While the debate on the indigenous culture of ubuntu/botho in South Africa (SA) goes far back into the history as signified by Ngubane' s (1963 and 1979) works on the role of the ubuntu values in the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggle; in the last two decades or so, this debate has gathered even much greater momentum. This recent interest in ubuntu/botho culture could be attributed to the imminence of the collapse of apartheid in the late 1980s and the turn of the 1990s, and also the post-apartheid situation in which the SA society came to confront serious socio-economic and political challenges. Those challenges arose from the country's re-admission into the global world, which presented challenges associated with globalisation phenomenon such as the need to achieve economic competitiveness. They also were presented by the newly attained democratic dispensation along which dawned the urgent need to redress the apartheid-created injustices and to work earnestly towards the eradication of the past legacies such as racial inequalities and poverty while seeking to consolidate and jealously defend the still rather fragile democracy. Event much more recently, the debate came to form part of the current continent-wide sentiment that Africa should claim the twenty-first century and that all efforts should be channelled towards the renewal of Africa following the destructions and distortions caused by colonialism. Central to this debate in SA is the widely held belief and claim that the ubuntu/botho cultural values could be mobilised into developmental and transformative force. In particular, a strong claim is made that for SA to achieve competitive advantage in global markets, its development strategies should tap into the values of the ubuntu/botho culture. While few cases are cited as success stories indicative of ubuntu values positive influence on business management strategies in the workplace, often with the assistance of private consultants, these remain isolated and no any serious follow-up studies were conduced in order to assess the sustainability of such interventions. Thus, what is essentially missing in this debate, is a comprehensive indepth, empirically-based study aimed at not only assessing the validity of these widely held claims, but also at examining the objective conditions under which the ubuntu/botho cultural values can help in realising this role. Also critical and missing is the need to possibilities/opportunities and potential constraints to ubuntu/botho culture's ability to fulfil this role. Often these debates lack any serious theoretical basis or comparative references on which to justify their claims. Further, there is seldom any attempt to locate the debate on ubuntu/botho culture in the wider context of the debate and research in the African continent around questions of traditional cultures, thought systems and development and progress. While the present study approaches this debate in such a way that the gaps highlighted addressed through extensive review of literature, it however takes it even further by giving it an empirical content through an in-depth case study of one South African workplace as an illustrative example. This empirically-based approach, coupled with extensive and critical review of the relevant literature, helped to take the debate on ubuntu/botho culture beyond rhetoric which characterises the current dominant thinking within the debate. I argue, on the basis of my overall findings that while evidence gathered supports the case for the need to explore with the ubuntu/botho culture in the economic and business sphere, and in particular at the workplace level, some serious obstacles would and do stand in the way of realising the potentially transformative and developmental role of the culture's values. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

This thesis offers an overview of the functions served by various mobilisations of "poverty‟ and "the poor‟ across the histories of capitalism. It shows how "poverty‟ and "the poor‟ come to be shaped as governmental categories in the interests first of encouraging the acceptance of wage labour in industrial society, and then in encouraging the acceptance of a logic of individual responsibility and entrepreneurship as wage labour declines in post-industrial society. It also examines the deployment of discourses of poverty within social movements, showing the close relationship between the elaboration of governmental discourses and resistance in the contested process of the "making‟ of "the poor‟. In particular, it explores the increased mobilisation of discourses of poverty in post-apartheid South Africa, where, it is shown, "poverty‟ and "the poor‟ are shaped as governmental categories that aim to fashion particular forms of life for that population group identified and targeted as the poor, and become ways for poor people to make demands of the state in the context of the adoption of neoliberal policies, such as cost recovery, privatisation, and the flexibilisation of labour. Through a close exploration of state policy formulation and community struggles in the sphere of the delivery of basic services, this thesis presents the contested field of signification and production that emerges around the meeting of the basic needs of the poor in the City of Johannesburg and Orange Farm (a particularly disadvantaged part of the city) as a case through which to think through contemporary mobilisations of "poverty‟ and "the poor‟ in relation to processes of subjectivation and the possibilities for the production of subjectivities antagonistic to the logic of capital. Focusing on the City's most recent return to indigent management as a strategy to contain and address the needs of the poor, in the context of organised resistance on the part of poor communities, this thesis offers an experience of a process of neoliberalisation as a contested process, in which attempts to shape and deploy "the poor‟ and "poverty‟ as governmental categories come up against mobilisations of "the poor‟ in challenge of the dominant logic of commodification, the market, and "individual responsibility‟. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Durban, 2010.

