Thesis (diploma in librarianship)--University of the Witwatersrand.

Thesis (diploma in librarianship)--University of the Witwatersrand.

M.Ed. / Afknouery (bullying) is ’n wêreldwye verskynsel en die gevolge raak die afknouer, sy slagoffer en die hele gemeenskap. Hierdie navorsingstudie toon dat afknouery ’n werklikheid en ’n algemene verskynsel ook in óns skole is. Die insette van die skoolhoofde en leerlinge van die Verre Noord Laerskole, van Johannesburg-Oos D9, is gebruik om die omvang van afknouery in hierdie skole te bepaal asook die effektiwiteit van bestaande voorkomende maatreëls. Daar is gefokus op die verskillende vorms van afknouery, die oorsake en gevolge daarvan, die omvang van die probleem en die karaktereienskappe van “bullebakke”en hulle slagoffers. Skole se gedragskodes is onder die soeklig geplaas en voorkomende maatreëls en maniere van ingryping is bespreek. ’n Kwalitatiewe navorsingsmetode is gevolg om ’n diepgaande insig te kry in die skoolhoofde en leerders se menings en ervarings aangaande bogenoemde aspekte. Fokusgroep onderhoude is gebruik om inligting te bekom en die volgende kategorieë is geidentifiseer: • Die omvang van afknouery • Die formulering en implementering van ’n beleid teen afknouery • Strategiese ingrypingsaksie Die bevindings van die navorsing het aan die lig gebring dat die omvang van afknouery in Johannesburg-Oos D9, Verre Noord Laerskole, ernstige afmetings aanneem. Beleidsformulering teen afknouery en die implementering van sulke maatreëls is gebrekkig en te min ondersteuning bestaan vir die ontwikkeling van sodanige maatreëls en/of strategiese ingrypingsprogramme om die probleem aan te spreek. Daar word dus aanbeveel dat hierdie saak dringend en ernstig aandag ontvang en dat skole betrokke raak by voorkomende beleidsvorming en ingrypaksies. Die bekamping van hierdie euwel het ’n noodsaaklikheid geword wat nie langer verontagsaam durf word nie. Om die bestaan van afknouery te ignoreer, is om dit goed te keur!

M.Sc.

M.A. / „Street trading is an activity which involves the selling of goods or the supply of services for a reward in a public road‟ (City of Johannesburg, 2009b: 5-7). This minor dissertation is an examination of the conditions and aspirations of street traders in Johannesburg‟s Central Business District (CBD), specifically Kerk Street. The underlying rationale is the fact that, while there is a small, but growing body of literature on street traders in South Africa, there is little on street trading in the Johannesburg CBD. Moreover, to the best of the researcher‟s knowledge, virtually none of this deals with the views and aspirations of the street traders themselves. This dissertation is based on the following research question: How did the conditions and aspirations of street traders in Kerk Street change between 2005 and 2009? Fieldwork was conducted in two phases: 2005/6 and 2009. The separation in periods of study, and the opportunity it provided for comparison, was unintended and largely as a consequence of work pressures. But it proved unexpectedly beneficial. The researcher‟s original concern was to discover how traders viewed their existence and detail of the developments that they would like to see. Conditions were clearly poor and tales of dissatisfaction were predominant in informal conversations and formal interviews. When the researcher returned to the field in 2009, the assumption was that conditions would be the same, allowing me simply to update my earlier assessment. However, this was not the case. Whilst much was familiar, some conditions had improved and the traders were relatively more positive about their situation and more optimistic about the future. It is clear that the Johannesburg City Council has intervened to introduce improved conditions, and this contributed to improved morale amongst traders. It is recommended that there be continued engagement between street traders, the City of Johannesburg, and official bodies, namely the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD), Central Johannesburg Partnership and Metro Trading Council. This will serve as inspiration for more traders to learn how to grow their businesses, to ensure that infrastructure around trading is further improved, and to increase adherence to and acceptance of relevant by-laws concerning the traders.

M.Tech. / The main purpose of the study was: • To determine the satisfaction and confidence of the graduates of the University of Johannesburg’s Chiropractic program. Additional objectives included: • To discuss the differences between the educations received at South African Chiropractic programmes and internationally recognized Chiropractic programmes by comparing the syllabus offered in each program. • To determine from the data received which areas of the program could be improved. There are 132 graduates from the University of Johannesburg’s Chiropractic program. These doctors of Chiropractic have the same skills and knowledge as internationally qualified doctors of Chiropractic however the South African programmes do not have international accreditation. The university is currently going through a process to obtain international accreditation. The postgraduate student surveys are important tools that can be used to determine where the course could be improved and where it is excelling. Being in daily practice these Doctors of Chiropractic are able to objectively point out the strengths and weaknesses of the current programme at the University. This is integral to the advancement of both the practitioner and the profession. A questionnaire-based study comprising a convenience sample was used to determine postgraduate student confidence in the Chiropractic course. A total of 47 Chiropractors responded which comprises the sample group that was used in this study. Results showed that the graduates of the University of Johannesburg’s Chiropractic course are confident in their adjustment skills, diagnostics and the knowledge pertaining to these subjects. As experience increases so does the overall confidence in adjusting techniques. With treating paediatric patients, approximately half the respondents were confident and majority of respondents think it is essential to have paediatrics incorporated into the course. With regards to pharmacology, only 43 of the respondents had had pharmacology as part of the syllabus, all of the respondents were not confident. With regards to research, approximately half of the participants were not confident in doing research. Upon qualifying most postgraduate students open up their own practices. In conclusion, on the whole the graduates of the University of Johannesburg were confident; however the data indicates that areas relating to research, pharmacology and paediatrics may need investigation.

