Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / The phenomenon of obesity is widespread and the obese are increasingly making use of weight loss programmes specifically focused on addressing this population group' s needs. With the increase in statistics regarding obesity comes a simultaneous increase in society's focus on the body-thin ideal. It is in this context that the current study explores women's experiences regarding their weight status. The women in this study all participated in the Healthy Weight Programme at the Sports Science Institute, Cape Town. This programme addresses both the exercise and the eating plan necessary for healthy living. The aims of the study were threefold, namely, to explore what factors the participants believe cause their overweight status, what coping strategies they employ as a buffer against difficulties that may arise as a result of their overweight status (stigmatization and prejudice), and what impact the overweight status has on their psychological wellbeing.

Bibliography: leaves 158-177. / The aim of the thesis is to use a particular set of informal sellers in central Cape Town to focus study on aspects of informal sellers that have not previously been given high priority in analysis of the informal economic sector. In so doing, insight into the perceptions of informal sellers (in terms of their work or informal selling situation) and an evaluation of the relationships between informal sellers, the formal sector and government authorities will be gleaned. The work is based on, and extends, data provided by an in-depth Cape Town City Council survey conducted in 1985. The specific objectives of the study are, firstly, to provide comparisons on the number of informal selling outlets over a one year time period. Secondly, to identify and analyse the characteristics and locations of informal selling outlets. Thirdly, to investigate and analyse the operation of the different types of informal selling outlets in some detail. In particular, the backward and forward linkages affecting such outlets will be the focus of attention. In addition, it is intended to establish the attitudes of the formal sector and government authorities towards informal sellers, and vice versa.

Since the dawn of democracy, South Africa has received high numbers of refugees from around the African continent in particular. One of the largest groups of refugees, Somalis, have established numerous enterprises in South African cities, concentrated in micro and small business sectors, particularly in the grocery and textile industries. The presence of Somali entrepreneurs and their role in the South African economy is contested, framed in relation to township informal economies and debates on xenophobia. Research to-date, however, focuses almost exclusively on Somali informal micro-enterprises in the spaza shop sector. To address this gap in the research and debate, this thesis examines Somali entrepreneurs, their development of varied formal enterprises, and their business strategies. I demonstrate in that these small formal businesses operate beyond the micro township-based informal spaza sector, building networks between township and city formal economies, and linking multiple economic sectors. In doing so, they act as a medium between producers of goods and general city consumers. The research demonstrates that Somali immigrant entrepreneurs can be considered what Bonacich (1973) describes as “middleman minorities.” This argument builds on qualitative research in Cape Town with Somali refugees who own formal small businesses that employ between five and a hundred employees. I draw on their histories, examine the evolution of their businesses, to substantiate how as newcomers - refugees, with limited knowledge about South African business dynamics, and little access to resources of the country - they managed to find their feet in business in varied ways. I show how Bellville as Cape Town’s Little Mogadishu, acts as a business hub and melting pot, a place to meet, to work together and connect their businesses to the rest of the city. From these histories, experiences, and networks, I analyse the business strategies that Somali entrepreneurs draw on, which include partnerships, shareholding, the building of trust, and their own mobility. I also investigate what enabled them to get a foot in the door when they first arrived, find new business opportunities, and access new markets in the city, region, and in some cases beyond. I argue that Somali immigrant entrepreneurs have created a diverse set of complex formal businesses, ranging from the sale of textiles, the processing of animal products, to consumer household goods. Through these businesses, these entrepreneurs have created jobs, new economic networks, new products, and extended markets, as well as physical retail and wholesale spaces. In making this argument, this research offers a better understanding of entrepreneurial work and its logics in the Cape Town Somali immigrant community. Their own experiences as entrepreneurs, as well as their business strategies, exceed by far narratives of informality, the spaza shop sector, and experiences of violence and xenophobia. This research broadens understandings of immigrant entrepreneurial activity in South African cities, and shift existing negative perceptions that depict refugees and immigrants as burdens on host communities and cities. I hope the research might also help inform the formulation of relevant policies for transitioning informal micro-enterprises in the country into small formal enterprises, one strategy that might address the critical issue of high unemployment in South African cities and society.

Magister Pharmaceuticae - MPharm / Medication labels are often the only information available to patients after obtaining medication 3 from the pharmacy or other healthcare practitioners. Inappropriately designed medicine labelling 4 contributes to poor interpretation and improper use, which could adversely affect patient health 5 outcomes. In developing countries, pictograms (pictures representing words or phrases), on 6 medicine labels tend to support patients’ ability to read, understand and recall information. 7 8 Objective 9 This comparative study examined low-literate participants’ interpretation of ‘text-and-pictogram’ 10 instructions versus ‘routine text-only’ instructions relative to the intended medicine use 11 instructions on an oral rehydration (OR) dry mixture sachet in public sector Community Health 12 Centres (CHCs) in Cape Town

