South Africa’s new Constitution was developed after the first democratic election in 1994. It is well composed and shows a great willpower to build the country on equality, freedom and democracy, and it also protects the rights of future generations. Despite a Constitution that promotes sustainable development and several laws that protect the environment, activities that are detrimental to nature go on. One of South Africa’s largest environmental problems is waste, in the forms of illegal dumping and poorly managed landfill sites. The aim of the thesis is to explore the pre-conditions for waste management practices in Cradock, a rural town within the Inxuba Yethemba Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province. The study is conducted through a qualitative minor field study in Cradock during six weeks. First the legislative framework was explored in order to see what the Municipality has to live up to, and then two interviews were performed: one with the Municipality’s Community Services Manager and one with the employees at the Municipality’s recycling project Ikamvalethu. This gave an understanding on the waste management in practice and the main obstacles and possibilities considered. Cradock’s landfill site is not designed to prevent environmental damage but is still in use even though it is not legally permitted to be utilized. The Municipality has got refuse removal for households once a week, something that has been shown to be too seldom. People cannot wait for the Municipality’s lorry to come and instead they dump the rubbish illegally in e.g. the streets or in open areas. In order to decrease the amount of waste that goes to the landfill and in an attempt to create work opportunities in the community, the Municipality has started the Ikamvalethu Recycling Project which is explored in the thesis. The theoretical link used in the thesis consists of Stern’s (2000) four types of causal variables influencing individual’s environmentally significant behavior. These variables are applied in order to discuss and explain the barriers and facilitators the community faces regarding waste. The most central obstacle is the lack of financial resources in the local government. The national and provincial governments must pay attention to and raise the issue of waste and support the local governments in order to improve its waste management.

Thesis (MTech (Civil Engineering))--Peninsula Technikon, 2004. / When considering water treatment in small rural and peri-urban communities, sustainability is one of the most important factors to be considered. Sustainability needs to be considered from financial, technological and socio-political perspectives. The major problems with sustainability of conventional small water treatment systems are the difficulty of controlling chemical treatment processes, especially when the raw water quality changes, and the production of substandard quality water. Another very important problem is lack of community involvement, especially over the longer term. The acceptance of new technologies by the community is of crucial importance in ensuring successful water supply projects. The anticipation of more stringent drinking water quality regulations and decrease in adequate water sources have brought membrane separation processes such as microfiltration and ultrafiltration on the advantage for potable water supply to rural and peri-urban areas. Membrane processes have the advantage of production of superior quality water and addition of fewer chemicals in the treatment process. The pUIpose of this study was to further investigate the potential of ultrafiltration capillary membranes as a one-step membrane water treatment system for potable water supply to developing communities. To successfully transfer a technology to a particular community, the technology must be suitable and acceptable and a social study was therefore also done to understand the social acceptance factors that govern the acceptance of these new technologies.

The under-provision of education for black South Africans has reached crisis proportions. While the education for black people in general is discriminatory and unequal, black rural people suffer further deprivations as there is a serious imbalance in the allocation of resources and the provision of education between urban and rural areas. Black education in the rural areas has been historically neglected for political and socio-economic reasons and, as a consequence, rural blacks have limited or no access to education. The purpose of this' study is to examine an aspect of rural education; viz: black farm schools in the 'white' commercial farming areas. It is argued that the provision of farm schools is intricately linked to the labour requirements of farmers and consequently farm schools cannot be understood independently from the social relations within commercial farming areas. The impact of local decision-making on the process of farm schooling is also significant and is an important aspect of this study. This thesis explores the political and socio-economic processes that have structured the provision of education within a small farming community, looking specifically at the effects of particular interest groups on the provision of black farm schools. The study operates on three levels. The first level provides a theoretical framework within which rural education can be better understood. It is argued that the bias towards urban areas is reflected in the current theoretical debates on the role and function of education ·in South Africa. As these theories are generally incapable of explaining rural education, an alternative model is proposed. As education cannot be understood in isolation from the rest of society, the second level of the study locates farm schooling within the broader political and socio-economic systems. This is done from two perspectives. The first perspective focuses on black education in general, tracing aspects of its development and highlighting the impact .of economic interests, white political control and black resistances to this development. The neglect of rural education is also contextualised historically and politically. The second perspective looks at rural education at a macro-level. The historical origins of the farm schools system and the effects of the relationship between agricultural capital and the state, and between farmers and farm workers on the process of farm schooling is examined. The final level of the study focuses on the micro-situation and provides an in-depth analysis of the political and socio-economic dynamics which have impacted upon the provision and process of farm schools within a specific farming community. In an attempt to understand the types of issues effecting farm schooling in this area, the attitudes of farmers, farm workers, farm- children and farm school teachers towards education are investigated. Four main issues were identified and are discussed in depth, viz: I) factors effecting the provision of black farm schools; 2) the relationship between education and the economic structure of the area; 3) the value of education; and 4) socio-economic factors effecting education in the area.

