriculture offers numerous environmental, economic, and social benefits. However, it is often hampered by limited engagement in cities of the global South. This article offers bottom-up perspectives on how to increase the uptake of urban agriculture activities. It draws on urban gardeners' perspectives in the low-income neighbourhood of Mitchells Plain, Cape Town. The mixed-methods approach combined a questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews with urban gardeners, and interviews with civil society actors and a state official. The results indicate that climate and soil conditions are major deterrents to urban agriculture. However, community dialogues about urban agriculture's social and environmental benefits could play a crucial role in increasing uptake and in facilitating conversations about urban agriculture and food more generally. The paper offers recommendations for future interventions seeking to promote urban agriculture and support actors in low-income neighbourhoods in Cape Town and other African cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is one of the countries in Africa that has a high COVID-19 virus infection rate. The government of South Africa introduced the COVID Alert SA App, a contact tracing mobile application (App), to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This paper reports on the challenges users experienced when using the COVID Alert SA App. Using the design-reality gap model, the study analyzed online user reviews of the App and government reports. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis to highlight insights on the challenges of using the COVID Alert SA App. The findings indicate that public awareness was a major limitation of the App, amongst others, including a lack of trust relating to privacy and security when using the App, and a lack of technical support. The insights can be useful for developers, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders to improve the adoption and use of the contact tracing App to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines Luso-Rhodesian economic relations at the twilight of colonialism in Africa. Despite the spread of independence across the continent from the mid-1950s onwards, there was a spirited defence of white rule in Southern Africa from South Africa, Rhodesia and Portugal. The Pretoria-Lisbon-Salisbury axis justified their autocracy as the last frontier for the defence against communism in the region which they argued to be rooted in African Nationalism. This led to the Alcora military exercise and financial cooperation agreements. While all of this is well covered in the literature, what remains to be exhaustively explored are the economic relations in the Lisbon - Salisbury part of the axis. This paper historicises Luso-Rhodesian relations and then unpacks the economic alliance between the two countries to 1974, particularly the ways in which this sustained white rule. Where much emphasis has hitherto been placed on the role Pretoria played, this article brings into context the neglected aspect of the two other partners whose cooperation was crucial to the suppression of the African Nationalist Struggle and the defence of white rule in Southern Africa until the 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of social media, journalism is no longer the preserve of journalists. In specialised fields, such as law, the public in general and lawyers and legal academics specifically are able to "push in" and report and comment publicly on legal matters including trials, commissions, acts of law passed in parliament and other legal processes. These contributions, as this paper explores, are reshaping the contours and content of public discussions of legal matters and of legal journalism in South Africa. This paper suggests that recent theorising of journalism role theory can help understand not just the motivations of these legal interlopers in the journalism space but also how they are shaping a new informational ecosystem in which legal issues, including human rights, administrative and criminal law, and other topics, are brought into the public domain. The paper explores what some South African lawyers understand about the roles they are playing in digital public spaces and how they perceive their contributions and their relationship to the journalism profession and to journalists within that profession. The paper suggests that these lawyers' practices challenge our understanding about how digital media informational ecosystems work and explores how this is impacting journalism in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's economic empowerment remains an important global policy issue and their involvement in household decision-making is critical for development. This paper aims to elucidate a key feature of bargaining models of intra-household decision-making, namely the dynamics between women's economic bargaining power and their financial decision-making power. The paper also documents trends and transitions in financial decision-making. Using balanced panel data from South Africa's National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), the analysis finds that women who are married or living together remain economically disadvantaged compared to their male counterparts. Although gaining ground in terms of financial decision-making responsibility, women also remain disadvantaged compared to men in terms of financial decision-making power. Yet, employment opportunities significantly enhances women's role in financial decision-making, thus arguing a case for continued efforts at women's economic empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we draw from elements of a study that sought to examine how teenage South African girls, both white and black African, articulate their relationship with online sexually explicit materials (SEM). The study contributes to the literature by resisting the dominant discursive practices underlined by the construction of sexuality as an exclusive realm of danger for teenage girls. Challenging this static version of femininity, we focus on the ways in which teenage girls, aged between 13 and 18 years old in two elite private schools, use online SEM to expand their sexual knowledge and engage in pleasurable forms of sexuality. By drawing on individual interviews, focus group discussions and open-ended visual elicitation research methods, we show how girls embrace online SEM in ways that expand the definition of femininity beyond fearing sexuality whilst demonstrating the entanglement with gender inequalities. Girls' relationship with online SEM, whilst tenuous, disrupts