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Mini-dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Durban University of Technology in partial compliance with the requirements for a Master’s Degree in Technology: Homeopathy, 2008. / A survey method was employed to investigate the perceptions of nurses in eThekwini towards homeopathy. The aim of this study was to answer the following questions: What does the nursing community in the eThekwini region know of homeopathy? Does homeopathy have a role to play in a hospital setting in the context of South Africa? The study population was all nurses with 5 years experience or more working in hospitals in the eThekwini region. The sample was drawn from 6 public and 5 private hospitals and included staff nurses and professional nurses. A total of 330 questionnaires were distributed and a total of 200 questionnaires were returned (60.6%). A total of 93 nurses (46.5%) responded from the public sector and 107 nurses (53.5%) from the private sector. The study was carried out using a questionnaire as a measuring tool. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics using frequency tables and bar charts. The Pearson’s Chi Square Test was used on selected data. The majority of respondents were female (94%) and were between the ages of 26-35 and 36-45 years. Most of the respondents had been practising for 6-10 years and 11-15years. 19% of the total number of respondents had never heard of homeopathy and 10% indicated that they were quite familiar with the homeopathic profession. Of those respondents who had never heard of homeopathy, 71.1% were in the public sector and 28.9% in the private sector. Of those respondents who answered that they were quite familiar with homeopathy, 14.3% were in the public sector and 85.7% in the private sector. With regards to legitimacy of homeopathy most nurses working in the private hospitals (60.1%) perceived homeopathy to be a legitimate form of health care as compared to nurses working in public hospitals (39.9%). Generally, both groups considered communication and co-operation with homeopaths to be very poor. In total 79.49% of respondents said it would be beneficial to improve communication between the professions. The majority of respondents (70.06%) perceived that homeopathy does have a role to play in a hospital setting. Only 29.94% of respondents perceived that homeopathy had no role to play in a hospital setting. This indicates that many respondents perceive that integrated medicine is needed in a hospital setting. This study reveals that the respondents had a positive view of homeopathy in general, and were open to learning more about it, and to cooperate with homeopaths. The finding that knowledge of homeopathy is low, and communication between the two professions is poor, can be addressed through suitable publicity and education programmes.

The Brown-headed Parrot (Poicephalus cryptoxanthus) is a poorly known species inhabiting open woodland in south-eastern Africa. This study elucidates critical aspects of the species ecology and although each of these categories impinge on one another, it concentrates on two broad biological aspects, diet and breeding biology, and vocalizations. The species has a generalist diet, switching from one suite of food species to another as and when those species become available, with no species critical for its survival. Analysis of dietary items throughout the year and comparison with handling times and availability reveals that at no time is the species under dietary constraint. Evidence from association indices and behavioural observation shows that the popular view that the Brown-headed Parrot forms pairs just before breeding is erroneous. Birds retain pair bonds and the bond is long-term, lasting at least throughout the year. Congregations are therefore of a classical fission/fusion type with the sub-units being the paired males and females. A mathematical model of the growth of captive chicks is presented, as a guideline to alert potential breeders of Brown-headed Parrots of malnutrition or disease. The species is a secondary cavity hole nester and whilst, the breeding biology of the species is summarised, the importance of large and old trees for breeding opportunities of the species is emphasised. This theme is continued by testing various adaptive hatching hypotheses as possible explanations of asynchronous hatching in the species. It is suggested that asynchronous hatching may be an adaptive strategy moderating against the number of suitable nesting cavities. The vocalization repertoire of the Brown-headed Parrot is described and seven separate vocalizations are recognized. None of these are associated with sexual situations, offering further evidence of a long-term pair bond. Evidence is offered that Brown-headed Parrot chicks can recognise their parents from individual vocal signatures supporting previous evidence from a number of species where chicks may mingle with unrelated chicks. Conversely, parents seem to be unable to recognise their chicks in the same way. It is concluded that this inability may be a result of strong one-way selection pressure, where the costs outweigh the benefits for parents with more than one chick or may be related to the experimental design. Individual recognition by voice implies individual voice differences and the adult double chip contact call is analysed using multivariate statistical techniques. The analysis separates individuals on the basis of frequency and temporal patterns and it is concluded that these parameters may allow individual voice differentiation. Finally, high frequency aspects of the double chip contact call are examined. These frequencies lie above the normally accepted upper threshold of avian hearing. From laboratory and field experiments, behavioural evidence is presented suggesting that the Brown-headed Parrot reacts to these frequencies and may use their degradation as a means of ranging distances to conspecifics. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

