I did not die
- Authors: Mzamo, Tebello
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7246 , vital:21232
- Description: My novella is about a mine worker and his family. Set in both Lesotho and South Africa, it engages the effects of migrant labour on families in post-apartheid South Africa. Told through the eyes of the different family members, the narrative uses shifting points of view and moves fluidly through time to present an intimate but complex view of the lives of ordinary working class people. It incorporates witchcraft and ghosts to reveal the blurred lines between the realms of life and death. This collection is inspired by my own father who is a former mine worker. I am influenced by Joyce Carol Oates and Chibundu Onuzo's darkly realistic style, Veronique Tadjo’s explorations of migration and death, the family chronicles of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. I am also inspired by female fantasy and horror writers such as those collected in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s anthology, Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Mzamo, Tebello
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7246 , vital:21232
- Description: My novella is about a mine worker and his family. Set in both Lesotho and South Africa, it engages the effects of migrant labour on families in post-apartheid South Africa. Told through the eyes of the different family members, the narrative uses shifting points of view and moves fluidly through time to present an intimate but complex view of the lives of ordinary working class people. It incorporates witchcraft and ghosts to reveal the blurred lines between the realms of life and death. This collection is inspired by my own father who is a former mine worker. I am influenced by Joyce Carol Oates and Chibundu Onuzo's darkly realistic style, Veronique Tadjo’s explorations of migration and death, the family chronicles of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. I am also inspired by female fantasy and horror writers such as those collected in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s anthology, Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
If I still want to breathe
- Authors: Billie, Ayanda
- Date: 2016
- Language: English , Xhosa
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:6012 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/1021231
- Description: One theme of this collection is the joy and the deep seated grief of my community of Kwa-Nobuhle; the brightness of hope on the faces on children running around our streets, the strides made by their mothers, the confusion of factory workers who are lost in darkness since the dawn of new dispensation. Then there are more personal poems: my own joys as well as the difficulties that have kept me from sleep and strangled my dreams as a writer, even though like Mafika Gwala, I believe that “words are born the way mothers beget children/words are born to survive time”. My style is influenced by imagistic, mystic and soulful poetry, such as the haunting Spanish voice of Garcia Lorca who wrote “I lose myself in the heart of certain children” and the absorbing isiXhosa voice of S E K Mqhayi. In response to their poetry my offering will be words that enliven us; my style will be what I see in the mirror, through the window, the sound of rain on my zinc roof and what frightens me. , Ndixomoloze ndiboph’ amaxonya, ndisenza eli linge lokuzama ukuxhathalaza kulo msinga uzakutshayela ulwimi lwethu. Nantso ke incwadana ndiyithe qhiwu ngendebe endiyithiye ngegama elithi Umhlaba Umanzi. Umhlaba umanzi ziinyembezi zabalilayo, umanzi kukubila kwabasebenzi besombha eludakeni, ufumile ziinkathazo zeminyaka zesizukulwana sesizukulwana. Injongo endifuna ukuyifezekisa ngeli nqaku yeyokuba umntu achole ntwana ithile ngokujonga imeko esiphila kuzo gabalala, ekuhlaleni, emakhayeni ethu nakwii ndawo esixelenga kuzo. Mhlawumbi kuyakuvuseleleka iingcinga neenkumbulo zamhla-mnene, okanye ibophe nezilonda ezimanzi. Ukwanda kwaliwa ngumthakathi. . . Nangomso. , This thesis is presented in two parts: English and isiXhosa.
