The spice route around the Cape of Good Hope established links between the refreshment station in the Cape and India. This foreshadowed the official involvement between South Africa and India. By 1700 up to 50% of the slaves in the Cape were of Indian descent. As early as the 17th century, the DRC had been involved in outreach work to the Muslim community in the Cape. It took a considerable length of time after the Indians had settled in Natal in 1860, however, before the DRC became involved in this new field. It was only in 1946 that the church officially began mission work among the Indian people and more specifically the Hindus. A number of factors however hampered the outreach work, such as political antipathy, the English language, fear of economic competition, the foreign culture, and their religion. The Mission Boards of the DRC, in time, acquired not only the necessary funds, but also the manpower for the task. In the sixties they commenced to work in Natal, as well as in the Cape and Transvaal. A number of important issues landed on the desk of the Mission Board, such as membership of ministers, the form of baptism, the period of catechism for older believers, aspects of organizational questions regarding the formation of a new church, the training of evangelists and ministers, and a church order for the newly established church. The first missionaries, being pioneers in the work among the Indian people, were all white ministers either from the DRC, the DRC Missions Church (NGSK) or the DRC Church in Africa (NGKA). These early missionaries were determined to ensure that the Gospel was brought to this neglected community in a clear and forceful way. The challenges involved were obviously enormous. The first evangelists were all Indians and by and large workers belonging to other churches. The appointment of evangelists proved to be a great asset. As co workers of the missionaries, they opened doors to Hindu homes that would have been closed to the foreign missionaries. By 1962 four congregations had been established and in 1968 the Indian Reformed Church was formed. Two years later the use of evangelists in the IRC was discontinued. Six years later the name of the church was changed to 'Reformed Church in Africa', establishing the church as an open community. Strong resolutions were taken against any form of racism. The church was now established as an open church where all races would be welcome. In the seventies it was the RCA that took the initiative to call upon the NG Kerk, the NG Kerk in Afrika and the NG Sendingkerk to consider possible unification. The RCA remained strongly focussed on reaching Muslims and Hindus. The resolution of the WARC in 1982 to suspend the NGK and the denouncement of apartheid as heresy by certain members of the RCA led to a serious confrontation with the NGK and a schism in the RCA. The reconstruction of the RCA began in 1986 and in 1990 the RCA adopted the Laudium Declaration, affirming that the church was Reformed, and an Evangelical Reformed Church. A period of remarkable rebuilding and growth ensued. The Laudium Declaration became the hallmark of the RCA. The specific reformed, evangelical and mission orientated qualities had to be met. Evangelists were again trained and sent out. The RCA offers important insights to all believers in a pluralistic community. In spite of a flood of liberal theological thinking, the RCA holds zealously to her Reformed Evangelical position as expressed in the Laudium Declaration. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

No abstract available. Copyright / Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Taxation / unrestricted

Coal is a chemical compound with a complex composition. Proximate and ultimate analysis as well as physical and mechanical tests which are available do not furnish all the information required by industry. Information regarding e.g. the burning properties of coal is required by furnace and boiler designers. Thermal analysis can be used for studying these properties using small masses of coal. Differential thermal analysis (DTA) where temperature variations are measured which result from reactions which occur when coal is heated and thermogravimetric analysis, (TGA) where similarly mass variations are measured, are regarded as important. Results from eg. TGA tests are usually interpreted without unified and formally accepted prescripts. It is desirable to investigate how the best use can be made of thermal analysis of coal, using DTA and TGA, and to devise a procedure for interpreting the results. The problem is approached by studying DTA and TGA results obtained from a specially selected group of coals for which other analytic data are available. The samples were prepared according to the standard procedure for the laboratory analysis of coal. At first, related information published by other researchers were integrated and parameters used by them identified and assessed in terms of fundamental scientific principles. Special experiments were conducted to probe the situation regarding orthodox kinetics of reactions and its related theory and observed discrepancies with regard to coal and its decomposition characteristics. It was found, along with other observers, that eg. activation energy values which are derived from TGA data should be used with extreme caution. In general an empirical approach for interpretation of results has much to offer. A system is developed by which various thermal techniques, executable by a single instrumental arrangement can be identified by expressing them in matrix format using as indexes, heating arrangement, reactant type and reaction environment. 