South Africa has undergone a remarkable political transformation since the birth of democracy in 1994, yet it remains plagued by extremely high levels of socio-economic inequality, violent crime and social unrest. Although inequality is often regarded as a major driver of many social problems, the evidence base concerning inequality in South Africa is relatively limited, consisting primarily of national level Gini coefficients or General Entropy measures based upon household income, expenditure or consumption data. In this thesis I argue that these broad national level measures say little about people's actual day-to-day lived experiences of inequality and how these individual experiences of inequality may be shaped by the local geographical areas in which people live and go about their daily lives. I construct a series of empirical measures of exposure to socio-economic inequality which reflect the socio-spatial environments in which people live. I argue that these new measures can be used as explanatory factors in the study of other social outcomes, both at an individual level (for example, individuals' attitudes) and at an area level (for example, rates of violent crime). Exposure to inequality is measured both from the perspective of the 'poor' population and the perspective of the 'non-poor' population and the measures are constructed and presented at small area level using the Datazone statistical geography. I analyse the spatial distribution of exposure to inequality and find that exposure to inequality is typically highest in urban neighbourhoods, particularly in the major metropolitan areas. I develop a measure of intensity of exposure in order to highlight areas with both high exposure and high levels of deprivation. I also present one example of how my new measures can be used to explore associations with other outcomes, specifically looking at the relationship between people's lived experience of inequality and their attitudes towards inequality and redress.

Thesis (LLD (Public Law))—University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH SUMMARY: The point of departure of this dissertation is that transformation in South Africa depends on transformative politics – extra-institutional, substantive, oppositional, transformation-oriented politics. One challenge South Africa’s constitution therefore poses to courts is to take account of the impact of adjudication on transformative politics. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the relationship between adjudication and transformative politics within a specific context – adjudication of socio-economic rights cases. This relationship is commonly described in a positive light – either that adjudication of socio-economic rights cases promotes transformative politics by giving impoverished people access to the basic resources required for political participation; or that adjudication of such cases is in itself a space for transformative politics. Although there is much truth in both these descriptions, both under-estimate the extent to which adjudication also limits transformative politics. This dissertation focuses on the extent to which adjudication limits transformative politics – it comprises an analysis of socio-economic rights cases with the aim of showing how adjudication of these cases, despite positive results, also limited transformative politics. The theoretical aspects of this problem are outlined in the first chapter. After a description of the body of case law on which the analysis focuses two chapters follow in which two ways in which adjudication limits transformative politics are investigated. The first traces how courts in socio-economic rights cases participate in discourses about impoverishment that tend to describe the problem as non-political – specifically how courts tend to describe impoverishment as technical rather than political in nature; and how courts implicitly legitimise in their judgments liberal-capitalist views of impoverishment that insist that impoverishment is best addressed through the unregulated