M. E. R. Mathivha Centre for African Languages, Arts and Culture / MAAS

DEd (Curriculum Studies) / Department of Curriculum Studies / The study examined challenges that confront lecturers and student teachers at colleges of primary teacher education in Zimbabwe in the use of action research as a teaching and learning strategy. The study focused on lecturer competency, personal dispositions of students towards mastery of action research skills and institutional challenges. The mixed methods research design was used in this study. A combination of the two research approaches exhibits complementary strengths and non-overlapping weaknesses of the techniques, methods and processes involved. Purposive sampling technique was employed to choose one principal and 9 heads of departments while simple random sampling was used to select 140 student teachers. Qualitative data was generated through interviews, observation and documentary analysis. A survey was administered to obtain quantitative data. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse narrative data. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 was used for statistical information. It was established that student teachers have limited practical experience in action research prior to proceeding on teaching practice as well as weak communication skills to support its conduct. The study recommends that lecturers should cater for the characteristics and experiences of student teachers when planning and delivering lectures in order to improve their acquisition of action research skills.

MAAS / M. E. R. Mathivha Centre for Languages, Arts and Culture

This study seeks to investigate the causes and implications of apostasy in the West Zimbabwe Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church from 1998 to 2008. The research was undertaken due to the realisation that apostasy has reached a point of concern to both members and local church leadership. The researcher also noted with concern that not much if any has been done on the causes and implications of apostasy since the introduction of the Church in Zimbabwe over one hundred years ago and the organisation of the West Zimbabwe Conference about forty years ago. The research was motivated by these concerns coupled with the increasing number of apostasy which continuously reflect negatively on the church and may subsequently limit the church’s ability to evangelize the communities. The aim of the study therefore is to investigate the causes and implications of apostasy and make recommendations that will assist both church members and the church leadership in formulating policies and programs geared towards minimizing apostasy in the church. The study combines both the quantitative and the qualitative research designs. The population for the study consisted of the one hundred and seventy one (171) churches with a total church membership of one hundred and fifty three thousand, seven hundred and two (153,702). A sample percentage of ten was adopted for the selection of churches while the proportional stratified sampling technique was used. The instruments used for the study were both face and content validated and a pilot study carried out to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. The data collected from the study was analysed using descriptive statistics and a descriptive interpretive method. Findings from the study confirm that there is apostasy within the WZC of the Seventhday Adventist Church. Accordingly, the data analysis revealed that the causes of apostasy in order of magnitude are external, internal and doctrinal respectively. The study also revealed that youths, females and urban church members are highly susceptible to apostasy than their adult, male and rural counterparts respectively. Apostasy had a considerable effect on church membership as well as the receiving of tithes and offerings. Recommendations were made based on the findings of the research. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

Poverty has continued to be an enormous challenge for Africa. Immoral political decisions and tactics have led to the continued suffering of the landless poor in the city of Harare. With no consideration for the dignity of people, the government of Zimbabwe through Operation Murambatsvina (Operation Reject Filth) demolished shelters belonging to the poor in the city a decade and half ago. To this day, most of the victims of this destruction still lack adequate accommodation. The majority urban poor have been excluded from the community and inhabit shanty towns around Harare. Deprived of justice, the poor are alienated from their right to land, nourishment and dignified life. This complete disregard for life and African community values ought to be challenged. Ubuntu moral theory presents necessary guiding principles for human progress that achieves genuine harmony and equality among all people. In light of the experiences of deadly but preventable poverty in Harare, the will-to-live for all requires confirmation. Every human being is endowed with irrevocable intrinsic worth. The elimination of poverty requires practical philosophical resolutions that are driven by sincere respect for human life. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.A. (Philosophy)

