The Unity Movement was established in 1943 after long and hard struggles of the disfranchised oppressed people in South Africa against foreign domination by first the Dutch and then the British ruling classes. The Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM) as it was named was the first National liberation movement to base itself upon several most important principles and policies: (i) That there could be only ONE SOLUTION for all the people in South Africa to bring freedom, justice and peace. Thus the UNITY of the oppressed and exploited who were denied all citizenship rights was a vital necessity.(ii) That the ruling class and all its agents among us had done everything possible to prevent the oppressed from uniting in their struggles. They had used the tactics of divide-and-rule as a major weapon against our struggles. The struggle for UNITY was always to be one important answer to these divide-and-rule tactics.(iii) That the ruling class used the myths of "race" and the "inferiority" of persons of colour, language, "culture" and separate schools, housing areas, hospitals, churches, jobs, etc., etc., to divide people. The Unity Movement declared war on racism, tribalism and all forms of discrimination. It strove to educate and organise the oppressed to UNDERSTAND WHY AND HOW WE were oppressed. It also strove to teach the oppressed that only a united people could win the freedom struggle; the ruling class were always united; as a disunited people we could never win our liberation struggle. (iv) That our democratic rights had been known for centuries. But we must know them and demand ALL of them. Democracy could not exist if people had some democratic rights and lacked others. We had to know this because dishonest political activists used the masses to get privileges (concessions) for themselves while they pretended to struggle on behalf of the masses. There was a minimum we must always demand, but we could and must strive for even more. (v) That the oppressed were robbed of their land and their possessions (mainly livestock); their homes were destroyed. They were driven into labour camps and mission stations after these wars of dispossession. They were forced to work as cheap labour in the mines and on the farms and in the factories and homes of the conquerors. Landlessness was a feature of all colonies conquered by the warring colonial powers. Today these colonial powers form the basis of World Imperialism. This World Imperialism is the main enemy of every oppressed nation with a history of colonial conquest. It is imperialism that paid for and bought over the collaborators who have been in government since April 1994. But now that they are part of government the collaborators are paid out of the taxes they collect from workers and others they now help to oppress. (vi) That the struggle for the land by the combined unified efforts of workers, landless peasants and the rural poor was a vital part of our struggles. Victory here would help to root out unemployment, homes broken up by the migrant labour system, by a lack of education and necessary skills, poor health, starvation and lack of simple things like drinking water and proper sewage. Thus the struggle for the land (point 7 of our programme) and all the other 9 demands belonged together as part of ONE struggle. That in our struggle the interest of the workers, the landless peasantry and the millions of rural poor are our first concern. And that the struggle against foreign domination (that is, against World Imperialism) was part of our struggle for total liberation. In the light of these founding principles and policies it is clear that a "government of National Unity" set up by the de Klerk Government and World Imperialism (that is, the USA, Canada, Britain, Japan and the European Community) cannot bring liberation peace and justice to us. / Abantu bebanye abasoze boyiswe! = Abantu bemunye abasoze behlulwe!

Thesis (M. Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2007. / Apartheid land policy and its constitution as a whole conceptualized and structured South African in a way that encouraged inequalities in terms of land ownership, job opportunities and access to education and recreational facilities. The privileged few (whites and a few black elites and whosoever summarized with the former apartheid regime) got richer and richer while the less privileged people, (in this case, the majority of the black people of South Africa) got poor. They were even denied reasonable access to land and quality education. This investigative study examines the state in which they lived and how they are still living in Squatter Camp as an attempt to make qualitatively justifiable recommendations. Informal settlement is as old as the origin of urban settlement, which existed through industrialization process worldwide. A need for peace, jobs, security, housing and land ownership resulted in the establishment of informal settlement near big towns and mines. The most disadvantaged people, those characterized by poverty due to unemployment, lack of land ownership due to one reason or another move to informally settle nearer to areas in which there are possibilities for employment opportunities and better standard of living. Specifically, this study examines the deficiencies associated with the existing informal settlement through its assessment and evaluation. In this regard all aspects of assessment techniques of the way in which inhabitants of Disteneng informal settlement live i.e. interviewing processes (both structured and informal), observation through site visit, checking of documented information with regard to informal settlement etc have been used. The gaps that exist between urban life and the living conditions of people from squatter camp have been investigated and reflected.

D. Tech. Public Management / The aim of this study is to assess the potential for knowledge management and strategic management in improving the low level of community development in Uitvalgrond. It also looks at strategies that can be used to improve the lives of the community members of Uitvalgrond.