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- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Billie, Ayanda
- Date: 2016
- Language: English , Xhosa
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:6012 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/1021231
- Description: One theme of this collection is the joy and the deep seated grief of my community of Kwa-Nobuhle; the brightness of hope on the faces on children running around our streets, the strides made by their mothers, the confusion of factory workers who are lost in darkness since the dawn of new dispensation. Then there are more personal poems: my own joys as well as the difficulties that have kept me from sleep and strangled my dreams as a writer, even though like Mafika Gwala, I believe that “words are born the way mothers beget children/words are born to survive time”. My style is influenced by imagistic, mystic and soulful poetry, such as the haunting Spanish voice of Garcia Lorca who wrote “I lose myself in the heart of certain children” and the absorbing isiXhosa voice of S E K Mqhayi. In response to their poetry my offering will be words that enliven us; my style will be what I see in the mirror, through the window, the sound of rain on my zinc roof and what frightens me. , Ndixomoloze ndiboph’ amaxonya, ndisenza eli linge lokuzama ukuxhathalaza kulo msinga uzakutshayela ulwimi lwethu. Nantso ke incwadana ndiyithe qhiwu ngendebe endiyithiye ngegama elithi Umhlaba Umanzi. Umhlaba umanzi ziinyembezi zabalilayo, umanzi kukubila kwabasebenzi besombha eludakeni, ufumile ziinkathazo zeminyaka zesizukulwana sesizukulwana. Injongo endifuna ukuyifezekisa ngeli nqaku yeyokuba umntu achole ntwana ithile ngokujonga imeko esiphila kuzo gabalala, ekuhlaleni, emakhayeni ethu nakwii ndawo esixelenga kuzo. Mhlawumbi kuyakuvuseleleka iingcinga neenkumbulo zamhla-mnene, okanye ibophe nezilonda ezimanzi. Ukwanda kwaliwa ngumthakathi. . . Nangomso. , This thesis is presented in two parts: English and isiXhosa.
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- Date Issued: 2016
The last stop
- Authors: Mofokeng, Thabiso
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64567 , vital:28559
- Description: My novella is set in the taxi industry. Its main characters are a wealthy taxi owner, a poor taxi driver from another African country, and the taxi driver's girlfriend. The story is partly a ghost story and partly crime fiction, it combines gritty realism with magical elements. It shows what happens between people in times of taxi violence. As the plot develops, the driver finds out that his boss is sleeping with his girlfriend. In revenge, the boss bribes some policemen to arrest the driver and beat him, and he dies in the police cells. But it turns out that the detective investigating the driver’s death is not quite impartial, nor is he of this world only.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Mofokeng, Thabiso
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64567 , vital:28559
- Description: My novella is set in the taxi industry. Its main characters are a wealthy taxi owner, a poor taxi driver from another African country, and the taxi driver's girlfriend. The story is partly a ghost story and partly crime fiction, it combines gritty realism with magical elements. It shows what happens between people in times of taxi violence. As the plot develops, the driver finds out that his boss is sleeping with his girlfriend. In revenge, the boss bribes some policemen to arrest the driver and beat him, and he dies in the police cells. But it turns out that the detective investigating the driver’s death is not quite impartial, nor is he of this world only.
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- Date Issued: 2016
The hoof-printed rock
- Authors: Maahlamela, David wa
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: South African poetry (English) -- 21st century.
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:5978 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013076
- Description: Many of these poems, although written in English, are inspired by Sepedi idioms and proverbs. Some invoke township and village life, others the observations and questions that come from writing poetry and experiences of travelling to different countries to read my poems. Others dwell on the political transformation in South Africa, or its absence, and on my own spiritual transformation.
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- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Maahlamela, David wa
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: South African poetry (English) -- 21st century.
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:5978 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013076
- Description: Many of these poems, although written in English, are inspired by Sepedi idioms and proverbs. Some invoke township and village life, others the observations and questions that come from writing poetry and experiences of travelling to different countries to read my poems. Others dwell on the political transformation in South Africa, or its absence, and on my own spiritual transformation.
