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Die rol en bydrae van die Stedelike Stigting tot die politieke hervorming van Suid-Afrika

- Hoogenraad-Vermaak, Salomon

The politics of constitutionalism in South Africa : institutions supporting democracy

- Tsoeu-Ntokoane, Seroala Rose

  • Authors: Tsoeu-Ntokoane, Seroala Rose
  • Date: 2015
  • Subjects: Democracy - South Africa , Human rights - South Africa , Political participation - South Africa , Constitutions - South Africa , South Africa - Ethnic relations , South Africa - Politics and government
  • Language: English
  • Type: Doctoral (Thesis)
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/84566 , uj:19236
  • Description: Abstract: This thesis on the politics of constitutionalism is a broad prognosis on state institutions supporting democracy in South Africa. Empowered by the country's supreme law, the chapter 9 institutions are essential elements of the country's rights infused constitutional democracy. This study employed a qualitative research design to make sense of a wide variety of secondary data sources on selected cases of Chapter 9 institutions: the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) and the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRCRL). The research design used is decidedly qualitative, with the express intention of understanding unique interactions that formed these institutions' creation and their current performance. The study's primary premise is that the constitutional form of government in South Africa and the institutional arrangements it has spawned are bound up in a legitimatising and symbiotic continuum. However, these institutions have not actualised the purpose for which they were set up but are experiencing ongoing performance problems. In this thesis, I have argued that the problem with these institutions originates from their founding. They are products of the country's fractious history, internationally driven human rights discourse and also the negotiated settlement. Seeing these institutions this way allows for a wider reading of constitutions as more than rule-bound documents, but as empowering certain institutional forms over others. In this way we can understand why Chapter 9 institutions were created and the effect they have had in realising desired outcomes of the democratic government. Having found these institutions to be underwhelming in terms of their performance, necessary questions have been asked of their relevance to the current political environment. Logically capacitating them may seem to be a panacea for their problems. Government support in terms of funding is essential as much as political will to support and respect the work these institutions do on a continuous basis. Similarly, these institutions have to perform, they have to actually do the job for which they were created, they should strive to be accessible and public support of their function will naturally follow.... , D. Litt. et Phil. (Politics)
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A critical assessment of the South African police service culture from a learning perspective

- Smit, Jeanetta Maria

Freedom and representation in South Africa

- Hamilton, Lawrence

  • Authors: Hamilton, Lawrence
  • Date: 2011-11-23
  • Subjects: Political freedom , Political power , Political representation , South Africa - Politics and government
  • Type: Inaugural
  • Identifier: uj:15232 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/4066
  • Description: Inaugural lecture--Department of Political Studies, University of Johannesburg, 16 August 2011 , South Africans are not yet free. In this paper I hope to convince you that this is the case and show you why. I shall do so by considering the relation between freedom, power and group representation in South Africa. In order to do so I focus on the material components of individual freedom and analyse how the power of group representatives strongly determines this freedom. I begin by developing a more substantive and concrete account of freedom than is the norm within contemporary political philosophy, an account in which freedom is understood in terms of freedom of action, or more particularly in terms of the power to act and the requirements for that power. I argue that freedom is power within and across the following four dimensions: 1) the power to act or be as I would choose in the absence of internal and external obstacles; 2) the power to determine the government of my political association; 3) the ability to develop and exercise my powers and capacities self-reflectively within and against existing norms and power relations; and 4) the power to determine my social environment via control over my economic and political representatives. Given modern conditions, where most of our lives are characterised by membership of a variety of overlapping and interdependent groups, I then go on to assess four forms of group representation, and argue that the aesthetic theory of representation provides the best means of understanding the freedom of groups. The main claim I defend is that, as with individuals and states, since groups can be represented they can be more or less free; and that their degree of freedom heavily determines individual freedom of action. I end with an analysis of group freedom and representation in South Africa, in particular how her electoral system, high rate of unemployment and rampant inequalities undermine the possibility for meaningful group representation and thus freedom. This is most acute and obvious amongst the large numbers of unemployed and working class of South Africa; but it is also true of the much smaller subsection of political and economic elites who are ultimately powerless in the face of the crime and instability that results from our highly unequal and poorly represented society. In sum, I argue that freedom is power and that a person is free through other people, not in the sense that freedom is only possible in small communities or action in accordance with a set of moral injunctions, but in the sense that freedom is dependent on the creation and maintenance of a political order that enables the exercise of critical, real and effectual action for all, as individuals or via control over economic and political representatives with meaningful power.
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Internasionale isolasie: Suid-Afrika in vergelykende perspektief

- Geldenhuys, D. J.

