Magister Artium - MA / The food security crisis which gripped the sub Sahara Africa after the drought in 1999/2000 threatened development initiatives in these countries. Zimbabwe’s situation has since worsened and the country has failed to recuperate from the food problems, even after an improvement in the climatic conditions. International and local food aid activities then became a priority in the fight to sustain the right to food for the affected regions. It is argued in this research that if food aid is distributed on the basis of need it will enable the vulnerable populations recuperate form food insecurity problems. It is also postulated that if well implemented, food aid programmes are also able to play the dual role of averting starvation and leading to long term development. This thesis departs from the allegations of food aid politicisation in Zimbabwe. Using the rational choice and neopatrimonial theories of individual behaviour, this research endeavored to ascertain whether political decisions influenced the government food aid distributions which were conducted through the Grain Marketing Board. In line with these theories, it is argued in this study that politicians behave in a manner that maximizes the fulfillment of their individual needs rather than the needs of the people who vote them in positions of power. A qualitative approach was adopted in this study and data was gathered through household interviews in the Seke and Goromonzi districts of the Mashonaland East province in Zimbabwe. Furthermore, interviews were conducted with food aid experts from the governmental and non governmental organisations dealing with food security issues in Zimbabwe. / South Africa

This study reports research on how student teachers in Science at Mutare Teachers' College in Zimbabwe worked with indigenous knowledge practices in relation to science concepts in the secondary school syllabus. The study was conducted among first-year science students and involved them in developing science learning activities for a peer-teaching process that was part of their course. The research was undertaken during a review ofthe college syllabus and as a study to inform the Secondary Teacher Training Environmental Education Programme (ST²EEP). The research design involved the researcher in participant observations and interviews with rural people to document indigenous knowledge practices and to develop materials for the students to work with in the lessons design part of the study. The student teachers used the documented practices to generate learning activities and lesson plans to teach the science concepts they had identified. A peer review session and focus group interviews followed the lesson presentations. Findings from the research point to the rural community being a repository of diverse indigenous knowledge practices. Student teachers showed that they had prior knowledge of both indigenous knowledge practices and science concepts when they come to class. Student teachers were able to relate indigenous knowledge practices and science concepts in ways that have the potential to enhance the learning of science in rural school contexts that lack laboratories and science equipment. The scope of the study does not allow for anything beyond tentative conclusions that point to the need for further work to be undertaken with student teachers and for the research to be extended to teaching and learning interactions in schools. Recommendations are also made for further resource-based work to be undertaken within the forthcoming St²eep implementation phase in 2007.

This investigation of social learning processes in the Chipembere gardening project was conducted in Rockvale village one in Sebakwe communal area in the Midlands province of Zimbabwe. In essence, the study sought to explore how the Chipembere gardening project as a community-based natural resource management initiative (CBNRM), was reflecting and supporting social learning processes of change. It also sought to enrich and deepen an organizational understanding of social learning and to generate ideas and draw recommendations that could be used to strengthen learning in other CBNRM projects. The research was undertaken as a qualitative case study with data generated through semi-structured interviews with individuals and groups. It also included an analysis of project documents and an extended period of participant observation on site and in the gardening activities. Data were indexed and coded for generating analytical memos that were used to extract and represent the scope of social learning interations within the developing project. The study found that within the Chipembere gardening project a wide range of learning interactions were significant in shaping the developing project. Furthermore, these interactions were earmarked as the major drivers of social learning processes within the project. The study concluded that the social learning interactions amongst the gardeners in the Chipembere community garden were instrumental in fostering change that enhanced community livelinhoods and wellbeing.

[Preface] The detailed geological survey of the country described in this bulletin commenced in 1953 and was completed in 1956 with the mapping of 1,480 square miles of country. Information is supplied on 227 mines which produced mica alone or both mica and beryl, and 134 mines which produced only beryl. In addition, wolfram, gold, graphite, kyanite and rutile deposits and mines are described. Mineral outputs are given up to end of 1959. The field mapping and writing of the bulletin is entirely the work of Mr. Wiles. Mapping of the Field has established that, with a few exceptions, a metamorphic control has operated in the development of economic sheet mica and has led to the conclusion that very many of these pegmatites are composite bodies which have derived their material from two sources: one metamorphic and the other igneous. This conclusion was arrived at after a detailed petrographic investigation of the metamorphic rocks. The map at the end of this bulletin was drawn by Mr.A. H. Barrie and the diagrams are largely the work of Mr. D. O. L. Levy. Chemical analyses are by Messrs. A. J. Radford and E. Golding and were made in the Geological Survey Laboratory. Some of the photographs are by H. J. Cotterel of the Geological Survey while the remainder were taken by the Planning and Technical Services of the Federal Ministry of Home Affairs (formerly the Federal Information Department). It gives me pleasure to acknowledge the assistance and facilities offered the Department by mining men and residents in the district.

