In both my English and IsiXhosa poetry, my themes are love, politics, and the social issues of rural communities, and include my own life experiences, both good and bad. My poems are mainly short narrative accounts of township life. Although they do have a broad educational purpose, they do not preach to the reader. In IsiXhosa, my poetic forms are influenced by the works of J J R Jolobe, W N Mbovane, P T Mtuze, and my English poems by Pablo Neruda, Mafika Pascal Gwala, Garcia Lorca and others. / Intliziyo yona izimele gxebe ifihlakele Iyimfihlo, kumagumbi omphefumlo. Iyafunxa, ifukame kulo magumbi amxinwa. Iingcango, mba! Zivaliwe! Maxa wambi zide zixel’ isisila senkukhu, sona sibonwa mhla ligquthayo. Vul’ amehlo ubaz’ iindlebe uchul’ ukunyathela. Yiza ndikubambe ngesandla, sivul’ iingcango! Masivul’ iingcango zentliziyo yam, sikrobe ngaphakathi! Masithi ntla‐ntla kumagumb’ amathathu kuphela! Masithi ntla‐ntla, kwelepolitiki yakwaXhosa, Kaloku nam ndingumXhosa! Masithi ntla‐ntla kwelifukame, i.z.i.x.i.n.g.a.x.i n.o.b.u.n.c.w.a.n.e. b.o.t.h.a.n.d.o, kaloku nam ndinemithamb’ ebalek’ igaz’ eliqhumayo! Ucango lokugqibela lukungenisa kwigumbi elinezidl’ umzi, Kaloku nam ndizalwa kulo mzi wakwaXhoooooosa! / This thesis is presented in two parts: English and isiXhosa.

This thesis centres on the debates informing the progress of three public art galleries in South Africa between 1990 and 1994. This was a period of great change in the country, spanning from the unbanning of left-wing political parties and Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, to the first democratic elections which resulted in his inauguration as President of South Africa. The study focuses specifically on the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the South African National Gallery, and the Durban Art Gallery, delineating the events and exhibitions held, the programmes initiated, and the artists represented by these galleries during this post-apartheid/pre-democracy phase of the country’s history. The debates relevant to these galleries linked to those prevalent in the arts, museology, and politics at the time. Many contemporary South African artists called attention to apartheid oppression and human rights abuses during the 1980s. After 1990, with these pressures alleviating, there was a stage of uncertainty as to the role, responsibility, and focus of visual art in a post-‘struggle’ context, however there was also an unprecedented upswing in interest and investment in it. On a practical level, the administration of the arts was being re-evaluated and contested by both independent and politically-aligned arts groups. Public art museums and sponsored art competitions and exhibitions made increasing efforts to be ‘representative’ of South Africans of all races, cultures, creeds, sexes and genders. The many conferences, committees, and conventions created during this transitional era focused on the creation of policies that would assist in nation-building; historical and cultural redress and regeneration; and the education and representation of previously disadvantaged groups. This coincided with a revolution in museological discourses internationally, from the theorization of a museum as a place of commemoration and conservation, to a forum for discussion and revision between both academic and non-academic communities. With the sharing of the process of constructing history and knowledge, came the challenging dynamics involved in the representation of identity and history. In all of these groups - the arts, museology, and South African politics - the predominant issue seemed to be a negotiation between the bid to open up control to more parties, and the reluctance of some parties to relinquish control. While the emphasis is on significant changes that were implemented in the transitional period, the study locates the changes at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the South African National Gallery and the Durban Art Gallery within their historical, geographical, and socio-political context. Various artists working in these locations during this era are also discussed, as the changes in their status, and the progressions in their subject matter, materials, and concerns are interesting to examine more nuanced definitions of the ‘political’, probing the politics of identity, sexuality, gender, race, geography, and belief systems. Some artists also focused specifically on post-apartheid preoccupations with territory, trauma, conflict, memory and freedom. This kind of artwork was assiduously acquired during the early ‘90s by public art galleries, whose exhibitions and collecting focus and policies were undergoing considerable revision and redress. This thesis examines these changes in light of their socio-political contexts, as well as in light of shifting national and international imperatives and conceptions of museums and museum practice.

