This research was aimed at exploring how taxi violence could be policed effectively within Stanger area. To achieve the objectives of this study the researcher interrogated the strategies that the police use in dealing with taxi violence as well as the impact and the challenges that are faced by police officials regarding this phenomenon. The researcher adopted a qualitative research approach in order to increase her understanding of the knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and beliefs related to taxi violence within Stanger area. The non-probability purposive sample method was used to select the research participants and the focus was on the research participants’ experience and knowledge of the subject matter. The researcher also used semistructured interviews in order to resolve specific questions. The findings were that most of the taxi violence remained unresolved within Stanger area because witnesses were afraid to come forward with information regardless of the anonymous hotline that was created to encourage the reporting of this violence. Consequently, because of a shortage of manpower, resources, uncooperative witnesses and knowledge of matters concerning taxi permits the police and other law enforcement agencies in the area are mainly reactive in attending to taxi violence crimes. The lack of proactivity hampers the success of the initiatives that they (police) put in place to address taxi violence in Stanger. / Police Practice / M.Tech. (Policing)

This explorative study investigated bullying in a sample of schools in Lesotho from the learner’s perspective. A review of the existing literature formed the basis for the offered description of the phenomenon. The work examined concise definitions of bullying, school violence, victim and bully. The research described various forms of bullying, reason for and possible intervention strategies. The quantitative research method was applied, which included an analysis of the data obtained from a questionnaire containing 33 close-ended questions divided into six sections: general information; observation of bullying; experience of bullying; impact of bullying; participation in bullying activities and reasons for bullying and measures against it. The questionnaires were distributed among 1 373 learners from Lesotho public schools which were used for the study. The research was brought to a conclusive end with a proposal for school bullying intervention strategies in Lesotho public schools. / Criminology and Security Science / M.A. (Criminology)

Gevangenisbendes in Suid-Afrika het 'n lang geskiedenis. die eerste was gestig onder Swart gevangenes in die Transvaal onmiddellik na die Anglo-Boere oorlog. Die Ninevite bende was ingestel deur Nongoloza Mathebula en het in die Witwatersrand geopereer. "Nongoloza" se bende het bestaan uit agt lede waarvan die 28 bende later ontwikkel het. Die 28 bende is ten gunste van wyfies-verhouding (homoseksuele) onder sy bende lede. "Ngelejani" se bende, waaruit die 26 bende ontwikkel het, was nie ten gunste van die wyfies-verhouding nie. Die ander bende wat in die gevangenis ontstaan het, is die Big 5 bende en die Airforce bende. / Prison gangs in South Africa have a long history. the first were established among Black prisoners in the Transvaal soon after the Anglo-Boer war. The Ninevite gang was introduced by Nongoloza Mathebula and operated in the Witwatersrand. "Nongoloza's" gang consisted of eight members, from which the 28 gang later developed. The 28 gang approved the boy-wives relationship (homo-sexual) among its gang members. "Ngelejani's" gang from which the 26 gang developed, disapproved the boy-wives relationship. Other gangs established in prison, are the Big 5 gang and the Airforce gang. / Sociology / M.A. (Penology)

Thesis (MTech (Education))--Peninsula Technikon, 2003 / Teaching and Learning cannot take place in an unsafe environment. The school plays a central role in the socialisation of a child and it is critical that schools offer a safe environment in which learning can take place. This study attempts to investigate school stakeholder perceptions of the Safe Schools Programme of the WCED and its impact on the learning environment of one primary school in the Mitchell's Plain district. The study as a whole is set against the research literature on crime and violence in schools. The literature surveyed covered the following aspects: (I) What constitutes crime and violence in schools; (2) The effects of crime and violence on the school environment; and (3) Approaches to reducing crime and violence in schools. This research project is a case study of school stakeholder perceptions of the Safe Schools Programme of the WCED as implemented in one primary school. Qualitative research techniques were employed and data was collected by means of individual semi-structured interviews with the acting principal and the safety officer of the school. A focus group interview was held with a group of educators and support staff members. Learners were excluded from the study as the aim was to determine the perceived impact of the Safe Schools Programme on the learning environment at the school. Primary school learners may perhaps not be able to articulate their views on the issue under research. Parents were not included in this research process but could be a valuable source of data for future research.

