Thesis (MA (History))--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / In this research the early development of the Black Sash is briefly explored, together with how it altered over time. Changes in the internal structures and its effect on the membership are benchmarked, together with the reasons and reasoning that compelled the organization to undertake a complete restructuring. An in-depth study is made of the disorientation brought about by the collapse of apartheid. Particular attention is paid to the resistance to, and ultimate acceptance of, the inevitability of offering a professionalized service. Attention is focused on the relationship between the Black Sash as a white women’s protest movement and the wider white community, content in the main to support apartheid. The degree to which the Black Sash was accepted by the black community as an equal partner in the struggle for a democratic South Africa is discussed and the criteria by which the organization has been evaluated. In addition, liberalism, per se, is evaluated from a “grassroots” perspective. From 1973, socio-economic developments in the wider society saw many Black Sash members returning to the workplace. This left them with little or no time to offer the organization during formal working hours. In order for the work to continue, paid staff had to be employed to augment the volunteer component. During the 1986 States of Emergency, members of banned organizations joined the Black Sash, and it became an amalgam of different views, generations and political opinion. This represented a significant ontological shift and altered its character in the eyes of the public, but also created internal fissures. The focus of this research is on the response of the Black Sash and its membership to the changing environment in which it was forced to function. By the 1980s, members were finding it difficult to relate to the new protest movements that were rapidly gaining black support and the black on black violence. Ultimately, except for its service arm, namely the advice offices, it emerged as an organization in limbo, appealing neither to the white minority nor the black majority. Women from other race groups, whose membership would have corrected the demographic imbalance, were reluctant to join a predominantly white organization with a tangible camaraderie, built up over the years as a result of members’ shared backgrounds and experiences. This threatened its effectiveness as an advocacy group, and access to the funding that was a vital element in its survival. Structural changes offered the only solution. One of the intentions of this research is to draw attention to the reinvented Black Sash Trust. As a multi-racial, multi-gender, professionalized NGO, managed and staffed by salaried personnel of all age groups, with minimal white volunteer input, it has replaced the two-tiered membership based structure, with a semiprofessional service arm. Having redefined its role and as the end product of slow, almost imperceptible but unavoidable innovations over time, it is developing its own identity, which encompasses much of the original Black Sash ethos.

To assess the levels of perceived acute and chronic racial and non-racial discrimination in South Africa, their association with health, and the extent to which they contribute to racial differences in physical and mental health, data were used from a national probability sample of adults, the South African Stress and Health Study (SASH). All Black groups in South Africa (African, Coloured and Indian) were two to four times more likely than Whites to report acute and chronic experiences of racial discrimination. Africans and Coloureds report higher levels of ill health than Whites, but acute and chronic racial discrimination were unrelated to ill health and unimportant in accounting for racial differences in self-rated health. In contrast, all Black groups had higher levels of psychological distress than Whites, and perceived chronic discrimination was positively associated with distress. Moreover, these experiences accounted for some of the residual racial differences in distress after adjustment for socioeconomic status. Our main findings indicate that, in a historically racialized society, perceived chronic racial and especially non-racial discrimination acts independently of demographic factors, other stressors, psychological factors (social desirability, self-esteem and personal mastery), and multiple SES indicators to adversely affect mental health.

Thesis (MPhil (Political Science ))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / This research report is an assessment of a South African political interest group. The interest group under investigation is the Black Sash (a non-governmental humanrights organization). The Black Sash is an organization with a rich heritage which dates back to 1955. The year 2005 commemorated the organization’s 50th jubilee. This event together, with the contemporary relevance of the Millennium Development Goals, contributes to the significance of the case study under investigation. The research report explains how the organization forms part of the interest group society as it started out as a pressure group and then altered itself into becoming a civil society organization during the 1990s. This research report is divided into three equally important parts which jointly contribute to an opinion on whether interest groups of the 21st century are maintaining the status quo or not. The first part is on theory, the second on description and the third on analysis. The part on theory gives a substantial synopsis of the current stance of literature on various facets of the operation of interest groups. The part on description gives a descriptive summary of the history and current characteristics of the Black Sash. The part on analysis investigates the development of the Black Sash until now with a focus on significant drivers of change. This research report found that the Black Sash – as representative of a 21st century interest group – is not maintaining the status quo. The available theory on interest groups is not sufficient to conduct impact assessments and might be presented as a reason for the serious lack of impact assessments at present. This finding implicates that the current available theory is in need of modification. Areas which lack theorizing in total, as well as areas which need further study are specifically revealed. A recommendation is put forward that new explanations and even a new vocabulary are required in these specified areas. A contribution such as the supplementation of existing theory on interest groups will enable impact assessments which will alter the way in which the relationship between these groups and public policy are understood.