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- Date Issued: 2014
“There are certain things that I just know that I have to do because we are brothers”: a discourse analysis of young black men’s engagement with popular representations of brotherhood
- Authors: Mkhize, Sibongiseni
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Brotherliness , Men, Black -- South Africa -- Social life and customs , Masculinity -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3238 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013212
- Description: The present study analyses the discourses that young black South African men employed when they engaged with popular representations of brotherhood in the media. In particular the study explores how these particular young men view masculinity within brothering and what the implications of ‘doing brothering’ are as a result of this view. Drawing on discursive psychology, the study is located in a social constructionist theoretical framework and uses a qualitative methodological approach. The data used in the discourse analysis was gathered through focus group discussion of scenes from the television show Generations. The discourse analysis produced two major discourses in which there were different constructions of masculinity each influencing the way in which brothering was done. The first discourse constructed a ‘dutiful man’ who performs his brotherly obligations separately from his emotions, this discourse is in line with discourses of hegemonic masculinity where men are expected to fulfil obligations and are not expected to be emotional. Resisting this discourse at times, some participants in this study did occasionally construct men as having rich emotional lives such that the quality of interaction with brothers is constructed as more important, in terms of building intimate fraternal relationships, than the amount of interaction with them. The second major discourse constructs the ‘ideal man’ in two different ways: as the ‘good man’ and the ‘unscrupulous man’. The ‘good man’, like the ‘dutiful man’ performs the obligations society has placed on him, but does not receive the social esteem that is given to the ‘unscrupulous man’, who is successful and financially powerful. Although both these types of men are spoken of as possessing masculinity, the ‘good man’ is constructed as holding onto a type of masculinity that does not have a place in contemporary society. The findings suggest that brothering informs the way in which men take up certain masculine positions. The study contributes to our understanding of the construction of gender identity within familial relationships, specifically the adult brother-brother relationship.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Mkhize, Sibongiseni
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Brotherliness , Men, Black -- South Africa -- Social life and customs , Masculinity -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3238 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013212
- Description: The present study analyses the discourses that young black South African men employed when they engaged with popular representations of brotherhood in the media. In particular the study explores how these particular young men view masculinity within brothering and what the implications of ‘doing brothering’ are as a result of this view. Drawing on discursive psychology, the study is located in a social constructionist theoretical framework and uses a qualitative methodological approach. The data used in the discourse analysis was gathered through focus group discussion of scenes from the television show Generations. The discourse analysis produced two major discourses in which there were different constructions of masculinity each influencing the way in which brothering was done. The first discourse constructed a ‘dutiful man’ who performs his brotherly obligations separately from his emotions, this discourse is in line with discourses of hegemonic masculinity where men are expected to fulfil obligations and are not expected to be emotional. Resisting this discourse at times, some participants in this study did occasionally construct men as having rich emotional lives such that the quality of interaction with brothers is constructed as more important, in terms of building intimate fraternal relationships, than the amount of interaction with them. The second major discourse constructs the ‘ideal man’ in two different ways: as the ‘good man’ and the ‘unscrupulous man’. The ‘good man’, like the ‘dutiful man’ performs the obligations society has placed on him, but does not receive the social esteem that is given to the ‘unscrupulous man’, who is successful and financially powerful. Although both these types of men are spoken of as possessing masculinity, the ‘good man’ is constructed as holding onto a type of masculinity that does not have a place in contemporary society. The findings suggest that brothering informs the way in which men take up certain masculine positions. The study contributes to our understanding of the construction of gender identity within familial relationships, specifically the adult brother-brother relationship.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Vital threats to human security in Southern Africa : the regional ramifications of the public health crisis in Zimbabwe
- Authors: Mtero, Shingirai
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Human security -- Africa, Southern , Communicable diseases -- Africa, Southern , Public health -- Zimbabwe , Poverty -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2891 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018251
- Description: The southern African region is beset with numerous security concerns: pervasive poverty, deepening inequality, starvation, contamination of essential natural resources, violent crime and state oppression. However, the most vital of the region’s security concerns in the 21st century is the spread of infectious disease. The region shoulders a disproportionate amount of the continent’s infectious disease burden, with diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria claiming more lives every year than any other factor. The nature of these diseases and their propensity to spread, coupled with inadequate regional public health structures pose a significant threat to regional security and stability. The study asserts that southern Africa’s security concerns are most appropriately characterised under the paradigm of Human Security. It further asserts that if such vital threats to human security are not adequately managed they have the ability to permeate across state borders, spelling numerous negative ramifications for the region. To this end, the study details the public health crisis in Zimbabwe and its effects on regional security and stability in southern Africa. An enduring political and economic collapse in Zimbabwe led to the dramatic deterioration of its public health sector, the concomitant mass migration of Zimbabwean nationals across the region presented a unique and complex challenge to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and its member states. As the premier regional governance institution, SADC has failed to adequately mobilise its structures and member states to respond to the challenges resulting from the public health crisis in Zimbabwe. The study explores the factors accounting for this regional inertia, and asserts that while infectious diseases are at present the most vital of the human security threats, similar threats to human security have the potential to affect the region if SADC fails to recognise and prioritise threats to human security as legitimate regional security concerns.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Mtero, Shingirai