Thesis (M. A. (Sociology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2017 / The study explored Mutoko community members’ perceptions of climate change and its impact on subsistence farming. Mutoko is a rural community situated in the eastern part of Zimbabwe. Focus group discussions were conducted to explore perceptions of climate change and its impacts on subsistence farming. The study findings show that the primary source of food is subsistence farming. The main crop grown in Mutoko is maize, followed by ground nuts (peanuts), and indigenous vegetables. Maize, ground nuts, sunflowers (for seed), sorghum and millet are grown for household consumption. The study reports community members’ perceptions and views of changes in the local natural environment. The changes are increased temperature and scarcity of rain. Observable impacts of these changes are decreased crop yields in times of drought. The findings are supported by observation that Zimbabwe lies in a semi-arid region with limited and unreliable rainfall patterns and temperature variations. Rainfall exhibits considerable spatial and temporal variability. Generally, the impact of climate change on subsistence farming was the major concern among the participants. Though the study was not aimed at documenting adaptation measures taken to lessen the negative impacts of increased temperature and rainfall scarcity on crop production, the study shows that adaptive measures have been developed and used to adapt and cope with climate change. Community members are adapting to the impacts of increased temperature and scarcity of rain through their culturally informed mechanisms. The mechanisms include change of crops, use of manure to improve soil structure and mulching. It is concluded that the impact of climate change on subsistence farming is real and is negatively affecting food security in the study area. Farmers gave different views on the following; knowledge about climate variations, changes in environmental conditions, changes in temperature patterns and changes in rainfall patterns. / Centre of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (CIKS) and National Research Foundation (NRF)

No description available.

The Archean (~3.0 Ga) Buhwa Greenstone Belt, and surrounding granite-gneiss terrane, is the least understood major greenstone belt in the Archean Zimbabwe Craton, despite occupying a critical position between an early Archean continental nucleus and the Limpopo Belt. The cover succession in the Buhwa Greenstone Belt, which was probably deposited on the margin of this nucleus, is divisible into shelfal and basinal facies associations separated by a transitional facies association. The shelfal association consists mostly of quartzarenite and shale, but also contains a thick succession of iron-formation. Geochemical characteristics of the shales indicate that the source terrane consisted of several lithologies including tonalite, mafic-ultramafic volcanic rocks, and granite that underwent intense chemical weathering. Basinal deposits consist dominantly of greenstones, with less abundant chert and ironformation. The cover succession, which was deposited on a stable shelf transitional to deep water, has no stratigraphic equivalents elsewhere on the Archean Zimbabwe Craton. However, time and lithologic correlatives in the central zone of the Limpopo The Archean (-3.0 Ga) Buhwa Greenstone Belt, and surrounding granite-gneiss terrane, is the least understood major greenstone belt in the Archean Zimbabwe Craton, despite occupying a critical position between an early Archean continental nucleus and the Limpopo Belt. The cover succession in the Buhwa Greenstone Belt, which was probably deposited on the margin of this nucleus, is divisible into shelfal and basinal facies associations separated by a transitional facies association. The shelfal association consists mostly of quartzarenite and shale, but also contains a thick succession of iron-formation. Geochemical characteristics of the shales indicate that the source terrane consisted of several lithologies including tonalite, mafic-ultramafic volcanic rocks, and granite that underwent intense chemical weathering. Basinal deposits consist dominantly of greenstones, with less abundant chert and ironformation. The cover succession, which was deposited on a stable shelf transitional to deep water, has no stratigraphic equivalents elsewhere on the Archean Zimbabwe Craton. However, time and lithologic correlatives in the central zone of the Limpopo ~2.9 Ga in southern Africa. At ~2.9 Ga, the northern margin of the greenstone belt experienced kilometerscale, oblique-slip dextral shearing. This shear zone and the surrounding margins of the greenstone belt were later intruded by the ~2.9 Ga Chipinda batholith, which ranges from granitic to tonalitic in composition. A number of events occurred during the time period spanning 2.9-2.5 Ga and current geochronology cannot separate their order; some are known to be coeval. Crustal shortening to the northwest, which resulted in map-scale folding of the cover succession (and surrounding batholith) and greenschist-facies metamorphism, occurred along a set of discrete high-angle reverse-sense shear zones in response to uplift the Northern Marginal Zone of the Limpopo Belt over the Zimbabwe Craton. Two suites of potassic granites were intruded into the area near the end of reverse shearing. Analysis of a conjugate fault pair that is developed within one of the potassic granite suites, yields a principal compressive stress consistent with continued northwest-directed crustal shortening. The region was stabilized by ~2.5 Ga, with intrusion of the Great Dyke of Zimbabwe. It is possible that the last events to affect the area, which include sinistral shearing, transecting cleavage development, and northwest-striking open folding, took place during the 2.9-2.5 Ga time intervaL These structures post-date regional folding and metamorphism, but because of limited magnitude and extent, do not show obvious cross-cutting relationships with other rocks or structures. A tenable alternative is that these late structures formed at ~2.0 Ga. an age that is proving to be of great significance in the evolution of the Limpopo Belt and along parts of the southern margin of the Zimbabwe Craton. / Ph. D.