Contemporary sentiments both African and Western indicate the inadequacy of modern approaches to ethics and the failure of an individualistic ethics as a basis for public and private morality. Modern ethics is inadequate as a moral framework within which communities live their lives. As a result there is a need for a paradigm shift form this mainly individualistic and universalistic modern ways of doings ethics to a more communally oriented and contextual approach reminiscent of traditional African ethics. If we hope to have a more satisfactory moral framework than the current one we need to have a moral outlook that encompasses both the ethical code governing the individual i.e. personal ethics and the ethical code governing social groups and their conduct. And that framework will be something similar to the communal model that we see in traditional African communities such as the Basotho's. Such a moral framework made it possible for communities not only to be contextual in the way they approached personal conduct, but also communal. The current moral uncertainty accompanied by vicious moral individualism in places like Lesotho, seems to me to be the result of the introduction of an individualistic ethic to the Basotho way of life. Ethics as found among traditional Basotho communities was not just a matter of the individual alone, but also of the community within which the individual found his or her true identity. This co-responsibility and mutual inter-dependency for the moral life, something which modernism and the influence of liberal ideas is increasingly eroding from the contemporary life of Basotho, ensured that there was a moral centre through which people found their moral reference point. It ensured there was a moral thought and practice that was coherent enough to give both the individual and the community a moral base, an approved way of conduct with an implicit, but nevertheless clearly understandable rationale and justification. Such a communal approach to ethics made it possible for communities to have a recognizable moral character and it is only when communities are themselves moral that we can hope to have a moral society. So in order to help contemporary Basotho and indeed most Africans, from the pervasive self imposed moral bankruptcy and inconsistencies there is a need to revisit and rediscover that traditional ethos to see what lessons can be learned from it for the present. We need to look back to where we come from as Africans and only then are we going to be able to navigate our future correctly and authentically, and see what lessons of life and proper ways of conduct can we learn from our past, lessons which will be more in line with who we are as Africans in the context of contemporary modern way of living. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.

