In KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, many of those who search for solace from mental illness draw on one or more of the three vigorous therapeutic traditions of healing to which the region is heir. Western psychiatry and its formal institutions have a long history in this region: in 1868, the Colony of Natal passed southern Africa's first 'lunacy legislation'; and in 1880, the Natal Government Asylum was opened on the Town Hill, Pietermaritzburg. Although founded on the precepts of nineteenth century liberalism, by 1910, the Pietermaritzburg Mental Hospital (as it was now known) increasingly reflected a national concern with a racialised 'mental science' and Natal psychiatry became somewhat marginalized within a broader network of national asylum administration. During World War 1, too, the white citizens of Pietermaritzburg sought to have future expansion of the asylum halted, and its inmates hidden from public view. Although the story of Western psychiatry in Natal and Zululand is important for any history of mental illness in South Africa, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, colonial psychiatry had relatively limited significance for the majority of people. Since the nineteenth century, African understandings of and treatments for illness have proved especially resilient, interacting with and at times adopting - and adapting - elements of Western biomedicine, as well aspects of healing strategies whose origins lie in Indian concepts of health and medicine first brought with indentured workers from the 1860s. For whites, as well as for Africans and Indians, committal to the asylum came, most typically, at the end of a lengthy quest to find a cure for mental illness. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, other sectors of healing proved to be remarkably flexible, offering new explanations for apparently new forms of illness - including insanity - that accompanied the political, economic and social upheavals of the time, as well as producing new therapies, strategies, and specialists to meet them. It is this variety of responses to mental illness, and ways of attempting to negotiate a path to a state of mind that might be termed 'mental health', that this dissertation traces. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

The eastern portion of the Namaqua-Natal Mobile Belt, the Natal Metamorphic Province is divided into four main tectonostratigraphic units. These units comprise two accreted island arcs: the Mzumbe and Margate Terranes; an imbricately thrust nappe zone consisting of four ophiolitic nappes in a hinterland-dipping duplex; and the highly deformed metavolcaniclastic/metagreywacke Mfongosi Group directly adjacent to the stable northern foreland of the Kaapvaal Craton. Theories of late-tectonic left-lateral movement in the southern island arcs are extrapolated northwards of the southern margin of the Kaapvaal Craton coincident with the Lilani-Matigulu Shear Zone. The relative timing and structural context of vein-hosted mineralization with respect to major recognized tectonic events is resolved in five separate areas, two in the Natal Nappe Zone and three in the Natal Thrust Front. The Madidima Nappe of the Natal Nappe Zone contains several north-northeast- to northeast-trending and northeast- to east-northeast trending quartzofeldspathic veined reefs considered to have formed in a late-tectonic left-lateral shear system (main shear and synthetic shear orientations, respectively). The northeast- to east-northeast-trending reef is duplicated due to infilling of normally-faulted steep structures in the semi-brittle, incremental normal faulting of the banded amphibolite component of the nappe. Later left-lateral movement has reactivated one of these steep structures along the southern margin of a regional F2-folded band of granite-gneiss in that a southwest extension of this structure may be responsible for sub-economic veining for a length of up to 9 km. The extensive flat-lying topography of the Mbongolwane Flats area, in which the reefs are situated, is accounted for by the accelerated weathering of rocks which underwent sustained late-tectonic metamorphism in the epidoteactinolite facies, accompanied by pervasive shearing and block rotation to the south of the southern limb of the regional F2 fold in the granite-gneiss. A large, kilometer-scale, open advective fluid system which provided fluid-mediated exchange between co-existing rocks existed at the time of vein formation. The fluid system was driven by early-tectonic intrusion of a granite gneiss and amphibole-rich granite. Two areas in the Mfongosi River valley, the northern and southern Mfongosi Valley areas, contain typical evidence of deformation at the leading edge of collision in a mobile belt. The southern Mfongosi Valley area, at the confluence of the Mfongosi and Tugela Rivers, contains veining which resulted from pressure solution of the host metavolcaniclastic/metagreywacke. Veining occupies predictable shear and tension fractures formed during the initial deformation of a foreland margin sequence, in addition to occupying those fractures formed by buckling on the layer-scale. The structural context of the northern Mfongosi Valley veining is defined by subsequent deformation and vein fragmentation such that the metavolcaniclastic/metagreywacke was reduced to a melange in which vein segments acted as competent clasts; a large-scale porphyroblast/matrix system. Formation of the Manyane Thrust to the south of the Mfongosi Group interrupted the normal retrograde metamorphism of the remainder of the Tugela Nappe and initiated a "hot iron effect" whereby a short-lived thermal pulse acted at the thrust plane, producing a reversed geothermal gradient in the