List of Titles

Whatever happened to social indicators in Africa? Whatever happened indeed! A developing world perspective on the Kenneth C. Land and Alex C. Michalos report on 'Fifty years after the Social Indicators Movement'

- Moller, Valerie

Authors: Moller, Valerie
Date: 2017
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:24531 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/36238 , https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-017-1555-y
Description: Africa is a latecomer to the Social Indicators Movement. The first social indicators for Third World countries were developed by outsiders and covered almost exclusively topics related to basic needs and development. In response to Kenneth Land's and Alex Michalos' historical assessment and their agenda for future 'social indicators/quality of life/well-being' research, the commentary traces how South Africa and sub-Saharan countries-with a little help from many friends who are pioneers in the movement-have succeeded in developing their own home-grown social indicators movement. Addressing some of the themes outlined in the agenda that Land and Michalos set for future research, the commentary discusses the importance of monitoring social change occurring in African society in a 'post-industrialized and much more globalized, and digitized-computerizedroboticized' era: How will new values and nom1s impact on the quality of life of future generations of African people?
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Date Issued: 2017

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The emergence of the South African farm crime novel : socio-historical crimes, personal crimes, and the figure of the dog

- Naidu, Samantha

Authors: Naidu, Samantha
Date: 2016
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:26325 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/53776 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/eia/article/view/142930 , https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9456-8657
Description: Crime fiction is an established and popular literary genre in South Africa that has gained international recognition and acclaim. The genre continues to expand and develop in terms of thematic concerns and experiments in form. One such notable development is the farm crime novel, which extends the tradition of the South African plaasroman. Recent texts, such as Elaine Proctor’s The Savage Hour and Karin Brynard’s Weeping Waters, quite deliberately set their respective murder mysteries on remote farms, and both novels particularise details of farm life. This article argues that the main concerns of the farm crime novel are, on one level, socio-historical – that is, the crimes perpetrated are the result of relationships to the land, land claims and land re-distribution, and the complex, evolving relationship between landowner and labourer. On another level, true to the conventions of crime fiction, the farm crime novel also explores interpersonal or intimate relationships that result in crimes of passion. Of particular interest is the observation that common to both thematic levels is a profound rendering of the link between human-animal relations and human-human relations. Drawing on Karla Armbruster’s work on the cultural significance of narratives about dogs and the need for more just and ethical relationships with animals, the article then demonstrates how this rendering occurs, often, through the figure of the dog. To conclude, some comments are offered on the position of the farm crime novel in a post-apartheid literary landscape
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Date Issued: 2016

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Lipophilic M(α,α′-OC5H11)8phthalocyanines (M = H2 and Ni(II)): synthesis, electronic structure, and their utility for highly efficient carbonyl reductions

- Jiang, Yu, Li, Minzhi, Liang, Xu, Mack, John, Wildervanck, Martijn, Nyokong, Tebello, Qin, Mingfeng, Zhu, Weihua

Authors: Jiang, Yu , Li, Minzhi , Liang, Xu , Mack, John , Wildervanck, Martijn , Nyokong, Tebello , Qin, Mingfeng , Zhu, Weihua
Date: 2015-10-07
Subjects: Dalton Transactions (2015), 44, 18237-18246, doi:10.1039/c5dt03256c
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:7282 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020322
Description: A lipophilic and electron-rich phthalocyanine (α,α′-n-OC5H11)8-H2Pc and its nickel(II) complex (α,α′-n-OC5H11)8-Ni(II)Pc have been synthesized and characterized. Detailed analyses of the electronic structure were carried out by spectroscopy, electrochemistry, spectroelectrochemistry, and TD-DFT calculations. A series of experiments demonstrate that the (α,α′-n-OC5H11)8-Ni(II)Pc complex can be used as a catalyst for highly efficient carbonyl reductions. , Original publication is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C5DT03256C
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Corrole–BODIPY conjugates: enhancing the fluorescence and phosphorescence of the corrole complex via efficient through bond energy transfer

- Chen, Wei, Zhang, Jianfeng, Mack, John, Kubheka, Gugu Patience, Nyokong, Tebello, Shen, Zhen, Wei Chen