The Republic of South Africa embarked on devolution of specific powers to municipal authorities due to the fact that municipalities are a sphere of government which is at the door step of the citizens. Among the powers that were devolved was the authority to regulate on the rendering of water and services to communities. From now henceforth in this study, water and sanitation services will be referred to as water services. The rural villages that had no access to water services during the previous dispensation were rapidly rendered with these services when the transformed Department of Water Affairs and Forestry took a decision to provide the services on its own in order to give space for the transformation of the local sphere of government such that these municipal X authorities are able to manage the load of the allocation of such functions mainly and to close the vacuum so that there is no gap as to who should be responsible for water provision in rural villages whilst the restructuring of municipalities to include the rural villages as part of the transformation process takes place. A decline in the pace rendering water services to the previously disadvantaged rural communities was noticed after the devolution of water services to municipal authorities and by implication once hands were changed. This left those rural communities that had no access to water services still without the desired water services and those that had water services provided left midway with dry water schemes and dysfunctional infrastructure. This study therefore seeks to uproot the cause for the deceleration of water services once it was devolved to municipal authorities. This decline was noticed by the researcher hence the study seeks to attempt providing alternatives and lasting solutions primarily because water services are essential services and water is life. The main objective of the study is to investigate factors that cause the deceleration of water supply and the slow movement in the acceleration of sanitation services in order to provide alternatives that may yield results. Given the above broad objective this study further aims at examining the following factors: The correlation in funding made available by the central government and the financial resources available to municipalities to perform the function in order to render this service properly. Technical support available to municipalities. Relevant legislation, its policies and its impact on the implementation of the service XI. The correlation between accountability, democratization and community participation on standards and quality of the service to actual outputs. Improvement of service delivery and its relationship with transparency and efficiency. Relatedness of poverty to non provision of water services. The relatedness of poverty, lack of basic services to influx in the cities. Relatedness of the quality of the water services to the outbreak of diseases

Community-based approaches are of fundamental importance in the development of rural water supply and sanitation. Three case studies demonstrate that, by means of negotiation, need assessment, community participation, community-based management and appropriate technology, a reasonable degree of success can be achieved in providing an adequate and safe drinking water supply to most unserved communities. The research also shows that necessary negotiations with the government are often more complex and time-consuming than those with the community itself. Either the weight of bureaucratic processes or the lack of capacity and willingness on the part of the government to implement small-scale water projects using community-based approaches, were the reasons for the complexity of negotiations in one case study. It was also found that self-initiated projects with strong back-up support from development agencies are more successful than are projects initiated from outside. It was also noticed that community-based management is feasible and that it can lead to sustainable development. / Sociology / M.A (Social Science)

Submitted in fulfillment for the requirements of the degree of Master of Technology: Chemical Engineering,Durban University of Technology. Durban. South Africa, 2015. / Access to safe drinking water supply is still a major problem especially in remote rural areas of developing countries. These communities rely solely on untreated surface and ground waters for survival due to the lack of financial resources to provide access to piped water. The consumption of this water in turn makes them easily susceptible to water related diseases. Hence, there is a need for an interim solution while the government is still sourcing funds for the distribution of water to these communities. Membrane filtration is a promising technology for the treatment of surface water as it does not alter the taste or smell of the end product. The main limitation for the implementation of membrane technology in rural areas is still energy demand, fouling and the skills required for membrane cleaning. Biological ultrafiltration is an emerging technology that produces water of high quality in terms of turbidity, organics and bacteria removal. The technology has been evaluated using a gravity driven dead-end mode on European waters and it offered acceptable stabilisation of fluxes for extended periods without any chemical cleaning or backwashing. This is a promising technology