The aim of the study was to gain an understanding of the level of political participation of Coloured people in the northern areas of Port Elizabeth. The focus was to investigate and identify if political apathy exists among Coloureds in the northern areas of Port Elizabeth and the reasons thereof, if it existed. The northern area of Port Elizabeth is a historically Coloured area created with the imposition of the segregation policies of the apartheid government. The study attempted to explore means to improve political participation of Coloured people in Port Elizabeth. Coloured people have played an important role in the political landscape in South Africa during the colonial and apartheid period. The voting power of the Coloured people during the colonial and apartheid period have been a determining factor in shaping the political landscape. The study commences with a broad overview of the political participation and political identity of Coloured people during the colonial and apartheid periods, including the current political dispensation. The study also included the analysis of secondary information in the form of statistical data in respect of election results from the 1999 elections through to the 2009 national elections. Data was collected by using qualitative and quantitative methods referred to as methodological triangulation. The qualitative method comprised face-to-face semi-structured interviews with political and community leaders in the northern areas that gained information on the levels of political participation and the extent of political disengagement. The quantitative method included a questionnaire that established views of respondents regarding levels of political participation and apathy to determine the levels of political disengagement. The interviews elicited valuable information on political participation of Coloured people before and after 1994. Information was also gained on the existence and the reasons for the perceived political apathy. Valuable insight was gained as to how Coloured people view the importance of political participation and the results indicated the limited participation beyond elections. Recommendations are made on the importance of civil society participation, the visibility of political parties and the importance of political education and how it can contribute to increased political participation.

The focal point of this treatise is the evaluation of the paradigm shift that has taken place in our South African criminal justice system post 1994. This shift is seen as a move away from a retribution approach to a more victim-centred approach. One needs to remember that the previous regime had unfair and unjust laws: to do away with such laws an interim constitution1 was enacted in Parliament in 1993 and became operational on 27 April 1994. It was the fundamental law of South Africa. This was later repealed by the final Constitution 2 on 4 April 1997. In its preamble it states categorically that it seeks to establish a “society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights” and “(to) lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law”. One of the priorities of democratic government in 1996 was the National Crime Prevention Strategy3 (hereafter referred to as the NCPS). It was designed to reduce the high level of crime in our country and has four pillars: the criminal justice process; reducing crime through environmental design; public values and education and trans-national crime. Pillar one is seen as a move away from retribution as punishment towards a system of restorative justice 4. Furthermore the South African government is a signatory to various international laws, treaties and declarations that uphold victims’ rights. One example would be the United Nations Declaration on the Basic Principle of Justice for Victims of Crime and abuse of Power 1985 - in fact the Victims’ Charter is compliant with this declaration. Yet one cannot negate the fact that in the last two decades the status of victims has altered significantly: there has been some development in the transformation of the criminal justice system. Since 1994 the focus gradually shifted from an adversarial and retributive criminal justice to that of restorative justice. This shift is vindicated by following examples: the adoption of the NCPS; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 5 (hereafter referred to as the TRC); the adoption of the Service Charter for Victims of Crime 6(hereafter referred to as the Victims’ Charter); the enactment of the Child Justice Act7; and case laws which applied restorative justice principles such as S v Maluleke and S v Saayman. Therefore this treatise will evaluate the application of a restorative system by looking at the definition of restorative justice; government commitments to the system; the enactment of Acts and policies that support the system. This will be done in relation to the victims.