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Human security -- Africa, Southern , Communicable diseases -- Africa, Southern , Public health -- Zimbabwe , Poverty -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2891 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018251
- Description: The southern African region is beset with numerous security concerns: pervasive poverty, deepening inequality, starvation, contamination of essential natural resources, violent crime and state oppression. However, the most vital of the region’s security concerns in the 21st century is the spread of infectious disease. The region shoulders a disproportionate amount of the continent’s infectious disease burden, with diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria claiming more lives every year than any other factor. The nature of these diseases and their propensity to spread, coupled with inadequate regional public health structures pose a significant threat to regional security and stability. The study asserts that southern Africa’s security concerns are most appropriately characterised under the paradigm of Human Security. It further asserts that if such vital threats to human security are not adequately managed they have the ability to permeate across state borders, spelling numerous negative ramifications for the region. To this end, the study details the public health crisis in Zimbabwe and its effects on regional security and stability in southern Africa. An enduring political and economic collapse in Zimbabwe led to the dramatic deterioration of its public health sector, the concomitant mass migration of Zimbabwean nationals across the region presented a unique and complex challenge to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and its member states. As the premier regional governance institution, SADC has failed to adequately mobilise its structures and member states to respond to the challenges resulting from the public health crisis in Zimbabwe. The study explores the factors accounting for this regional inertia, and asserts that while infectious diseases are at present the most vital of the human security threats, similar threats to human security have the potential to affect the region if SADC fails to recognise and prioritise threats to human security as legitimate regional security concerns.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Penumbra
- Authors: Mahlangu, Songeziwe
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) -- 21st century , Fiction -- Social aspects -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:5979 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015207
- Description: After failing his Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting Mangaliso Zolo takes an office job at a large insurance company in Cape Town. Anonymous and overlooked in a vast bureaucracy but with a pay check promising happiness and security, he slides into a series of personal crises that test his grip on what he believes in. When at his lowest ebb he leaves his job, grabs his bible and hits the streets his world closes in on him and he is eventually confined to a psychiatric hospital. Penumbra is a novel that explores the liminal area between faith and avarice, sanity and madness, modernity and tradition, friendship and enmity. It is set in contemporary South Africa, a society defined by alienation and excess.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Mahlangu, Songeziwe
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) -- 21st century , Fiction -- Social aspects -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:5979 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015207
- Description: After failing his Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting Mangaliso Zolo takes an office job at a large insurance company in Cape Town. Anonymous and overlooked in a vast bureaucracy but with a pay check promising happiness and security, he slides into a series of personal crises that test his grip on what he believes in. When at his lowest ebb he leaves his job, grabs his bible and hits the streets his world closes in on him and he is eventually confined to a psychiatric hospital. Penumbra is a novel that explores the liminal area between faith and avarice, sanity and madness, modernity and tradition, friendship and enmity. It is set in contemporary South Africa, a society defined by alienation and excess.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
The role of the instrumental principle in economic explanations
- Authors: Hoffmann, Nimi
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Consumer behaviour Utility theory -- Economic aspects Economics -- Sociological aspects Marginal utility
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2712 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002842
- Description: Economic explanations tend to view individuals as acting to satisfy their preferences, so that when given a choice between goods, individuals choose those goods which have greater utility for them – they choose those goods which they believe can best satisfy their preferences in the circumstances at hand. In this thesis, I investigate how utility theory works when it is used to explain behaviour. In theory, utility is a positive concept. It is intended to describe and explain an individual’s behaviour without judging or justifying it. It also seems to be regarded as non-hypothetical, for it explains an individual’s behaviour in terms of preferences which need not be shared by others, but may be wholly particular to her. This implies a distinctive way of approaching people’s behaviour as isolated from and immune to the judgements of a community, for utility cannot be used as a common standard by which we judge an individual’s behaviour as better or worse, appropriate or inappropriate. I argue that this theoretical treatment of utility is substantially different from the practice of using utility to explain behaviour. In the first place, when utility is used to explain behaviour as preference-guided, it treats this behaviour as rational action. An explanation of rational action is, however, necessarily governed by the instrumental principle. This principle is normative – it stipulates the correct relation between a person’s means and her ends, rather than simply describing an existing relation. The principle is also non-hypothetical – our commitment to the principle does not rely on the possession of particular ends, but on having ends in general. The instrumental principle therefore acts as a common standard for reasoning about how to act, so that when we explain an agent’s behaviour as rational action, we expect that her action will conform to standards that we all share in virtue of having ends. Thus, I contend, in order to explain the rational actions of an individual, marginal utility necessarily appeals to the judgements of a community.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