  • Authors: Geldenhuys, D. J.
  • Date: 2009-03-05T08:13:39Z
  • Subjects: South Africa - Politics and government , South Africa and international isolation , International isolation
  • Type: Inaugural
  • Identifier: uj:14954 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/2238
  • Description: Inaugural lecture--Department of Political Science, Rand Afrikaans University, 29 October 1985 , The main objective of the presentation is to analyse and explain the nature and extent of South Africa's international isolation. This is done through a dual comparison: on the one hand, South Africa is compared with other isolated states and, on the other, with "normal" or integrated states. There are several historical and contemporary examples of states that isolate themselves and of others that are forced into isolation. In the first section, the study deals briefly with states that have opted for voluntary isolation, viz. the USA, Britain, Japan, China, Burma, Bhutan, Nepal, Albania and a few others. The second and most important section focuses on enforced isolation. Countries that are ostracised by the international community, are popularly known as pariah states. Four basic areas of isolation -diplomatic, economic, military and socio-cultural -are distinguished. In each of these a number of specific indicators of isolation are proposed, enabling one to measure the extent of isolation. South Africa, Israel, Taiwan and Chile are today commonly regarded as the primary examples of pariah states. In this presentation, only South Africa's isolation will be examined in any detail. The discussion of the other three cases should nonetheless be adequate to gain a reasonable understanding of their present isolation. In dealing with South Africa's isolation, aspects of voluntary isolation are first considered, before examining the Republic's current enforced isolation. When all the indicators of isolation are taken into account, South Africa appears to be far more isolated than either Israel or Chile. The closest modern analogy to South Africa is Taiwan, which is in some respects more and in others less isolated than the Republic. South Africa however differs from Taiwan as well as from Israel and Chile in the sense that its isolation is combined with far more intense international pressure and other punitive measures than experienced by any of them. There is also a far stronger pro-isolation lobby within South Africa, than in any of the other three states.
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Die rol van georganiseerde arbeid in rewolusionêre strategie met besondere verwysing na die aktiwiteite van die South African Congress of Trade Unions (Sactu)

- Prinsloo, Michael Wilhelm

‘n Kritiese ondersoek na die bydrae van Afrikaner sakelui in die vestiging van 'n nuwe politieke bestel: 1985-1992

- Hoogenraad-Vermaak, Salomon Cornelius Johannes

  • Authors: Hoogenraad-Vermaak, Salomon Cornelius Johannes
  • Date: 2011-12-12
  • Subjects: Afrikaner businesspeople , South Africa - Politics and government
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:1894 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/4248
  • Description: D.Litt. et Phil. , The international and national historical realities triggered the fragmented white South African business community to unite. These realities also influenced the National Party (NP) government to consider the views of business people with regards to the impact of apartheid politics on the South African economy. South African business people, and especially the Afrikaner business people, exploited the access that they had with Afrikaner political decision makers by influencing them through business organisations such as, the Urban Foundation. The united South African business people took on a leadership position as a result of their increased influence on the political decision-makers. As the leadership group with an inclination towards a non racial democracy, the business community soon found themselves at loggerheads with the NP government. The enlightened Afrikaner business persons refrained from criticising government openly, and supported government’s reform strategies in order to keep debate on reforms alive. The Afrikaner business community shed their ‘passive resistance’ and legitimisation role after the Rubicon speech in August 1985. From thereon, they openly played a role of bridge building by reaching out to anti-apartheid movements and to identify common areas of interest within the society. Towards 1987 enlightened Afrikaner business people were active in the broader South African business community and they were able to mobilize the Consultative Business Movement (CBM) to participate in the dismantling of apartheid. The vision of business was to establish a free market system through broad base consultation. The business community actively supported the democratisation of South African businesses, the redistribution of wealth, the active participation of blacks in a free market economy, as well as the advancement of growth in black communities. The Enlightened Afrikaner business people adopted a social involvement strategy that piloted Black Economic Empowerment transactions, such as Sanlam’s initiative to broaden black equity share ownership. Broad based consultation also cultivated a practical approach to the economy and established a framework for debate that incorporated socialist and capitalist ideas. This compromise strategy was aimed to counter non-viable socialist options regarding redistribution of wealth and the opening up of the economy to previously disadvantaged groups. After 1990, when the NP government accepted that the political landscape must change, the business community embraced a change role, a bridge building role, a facilitator role and a catalyst role to usher in a New South Africa with a bigger middle class and acceptable free market principles as government policy. Accordingly, the enlightened Afrikaner business people actively participated in the negotiation for a political future of South Africa. However, they always remained politically neutral during the actual political negotiation process.
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Development perspectives on policy management and the dynamics of intergovernmental relations in South Africa