market. Then follows a chapter investigating how views of legal interpretation in terms of which legal materials have a certain and determinable meaning that can be mechanically found by courts limit transformative politics by insulating adjudication from critique and emphasising finality in adjudication. Throughout it is shown how courts can mitigate the limiting effects of adjudication, by legitimating the political agency of impoverished people, by using remedies requiring political engagement between opponents and postponing closure in adjudication, and by adopting a different approach to interpretation, that emphasises the pliability and relative indeterminacy of legal materials. Despite this, the conclusion of the dissertation is that courts can never wholly avoid the limiting impact of adjudication on transformative politics, but should rather aim to remain continually aware of it. / AFRIKAANS OPSOMMING: Die uitgangspunt van hierdie proefskrif is dat transformasie in Suid-Afrika afhang van transformatiewe politiek – buite-institusionele, substantiewe, opposisionele, transformasie-gerigte politiek. Een eis wat Suid-Afrika se grondwet daarom aan howe stel, is om ag te slaan op die impak van beregting op transformatiewe politiek. Die doel van hierdie proefskrif is om die verhouding tussen beregting en transformatiewe politiek binne ‘n spesifieke konteks – beregting van sake oor sosio-ekonomiese regte – te ondersoek. Meeste beskouinge van hierdie verhouding beskryf dit in ‘n positiewe lig - óf dat die beregting van sake oor sosio-ekonomiese regte transformatiewe politiek bevorder deur vir verarmde mense toegang tot basiese lewensmiddele te bewerkstellig sodat hulle aan politieke optrede kan deelneem; óf dat beregting van sulke sake opsigself ‘n spasie is vir transformatiewe politiek. Hoewel daar waarheid steek in beide beskrywings, onderskat hulle die mate waartoe beregting ook transformatiewe politiek kan beperk. Hierdie proefskrif fokus op hoe beregting transformatiewe politiek beperk - dit behels ‘n analise van sake oor sosio-ekonomiese regte met die doel om te wys hoe beregting van hierdie sake, ten spyte van kennelik positiewe gevolge ook transformatiewe politiek beperk het. Die teoretiese vergestalting van hierdie probleem word in die eerste hoofstuk beskou. Na ‘n beskrywing van die liggaam van regspraak waarop die analise fokus volg twee hoofstukke waarin twee maniere waarop beregting transformatiewe politiek beperk ondersoek word. Die eerste beskou hoe howe in sake oor sosio-ekonomiese regte deelneem aan diskoerse oor verarming wat neig om hierdie probleem as non-polities te beskryf - spesifiek hoe howe neig om hierdie problem as tegnies eerder as polities van aard te beskryf; en hoe howe liberaal-kapitalistiese sieninge van verarming, ingevolge waarvan verarming deur die ongereguleerde mark aangespreek behoort te word, implisiet in hul uitsprake legitimeer. Dan volg ‘n hoofstuk wat naspeur hoe sieninge van regsinterpretasie ingevolge waarvan regsmateriaal ‘n sekere en vasstelbare betekenis het wat meganies deur howe gevind word, transformatiewe politieke optrede beperk deur die openheid van beregting vir kritiek te beperk en finaliteit in beregting in die hand te werk. Deurgaans word gewys hoe howe die beperkende effek van beregting kan teëwerk, deur die politike agentskap van verarmde mense te legitimeer, deur remedies te gebruik wat politieke onderhandeling tussen opponente bewerkstellig en finale oplossings uitstel, en deur ‘n ander benadering tot interpretasie, wat die buigsaamheid en relatiewe onbepaalbaarheid van regsmateriaal erken, te omarm. Tog is die gevolgtrekking van die proefskrif dat howe nooit die beperkende effek van beregting op transformatiewe politiek geheel kan vermy nie, maar eerder deurgaans daarop bedag moet wees.