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.

The democratic elections in 1994 marked the formal end of apartheid. During apartheid 'race' was, for the most part, a somewhat rigid construct which, despite many nuances and complexities, typically seemed to frame whiteness as dominant, normative and largely invisible, and blackness as subordinate and marginalised. The transformations brought about in post-apartheid South Africa have heralded many positive reformations, such as macrolevel institutional changes. However, many of apartheid's racialised patterns of privilege and deprivation persist and 'race' continues to influence the identities of South Africans. Furthermore, an inherent tension exists in South Africa's social fabric, where ‘race’ and racism are often juxtaposed against narratives of the Rainbow Nation and colourblindness. This study, which is framed by critical 'race' theory and social constructionism, aims to explore the extent of the fluidity and rigidity of 'race', racialisation and racialised identities in post-apartheid South Africa by exploring the narratives of black and white first year students. This study collected the narratives of seven black and seven white first year South African university students. It was found that South African youth identities can be seen to be functioning in relation to and reaction against both South Africa’s racialised past as well as its present socio-cultural context. It was found that the racialised patterns which characterised apartheid still impact on black and white youth identity in contemporary South Africa. For instance, despite the many disruptions to whiteness post-1994, it was noted as still being a normative and dominant construct to some extent. Similarly, despite attempts to rectify power imbalances in the new South Africa, blackness is still constructed as being somewhat other and inferior. However, many alternative voices emerged which subverted these narratives, suggesting that identity is in a state of flux. Thus, despite the continued influence of apartheid’s racialised patterns of identity, shifts and schisms are appearing in post-apartheid racialised identity, where issues of racialised dominance and power relations are no longer as clear cut as they once were.

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Master of Science in Development Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, 2016 / Municipal Planning in South Africa has evolved since the dawn of democracy. Before 1994, planning in the local sphere of government was characterised by segregation and disintegration of settlements and plans, respectively. After being welcomed back to the international community, particularly the United Nations, South Africa engaged in a process of reforming local government specifically - planning. As part of local government reforms, Integrated Development Plans (IDP)s were introduced in 2002 as the main tools for integrated planning in local, district and metropolitan municipalities. Integration requires that economic, social and environmental development initiatives are integrated in order to achieve “sustainable development”. During 1992, the United Nations Environmental Programme hosted a Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference developed and agreed upon specific principles of sustainable development which member states were to institutionalise as part of their development agenda and this culminated in the so-called “Agenda 21 Report”. The programme for further implementation of Agenda 21 and the commitments to the principles of sustainable development were re-affirmed at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002. This study assesses the alignment of the Ehlanzeni District Municipality IDP with the principles of sustainable development as outlined in Annex 1 of Agenda 21. A questionnaire was designed and used to conduct semi-structured interviews with ten Planners from the District and the Mpumalanga Provincial Government. The findings indicate that the IDP of the EDM is not aligned with most of the principles of sustainable development that the assessment was based on. / MT2017

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2003.

M. Tech. Drama / The purpose of this study was to develop a broader understanding of aspects of identity relating to Coloured and Indian people in South Africa and the portrayal of these aspects on the post-Apartheid stage. The meaning of the term 'identity' and its relation to drama and theatre was investigated. Identity markers (individual and social) were identified to serve as a framework for the play analyses. Research was also conducted on both Coloured and Indian identities, seen against a historical background, as well as the theatrical and dramatic history of the two groups.

This research considers the nature of social integration between individuals living in desegregated neighbourhoods in post-apartheid Cape Town. Social integration is understood as a dynamic process between individuals from apartheid's different racial classifications as opposed to the common emphasis in the literature on the static outcome of a neighbourhood being integrated. The research was based on both quantitative and qualitative methods. A quantitative analysis of South Africa's 2001 census results was conducted. From this analysis neighbourhoods in Cape Town with "multiple population dominance', where no single group comprises more than 50% of the suburb population and at least one other group comprises over 25%, were identified. Qualitative fieldwork (semi-structured interviews and mental maps) was conducted in two of these 'multiple population dominance' suburbs. Based on research in these neighbourhoods I conclude that labelling a suburb as physically desegregated implies a level of social cohesion that was not found, and masks the reality of division based on length of tenure and socio-economic status. Within the specific South African context of racial inequality, such opposition to desegregation that is not matched by a shared class is likely to restrict the potential for social integration to develop beyond the confines of black middle-classes moving into 'White' areas, and poor Coloureds and Black Africans living in low-cost housing, thus affecting only a handful of the population.

Thesis (DLitt (English))-University of Pretoria, 2008. / E-thesis record : Krueger, Anton Robert . Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis discusses the significance of popular illegalities in contemporary South African service delivery. Illegal access to and non-payment of services have been indentified by the government as a major criminal problem which undermines effective service delivery. By contrast, this thesis argues that popular illegalities are positive phenomenon which provides otherwise unobtainable benefits for the poor and also exposes the ability of communities to self-manage their own service provision. The thesis begins by surveying a variety of literature on this issue using both contemporary and historical literature. I then discuss the scope of popular illegalities in South Africa and the methods government has used to curtail them, with a particular emphasis on how this has been influenced by the adoption of neo-liberal cost recovery initiatives. Using case studies of three communities where illegal access is prevalent, I discuss both the motivations behind and significance of illegal water and electricity connections. In conclusion, I argue that popular illegalities are a significant phenomenon in so far as they suggest new methods of delivering services. The prevalence of these illegalities is also important as it highlights many of the failings of official delivery. The thesis concludes on a hopeful note in arguing that illegalities may be inherently progressive in both benefiting the marginal and leading to the creation of radically autonomous spaces which can be viewed as laboratories of radical social change.

My initial intention is to try to show how, as a poet in South Africa, I suffer from a creative identity crisis. I am a white English-speaking male. I live surrounded by isiXhosa-speaking people. Is my poetry, or will my poetry be, relevant in the ‘New’ South Africa? Is English, the language of the colonial oppressors, the appropriate medium in the post-apartheid milieu? Will my subject matter be relevant? These questions and my attempts at answering them, form the basis of the poetry and the portfolio that accompanies the poems. My absorption with finding a creative ‘voice’, my concerns with the environment and a questioning of what post-apartheid poetry should write about all seem a bit Quixotic, especially to me! But at another level, they are deeply serious. (p. 5.)

This research study investigates Lotus FM, as one of many South African Media components that are catering for one specific cultural or religious group. The investigation explores the implications of practice of a pecific media component that caters for specific cultural or religious groups operating in a post-apartheid South Africa. After the end of the apartheid era in South Africa, a number of South African media components have proclaimed their commitment to reconciliation and nation building within South Africa by attempting to unite audiences. The South African Broadcasting Corporation, which held the monopoly on South African Broadcasting for decades, has promulgated the notion of the rainbow nation to audiences in South Africa. Since 1994, sub-components of the different South African media segments were developed to cater for specific ethnic or cultural groups by the station managements. This was aimed at reversing the effects of pre-1994 media that catered for the former ruling minority only or ethnic groups that were categorized by the former political dispensation. It is possible, however, that this has resulted in a renewed and continued separation of interest groups present in South Africa today.