The focus of this study thus was to establish if the training of teachers at a particular teachers’ training college in Zimbabwe is equipping students as future teachers with the required competences to realise the aims and objectives of the Zimbabwe Primary Music Syllabus. This study follows on the above-mentioned initial small-scale investigation conducted in 2002, which revealed that teachers lacked the required competences to implement this particular syllabus effectively (Mufute, 2002:16).

Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Education Sport, Arts and Culture offers as one of the primary school curricula, an AIDS curriculum which all Grades 4 to 7 teachers in Zimbabwe’s primary schools mandatorily implement with a view to contributing towards the prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS among the young primary school learners. The purpose of this research was to explore and describe teachers’ understanding and implementation of Zimbabwe’s primary school AIDS curriculum regarding the ways in which they articulated teaching practices and processes in their classrooms. The study also aimed to elicit the teachers’ views on how personal and contextual factors impact their adaptation and enactment of the curriculum. The study also sought to establish teachers’ perceptions of their practical experiences with the implementation of Zimbabwe’s primary school AIDS curriculum and their suggestions for improving practice. The study follows a qualitative case study design with minimal quantitative results. It involved three purposively selected primary school grade six teachers (n=3) each of whom was asked to teach five lessons while being observed over a period of three months. Each teacher availed his or her teaching scheme/plan to the researcher who conducted document analysis to glean their symbolic conceptualisation of actual classroom practice of the curriculum. This was followed by three semi-structured interviews with each participating teacher to elicit their perceptions. A content analysis using ideas borrowed from the grounded theory approach was employed resulting in thematic findings. The findings of the study confirm and enhance the theoretical significance of the phenomenological-adaptive perspective of educational change and Honig’s (people, policy, places) and cognition model for describing teacher implementation of the mandatory AIDS curriculum. The findings also confirm the complex ways in which human-generated personal and contextual factors played out in framing and shaping teachers’ personal adaptation of the mandatory AIDS curriculum. The study confirms the adaptation claim that as cognitive sense-makers, teachers mutate and enact a curriculum according to their personal subjective interpretations in the context of unique use-setting implementation realities. Although one of the participants’ understanding and practice displayed considerable comprehension of the requirements of the curriculum, the other teachers displayed an understanding of this curriculum in a superficial way, and experienced few positive experiences and several conceptual and operational constraints in its implementation. Drawing on their practical experiences with the implementation of the curriculum, teachers offered suggestions for transforming the implementation proficiency of this curriculum, which formed part of the conceptual strategy I developed for improving practice. Thus the resultant achievement of the study was a conceptual strategy that was constructed from the key findings of the study to provide educational change leaders with nuanced ideas and insights for improving practice.

To gain workforce support and commitment, organisations should offer remuneration and rewards that are internally and externally equitable, as inequity in remuneration is the source of employee discontent and turnover. To succeed, organisations have to communicate the total value of rewards allocated to employees. Communication is the foundation of reward management and organisational success. Communication helps employees to understand that the rewards they receive are worth having. Remuneration and rewards communicate the value that organisations place on their employees. To deliver the proper messages, remuneration objectives and strategies should be aligned with the overall business strategy of the organisation. Alignment enables organisations to deliver the right type of rewards to the right people, at the right time, and for the right reasons. The only way the organisation can deliver the correct reward and remuneration, is to implement a total reward system together with a total pay system. Effective total pay system covers base pay, skills and competency pay, variable performance pay, recognition, and benefits. Total reward system cover investment in people, development and training, performance management, and career management. To motivate and retain employees, and to improve organisation’s profitability, a right mix of total pay and total rewards should be made available to employees as employees’ needs differ. With this information, an empirical study was developed and conducted at Lobels Bread in Zimbabwe. The results of this survey indicated that Lobels Bread uses traditional base pay system and benefits as a way of motivating and retaining its employees. This pay system seems to be insufficient to motivate and retain employees. To motivate and retain employees, the company should implement a total reward system, which includes total pay system, investment in people, career enhancement, open communications, involvement, and performance management.