5(1,1,2) e.g. designates a linearly heated mass of coal in air at atmospheric pressure. To enhance the comparison of TG characteristics of similar coals they should be classified according to a matrix arrangement C(g,t,r) which is based on three index parameters namely, grade ie. the ash content, type ie. the vitrinite content and rank. A TG test provides the basic requirements for computing the indexes using formulae provided by the originators. Information which can only be derived from a TG experiment e.g. 5(1,1,2), are referred to as specification parameters. The information consists of e.g. a series of temperatures which identify specific reaction changes in the coal. Several other parameters can be derived. Coals are assessed by comparing their specification parameters. Only two of the S(i,j,k) techniques are described in detail namely TG dispersion 5(1,1,2) and drop furnace burnout 5(3,1,2). The dispersion technique requires a linear increasing furnace temperature while the near sample temperature is also measured. This technique shows the decomposition stages of coal from dehydration to complete burnout. The drop furnace technique, involves a sudden exposure of the coal to a hot furnace environment with free air access: Actual burnout of coal is emulated. The model is not perfect for combustion but the best that can conveniently be acquired for comparing the burning responses of coals. To illustrate the type of information which can be obtained with other S(i,j,k) techniques experimental results of eg. a devolatilization test are presented. Brief reference is made to the role that particle size plays during combustion and the importance of the composition of volatiles which are released is indicated by presenting relevant information from external sources. The chemical composition and structure of the coals could not be determined but relevant information from an external source was presented which has a bearing on the practical analytic procedure which was described. After a study of the group TG characteristics of the various coals and discussion of the conclusions which are justified a practical procedure is described according to which the equipment can be used both for routine or special purpose analysis of coal. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Geology / unrestricted

A test instrument, made up of 25 items, derived from existing standardized tests from literature, was used to probe for the students' knowledge and understanding of basic mechanics concepts, as well as the confidence in the correctness of their answers. The test was administered to 982 first entering physics students; enrolled at three South African universities, at the beginning of the year before any formal instruction could take place. Data collected for this study included students' responses from multiple-choice questions and open-ended explanations to their chosen answers. The analysis of the multiple-choice responses and the written explanations revealed the existence of alternative conceptions among students and that the students' accuracy of judgment about their knowledge and understanding of basic mechanics concepts is different among the different cohorts. Physics education research, has over a number of years, revealed that students have alternative conceptions about physical processes. These alternative conceptions are accumulated from the students' past personal experiences, interactions with people around them and the environment they live in. It was found from the study that the strength of the known alternative conceptions differs among the different cohorts. There are those alternative conceptions that are easier to correct with sound teaching. These alternative conceptions exist mostly in worst performing cohorts and less so in the best performing cohorts. There are those alternative conceptions that persisted despite better teaching. These alternative conceptions are found in all the cohorts. The certainty of response analysis revealed the differences in the relationship between performance and confidence among the students from the three universities. It was also found that students make incorrect judgment about their knowledge and understanding of basic mechanics concepts. The overall trend emerging from the study was that students seem to be overconfident about their knowledge and understanding of basic mechanics concepts, but that students with a good command of mechanics concepts made the best judgment about the correctness of their answers. The item-by-item analysis of students' responses revealed that in most cases the best performing students make quality judgment about their performance, while poor perfOlming student always make inaccurate judgments about their performance. Analysis of the students' written explanations and item difficulty revealed that the Hasan et al. (1999) study is lacking in the differentiation between lack of analytical skills and the presence of alternative conceptions. Lack of analytical skills cannot be classified as evidence of the presence of alternative conceptions. The student may be having knowledge of the necessary concepts, but lack higher order analytical skills to be able to interpret situation presented. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Chemistry / unrestricted

This study examines the way in which three South African novelists, K. Sello Duiker, Phaswane Mpe and Sindiwe Magona portray the sexual abuse of men and women in the post-apartheid era. The novels under discussion are: Thirteen Cents (2000) and The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001) by K.Sello Duiker, Beauty’s Gift (2008) by Sindiwe Magona and Phaswane Mpe`s Welcome to Our Hillbrow. It will also look at the characters and the events to show that sexual abuse can be physical, traumatic and emotional, and that it affects both males and females, reinforcing in a sense Pucherova`s assertion that “both men and women are oppressed by a patriarchal heterosexist society” (2009:937).