- Mentzel, Clive Patrick

Die Suid-Afrikaanse beleidformuleerders se persepsies van die kommunistiese bedreiging teen Suid-Afrika

- Botes, Willem Nicolaas

  • Authors: Botes, Willem Nicolaas
  • Date: 2015-02-09
  • Subjects: Policy sciences , Communism - South Africa , Communist strategy , South Africa - Politics and government
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:13165 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/13196
  • Description: M.A. (Political Studies) , The study sets out to establish the importance of perceptions in policy formulation and to illustrate this with reference to South African policy formulators' perceptions of the communist threat against the country. It is commonly accepted by theoreticians that in policy making, the state of the environment does not matter so much as what policy formulators believe it to be. Furthermore, there will always be a discrepancy between images of reality and reality itself. The operation of various mechanisms that influence perception and may, over time, result in inaccurate images, are highlighted in the first part of the study. A second part focuses on early perceptions of the communist threat in the post- Second World War period. This provides the basis for an in-depth discussion of perceptions and measures to counter the perceived threat during Prime Minister Vorster's term of office (1966-78) and part of Botha's premiership (1978-82). Four outstanding and related themes can be identified in the study. The first is the perception of a constantly growing communist threat to both the internal and external security of South Africa. A second theme evolves around policy formulators' growing awareness, and later acceptance, of South Africa's international isolation to counter the perceived threat. A related perception is that Western powers, by refusing to help South Africa, not only make themselves available as handymen of the communists, but form part of a total onslaught against the Republic. South Africa's increased reliance on more aggressive means to ensure its security, is a third theme. This illustrates the interplay between perceptions and decisions. A final theme refers to the initial identification of the threat as directed primarily at whites. Later, no doubt due to the perceived need for a united South African response to the threat, the emphasis shifted to include all population groups as targets of communist subversion...
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Controlled by Communists? : reassessing the years of ANC exile

- Landau, Paul, S.

Community perceptions of ward councillors’ communication approach in service delivery protest areas: the desirability of a strategic communication approach

- Molefe, Lebohang

  • Authors: Molefe, Lebohang
  • Date: 2016
  • Subjects: Political leadership , Local government|zSouth Africa , South Africa - Politics and government
  • Language: English
  • Type: Masters (Thesis)
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/241116 , uj:24816
  • Description: M.A. (Strategic Communication) , Abstract: Service delivery protests have alarmingly increased year on year. There is a dominant sense that community members are frustrated and feel this is their only recourse in expressing their anger concerning perceived lack of delivery of municipal services such as electricity, water, sanitation, housing or roads. There are also indications that lack of engagement by ward councillors greatly adds to frustrations experienced by community members. At the same time, very little is known about ward councillors’ current communication approach in service delivery protest areas. The research purpose of the study was firstly to explore ward councillors’ current communication approach as perceived by community members in a selected service delivery protest area and secondly, to evaluate the desirability of a strategic communication approach in a community prevalent with service delivery protests. Sebokeng township was identified as the study’s focus area due to the prevalence of former service delivery protests, some of which turned violent. The research design was exploratory and qualitative. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with six focus groups, with participants between the ages of 18-24, 25 and above, or mixed, during April 2016 were conducted. The findings indicate that ward councillors are perceived as not being visible to community members and are therefore missing the opportunity to influence them. Interactions with ward councillors are experienced as a monologue, top-down, and not empowering community members to self-organise or to collaborate on community developments. As a result community members feel unheard and forgotten, and ultimately disengaged. At the same time, participants express the need to self-organise and to collaborate with ward councillors in solving community issues. They also have a desire for dialogue and bottom-up communication with ward councillors; however, these need to be coupled with tangible delivery and accountability without which ward councillors are perceived to lack legitimacy. Drawing on the findings as well as the theoretical foundations of strategic communication and stakeholder theory, some conclusions and recommendations are made with respect to an alternative communication approach which can enrich communication of ward councillors with their community members.
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Reviewing the prevalent political risks in South Africa’s mining industry : the case of the platinum sector