Bibliography: pages 279-292. / This study attempts to explore the ways in which Rosalie Van der Gucht influenced and contributed to Speech and Drama education during the second half of this century in the Cape. The writer takes the view that although Van der Gucht was not particularly original in her work - dramatically, socially or politically - she had an impact which is still felt in the Cape Province and beyond, because of her outstanding qualities as a leader, teacher and play director; effected through her special skills as a communicator. The chosen form is a critical biography, which makes it possible to investigate the impact of Van der Gucht's initiatives within the contemporary context. Given that there are only a handful of books which deal with the theatre of this period in the Cape, and they contain few specific references to Van der Gucht; the chief sources for this topic were unpublished written material, and interviews with Van der Gucht's past students, colleagues, friends and relations. Of special importance were Van der Gucht's unsorted collection of papers (bequeathed to the Human Sciences Research Council), the Little Theatre Press Cutting books and the University of Cape Town Archives. In Chapter One the formative influence of her parents, her education, and her first working years in England prior to the Second World War are traced. The following six chapters cover, decade by decade, the period from 1942 to 1971 when Van der Gucht was at the University of Cape Town, training aspirant Speech and Drama teachers, actors, and students taking general Arts degrees. Her influence upon the teacher and actor training courses, including a scrutiny of curriculum developments, is examined; as is her membership of the South African Guild of Speech Teachers and her foundation and leadership of Theatre for Youth which aimed to reach young people beyond the University. Chapter 8 covers the years after her retirement from the University, when she launched upon a second career as a play director, and attempts to pinpoint the chief characteristics of her directing. Chapter 9 deals with the events leading to her death in 1985 - which shed new light on Van der Gucht as a person. The conclusions drawn from this study pertain to Van der Gucht's quality as a person and teacher. The writer takes the paradoxical view that this woman of British origin and education; was, first and foremost, an educator of the traditional kind found in Africa: an oral educator, who used oral material, verbal communication and social situations to inspire and direct those with whom she worked to greater efforts for the benefit of their society, themselves and the discipline of drama. The study is intended to be a useful historical resource for students of drama and the theatre in South Africa.

Bibliography: pages 159-163. / The major aims of this study are to analyze spatial patterns of land use change, to establish the relationship between land use change and locational conflict and to analyze the nature and patterns of locational conflict in Cape Town.

Bibliography: pages 213-219. / The presented dissertation studies the character and conditions of university-based engagements in the field of adult worker education. In procedure, the study is a contextualized case presentation and analysis of a worker education project initiated at the University of Cape Town in 1981. The contexts of the case are presented through a historical assessment of worker education in Britain and South Africa; and through a consideration of the social forces operating in the field of contemporary South African labour organization. The argument of the dissertation is that educational events are constituted by social and historical forces. In order to grasp the meaning and significance of events within an educational field analysis of the educational practice through the use of social and historical frameworks is required. The aims, and conclusions, of the study are directed towards understanding the relations between the educational curricula and the social purposes of the participants. The findings of the study concern, in the first instance, the continuation and forms of the Cape Town project. Their wider relevance is discussed in terms of the ways in which nonformal educational curricula operate as codes through which broader social goals and interests are given specific forms of purpose and action. The implications of the concept of the curriculum as a coded social process are detailed with reference to educational design, planning and evaluation.

Bibliography: pages 91-95. / A theoretical introduction to Public Finance is presented with a summary of the role which the South African government plays in the economic sphere. In addition, part of survey research data collected by the Department of Sociology, University of Cape Town, has been statistically analyzed in order to discover what demographic factors influence trends in citizen preferences and attitudes towards the allocation of public funds. The hypothesis on which the research was based, i.e. that demographic variables such as sex, marital status, age, income, education and race produce significant differences in public opinion towards the allocation of public funds, has been partly rejected by the findings.

Bibliography: pages 168-180. / The concern of this study is to identify social areas among the coloured population of Greater Cape Town and to see if these are recognisable in physical space; i.e. if once social areas are recoqnised, whether the patterns of differing social status can be related to that of adjacent areas. If socio-economic status is assumed to be reflected in housing type and quality, then physical environment and interaction between adjacent areas is likely to play an important role in creating an environment that is perceived to have a particular character and status. As a result, contiguity will have great significance in the emergence of distinct socio-economic sub-areas. It is therefore essential to concentrate a study of this type on adjacent ESD's and to regard the four major concentrations of residential areas as separate entities. By dealing primarily with contiguous ESD's each forming separate residential concentrations, it carries no implication that there is no interaction between the different residential concentrations. Together they form a total system and areas of similar socio-economic status may develop in all or some of the residential concentrations.

Magister Pharmaceuticae - MPharm / Background 2 Medication labels are often the only information available to patients after obtaining medication 3 from the pharmacy or other healthcare practitioners. Inappropriately designed medicine labelling 4 contributes to poor interpretation and improper use, which could adversely affect patient health 5 outcomes. In developing countries, pictograms (pictures representing words or phrases), on 6 medicine labels tend to support patients’ ability to read, understand and recall information. 7 8 Objective 9 This comparative study examined low-literate participants’ interpretation of ‘text-and-pictogram’ 10 instructions versus ‘routine text-only’ instructions relative to the intended medicine use 11 instructions on an oral rehydration (OR) dry mixture sachet in public sector Community Health 12 Centres (CHCs) in Cape Town. 13 14 Method 15 CHCs, (n=4) from Tygerberg (Cape Town) sub-district were recruited. Two trained data collectors 16 recruited participants from the paediatric section’s waiting area. Participants were either shown an 17 OR medicine label containing both “text-and-pictograms” (experimental group) and one 18 containing “routine text-only” (control group) instructions. Data regarding understanding of six 19 instructions for use on the medicine label were recorded. Responses were scored according to a 3-20 point Likert scale and compared for each question, to calculate which of the experimental or 21 control group answered better. Responses to the questions to explain the observed deviation 22 between the participant interpretation of the label and the intended message of the label, was noted. 23 Responses were recorded and transcribed. Open-ended questions regarding label interpretation and 24 preference were thematically analysed.