underlying Mfongosi group. This reversed gradient would have been counteracted by a steepened normal geothermal gradient in the Mfongosi Group caused by overloading of the Natal Thrust Front by the Natal Nappe Zone. These geothermal gradients partly account for the concentration of veining in the areas of the Mfongosi Group which are directly adjacent to the Manyane Thrust, and directly adjacent to the Kaapvaal Craton, in the lower portions of the thrust front Stable isotope studies indicate fractionation between vein and wall rock under a short-lived, mainly rock-buffered, layer-scale fluid-movement system. Also forming part of the Mfongosi Group of the Natal Thrust Front, the Ngubevu area contains an apparently enigmatic distribution of veining accompanied by gold and base metal mineralization. The structural evolution of the Ngubevu area occurred during consistent left-lateral transpression into which has intruded early-tectonic veins, formed by pressure solution and having the same structural format as the early-tectonic veining in the southern Mfongosi Valley area. Subsequent deformation of the system was accompanied by 1900 -trending tension gashes which were continually ptygmatically-folded, sheared and offset to form occasionally mineralized quartzofeldspathic "blows" and along-strike stringers in the epidote- actinolite schist. Where veining cross-cuts narrow calcite - graphite - sericite - quartz - albite - tourmaline ± chlorite schist layers, gold mineralization occurred. The late-tectonic tension gashes, antitaxially filled by quartz and amorphous calcite, cross-cut the entire range of lithologies. The fluid system during vein deposition varied: during infilling of early-tectonic fractures a short-lived fluid-flow system dominated, with the emplacement of re crystallized wallrock occurring in a closed, non-advective regime under the influence of diffusion caused by pressure solution. The fluid system changed to a more open, advective, greater than layer-scale rock-buffered one with a decreasing contribution of material from immediate host rocks. An internal fluid source is implied for the entire period of vein emplacement, derived from structural analyses which indicates negative dilation across the Mfongosi Group in this area and by comparison of vein:wallrock δ180 values which indicate a lack of igneous-derived fluids. The Phoenix Mine, in the central portion of the Tugela Nappe, and the Ayres Reef, hosted in Manyane amphibolite adjacent to the Manyane Thrust, are grouped together on the basis of their cross-cutting nature and timing with respect to metamorphism and deformation of the host rock, and also due to their similarity in isotopic plots. Both vein sets occur in approximately east-west to east-northeast-trending zones which show evidence of late-tectonic left-lateral movement. Phoenix Mine veining occurs in weakly-metamorphosed meta-gabbro/meta-norite of the Tugela Rand Complex. The Manyane amphibolite demonstrates the amphibolite facies of metamorphism due to the short-lived thermal pulse at the Manyane Thrust. Both sets of veining display slickenlines which are indicative of their emplacement prior to the late-tectonic left-lateral movement. The unusually thick quartz veins of both deposits are the results of late- to post-Tugela Rand Complex fluids or the tapping of late-tectonic metamorphic fluid reservoirs. This caused silica metasomatism and redeposition of material in post-thrusting collapse features. A highly channelized, single-pass fluid system is proposed in the absence of intrusion-derived fluids. Whole rock geochemical data allow a distinction to be made between the Natal Thrust Front and the Natal Nappe Zone: the Foremost nappe of the nappe zone consists primarily of N-type mid-ocean ridge basalts/ocean-floor to within-plate basalts which were intruded prior to nappe emplacement by metaluminous orogenic volcanic arc granitiods. The thrust front displays a lateral variation in metabasite/metasediment ratio, with the ratio increasing from east to west in this inlier. In the east, in the Nkandlha area, melanged metagreywackes dominate and there is a marked paucity of associated metabasites. In the central portions of the thrust front, in the vicinity of the Mfongosi area, active continental margin/continental arc magmatogenic greywackes and arkoses are interlayered with calk-alkaline volcanic arc basalts (volcaniclastics). The greywacke geochemistry indicates little to no mafic/ultramafic influences in sediment contribution and the source of sediment is inferred to be the southern portions of the Kaapvaal Craton. The Nkandlha and Mfongosi area Mfongosi Group segments are considered to be in-situ or para-autochthonous. The western-most Ngubevu area predominantly hosts metabasites. The geochemistry of the metabasites indicates that they are N-type mid-ocean ridge basalts/ocean floor basalts from a destructive plate margin setting. The metabasites are interbanded with metapelitic/metacalcsilicate layers produced in a shallow water oxic environment, here inferred as a spatially-restricted shallow, marginal basin. The metabasites in the Ngubevu area are notably similar to those of the Madidima Nappe, indicating a similar provenance and pre-collisional mode of formation. It is proposed that the variation in the Natal Thrust Front was due to a north-east/south-west distribution of lithological proportions or mixing, with greywackes dominating in the northeast (in proximity to the Kaapvaal Craton) and metabasites dominating in the southwest. Left-lateral transpressional movement within the Mfongosi Group of the Natal Thrust Front, and the Natal Nappe Zone, was continuous throughout plate collision and obduction. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1969.