normative assumptions around femininity. However, an ambiguous relationship with online SEM is evident as their challenges to dominant femininity are mediated by concerns about respect and innocence, as well as by persistent evidence of male power within online SEM. Implications for school-based sexuality education concludes the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation for inclusive development (IID) is widely promoted as a policy objective in the global South, but the challenge is that there is little design and implementation of context-appropriate instruments and incentives. One critical foundation is network alignment – that innovation policy should be aligned with the goals and strategies of government departments responsible for promoting inclusive development (Von Tunzelmann, N, 2007. Approaching network alignment. Draft Paper for the U-Know Consortium: Understanding the relationship between knowledge and competitiveness in the enlarging European Union). The paper contributes by using qualitative analysis software to analyse the nature of shared policy goals and instruments in South Africa, and assess how these can be aligned with each other and with the goals of IID. Three main spaces for policy intervention are identified, to promote IID in a way that goes beyond the aspirational and the rhetorical. Such analysis of formal policy does not take into account the political will, capabilities and resources for implementation, but it does provide a systematic evidence base to effect strategic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emissions of greenhouse gases together with other anthropogenic activities has caused a change in global climatic conditions with corresponding negative effects on agricultural productivity, biodiversity and other socio-economic indices. Studies reveal that the impacts of climate change are felt most severely by the vulnerable, who have fewer adaptive capacities. In Africa, for example, little is known about local narratives on the 'causes' of climate change, and how such narratives influence climate change coping and adaptation strategies in specific local settings. Where do the 'local' and the 'global' intersect in the search for effective coping measures – and do they? Using a qualitative approach, this paper reveals how local conceptions of climate change appear to be rooted in 'politics' and spiritual forces. The paper highlights not only the major points of divergence between local interpretations and 'Western' conceptions about climate change, but also important areas of convergence between the two ideational domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay – which frames this special issue of Social Dynamics – we focus on the "exchange system," by which newspaper editors mutually consented to reprint material from each other. The work of clipping, citation, condensation and republication were a creative part of the working pattern in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century newsrooms. The exchange system furnished editors and authors with transnational resources by which to experiment with new voices and new forms of address. Newspapers were collages, pasted together by editors who vacuumed material out of a circulating print commons, assembled clippings on the page, and brought it all to print. After publication newspapers were disassembled, clipped, recopied, and archived. The essays collected here show publication to be a springboard by which some compositions vaulted into new domains. Readers clipped newspapers apart and reassembled them in scrapbooks, in folders, and in archives. By this downcycling they refashioned texts as emblems of solidarity, as signifiers of commitments, and as proof of purpose. Our purpose here is to deaccession newspapers, unglue the bits of paper pasted onto the page, and trace the looping passage of texts into and out of print. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of six internationally recognised ‘Sites of Conscience’ in South Africa, District Six Museum in Cape Town has been at the forefront of the community museum movement since its inception in 1994. Organised by those directly affected by apartheid’s Group Areas Act, the Museum is dedicated to preserving and fighting for the rights and memories of those who were forcibly removed from their District Six homes between 1966 and 1982. A uniquely intimate space, the Museum seeks to balance empathy alongside what it calls ‘critical non-racialism’, as it engages in the ambitious project of re-defining racialised communities in post-apartheid South Africa. This paper explores the tensions between criticality and empathy in relation to District Six Museum’s photographic collection. Focusing particularly on the problem of perspective-taking, this paper analyses the ways in which gradual changes in the Museum’s visitor demographic are compromising its non-racial project. Based on qualitative research that suggests contemporary visitors are less likely to engage in the kind of reconstructive, politicised imaginings that the Museum’s displays require, this paper suggests that empathy, rather than a tool for critical engagement with District Six’s history, is increasingly becoming the means through which alternative memories of District Six are silenced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After nearly 25 years of democracy, lives of young South Africans are still profoundly shaped by the legacies of apartheid. This paper considers how these differences are produced, maintained and disrupted through an exploration of changing narratives developed by a small group of South African pre-service teachers, with a particular focus on the narratives developed around discourses of fatherhood generally and absent fathers in particular. We draw on interviews conducted with three students in which we discussed their digital stories and literature reviews. In this paper, we draw attention to the limitations of digital storytelling and the risks such autobiographical storytelling presents of perpetuating dominant narratives that maintain and reproduce historical inequalities. At the same time, in highlighting ways in which this risk might be confronted, the paper also aims to show the possibilities in which these dominant narratives may be challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A case study of a South African metropolitan municipality, Nelson Mandela Bay (NMBM), explores the dynamics between a political party in power and control over rents from public-allocation processes. The case study documents the weakening of the local state and political control of