The current Afro-communitarianism (AC) articulation and analysis of botho is characterised by two main approaches. First it treats botho as if it is a universal concept that can be expounded independently in a theoretical manner devoid of any specific cultural perspective that give it meaning and authority. Second it abstracts the Sesotho proverb “motho ke motho ka batho” (MKKB) from the rest of Sesotho narrative elevating it as foundational to the definition and meaning of the concept, where a particular reading of this proverb has come to be taken as the quintessential articulation of the meaning of this concept. This thesis problematizes this account within the context of Sesotho culture from which the proverb derives. Firstly, it rejects the abstraction and exceptionalism of MKKB as poor scholarship and a deficiency in the knowledge of the ethical significance of narratives in Sesotho culture, arguing that this is an unjustified abstraction of MKKB from Sesotho narratives inconsistent with how proverbs are interpreted and used. It asserts that MKKB is best understood not in isolation, but within the context of the unity of African narratives and their meaning and unique role as the chief means of moral education into botho. Secondly, the thesis questions the dominance of one specific reading of Ubuntu in the current botho discourse and the privileged status this reading has enjoyed over other, equally justified, interpretations. It argues for a definition of botho (moral personhood ) based on the definition of this term as a moral statement describing good admirable moral qualities of character of motho. The study thus starts from the premise that talk about botho turns out to be talk about character of motho because botho cannot be fully realised independently of the characters of individuals who make it a reality. The study recommends a character centric definition of botho as a fresh alternative, where an understanding of the possession of botho by motho, entails inculcation of makhabane or virtues of botho, many of which are found narratives especially proverbs. Its attractiveness is that it is consistent with the nature of African ethics as character-based ethic, but also underscores important assumptions behind botho including the primacy of character and the existence of a particular social order as a prerequisite for botho to flourish, all of which are worth serious consideration in the current botho discourse. / Research Institute for Theology and Religion

The failures of constitutionalism and good governance in Africa are well documented. Importantly, these failures have also highlighted the importance of constitutionalism and good governance in Africa. This study centrally explores the relevance and viability of social trust-based governance and constitutionalism in Malawi, specifically, and Africa, generally. Social trust-based governance and constitutionalism is an approach to governance and constitutionalism that is informed by the trust concept and is also fully mindful of local conditionalities in its operationalisation. By referring to the Constitution of Malawi and other pieces of legislation in Malawi, this study demonstrates that there is a legal basis for articulating and practising social trust-based governance and constitutionalism in Malawi. This legal basis stems primarily from sections 12 and 13 of the Constitution but is also supported by legislation like the Corrupt Practices Act, Public Finance Management Act, Public Procurement Act and the Public Audit Act. In spite of the fact that there is a basis for social trust-based governance and constitutionalism in Malawi it is evident that governance and constitutionalism in Malawi have not, so far, been practised in line with the stipulations of the social trust-based approach. The current approach to governance and constitutionalism in Malawi is heavily steeped in the liberal democratic tradition. In this connection, this study demonstrates the limitations of the liberal democratic approach to governance and constitutionalism in Malawi principal among which is the lack of autochthony. Since the apparatus of liberal democracy has subsequently become quite entrenched in Malawi and most African countries, it is argued that the way forward involves creating a synthesis out of liberal democracy and the norms, traditions and values indigenous to Africa. This study identifies the philosophy of ubuntu as being an important source of values and principles that can be utilised to confer some autochthony to governance and constitutionalism in Malawi, specifically and Africa, generally. The approach adopted in this study concedes that neither a rigid insistence on liberal democratic constitutionalism nor a strict adherence to ubuntu-based governance and constitutionalism can succeed in Malawi. The solution is to utilise values from both traditions in order to generate a viable approach to governance and constitutionalism. In this study, the viability and relevance of social trust-based governance and constitutionalism is demonstrated by reference to the relationship between the branches of government, public resource management and the accountability of public functionaries and citizenry empowerment in Malawi. This study argues that a social trust-based approach to governance and constitutionalism can improve the relations between the branches of government, reinvigorate public resource management and also enhance accountability of public functionaries and empower the populace in line with the Constitution’s vision. The Constitution, as the supreme law of the land, thus remains integral to governance and constitutionalism in Malawi. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

