Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Parenting practices play a significant role in the raising healthy functioning children. Traditionally, Black African families have had their own way of parenting their children, like all other cultural groups. However, few guidelines have been developed and recorded regarding their parenting practices. Most available parenting practices guidelines have been developed from a Western perspective. The purpose of this study was to explore the indigenous parenting practices of Black African families, with the aim of developing indigenous parenting practices guidelines for parents and caregivers, including grandparents in the Makhuduthamaga Municipality of the Sekhukhune district. The theoretical framework underpinning this study is an Afrocentricity, which focuses on reclaiming African practices. A qualitative research method was used, guided by a case study research design. The researcher used purposive sampling to select a sample of 52 participants from six villages in the Makhuduthamaga Municipality of the Sekhukhune Districts, in Limpopo Province. The participants recruited were grandparents, traditional leaders and three age categories of parents. The number of participants were as follows: 18 parents, 29 grandparents, and 5 traditional leaders. Participation in the study was voluntary, while confidentiality and anonymity was maintained. Participants were thoroughly informed about the study, and offered their by signing the relevant consent forms.

Import sanctions were used to a very limited extent against South Africa in the early sixties and latter half of the seventies to clearly signal the international community's disapproval of the country's apartheid policy. In the middle eighties South Africa was further exposed to a two year wave of export and financial sanctions. This was after the government had already committed itself to move away from apartheid as a policy that was no longer deemed feasible. All these sanctions were lifted in the early nineties after the abolition of apartheid but before negotiations for a new constitutional dispensation had firmly got under way. Contrary to some popular impressions, the 1985-87 sanctions were also severe1y limited in scope and nature, with the result that their economic impact was only marginal at best. They were introduced at a time when the country unexpectedly had to face a foreign debt crisis and had to drastically adjust the economy downward, not unlike that experienced by many other developing countries. The severe recession and greater socio-political unrest that followed did not lead to an escalation of sanctions, but nevertheless threatened to make large parts of the country ungovernable. The evidence is that sanctions only played a minor role in bringing about this poor and deteriorating state of affairs. The political aims of abolishing apartheid and preparing the way for negotiations was achieved mainly as a result of certain internal political developments, together with the political implications of such major other outside developments as the economic collapse of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Soviet Union. South Africa's experience with sanctions confirms that as elsewhere their economic impact as an instrument of foreign policy was invariably exaggerated, whereas their contribution in explaining the subsequent course of political events was at best uncertain. / Department of Economics / Ph.D. (Economics)

Import sanctions were used to a very limited extent against South Africa in the early sixties and latter half of the seventies to clearly signal the international community's disapproval of the country's apartheid policy. In the middle eighties South Africa was further exposed to a two year wave of export and financial sanctions. This was after the government had already committed itself to move away from apartheid as a policy that was no longer deemed feasible. All these sanctions were lifted in the early nineties after the abolition of apartheid but before negotiations for a new constitutional dispensation had firmly got under way. Contrary to some popular impressions, the 1985-87 sanctions were also severe1y limited in scope and nature, with the result that their economic impact was only marginal at best. They were introduced at a time when the country unexpectedly had to face a foreign debt crisis and had to drastically adjust the economy downward, not unlike that experienced by many other developing countries. The severe recession and greater socio-political unrest that followed did not lead to an escalation of sanctions, but nevertheless threatened to make large parts of the country ungovernable. The evidence is that sanctions only played a minor role in bringing about this poor and deteriorating state of affairs. The political aims of abolishing apartheid and preparing the way for negotiations was achieved mainly as a result of certain internal political developments, together with the political implications of such major other outside developments as the economic collapse of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Soviet Union. South Africa's experience with sanctions confirms that as elsewhere their economic impact as an instrument of foreign policy was invariably exaggerated, whereas their contribution in explaining the subsequent course of political events was at best uncertain. / Department of Economics / Ph.D. (Economics)