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The goal of this thesis was to evaluate the success of neo-liberalism in South Africa, with specific reference to the capacity of the policy to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. The dispute about the aptness of nee-liberalism in South Africa also relates to the broader debate concerning the success of neo-liberalism in creating economic growth to the benefit of all members of society. A qualitative analysis of the research and diverging opinions with regards to neo-liberalism was used to derive an objective framework for the evaluation of economic policy. This framework was then used as the basis of an evaluation of the success of neo-liberalism in South Africa. It was found that neo-liberalism is generally successful in the generation of economic growth with the capacity to address poverty, and that the implementation of neo-liberal policies does not necessarily lead to an increase in inequality. It was, however, also proven that there are specific cases in which neo-liberalism is not successful. It was therefore argued that the continuation of neo-liberal policies in South Africa cannot be justified on the grounds of the success of the policy in the global context. Seeing as the success of the policy seems to be context specific, it was argued that evaluations of the policy should have the same context specific basis. Since South Africa's political transition ID 1994, neo-liberalism has gradually been established as the foundation of economic policy. The success of neo-liberalism in South Africa was therefore evaluated through an analysis of the changes in the levels of poverty and inequality in the country since this transition. It was found that very little progress has been made in the reduction of inequality, that poverty has increased and that South Africa's Human Development Index (as an indication of the success of development policy) has decreased since 1994. It was therefore concluded that neo-liberalism in South-Africa is not successful, and that it is thus necessary to identify an alternative framework for the eradication of poverty and reduction of inequality in the country. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie tesis was om die sukses van neo-liberalisme in die verligting van armoede en vermindering van ongelykheid in Suid-Afrika te bepaal. Die debat oor die wenslikheid van neo-liberalisme in Suid-Afrika skakelook in by die breër debat rakende die sukses van neo-liberalisme in die generering van ekonomiese groei tot voordeel van alle lede van die samelewing. Daar is daarom gepoog om deur 'n kwalitatiewe analise van die navorsing en verskillende standpunte oor die onderwerp 'n objektiewe raamwerk vir die evaluering van ekonomiese beleid af te lei. Hierdie raamwerk is gebruik as basis vir 'n evaluering van neo-liberalisme in Suid-Afrika. Daar is bevind dat neo-liberalisme oor die algemeen suksesvol is in die generering van ekonomiese groei ter verligting van armoede, en dat die implementering van neo-liberale ekonomiese beleidsmaatreëls nie noodwendig gepaard gaan met groter ongelykheid nie. Daar is egter ook bewys gelewer van spesifieke gevalle waar neo-liberalisme onsuksesvol is. Daarom word daar geredeneer dat die voortsetting van neo-liberalisme in Suid-Afrika nie op grond van die sukses van die beleid in die globale konteks gemotiveer kan word nie. Die sukses van die beleid blyk konteks-spesifiek te wees, en die evaluering daarvan behoort dus dieselfde konteks-spesifieke basis te hê. Neo-liberalisme is sedert die politieke oorgang in Suid-Afrika in 1994 geleidelik gevestig as die basis van ekonomiese beleid. Die sukses van neo-liberalisme in Suid-Afrika is dus geëvalueer deur 'n analise van die veranderinge in vlakke van armoede en ongelykheid sedert hierdie oorgang. Daar is bevind dat daar min vordering gemaak is met die vermindering van ongelykheid, dat vlakke van armoede verhoog het, en dat Suid-Afrika se Menslike Ontwikkelingsindeks (as aanduiding van sukses van ontwikkelingsbeleid) sedert 1994 afgeneem het. Daar is dus tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat neo-liberalisme in Suid-Afrika rue suksesvol is nie, en dat dit nodig is om 'n alternatiewe raamwerk vir die verligting van armoede en vermindering van ongelykheid in die land te identifiseer.