Zimbabwean widows need to inherit property when their husbands die. Property, be it material or financial in nature, is a source of sustenance and wealth. Depriving women of property inheritance rights has untold consequences. This study focuses on the property inheritance rights of widows in Zimbabwe in the Sikalenge Ward of Binga District. The aim of the study is to understand how property grabbing affects widows and to find possible solutions and intervention strategies social workers may use. The literature reviewed in the study was drawn from both the legal field and social work to create a link between the fields. The study was shaped by radical feminism for conceptualising property grabbing while the formulated intervention strategies utilised the empowerment model. The study is qualitative in nature using interviews to collect data from ten widows and five social service providers who constitute the total of fifteen participants in the study. Data was analysed qualitatively using interpretive approaches and presentation is textual rather than statistical. The main finding of the study is that widows are still being denied their inheritance rights despite the provision of such rights by the Intestate Succession Laws promulgated in November 1997 by the government of Zimbabwe. Moreover, the widows are not aware of the inheritance laws of Zimbabwe and hence did not seek any professional intervention. The few who attempted the legal process for recourse were not successful. Even though it was minimally attempted, the study established that the main form of failed intervention tried by the women was legal in nature and suggests and emphasises an eminent need for Social Work intervention to supplement legal intervention.

The right to freedom of expression is with no doubt one of the most important rights in all democratic societies. The southern African sub-region is however lacking when it comes to the protection of this right. There are either highly repressive laws which result in the right being practiced but to a limited extent. In other cases the media is owned by the elite in society which results in the majority not being represented in the independent media and at the same time, the public media is often abused by the governing elite. The scene is therefore that both the public media and private media are representative of the elite. The research seeks to explore the protection of human rights, particularly the right to freedom of expression in politically volatile environments. The research focuses on Zimbabwe but comparative analysis has also been drawn with other jurisdictions moreso South Africa. It is important to note that Zimbabwe has ratified both the International Covenant on Civil Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights both of which protect the right to freedom of expression. It is however not enough that states ratify international and regional instruments without domesticating the instruments at the national level. The domestication of the international and regional instruments is meant to ensure that individuals enjoy these rights. Freedom of expression is highly volatile in Zimbabwe. The legislature has been accused of taking away the right which has been granted to citizens by the Constitution through its highly repressive laws. The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), and the Official Secrets Act are some of the laws which have been put under spotlight in Zimbabwe. There is therefore a conflict between the legislature, the press and individuals in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe like many democratic states, there is separation of powers between the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. The legislature is the decision making structure that enacts policies in their capacity as representatives of the people; the judiciary is the mediating body that adjudicates decisions between the organs of state as well as between those organs and individuals and the executive enforces decisions. The findings of the research are that despite the ratification of international and regional instruments dealing with the right to freedom of expression and the protection of the right to freedom of expression in the constitution, there still exist repressive laws in Zimbabwe which to a great extent limit the right to freedom of expression. These laws in light of the prevailing environment in Zimbabwe are often used to deprive citizens and journalists of information and their right to freedom of expression. The judiciary finds itself in a difficult position as the executive does not comply with its rulings. The independence of the judiciary, in light of the environment is also compromised by the threats to the judges, the appointment process and ‘gifts’ given to the judges for example, farms. The research analyses the history and theories of freedom of freedom of expression in Zimbabwe, the laws regulating the right and the case law dealing with this right. Finally there is a comparison between Zimbabwe and South Africa and conclusions and recommendations are made based on the discussion in the dissertation. Among the recommendations is that civil society should be involved in educating individuals especially journalists about the right to freedom of expression. Further, the judiciary should also take a more proactive approach in the protection of the right.

This study investigated the effects of gender based violence on children in the Zimunya community of Mutare in Zimbabwe. A qualitative approach was used to gather data, thus thirty children from thirty households from three wards were interviewed and three focus groups were conducted with women from the three wards of Zimunya. The outcomes of the research reveal that gender based violence have negative effects on children who are affected physically, socially, emotionally and psychologically. In other words, gender based violence impacts negatively on the development of the affected children. In the areas under study, domestic violence was identified as the most prevalent types of violence experienced by children in these communities. This is in spite of the fact that there are many services that are provided to protect children and their mothers from violent situations. The role played by support service groups cannot be undermined as they contributed to the reduction of violence in some homes. It is thus concluded that, in as much as services are provided by both government and non-government organizations to the victims of violence, many affected people were not utilizing them fully. Additionally, some research participants showed a certain level of confusion in distinguishing between services provided for children from those provided for women. This study therefore recommends that awareness campaigns should be carried out in many communities in Zimbabwe so as to inform women and children about the availability support services, what they are meant for and for whom. Additionally, the gender violence topic should also be introduced in primary and secondary school syllabuses of Zimbabwe so as to make all children aware of their rights and responsibilities as they grow up.