Open file dissertation.pdf to read abstract / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / Unrestricted

In recent years there has been pressure exerted on the feed industry in Southern Africa to produce enough animal feed to meet the region’s nutritional requirements. The increase in the cost of animal feed eventually affects the affordability and availability of high quality food to low income communities. However, the overall national production of protein feed can easily be surpassed by the amount of protein that could be extracted from sludge. For example, the amount of protein wasted through sludge in one province alone (Gauteng, South Africa) amounts to 106,763 metric tonnes/yr, and slightly lower than the national protein requirement of approximately 145,000 tonnes/yr. Waste Activated Sludge (WAS) from wastewater treatment plants treating domestic wastewater is shown to contain protein in a ratio of 2:1 against fishmeal. However, some of this protein content could be lost during processing. In this study, the protein content in sludge and fishmeal was evaluated in laboratory analyses conducted as a preliminary step towards designing a protein supplement substitute. A pilot test was conducted with 5 batches (10 chicken per batch), with fishmeal to sludge substitutions of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. Metal content in the sludge was lowered by a rudimentary leaching process and its impact on the protein content was also evaluated. The initial mass gain rate, mortality rate, initial and operational costs analyses showed that protein from Waste Activated Sludge (WAS) could successfully replace the commercial feed supplements with a significant cost saving without adversely affecting the health of the animals. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted

This study investigates the role of the Afrikaans Churches in the quest for reconciliation in South Africa. Since it is a historical and analytical study, much use has been made of the relevant historical material. It is important in a study like this that there be a relevancy for this kind of study. South Africa is a nation with a complex society, who were weighed down for about forty years under an Apartheid policy, necessitating a probe into the influence of apartheid on society at large but also on the Afrikaans Churches. The different cultural groups in our country need to be reconciled to each other. But what kind of reconciliation? Many different definitions of reconciliation are given depending on who defines it. The politicians’ definitions were different from that of the church. Because reconciliation is a biblical term, it is necessary to look at the biblical mandate and how reconciliation is defined in biblical terms. Short overviews of the history of the origin of the different Afrikaans Churches under discussion are given. (Chapter 1) In order to understand the reaction of the different churches to the announcement of the constitution of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), it is necessary to look at those events that happened in the churches during the years of Apartheid. The fact that the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) is the largest church under the Afrikaners, explains why more space is given to occurrences in the DRC than to the others. Because Afrikaners work together in many situations, belong to the same clubs, etc. it is also clear that the occurrences in the DRC would have some effect on members of the other churches. Attention is paid to the polarisation and tension amongst churches due to race relations as it manifested itself within South Africa and also globally. (Chapter 2) Through Parliamentary legislation, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established for South Africa. It is important to take note of the mandate of the TRC and its method of work. Different reactions came from the faith communities and especially from the Afrikaans Churches. This researcher investigates the different attitudes in the churches as made known through correspondence in the different church magazines and daily newspapers. Attention is paid to the different reactions of the churches to the special hearings and the question whether churches must confess before the TRC or not. (Chapter 3) The reactions in the churches on the submission of evidence before the TRC are investigated. Only the DRC and the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) of the Afrikaans Churches and four theologians from the Reformed Churches of South Africa (RCSA) made their submissions. The other churches did not make use of this opportunity to clear their slates. The submission of the Uniting Reformed Church of South Africa (URCSA)is also mentioned as many of its members are Afrikaans speaking. (Chapter 4 ) The TRC suggested some proposals on reconciliation for the faith communities. This chapter looks at the responses of the churches to these proposals. There are wonderful things happening where churches were obedient and involved in their surroundings. Mostly they are helping in the areas of poverty relief and unemployment. The question about unity between the ‘sister’ churches amongst the Afrikaners and unification between the DRC and URSCA is discussed. (Chapter 5) Is there hope for our country for reconciliation? This question was addressed to a few leaders in the different churches and their responses are given. Churches do not always know how to go about helping their congregants working on reconciliation. Three models are currently being presented in South Africa on how reconciliation can become a reality and are briefly discussed. A new model is then worked out and proffered for use in and by the church to help congregants in the quest for reconciliation. (Chapter 6) Chapter 7 concludes this study by proposing a few conclusions. An extensive Addendum is given. This researcher interviewed church leaders. Their responses and other relevant material e.g. submissions by churches etc. to the TRC are given. A bibliography concludes this dissertation. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Science of Religion and Missiology / unrestricted