its allocation processes, linked to the parallel rise of a patronage-based business model within the African National Congress (ANC) as the local ruling party. Particular allocation processes that prove to be vulnerable are newly established programmes with as yet underdeveloped controls and institutional mechanisms. The paper reflects on experiences elsewhere in Africa and alternative analytical models to understand the interplay between rents, patronage and political power. The central features of the NMBM example are described in terms of the market forces unlocked by the South African transition to democracy. The paper concludes by looking at the importance of public institutions in circumscribing and directing markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic relations between China and mineral-rich developing countries have revolved around the mineral resources of these countries. Hence, China’s recent rapid economic growth has had positive disruptive impacts on these developing States. Conversely, the more recent downturn in China’s economy has had negative disruptive effects on these developing States. By assessing the value of mineral product exports from South Africa (SA) to China from 2004 till recent years, this paper demonstrates that the decline in China’s economic growth has not been advantageous to mineral-rich developing States. Based on the findings of the spillover effects of this decline in South Africa’s mineral export value to China, this paper aims to instigate the policy-makers of these developing States (including SA) to see the need for their current policies to be re-assessed. This re-assessment is necessary to determine whether their policies are capable of enabling their economies to handle disruptive changes that can occur in their trade relations with a superpower like China. The result should be restructuring their policies so they would have buffers for changes in global mineral prices and demand, as well as enable these developing economies to be better prepared to enter more beneficial engagements with China when her economy grows stronger again. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking an ethnographic turn, this paper does not offer any definitive contemporary solutions towards decolonising dance teaching and training practices in South African but offers instead, as the title suggests, ruminations on an embodied and personal dance journey that reflects on two distinct pedagogical arenas; the first is a need to re-evaluate and assess the viability of chosen dance training methods (or what we might call technique) and secondly, the cognate teaching practices. Potentially what I journey into proposing is an attempt to create a critical dance pedagogy that does not always look at Western/Northern based models as the only ones viable – often defined as 'universal training methods'. I go back to Ngûgî wa Thiong'o (1981) and his call to mitigate the effects of the 'cultural bomb' and think about what this means for dance training and teaching practices in South Africa (and any contemporary post-colonial context). The paper also looks at my work as the artistic director of the Durban-based FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY (now 26 years old) as an example of the contested possibility to re-learn (as dancer, choreographer and teacher) and to re-turn to my body, my skeleton, my blood and bones as the primary way of being and knowing the world – a decolonsied territory of meaning and storytelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perceived dichotomy between public or private benefits to higher education remains of growing interest in higher education research and policy. In this paper, I borrow from the African philosophy of Ubuntu as a conceptual lens to interrogate this binary within the South African context using the 'black tax' phenomenon. Gleaning secondary evidence from online sources, I posit that while black tax is being misused and abused by some beneficiaries, the experiences of majority of black professional graduates within their nuclear and extended families suggest a public good value of higher education beyond the suggested private benefit of earnings and social mobility. I argue using core components of 'Ubuntu' that understanding the benefits of higher education in a context such as South Africa demands a nuance approach beyond the current dichotomy. I conclude that black tax blurs the lines and serves a public good function within a private good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legislation governing public libraries as well as internet access exists in many countries across the globe. Key to the existence of legislation is the assurance that information services and access are developed within the set regulatory framework. Since the existence of public libraries especially in South Africa is highly regulated, it becomes imperative for Library and Information Services (LIS) practitioners to be conversant with regulations governing the sector. This paper reports on a study that was undertaken to examine legislation and support mechanisms that promote equitable information access in South African public libraries. Internet access was part of the study as it forms the basis toward bridging the digital divide. The study was necessitated by the view that puts access to information as a right which is guaranteed by Chapter 2 of the Bill of Rights, enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act No. 108 of). As a result, public libraries serve as the platform on which information is disseminated and accessible to communities. The paper was guided by research questions on; the extent of public libraries development in South Africa; regulations impacting on public libraries and awareness of regulation governing internet access to public libraries. The study employed a survey design in which a questionnaire was used to collect data from sampled 322 respondents while interviews were used to collect data from nine participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What were the effects of a 52 per cent increase in the minimum wage in the agricultural sector in South Africa in 2013? We estimate the short run effects of this policy change on the income, employment, and poverty rate of farmworkers, using individual-level panel data from the Quarterly Labour Force Surveys (QLFS). Before the implementation date, 90 per cent of farmworkers were paid below the new minimum wage level. We find that the wage gain of farmworkers is strongly quadratically related to pre-implementation wages, suggesting lower compliance as the gap between the minimum