This thesis examines policing within the context of security and development, with particular reference to ways in which the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) operates in the wider political economy of Zimbabwean state in response to decades of financial crisis. Guided by the social constructionist philosophy and structural political economy analysis, the case study demonstrates that, through a range of commercial activities, the ZRP has been able to shift police preoccupation from ‘what is routinely important’ to ‘what works’ as part of resilience and adaptability in one of the world’s distorted economies. In cases where the police lack sufficient budget support from the government they recalibrate into self-organized systems and devise ways in which they raise the much needed revenue for policing. Using interpretive content analysis for secondary data and thematic analysis for in-depth interviews, the other finding relates to the ways in which the ZRP deploys neoliberal registers of ‘sustainable development’ and economic nationalist discourses to legitimise its involvement in commercial activities in farms, mines, tourism and social welfare businesses. Commercial activities involve distribution of wealth, power and interests. As such, what started off as productive entrepreneurship to ‘make ends meet’ slipped into unproductive and destructive entrepreneurship. The latter has made the police institution gets to a breakdown as different categories of officers split into different commercial units as they compete for access and control. To date, there is little literature that foregrounds the experiences and views of the police officers on the political economy of policing and it is to this literature this thesis primarily contributes. Inadvertently, as the ZRP responds to the economic crisis, it sometimes uses violence against citizens. The violence is sometimes quite targeted and deliberate as the police use metal spiked bars to clampdown motorists in demand of bribe money. The findings suggest that the police operating in a context of budget cuts are highly unlikely to be people-oriented.

La chasse aux trophées peut contraindre les ongulés à ajuster leur comportement pour réduire le risque de mortalité. De plus, comme cette chasse est basée sur des critères de taille, et biaisée en faveur des mâles, elle peut causer des changements morphologiques vers des individus plus petits, et altérer la structure et la dynamique des populations. La chasse aux trophées est l'un des modes de conservation des habitats naturels. Son potentiel de conservation est encore incertain parce qu'il y a peu d'études en dehors des parcs nationaux, notamment en Afrique. Cette thèse examine les effets de cette chasse sur les ongulés africains, i.e. sur leur comportement, la longueur des cornes, la proportion de mâles adultes, la taille de groupe, et la densité des populations. J'ai travaillé à partir d'observations comportementales et de données populationnelles de suivis à long terme. Pour plusieurs espèces (surtout l'impala Aepyceros melampus, le grand koudou Tragelaphus strepsiceros, et l'hippotrague noir Hippotragus niger), j'ai comparé le comportement, la structure et la densité des populations entre le Parc National de Hwange et les zones de chasse adjacentes, Zimbabwe. Dans les zones de chasse, j'ai analysé les tendances de longueur des cornes au cours des 30 dernières années. Les ongulés venaient davantage de nuit aux points d'eau, et étaient plus vigilants dans les zones de chasse que dans le parc national. L'amplitude de ces ajustements en revanche, était limitée par le besoin en eau, et par le risque de prédation naturelle. La longueur des cornes a décliné, plus particulièrement pour les espèces prisées des chasseurs et subissant une pression de chasse élevée. Il n'y avait pas de différence significative de la proportion de mâles adultes, ou de la taille de groupe, entre les populations du parc national et des zones de chasse. Au cours des 30 dernières années, les densités de population ont globalement davantage diminué dans le parc national que dans les zones de chasse. Ceci suggère que la chasse aux trophées n'a eu qu'un effet minime sur les densités de population par rapport à d'autres facteurs comme les précipitations, ou possiblement la prédation naturelle et l'éléphant. Malgré les ajustements comportementaux, le déclin de la longueur des cornes, et le prélèvement biaisé en faveur des mâles adultes, les densités d'ongulés étaient aussi élevées dans les zones de chasse que dans le Parc National de Hwange. Cette étude illustre comment les zones de chasse aux trophées, lorsque rigoureusement gérées, peuvent jouer un rôle dans la conservation des ongulés africains.