The primary objective of this study was to establish sedimentary models for peat formation in the southern part of the Klip River coalfield during Ecca (Permian) times and to assess palaeoenvironmental controls on coal seam behaviour and distribution. In order to achieve this approximately 2 400 borehole logs and 25 field sections were collected. The coal-bearing Vryheid Formation records early to late Permian fluvio-deltaic sedimentation within the northeastern main Karoo basin. Three informal lithostratigraphic subdivisions, based on the investigations of Blignaut and Furter (1940, 1952), are proposed: the Lower zone, Coal zone and Upper zone. An examination of the structural framework and history of the northeastern Karoo basin reveals that the southern and western boundaries of the Klip River coalfield are defined by zones of rapid basement subsidence : the Tugela and Oannhauser Troughs respectively. There is some doubt as to the locality of the source area to the rivers emptying into the Ecca sea. Ryan (1967) postulated the "Eastern Highlands" situated off the present southeast African coast, but it is contended that the Swaziland area, situated no more than 200 to 300 km to the northeast of the Klip River coalfield, constituted a more plausible source area. The Lower zone represents sedimentation along a westerly to southeasterly prograding coastline dominated by high-constructive lobate or braid deltas, but also showing significant influence by wave processes. The Coal zone, which varies in thickness from 35 to 60 m, represents a major phase of coastal progradation and braided-river deposition on extensive alluvial plains. Significant coal seams formed only during periods of fluvial inactivity, the duration of which was dependent on source-area processes. Coal seam geometry and behaviour in the Klip River coalfield were not influenced by the depositional environments of associated clastic sediments. The following factors were found to have of profound influence in determining the extent, distribution and rate of peat accumulation: 1. Platform stability and temporal and spatial variations therein. 2. The absence or presence of penecontemporaneous clastic sedimentation. 3. Duration of periods of peat formation. 4. Lithology and topographic expression of clastic sediments underlying peat-forming swamps. The peat-forming phase of the Vryheid Formation was terminated by an extensive transgression brought about by an eustatic rise in basin water-level and/or an increased rate of platform subsidence. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, 1988.