and the pre-implementation wage increases. We estimate that farmworkers received a median wage increase of 9 per cent as a result of the policy, and we find no evidence of job losses. Overall, farmworkers were 7 per cent less likely to have household income per person below the poverty line. One possible explanation for these outcomes is that endogenous compliance may mitigate against unemployment effects. While the minimum wage literature is large, our paper adds to the small subset of this literature on large increases, partial compliance, and poverty effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, youth (15–34 years) are the most vulnerable age group, assuming a large share of unemployment and NEET rates. This has raised concerns of their living standards, which have a great influence on their overall development. Although much has been written on poverty in South Africa, poverty specifically among the youth remains under-researched. This study analyses factors that determine poverty among youth-headed households in South Africa using the 2018 General Household Survey data from Statistics South Africa. Using a binary logistic regression, the paper provides findings and makes recommendations and imperative insights to policy-makers in advancing the socio-economic status of young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of learning losses and altered schooling patterns in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021). Five major trends emerge from a review of the evidence. These include significant learning losses (38–118% of a year of learning), widened learning inequality, lowered grade repetition rates, increased secondary school enrolments and an unprecedented rise in candidates writing and passing the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination. School completion significantly increased in 2021 and 2022, spurred by COVID-19 adjusted assessment and promotion practices in Grades 10 and 11. Larger numbers of youth also achieved a NSC pass or Bachelor's pass enabling access to university. With twin pandemic shocks of learning losses and secondary school enrolment increases, remediating losses and realigning progression rules to effective assessment practices should be prioritised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite high rates of education expenditure, South Africa's education system remains sharply unequal and underperforms overall compared to other countries. One approach to addressing education inequality and underperformance is community-based peer mentorship. This paper presents evidence from the Nine Tenths mentorship programme in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) as a way to improve academic performance among matric students in under-resourced secondary schools. Using school matric pass rates from 2012 to 2021 and student admission metrics for participants in 2020–2022, a strong association is found between the activities of Nine Tenths and improved academic performance. No-fee schools where Nine Tenths is active record pass rates that are 28 percentage points higher on average than schools without Nine Tenths. Matric students who participate in Nine Tenths increase their Admissions Points Score (APS) by 4.23 points on average, and every student between 2020 and 2022 earned a bachelor pass. While the evidence suggests that Nine Tenths is effective, the programme operates on a relatively small scale and is not broad-based in its implementation. The programme shows is a promising example of community-based interventions to address schooling inequality independently and more efficiently than the current education policy in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the output cost of fighting inflation—the sacrifice ratio—for the South African economy using quarterly data spanning the period 1998:1–2019:3. To compute the sacrifice ratio, the structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) model developed by Cecchetti and Rich (2001) based on Cecchetti (1994) is employed. Our findings show us a small sacrifice ratio, which lies within the range 0.00002–0.231 percent with an average of 0.031 percent, indicating a low level of output to be sacrificed while fighting inflation. Hence, the reserve bank is recommended to sustain an inflation rate within the target range and reap the benefits of a predictable and stable price path, as restrictive monetary policy has only a transitory effect on real variables like output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses apartheid political history and ‘coloured’ identity challenges in South African society. A textual analysis of Nadine Gordimer’s My Son’s Story (MSS, 1990) adheres to understanding ‘coloured’ identity struggle as an ‘Other’ and their racial marginality during apartheid. This research deeply studies race and identity theories with Frantz Fanon’s psychological notion of racism, decolonisation and the idea of cross-racial relations are important to analyse MSS. A textual study of MSS is significant for examining the impact of apartheid on ‘coloured’ characters. This research finds that ‘coloured’ community’s struggle and their racial consciousness of being other were political and psychological challenges during apartheid time. To put in a nutshell, apartheid stories are not individual representations but these are collectively representing the ‘coloured’ community's struggle in South Africa. Racial consciousness of being other was a form of racial exclusion so, a discussion on ‘coloured’ discourse becomes important to contextualise political history. The negligence of the ‘coloured’ issues during apartheid questioned the psychological development of ‘coloured’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-apartheid, South Africa has come a long way in making the inclusion of gender and sexuality equality explicit in its Constitution. To make schools more inclusive for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) identifying learners, the Department of Basic Education has developed what it claims are South Africa's first guidelines regarding sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). Despite the emphasis on equality in South Africa's post-apartheid policies, which set out to protect the rights of LGBTIQ+ individuals, there has been a backlash from conservative advocacy groups, many with links to the US Christian Right. This paper argues that contrary to the disinformation being propagated by anti-LGBTIQ + groups, it is queer and transgender individuals who experience extreme levels of violence and marginalisation in schools. The empirical research makes explicit the