MA (Tshivenda) / Senthara ya M.E.R Mathivha ya Nyambo dza Afrika, Vhutsila na Mvelele / Language shift is the process whereby members of a community in which more than one language is spoken abandon their original language in favour of another. This research concerns language shift by speakers of the Tshivenḓa language found in Beitbridge district in Zimbabwe. The Vhavenḓa people in Beitbridge district are shifting away from their language and using other languages found in the district. Today the Vhavenḓa people living in Beitbridge have adopted other languages and dislike their own. The consequence of forsaking their mother language has had a negative impact on the Vhavenḓa people. The research aims at discussing the concept of shift, what kinds of behaviours constitute shift and indications of shift in the Tshivenḓa language. The research also gives recommendations on how to reduce language shift in the Tshivenḓa language in Beitbridge.

Thesis (M.Arch. (Professional))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning, 2013. / The current perception that engulfs borders and their posts is one of fear, apprehension and hostility. The essay seeks to formulate a new approach through which to view a border. Borders are places of cultural collision and richness, forming a type of hybrid, described best through the metaphor of theatre. This exploration is divided into three topics, namely security, immigration and the human experience, and culture and the border as theatre. Conceptual architectural projects by Lebbeus Woods, Office KGDVS and Rem Koolhaas are examples of how this thinking can be realised through architectural possibilities. It is therefore the intention of this thesis to express these ideas through the proposal of a new border post at Beitbridge, situated between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The development of no man’s land, or the ‘Space of Cultural Possibilities’ provides an opportunity to create a platform where the random encounters between travellers is encouraged. The transition from one country to another becomes a vibrant an unanticipated experience that seeks to shift the negative perception, built on fear, illegality and the questioning of one’s identity, to one that exposes the cultural richness of a place where multitudes of nationalities are filtered through a single gateway.

This study assessed the role of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in HIV-prevention among mobile and vulnerable populations (MVPs) and potential emigrants in Beitbridge. A mixed-method approach, which combines quantitative and qualitative approaches, was used in this action research. A total of 20 in-depth face-toface interviews were conducted with key informants and 56 self-administered questionnaires were completed by MVPs and potential emigrants in Beitbridge. The study found that a number of effective strategies are currently being implemented as a preventative measure by the IOM within MVPs and potential emigrants’ communities in Beitbridge. At the same time, however, in order to ensure sustainability of these HIVprevention initiatives, the IOM must promote long-term synergies with other strategic partners throughout the project cycle. It is recommended that, the IOM strategically position itself by moving a step further from being the sole provider of emergency humanitarian support towards devising sustainable and durable solutions among MVPs and potential emigrants. / Sociology / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV-AIDS)

This study assessed the role of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in HIV-prevention among mobile and vulnerable populations (MVPs) and potential emigrants in Beitbridge. A mixed-method approach, which combines quantitative and qualitative approaches, was used in this action research. A total of 20 in-depth face-toface interviews were conducted with key informants and 56 self-administered questionnaires were completed by MVPs and potential emigrants in Beitbridge. The study found that a number of effective strategies are currently being implemented as a preventative measure by the IOM within MVPs and potential emigrants’ communities in Beitbridge. At the same time, however, in order to ensure sustainability of these HIVprevention initiatives, the IOM must promote long-term synergies with other strategic partners throughout the project cycle. It is recommended that, the IOM strategically position itself by moving a step further from being the sole provider of emergency humanitarian support towards devising sustainable and durable solutions among MVPs and potential emigrants. / Sociology / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV-AIDS)

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

M.A. (Development Studies) / This report evaluates the response of the South African government to migrant unaccompanied minors at Musina and Beitbridge Limpopo province. The report begins by outlining the migration situation at the Beitbridge Border post and the reasons for UAMs‘ migration to South Africa. It also highlights the processesthey follow in migrating, services available and their vulnerability to sexual and gender based violence as they cross the border through irregular routes. The second section outlines the responsibilities of host states in as far as the needs of migrant UAMs are concerned. As this study is focusing on the South African government, the section further develops a narrative informed by international law and the South African Constitution as well as policies and legislationin force in South Africa. This section points to a well developed legal and policy framework for securing the rights of migrant children. The third section concludes by summarising the needs of UAMs and by stating some of the measures that should be implemented by the South African government in responding to the situation. The fourth section of this study presents evidence crucial for evaluation of state responses to its obligations towards UAMs. This section presents evidence gathered over a period of time in Beitbridge and Musina that enables me to evaluate the South African state‘s respond to UAMs in Musina and Beitbridge. The outcomes of this research indicate that South Africa has failed to implement international law and the Constitutional, legal and policy frameworks in as far as the rights of migrant UAMs are concerned. The majority of UAMs are from Zimbabwe and they are running away from social, economic and political instabilities in that country. In addition, these children are migrants in their own right and existing research indicates that where children migrate alone, they are particularly vulnerable to exploitative working conditions, violence and denial of basic rights.Page ix Many children migrated in order to pursue their education as well as to work in order to support themselves and families back home. However, many of the migrant‘s organisations that exist do not specifically address the rights of children or response to their needs. Migrant children‘s ability to satisfy their basic needs is extremely compromised; much of the work is currently done by a few non-governmental organisations and faith based organisations especially with regard to shelter and food provision with very minimal support from the South African government. UAMs have very limited access to government departments and services. The majority of UAMs are crowded in the streets in Musina and others in towns such as Louis Trichardt, Thohoyandou, Dzanini and on farms wherein they fend for their own living and there is no one to cater for their needs. This report concludes by making recommendations for interventions to the South African government for implementing Children‘s rights and strengthening migrant children‘s access to basic rights in South Africa.