This thesis explores home-based care volunteer (HBCV) identity and how it is shaped by context in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The literature on home-based care in Africa is dominated by the "burden of care narrative" which is supported by the themes of "women as caregivers", "poverty" and "stigma". The literature presents government and stakeholder collaboration as the general solution to alleviating the burden of care on women caregivers. A wider scope for research within the themes is necessary to discover alternative solutions to the problem of the burden of care. This study ventured to expand the scope of current research by exploring the area of HIV and AIDS home-based care volunteer (HBCV) identity and participation in care and support. Fifteen HBCVs were interviewed about their work and personal life stories and interviewed reflexively using narrative interviewing. Findings indicate that the women's stories were dominated by narratives of gender, poverty and sociopolitical factors (social field narratives). Meta-narratives influencing the women's lives were stories of communal motherhood, aspirations to service-oriented work and religious beliefs and commitment. The women's personal life stories revealed that they saw themselves as distinctively caring. Connections between the different aspects of identity and context revealed that the women made sense of their community participation through their personal identities as strong and loving mothers and the association with the group identity of community mothering. Home-based-care volunteerism was explored as a form of agency in response to a lack of recognition, support and acknowledgement for AIDS caregivers and their patients. Researcher reflexivity through autoethnography and poetry contributed to achieving depth in the study and to the understanding that HBCVs strive for space recognition, acknowledgement and validation for their work. In a resource strained context a balance must be found between material compensation and respect and recognition which can be effective in sustaining community initiated volunteerism. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

According to Baker (1955), success of plant invasions can be attributed to autogamous breeding systems and generalist pollination systems. A test of Baker's rule was carried out on 19 invasive alien plant species in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Natural levels of fruit set in these plants was high (median= 71.5% fruit set per plant). Breeding system experiments for 18 species showed that 17% of the species are allogamous, 72 % are autogamous and 11% are apomictic. This contrasts markedly with a general flora of 1472 species in which 65% are allogamous, only 14% are autogamous, and 21% are apomictic. Because the breeding systems of the alien species were largely autogamous, pollinators make only a small contribution to the overall reproductive success. Seventy one percent of the 14 alien species for which pollinators were obtained were pollinated by honeybees, which are super-generalists and ubiquitous in a generalist pollination systems. However, some species showed pre-adaptation to relatively specialized pollination systems, involving hawkmoths, butterflies and Xylocopa bees respectively. Thus, alien plants were not visited by a wide range of insects, but rather showed pre-adaption to one or more pre-existing guilds in the new habitat. Pollen limitation experiments showed no evidence that reproductive success in populations of the species is limited by pollen availability. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

Water and sanitation provision is a matter of life and death to humans, since its absence and shortage may increase incidences of waterborne diseases as well as have adverse effects on the learning environment at schools. Every human has a right to an adequate water supply as well as to proper sanitation services. The two cannot be separated; absence of either can have dire public health implications. Schools are an extension of communities and can therefore be seen as a reflection of societal trends and infrastructural conditions. In South Africa the national ministry of water affairs is the main custodian of water and sanitation services to all. However it is the responsibility of the education ministry to provide and extend water and sanitation services and build infrastructure in schools. One of the principles in the water and sanitation policy stipulates that the state has an obligation for ensuring service delivery within available resources. Other relevant stakeholders need to assist the government to augment service delivery. It is against this background that the study focuses on exploring the extent to which stakeholders are involved in providing water services to schools and whether their involvement has resulted in any service delivery improvement or not. The main themes explored in the study include profiling and demographics of the schools, the state of sanitation facilities and water infrastructure, operation and management of sanitation facilities and public health issues. The study also aims to provide an insight into service delivery challenges and includes success stories where partnerships have been involved. The study draws from theories that link water and sanitation to public health, child development and gender based on the human rights principles. Literature on various forms of institutional arrangements is explored in order to understand the regulatory framework upon which service delivery is based. The main findings indicated that sanitation facilities in the rural schools are generally poor unless there has been some type of intervention. Although it is the municipality’s responsibility to ensure potable water is supplied at a local level, these services are often not provided. Service delivery seems to be very slow for most schools. Stakeholder involvement has been at the level of providing infrastructure for the schools, whereas operations and maintenance has remained the responsibility of schools. There are still huge challenges for the government to improve service delivery in schools especially those in the rural areas. and shortage may increase incidences of waterborne diseases as well as have adverse effects on the learning environment at schools. Every human has a right to an adequate water supply as well as to proper sanitation services. The two cannot be separated; absence of either can have dire public health implications. Schools are an extension of communities and can therefore be seen as a reflection of societal trends and infrastructural conditions. In South Africa the national ministry of water affairs is the main custodian of water and sanitation services to all. However it is the