bullying and exclusion that transgender and gender-diverse youth experience in school; however, this evidence is neglected in conservative claims that SOGIESC (SOGIESC) guidelines and Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) endanger other learners. Notably, and in stark contrast to those advocating for measures to make schools safer for LGBTIQ + learners, far-right advocacy groups have no empirical basis to support their claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 1939, when the Union of South Africa entered what became the Second World War, the country was confronted with wide-spread political dissent and anti-war resistance which threatened internal security and stability. Incidents of violence, sabotage, riots, bomb explosions, cutting of tele-communication lines and constant militarism designed to thwart the country's war effort were reported. These incidents were perpetuated by the disaffected radical Afrikaner nationalists who opposed the Union's war policy, particularly the militant Ossewabrandwag (OB) led by Dr Johannes Frederik Janse (Hans) van Rensburg, in collaboration with Nazi espionage agents. The government of General Jan Christiaan Smuts implemented multi-faceted security arrangements, which included passing the War Measures Act, unleashing the security services and adopting the internment policy to subdue the militants and preserve internal security. This article examines the development of anti-war resistance and militarism in the Union and reflects on the counter-subversive efforts by the Smuts government to preserve internal security during the Second World War. Ultimately, given the magnitude of the anti-war destabilisation campaign, this analysis illustrates how and why the Smuts government survived a two-front war and managed to sustain the war effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haji Mohamed Dawjee's essay collection Sorry, Not Sorry: Experiences of Brown Woman in a White South Africa draws on personal experiences in its representation of inequality and racism in South Africa. This paper argues that the essay collection participates in the reshaping of discourses of race that have gained new urgency from texts such as Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge and White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. Sorry, Not Sorry introduces an urgently needed South African perspective, particularly through representations of white fragility in essays that are both personal and provocative. Dawjee's essays embody the need to claim center stage and voice racial(ized) experiences, challenges, and concerns. In order to accomplish this, whiteness and white fragility are pushed to the margins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology acceptance models have been used in the higher education context to understand students' acceptance of various learning technologies. Not only was the use of e-learning technologies heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the shift to predominantly online teaching and learning was abrupt. It has become clear that acceptance of e-learning technology will be crucial for higher education in a post-COVID-19 world. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the acceptance of e-learning applications by accounting students at residential universities in South Africa. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) was adapted for this study to examine the relevance of its constructs in understanding students' intent to use e-learning applications. Accounting students registered at four South African universities completed an electronic questionnaire (n = 1 864). Structural Equation Modelling using the Partial Least Squares method was used to test the hypothesised relationships. The findings indicate that performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and habit have a significant relationship with behavioural intention to use e-learning applications. However, gender, academic performance, and level of study do not have a significant moderating effect on these relationships. The study reported in this paper contributes to technology acceptance research by testing the UTAUT2 model in a cross-institutional context with a larger sample size than used in similar studies. Furthermore, it has practical value for higher education policymakers, institutions, and lecturers in their attempts to adapt to blended and online learning models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between family structure and household well-being has received considerable attention in research over the past decades. Very few studies, however, go beyond linking marital component of family structure with household income. This paper uses cross-sectional and panel analytic techniques with data from National Income Dynamic Survey (NIDS) to investigate the effects of family structure on household well-being. Findings from this study show that intact married and cohabiting households have significant positive relationship with household reported well-being, and subjective wellbeing, respectively. Furthermore, extended households, households headed by females and grandparents, have significant negative relationship with household income and consumption. Lastly, bigger household size has significant negative relationship with household reported well-being. Based on the findings, policy towards economic empowerment for poorer households, enhancing income generating, and livelihood projects are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we show how male peer talk about menstruating women may be used to discursively bolster hegemonic masculinities and denigrate women. Focus group discussions among 37 young isiXhosa-speaking men from two South African schools were facilitated by two young men; statements garnered from a sexuality education class about menstruation conducted in the same schools were used as cues. Data were analyzed using discourse analysis. The interactive talk constructed a bifurcation: "disgusting" menstruating women versus "reasonable" non-menstruating women who abide by idealized feminine behavior and are available sexually. We argue that as the non-menstruating woman cyclically become the other (menstruating woman) in women of particular ages, the trace of disgust inhabits the signifier "woman" for these men. Menstruation also disrupted a core identity strategy of local hegemonic masculinities: virile (hetero)sexuality. Given this, discursive distancing of the self from the very topic of menstruation is necessary. Small moments of resistance to these constructions were quickly closed down, and caring