which can be implemented to act as an interim solution for the treatment of surface water in remote rural areas prior to consumption. This study concerns the evaluation of a biological ultrafiltration membrane system on local three South African rivers, namely, Tugela River, Umbilo River and Umgeni River. A laboratory systems comprising of a feed tank and six membrane modules connected in parallel was set up to assess the performance of a bio-UF membrane on a range of surface waters. The performance was assessed on the system’s ability to produce stable fluxes from the three rivers, the system ability to produce water with acceptable quality in terms of SANS 241:2011 for turbidity, TOC, total coliforms and E-coli. The membranes were initial cleaned and the flux rates for ultra-pure water were determined for each membrane prior to being exposed to raw water. Raw water samples were collected from three rivers with varying turbidity, total coliforms and organics. The concentrations of these contaminants were tested prior to running the raw water through the system. Thereafter, permeate was collected with time and its quality was evaluated in terms of turbidity, TOC and coliforms. The impacts of algae on flux stabilisation were evaluated by allowing the bio-UF system to run for a minimum of 3 months with and without algae growth. The system was found to be able to produce water that is compliant with the SANS 241:2011 standard in terms of turbidity, total coliforms, E-coli and TOC concentration. The system was also found to be unable to produce stable fluxes for all three rivers. The observed responses were noted to be similar to normal dead-end response, however, a slow declining flux rates was observed for Umgeni River. The presence of algae during the operation was a bio-UF membrane system was noted to further decrease the rate of flux decline. There appears to be a correlation between the raw water quality and the rate of flux decline. A further investigation was carried out aimed at assessing the relationship between the concentration of bacterial counts, TOC and turbidity. From the obtained results, it was noted that feed water with low turbidity (≤ 5 NTU), high bacterial count (≥30 000) and high total organic carbon (≥70 mg/L) is able to reduce the rate of flux decline. Hence, it can be concluded that a dead-end gravity driven Bio-UF membrane system can be used for the treatment of surface water in remote where the most main contaminants are from natural organic matter, micro-organisms and turbidity. Furthermore, it is able to produce slower declining flux rates which will increase the filter run time. It is recommended that the impacts of algae, type of bacteria and organics that enable slow decline in flux rates during the operation of Bio-UF should be investigated in order to identify means of enhancing the flux rates. Microfiltration membranes are available on the local markets hence it is also recommended that the performance of Bio-UF should be evaluated in comparison to Bio-MF.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 1998. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of the study is to explore the perceptions and preferences regarding house ownership on the part of farmworkers living in the Devon Valley/ Stellenbosch Kloof ("Devonkloof') area outside Stellenbosch. A study such as this is important for more than one reason: the institution of "tied housing" on South African farms, is probably the factor that contributes most to farmworkers' dependence on the farmer and the control that the latter exercises over the employee and his family. In the most recent period this vulnerability has increased as farmers, especially in the Western Cape, have started to adopt a more "businesslike" approach towards worker housing. When farmers refer to a "productive house", they point to an arrangement whereby it is expected from every able person in a household to make him- or herself available for farm work - especially during the harvest. In this way members of the farmworker community are denied the opportunity of permanent, better paid employment outside the farm. Women are the ones that are mainly affected by the scaling down of the benevolent side of paternalism. However, for the first time in South African history the opportunity now exists to break this dependence, or at least to reduce it. This possibility flows from the convergence of a variety of developments, the most important of which is the launching of the post-apartheid government's housing subsidy scheme for farmworkers. In essence, the latter boils down to an arrangement whereby farmworkers can apply to the Department of Land Affairs for an amount of R 15 000 when wanting to obtain land or a house. Another recent development which reduces farmworkers' dependence, is the concept legislation regarding security of tenure. lt lends protection against eviction especially to older farmworkers who have worked on the farm for ten years or more. That farmworkers are concerned about life after retirement and have an intense desire for secure housing, is not much of a secret. In order to effectively address this concern, financially viable housing alternatives need to be developed. For instance, provident fund/ pension scheme payments could be used in combination with state housing subsidies in order to obtain own title for workers. However, in order to be viable, it is equally