This study focuses on the mystical elements in Die swart kombuis (1978) by Sheila Cussons. This second collection of poetry of Cussons grows out of a context of the investigation of the tension between the earthly and the metaphysical that manifested in her first publication, Plektrum (1970), to a concentrated experience of the spiritual and human search for meaning and integration in Die swart kombuis. This publication can be placed within the tradition of Afrikaans mystical poetry. The mystical element is to be observed with the title of the collection, which can be read as a symbol of transformation. The word “kombuis” (kitchen) becomes an archetypal arena loaded with meaning and associations that are explored and expanded upon in the collection. The poems function as poetic expressions of the poet’s relationship with her persona and the internal dialogues that take place during these confrontations. The collection can be read as a creative expression of the poet’s individuation process. Cussons exposes the integration and the interpretation of her archetypes and allows the reader to participate in this sensitive process of personal enlightenment. The various stages of self-realisation find expression in the symbolic use of language and concepts that Cussons employs. This technique takes the reader on an abstract journey of selfinvestigation. By giving poetic expression to her personal process of individuation, Cussons presents the reader with a creative vehicle through which he or she can step into the mystical dimension. Previously, the reader might not have had exposure to complex concepts such as individuation, archetypes and symbolism; however, through the reading of this collection of poetry, access to these ideas is vicariously granted. This study aims to formulate a reading model that is able to identify, analyse and explain the various mystical elements in selected poems in Die swart kombuis. Mystical elements and characteristics are identified to give the reader an introduction to the language use and associated symbolism. The structure of the reading model incorporates ideas and theories from theorists such as the psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung, the philosopher and psychologist William James and the poet, Jungian analyst and cantadora Clarissa Pinkola Estés. The ideas of literary theorists Roland ix Barthes, Umberto Eco, Jonathan Culler and Frank Kermode are also included in the approach to the text. Attention is, furthermore, paid to symbolism, mythology and the use of poetry as a form of therapy and self-reflection.

Deterioration of freshwater systems due to eutrophication is increasingly a global concern because it puts stress on the already limited freshwater systems. Eutrophication is caused by elevated levels of nutrients in river systems primarily from poor land management whereby excess nutrients are discharged into fresh water bodies. It is exacerbated by factors such as human population growth, economic growth and climate change. The main aim of this study was to analyze the changes in the nutrient status of the Berg River since the 1970s and tendencies toward hypertrophic conditions. The Berg River is an important source of bulk water supply for both domestic and industrial purposes in the Western Province, South Africa. The study examined water quality data from the Department of Water and Sanitation’s Resource Quality Information Services for nine monitoring sites along the Berg River to determine the long-term trends. The data sets were analyzed using parametric statistics. The results show that nutrient levels in the Berg River are increasing at almost all the selected monitoring sites. The long term trend showed low mean values for both upstream and downstream with a peak nutrient levels observed along sections that were densely populated and extensively cultivated. Based on available total phosphorus data, all sites were classified as eutrophic except a monitoring site along the most populated and cultivated section of the Berg River which was permanently hypertrophic. Long-term mean values for total phosphorus exceed the recommended international guidelines for aquatic plant life. The long-term mean values of nitrate and nitrite also exceed the recommended guideline for aquatic plant life. Ortho-phospate mean values for the study showed that all sites experienced hypertrophic states at some stage during 1987 to 2017. Student t-test analyses confirm that nutrient concentration loads had increased in the past decade. The results confirm that anthrophogenic activities and climate change are two major drivers of change resulting in an increase in eutrophication. Therefore, serious attention should be paid to the role of anthrophogenic activites and climate change to mitigate the negative impact on freshwater systems.