- Authors: Hoffmann, Nimi
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Consumer behaviour Utility theory -- Economic aspects Economics -- Sociological aspects Marginal utility
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2712 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002842
- Description: Economic explanations tend to view individuals as acting to satisfy their preferences, so that when given a choice between goods, individuals choose those goods which have greater utility for them – they choose those goods which they believe can best satisfy their preferences in the circumstances at hand. In this thesis, I investigate how utility theory works when it is used to explain behaviour. In theory, utility is a positive concept. It is intended to describe and explain an individual’s behaviour without judging or justifying it. It also seems to be regarded as non-hypothetical, for it explains an individual’s behaviour in terms of preferences which need not be shared by others, but may be wholly particular to her. This implies a distinctive way of approaching people’s behaviour as isolated from and immune to the judgements of a community, for utility cannot be used as a common standard by which we judge an individual’s behaviour as better or worse, appropriate or inappropriate. I argue that this theoretical treatment of utility is substantially different from the practice of using utility to explain behaviour. In the first place, when utility is used to explain behaviour as preference-guided, it treats this behaviour as rational action. An explanation of rational action is, however, necessarily governed by the instrumental principle. This principle is normative – it stipulates the correct relation between a person’s means and her ends, rather than simply describing an existing relation. The principle is also non-hypothetical – our commitment to the principle does not rely on the possession of particular ends, but on having ends in general. The instrumental principle therefore acts as a common standard for reasoning about how to act, so that when we explain an agent’s behaviour as rational action, we expect that her action will conform to standards that we all share in virtue of having ends. Thus, I contend, in order to explain the rational actions of an individual, marginal utility necessarily appeals to the judgements of a community.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
Social workers' experiences on the transformation of social welfare from a remedial approach to a developmental approach
- Authors: Mashigo, Boipuso Stephina
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Social service -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:9990 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/559 , Social service -- South Africa
- Description: When the new democratic government came into power, much legislation, policies and strategies were transformed, included was the welfare system that was imbalanced, unjust, discriminatory and inappropriate. It was replaced by a developmental approach that is more just, equitable and appropriate system contained in the White Paper for Social Welfare (1997). Social workers were expected to reform their method of intervention. Consequently, this study will focus on the experiences of social workers as changes were brought into the approaches used in service delivery. The goal of the study is to explore and describe social workers’ experiences on the transformation of social welfare from a traditional remedial approach to a developmental approach. The study was conducted using the qualitative research approach. The research study made use of an explorative, descriptive and contextual design. The researcher used purposive and theoretical non-probability sampling methods to draw the sample. Data was collected through semi- structured interviews. The data was analyzed using Tesch’s eight steps in Creswell (1994:155) and was verified against four criteria that Guba in (Krefting, 1991) developed for testing the trustworthiness of a qualitative study. Based on the findings and conclusion of the study, recommendations were made to the management of the department of social development on how to address the challenges facing social workers on the implementation of the developmental approach. The results will be disseminated by means of a written research report.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Mashigo, Boipuso Stephina
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Social service -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:9990 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/559 , Social service -- South Africa
- Description: When the new democratic government came into power, much legislation, policies and strategies were transformed, included was the welfare system that was imbalanced, unjust, discriminatory and inappropriate. It was replaced by a developmental approach that is more just, equitable and appropriate system contained in the White Paper for Social Welfare (1997). Social workers were expected to reform their method of intervention. Consequently, this study will focus on the experiences of social workers as changes were brought into the approaches used in service delivery. The goal of the study is to explore and describe social workers’ experiences on the transformation of social welfare from a traditional remedial approach to a developmental approach. The study was conducted using the qualitative research approach. The research study made use of an explorative, descriptive and contextual design. The researcher used purposive and theoretical non-probability sampling methods to draw the sample. Data was collected through semi- structured interviews. The data was analyzed using Tesch’s eight steps in Creswell (1994:155) and was verified against four criteria that Guba in (Krefting, 1991) developed for testing the trustworthiness of a qualitative study. Based on the findings and conclusion of the study, recommendations were made to the management of the department of social development on how to address the challenges facing social workers on the implementation of the developmental approach. The results will be disseminated by means of a written research report.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
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