The present thesis concerns the population history, evolutionary processes and phylogenetic relationships of lineages of the redfin minnow genus Pseudobarbus. First, the population history and evolutionary processes within P. quathlambae were determined, mainly to decide the conservation value of the Mohale population. The Mohale dam threatens its survival. A divergence in mitochondrial control region and cytochrome b sequences and frequency differences in the distribution of major histocompatibility alleles were found between the Mohale population and an “Eastern” lineage. The Mohale population has therefore been historically isolated and was deemed indispensable for the conservation of P. quathlambae. Differentiation among populations of the P. afer and P. phlegethon complex were investigated, in relation to geological and climatic processes. Sea levels were about – 130 m below present levels during the last glacial maximum, about 18 000 years ago. Five historically isolated lineages were identified through analysis of mitochondrial control region sequences. The four P. afer lineages showed a strong association with proposed palaeoriver systems. A “Forest” lineage, however, reaches across two proposed palaeoriver systems. Surprisingly, this lineage is closely related to P. phlegethon. Pseudobarbus asper and P. tenuis were analysed together, because of their close phylogenetic relationship and because they occur in sympatry in the Gourits River system. Pseudobarbus tenuis showed divergence in mitochondrial control region only between the Keurbooms and Bitou River systems compared to the Gourits River system. Within P. asper, divergence was low, suggesting recent inland exchange opportunities between populations of the Gourits and Gamtoos River systems. River capture of south-eastern tributaries of the Gourits River system by the Keurbooms River would have resulted in unidirectional colonization, suggesting that speciation between P. asper and P. tenuis occurred within the Gourits River system with or without the Gamtoos River system being involved. Lower sea levels during the last glacial maximum also played an important role in the population history of P. burchelli. Differentiation in P. burchelli did not occur between two proposed palaeoriver systems, but rather within a western palaeoriver system. Divergence in mitochondrial control region and cytochrome b sequences showed that the “Breede” and “Tradou” lineages diverged within the Breede River system, before the “Heuningnes” lineage became isolated in the Heuningnes River system. Fifteen historically isolated Pseudobarbus lineages were included in a phylogenetic analysis on which biogeographic hypotheses were based. Phylogenetic relationships based on mitochondrial control region, cytochrome b and 16S and a combined dataset of all these were compared to relationships recovered from a previous morphological dataset. Conflicts between the molecular and morphological analyses, suggests that several morphological characters evolved in a complex manner. The molecular phylogenies suggest that the earliest divergence in the Pseudobarbus was between P. quathlambae in the Orange River system and the other species that occur in the Cape Foristic Region. Pseudobarbus lineages with two pairs of barbels and those with a single pair of barbels (excluding P. quathlambae) grouped together. In terms of currently described species, only the two lineages of P. quathlambae and the three lineages of P. burchelli were clearly monophyletic. Copyright / Thesis (PhD (Genetics))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Genetics / unrestricted