For the past thirty years, food producers and consumers have initiated alternative food networks (AFNs) because of the perception that the globalising agrifood system is unsustainable, untrustworthy, and untransparent. These alternative strategies for food production and distribution are perceived to be rooted in sustainable, socially-embedded principles. In more recent years, solidarity purchase groups (SPGs) have formed as a distinct type of AFN collaboration that facilitates higher levels of relationships of regard and reciprocity between consumers and producers. The literature of AFNs has largely focussed on AFNs in the global North. There has been far less research focussed on the nature of AFNs in the global South. This research project was undertaken to write a history of an SPG in the global South, in Cape Town, South Africa: The Good Food Club (GFC). The development of the GFC was examined within the context of the global literature on AFNs. Key actors in the GFC, suppliers and members, were interviewed to describe their participation and to discuss the motivations driving their involvement in the GFC. The research explored their values around food production and distribution, and the ways their values have developed or changed over the time of their GFC involvement. Through increased exposure to the food system realities, members have grown in their consciousness as consumers. Members and suppliers expressed desire for connection with each other, for increased embodied knowledge. Members do not believe they will find this this knowledge and connection in the country's corporate retailers. Finally, this research comments the GFC developing similarly to AFNs of the global North, and its consequent limitations as a strategy for the common good of Cape Town.

The phenomenon of serial killers is a fascinating topic for readers, as well as for researchers. This dissertation is going to expand the steadily growing stock of literature regarding the origin of serial killers, but with a focus on the social environment. As the social environment differs from country to country, depending on cultures, history, societies, and economic circumstances, it is important to take a South African perspective when studying the social environment of individuals in South Africa. After explaining the different approaches to define the term `serial killer´, this paper provides a solid review of previous research on the origin of serial homicide in South Africa. While presenting the most popular theories on the origin and development of serial killers in South Africa, it becomes evident that the social environment has never been considered to be a factor that might play a role. This paper criticises the fact that an examination of the social environment of serial killers has been absent in previous research on the development of serial killers. Consequently, it makes it its task to examine the social environment of South African serial killers via multiple case studies. Six South African serial killer cases are presented and the social environment of the individuals is explained. Moreover, similarities between the cases and other conspicuities are pieced together and analysed, followed by a discussion on how they might have an impact on a serial killer. Additionally, the paper gives some food for thought on why the social environment in South African townships is so fertile for serial killers to offend and what cultural and historical circumstances might play a role in developing such an environment. Providing incentives for further in-depth research here and there, this research expands the steadily growing body of literature on serial killers from a South African perspective. The paper concludes that the social environment of serial killers is a huge and interesting subject area, with many possible influencing factors that are therefore worth exploring further. Additionally, this paper proposes that the social environment should be taken into account when researching serial killers in general, and especially their origin and development. This paper takes the initiative to research the social environment as an independent factor within the phenomenon of serial killers. It proposes a preliminary examination approach to the role of the social environment in relation to the origin of South African serial killers for the purpose of drawing attention to the importance of including it when researching serial killers to generate a better understanding of the origin of serial killers and the phenomenon in general.

Namibia has experienced an upward growth of informal settlements since independence. Such settlements have become an integral part of urban areas in the country, a situation that begs for, first, acceptance of this reality and, second, action to mitigate challenges that are generally associated with living in such areas. Due to such challenges, which include high rates of poverty as a result unemployment among slum dwellers, informal settlements have become the glaring face of social exclusion in Namibia. In order to arrest this exclusion, planners and policymakers need to find ways of upgrading these settlements so that the residents’ quality of life is incrementally enhanced. This paper is an outcome of a study conducted in five informal settlements in Windhoek, with a deliberate focus on access - or lack thereof - to basic services and infrastructure. Having highlighted the level of exclusion in those informal areas, this paper recommends that instead of re-inventing the wheel, government must embark of a sustained deliberate exercise to upgrade the existing informal settlements instead of demolishing or eradicating them. Policymakers are urged in this study to accept that people, out of desperation fed by social factors, would continue to occupy land illegally. Policymakers must thus find ways to amicably regulate these invasions. This would help attain a degree of inclusivity and compliance with the Constitutional requirement of ensuring dignity for everyone in the country.