This thesis examines aspects of identity and representation using contemporary theories and definitions emerging out of a growing body of work known as whiteness studies. The condition of whiteness as it continues to inform identity politics in post-apartheid South Africa is explored in an analysis of selected texts written by white women, to demonstrate the ways in which whiteness continues to suggest normativity. In reading a representative selection of literatures produced in contemporary South Africa by white women writers, this study aims to illustrate the ambivalence apparent in the interstitial manifestations of emergent reconciliatory gestures that are at odds with residual traces of superiority. A sampling of disparate texts is examined to explore the representations of race and belonging in post-apartheid South Africa in the light of contemporary theories of whiteness which posit it as a powerful and invisible identification. The analysis attempts to plot a continuum from writers who are least, through to those who are most, aware of whiteness as a cultural construct and of their own positionality in relation to the discursive dynamics that inform South African racial politics. A contextualising overview of the terrain of whiteness studies is provided in Chapter One, marking the ideological and theoretical affiliations of this project, and foregrounding the construction of whiteness as an imagined identity in contemporary cultural criticism. It also provides a justification for the selection of the textual material under scrutiny. Chapter Two explores a genre that has been identified as a growing trend in South African fiction: the production of pulp fiction written by white middle-class women. Two such texts are the focus of this chapter, namely, Pamela Jooste’s People like Ourselves (2004) and Susan Mann’s One Tongue Singing (2005), and the complicities and clichés that are characteristic of popular literature are examined. Antjie Krog’s A Change of Tongue (2003) is the focus of Chapter Three. It is examined as a book offering the writer’s personal response to the difficulties of transformation within the first decade of South African democracy. Krog confronts her own defensiveness, her sense of normalcy, and her sense of alienation in relation to multiple encounters with different people. Chapter Four focuses on the journalism of Marianne Thamm. Her role as columnist for the popular women’s magazine, Fairlady is explored, particularly in relation to the inclusion of a contending voice writing against the general tenets of Fairlady. Thamm’s critique of the mores governing bourgeois white womanhood is read in relation to her role as officially sanctioned Court Jester. Her Fairlady columns have been collected in Mental Floss (2002) but the analysis includes selected columns from 2003 to 2005. Echo Location: A Guide to Sea Point for Residents and Visitors (1998) by Karen Press is the focus of Chapter Five. Her work is read as examining a white South African crisis of belonging in relation to the implications of mapping the co-ordinates of whiteness in South Africa. Chapter Six offers a reading of four short stories, written by Nadine Gordimer and Marlene van Niekerk. These stories are juxtaposed to trace an anxious impasse in white responses to suburbia, the place of enactment of white bourgeois mores, which both writers interrogate.