In the Manifesto on Values (2001), Ubuntu is depicted as one of the ten democratic values and the Department of Education (DoE, 2001) portrays it as one of the most important values to promote citizenry. Ubuntu provides a sense of belonging to a wider community and encourages a child citizen to live as a responsible and constructive member. Utilising a qualitative research mode of inquiry, with an action research approach enabled me to collaboratively design of a socially constructed learning experience, with subject specialists. We explored the value of creative drama to teach Ubuntu as an abstract concept to Grade 3 learners. The focus of this study was on conceptualisation and not the implementation. These learners were exposed to creative drama, however for this study they did not actively engage in any creative drama activities. The main data generation techniques that had been used in this study were semi-structured interviews with a panel of subject experts, after which they had also completed a rubric to convey the strengths and weaknesses of the designed learning experience. This was done in a cyclic manner; as embedded in action research to strengthen the idea of action research already mentioned. From the study and the results of the study, it had become evident that creative drama could be used to strengthen school learners’ understanding of Ubuntu and to incorporate it in their everyday lives to become progressive child citizens and leaders within South Africa. By using the input and knowledge of expert participants, it had also become evident that learning could be made fun and would most likely then be more effective. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria 2020. / Early Childhood Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Over the past two decades the emphasis on corporate governance practice has increased globally. The corporate governance models which guide corporate ethics, currently employed in African countries, are extensively driven by Western elements. Corporate governance practice in relation to the African philosophy of Ubuntu is under analysed. While Ubuntu has been studied comprehensively in a number of legal disciplines, it has not enjoyed comparable attention in its application, relevance, and potential to enhance corporate governance practices in Africa. Limited academic research exists on the integration of the Ubuntu philosophy into corporate governance and the ethical perspectives introduced. Therefore, this dissertation aims to bridge this gap by exploring the current guiding frameworks of selected corporate governance practice in relation to the principle of the African philosophy of Ubuntu. Here, corporate governance practice is examined in South Africa and Namibia. Business ethics, ethical perspectives, corporate social responsibility, and the African notion of Ubuntu, in relation to the role that it plays in ethical leaderships, is evaluated. Links between Ubuntu and established Western ethical perspectives and theories support its use and significance for enhancing current corporate governance frameworks in these countries. The findings of this dissertation strengthen the need to analyse Ubuntu, particularly in relation to its link with social responsibility and ethical perspectives, in order to augment current corporate governance practices in Africa. It is submitted that corporate governance practices in Africa should reflect the notions of Ubuntu more clearly and coherently which will serve as a progressive model to enhance effective corporate governance.

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This thesis explores the role of context-specific peace education initiatives in promoting social cohesion in the Western Cape, South Africa, with an emphasis on drawing lessons from the philosophy of Ubuntu. Against the backdrop of South Africa's colonial, apartheid and post-apartheid historical and social significance, including issues of social cohesion, the study addresses the country's complex socio-political dynamics and ongoing challenges in fostering unity and inclusivity. By applying the Social Capital Theory, which highlights the importance of social networks, trust, reciprocity, shared norms and values, as well as collective action in achieving shared goals and cooperation, this study explores how context-specific peace education initiatives can be customized to local contexts and their potential to promote positive social change. With a focus on the Western Cape province, characterised by high levels of violence and socio-economic disparities, this research delves into peace education initiatives to comprehend their adaptation to local circumstances and their capacity to drive constructive social transformation. The findings underscore the significance of relationships, social networks, and individuals with strong social capital in building positive peace and fostering social cohesion. Creating inclusive spaces for dialogue through storytelling, art, music, and other means emerges as a key finding. These spaces provide opportunities for people to come together, share their experiences, and engage in difficult conversations. The research also emphasizes the role of young people and their active engagement in civic participation as crucial for the success of peace education initiatives. By valuing and incorporating local wisdom, traditions, and practices such as Ubuntu, peace education initiatives can better address the specific needs and challenges of the Western Cape. The study recommends further research on the integration of gender-sensitive and intersectional approaches. Understanding and addressing gender-related factors are essential for promoting inclusivity and equality within peace education programs.

