Magister Artium - MA / Between the 1917 Russian Revolution and demise of the Soviet Union, the communist Other, as godless deviant and arch enemy of the capitalist state, inhabited a specific space in the minds and imaginations of much of the Western world. S/he was one to be feared, one to be guarded against, and if possible, one to be suppressed by political, ideological, or military means. Such conditions contributed to the widespread suppression and banning of communist and communist aligned organisations. In South Africa this coincided with the rise of Afrikaner nationalism, and the consolidation and reconfiguration of 'white' supremacy in the form of apartheid. After a marginal National Party (NP) victory in 1948, the Suppression of Communism Act (1950) and the 'Rooi Gevaar' became synonymous with dissent and revolution within and beyond the apartheid state. For example, it was on these grounds that a series of high profile political trials – the Treason, Rivonia, and Fischer Trials – would be fought and lost on the first occasion. Each trial was based upon the assertion that the accused were communists or involved in a Soviet conspiracy that intended to depose the apartheid government through violent revolution. Conversely, communism is now popularly invoked in relation to narratives of struggle and the ‘triumph of the human spirit over adversity', in which new and now old allies defeated the evil of apartheid, and ushered in an era of freedom, democracy, and reconciliation. As a result, communism and the SACP (the dominant political organisation associated with communism) have been incorporated into national histories that narrate the African National Congress' (ANC's) struggle and victory over apartheid, which culminated in Nelson Mandela and other political leaders returning to supposedly fulfil their destiny by ‘freeing the people’ from totalitarian rule.Having said this, I argue that the suppression of communism goes far beyond the limiting horizons of popularised political and ideological discourse, or indeed, violent acts of torture and murder directed towards those deemed to be a threat to the ‘nation’. In other words, debates surrounding communism are not merely representative of the state’s oppressive policies towards anti-apartheid activists, the global conflict between capitalism and communism, or popular narratives of suffering and struggle against apartheid. Alternatively, they were (and are) intimately linked with a nation-building project which, unlike violence sanctioned by the state or reconciled – at least on the surface – through symbolic acts like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), has been difficult to exorcise, come to terms with, and diminish in the contemporary. Put another way, although communism is intrinsically associated with the class struggle and class politics in South Africa, it was in fact driven by and interwoven with racist ideologies upon which apartheid and British colonialism before that were founded. With these debates in mind, this mini-thesis will attempt to remove communism from conventional discourses and re-place it within debates surrounding nation-building, and the formation of different subjectivities. This will be carried out not only as an attempt to "overcome the limitations of ideology" and further deconstruct legacies of oppression and violence, but also to think with the ways in which different groups perceive, mobilise and appropriate ideology as a means to foreclose resistance and reaffirm and maintain nationalist hierarchies of power within society. This mini-thesis will begin by exploring the ways in which communism has been perceived in South Africa. More specifically, it will consider how the idea of communism was mobilised and appropriated in relation to apartheid's nation-building project. It will also thematically engage with the ways in which mythologies surrounding communism traversed the supposedly rational and irrational worlds, and, in the latter stages of this mini-thesis, will attempt to develop an argument – using Bram Fischer as subject – based upon Jacques Derrida’s notion of the communist spectre, and the importance of the messianic or, more importantly, the prophet in history. / Centre for Humanities Research (CHR), University of the Western Cape

Magister Legum - LLM / Over the past decades, transitions from repressive rule to democracy have increased all over the world, aiming at establishing disclosure and accountability for the crimes perpetrated. One way of assessing the “solidity” of these new democracies is to look at their provisions on freedom of expression, one of the most precious and fragile rights of man. The right to freedom of expression was recognised by classical traditional liberal theory as from the eighteenth century. It considered it as a useful tool to enhance true statements within the marketplace of ideas. Liberals also believed that such right was a prerequisite for individual autonomy and self-fulfillment. They claimed that it strengthened democracy, by allowing individuals to receive all information on issues of public concern which they needed to vote intelligently. Lastly, they argued that it promoted the ideal of tolerance. Since then, the right to freedom of expression has been considered a cornerstone of democracy and protected as such by international instruments among which the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, the African Charter for Human and Peoples' Rights of 1981 and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950. / South Africa

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Summary: This thesis considers different groupings that have come together in their participation in the policy processes relating to tenure reform in post-apartheid South Africa. It is methodologically and theoretically grounded in Bourdieu's notion of cultural 'fields' spaces of ongoing contestation and struggle, but in which actors develop a shared 'habitus', an embodied history. In these land reform policies and law-making activities, individuals and groups from different fields- the bureaucratic, activist and legal - have interacted in their contestations relating to the legitimation of their forms of knowledge. The resulting compromises are illuminated by a case study of a village in the former Gazankulu 'homeland' - a fourth 'cultural field'. Rather than seeing these fields as bounded, the thesis recognises the influence of wider political discourses and materialities, or the wider 'field of power'. In each of the four very different fields, as a result of a shared history, actors within them have developed practices based upon particular shared discourses, institutions and values. / South Africa