Authors: Chen, Wei , Zhang, Jianfeng , Mack, John , Kubheka, Gugu Patience , Nyokong, Tebello , Shen, Zhen , Wei Chen
Date: 2015-06-08
Subjects: RSC Advances (2015), 5, 50962-50967, doi:10.1039/C5RA07250F
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:7268 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020277
Description: New corrole–BODIPY conjugates have been synthesized in high yield under mild conditions. Upon excitation at the absorption maximum of the BODIPY antenna chromophore, the fluorescence intensity of the free base corrole–BODIPY conjugate increases by ca. 300%, and significant phosphorescence intensity is observed for the iridium(III) complex of the conjugate, while almost no phosphorescence is observed for the parent iridium(III) corrole, due to through-bond energy transfer from the BODIPY antenna-chromophore to the corrole core. , Original publication is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c5ra07250f , Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher 9.1.510/W Unicode , Acrobat Distiller 8.1.0 (Windows); modified using iText� 5.3.3 �2000-2012 1T3XT BVBA (AGPL-version)
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A discourse of disconnect : young people from the Eastern Cape talk about the failure of adult communications to provide habitable sexual subject positions

- Jearey-Graham, Nicola, Macleod, Catriona I

Authors: Jearey-Graham, Nicola , Macleod, Catriona I
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6308 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018864 , http://0-hdl.handle.net.wam.seals.ac.za/10520/EJC171669
Description: Face-to-face adult communication with young people about sexuality is, for the most part, assigned to two main groups of people: educators tasked with teaching schoolbased sexuality education that is provided as part of the compulsory Life Orientation (LO) learning area, and parents. In this paper, we report on a study conducted with Further Education and Training College students in an Eastern Cape town. Using a discursive psychology lens, we analysed data from, first, a written question on what participants remember being taught about sexuality in LO classes and, second, focus group discussions held with mixed and same-sex groups. Discussions were structured around the sexualities of high school learners and the LO sexuality education that participants received at high school. We highlight participants’ common deployment of a ‘discourse of disconnect’ in their talk. In this discourse, the messages of ‘risk’ and ‘responsibility’ contained in adult face-to-face communications, by both parents and LO teachers, are depicted as being delivered through inadequate or nonrelational styles of communication, and as largely irrelevant to participants’ lives. Neither of these sources of communication was seen as understanding the realities of youth sexualities or as creating habitable or performable sexual subject positions. The dominance of this ‘discourse of disconnect’ has implications for how sexuality education and parent communication interventions are conducted.
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Date Issued: 2015

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Anton and Vale van der Merwe: reinterpreting Afro-Oriental studio ceramics traditions in South Africa

- Steele, John

Authors: Steele, John
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: text , Article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/968 , vital:30077
Description: Growing awareness of ancient Chinese Song and Yuan ceramics, amongst other Oriental traditions, by people with western connections such as Bernard Leach and Michael Cardew, in conjunction with influences from Japanese associates such as Soyetsu Yanagi, Kenkichi Tomimoto, and Shoji Hamada, (De Waal 1997, Harrod 2012, Kikuchi 1977, Leach 1976) has had many consequences. It spread a consciousness idealizing self-sufficient pottery studios where potters were in touch with all aspects of creating utilityware, largely from local materials for local use. Out of this emerged an Anglo-Oriental studio ceramic philosophy of form and practice, associated mainly with hand-made high temperature reduction fired ceramics. These ideas spread to South Africa in the late 1950s, and by the early 1960s local studios were being established along these lines. This studio ceramics movement grew exponentially in South Africa, initiating a phase of Afro-Oriental ceramics that remains a powerful way of life and visual arts influence. This paper seeks to explore aspects of Afro- Oriental studio ceramics in South Africa, with particular reference to the Leach/Hamada/Cardew to Rabinowitz, and Van der Merwe lineage.
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Date Issued: 2015

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Applications of social media and web 2.0 for research support in selected African academic institutions

