This thesis examines the reception of material developed by Soul City: Institute for Health and Development in South Africa and distributed in four Sub-Saharan countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia. Soul City is the focus of considerable resource, research and media attention in South Africa. The study thus critically assesses Soul City's efficacy in neighbouring states, such as Lesotho. The focus of the study is on Choose Life; a booklet intended for 12-16 year olds and assesses its reception by the target group in Lesotho. The study investigates how message-decoding practices of the target audience in Lesotho will bear on a product originally designed for a South African audience. The sample's interpretation of the Choose Life booklet is therefore assessed to determine the extent to which their reception produced 'preferred', negotiated or aberrant meanings. Therefore Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model (1980) offers the theoretical framework upon which the reception of Choose Life is analysed. Development communication models are also used to explain the role of Soul City as the agent and Youth in Lesotho as beneficiaries in the implementation of the project. Results established by this study indicate that there is need to conduct extensive formative research of target audiences and also involve beneficiaries in projects intended for them. Different readings of the booklet were observed which were attributed to age, gender, place of residence (Urban or rural), cultural and communication barriers . This means these factors were supposed to have been considered by Soul City prior to the Choose Life intervention. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

In the Lesotho primary education system, the language policy states that the mother tongue (Sesotho) should be used up to Standard Three (this is the third year of schooling in Lesotho) as the medium of instruction. English is prescribed as the medium of instruction from Standard Four upwards. This sudden change presents enormous challenges for teachers, especially in Standard Four. The purpose of my study was to investigate Standard Four teachers’ curriculum development experiences of the transition from the mother tongue to English as medium of instruction. The study also sought to understand how teachers plan and teach at this level. This was a qualitative interpretive study that adopted a case study methodology. Participants were purposively selected. They were three Sesotho-speaking Standard Four teachers in three different urban schools. In addressing the research questions, data was generated through qualitative methods such as semi-structured teachers’ interviews, classroom observations, document analysis and a personal reflective journal. Data was analyzed and interpreted through an open coding process. The findings revealed that these teachers experienced several challenges in the use of English as the medium of instruction. Teachers were faced with three key issues that they had to deal with, namely, overcoming their own perceptions of their competence in English, their low sense of self efficacy with regard to teaching at this transition class, and the difficulty with teaching pupils in a second language before these pupils had gained proficiency in their mother tongue. Teachers regularly employed codeswitching as a strategy to make meaning in their classrooms. The study recommends pre- and in-service teacher professional development, and a review of the Lesotho language policy in the primary school. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

In 2005, the Lesotho Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy introduction prescribed that all educational institutions for formal learning must play a major role in the improvement of teaching and learning mechanisms that develop a society that is ICT literate and capable of producing ICT products and services. This policy is part of the motivation for this study. The study's focus is to explore the extent to which ICT has been integrated in teaching and learning in one of the Lesotho higher education institutions. Its fundamental aim is to understand the ways in which the Lesotho College of Education (LCE) integrates ICT in teaching and learning environments. My study adopted the mixed method approach which based fact on an interpretive paradigm, with lecturer's interpretations regarding ICT integration in the college collected through structured questionnaires which were hand-distributed to purposefully selected lecturers as study participants. These questionnaires served as the basis and guide for face-to-face individual interviews of lecturers from the Computer studies and Agricultural/Environmental studies departments who were interviewed at their respective offices. Two sessions of sixty minutes, non-participatory observation of thirty computer studies students were also conducted. This study was guided by the activity theory/model based on the construction of real social change for pedagogy in a college. The concepts of the theory/model have been used to analyse the findings of this research. The findings of this study indicate that ICT integration creates opportunities in teaching and learning, where learning is focused on learners, and educators are only facilitators. Despite the opportunities that ICT has in learning, obstacles such as lecturers' lack of skills and incompetence in ICT literacy, limited resources and the infrastructure were found to be major factors hindering ICT integration in the college of education in Lesotho. The recommendations are that staff development and financial support should be considered a priority in ICT integration in this context. Also that ICT integration should include internal and external partners who can donate funds that will help in the implementation of ICT in teaching and learning at Lesotho's institutions of higher education. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has become common as the world realise that the environment has to be managed well for sustenance of life on the planet. As the EIA has now become a sine qua non in the management of the environment, the issue is how to ensure that it is best employed to achieve the desired results. There are various approaches that countries have used in their EIA processes, but it appears that the most efficient application emanates from having a legal basis for its use. The two countries which are subjects of this study, Lesotho and South Africa, have been chosen primarily because of their geographic proximity to each other, which factor often exposes them to similar environmental experiences. Their response to such environmental challenges then becomes important. This study concentrates on statutory enactments in terms of the EIA processes by the two countries. Their EIA regimes are compared and contrasted. This is done against the background of what is considered the best international EIA practice. It is revealed that the two countries are not at par in their use of and experience with the EIA process. While Lesotho is encouraged to enrich its new practise from South African experiences with the EIA, South Africa too has some way to go towards the best EIA practice. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