masculinity emerged only in the context of negotiating sex during menstruation. Involving men in menstrual hygiene management programs may provide spaces for resistance to denigrating discourses about menstruation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early motherhood can negatively impact health, educational, and socio-economic outcomes for adolescent mothers and their children. Supporting adolescent mothers' educational attainment, and timely return to school, may be key to interrupting intergenerational cycles of adversity. Yet, there remains a paucity of evidence on the factors that are associated with mothers' postpartum return to school and the mediators of this process, particularly across sub-Saharan Africa where adolescent pregnancy rates remain high. This paper is based on interviews with 1,046 adolescent mothers from South Africa. Mothers who had returned to school after birth showed lower poverty, fewer repeated grades preceding the pregnancy, continued schooling during pregnancy, higher daycare/crèche use, more family childcare support, and lower engagement in exclusive breastfeeding within six months postpartum. Mediation analyses showed that lower poverty was directly associated with school return and via two indirect pathways: continued schooling during pregnancy and using daycare/crèche services. This study demonstrates that lacking childcare constitutes a major hurdle to mothers' school return which needs to be addressed in addition to socioeconomic and individual-level barriers. Policy makers and practitioners should consider supporting young mothers with combination interventions which include services supporting school retention during pregnancy and access to, and financial supplements for, daycare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the paucity of evidence determining the aptitude of malicious online content to influence people to resort to violence, social media is fast becoming one of the catalysts of contemporary xenophobic narratives. Malicious contents in the form of fake news and hate speech are increasingly contributing to enflame online and offline tensions and violence. Focusing on September 2019 anti-foreigner violence in South Africa, this paper aims to assess the way misleading online content migrates into real-word attitudes and actions such as anti-migrant violence, reprisals, and counterviolence actions. Based data collected online and group discussions with young Africans in two African countries after the September 2019 outbreak of violence, our findings indicate a consistent positive association between exposition of young Africans across the continent to online content on violence in South Africa and their resentment against South Africans. Nevertheless, our findings could not establish a strong positive correlation between exposition to fake news and outbreak of violence. It is then not sure if messages shared on social media resort to violent offline actions. Taking the example of South Africa, our discussion assessed the propagation of deceitful content via social media, as a strategy for actors (community and political leaders) to advance ideas and social positions in the struggle for livelihood, identity, and sovereignty. The paper concludes that investing in digital media literacy could contribute to reduce the belief in online disinformation and the migration of emotions they create, into offline attitudinal and behavioural actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disabilities are increasing globally, which is attributed to the overall ageing of populations in affluent countries. This trend may differ in low and middle-income countries. This paper assesses the change over time in Years Lived with Disability (YLD) for South Africa and how this compares to regional and global trends. This secondary analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 dataset describes the observed contribution of YLD to Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) per 100 000 people over the period 1990–2016, and forecast to 2030 using simple linear prediction. South African trends are compared to global and sub-Saharan African (SSA) trends to highlight the effect of HIV and policy implications. Globally, the contribution of YLD to DALYs has increased from ±21.7% in 1990 to ±34% by 2016, with high socio-demographic index countries having a higher contribution (49%). HIV, mental health, musculoskeletal, neurological, and sense organ disorders are the five main contributors to YLD in South Africa (54%). Removing the effects of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections on YLD, South Africa's trend appears similar to the global trend, yet opposite to the SSA trend. Our analysis shows there is a growing burden of disability in South Africa. Differences in trends with the regional and global patterns can be attributed to the high burden of HIV and non-communicable diseases in South Africa. Therefore, strategies are urgently needed to increase integration of disability and rehabilitation services into chronic HIV and non-communicable disease management. This calls for disability screening to identify functional limitations in routine data collection and case management. South Africa has experienced an increase in disability prevalence over time. This requires strengthening of services such as mental health interventions, physiotherapy, optometry, and audiology, and linking major disease clusters, such as HIV and the NCDs, to rehabilitation services. The greatest contributors towards disability adjusted life years in South Africa are currently mental disorders (13.8%), HIV and sexually transmitted infections (11.8%), musculoskeletal disorders (10.4%), neurological disorders (8.2%), and sense organ diseases (7.5%). Routine data collection and case management needs to include disability screening to identify developing functional limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forests of South Africa and the neighbouring countries, including Lesotho, eSwatini, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique (south of the Zambezi River), were mapped and classified according to the global system of biomes. The new four-tier hierarchical biome system suggested in this paper includes zonobiome, global biome, continental biome (all recognised earlier), and regional biome – a novel biome category. The existing spatial coverages of the forests were revised and considerably improved, both in terms of forest-patch coverage and mapping precision. Southern Africa is home to three zonal forest types, namely Subtropical Forests (Zonobiome I), Tropical Dry Forest (TDF; Zonobiome