This thesis argues that 1994 did not mark a point of absolute discontinuity in the history of South Africa. More specifically, it asserts that 1994 did not signal the end of segregationism; instead of democracy leading to national integration, the Bantustans are still governed and managed differently from the rest of the country. Consequently, it is no surprise that they remain mired in pervasive, debilitating poverty fifteen years after 1994. In insisting that contemporary South Africa is old (rather than new), the thesis seeks to make a contribution to political struggles that aim to bring to an end the segregationist past-in-the-present. The thesis is arranged in seven chapters. The first chapter considers the crisis that has engulfed South Africa historiography since 1994. It traces the roots of the crisis back to some of the fundamentals of the discipline of history, such as empiricism, neutrality and historicism. It suggests that the way to end the crisis, to re-assert the relevance of history, is for historians to re-invoke the practice of producing histories of the present, in an interested, deliberate manner. Chapter 2 narrows down the focus of the thesis to (past and present) property. It suggests that instead of understanding the constitutional protection of property rights and installation of a restitution process as the product of a compromise between adversarial negotiators, these outcomes are more correctly understood as emanating from consensus. The third chapter outlines the implementation of the restitution programme from 1994 to 2008. The productive value of restitution over this period is found not in what it has delivered to the claimants (supposedly the beneficiaries of the programme), but rather in its discursive effects related to citizenship in the new South Africa. Chapter 4 considers the exclusion of dispossession that was implemented in the Bantustans from the restitution programme. It argues that this decision was not an oversight on the part of the post-1994 government. Instead it was consistent with all other key policy decisions taken in the recent period. The Bantustans have been treated differently from the rest of South Africa; they have been deliberately under-developed, fabricated as welfare zones, and subjected to arbitrary customary rule. Whereas Chapters 2 to 4 look at the production of historical truth on the side of domination, Chapter 6 and 7 consider production on the side of resistance. Specifically, they describe and analyse the attempts of an NGO to establish the truths of betterment as dispossession, and post-1994 prejudice against the victims of betterment dispossession. They serve as case studies of third party-led processes that seek to produce truth-effects from within a prevailing truth regime. The final chapter attempts to bring many of the threads that weave through the thesis together, by means of a critical consideration of human rights discourse. The chapter calls on intellectuals to establish truths in relation to the history of ongoing human wrongs in South Africa (as opposed to the rainbow narrative of human rights) Finally, the thesis includes a postscript, comprising technical summaries of each of the chapters.

This study contemplates the development of a South African critical race theory (CRT) with reference to the thought of Steve Biko. From a long view, the aim of this research is to bring the insights of the Black Radical Tradition to bear on the study of law and jurisprudence with particular focus on the problem of “post-­apartheid South Africa”. Working from the scene of the “afterlife” of colonial-­apartheid and situated at the intersection of critical race theory (CRT) and Black Consciousness (BC), this study aims to develop an alternative approach to law and jurisprudence that could respond to the persistence of race and racism as the deep and fundamental fault-­lines of post-­1994 South Africa. The transition to a “new” South Africa, undergirded by the discourses of human rights, nation-­building and reconciliation and underwritten by a liberal and Western constitution followed a path of change and transformation which has resulted in the reproduction of colonial-­apartheid power relations. Settler-­colonial white supremacy as both a structure of power and a symbolic order continues to determine, shape and organise the South African socio-­economic, cultural, political, psychic and juridical landscape. This foregoing problem has remained largely unthought in the South African legal academy and therefore this research takes up the task of recalling the thought, memory and politics of Steve Biko in search of a critical and liberatory perspective that could counter dominant theoretical and jurisprudential accounts of the past and present. The study therefore explores Biko’s historical interpretation of the South African reality and his theorisation of concepts such race, identity and liberation and retrieves these in order to critique and contest both post-­1994 law, society and jurisprudence as well as the faulty epistemological, historical, and ideological terms on which they are based. In the end, the study proposes to read Biko’s thought as standing in the guise of a jurisprudence of liberation or post-­conquest jurisprudence which unsettles the very foundations of “post”-­apartheid law and reason. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Jurisprudence / DPhil / Unrestricted

Thesis (M. A. (Media Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The study investigates the popular South African feature film entitled Safarina (1992) and its depiction of young South Africans’ resistance against the apartheid system during the 1970s through the 1980s. It analyses how Sarafina portrays the socio-cultural and political environment that characterised the apartheid modus operandi; explores the film’s ideological frames of societal dissent during apartheid and examines Sarafina’s cinema verité and application of symbolism in portraying the historical context and narrative of the South African struggle for freedom. The study refers to extensive literature about film as an artistic medium, dynamics in film genre, its role in representing societal dissent, application of filmic elements in technical production and relevance of symbolism in film criticism. The theoretical framework entails two theories, namely Framing and Ideological Film Criticism. The study adopted the qualitative descriptive case study design cognisant of its ability to provide a complex visual and audio-textual description of the events represented during the period under study. It used purposive sampling to select the film Sarafina to elucidate the contours and experiences of the apartheid system in pre-democratic South Africa. Methodological techniques used in the study involved audio-visual content analysis during the data collection process and thematic analysis from which discursive themes were generated and findings were derived. The findings of the study demonstrate the representational etiquette of Sarafina to bring out significant political and cultural memories of the struggle for freedom with potential to create conducive spaces for positive social, cultural and political benefits for the contemporary South African society. The study concludes by recommending the usage of Sarafina and other forms of film genre, not only as artefacts for preserving historical experiences, but also to promote active citizenship, good democratic governance, and effective service delivery in post-apartheid South Africa.