Thesis (MEdPsych))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / Bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: School violence is a reality in South African township schools contaminating the school environment and jeopardizing the educational process. The aim of this study is to explore adolescent learners' experience of school violence in township high schools in order to develop and recommend a school prevention intervention programme/strategy. The study is explained in the theoretical framework of the bio-ecosystemic theory where violence is discussed as a reaction and as an action that occurs through reciprocal interaction between systems and the social environment. Through this interaction, adolescent learners are exposed to individual, family, school and community risk factors which place them at risk. Literature shows that schools in the township are sites of widespread violence; and these impacts on learners‟ emotional well-being. School violence also reflects the relationship that exists between what occurs in schools and what happens in learners' homes and communities. The specific design selected for this study is a case study and is qualitative and explorative in nature. Unstructured interviews were conducted with individual learners and focus groups to gather information regarding adolescents' experiences of school violence. The data was analysed with three main themes emerging during the participants' interviews. The findings revealed that a significant number of adolescent learners in the township school have experienced some form of gender-related violence at school, and that boys are more often the perpetrators of this school violence. The findings further showed that lack of safety and class management is another cause of violence and the violent activities within the school are a symptom of the social ills of the community within which the school is situated. Conclusions drawn from the study are that school violence is a multifaceted phenomenon and, based on these findings, it is recommended that a 'whole school' and an integrated approach be taken when dealing with violence in schools. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Toenemende geweld in skole in Suid-Afrikaanse townships bederf die skoolomgewing en belemmer die opvoedkundige proses. Die doel van hierdie studie is om leerders se ervarings van geweld in hoërskole in townships te verken, ten einde 'n voorkomingsprogram/-strategie vir skole te ontwikkel en aan te beveel. Die studie gebruik die teoretiese raamwerk van die bio-ekosistemiese teorie waarbinne geweld bespreek word as 'n aksie en 'n reaksie wat plaasvind deur wedersydse interaksie tussen die sisteme en die sosiale omgewing. Hierdie interaksie kan adolessente leerders aan individuele, gesinsverwante, skool- en gemeenskapsrisikofaktore blootstel. Die studie wys dat skole in townships die ligging is van wydverspreide geweld wat 'n uitwerking het op leerders se akademiese prestasie. Dit wys ook dat geweld in skole 'n weerspieëling is van die verhouding wat bestaan tussen gebeure in die skool en gebeure in die leerders se huise en gemeenskappe. Die navorsingsontwerp vir hierdie studie is dié van 'n gevallestudie. Dit is kwalitatief en verkennend van aard. Ongestruktureerde onderhoude is met leerders en fokusgroepe gevoer om inligting rakende hulle ervarings van geweld in skole in te win. Die data is ontleed na aanleiding van drie temas wat tydens die onderhoude na vore gekom het. Die bevindinge het gewys dat 'n noemenswaardige aantal adolessente leerders in townshipskole een of ander vorm van geweld ervaar het, en dat seuns gewoonlik die aanrigters van die geweld is. Die studie het voorts gevind dat akademiese prestasie ernstig beïnvloed word deur geweld wat binne en buite die skoolgronde plaasvind, en ook dat geweld binne die skole 'n simptoom is van die sosiale euwels van die gemeenskap waarbinne die skole geleë is. Die studie se gevolgtrekking is dat geweld in skole 'n veelvlakkige fenomeen is. Die aanbeveling wat op hierdie gevolgtrekking berus is dat 'n "heel skool" geïntegreerde benadering gevolg moet word wanneer daar met geweld in skole gewerk word.

The enormous social, economic, and political government-led societal transformation South Africans have experienced over the past 15 years have brought about numerous societal and identity changes. The aim of the present study was to explore how dominant (White participants) and non-dominant (Black participants) groups experiencing the government-led societal transformation process deal with perceptions of intergroup differences based on Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986) and related field research. Social Identity Theory predicts that in the presence of intergroup differences group members irrespective of their status position will apply identity management strategies to either improve or maintain their status position. The relationships between perceptions of intergroup relations and identity management strategies as proposed by Social Identity Theory were tested studying 170 second year Rhodes University psychology students. Sixty participants indicated themselves as Black South Africans (representing non-dominant group) and 110 participants identified themselves as White South Africans (dominant group). The results revealed that dominant and non-dominant groups differ systematically regarding the functional interaction between beliefs about the intergroup situation and identity management strategies. The results of the study indicate too, that ingroup identification differentiates between individual and collective strategies irrespective of the group’s status position.