There is a growing body of research on sexual citizenship that focuses attention on gender and which bridges the gap between public and private life in order to rethink citizenship from a feminist perspective. This is in contrast to understandings of citizenship that promote policies of sexual regulation and a heteronormative ideal of citizenship. My research takes the form of a qualitative case study. Using data from two focus group discussions, fifteen personal diaries, as well as social media posts, I analyse participation in the Silent Protest, an annual anti-rape protest, through the lens of sexual citizenship. I look at how participation in the protest promotes or inhibits inclusive and process-based understandings of sexual violence and sexualities issues. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and the results of the analysis are presented into two parts. The first part of the analysis discusses the politics of affect and witnessing as two processes through which allies’ understandings of sexual violence are shaped. The second part of analysis shows that the Silent Protest contributes to people’s knowledge and understandings of sexual violence in relation to sexualities in a range of ways. Examples of inclusive understandings are: (1) insights about rape in relation to gender and heteronormative inequalities, culture and patriarchal dominance; (2) understanding of critical sexual citizenship in relation to sexual violence; and (3) understanding of politics of recognition (the need for recognition of the importance of safe spaces for formal and informal support for victim-survivors and recognition of victim-survivors’ identities). However, some of the understandings are limited to emotion and affect dynamics. In some ways, therefore, the Silent Protest fails to promote understandings significant to inclusive citizenship, including understandings of entitlements to non-discriminatory sexual health care services and legal services.