The emergence of a South African womanist (Black) consciousness was investigated. More specifically, the present study examined how the politics of survival gives rise to a feminist consciousness. A meta-analysis of 8 case studies was conducted on how (South) African women's daily struggle for survival in three socio-political and historical contexts translated into a womanist consciousness. Of the 8 case studies examined. 2 pertained to (South) African women's involvement in the national liberation struggle, 3 pertained to the migrant labor system, and the remaining three pertained to the struggie against poverty as a context for the emergence of a womanist consciousness. It was found that women's involvement in the national liberation struggle, the migrant labor system, and the struggle against poverty provided a context in which (South) African women learned about their feminism. The results suggest that the new Black feminism that is slowly emerging on the African continent is rooted in the politics of survival. Also, the findings from the study suggest that the current state of African women's engagement with feminism is one of two extremes. On the one hand, women are individually advancing themselves and on the other women are collectively/politically organizing for the good of all women. The implication of the findings are that (poor) African women's daily struggle for survival leads them (through their actions) to engage with feminism. This in turn sets the stage for an emerging African womanist consciousness. Furthennore, the results of this study imply that in order for the newly emerging Black feminism to grow and make a meaningful contribution in the lives of all, African women need to engage with feminism at a collective, and not just individual level. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

This study aimed to use the Transtheoretical Model of behaviour change (Prochaska and DiClemente, 1983) to investigate the process of smoking initiation in a cross-section of high school adolescents in urban KwaZulu-Natal. This aim was informed by the increase in incidence of smoking among adolescents, who represent a particularly vulnerable population to smoking (Orlandi and Dalton, 1998). The Transtheoretical Model has proved successful in changing problem health behaviours (prochaska and DiClemente, 1983) and lends itself to be a suitable framework for investigating smoking acquisition in adolescents (Werch and DiClemente, 1994). An extensive review of the causes and correlates of smoking uptake and past intervention evaluations suggests that the core constructs of the TTM (Decisional Balance, Temptation and Stage of Acquisition) can be complemented by other another variable, Perceived Social Norms (informed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour, Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975, as cited in Pitts, 1996), to provide a more holistic explanation of smoking acquisition. Alcohol use, parental smoking and certain demographic factors are also found to be salient factors in this process. Findings showed that the perceived cons of smoking were constant across stages and seemed to have no effect on stage membership. Stage differences were explained almost entirely in terms of pros, which increased drastically with later stages. Perceived social norms increased with a later stage, confirming a tentative theoretical relationship between the Transtheoretical Model and Theory of Planned Behaviour. Lack of expressed intention to smoke by participants questions the validity of using the rational decision-making Transtheoretical Model to investigate a process not informed by decision-making. European language speakers were found to be a particularly vulnerable group to smoking, while African language speaking girls show very low rates of smoking. High religiosity was found to be a protective factor, while alcohol use was strongly associated with smoking. Maternal smoking was strongly associated with smoking, but only in girls. No difference in stage was found between schools and grades. The study should be replicated using a longitudinal design to determine the causal relationship between factors and smoking and to further investigate the applicability of the Transtheoretical Model in smoking acquisition. / Thesis (M.A.)- University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004

"I love this country with a passion, but I cannot live here anymore. I can no longer live slung about with panic buttons and gear locks. I am tired of driving with car windows closed and the doors locked, tired of being afraid of stopping at red lights. I am tired of being constantly alert, having that sudden frisson of fear at the sight of a shadow by the gate, of a group of youths approaching - although nine times out of ten they are innocent of harmful intent. Such is the suspicion that dogs us all." (Paton, A. London Sunday Times, November 29 1998) This credence and conviction was echoed repeatedly during personal interviews in South Africa and New Zealand. The added pressure South African Indian respondent's felt emanated from being Indian. This study argues that although the shift to post-apartheid epoch has dawned, the providence of the Indian in South Africa remains relatively unaltered. The consequence is that South African Indians are voyaging for security elsewhere. New Zealand has offered them an alternative home. This area of exploration has not been investigated before, since South African Indian migration to New Zealand is a relatively new exodus. This research explores and investigates why South African Indians are migrating to New Zealand, on a micro and macro level. This dissertation focuses on three main aspects: the reasons for migration to New Zealand, the effects on the respective countries and the formation of new 'identities and home.' I developed my main arguments based on the data retrieved from the personal interviews - the greatest source of information for this work. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002