Any research that attempts to tackle the issue of human rights in Africa is likely to raise emotions because of the history of perpetual human rights violations in the region. Nevertheless, the establishment of the African Union (AU) brings hope that Africa has turned the corner. The provisions of the preamble, objectives and principles of the Constitutive Act of the African Union are crystal clear. Article 3 (h) of the Act makes a critical provision in terms of human and people's rights. (See appendix 1). Paradoxically, this article recognizes the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, which led to innumerable inconsistencies in enforcing human rights under the Organization of African Unity (OAU) (See appendix 2). By implication, the recognition of the 'Charter' justifies its existence in the new African human rights set up. The 'Charter' historically introduced the concept of peoples' in the definition and application of human rights in the African region. This further complicated the concept of human rights, and made it difficult to enforce them. As a result, the dichotomy between human rights and peoples' rights practice in the African region became difficult to reconcile. Hence, the concepts became vulnerable to abuse by governments, who justified their violation of individual human rights for the benefit of peoples' rights. The above assertions hold true for the ailing African region that has evolved from a defunct OAU regime into the radical African Union human rights corpus. The dissolution of the OAU on 9 July 2002 during the last 38th ordinary session of the OAU Assembly in Durban, and the subsequent launching of the AU on the same occasion pioneered a new era for human and peoples' rights approach in the African region. The shift from the toothless-human-rights-system to a clear-visionary-human-rights-regime is an articulation of the desire and commitment to transform the African region. This study therefore reviews the pattern or system that the AU has employed in transforming human and peoples' rights in the African continent. Chapter two attempts to assess the prospects of the African Union to bring reforms in areas of human and peoples' rights, the rule of law, good governance and so on. A comparative analysis of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Constitutive Act of the African Union is drawn from the key clauses, objectives and intentions of the two human rights regimes. Chapter three presents an analytical comparison between the African Union and the European Union. The chapter documents the historical developments of the European Union to illustrate how far the African Union has to go to ensure long lasting peace and stability in the region. The discussion in this chapter acknowledges the differences in these two regions, but uses the European Union to draw some lessons. In so doing the study reviews the historical developments of the union of states that has advanced itself in critical areas of democracy, human rights, good governance and so on. Hence, the chapter recognizes the remarkable accomplishments of the African Union in the last five years. The parity of judges in the AU Commission, the commitment of 53 African nations to adopt and ratify the Constitutive Act of the African Union in record time, the establishment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, the introduction of the African Peer Review Mechanism and the peace-keeping missions in Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo and so on are among the achievements of the Union in the last few years of its existence. In an attempt to justify the radical shift of the African Union from the OAU past, chapter four discusses the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. Even though the idea of establishing a Court of justice emanated from the OAU decades after its existence, the chapter acknowledges the radical stance of the African Union to put in place a 'Court' from the beginning. The chapter further looks at the structure of the 'Court' in terms of its composition and election of judges, court procedure, court judgments and their execution and its relationship with the African Commission. In making recommendations and drawing conclusions, chapter five makes a strong point that the pre-requisite for stability and prosperity in the African region is through transforming and consolidating national institutions into democracy. The chapter also acknowledges the continued existence of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, but raises a concern that its existence is subject to abuse by non-democratic governments. The chapter concludes the study by drawing an inference that indeed the African Union represents a radical shift from the OAU in terms of promoting and protecting human and peoples' rights. However, the study acknowledges that the African Union will take some time to fully bear the benefits, but its efforts so far are worth the accolades. / Thesis (LLM)-University of Durban Westville, 2003.

This thesis has supplied source material and critical knowledge in the area of indigenous African music. It has explored veins common to the Afro-American and to his musical culture and has drawn comparisons between this culture and his African heritage. The first eight chapters offer information on tone language-speech melody, function, dance, rhythm, melody, harmony-polyphony, formhomogeneity and instruments, respectively. The ninth chapter is a transference of the African to white American with the intent of supplying a foundation for a wiser understanding of the contemporary black American, his subculture and his cultural contributions. The last chapter offers guidelines for the implementation of the previous material on the elementary, high school general, and high school music major levels. The appendices furnish bibliographical and pictorial information as a supplement.

This thesis explores the multidimensional nature of poverty as well as the impact of units of analysis on the creation of poverty pictures. The multidimensional nature of poverty is explored through the comparison of income and an asset-based measure (Living Standard Measure) and is conducted across five South African Development Community countries. This is done via six main avenues of investigation: income and its predictors; the asset-based Living Standard Measure; the consistency of the Living Standard Measure; a comparison of income and the Living Standard Measure; a comparison at different units of analysis of poverty across the five countries; the multidimensional nature of poverty. Socio-economic and political secondary data obtained from the Human Sciences Research Council was used for the comparisons. In total, 5927 respondents were drawn from the five countries. Findings from this study indicate that there is a large degree of agreement and overlap as to the poverty pictures created by income and the Living Standard Measure. There also appears to be a convergence in poverty picture created at different levels of analysis as well as with different measures. Despite these similarities, and the fact that different dimensions and units of analysis do not alter the general poverty picture drastically, an argument is made that these two elements do have important roles in poverty measurement as they provide details to the general picture. These details have an impact on the success of the interventions chosen. In conclusion this thesis suggests that there is a possibility that the multidimensionality of poverty has been over-emphasised in recent literature. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