This study explores factors that influence condom use decision-making of adolescents from two schools in the Western Cape, South Africa. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data generated from 16 individual semi-structured interviews. When exploring the factors that influence adolescent’s condom use decision-making, sexual debut and the role that emotion plays in the decision-making process were frequently discussed. The themes which emerged for sexual debut included relationships were about displaying true love which was equated with having sex and respecting parents’ expectations and rules informing decisions not to have sex at this age. When exploring the themes which emerged for condom use decision-making, the adolescents spoke about their concerns for the future and organising their lives. In addition, anticipated fear about falling pregnant, becoming parents and being infected with a disease emerged when exploring adolescent condom use decision-making. Understanding adolescent condom use can assist in aligning sexual and reproductive health (SRH) interventions and supporting healthy SRH decision-making and healthy relationships for adolescents.

This thesis presents an analysis of the South African Parliament’s attempts to create a mechanism to enable oversight of delegated legislation. The question sought to be addressed is, whether Parliament has done anything to create a mechanism to oversee the delegation of its law-making authority to the executive and if so, whether any of these efforts have been successful. This paper illustrated how the making of delegated legislation is not foreign to South Africa’s system of separation of powers as provided for in our Constitution and as interpreted by our courts. It is shown how, despite what the Constitution allows, recent law-making efforts have not strengthened Parliament’s ability to oversee delegated legislation. Instead legislators purposefully sought to curb attempts to improve rule-making and delegated legislation. Similarly, efforts to make delegated legislation more accessible to the public have been missing from government’s list of priorities. The South African Parliament’s efforts to scrutinise delegated legislation is contrasted with the efforts of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and several foreign legislatures. Finally, it is indicated how Parliament, after more than 20 years since the promulgation of the final Constitution, has failed to create a permanent mechanism to enhance and strengthen its oversight of delegated legislation.

In this dissertation, I extend existing acknowledgments of the impact of Sylvia Plath’s visual arts training on her writing in order to argue that her painterly sensibilities are central to her character construction. Specifically, I contend that Plath draws upon a set of visual techniques, which I categorise as hallucinations, mental images, dreams, blurriness, and visual-to-verbal re-inscription. The ability to control subjective experience through the imagination, a philosophy Plath discusses in her journals, acts as a framework for her narratives, and visual techniques become, for Plath’s personae, a method of manipulating their experiences through a blurring of the divide between individual imagination and subjective reality. Plath’s visual techniques further function to represent her personae’s psychic interiority in ways that not only illustrate the limits to expression of the traditionally literary but also offer a means of overcoming these limits through an alternative system of meaning-making. Thus, her personae’s agency exists at the level of form, through self representation that is not stymied by the limitations of the written word, as well as at the level of narrative, through her personae’s control of experience. Moreover, because these visual techniques appear frequently in narratives that are preoccupied with a gendered power dynamic, I contend that we should understand Plath’s moments of resistance to textual tradition as enabling her personae’s escape from patriarchal limitations to freedom and selfexpression. While this recognition of the significance of Plath’s visual techniques should not necessarily constitute a panacea to the constraints of traditional language, it does offer a new way of reading Plath which acknowledges her painterly sensibilities as crucial to the way in which she gives her personae agency and writes back to her literary forefathers.