This thesis argues that it is both necessary and possible to change the world. Changing the world requires engaging with, to try to understand it from the basis of lived reality, and then acting. Our ability to do this is, however, affected by hegemony, which attempts to convince us that the way things are is either normal and natural and the only possible way they could be, or that it is impossible to change them. Nevertheless, there is always resistance to this, and I suggest that we might learn something useful by examining how this happens. The thesis thus explores Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, and its applicability to our current world; and also considers resistance to this. I argue that the nature of capitalism has shifted, and discuss how this shift has impacted on hegemony, identifying three current interlocking hegemonic ideologies. I consider current resistance to this hegemony, including the role of social movements. Much resistance, and many social movements, I argued, cannot properly be called counter-hegemonic in that, although it/they may critique the dominant economic system, it/they remain trapped within hegemonic logic. However, it is clear that there is existing truly counter-hegemonic resistance, including some social movements, and I argue that Abahlali baseMjondolo is one such counter-hegemonic movement. Thus it is possible that those who join/align themselves with this movement might be considered to have ‘unlearned’ hegemony and be useful subjects for this study. I thus consider the life stories of seven people who have aligned themselves to this movement, in order to determine whether they have indeed ‘unlearned’ hegemony, and if so, how. I discuss relevant and appropriate theory for examining this phenomenon, including experiential learning, transformative learning and Freirean emancipatory learning. I argue that whilst these theories of learning are helpful, they cannot entirely account for unlearning. I then turn to the theory of the event of Alain Badiou as a possible complementary or alternative way into thinking about unlearning. I apply both the learning theories and Badiou’s theory of the event to the stories, all of which show strong evidence of unlearning,, and consider how useful the theories are in understanding this. I conclude that all of the theories help to some extent in understanding the unlearning in stories. There are, however, fundamental differences between the learning theories on the one hand and Badiou’s theory on the other. I construct a model showing that the basis of the difference between the adult learning theories and Badiou’s theory of the event rests on the locus of the trigger for transformation. I argue that Badiou’s theory provides a very useful additional perspective to adult learning theory; but that it cannot be considered to have replaced existing theories in understanding how people learn informally to think and act in counter-hegemonic ways. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

This thesis offers an overview of the functions served by various mobilisations of "poverty‟ and "the poor‟ across the histories of capitalism. It shows how "poverty‟ and "the poor‟ come to be shaped as governmental categories in the interests first of encouraging the acceptance of wage labour in industrial society, and then in encouraging the acceptance of a logic of individual responsibility and entrepreneurship as wage labour declines in post-industrial society. It also examines the deployment of discourses of poverty within social movements, showing the close relationship between the elaboration of governmental discourses and resistance in the contested process of the "making‟ of "the poor‟. In particular, it explores the increased mobilisation of discourses of poverty in post-apartheid South Africa, where, it is shown, "poverty‟ and "the poor‟ are shaped as governmental categories that aim to fashion particular forms of life for that population group identified and targeted as the poor, and become ways for poor people to make demands of the state in the context of the adoption of neoliberal policies, such as cost recovery, privatisation, and the flexibilisation of labour. Through a close exploration of state policy formulation and community struggles in the sphere of the delivery of basic services, this thesis presents the contested field of signification and production that emerges around the meeting of the basic needs of the poor in the City of Johannesburg and Orange Farm (a particularly disadvantaged part of the city) as a case through which to think through contemporary mobilisations of "poverty‟ and "the poor‟ in relation to processes of subjectivation and the possibilities for the production of subjectivities antagonistic to the logic of capital. Focusing on the City's most recent return to indigent management as a strategy to contain and address the needs of the poor, in the context of organised resistance on the part of poor communities, this thesis offers an experience of a process of neoliberalisation as a contested process, in which attempts to shape and deploy "the poor‟ and "poverty‟ as governmental categories come up against mobilisations of "the poor‟ in challenge of the dominant logic of commodification, the market, and "individual responsibility‟. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Durban, 2010.

This article investigates the impact of poverty and shocks on adolescents, particularly their role in early school drop-out. Data consisting of 3043 adolescent interviews and 1945 household interviews, from a recent survey entitled Transitions to Adulthood among Adolescents in Durban, South Africa, has been used. While conventional explanations of drop-out acknowledge the role of socio-economic factors, this paper attempts to understand, through an asset-vulnerability framework, the explicit contribution of poverty and shocks to drop-out in the South African context. The results indicate that the poverty-based theory of drop-out put forward, while appealing, does not fully account for drop-out. Instead, it would seem that among poor households the education of their children is seen as an asset that is to be protected. It is proposed that school feeding schemes be reconsidered as a social welfare tool to support poor households in their attempts to keep their children in school. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

This study considered the work of the Department of Community Development in the City of Cape Town, through the manner in which it implemented its developmental vision, its institutional consequences and the obstacles to its realisation.