Amartya Sen argued that poverty was the “deprivation” of the capability to lead a “good life”, therefore ending poverty meant meeting basic physical and social needs, and enabling meaningful economic and political choices. The principal objective of this research was to investigate whether (and if so, in what ways) post-apartheid state-provided non-contributory cash social grants in South Africa reduced “poverty” in Sen’s sense. This thesis used Ezibeleni, a historically black working class township at Queenstown, in the Eastern Cape, as a reference area. Using in-depth interviews, it found that social grants did help reduce poverty, both in terms of helping meet basic needs and enabling grant recipients to make more choices, including facilitating job searches and small businesses. However, it was also found that grants fall short of ending poverty, as the grants were too small to adequately cover basic needs in the context of large family sizes, a serious and long-term lack of resources, persistent unemployment, and high indebtedness, and could also enable only a limited expansion of choices. The grants played a positive role, but were inadequate to remove the “unfreedoms” facing the poor.

Thesis (MPhil (Political Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / For a long time, conflict studies have focussed on the grand national projects of negotiating peace, concluded by the major actors in the country, like political parties, as well as international mediating actors like the UN. This view on solving conflict as a set top-down process were in recent years challenged by new theories on how to solve conflict. The conflict settlement theory had to make ideological and practical space for others like conflict resolution and conflict transformation, in the broader arena of conflict management. In the last 3 decades, conflict transformation has grown into a formidable tool in explaining conflict and moves toward peace-building. The fact that so many countries had collapsed back into civil war after their settlements, surely has something to say about the lack of longevity of some countries’ conflict settlement or conflict resolution approaches. This is why conflict transformation is such an attractive approach, especially in the case of South Africa. The political settlement of the early 1990s, that lead to an official peace, were also backed up by policies and programs to deal with the underlying causes and grievances that caused the conflict. The TRC was one aspect on post-1994 peace-building and enduring conflict transformation. The importance of the TRC as a transformative vehicle has been highlighted by the fact that so many institutions and individuals have made work of it to study the impact of the TRC on social transformation in the post-war era. Although many surveys indicate that South Africans have come to deal with the past to varying degrees and are seeing the various groups in the country as intertwined with the future of the country, there are still many worrying aspects that have to be addressed: interracial understanding and trust, and tolerance for one’s former enemies. The TRC has done much to build bridges between the formerly segregated groups of South Africa and the aim of this paper is to shed some light on these changes in attitudes.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Many different categories of people move into South Africa daily. Each category has its defined purposes for coming here such as seeking opportunities, a better life and in some cases a safe haven. Many South Africans have become intolerant towards immigrants entering the country. In some cases immigrants have to endure name calling, harassment and in more extreme circumstances violent attacks. This study proposes to focus on intolerance in South Africa from 1990 to 2001 and describes whether South Africans have become more intolerant towards immigrants over this period. It therefore focuses on certain groups in the South African society based on ethnicity, level of education and category of employment. A quantitative method is used by means of utilising already existing statistics from the World Value Surveys conducted in 1990, 1995 and 200l. It also takes the form of a longitudinal study by describing xenophobic and intolerant attitudes over an elevenyear period. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Elke dag kom verskillende groepe mense na Suid-Afrika. Hulle het ook verskeie redes waarom hulle hierheen kom. Sommige mag gelok word deur die geleenthede wat die land hulle mag bied en ander vlug hierheen op soek na 'n veilige blyplek. Alhoewel hulle hierheen kom vir definitiewe redes, word hulle nie deur alle Suid-Afrikaners verwelkom nie. Hulle word dikwels die slagoffers van aanvalle en word ook gereeld geteister. Die doel van hierdie studie is om verdraagsaamheid in Suid-Afrika te analiseer deur om na vreemdelingsvrees van Suid-Afrikaners teenoor immigrante te kyk. Die studie wil die vlak van verdraagsaamheid tenoor immigrante vanaf 1990 tot 2001 beskryf. Klem word op spesifieke groepe van Suid-Afrikaners geplaas naamlik rasse groep, die vlak van geletterdheid so wel as werkskategorie. Die studie gebruik dus 'n kwantitatiwe navorsingrnetode en statistieke van die World Value Surveys wat in 1990, 1995 en 2001 gedoen is. Dit beoog om die veranderinge in verdraagsaamheid oor 'n periode van elf jaar te beskryf.