important to take into account the perceptions and housing preferences of the workers themselves. To gauge these is the main objective of the study. For purposes of the study, the unit of analysis was defined as the head of the household (male or female) who lives on the farm, is engaged in a permanent contractual relation with the farmer and belongs to one of the Devonkloof provident funds. A random sample of 93 such farmworkers was drawn from a total population of 188 heads of households spread over 13 farms in the research area. Their perceptions and preferences regarding housing were explored during interviews conducted on the basis of a semi-structured questionaire. The interviews were held by the researcher himself and a number of final year Social Work students at the University of Stellenbosch. Data collected in this way, was analysed through the utilisation of the SPSS statistical package. The socio-economic profile of the workers involved in the study, confirms to a large extent the prevailing portrait of permanent farmworkers in the Western Cape: they are almost exclusively male and Afrikaans speaking. Their literacy level is relatively low and the majority earns a cash wage of R100-150 per week. Three-quarters have never left "their" farm for alternative work. Of those that have, many only did so to work for short stints on another farm. As a result, most of the workers involved know of no other existence than the (neo-)paternalist life world of the farm. The familiarity of the farm is one of the reasons why slightly more than 50% of wofkers indicated that they would prefer to live on the farm during their working lives. When thinking about life after retirement, housing in the (imaginary) agrivillage was the most popular choice. Although a large number of farmworkers are ignorant about the government's housing subsidy scheme, the majority is clear about one thing: they would like to own their own dwelling - whether on the farm or outside the "white gates", because the own house is the route to less vulnerability, more independence and security. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie ondersoek is om die persepsies en voorkeure van plaaswerkers, woonagtig op plase in die Devonvallei/ Stellenboschkloof ("Devonkloor) area, met betrekking tot huiseienaarskap te ondersoek. 'n Ondersoek soos hierdie is vir meer as een rede belangrik: In Suid-Afrika is die instelling van "gekoppelde behuising" op plase waarskynlik die faktor wat die meeste bydra tot plaaswerkers se afhanklikheid van plaaseienaars en laasgenoemde se kontrole oor die werker en sy gesin. Hierdie kwesbaarheid van plaaswerkers is in die afgelope aantal jare versterk deurdat plaaseienaars, in veral die Wes-Kaap, 'n meer "besigheidsgeoriemteerde" houding rakende plaaswerkerbehuising ingeneem het. Daar word verwys na die "produktiewe huis" in die sin dat daar van alle geskikte inwoners van die huis verwag word om hulself beskikbaar te stel vir diens op die plaas, veral gedurende oestye. Hierdie mense (en veral vroue) word op hierdie manier die geleentheid van 'n permanente, beter betalende betrekking buite die plaas ontneem. Hierdeur word die "menslike" sy van paternalisme toenemend afgeskaal. Vir die eerste keer in Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis bestaan daar egter nou die geleentheid om hierdie afhanklikheid te verbreek of ten minste te verminder. Dit is die resultaat van 'n verskeidenheid van faktore waarvan die belangrikste die regering se nuwe subsidieskema vir plaaswerkers is. Laasgenoemde kom daarop neer dat plaaswerkers vir 'n bedrag van R 15 000 by die Departement van Grondsake aansoek kan doen ten einde 'n huis of grond te bekom. 'n Ander onlangse verwikkeling wat plaaswerkers se afhanklikheid verminder, is die konsepwetgewing rakende die sekerheid van besitreg. Dit gee veral vir ouer plaaswerkers sekuriteit van verblyf op die plaas waar hulle vir tien jaar of !anger gewerk het. Oat plaaswerkers bekommerd is oor hul heenkome by aftrede en graag oor woon-sekuriteit wil beskik, is nie 'n geheim nie. Om hierdie behoefte egter effektief aan te spreek, moet finansie~l haalbare behuisingsalternatiewe uitgewerk word. So sou voorsorg-/pensioenskema uitbetalings byvoorbeeld met die regering se huissubsidie gekombineer kon word om eie titel vir werkers te bekom. Ewe belangrik vir die leefbaarheid van so 'n projek is dat plaaswerkers se houdings en voorkeure ten opsigte van behuising in ag geneem word. Om dit te peil, is die primere doel·van hierdie studie. Die eenheid van analise in hierdie studie is die huishoof (manlik of vroulik) wat op die plaas woon, in 'n permanente kontraktuele verhduding staan met die plaaseienaar en terselftertyd lid is van een van die Devonkloof se voorsorgfondse. 