II) and Afrotemperate Forests (Zonobiome X). These three biomes are characterised by unique bioclimatic envelopes. Five, two, and eight regional biomes, respectively, have been recognised within these zonal biomes. Recognition of the Zonobiome I and the global biome Tropical Dry Forests in southern Africa is novel and expands our knowledge of the biome structure of African biotic communities. The system of the azonal regional biomes is also new and comprehensively covers the variability of the azonal helobiomes (riparian woodlands and swamp forests), mangroves, and azonal coastal forests. In total, 11 azonal regional biomes have been recognised in the study area. The forest biomes in southern Africa were captured in our electronic map in the form of more than 60 000 polygons, covering 42 416 km2 (1.27% of the study area). No less than 83% of these forests occur in the territory of southern Mozambique. Abbreviations: for the abbreviation of the biome units, see Table 1; CE: centre of endemism; IOCB: Indian Ocean Coastal Belt; MBSA: the area of the Map of Biomes of Southern Africa; VegMap2006 and VegMap2018: Vegetation Map of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland (as released in respective years); for the meaning of the codes of the biome units see Table 1, and for the meaning of the abbreviations of climatic characteristics see Appendix S1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The South African clothing industry is among the industries viewed as strategic for socio-economic development by the South African government. The government's industrial policies incorporated University-Industry-Government (UIG) Research and Development (R&D) collaborations in efforts to achieve the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 and African Union's (AU) Agenda 2063, among others. The literature on UIG R&D collaborations in the context of developing economies and the clothing industry is limited and requires attention to support the achievement of the SDGs and AU Agenda aspirations. This paper presents the status quo of the South African clothing industry using qualitative and quantitative data. The authors interviewed 12 respondents from: the university fashion departments (3), clothing firms (2), clothing consulting firms (2), clothing-related research institutions (2), clothing-related the government divisions (3) and surveyed 22 clothing firms. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the data. The results show that the government plays a dominant role in these collaborations through policy, grants and incentives because of the lack of R&D activities in the South African clothing industry. The institutional sphere performs R&D activities mainly in isolation while some are pockets of R&D bilateral collaborations performed at arm's length. In light of this, the results indicate that the South African clothing industry is currently at the statist stage. The current triple helix model in play may negatively affect the role that the South African clothing industry can play in achieving the SDGs and AU Agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where technology clusters are concerned, extant research has primarily highlighted those that are situated in developed economies. The literature shows that immigrants – those who have moved to a region from other places – have been instrumental in the technology cluster emergence process. However, the heavy emphasis on developed economies has limited our understanding of technology cluster emergence in emerging economy contexts, and the ways that immigrants – the non-natives in a region – or natives – those born in a region – contribute to this process. This paper explores this issue through comparison of nine microfoundations for technology cluster emergence within regional natives and non-natives in the emerging technology cluster context of Johannesburg, South Africa. The research shows that natives and non-natives exhibit different profiles, with demographic factors accounting for some of the observed differences. Importantly, the research contributes to the field the understanding that natives and non-natives in emerging economies hold different potentials to influence technology cluster emergence and, therefore, may require different policy interventions to promote technology cluster development in emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Located within the context of equitable higher education as an enabler of human development, this paper presents a two-pronged approach to the development of a capabilities list for equitable transitions to university in South Africa, as an example of the global South. Drawing on an extensive analysis of the literature on access, participation, readiness and educational transitions, together with quantitative and qualitative data collected from high school and first-year university students, a list of seven capabilities is proposed. The paper demonstrates how the process-based methodology used satisfied all five criteria for the development of capabilities lists proposed by Robeyns (2003). Through the bringing together of top-down and bottom-up approaches in the formulation of the list, the methodology presented here provides a means of avoiding the pitfalls of omission and power (Nussbaum 2000), as well as ensuring space for participation and dialogue (Sen 2004). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Action on the social determinants of health (SDH) is relevant for reducing health inequalities. This is particularly the case for South Africa (SA) with its very high level of income inequality and inequalities in health and health outcomes. This paper provides evidence on the key SDH for reducing health inequalities in the country using a framework initially developed by the World Health Organization. Objective: This paper assesses health inequalities in SA and explains the factors (i.e. SDH and other individual level factors) that account for large disparities in health. The relative contribution of different SDH to health inequality is also assessed. Design: A cross-sectional design is used. Data come from the third wave of the nationally representative National Income Dynamics Study. A subsample of adults (18 years and older) is used. The main variable of interest is dichotomised good versus bad self-assessed health (SAH). Income-related health inequality is assessed using the standard concentration index (CI).ApositiveCI means that the rich report better health than the poor. A negative value signifies the opposite. The paper also decomposes the CI to assess its contributing factors. Results: Good SAH is