- Setlhalogile, Matlala

  • Authors: Setlhalogile, Matlala
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: Mines and mineral resources - Political aspects - South Africa , Platinum mines and mining - Political aspects - South Africa , South Africa - Politics and government
  • Language: English
  • Type: Masters (Thesis)
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/246105 , uj:25505
  • Description: M.A. (Politics) , Abstract: The Marikana massacre, together with the 21-week long strike of 2014 in the platinum sector, put the hostile labour relations noticeable in the mining industry, particularly the platinum sector, under the microscope. The Marikana massacre was also sparked by what was seemingly a labour dispute. Beyond exhibiting existing hostile labour relations in South Africa’s platinum belt and the mining industry as a whole, the two occurrences also indicate the prevalence of political risks. The mining industry is a key industry in terms of the country’s economy. The platinum sector, in which the aforementioned events unfolded, is also a key sector. The mining industry accounts for about 17% of the private sector investment and a significant portion of the country’s exports. South Africa, being responsible for amounts exceeding 70% of the world’s production, is the largest producer of platinum. The sector is also the largest employer within the mining industry. In addition, the platinum sector accounts for most of the mining industry’s income. The sector accounted for 29% of the mining industry’s income in 2014, which was R117 150 million of R407 857 million. In 2015, the sector accounted for 22% of the mining industry’s R234 billion GDP. Considering the significance of both the mining industry and the platinum sector and the hostile labour relations characterising the platinum sector, it was necessary to investigate the prevalent political risks in the mining industry, with particular interest in the platinum sector. The study only assesses four political risks ie labour relations, skills shortage, electricity constraints and the regulatory regime. These political risks are not exclusive to the mining industry and the platinum sector. The study attempts to show whose actions are responsible for the proliferation of the risks.
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Towards results-based developmental public governance in the Cape Town city-region of South Africa

- Sewell, William James

  • Authors: Sewell, William James
  • Date: 2013-04-10
  • Subjects: Public administration - South Africa - Cape Town , Local government - South Africa - Cape Town , Public administration - South Africa , South Africa - Politics and government
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:7439 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8297
  • Description: D.Litt. et Phil. (Public Governance) , South Africa’s negotiated revolution in 1994 was hailed by many observers as a beacon to other societies wracked by ethnic conflict. The Constitution adopted in 1996 was widely endorsed by most South Africans and by international commentators, as a model for building an equitable, developmental state, uniting the diverse aspirations of citizens. The author’s political and professional roles in recent decades has involved him in several dimensions of the democratic transition; and has made him acutely aware of the results-based urban governance debates, drivers and developmental dilemmas. Significant motivation for this thesis’ problem statement was that the constitutional vision, values and principles have been compromised by the processes of redefining the democratic state – exacerbated by the public governance caveats of political greed, managerial incompetence and systematic corruption of state power. Available evidence of systemic progress in the post-1994 public governance implementation and outcomes has been frequently negative, yet substantially inconclusive, in terms of the achievement of democratic equity and socio-economic development. The particular focus of the thesis is on the results-based co-operative government imperatives of rapid urbanisation and sustainable socio-economic urban development across the Cape Town City-region. Although the concept of a functional city-region is relatively new in South Africa, the significance of results-based urban developmental public governance has been internationally recognised and has been highlighted by the South African Cities Network, in its State of Cities reports. Expectations of effective community engagement and equitable services in the geo-politically heterogeneous, rapidly expanding Cape Town City-region, second most populous in South Africa, were the subject of the insightful Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Territorial Review (2008). This review, one of an international series of city-regional studies, has served as the thesis baseline for the Cape Town City-regional developmental governance assessment, analysis and formative evaluation.
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The aims, objectives and actions of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, 1955-1965

- Chauke, D.N.