The Botswana High is a prominent mid-tropospheric system that modulates rainfall over subtropical Southern Africa, but the capability of a Global Climate Model (GCM) to reproduce the characteristics and influences of this system on drought remains unknown. Furthermore, the summer variability of the Botswana High has been linked to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). However, it remains unknown whether the high's variability is a direct response to ENSO. To that end, this thesis examines the capability of a GCM with quasiuniform resolution (Model Prediction Across Scales, hereafter MPAS) in simulating the characteristics and influences of the Botswana High on drought modes over the subcontinent as well as the influence of ENSO on the high. To simulate the characteristics of the Botswana High and its influence on drought modes, the MPAS model is applied to simulate the global climate at 240km quasi-uniform resolution over the globe for the study period 1980-2010. The model results are validated against gridded observation dataset (Climate Research Unit, CRU), satellite dataset (Global Precipitation Climatology Project, GPCP), and reanalysis datasets (Climate Forecast System Reanalysis, CFSR; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA; and ERA-Interim reanalysis 5, ERA5). To investigate the response of the Botswana High to ENSO, this thesis carried out two MPAS model experiments. The first model experiment used observed SSTs everywhere during the study period, while the second experiment used observed SSTs everywhere except over the Pacific Ocean, where monthly climatological SSTs are imposed. The results of this thesis show that MPAS replicates all the essential features in the climatology of climate variables (e.g. temperature, rainfall, 500 hPa geopotential height and vertical motion) over Southern Africa, reproduces the spatial and temporal variation of the Botswana High, and captures the influence of the Botswana High on droughts and deep convections over the subcontinent. In all the datasets (CRU, ERA5, 20C and MPAS), the most dominant five Drought Modes (hereafter DM1-DM5) over Southern Africa jointly explain more than 60% of the interannual variability in the 3-month summer droughts for SPEI and for SPI. ERA5 and MPAS agree that the Botswana High influences the interannual variability of DM1; however, the influence is strong in ERA5 (r = -0.85) and moderate in MPAS (r = -0.42). In addition to that, wet years (+ve SPEI and SPI) are characterized by a weak Botswana High and drought years (-ve SPEI and SPI) by a strong Botswana High. In addition to that, the wet and dry years correspond to the -ve and +ve phases of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), respectively. Given this, the results of this thesis suggest that the Botswana High might be a conduit pipe through which ENSO signals influence DM1 over the region. Investigation into the impact of ENSO on the Botswana High reveals that the absence of ENSO forcing reduces the amplitude of the Botswana High variability, but the signal of the variability remains. While ENSO enhances the strength of the Botswana High, it does not aid the formation of the High. The result of the thesis has application in the improvement and application of MPAS for drought early warning systems over Southern Africa.

Mortality and morbidity due to low birth weight and pre-term birth are high, especially in developing countries where resources and qualified neonatal staff are scarce. There is a need to find measures that reduce the cost of care for low birth weight and pre-term babies without sacrificing quality. Conventional methods of care, where infants are exclusively cared for by the nursing staff using incubators, are very costly. In addition~ morbidity and mortality are adversely affected by some conventional low birth weight care procedures and better means of care are needed to avoid these extra risks. It is therefore important to find a substitute for conventional care without putting infants' lives in danger. The Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) method could be a viable solution, since it addresses many of the problems encountered with the conventional method. KMC is the practice of caring for low birth weight neonates by keeping them in skin-to-skin contact with their mother's chest. The length of time that the infants are placed in this position can vary from a few hours a day, to 24 hours a day. KMC provides warmth and care; it promotes bonding, breastfeeding and early discharge. Published studies of this method also indicate that KMC decreases mortality and costs while improving health outcomes. Much research has been done on the use of KMC with low birth weight children in different settings, but less has been done on its practice from the mother's point of view. This study explores the quality of the mothers' experiences with KMC in the East London Hospital Complex, consisting of the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital (CMH) and the Frere Hospital (FH), where it has been practised since July 1999. The aim of the study was to identify factors that influenced mothers' knowledge, attitudes and opinions regarding the practice of KMC. In order to make recommendations for improving the quality of KMC practice, the study also examines hypotheses that (1) Mothers' receptivity and responsiveness are critical to the implementation and practice of KMC and (2) Mothers receptivity and responsiveness are affected by (a) education and information, (b) nature and levels of support, and (c) general hospital conditions. In-depth interviews were conducted with thirty mothers in the East London Complex. Twenty participants were at CMH and ten at FH. One participant at each hospital was practising intermittent KMC. The findings of this qualitative study demonstrate clear consensus for the questions posed. The findings confirmed that KMC was positively received by mothers in a public hospital setting in South Africa but in order for the practice of KMC to be successful, attention should be paid to the following: (a) information received early and effectively, (b) KMC support in hospital and at home after discharge (c) improvement of hospital conditions. Recommendations based on these findings are included to improve the practice of KMC in hospital and at home after discharge.