A collection of mostly lyrical poems. The poems explore moments of experience and thought relating to longing and belonging, in terms of relations, memory and place. The poems are mostly short and intense. Silence and implied meanings are often as important as what is said; shadows are evoked to recall substance. Though short, the poems are not tightly closed – on the contrary, meanings proliferate in the process of exploration

A collection of mostly lyrical poems. The poems explore moments of experience and thought relating to longing and belonging, in terms of relations, memory and place. The poems are mostly short and intense. Silence and implied meanings are often as important as what is said; shadows are evoked to recall substance. Though short, the poems are not tightly closed – on the contrary, meanings proliferate in the process of exploration

This collection of poems explores the boundaries between certainty and uncertainty, between the desire for meaning and the destabilisation of meaning. The content encompasses everyday life, love and loss, and the ambiguities are reflected in the forms used, so that, for instance, the linear continuity of narrative and the musicality of the lyric may be juxtaposed with the fragmented and imagistic leaps of the associative poem.

An exchange programme involving students and academics from Egoli University in Johannesburg and the University of Athens provides the conduit for the smuggling of Venetian Grossi coins discovered on the Cycladic island of Naxos. Thirty-five year old Delancey James, a Professor of Ethics at Egoli University, stumbles upon events associated with the murder of a post-graduate student. Through her investigation, she uncovers a web of intrigue that links the coin smuggling to corruption at the highest levels of the University, and, in the process, her life is placed in mortal danger.

The kingdom of Sansland situated on the Azanian Peninsula has been ruled by Sorricians, the sky people, ever since they landed on terra firma centuries ago. The indigenous population are forced to engage directly in the social and economic perpetuation of their own domination beneath the Sorrician heel. Until revolution flares in the antipodes, and soon, even the gods themselves seem to take an interest in the inevitable course of events. But all is not what it seems. The revolution appears to proceed too rapidly. The kingdom’s trade infrastructure collapses too easily. The Sorrician rulers are inexplicably and unrealistically confident in their ability to repel an attack on the capital. It will take a man of conscience, a regular soldier and a boy priest to restore appearances back to reality.

My mother had many failings. Her inability to cook. Her inability to work. Her inability to love. But her two biggest failings...those were the ones that had the potential to ruin my entire life, to ruin my brother’s life, to tear a family apart. More than anything, it was her inability to act. Claire is a young woman working in Johannesburg as a PA. She has few friends barring her au pair flatmate Beth and work colleague Marge. Her nights are spent trying to overcome the trauma of her past to find sexual fulfilment in a shallow world of one night stands. Whether she can set herself on a path towards a more normal life comes down to one crucial thing – forgiveness.

A collection of mostly lyrical poems. The poems explore moments of experience and thought relating to longing and belonging, in terms of relations, memory and place. The poems are mostly short and intense. Silence and implied meanings are often as important as what is said; shadows are evoked to recall substance. Though short, the poems are not tightly closed – on the contrary, meanings proliferate in the process of exploration

This is a collection of village narrative poems mainly set in rural Limpopo that searches into the complexity of the past and how historical events impact on the present. Although the poems are imagined along the Marxist dialectic, they’re fresh imaginative creations featuring a strong element of surprise, spiritual mysticism, experimenting with form, delving into unknown poetic avenues, creating new music, exploring new sounds and taking risks. The long and intense poem, Ancestral wealth, which is a tribute to the poet’s father, reflects on death and its impact through the effective application of various stylistic elements and poetic devices, thus immortalising the life of a rural South African. Overall the poems, including retrospective and experimental ones, condemn the free market economic system and all that it seems to necessitate: the degradation of ecology, indifference to human suffering and the alienation of vulnerable social groups.