The weak domestic base of South Africa's good global citizenship

- Geldenhuys, Deon

The diplomatic agenda of an aspiring developmental state: the case of South Africa in multi-lateral engagement

- Sobekwa, Nezo

Were women hidden from South Africa’s political history? : a life history of Mina Thembeka Soga

- Mashala, Koena

  • Authors: Mashala, Koena
  • Date: 2020
  • Subjects: Women - Political activity - South Africa , Women politicians - South Africa , South Africa - Politics and government , South Africa - History , Soga, Mina Thembeka
  • Language: English
  • Type: Masters (Thesis)
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/414673 , uj:34983
  • Description: Abstract: The history of South African women in the struggles against racial and gender oppression, inequality and segregation brought about by colonial systems is generally presented as a subservient history that occurred in the shadows of a more powerful masculine dominated history. Therefore, the stories of many very contributory and self-sacrificing women remain untold or sketchy. With the above view, this study aims to narrate and discuss the contributions to South African history that were made by one Mina Thembeka Soga, an African missionary, teacher and social worker from Queenstown, in the Cape province. Her actions and perspectives were influenced by Christian feminist ideologies and liberal politics. As the president of the National Council for African Women formed in 1936 to champion the rights of African women amidst the suppression of their voices by the political machinery and gender ideologies, Mina Soga spearheaded various project for the support and emancipation of women and children such as feeding schemes for children, creches, schools, support for the disabled and hostels for the destitute. Eventually, Mina Soga found herself working over and above women’s issues by representing both men and women dispossessed of their lands mainly by the Glen Grey Actas well as those who were subjected to unfair and inhumane working conditions in capitalist formations. The story of Mina Soga is considered from a common social theory perspective, shared by various feminist writers, which recognises that the history of women is basically the history of society and the two cannot be separated. Thus, the story of Mina Soga is linked with the various local and international historical developments as a way of showing this link. The study relied on a qualitative approach and used primary sources such as the original letters that Mina Soga wrote in her representations and the minutes of the NCAW. Secondary sources were also consulted. , M.A. (Historical Studies)
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The emotional lives of (Black) men : interrogating the affective economies shaping (Black) male bodies in three post-apartheid South African texts

- Thompson, Jarred James

  • Authors: Thompson, Jarred James
  • Date: 2011
  • Subjects: Blacks - South Africa , Apartheid - South Africa , South Africa - Politics and government
  • Language: English
  • Type: Masters (Thesis)
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/455301 , uj:40293
  • Description: Abstract: This dissertation involves reading for the affective economies which surround—and shape the surfaces of—black male bodies represented in three, post-apartheid South African texts: The Reactive (2014) by Masande Ntshanga, the film Inxeba (2017) and Room 207 (2006) by Kgebetli Moele. Through a theoretical lens combining feminist and queer phenomenology, post-structuralist influences, affect theory and critical race theory it will be argued that the literary representations of black masculinities in the texts reveal how affective economies surrounding black male bodies come to shape the surfaces of those bodies while, in some instances, constituting moments of queer disorientation which disrupt the “straight line”(Ahmed, 2006) of culturally-idealized forms of black masculinities. This is done by framing the texts as sites where the discursive and material (im)possibilities of black, male subject formation can be read, analyzed and critiqued. Echoing Ratele (2014), I argue that masculinity studies in South Africa requires an incisive move away from the pathologizing of black males toward a deeper understanding of how African traditions along with past colonial regimes come to interact with the ontological position of domination and inequality that majority of black males in South Africa find themselves in. Focusing on the ontological position of black males in South Africa allows for truly transformative gender work which “radically revisit[s]” Black, White, straight and queer masculinities as gendered expressions which too require “forms of empowerment” that reach toward a more gender-equitable society (Gqola, 2007b:117). I argue that to empower men toward a revision of their relationships with discursively-constructed masculinities requires a critical investment into the emotional lives of men, seeking to understand how attachments to specific, idealized, masculine objects shape what black, African male subjects can do with their emotions. Such an investment is crucial for any gender transformative project. I contend that the literary and film artefacts under analysis offer an aesthetic, affective and discursive way of thinking about how the “cultural politics of emotion” (Ahmed, 2014a) impacts the gender order in South Africa. , M.A. (English)
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