This research sets out to examine how media are utilised by the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Culture through the Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation in collaboration with specific leisure tourists destinations to promote domestic leisure tourism in Lesotho. The research relied on the use of unstructured interviews based on interview schedule in order to elicit comment, opinion and information from respondents. The researcher also used questionnaire to establish the appropriate media that could be used by the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Culture through the Lesotho Tourism Development Co-operation to promote leisure tourism in the country. Through these interviews and questionniare, problems that surround media promotion of domestic leisure tourism were also identified. These problems include financial constraints and limitations that are set by the Government in choosing the type of media that has to be used by the Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation to promote tourism in the country. The study discovered other weak areas in the Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation’s marketing of domestic tourism. Suitable recommendations have been made as to how such flaws could be addressed in order that it could increase the numbers of domestic leisure tourists. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2008.

Traditional dances of the South Sotho of Qwaqwa were studied as a product of culture. The two major objectives were: to document, and analyse specific South Sotho dances and relate them holistically to the culture; and to determine which dances of the girls and the women would be suitable for inclusion in the Syllabus for Physical Education for Girls in the Republic of South Africa according to certain educational criteria. The aspects investigated in the study included the following: 1. An ethnographic image of the South Sotho relating to ancestry, way of life and culture; 2. Dance as a cultural phenomenon and the place and function of dance in the culture of the South Sotho; 3. The notation of selected dances, an analysis of the dance movements and choreographic structure of the dances; 4. The educational value of folk and ethnic dances for implementation in the physical education programme, according to relevant objectives. The techniques used to identify, classify, document and analyse the dances, included fieldwork done through personal observation, participating observation, video filming of the dances, sound recordings of the songs and personal interviews. The sequence of steps was notated descriptively and graphically. The movements of the free body segments and dance technique were described and the floor pattern of each step sequence, the information with the accompaniment and the floor plan of the dance were transcribed graphically. The number of repetitions of the step sequences and the order of the parts of the dances were notated according to counts. The following dances were identified: women's dances - mokgibo, moqoqopelo, ledingwana, thojane, timiti and famu; girls' dances - mokgibo, play dances, ndlamu and bale dances; men's dances - mohobelo, mokorotlo, diphotha and setapo; boys dance the same dances apart from the mokorotlo. Wedding dances and thojane are also danced together by both sexes. The four dances which were documented include the wedding dance Ausi o manele, a play dance (Tikwe ha malome), ledingwana-women's dance (Diponono ha kena basadi) and mogogopelo women's dance (Ke lelekuwe bohadi). The main findings of the study indicated that dance is still closely interlinked with the cultural life of the South Sotho and that the purpose of the dance manifests itself mainly in terms of social recreation. Specific dances of the South Sotho can be utilized in a meaningful way in the physical education programme for girls because of the educational value, the link with the cultural objectives of the folk dance section of the syllabus and the relevance to the present needs of society. / Thesis (MA) -- PU vir CHO, 1985