'n Ewekansige steekproef van 93 sulke plaaswerkers is getrek uit 'n totale populasie van 188 huishoofde, versprei oor 13 plase in die navorsingsgebied. Hierdie werkers se persepsies en voorkeure met betrekking tot behuising is tydens onderhoude op die basis van 'n semigestruktureerde vraelys gepeil. Die onderhoude is deur die navorser self en 'n aantal finalejaar Maatskaplike werk studente aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch gevoer. Die data wat op hierdie manier ingewin is, is deur middel van die SPSS statistiese pakket ontleed. Die sosio-ekonomiese profiel van die betrokke respondente wat in hierdie studie na vore kom, bevestig in 'n groot mate die bestaande beeld van permanente plaaswerkers in die Wes-Kaap: hulle is feitlik uitsluitlik manlik en Afrikaans. Hulle geletterdheidspeil is betreklik laag en hulle verdien meesal tussen R 1 00 - 150 kontant per week. Driekwart het nog nooit "hul" betrokke plaas verlaat vir ander werk nie en baie van die wat wel het, het bloot vir 'n wyle op 'n ander plaas gaan werk. Die meeste ken dus geen ander bestaan as die (neo-)paternalistiese leefwereld van die plaas nie. Die bekendheid van die plaasmilieu is een van die redes waarom net meer as 50% van werkers aangedui het dat hulle tydens hulle werkslewe graag op die plaas sou wou bly. By aftrede was die (denkbeeldige) landboudorpie of "agrivillage" die mees gewilde keuse. Alhoewel 'n groot aantal plaaswerkers onkundig is oor die post-apartheid regering se huissubsidieskema, bestaan daar in die meeste se bewussyn geen onduidelikheid oor een kwessie nie: hulle wil graag 'n woonplek besit, of dit nou op die plaas is of buite die "wit hekke"; want 'n eie huis is die pad na minder kwesbaarheid, meer onafhanklikheid en sekuriteit.

A research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Coursework and Research Report), University of the Witwatersrand. / This research report examines the nature of drama as a means of facilitating adult learning, especially in the South African rural context, by conducting a literature review and by compiling case studies of the use of drama at Akanani, an association. of rural development projects in South Africa where theatre-for-development is the principal methodology employed. The literature review explores the use of drama as a methodology in education and then focuses on how and why theatre-for-development has been used in Africa for community development and empowerment. The international developments in popular theatre are also considered so that as much information as possible can feed into the guidelines which are this report's conclusions. This chapter concludes with a consideration of how drama can be used for adult learning in South Africa. This research was conducted primarily by compiling a number of case studies of the use of drama at Akanani in the far northern Transvaal. Participant observation, illuminative evaluation and semi-structured interviews were used within a Participatory Research apprgach to gather information about Akanani. The researcher spent two periods of time at Akanani conducting the interviews and observing the daily operations as well as the use of drama in various contexts at Akanani. The cases studies were compiled to discover whether drama, as it is used at Akanani, is a successful and appropriate methodology for adult education in the rural areas of South Africa. This research finds drama to be a a very effective means of facilitating learning amongst adults in rural areas and concludes by offering guidelines for the use of drama as a methodology in adult education in South Africa, especially in the rural areas.

Background South Africa is experiencing a massive HIV epidemic that together with the new epidemic of non-communicable diseases is directly affecting the health and wellbeing of older people. For policy makers, there is a crucial need for information on how this dual epidemic is evolving and how this may affect older people's health, mortality and health care needs. 2. Aims To better understand factors that influence the health, wellbeing and survival of older people, and their need for care in rural South Africa at a time of a growing dual epidemic of chronic diseases (non-communicable and communicable). To provide information which may assist in the planning of health services for older people. 3. Methods Applying the WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) and a study on HIV and non-communicable diseases (NCD), we investigated the health, wellbeing and mortality of the population 50 years and older in the Agincourt sub-district in north-east South Africa which is underpinned by health and demographic surveillance. A random sample of the population 50 years and older was selected for the SAGE survey. A random sample of the population 15 years and older was selected for the HIV and NCD study. All available adults 50 plus were invited to participate in the SAGE module in the 2006 census round. We assessed self-reported health, anthropometric measures, blood pressure and HIV status using dried blood spots. Statistical analysis included simple frequencies, univariate and multivariate analysis and Cox proportional hazard models. 4. Findings The usual pattern of mortality, of increasing death rates with age, is not observed in this population, where those in their 50s have higher mortality compared to older age groups. The high prevalence of HIV in this age group (50 to 59) appears to be the main explanation for the observed pattern. Hypertension affects two thirds of this older population and, although there are no differences by gender, women are more aware of their condition. This is reflected in more women attending primary health care services. Reporting lower quality of life and greater disability are associated with higher likelihood of death. We observed gender differences in the process of ageing with women reporting higher prevalence of mortality risk factors but living longer than men, a phenomenon known as the "survival paradox".

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Science, 2004.