South Africa as a country faces stark socio-economic development challenges, such as extreme levels of inequality and unemployment, and specifically youth unemployment. To assist with addressing some of these challenges associated with the history of apartheid, the South African government instituted Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE). One of the instruments to implement B-BBEE is Corporate Social Investment (CSI). CSI refers to projects that companies undertake that goes beyond their primary profit motive, to assist and empower disadvantaged individuals and communities. A number of CSI projects in South Africa has an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) focus, where companies spend their CSI budget to contribute to, among other things, ICT skills development. Research has revealed that these types of projects are often short-lived, and at times unsustainable. As a result, communities are not necessarily benefiting from such projects. The objective of this research is to analyse the impact of South African CSI projects with an ICT focus on poor urban communities. The study is further limited in scope to CSI ICT initiatives aimed at supporting disadvantaged youth. The study followed a qualitative research approach. Four case studies were performed in poor urban communities in Soweto, all four of them CSI initiatives that were aimed at providing ICT support to disadvantaged youth. A systems framework was developed using literature as a foundation from which to analyse the cases. The systems framework is primarily based on Checkland’s soft systems methodology, which facilitates an inquiry into the problem situation and context. The Ubuntu philosophy, which emphasises the belief systems in which people and communities reflect their experiences in a day-to-day life, further supports the framework. Lastly, autopoiesis was employed as part of the framework, as it describes the self-production and sustainability of the system of interest. The study sought to gather qualitative data to understand the problem situation and use as a basis for analysis. Through an iterative process, data was collected from interviews, focus groups, documentation, and observations at four learning centres in Soweto. The collected data pertained to the implementation of CSI ICT projects by learning centres between 2002 – 2016. The case studies were analysed by applying the social systems framework, which was based on SSM, Ubuntu philosophy, and autopoiesis concepts. The findings of the study indicate that companies derived some form of benefit for contributing to CSI in poor communities. These benefits included having a local presence, achieving a better B-BBEE rating that enables them to do business with the government, and to retain or attract new business. In addition, the communities and their members benefited from the CSI ICT projects; this demonstrated an essential element of Ubuntu, namely, that collectively everyone could benefit. The CSI ICT projects had a positive impact on the socio-economic situation of the communities. It contributed to the employability of the unemployed youth, as they were trained in ICT skills. The school children used ICT to do their schoolwork and for ICT training. In addition, the learning centres proved to be self-reproducing and selfmaintaining, and therefore sustainable. The contributions of the study include a systems framework and guiding principles that companies, systems thinkers, and ICT4D practitioners could use to assess the sustainability and the impact of similar projects that are geared towards achieving socio-economic development in poor urban communities. Further, the research findings were used to refine the theoretical framework to analyse the impact of CSI ICT projects in poor urban communities in South Africa. / Thesis (PhD (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Informatics / PhD (Information Technology) / Unrestricted

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Configuration files are a vital part of any server setup. Knowing what configuration files have been manipulated is vital in knowing what services are running and how they are configured on a system. Changes made to these configuration files must be manually documented or collected using some automated documentation tool. Both these methods rely on being implemented early for the changes to be sufficiently documented. If a system didn’t implement these methods of documentation then there is no absolute way of knowing what changes have been made to that system without doing a manual search through potentially hundreds of files to find changes. Finding all changes made to a system lacking documentation is a time-consuming and arduous task. What if the search for changes could be automated once the documentation is long overdue? This thesis aims to create an implementation that finds changes made to configuration files on a Debian system as well as Linux distributions based on Debian such as Ubuntu. The resulting implementation created is called Doc-Overdue. Doc-Overdue consists of a script written in Python and utilizes the Debian Package Management System to find reference files to compare to the configuration files on the system. The script also runs tests to aid in finding new and/or modified configuration files without a reference file available. The results are presented in a formatted comprehensive report automatically created by Doc-Overdue. The report will include change reports created by the Diff-utility that makes it easy to find exactly what changes have been made to each changed configuration file. This approach finds changes made to systems without the need for any prior documentation of the system. The implementation was tested with a custom-made script that made modifications to configuration files for Doc-Overdue to find. The test showed Doc-Overdue to have an accuracy of 87.5% in finding changed configuration files on the system. This result shows that this approach for finding configuration file changes has a lot of promise. The thesis ends with a discussion and a list of potential future work that could hopefully lead to further improvements in the field of configuration detection.