Traditional dances of the South Sotho of Qwaqwa were studied as a product of culture. The two major objectives were: to document, and analyse specific South Sotho dances and relate them holistically to the culture; and to determine which dances of the girls and the women would be suitable for inclusion in the Syllabus for Physical Education for Girls in the Republic of South Africa according to certain educational criteria. The aspects investigated in the study included the following: 1. An ethnographic image of the South Sotho relating to ancestry, way of life and culture; 2. Dance as a cultural phenomenon and the place and function of dance in the culture of the South Sotho; 3. The notation of selected dances, an analysis of the dance movements and choreographic structure of the dances; 4. The educational value of folk and ethnic dances for implementation in the physical education programme, according to relevant objectives. The techniques used to identify, classify, document and analyse the dances, included fieldwork done through personal observation, participating observation, video filming of the dances, sound recordings of the songs and personal interviews. The sequence of steps was notated descriptively and graphically. The movements of the free body segments and dance technique were described and the floor pattern of each step sequence, the information with the accompaniment and the floor plan of the dance were transcribed graphically. The number of repetitions of the step sequences and the order of the parts of the dances were notated according to counts. The following dances were identified: women's dances - mokgibo, moqoqopelo, ledingwana, thojane, timiti and famu; girls' dances - mokgibo, play dances, ndlamu and bale dances; men's dances - mohobelo, mokorotlo, diphotha and setapo; boys dance the same dances apart from the mokorotlo. Wedding dances and thojane are also danced together by both sexes. The four dances which were documented include the wedding dance Ausi o manele, a play dance (Tikwe ha malome), ledingwana-women's dance (Diponono ha kena basadi) and mogogopelo women's dance (Ke lelekuwe bohadi). The main findings of the study indicated that dance is still closely interlinked with the cultural life of the South Sotho and that the purpose of the dance manifests itself mainly in terms of social recreation. Specific dances of the South Sotho can be utilized in a meaningful way in the physical education programme for girls because of the educational value, the link with the cultural objectives of the folk dance section of the syllabus and the relevance to the present needs of society. / Thesis (MA) -- PU vir CHO, 1985

Thesis (M.Ed. (Education)) - Rhodes University, 2007. / Half thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Environmental Education)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 16, 2006). Includes bibliographical references (p. 170-184).

The Drakensberg rock-jumper (Chaetops aurantius) is a high-altitude passerine endemic to South Africa and Lesotho, living along a highly disrupted portion of the southern Great Escarpment from the Drakensberg highlands in the north-east to the Sneeuberg in the west, above an altitude of 1500 m. Along with the Cape rock-jumper (C. frenatus), this genus provides one of the stronger faunal links between the floristic biomes known as the Drakensberg Alpine Centre (DAC) and the Cape Floristic Region (CFR). Despite this, there is a significant lack of information regarding the species. The great majority of information is based on incidental observation, and no dedicated study has been undertaken. I conducted a series of field excursions between January 2011 and November 2012 in order to explore the rock-jumper’s feeding ecology, diet, habitat usage and genetic diversity. By trapping the birds, I was able to mark them individually with unique colour ring-combinations, and pluck a tail feather for genetic analyses. Observational data reveal that birds living close to their lower altitude threshold (c. 1500 m) are strongly habitat specific, living in boulder fields dominated by grassy vegetation. However, in areas at higher elevations (c. 2000 – 2500 m) this restriction seemed to fall away, possibly as a result of farming practices in those areas – higher grazing pressure results in shorter grass and less foraging effort for the birds. They live in groups ranging from pairs to small family groups of up to twelve individuals and maintain year round territories. Territory defence takes the form of calling and displaying from a prominent rock or boulder and becomes particularly noticeable just prior to, and during, the breeding period. No colour ringed individuals were ever spotted in boulder fields outside from where they had been initially ringed. This, coupled with the behaviour of territory maintenance, suggests a strongly sedentary lifestyle. Genetic inferences are constrained by a small sample size (only 25 birds were caught), but results indicate that some genetic isolation is occurring – a single haplotype was exhibited in birds from across the southern Escarpment, while seven private haplotypes show that any genetic mixing is likely to be historical rather than current. Historical gene flow would most probably have occurred during the last glacial maximum (18 000 years before present), when the cooler, drier conditions which are currently restricted to high peaks would have been much more extensive, thereby decreasing the distance required for effective dispersal. This is in agreement with the observation results, concluding that although there has been movement of birds across the southern Escarpment in the past, it does not appear to be occurring currently. However, this does leave plenty of scope for further work, particularly in the genetic diversity of the species, and in expanding the ecological observations to include the breeding biology.