- Owusu-Ansah, Christopher M, Gontshi, Vuyokazi, Mutibwa, Lois, Ukwoma, Scholarstica

Authors: Owusu-Ansah, Christopher M , Gontshi, Vuyokazi , Mutibwa, Lois , Ukwoma, Scholarstica
Date: 2015
Subjects: Social networks , Web 2.0. , Research -- Study and teaching
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6996 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018520
Description: This study examined the use of Social Media/Web 2.0 for research support and it is guided by three objectives namely: a) to ascertain the uses of social media in academic institutions; b) to identify the challenges associated with social media use for research purposes and c) to provide experiences of social media application in selected African academic institutions. The study makes use of literature analysis in combination with personal and professional work experiences on the use of social media from librarians in four different countries. Institutional experiences of the four librarians showed that it is only Rhodes University Library that uses social media in its library, which is as a result of a formal social media strategy. For the other three universities, University of Education, Winneba Library in Ghana, Makerere University Library in Uganda and the University of Nigeria Library, the use of social media is not encouraging. They use it mostly for communication and interaction with colleagues. It was also discovered that there is no social media strategy available in these university libraries. Based on these findings, the study recommended the implementation of a social media strategy, appointment of social media librarians in these libraries, and continuing professional development of librarians to keep abreast with current trends. Web 2.0/Social Media is a new technology offering new options for African academic librarians in their research support role
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Date Issued: 2015

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Celebrating libraries in 20 years of democracy : an overview of library and information services in South Africa

- Satgoor, Ujala

Authors: Satgoor, Ujala
Date: 2015
Subjects: Libraries , Library administration -- South Africa , Information services -- South Africa , Public libraries -- South Africa , Library science -- South Africa
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6997 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019841 , ISSN ISSN: 0340-0352 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0340035215585100
Description: Since the establishment of the first public library in 1818, the South African library and information services landscape has also been a reflection of the socio-political order and developments in the country. This article presents an historical perspective as well as an overview of libraries in South Africa since 1994, the context within which libraries function, library governance and legislative framework, government funding for redress, library technologies, library and information services education and the professional association. The article further highlights the importance of libraries in meeting the goals of the national development agenda towards entrenching a strong democracy and an educated and informed nation , Original publication is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0340035215585100
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Date Issued: 2015

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Insecticidal activities and chemical composition of the essential oil from Tarchonanthus camphoratus (L.), leaves against Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky, and Sitophilus oryzae (L.)

- Nanyonga, Sarah K, Opoku, Andy R, Lewu, Francis B, Oyedeji, Adebola O

Authors: Nanyonga, Sarah K , Opoku, Andy R , Lewu, Francis B , Oyedeji, Adebola O
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: text , Article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/711 , vital:29660
Description: The essential oil of Tarchonanthus camphoratus dry leaves growing in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa was obtained by hydrodistillation and evaluated for its repellent effect, contact and fumigation toxicity against both Sitophilus zeamais and Sarocladium oryzae. Chemical composition of the essential oil was analysed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The study revealed that the essential oil of T. camphoratus had no contact and fumigation toxicity against stored insect pests, S. zeamais and S. oryzae. The oil, however, showed good repellent activity of over 50% after 24 h for all the concentrations used on both S. zeamais and S. oryzae. A total of 27 compounds accounting for 73% of the total oil composition were identified of which sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, (59.18%), were the most dominant. These results suggest that the essential oil of T. camphoratus could be considered a potential control agent of stored grain pests as a repellent.
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Date Issued: 2015

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Life orientation sexuality education in South Africa: gendered norms, justice and transformation