During the campaign of South Africa's first multi-racial elections of 1994, Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) pledged to provide 1,000,000 new homes within the first presidential term of five years. This goal became more than just campaign rhetoric when it was written into the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), a broad guideline for the new government's goals. However the Housing White Paper, the first housing policy of the new government, did not include a plan for mass housing construction. By 1998, Mandela had publicly abandoned the goal of 1,000,000 new homes in his term. Rather, private sector financing and vigorous community involvement through partnerships and collaboration between stakeholders were to be the cornerstones of delivery. The policy formulation process, which began two years prior to the elections, yielded an incremental approach of in situ upgrading through a capital subsidy, derived in large part from that of the previous administration. <p> This paper examines the policy formulation process, and why Mandela's ambitious housing agenda was not followed up with a policy that could realize the goal of 1 million homes in five years. Three explanations are offered, incrementalism in the policy formulation process, and the need for both domestic and international legitimization in light of poor economic conditions. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / The history of South Africa is embedded in violence. This can be traced to the arrival of the Dutch settlers in 1652, to the Afrikaner–nationalist ideology of apartheid, and finally into the current dispensation of democracy. Historically, violence with its various forms and negative sequelae, has been narrated from an adult-centred perspective. Thus, due to the paucity of literature from the perspective of youth and adolescents, this study aims to review and synthesise the findings of existing empirical studies focusing on youth and adolescents’ perceptions of violence in post-apartheid South Africa.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This ethnography explores the meanings ofpersonhood and agency in Manen¢berg, a township located on the Cape Flats, in Cape Town South Africa. The township was a site of relocation for people who were classified coloured during the apartheid era and who were forcibly removed from newly declared white areas in the city in the 1960s. I argue that despite the old apartheid state's attempts to reify the meaning of colouredness through racial legislation, the residents ofManenberg created their own meanings of personhood, agency and community within the bureaucratic, social and economic interstices of the apartheid system. Yet at the same time they also reinstated the very structural processes at the heart of their racial and gendered subjugation. I indicate how the cohesiveness of the Rio Street community in Manenberg, the survival of its residents and their validation as respectable mothers, tough men and good daughters hinged on and effioresced from a moral economy that articulated with the structural location of coloured women in the apartheid economy and racial bureaucracy.

Magister Artium - MA / In hierdie mini-tesis probeer ek om die aard van die verband tussen, "gemeenskap", "demokrasie" en "opvoeding" in Suid- Afrika te bepaal. Die motivering vir die keuse van hierdie onderwerp spruit uit die algemene gebruik van die term "gemeenskap" deur beide die regering sowel as die polities uitgeslotenes, en feitlik altyd in 'n gunstige sin. Sodanige gebruik maak die konsep problematies en is daar dus die behoefte om dit meer deursigtig te maak ten einde groter helderheid omtrent die gebruik daarvan te verkry. Die belangrikheid van so 'n onderneming blyk veral wanneer die aard van die verband tussen gemeenskap, demokrasie en opvoeding bepaal word. In suid-Afrika met sy gefragmenteerde bevolking, hoofsaaklik as gevolg van die Apartheidsbeleid van die suid-Afrikaanse regering, het die pOlities-uitgeslotenes die regering die stryd aangesê ten einde fn aandeel te verkry in politieke besluitneming. fn Deel van hierdie stryd speel in fn betekenisvolle mate af op die opvoedingsterrein.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The thesis is titled a Sociolinguistic and Multisemiotic Analysis of Mobility and Identities in Hangberg, Hout Bay. The guiding idea of this research project is to explore the contesting social and semiotic processes of transformation in Hangberg since the transition towards post-apartheid in South Africa. One of the objectives of this study is to probe how Hangberg and its people are (re)constructed in the media and virtual spaces (Facebook, and newspaper articles) as well as in the physical linguistic/semiotic landscapes (LL) of Hangberg. The researcher uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) and conceptual tools such as resemiotisation and remediation to capture and understand the socio-ideological construction of the people of Hangberg through a mesh of verbal as well as visual language / signs in the virtual and physical semiotic landscapes. / 2023