MA (Tshivenda) / MER Mathivha Centre for African Languages, Arts and Culture

An increasing number of people today cross the Beitbridge border of South Africa and Zimbabwe. This comes with a corresponding growth of creative strategies that seek to aid the crossing of those people and goods that may lack the necessary documentation. Such ‘informal’ border crossings have come to define one of the important economic regions in Southern Africa, the post-1994 Limpopo Valley. This thesis approaches routine acts of facilitating undocumented border crossings as an everyday social politics with deep historical roots. By use of archival and ethnographic methods, the thesis examines the social history and embodied practices of a variety of actors who engage in undocumented border crossings. A particular focus is placed on the role of private transporters (omalayitsha), who represent an important link between an exclusionary and yet fragmentary migration regime and undocumented travellers. In three theoretical and four empirical chapters, and inspired by border studies as well as the critical realist approach in migration studies, the thesis connects border practice to irregular movement and cheap labour within a regional context defined, in part, by dispossession. Through thick interpretations of the lived experience of border practice, the study also connects such political economic processes (e.g. migrant irregularity, labour precarity and economic informality) to questions of social identity and migrant subjectivities. By situating the figure of the hyena at the centre of Southern African border struggles, the thesis invents an analytical concept that serves both an empirical and a theoretical task. Empirically, it enables a synthetic understanding of how everyday contestations around the possibility to work across the border for low-skill migrants have been interacting, through time, with broader processes of capital accumulation to partly shape the region’s migrant labour system. Theoretically, it shows how facilitation of undocumented border crossings calls for new sociological models that can account for processes that escape binary classification (as formal or informal, inclusive or exclusive, legal or illegal, ordered or disordered), thus contributing to a better understanding of the role of migration in the contemporary world. / Allt fler människor korsar idag gränsen vid Beitbridge mellan Sydafrika och Zimbabwe. Samtidigt sker en motsvarande ökning av kreativa strategier som gör att även personer och varor som saknar rätt handlingar kan ta sig över gränsen. Dessa ‘informella’ gränsövergångar har kommit att definiera vad som efter 1994 blivit en av de viktigaste ekonomiska regionerna i södra Afrika, Limpopodalen. I denna avhandling betraktas rutinerna vid sådana oregistrerade gränsövergångar som en vardagens politik med djupa historiska rötter. Genom arkivstudier och etnografiska observationer undersöker avhandlingen en samhällshistoria och en mänsklig aktivitet där en rad aktörer är inblandade i en pågående, papperslös migration. En viktig roll i sammanhanget har omalayitsha, dvs. privata transportörer, som ofta är en viktig länk mellan de papperslösa resenärerna och den migrationsregim som å ena sidan stänger dem ute och å andra sidan är så fragmenterad att de tillåts passera igenom. I tre teoretiska och fyra empiriska kapitel, samt med ett angreppssätt hämtat från gränsstudier (border studies) och den kritiskt realistiska skolan inom migrationsstudier, syftar avhandlingen till att förstå gränsövergångens praktik i förhållande till den irreguljära mobilitet och det överskott på billig arbetskraft som sätter sin prägel på en region där många är fattiga och fördrivna. I avhandlingens djuptolkningar av migranternas levda erfarenhet vid gränsen förbinds i sin tur de politiskt-ekonomiska processerna (irreguljär migration, prekära arbetsvillkor och ekonomisk informalitet) med frågor om samhällelig identitet och migrantens subjektivitet. Avhandlingen ser hyenafiguren som central för förståelsen av de ’gränskamper’ (border struggles) som utkämpas i södra Afrika; med hyenan introduceras också ett analytiskt begrepp. Empiriskt sett möjliggör begreppet en syntetisk förståelse av hur vardagliga tvister och problem som präglar arbetsmigrantens försök att jobba på andra sidan gränsen över tid samverkar med större processer av kapitalackumulation, som delvis formar regionens migrantarbetarsystem. I teoretiskt avseende visar begreppet hur förhandlingarna som sker vid gränskontrollen klargör behovet av nya sociologiska modeller som kan redogöra för samhällsprocesser som undflyr varje binär klassificering (som formell eller informell, inkluderande eller exkluderande, legal eller illegal, ordnad eller oordnad), och på så vis bidrar det till en bättre förståelse av migrationens betydelse i dagens värld.