- Shefer, Tamara, Macleod, Catriona I

Authors: Shefer, Tamara , Macleod, Catriona I
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6310 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018868
Description: [From introduction] Research on sexual practices among young South Africans has proliferated in light of the national imperatives to challenge the spread of HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence and unwanted early pregnancies. It has been widely acknowledged that, in order to respond to these social problems, we need to understand the enmeshment of gender, class, age and other forms of social inequality, and how these are played out in ‘normal’ heterosexual relationships. Life Orientation (LO) sexuality education programmes have been viewed as key locations for incorporating education to challenge negative assumptions in respect of HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence and unwanted pregnancy and to promote safer, equitable and non-violent sexual practices. There is a paucity of work that interrogates the LO sexuality education programme in terms of gender norms, gender justice and gender transformation. In the handful of studies conducted on school-based sexuality education in South Africa, researchers have foregrounded a number of challenges, including the dominance of a guiding metaphor of danger and disease in the sexuality education component of LO manuals (Macleod, 2009); educators using a transmission mode of teaching to the exclusion of participation and experiential modes of learning (Rooth, 2005); educators understanding sexuality education as chiefly addressing the provision of information concerning, and prevention of, HIV/AIDS (Francis, 2011); teachers’ preference for abstinence-only education taught by means of a series of moral injunctions (Francis, 2011); and the avoidance of discussions of sexual diversity, and the endorsement of compulsory heterosexuality when same-sex relationships are mentioned (Francis, 2012). Recent research has also highlighted the variation in how teachers approach sexuality education. Francis and DePalma (2014) indicate that, while teachers may promote abstinence as the only appropriate choice for young people, they also recognise the value of teaching relationships and safe sex (aspects associated with comprehensive sexuality education). In their study, Helleve et al. (2009) report that Grades 8 and 9 LO teachers felt confident in teaching HIV and sexuality. This special issue of Perspectives in Education builds on this research by drawing together several papers that examine how LO or Life Skills sexuality programmes challenge and/or reproduce normative constructions of gender and gendered power relations. All the papers use qualitative research to locate these programmes within the complex contexts of their enactment, drawing attention to the multiple possibilities and limitations of such programmes. In the next section, we summarise the key problematics addressed in each of the papers. What curiosities drove the studies conducted by these researchers interested in gender dynamics in schools and LO or Life Skills sexuality education? Why are these curiosities important? We then highlight the key findings that emerged from these curiosities and the nuanced data collected. Finally, and most importantly in terms of the aims of this special issue, we address the ways in which a critical gender lens that facilitates gender transformation and gender justice could possibly be incorporated into LO or Life Skills sexuality programmes.
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Date Issued: 2015

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Maximum firepower: Vale van der Merwe, an emergent ceramic artist at Starways Arts, Hogsback, Eastern Cape, South Africa

- Steele, John

Authors: Steele, John
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: text , Article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/979 , vital:30078
Description: Vale van der Merwe has been working as a ceramic artist for the past five years, and in that time has developed a remarkably diverse repertoire of both thrown and handbuilt works. These include rapidly thrown utilityware as well as carefully conceived sculptural works that engage with ideas rather than primarily with function. She also makes full use of opportunities offered by high-temperature woodburn firings, and despite works collapsing while being made, breaking while being carried to the kiln and slumping during firing, she has used such occasions as opportunities for learning rather than despondency. Van der Merwe is also an actively hands-on ceramic artist who engages with all levels of tasks associated with studio ceramics in a village setting, so has found herself, for example, both creating a new chimney for the kiln, and simultaneously leading discussion around concepts for new collaborative exhibitions. There is a seriousness of intent combined with infectious confidence evident in both her daily presence and ceramics, and it is hoped that she will develop her repertoire and thinkings even further in forthcoming years.
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Date Issued: 2015

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Sculpting with fire: celebrating ephemerality at AfrikaBurn 2015 in the Tankwa Karoo, South Africa

- Steele, John

Authors: Steele, John
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: text , Article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/957 , vital:30075
Description: Land art, and some installation art, is usually aimed at relatively temporarily manipulating the surface of the earth. AfrikaBurn takes place annually in the near-desert of the Tankwa Karoo, South Africa. It is a communal event unique to Africa, and manifests as a fleeting week-long series of interventions in the natural environment, partially aimed at creating and then actively destroying free-standing public sculptures, some of which are huge and intricate. AfrikaBurn gives any one of the thousands of participants an opportunity to be inspired on any scale to generate artworks that take into account a principle that no debris whatsoever is left behind on the surface of the earth after a week-long celebration of creative energies. Unlike, for instance, an artwork built on the edge of the Indian Ocean in the Eastern Cape, where rough tidal seas would ensure gradual destruction, at AfrikaBurn, the sacrificial method of choice is controlled rapid burning, under the direction of a specified firemaster. This paper seeks to unbundle some aspects of land and installation art in Southern Africa with specific reference to AfrikaBurn 2015 events and anti-fracking initiatives. This is within a context that takes into account recognition that even seemingly durable public sculptures are subject to change and may even physically disappear with the passing of time.
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Date Issued: 2015