The intention of the AFMSA to revision its policies, processes and structures is the motivation for this study. The relationship between the vision and essential nature of the church and the structure or form given to it is central to all the chapters.<br /> The first chapter gives an analysis of the origins of the Pentecostal Movement and the AFMSA in order to reveal their original vision of the church and the way in which this vision became structured in their history. After a section on the importance of a clear vision and strategic structures for organizations today, the biblical metaphors that served as a foundation for the early Christians&rsquo / vision of the church are discussed. Our Christian predecessors&rsquo / envisioning and structuring of the church in each period of history are analyzed. This gives an idea of the need for reform and the challenges involved in this process, which are still faced by later generations. The historical survey reveals the development of the marks and the vision of the early Christians to represent the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. In the conclusion, a preliminary dialogue is established between the vision of the early Pentecostals and the leaders of the AFMSA with regard to the structuring of the church and other expressions of the same vision.<br /> The next four chapters (2-5) address the significance of the specific marks in the Pentecostal Movement and the AFMSA. This is followed by a short analysis of the biblical foundation and the historical development of these marks in the history of the Christian church. The chapters are arranged according to the prominence of each mark in the Pentecostal Movement and the AFMSA. Chapter two therefore starts with the apostolicity that is followed by the holiness in chapter three, unity in chapter four and catholicity in chapter five.<br /> <br /> It becomes clear from chapter two that the Pentecostal Movement and the AFMSA want to restore the apostolic faith of the early Christians while the rest of the Christian church confess every Sunday through the Apostles&rsquo / Creed and the Nicene Creed that they believe they stand in the tradition of the apostles. The mark of holiness that is discussed in chapter three expresses the particular view of holiness held by Pentecostals. Biblical and historical connections are made between it and other Christian expressions revealing that we can all become true followers of Christ in holiness. Chapter four addresses the fact that the church has to accept that we exist as a unity in diversity. In chapter five, the linking of all traditions is established because all have the challenge to share their unique expression of God&rsquo / s fullness with the universal Body of Christ.<br /> <br /> In chapter six, all the elements so far discussed: the vision of the church that was based on the Bible, and the history of the Pentecostal Movement, AFMSA and of the Christian Churches are summarized to gain an overall perspective. This is followed by an analysis of the vision of the church today and applied to the AFMSA. The AFMSA is encouraged to revision and restructure itself in the light of the apostolicity, holiness, unity and catholicity that are shared by the witnesses in Scripture and history so that it will be an example of God&rsquo / s vision for the church and the world.

<p>This research paper aimed to explore the relevant circumstances that the legislature has specified must be considered before an eviction application is granted and the meaning that the courts have given these circumstances in both Section 26(3) of the South African Constitution and enabling legislation. It also explored whether a transformative interpretation has been given to the meaning of &quot / all relevant circumstances&quot / within the legislation, its proposed amendments, and by the courts.</p>

The apparent complicity of South African Jews with apartheid rule is of social scientific interest in that it is unexpected. Pronounced left-liberalism is considered to be the default position of Jewish politics in Western societies. Yet in South Africa, while a small minority of Jews were conspicuous players in left-radicalism, the vast majority of Jews seem to have complied with the discriminations and injustices of apartheid. This thesis challenges the commonplace assumption that the political records of SA Jewry under apartheid refutes the oft-noted pattern of left-liberalism among modern Jews in the Diaspora. I argue that political actions do not necessarily reflect political values, especially under authoritarian regimes. Jews may strongly subscribe to liberal values, but, as a result of pressures both extrinsic and intrinsic to their particular communities, be less able or less willing to express these values in a politically overt manner than Jews elsewhere. I suggest that, in the South African case, voting patterns and official postures obscure rather a Jewish preference for liberal values. The Jewish community in SA while unusually cohesive was, like other Diaspora communities, not monolithic. The ???united front??? presented by the Jewish community in apartheid SA disguised a predictably diverse range of political opinion. It is appropriate that our quest to understand and explain political values goes beyond that which is openly expressed and peers into the shadows of political behaviour. The point is not to morally redeem the South African community, whose record, after all, may still be found wanting. Rather, it is to recognise that hidden in the official deliberations and directives, and in the domestic dilemmas and incidental actions of SA Jews, is the material from which we may form a fuller picture of SA Jewish political values. More generally the case highlights the complexity of studying, comparing, and generalising about political behaviour.