This thesis in an exploration of political mobilisation and its relation to violence and control in the townships of the Vaal Triangle, South Africa, c.1976 to 1986, with a particular focus on the Vaal Uprising of 1984. It examines the emerging conflict between councillors and local communities and the redrawing of imagined boundaries of community. Councillors were demarcated as a collective group that was perceived to be violating the social contract and were regarded as being obstacles to meaningful political change. The period saw the emergence of a localised discourse around accountability, political legitimacy, transparency, freedom and community. Political subjectivities were influenced by the straddling of everyday experiences of oppression, violence, inequality and poverty on one hand and the impact of ideologies of freedom and liberation on the other. The latter were promoted by the African National Congress in exile, as well as the United Democratic Front, but these organisations did not provide direct leadership. On 3 September 1984 the conflict escalated, sparked by an announcement to increase rent, service tariffs and municipal levies. It led to a large-scale uprising that altered the political and social landscape. It heralded the beginning of the insurrectionary period of the mid-1980s that brought the most sustained challenge to the apartheid regime. The relative success of the uprising in enforcing concessions from local authorities and the departure of councillors from the townships informed subsequent political strategies. The state attempted to win Hearts and Minds with limited reforms but also used heavy-handed repression. Terror began to escalate and state violence further conscientised and radicalised local communities. Youth activists in particular came to believe that the regime could only be overcome if confronted with strategies of political violence. Alleged informers and black policemen came under increasing attack, reflecting a redrawing of boundaries of community and hindering effective policing.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, 2017. / The overall aim of this study was to examine the circumstances under which violence occured among learners at Phatheka Primary School, situated in the township of Umlazi, and in doing so explore the causes of violence among learners at this school. The study further aimed to explore the complicit role of the school as an agent in shaping the manner in which learners relate to violence and vis à vis shaping learner behaviour. The research was driven by three objectives: Firstly, to investigate the gendered, class and ethnic nature of perpetrators and victims of school violence. Secondly, to examine the intra-group interactions among peers and their positioning of each other in terms of violent behaviour. Lastly, to explore how the discipline regime of the school shaped the constructions of violent and peaceful behaviour among learners. The qualitative research approach was utilised to obtain detailed and rich data. Ten educators and ten learners were purposively chosen from one urban primary school in the Umlazi Township. The ten learners that were interviewed, were identified from teachers’ observations of conflict situations at the school, in the classroom and on the playground. The ten most senior educators formed the sample of educators for this study. Seniority was determined according to the number of years the educator had been teaching at this school. Four of the most senior male educators and six of the most senior female educators were selected. The data was collected through face-to-face interviews and focus group interviews. The composition of the group consisted of learners with different interests and cultures in order to stimulate debate. The questions asked in the focus group interviews were similar to the questions used in individual interviews to broaden the data by comparing the responses of respondents when they were on their own, to their responses in a group situation.. The data analysis process was organised according to the research questions and based on themes that emerged from the contents of the interviews. A list of themes was formed of each transcript. These themes were then grouped and organised according to similarities. The list of themes was compared to the data and codes were allocated. The data was then divided and organised into categories, relevant themes and sub-themes. The findings of this study revealed that violence at this school was mainly interpersonal. Physical violence at this school took the form of hitting, kicking, punching, slapping and other acts that caused physical pain or injury. This study found that many learners believed that certain types of muthi provided advantage to the user in conflicts and fights. Many boys at this school used vernacular expressions of stick fighting to reinforce their dominance over other boys, as metaphors of manhood that bolstered their position among peers. Physical confrontation often involved the use of sticks. Labelling also served as a trigger to ignite violence among learners. Learners labelled each other in terms of their physical appearance, their citizenship as well as their academic performance. There was strong evidence from learners’ interviews that they competed and labelled each other around issues of classroom practices and academic performance. This created tension among the learners which also led to physical confrontation and violence. Many boys subscribed to certain hegemonic notions of masculinity which created a mentality where the boys demanded respect and exercised power over girls. Boys often used violence or the threat of violence to claim and exercise this power. Romantic relationships with girls often caused boys at Phatheka to get into conflict situations in their attempts to avoid humiliation, to prove heterosexuality and to enjoy a particular status at the school. This study found that a large proportion of learners who reacted with violence when provoked, had learnt this behaviour through role models provided by parents, siblings, relatives and community members, either directly or indirectly, and that this was often reinforced at school by peers, bullies and figures of authority. Role models actively encouraged learners to defend themselves, or to solve problems, by means of force and aggression, which contributed significantly to shaping violent behaviour among learners. This notion among the learners at Phatheka Primary School that violence is the best way to resolve conflict, with or without weapons, meant that fighting became the norm at this school. Although school fights are common and every fight is different, this study found that some common causes do exist. It was also found that the school complicitly contributed to the violence among learners through school policies and the disciplinary practices of educators. / M

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Learner violence is and has been a thorny silent issue among learners and teachers as well as part of daily schooling in South African schools before and after the advent of democracy. This epidemic is not only unique in South African schools but the world over including developing and countries where it does not receive necessary attention from both parents of the victims and perpetrators, authorities and with no coverage from the media. The South African government through The Bill of Rights in The Constitution Act 104 of 1996 together with the Department of Education (DoE) through legislation such as South African Schools Act (SASA) 84 of 1996 made provision through School Governing Bodies (SGB) and school managers of ensuring that violence in schools should be managed and be eradicated by means of formulating sound policies with appropriate measures to discipline whoever is found in transgression of good behaviour. However, irrespective of endeavours by authorities to curb these problems, we are still witnessing the serious incidents where learners are committing forms of violence against other learners . This motivated the researcher to explore the experiences and strategies of school principals, in particular public school principals with regard to how they manage learner violence in their schools. In addition, it was of importance to determine the contribution of stakeholders such as parents towards the management of violence in the school as regulated by SASA and what are the impact of violence on learners themselves as observed by principals. The aim was to research incidents of violence in schools, and what are the principals’ experiences and strategies of managing learner violence. A qualitative research method study was used through a semi-structured interview to get in-depth experience and knowledge from identified participants.