Namibia’s community based natural resource management program (CBNRM) integrates local participation in rural development and biodiversity conservation. This effort was launched through key legislation that devolved the right to manage wildlife and other renewable resources on communal lands from the state to community level conservancies. Local participation is dependent upon the capacity of the locals to self mobilize and establish conservancies, plan and implement their programs, and monitor and evaluate their progresses and impacts. Accordingly, this study examines the role of capacity development (CD) in CBNRM, particularly its processes, products, performance, and permanence at the individual, organizational (conservancy), and community levels. The research was carried out using interviews and participatory self-assessment exercises with various conservancy stakeholders. This study uncovers why and how capacity development has to be based on local realities and aspirations where capacity users need to have ownership of the process through partnerships with service providers in order to enhance endogenous capacity. However, such notion of “partnership” between CD stakeholders is challenging to translate into reality in the face of power imbalances, where government and NGOs are continuously influenced and coerced by donor interests, where NGOs are considered stronger than the government because they control more financial and human resources, and where conservancies tend to report upwards to NGOs and government instead of their constituents. Moreover, this research reiterates that CD has to be holistic enough to incorporate individual, organizational, and community level changes in order to create sustainable capacities and prevent problems of elitism, manipulation, and dependency on few individuals. With respect to CBNRM, the research argues that its basic premise of diversifying rural livelihoods using incentives to bring about sustainable resource management can only be achieved when conservancies have the capacity to create representative and participatory democratic processes, and when they are able to generate equitable and reliable tangible benefits with manageable costs to their constituents. As seen in this study, when such governance and benefit sharing structures are in place, they enhance local participation by promoting political empowerment, trust, ownership, and positive attitude towards living with wildlife. However, if such conditions are not met, local participation is reduced, while intra-community conflicts from marginalization to nepotism and members’ dissatisfaction and disinterest are inevitable. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The bluetongue (BT) live attenuated virus vaccine has been used successfully in the control of BT in southern Africa and Europe. However, concerns about the safety, possible development of viraemia and clinical signs post vaccination (p.v.) presented an opportunity to investigate the possibility of reducing the current bluetongue virus (BTV) vaccine titre to below 104PFU/ml. A total of 83 merino sheep were used and vaccinated with BTV monovalent vaccines containing either serotypes 2, 4 or 8 with the following titres: 102, 103 and 104 PFU/ml. Positive and negative control sheep were also included. Animals were bled from Day 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 25 and 28 p.v and tested for viraemia. Seroconversion was determined on Day 0, 3, 9, 15, 21, 6 weeks, 3 and 4 months p.v. Vaccinated sheep were then challenged at 6 weeks p.v. using BTV infected blood and at 4 months using cell cultured material and evaluated for 14 days using the clinical reaction index. Seroconversion was demonstrated p.v. in more than 70% of sheep vaccinated with a low titre 102 PFU/ml of BTV serotypes 2, 4 and 8 from day 9 and at 4 months. All three serotypes did not demonstrate any viraemia p.v. at the three different titres (102, 103&104PFU/ml). Viraemia was demonstrated p.c. with cell culture material in sheep vaccinated with low titres (102&103 PFU/ml) of BTV serotypes 2 and 4. Viraemia could not be detected in sheep p.v. and p.c. with BTV serotype 8 in all different titres. Sheep challenged with cell culture material of BTV 2 and 4 showed mild clinical signs compare to those challenged with blood culture material that did not respond as expected as positive controls did not demonstrate any clinical signs of BT. It was demonstrated in this study that BTV monovalent vaccines containing serotypes 2, 4 and 8 with titres below 104 PFU/ml can protect more than 90% of vaccinated animals against clinical disease. Although certain serotypes failed to protect against viraemia, all serotypes protected against the development of clinical disease when challenged with either BTV-infected blood or cell cultured material. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Veterinary Tropical Diseases / unrestricted

No description available.