responsibility of the education ministry to provide and extend water and sanitation services and build infrastructure in schools. One of the principles in the water and sanitation policy stipulates that the state has an obligation for ensuring service delivery within available resources. Other relevant stakeholders need to assist the government to augment service delivery. It is against this background that the study focuses on exploring the extent to which stakeholders are involved in providing water services to schools and whether their involvement has resulted in any service delivery improvement or not. The main themes explored in the study include profiling and demographics of the schools, the state of sanitation facilities and water infrastructure, operation and management of sanitation facilities and public health issues. The study also aims to provide an insight into service delivery challenges and includes success stories where partnerships have been involved. The study draws from theories that link water and sanitation to public health, child development and gender based on the human rights principles. Literature on various forms of institutional arrangements is explored in order to understand the regulatory framework upon which service delivery is based. The main findings indicated that sanitation facilities in the rural schools are generally poor unless there has been some type of intervention. Although it is the municipality’s responsibility to ensure potable water is supplied at a local level, these services are often not provided. Service delivery seems to be very slow for most schools. Stakeholder involvement has been at the level of providing infrastructure for the schools, whereas operations and maintenance has remained the responsibility of schools. There are still huge challenges for the government to improve service delivery in schools especially those in the rural areas. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

The Natal Land and Colonisation Company was incorporated in 1860 in London. Its capital was partly subscribed by City financiers, the rest being made up of land obtained from Natal land speculators in exchange for fully-paid-up shares. On the basis of very little research, it has been assumed that it was a land-speculation company which held its land against an expected rise in value and rack-rented to black squatters. The deduction has been that this kept land out of the reach of white settlers and thus retarded the development of the white economy. Study of the Company records has shown this view to be entirely erroneous. The primary objective of the Company was to borrow surplus capital in Britain at a low interest rate and invest it in Natal at a higher rate. The landholdings of the Company were used as collateral for raising funds on the London market or sold, when the market permitted to release capital for reinvestment. Only the profit on land sales was distributed to shareholders. This relatively straightforward plan of operation was modified between 1860 and 1890 in reaction to changing economic circumstances in Natal. The Company initially lent large sums on mortgage, but a severe depression between 1865 and 1869 led to large-scale defaulting on repayments and the Company was forced to foreclose. This vastly increased the Company's rural landholdings, and brought in several established plantations and a large number of urban properties. The Company invested unsuccessfully, in the plantation economy, was prevented by the colonial and imperial governments from investing in railway and coal-mining development and, owing to a poor land market, sold only a small proportion of its land. For income, it relied on leasing land to white settlers, renting urban properties and collecting hut-rents from black squatters. This last practice brought it into conflict with white settler interests as it gave blacks an alternative to wage-labour. The Witwatersrand gold discoveries stimulated economic development in Natal, particularly urban development, and the Company finally found a profitable and stable investment area in urban property. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1991.

The research interest is in the area of leadership and gender, with specific reference to promotion prospects of female educators in predominantly black schools. I seek to establish internal and external factors that contribute to women educators being marginalised. The investigation is carried out in the uMgungundlovu region of the KwaZulu-Natal's Department of Education. This region covers the rural areas of Vulindlela and the urban and peri-urban circuits of Pietermaritzburg. I made use of qualitative methodology to obtain data from a random sample of twenty one out of twenty five deputy principals from the two circuits. This was followed by a detailed interview of seven of the twenty one who formed the purposive sample The central thesis of this study is that constitutional laws which outlaw unfair discrimination and academic qualifications play a subsidiary role in the upward mobility of women. The study will seek to confirm or refute this claim. A major finding in this study indicates that hindrances to promotion among married women include family responsibilities of being mother and wife; disruption of career advancement as a result of husband relocating. Low self-esteem among some women also acts as a hindrance to promotion. However, the more intractable hindrances turned out to be external. Cultural conditioning and tradition both combine to relegate women to domestic responsibilities. There is the issue of unequal power relations between men and women in the work place and, in some instances, the failure to apply anti-discriminatory legislation during interview processes. It therefore made little or difference whether the research was carried out in an urban area like Pietermaritzburg or a rural environment like Vulindlela. Hindrances to female promotion were very similar. This study concludes by suggesting that women should form lobby groups to challenge unfair labour practices. They should also increase their visibility by placing their curriculum vitae in the hands of people of influence. A further suggestion is that they take an active part in professional bodies and publish academic articles. At the school level, they should resist all attempts at being treated in a condescending manner. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This mini-dissertation reports on a case study of teachers' perceptions of the performance appraisal system used at an independent school in the greater Durban area in Kwa-Zulu Natal. As the system was implemented at a time when appraisal was only mandatory in government schools and not in / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.