The South African Constitution is considered as supreme law. This piece of legislation overrides all others and states in section 28(2): “A child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child”. This emphasises the significance of the right of the child in South African law, by stating that children are to be protected at all cost. This section of the constitution forms the basis of this thesis with regards to the child and the protections that are to be afforded to them in instances of sexual abuse by educators. In the last several years there has been an increase in the number of cases reported on the sexual abuse, rape, violence and harassment of learners by members of the schooling community. The statistics prove that sexual violence in the schooling system in South Africa is rampant and furthermore indicate that young girls and boys are not as safe as they deserve to be. A teacher or educator is a professional, who is to act in a professional manner at all times – in the course and scope of their employment as educators. When a parent leaves its child at school for the day the educators are acting in loco parentis – in place of parent – thus these children are to be protected, nurtured and cared for in the correct manner. Sexual abuse of a learner by an educator is a gross contravention of South African legislation, the South African Council of Educators (SACE) code of conduct as well as international codes by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the United Nations (UN) and other conventions. It is therefore fitting that any perpetrator of such violence, disrespect and transgression is to be punished quickly and harshly. Educators who abuse children are to immediately be removed from the school system through dismissal and also be tried criminally. These offenders should also be added to the SACE sexual offenders’ database which needs to be open to the Department of Education (DOE) and more importantly the general public – allowing parents to make the best possible decisions when putting their children in schools, thus ensuring their safety. However, throughout this process the rights of the child are to be protected and regarded with prevailing sensitivity, and their innocence is to be sheltered from any further psychological and emotional harm caused due to the abuse. The South African Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (SAPSAC) argues that a constitutional injunction is powerless to protect a child from being victimised and traumatised by criminal activity.1 All the more should it be incumbent upon the criminal law and criminal procedure and upon the courts, their functionaries and practitioners who regulate its procedure and apply its principles to “protect children from abuse and (to) maximise opportunities for them to lead productive and happy lives … (and to) … create positive conditions for repair to take place”. The thesis that follows, using the principles summarised here, aims to: define sexual abuse of the child, the legal position in South Africa in relation to the sexual abuse of children and case law. Recommendations will then be made and a code of good practice will be established on how to deal with educators who sexually abuse their learners promptly, effectively – without causing any further harm to the child in question.

This study assessed the implementation of learner discipline policies in the Graaff Reinet District in four township Secondary schools. The study arose as a result of the decline of learner discipline in secondary schools. This study is located in the interpretive paradigm and adopted a qualitative research approach in the collection of data. It employed triangulation to collect data and obtained valuable information on the implementation of learner discipline policies. Four township secondary schools in the Graaff Reinet District were purposively selected for the sample in this study. Semi-structured interviews, focus groups of learners and parents Data has revealed that schools were using different strategies to implement learner discipline such as Code of Conduct, Disciplinary hearing, Safety and Security Committee, Educators, Corporal Punishment, Alternative methods to Corporal Punishment and the role parents. Data revealed that there has been no success in implementing learner discipline strategies. There were a number of limitations in implementing policies to maintain learner disciplines which were identified in the study. There were inconsistencies like educators not supervising learners in detention classes, some of the educators were sabotaging the system by not putting into practice the measures and strategies which were put in place to maintain discipline and so forth. The School Management Teams did not capacitate the Representative Council of Learners so as to assist in the monitoring of discipline. The Department of Education is not supportive in the maintenance of discipline in the schools under study in Graaff Reinet District. To address disciplinary problems, the study has the following key recommendations Policies should be crafted by all stakeholders for ownership and there should be collaboration in implementation of those policies.. The Code of Conduct should be issued to all learners at the school at the beginning of the year in the language of preference, with school rules. Learners should know the consequences of transgressing the Code of Conduct. SMTs should adopt different management styles so as to take action against educators who are failing the system of maintaining discipline. Educators should realise that it is their duty to maintain discipline in schools; therefore they should stop complaining about disciplinary problems. Educators should engage the Department of Education to conduct workshops in building capacity of educators to maintain learner discipline. Schools should establish partnerships with other sister Departments such as SAPS, Social Development, Correctional Services, Health to, maintain learner discipline.