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Sexual socialisation in Life Orientation manuals versus popular music: responsibilisation versus pleasure, tension and complexity

- Macleod, Catriona I, Moodley, Dale, Saville Young, Lisa

Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Moodley, Dale , Saville Young, Lisa
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6309 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018866
Description: This paper compares two forms of sexual socialisation to which learners are exposed: the sexuality education components of the Life Orientation (LO) manuals and the lyrical content and videos of popular songs. We performed a textual analysis of the sexual subject positions made available in, first, the LO manuals used in Grade 10 classes and, second, the two songs voted most popular by the Grade 10 learners of two diverse schools in the Eastern Cape. Of interest in this paper is whether and how these two forms of sexual socialisation – one representing state-sanctioned sexual socialisation and the other learners’ chosen cultural expression that represents informal sexual socialisation – dovetail or diverge. Against a backdrop of heterosexuality and an assumption of the ‘adolescent-in-transition’ discourse, the main sexual subject positions featured in the LO manuals are the responsible sexual subject and the sexual victim. A number of sexualised subject positions are portrayed in the songs, with these subject positions depicting sex as a site of pleasure, tension and complexity. Although these two modes of sexual socialisation use different genres of communication, we argue that learners’ choice of songs that depict fluid sexual subject positions can help to inform LO sexuality education in ways that takes learners’ preferred cultural expression seriously and that moves away from the imperative of responsibilisation.
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Date Issued: 2015

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Stigma resistance in online child free communities : the limitations of choice rhetoric

- Morison, Tracy, Macleod, Catriona I, Lynch, Ingrid, Mijas, Magda, Shivakumar, Seemanthini T

Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I , Lynch, Ingrid , Mijas, Magda , Shivakumar, Seemanthini T
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6311 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019799 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0361684315603657
Description: People who are voluntarily childless, or ‘‘childfree,’’ face considerable stigma. Researchers have begun to explore how these individuals respond to stigma, usually focusing on interpersonal stigma management strategies. We explored participants’ responses to stigma in a way that is cognisant of broader social norms and gender power relations. Using a feminist discursive psychology framework, we analysed women’s and men’s computer-assisted communication about their childfree status. Our analysis draws attention to ‘‘identity work’’ in the context of stigma. We show how the strategic use of ‘‘choice’’ rhetoric allowed participants to avoid stigmatised identities and was used in two contradictory ways. On the one hand, participants drew on a ‘‘childfree-by-choice script,’’ which enabled them to hold a positive identity of themselves as autonomous, rational, and responsible decision makers. On the other hand, they mobilised a ‘‘disavowal of choice script’’ that allowed a person who is unable to choose childlessness (for various reasons) to hold a blameless identity regarding deviation from the norm of parenthood. We demonstrate how choice rhetoric allowed participants to resist stigma and challenge pronatalism to some extent; we discuss the political potential of these scripts for reproductive freedom.
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Date Issued: 2015

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The relationship between concurrently measured SASS (South African Scoring System) and turbidity data archived in the South African River Health Programme’s Rivers Database