significantly concentrated among the rich rather than the poor (CI=0.008; pB0.01). Decomposition of this result shows that social protection and employment (contribution=0.012; p>0.01), knowledge and education (0.005; p<0.01), and housing and infrastructure (_0.003; p<0.01) contribute significantly to the disparities in good SAH in SA. After accounting for these other variables, the contribution of income and poverty is negligible. Conclusions: Addressing health inequalities inter alia requires an increased government commitment in terms of budgetary allocations to key sectors (i.e. employment, social protection, education, housing, and other appropriate infrastructure). Attention should also be paid to equity in benefits from government expenditure. In addition, the health sector needs to play its role in providing a broad range of health services to reduce the burden of disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the question of what we should make of Michael Young’s recent work with respect to curriculum theory by considering the particular case of South African curriculum reform. The paper thus traces two trajectories: the evolution of Michael Young’s ideas over time and South African curriculum reform in the post-apartheid period. The paper shows how the two trajectories have run in parallel, not least because of Young’s ongoing involvement and interest in South Africa. Three broad periods in Young’s career are identified: the new sociology of education period; a middle period where he engaged in substantial policy work, focusing predominantly on the relation between schooling and the economy; and his social realist phase, where much of his work has focused on an educational notion of specialized knowledge: ‘powerful knowledge’. The possibilities and limitations of this notion as it has been taken up in the research literature, and in relation to the South African case, are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article re-examines existing interpretations of the ANC's economic and social policy choices during the negotiations that led to South Africa's democracy. The divergence but also convergence crucially in economic policy thinking of key policy actors within the ANC and the National Party (NP) led apartheid regime is contrasted. The National Party's economic policy agenda is discussed with attention to its key 'technocratic' policy actors and how they influentially negotiated neo-liberal policy positions with the ANC. The economic and social policies of the ANC must be seen in contrast as part of a series of attempts historically at advocating social democratic oriented policies. The ANC leadership however marginalised and abandoned these ideas and policies in a social democratic vein in the consensus seeking transition era. The paper tries to explain these shifts and to come to grips with the complexity of the actors, history and politics of ANC policy thinking in the transition era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is rapidly urbanising and urban food systems are being transformed. Some have argued that this transformation is driven by a supermarket revolution akin to that in North America, Europe and Latin America. Others suggest that the supermarket revolution model oversimplifies complex African realities and that urban food systems are experiencing uneven supermarket penetration in the face of resilient informal food sectors. This paper focuses on Windhoek, Namibia, showing that the city's food system is dominated by South African and local supermarket chains. Since the end of apartheid, South African supermarket chains have expanded their operations into Namibia. Supermarket domination of Windhoek's urban food system is a function of proximity of South Africa and integration into South African supply chains. In other African countries, supermarket penetration has been much slower and is even being reversed. Explanations for uneven penetration in different countries require greater contextualisation and more case study research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Critical African Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

South Africa's mobile telecommunications industry boasts four major players, namely Vodacom, MTN, CELL C and Telkom. On the face of it, this suggests a diverse market with healthy competition. However, the costs of mobile services, including data and voice calls remains among the highest in the world, suggesting a distorted and uncompetitive market. Despite increasing awareness of this reality, and growing public outcry, change has been slow and piecemeal, with both policymakers and regulatory authorities not taking decisive action. Using institutional policy analysis, document analysis and interviews with sampled actors from the telecommunication industry, civic society and the regulatory authority, this paper argues that a combination of regulatory paralysis, collusive behaviour by oligopolistic operators, indecisive government policy, and to some degree citizen inaction have led to sustained overpricing of mobile data in South Africa. It highlights the corporate dominance in the policing of this sector, which has implications for citizens' capacity to participate in various spheres of life, and hence for democracy. The paper is premised on the public interest theory and theories of universal (internet) access which are germane to understanding access to information as a human rights issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The HIV epidemic is strongly gendered. Women and girls are more likely to contract HIV for biological and social reasons in Sub-Saharan Africa and men living with HIV are more likely to be lost to follow-up and die on antiretroviral therapy (ART) than women. Care work is also gendered, with women shouldering the burden of HIV care-related work. This paper considers the potential of male delivered community health work to improve men's HIV-related health outcomes and shift gendered norms related to care work. It describes the experiences and perspectives of eight HIV community health workers and their clients from the Cape Town area, and reviews current evidence on male-focused HIV and sexual and reproductive health services, gender transformation and men and care. Findings suggest that meaningfully involving more men in HIV care work may be a way to shift damaging hegemonic masculine norms related to care and health, and that South Africa's roll-out of National Health Insurance could be an opportunity to do so. Barriers to engaging men in this feminised profession are also explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]