Thesis (M. A. (Communication Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / South Africa experiences a high rate of absent fathers and this makes single-mother households a prominent family structure in the country. There are many framings and discourses of single mother households in the media, ranging from the critical to the negative and occasional positive ones. But in these discourses, do the resilience, strength, and hard work of single mothers form part of the framing of single mothers in South Africa? The destruction of the Black family structure is one of the disastrous legacies of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa. The discoveries of gold and diamonds brought a rapid social and economic transformation in the country, and Black families bore the brunt of this transformation which changed the Black family structure to date. The implementation of colonial and apartheid policies such as the migrant labour system was set to grow the White economy and achieve this goal by getting cheap labour from Black males in the homelands. The migrant labour system forced Black men to work in the mines leaving their families behind as the men were placed in single-sex hostels. This system, therefore, resulted in many households being fatherless and women or mothers wielding the household responsibilities while their husbands were in the cities. This historical context is important in studying current absent fatherhood and single mother households in South Africa. The study used a historical approach to understand the Black family structure prior colonial era, and how it transitioned during colonialism, and apartheid up and in the current post-apartheid era. This study is built on the theories of post-coloniality, the intersectional burden of femininity, media framing, and it engages critical theoretical scholars such as Homi Bhabha, Arlie Hochschild, Simone de Beauvoir, Bell hooks, and Kimberle Crenshaw amongst others. Through these theoretical lenses, I examined the influence of colonialism and apartheid on the contemporary father absence and female-headed households. The theoretical lenses were further used to examine how the past influence the future and how women's issues are addressed. I also examined the role of media in the (re)presentation of female-headed households. The study tackled three objectives: to examine the media discourse of single motherhood in South Africa; to analyze if women’s resilience in matrifocal families forms part of the media discourse of single motherhood, and lastly to explore the effects of colonialism and apartheid on Black family structure and their consequences in South Africa today. Data were collected through an analysis of a documentary film titled “Last Grave at Dimbaza”. This was an apartheid-era documentary that captured the lives of both Black and White families during apartheid. I examined this film to locate data that capture the media discourse about absent fatherhood during apartheid–which directly reflects the South African colonial-apartheid influence on this phenomenon. Data were also collected from online newspaper publications such as IOL, TimesLive, and News24 on stories about single-motherhood within a period of three years from January 2018 to December 2020 to address the media construction of single-motherhood in the post-apartheid era. The results of the study show that media discourse tends to perpetuate a normative negative and global trend of stereotyping mothers who receive social grants. Single mothers are portrayed as a group that misappropriates state resources, who pocket state money to meet their personal needs. They are thus stereotyped as social burdens on the state finances and contribute to the country's economic risks. Women are portrayed as victims of apartheid without any agency in the absence of their men. The study revealed that women had to find ways to survive or feed their families while waiting for their husbands to send money. However, what is missing in this portrayal is how women in the Bantustans survived under the migrant labour and apartheid laws and policies. Thus, this study found that coloniality seems to continue to shape the Black family structure and that the father's absence in the black society persists and this pattern is transmitted from one generation to another. It was also revealed in this study that when the father is absent, he leaves a trait of absence that his son becomes likely to inherit. Black families are still built from the bourgeois colonialist environment, absent fatherhood and female-headed households are the legacies of colonialism as it is inherited from the colonial background and compounded by socio-economic challenges. Single mothers who are confronted with multiple burdens in raising their children should have their agency, resilience, and challenging work acknowledged. They should be celebrated, not scorned. / National Research Foundation (NRF)

Between 1994 and 2004 the African National Congress (ANC) dominated government at every level of every branch. As a result, the checks and balances that are a necessary part of any democracy were non-existent. Understanding the powerful position they occupied, the ANC increasingly acted on its own accordance without any regard for the wishes of the South African populace. This lack of public consideration, coupled with the failure to economically redistribute wealth among the vast unemployed majority, turned an optimistic political culture with mass participation in 1994 into a disillusioned political culture with reduced political participation in 2004. These economic failures, along with the rise in crime and political corruption that dominated South African politics, eroded the optimism and trust that for a short time was prevalent in South Africa. Instead, the post-apartheid political culture of South Africa resembled what it did for all of those decades under apartheid: one of disillusionment and non-participation. The following thesis will argue that during the decade following 1994, South Africans became increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with government as the divide between the small-upper class and the large-proletariat continually expanded. The various explanations for the expansion of this divide will be presented along with survey information, which will attempt to garner what the South African public perceives to be; 1) the primary threat to the long-term stability of democracy, 2) the effectiveness of government between 1994 and 2004. Most importantly, the surveys will ask South Africans who voted in 1994 but not in 2004 the reason for not voting in order to fully understand the specific cause for the decline in political participation.