The following dissertation considers the ways in which we have come to perceive of our post-apartheid South African urban spaces. It focusses on the representation of our contemporary urban spaces as I posit that they are re-imagined in the works of Phaswane Mpe, K.Sello Duiker, Nadine Gordimer and Lauren Beukes. In particular, it is concerned with the representation of Johannesburg, and specifically Hillbrow, in relation to the space of the rural, the suburban enclave and the city of Cape Town. I argue that while so-called urban ‘slums’ such as Hillbrow have been denigrated in the local imaginary, the texts that I have selected draw attention to the potentialities of such spaces. Rather than aspiring to ‘First World’ aesthetics of modernity then, we might come to see such spaces as Hillbrow anew, and even to learn from them as models, so as to better create more fully integrated and dynamic African cities.

With rapid economic growth and urbanization, solid waste generation and management is becoming a major social and environmental issue in Johannesburg. This rapid growth coupled with new consumption patterns has resulted in the over utilisation of natural resources. Consequently, there is more land being used for waste disposal and both pollution and environmental degradation are on the rise. These by-products of economic growth are not compatible with the principles of waste minimisation, which sees reuse and recycling as means for sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development is defined as “the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs” (Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development Report, 2002). Sustainable waste management advocates for the integration of environmental matters with economic and social issues. It is within this sustainable environmental management context that the research work is undertaken to fulfil the principles of sustainable waste management practices. Recycling traditionally involves the recovery of plastics, glass, paper, cardboard, metal and rubber from the waste stream. The recovery of these materials will achieve significant volume reduction, on average according to Lombard (1990) between 30-40 per cent of domestic refuse. But, this should be economically viable and produce marketable goods. This option provides opportunities for salvagers to reclaim recyclable materials to sell and generate an income. Salvaging on landfill sites is strongly discouraged by the Minimum Requirements for Waste Disposal by Landfill (Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, 1998) and by the National Waste Management Strategy (Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, 1998) as it interferes with the site operations and places salvagers at a high health and safety risk. The main aim of this mini dissertation is to determine whether or not recovery of recyclable material by salvagers contributes to the reduction of waste quantities to be handled by the landfill sites. The methodology used to obtain data for this research was the questionnaire interview approach where there was an interviewer who asked predefined questions and an interviewee who responded and answered questions as posed. In the discussion of both qualitative and quantitative data analysis, the research followed Dey’s (1993) approach, which seeks to combine different approaches such as the descriptive, classification and connection methodologies to gain a deeper understanding of qualitative data. The research findings are that white paper, clear plastic, newspaper, scrap metal, cardboard boxes and common paper are some of the waste components that are being recovered from landfill sites. But some recyclables are more sought after commodities than the others due to their monetary value and availability, white paper being the most popular and common paper the least popular. The results also illustrate that the recovery percentage does not contribute to a significant reduction in quantities of waste to be disposed at a landfill site, but it does benefits financially the salvagers through the resale of the recovered recyclable commodities. / Dr. L.G.C. Scheepers

No abstract

M.A. / 'Writing the city'‘, particularly writing the city of Johannesburg, in post-apartheid South African fiction can be considered as a new approach to interpreting South African culture; a new approach that takes into consideration and reflects the changes taking place in present-day South African society. By means of close textual analysis, this study examines the ways in which the city of Johannesburg is in the process of being re-imagined and reinvented in post-apartheid South African fiction and, therefore, in the post-apartheid memory. Particular attention is paid to narrative techniques utilised in the primary material as a means of not only re-writing the space of the city, but the space of South Africa as well. This is essential in order to reveal how transformation is narrated in post-apartheid, transitional texts and how this narration changes in post-transitional South African fiction. The chosen texts are read and interpreted as a type of cultural history or memory – as a means of constructing South African culture and history through textual production. In particular, this dissertation illustrates how texts written on Johannesburg, such as Phaswane Mpe‘s Welcome To Our Hillbrow (2001), Ivan Vladislavić‘s The Restless Supermarket (2001) and Kgebetli Moele‘s Room 207 (2006) are utilising the subject matter and every day life of the city as an 'idea‘; as a means of expressing societal concerns and other important changes taking place in the country as a whole. This study focuses on how each of the three chosen novels contributes to South African culture and history by narrating its transformative history. Topics such as the depiction of Johannesburg as a palimpsest and as a cultural archive of historical moments in present-day South Africa are explored. In this regard, themes and representations of movement, transition and transformation in the city of Johannesburg, as well as attempts to memorialise this space, are dealt with. In addition, the representation of a 'gendered‘ city as a means of narrating such transformation is also discussed. Here, reference is made to concerns such as the shifting position of men and women in the city, changing gender-related city consciousness, and altered gender discourse surrounding the city. This dissertation identifies and considers how depictions of the city of Johannesburg are being altered and modified in contemporary South African literature and contemplates the ways in which the narratives reveal how transformation is narrated via the Johannesburg landscape.