No abstract available. / Dissertation (MA(Theol))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Church History and Church Policy / unrestricted

The transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) concept appears well-timed and appropriate to Southern Africa but the role of local communities in these enterprises is not defined. A framework that fully integrates agriculture, biodiversity conservation and livelihoods, known as ecoagriculture, provides opportunities for achieving TFCA goals through bottom-up means. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of planning and managing ecoagriculture in the Lubombo TFCA spanning across the borders of South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland. The study area is a biodiversity hotspot and is inhabited by poor people who need to meet their livelihood needs through utilising local natural resources. There is thus a need for initiatives that balance biodiversity protection and utilisation. Methodological triangulation including transect surveys, participant observation, key informant interviews, household questionnaire surveys and participatory approaches is employed. The study involves stakeholder identification and consultation, participatory landscape performance assessment, evaluation of the community’s future visioning and the analysis of policy and governance mechanisms impacting on ecoagriculture implementation. ii The study revealed a unique combination of stakeholders with varying degrees of importance and influence in the TFCA communities under focus, a situation which cannot be expected in an ordinary communal farming area. Potential conflicts of interest were evident among certain stakeholder groups but the stakeholder roles and interests were largely complementary. Key informant interviews pointed towards a high feasibility of planned ecoagriculture implementation in the area. The questionnaire survey showed an overwhelming willingness to plan the integration of biodiversity and farming. According to the participatory evaluation of the landscape’s performance the area’s overall performance score was 2.97 out of a possible score of 5, which implied a performance in the middle of the range. There were significant differences in the scores for the landscape dimensions (p-value < 0.01) but there were no significant differences in scores across the landscape (p-value = 0.37). The area is a mosaic of unplanned ecoagriculture with a good potential for transformation into systematically managed agriculture-biodiversity integrated approaches. Biodiversity-agriculture integration elements are evident in the Mathenjwa community vision, reflecting the community’s consciousness of its future in the TFCA. None of the Lubombo TFCA countries has an explicit ecoagriculture policy but ecoagriculture aspects are implied in existing legislation. Weak transboundary collaboration makes the Lubombo TFCA to exist as a treaty on paper rather than on the ground. Conflicts between customary norms and public legislation create policy enforcement challenges and pose a barrier to ecoagriculture implementation. Existing conditions could be improved to allow stakeholder-driven integrated landscape management. Innovative efforts (like policy harmonisation, capacity building and campaigns to raise awareness of the benefits of agriculturebiodiversity integration) are recommended for ecoagriculture to become a systematic landscape management practice in the area. The contributions of this study include: (i) a suggested framework for local community involvement in TFCAs which improves their resilience to climate change impacts, (ii) a suggested ecoagriculture feasibility index (EFI) for a specific landscape, (iii) a proposed landscape evaluation tool that practitioners and researchers can adopt, (iv) a methodological contribution to landscape studies involving the use of participatory processes and (v) contribution to the literature on the subject and practice of ecoagriculture. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / Unrestricted

Since the arrival of the Dutch colonists in the Cape, Khoesan populations were subjected to severe political and economical marginalization and often fell prey to racial conflict and genocide. These circumstances persisted until the early 20th century, during which an astonishing number of Khoesan skeletons were transported from South Africa to various locations in Europe, as at the time, different institutions competed to obtain these valuable remains. Due to the above mentioned circumstances, Southern African Khoesan groups suffered from nutritional stress, as well as substandard living conditions. Such living conditions probably did not allow for health care and medical benefits at the time. It will therefore be interesting to evaluate the health status of this group through palaeopathological assessment. Skeletal remains housed in two different European institutions were studied. The sample comprises of 140 specimens from the Rudolf Pöch Skeletal Collection in Vienna, Austria and 15 specimens from the Musée de l’Homme in Paris, France. These individuals represent both sexes and were aged between newborn and 75 years, with 54 individual being younger than 20 years of age and 101 being adults. The aim was to analyse all skeletal lesions. Results indicated high levels of typical disease conditions associated with groups under stress, such as periostitis, cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis. Treponemal disease, rickets, osteoarthritis and trauma were also encountered amongst other more specific indicators of health and disease. This study provided additional knowledge on the health status and lives of the Khoesan people during the turn of the 20th century, as well as focused new awareness on a group of severely mistreated individuals. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Anatomy / unrestricted