Student Number : 8906043R - MSc research report - School of Architecture and Planning - Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment / This study engages with community participation in post-apartheid South Africa, in an attempt to discern participation approaches that might enhance development in the upgrading of informal settlements within the Metropolitan Cities. The research attempts to come up with an intervention strategy that incorporates participation of Community- Based Organisations, Community leaders and society into informal settlement interventions in South Africa. It reviews the South African framework and structures for informal settlement community participation (including civic organisations, other community-based organisatios, and elected statutory representation). It then examines to what extent lessons from the International literature review 2003 study conducted by Thabelo Nethenzheni may be relevant to the South African situation.

History / M.A. (History)

History / M.A. (History)

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 1998 / This thesis examines Government university policy between 1948 and 1970. University education was already segregated and discriminatory in 1948 and until the mid 1950s, Nationalists disagreed about plans for university education. Their discussions about the development of apartheid university policies helped clarify general apartheid principles, Apartheid university education was based on the principle that university education was not universal but should serve a particular ethnic community. Divided university education was entrenched through the Extension of University Education and Fort Hare Transfer Acts of 1959, which were primarily produced by the Native Affairs Department. The ethnically segregated, state-controlled university colleges they created provided different, inferior educational opportunities to the state-aided, more autonomous, universities. The 'open' universities complied with the compulsory closure of enrolment to black students. The University of Natal was less co-operative, but also ultimately complied. Enrolment at ethnic university colleges was not compulsory, but there were few alternatives. Enrolments at black institutions rose, despite continued opposition to ethnically-defined institutions. In the 1960s Nationalists promoted Afrikaans enrolments and facilities for Afrikaans students. The establishment the University of Port Elizabeth and the Rand Afrikaans University was only considered once the economic boom of the 1960s made this feasible. The Government spent more money on university education generally, resulting in huge increases in enrolments and institutional capacity. Spending on Afrikaans students was most generous. The black university colleges were expensive, but Government spending on black university education, in proportion to the black population, remained low. African school funds were depleted to pay for the African university colleges. The divided university system produced far more white graduates, in a wider range of disciplines, than black graduates. South African universities were isolated internationally and the development of an indigenous intellectual culture and research capacity was hindered, especially at the Afrikaans medium and black institutions. Politically, Nationalist university policy was counterproductive. It failed to build white South Africanism, and the university colleges nurtured Black Consciousness. From tine late 1960s the police increasingly acted against students at the black and English-medium institutions. In 1970 the black university colleges were granted autonomy from Unisa, Keywords: South Africa, apartheid, National Party, policy, education, university, students, Saso, Nusas

Student Number : 0401052V - MA research report - School of Literature and Language Studies - Faculty of Humanities / This research report analyzes the representation of violence in Zakes Mda’s Ways of Dying and She Plays with the Darkness. Ways of Dying questions whether social stability and democracy would be fully realized in post-apartheid South Africa as is predicted in Black South African literature written between 1970 and 1994. Mda’s disillusionment is shown in his examination of undemocratic and violent practices committed within the liberation movement against the oppressed and of “black-on-black” violence in South Africa. She Plays with Darkness posits that political corruption and repression in Lesotho occurred as a result of the erosion of African values and traditions, which caused political leaders and the middleclass to dismiss the well-being of their society for personal gains. For Mda, however, societies and individuals can be redeemed from violence through memory, testimony, fantasy and art. Both novels reveal his endeavor to creatively narrate the experience of violence.