The objective of this study is to determine the best SARS customs strategy that can be implemented as a tool to assist the facilitation of trade and Regional integration in SADC Region because the process of integration is facing many challenges. A literature review of scholarly literature was conducted on regional integration of SADC that offered an international perspective on the experiences of other countries who have undergone similar experiences of integration and trade facilitation. With a historical background of Regional integration with the demonstration of SARS customs strategy that can be adopted to facilitate the process of trade and regional integration and, proposed future model and strategic plans to achieve the future goals. Research methodology and design was done through the combination of the four research types classification in their order of sophistication except the predictive research. These are namely exploratory, descriptive, and analytical or explanatory researches and include deductive research. The compilation of data through questionnaires was employed. The findings discussed in Chapter Five indicate that there are some gains that can be achieved by SADC members through free trade agreement. Recommendation from the study is that progression towards deeper integration requires the participation of the stakeholder and ownership at national level. The national and regional institutions require good governance.

The aim of this thesis was to explore the experiences of black, married, working, South African women in relation to financial decision-making processes within private households from a working-woman’s perspective. The focus was on married women in middle and senior management positions in their workplaces. Following a literature review to accumulate empirical evidence from similar studies in the areas of Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Feminism and Economic Psychology, eight, individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with black South African women in managerial positions to establish the women’s understanding of the meaning of money, concepts and practices of sharing of monetary resources between husband and wife in the household, the allocation of money as a resource in the household, control of money between husband and wife in the household, and decision-making processes between husband and wives. The key findings of the study were: · The diverse construction of the meaning of money. Women’s views on money had an impact on how they viewed their roles in household financial management and decision-making. · The absence of equal sharing of money and the existence of breadwinning/caregiver ideologies. Three patterns of money management were identified. Joint pooling, where equality of sharing, control and decision-making was greatest, was associated with higher income levels and availability of personal spending money. The female whole wage system, with minimal control and joint decision-making, was associated only with women with high-level income and minimal personal spending money. The independent managed system was associated with completely separate money management, unequal sharing of money, increased power, inequality in decision-making, and increased personal spending money by the breadwinner. · The pattern of financial allocation adopted had an influence on control and decision-making in the household. In all the systems of financial allocation adopted, women indicated that their partners had a final say in the financial decision-making processes. The study highlights some policy implications of inequality in financial decision-making. Due to the fact that household based analysis assumes that financial decision-making is shared equally in the households, women and children will most of the time lose out when this is not the case. It was therefore recommended that a deeper understanding of household decision-making may help the policy makers and researchers alike to focus on women in a more effective way, for example, by designing empowering programmes that will assist women to be involved in the financial planning and decision making in their households. / Dissertation (MA (Research Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Psychology / unrestricted

This study shows the economic need for SMEs playing a supportive role in the South African mining industry. The main issues arethe business decision of mining companies to outsource function rather than to have it in-house,the differentiation methods mining companies used to distinguish between large companies and SMEs and BBBEE regulation. The Delphi study method was used. A questionnaire was sent out to the group of experts. The group of experts consists of senior managers at procurement departments of mining companies. All of these companies are members of the South African Chamber of Mines. The study showed that the need for SMEs to support the mining industry is increasing due to the increase in outsourcing, differentiating between large and small companies as well as the partnering of SMEs with HDSA's to comply with BBBEE regulations. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The objective of this study was to compare prediction of meat tenderness by means of gene technologies (markers) with established physical estimates of meat tenderness. Weaned, young bulls (n = 60) were selected on phenotype from various commercial producers to represent a Brahman (Bos indicus; n = 20), Simmental (continental Bos Taurus; n = 20) and Nguni (Sanga; n = 20) crossbred group. After being raised under intensive feedlot conditions the animals were slaughtered according to normal South African slaughter procedures at an A-age (10 - 12 months) with a fatness class of two or three (lean-medium fatness). At slaughter the carcasses were not electrical stimulated because electrical stimulation influences the processes of meat tenderness, and the emphasis was on the expression of the inherent tenderness characteristics without external post mortem influences. Carcasses were halved, chilled at 4 ˚C within 2 hours post mortem. The M. longissimus thoracis et lumboram (LT and LL) of the right and left sides were removed from the third last rib to the last lumbar vertebra and sub sampled for shear force evaluations, SDS-PAGE, Western-blotting, myofibril fragmentation (MFL), sarcomere length (SL), calpain, calpastatin, total collagen, % collagen solubility and marker analysis. The position of sampling for each test was consistent and the different samples were either frozen immediately at -20 ˚C or -80 ˚C or vacuum packed and aged (2 ± 2 ˚C) for 7 or 14 days post mortem. Two single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were employed in this study for the bovine CAPN1 gene, which is found or situated on bovine chromosome 29, namely a SNP marker which is situated on exon nine (CAPN1-316) and the other on intron 17 (CAPN1-4751). The inhibitor, calpastatin (CAST) found on chromosome seven was also analysed in this study. Both the CAST markers (CAST and CAST-Brahman) lie in the three prime untranslated regions (3' UTR) of the CAST gene. Genotype data of two- markers were used to determine the two-marker haplotypes. The results of the study showed that differences exist in meat quality of the different crossbreds. Brahman- and Nguni-crosses had lower shear force values (more tender) than that of the Simmentaler-crosses under these specific experimental conditions. The pH decline did not differ significantly (p > 0.001) between the crossbreds. The carcass temperature and temperature decline rate although similar between the Brahman- and the Simmentaler-crosses for three hours and up to eight hours post mortem differed significantly from that of the Nguni-crosses (p < 0.006). The sarcomere lengths were mostly under 1.7 µm, which indicate that shortening (caused by rapid chilling) can not be eliminated. No significant differences were found between the different crossbreds for the calpastatin levels but significant differences were found for the µ-calpain activity and µ-calpain / calpastatin activity ratios. The Brahman-crosses had longer myofibril fragment lengths on average, indicating lower proteolysis / myofibrillar fragmentation compared to the other crossbreds. Myofibrillar protein degradation (titin, nebulin, desmin) and myofibrillar protein formation (30 kDa) during post mortem ageing was examined as a confirmation for the myofibril fragment length results. Significant differences between the crossbreds were found for titin degradation. Nguni-cross animals had significantly (p < 0.033) more titin present than the other crossbreds. Nebulin degradation showed a significant (p < 0.038) breed effect at 7 days post mortem and a significant degradation rate difference for breed types between 1 day and 7 days post mortem (p < 0.03) and 1 day and 14 days post mortem (p < 0.034). Desmin degradation evaluated with SDS-PAGE and Western-blotting indicated that the Simmentaler-cross animals had significantly (p < 0.018; p < 0.024, respectively) lower desmin levels compared to the other crossbreds. For the 30 kDa proteins there were no significant (p > 0.001) differences in data evaluated at 1 day, 7 and 14 days post mortem as well as for the formation rate. The results indicates that Brahman-crosses had the highest frequency for haplotypes that are associated with increased shear force, and thus tougher meat compared to the Simmentaler-crosses that had the highest frequency for haplotyes that are associated with lower shear force, and thus more tender meat, while Nguni-crosses were intermediate. A multiplex marker system incorporating both markers (316 and 4751) and indexes for the markers at CASTand CAPN1 genes were evaluated in this study. Considering the average index for the interactions between the CAST and CAPN1 genes, it can be concluded that the Nguni-cross was overall the breed with the highest potential for inherently tender meat. In general, the animals in this study had the tendency for tougher meat. The genetic markers (CAST and CAPN1) showed no association with Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF) (p > 0.05), which suggest that various mechanisms and environmental factors may be involved and give another outcome compared to the genetic make up. Simple correlation coefficients were generated between the different characteristics measured. If the group of animals in this study is indeed a typical representation of South African feedlot finished crossbred animals, the relatively high WBSF values emphasise the challenge to manipulate their intrinsic tenderness potential by making use of various pre- and post-slaughter techniques and procedures. / Dissertation (MSc(Agric) (Animal Science))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Animal and Wildlife Sciences / unrestricted