- Gordon, Andrew K, Griffin, Neil J, Palmer, Carolyn G

Authors: Gordon, Andrew K , Griffin, Neil J , Palmer, Carolyn G
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: text , Article
Identifier: vital:7098 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015956
Description: The need for monitoring the biological impacts of instream sediments has long been recognised, yet robust and scientifically defensible tools for doing so are still in the early stages of development because of the difficulties experienced by researchers in characterising the complicated mechanisms of biological effect elicited by sediment particles. Biological monitoring is one such tool, and this paper reports on the initial stages of a study to determine the most applicable approach for measuring the effects of instream sediments on aquatic macroinvertebrates in the South African context. In this first instance, the suitability of the rapid macroinvertebrate biomonitoring tool (the South African Scoring System) was investigated by determining the extent of the correlation between concurrently measured SASS metrics and turbidity data collected for the South African River Health Programme. All three SASS metrics – SASS score, number of taxa (NOT), and average score per taxon (ASPT) – were found to be significantly negatively correlated with turbidity, although variation in the data was high. Turbidity was found to be the major driver of change in ASPT. In contrast, electrical conductivity was the major driver of SASS scores and NOT, with turbidity a close second. When combined, electrical conductivity and turbidity accounted for 80 percent (SASS score) and 75 percent (NOT) of the variation in the regression model. Consequently, SASS metrics are a crude, but reliable, indicator of the negative biological implications of excessive instream sedimentation as measured by turbidity. A number of other potential biomonitoring approaches for detecting the impacts of fine sediment exposure are identified for further investigation: spatial analyses of macroinvertebrate assemblages; and the use of structural and functional metrics.
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Date Issued: 2015

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When is it legitimate to use images in moral arguments? The use of foetal imagery in anti-abortion campaigns as an exemplar of an illegitimate instance of a legitimate practice

- Kelland, Lindsay, Macleod, Catriona I

Authors: Kelland, Lindsay , Macleod, Catriona I
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6305 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016146
Description: We aim to interrogate when the use of images in moral persuasion is legitimate. First, we put forward a number of accounts which purport to show that we can use tools other than logical argumentation to convince others, that such tools evoke affective responses and that these responses have authority in the moral domain. Second, we turn to Sarah McGrath’s account, which focuses on the use of imagery as a means to morally persuade. McGrath discusses 4 objections to the use of imagery, and outlines responses that may be used to legitimate the use of imagery in moral arguments. Assuming that we accept her account and that the invocation of affect has authority in the moral domain, we, using McGrath’s responses, examine whether the use of foetal imagery in anti-abortion campaigns is a legitimate instance of this practice.
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Date Issued: 2015

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‘… a huge monster that should be feared and not done’: lessons learned in sexuality education classes in South Africa

- Shefer, Tamara, Kruger, Lou-Marie, Macleod, Catriona I, Baxen, Jean, Vincent, Louise

Authors: Shefer, Tamara , Kruger, Lou-Marie , Macleod, Catriona I , Baxen, Jean , Vincent, Louise
Date: 2015
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6314 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020933 , http://www.mrc.ac.za/crime/aspj/2015/AhugeMonster.pdf
Description: Research has foregrounded the way in which heterosexual practices for many young people are not infrequently bound up with violence and unequal transactional power relations. The Life Orientation sexuality education curriculum in South African schools has been viewed as a potentially valuable space to work with young people on issues of reproductive health, gender and sexual norms and relations. Yet, research has illustrated that such work may not only be failing to impact on more equitable sexual practices between young men and women, but may also serve to reproduce the very discourses and practices that the work aims to challenge. Cultures of violence in youth sexuality are closely connected to prevailing gender norms and practices which, for example, render women as passive victims who are incapable of exercising sexual agency and men as inherently sexually predatory. This paper analyses the talk of Grade 10 learners in nine diverse schools in two South African provinces, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape, to highlight what ‘lessons’ these young people seem to be learning about sexuality in Life Orientation classes. We find that these lessons foreground cautionary, negative and punitive messages, which reinforce, rather than challenge, normative gender roles. ‘Scare’ messages of danger, damage and disease give rise to presumptions of gendered responsibility for risk and the requirement of female restraint in the face of the assertion of masculine desire and predation. We conclude that the role which sexuality education could play in enabling young women in particular to more successfully negotiate their sexual relationships to serve their own needs, reproductive health and safety, is undermined by regulatory messages directed at controlling young people, and young women in particular – and that instead, young people’s sexual agency has to be acknowledged in any processes of change aimed at gender equality, anti-violence, health and well-being.
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Date Issued: 2015

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