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1
Fosu, Agyei. "E-Learning and Conventional Learning in 21st Century Information Age: A Case Study Of Students from Selected Universities in Buffalo City Metropolitan Eastern Cape South Africa." International Journal of Community Development and Management Studies 3 (2019): 031–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.31355/39.
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NOTE: THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED WITH THE INFORMING SCIENCE INSTITUTE. Aim/Purpose................................................................................................................................................................................................. The main aim of the study is to critically examine the forces that can impede or support students to use e-learning in higher education teaching and learning environment which require not only pre-technological literacy’s but easy access to the e-learning platform and ICT devices. Background................................................................................................................................................................................................. The concept of e-learning has grown considerably in the past three or four decades, which according to Pollock and Cornford, (2003) has prompted a great deal of interest in using and integration of technology into teaching and learning environment thereby transforming the very nature of the traditional higher education system. Murphy et al (2001) have highlighted that not only does the new technologies supplement the conventional course delivery in institutions of higher learning, but they have also become a catalyst for change in higher education. South Africa as a developing nation has adopted the introduction of ICTs in the education system with the hope that it may offer some solutions to the challenges of education in South Africa. The South African Department of Education believes that developments in ICTs and its introduction to the education system creates access to learning opportunities, redresses inequalities, improve the quality of learning and teaching, and deliver lifelong learning (Department of Education, 2004). Even though internet access and ICT devices are becoming more common in South Africa, the use of them for teaching and learning purposes are limited. According to the White Paper on E-education in South Africa (SA, 2004), the Province of Eastern Cape has ranked lowest in terms of number of schools with computers for teaching and learning and as a result many students from Eastern Cape Province who enter higher education do not have adequate technological literacy levels to cope with the demands of higher education teaching and learning environment. Methodology................................................................................................................................................................................................. The design of the study was a case study and it utilized quantitative method. The number of sample units in the study was 65 students from Walter Sisulu University, University of South Africa, Pearson Institute of Higher Education (formerly called CTI) and University of Fort Hare campuses based in East London Eastern Cape Province South Africa. The data were analyzed using MS Excel spreadsheet database for conversion into percentages for the descriptive statistics. Contribution................................................................................................................................................................................................. It is essential to understand the forces that can impede or support e-learning. Possible solutions can be suggested for successfully integrating e-learning into higher education teaching and learning environment to meet 21st century students’ needs. The South Africa case study identified that a number of respondents indicated that the resources are available for e-learning on their university campuses. But these available resources are not efficiently used by most respondents to support their studies. Findings......................................................................................................................................................................................................... The results indicated that in the area of infrastructure required for e-learning, the majority of respondents indicated that the resources are available for e-learning on the campuses of the sampled universities. But these available re-sources are not efficiently utilized by respondents to support their studies. Recommendations for Practitioners............................................................................................................................................................... While universities and other institutions of higher education are encouraging integration of e-learning into the curriculum, it is also imperative that their teaching and learning strategies and policies take into account that some students are unevenly challenged in terms of technological skills and still require additional support. Recommendation for Researchers................................................................................................................................................................ There is the need to explore in depth the aspects that lead to the successful integration of e-learning into conventional lecture method of courses delivery. Impact on Society........................................................................................................................................................................................... With the dawn of 21st century digital and knowledge-based economies evolution where the integration of computers and other ICTs tools in higher education teaching and learning environments have been found to be very beneficial to students, hence not only pre-technological literacy’s of students but easy access to the e-learning platform and ICT devices are critical to higher education learning environment. Assessing students technological skills and access to e-learning platforms to which this study contributes will assist in improving quality education which has a greater impact on society. Future Research............................................................................................................................................................................................... In the context in which this study was conducted further examination of the technological skills of academic staff of the successful integration of e-learning into curriculum would be advisable.
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Saldanha, June. "A Second Chance: The University of Cape Town's Diploma in Education." Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement 2 (November 3, 2009): 178–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ijcre.v2i0.1171.
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This paper describes a curriculum that gives men and women from predominantly black working class communities a second chance to acquire a formal qualification at a higher education institution in South Africa. The curriculum provides the space for adult students to think critically about themselves and their practice and to develop a confident voice to express themselves. Through this process they develop both learner and educator identities and begin to see how the two intersect. The paper gives some of the historical background of the course, and shows how lecturers who have taught on the programme at different times have helped shape the curriculum. It goes on to discuss the changing nature of the student intake, the curriculum content and structure and ends with a discussion of the impact of the course, on students, staff and on the university as a whole. One very visible impact of the diploma is to be seen in the students who have gone on to acquire other postgraduate qualifications in adult education studies. On a university-wide level, through the involvement of adult education lecturers in other programmes and curricula, knowledge of and interest in adult learning is shared and encouraged.
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Engel-Hills, P. C. "Professional expertise for radiation therapists in Africa." Journal of Radiotherapy in Practice 6, no. 03 (September 2007): 125–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1460396907006127.
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AbstractThe radiation therapist (RTT) is a practitioner who must learn to take responsibility as an autonomous professional within a collaborative multi-professional team. A case study of international students on fellowship studies to a South African Higher Education Institution was used as the lens to explore the development of professional expertise in RTTs. Documents and semi-structured interviews generated textual data that was semantically analysed. The findings are presented as a discussion of the themes that emerged from the text data; (1) autonomy in a team, (2) collaboration facilitates learning, (3) the need for professional competence, (4) reflective practice and (5) participatory learning. The paper offers the interpretation of professional competence as a practitioner who has applicable knowledge, clinical and generic competence as well as appropriate behaviour and attitudes. It is proposed that a collaborative, integrated curriculum meets the need for the education of RTTs on the African continent. In such an environment optimised learning is facilitated by access to good clinical role models, the development of skills toward reflective practice and student participation in the learning environment.
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Khuzwayo, Mamsi Ethel, and Kwanele Booi. "Transformation of Assessment of the Pre-Service Life Sciences Teachers: Issues of Curriculum Development in Education and Training in South Africa." International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research 20, no. 7 (July 30, 2021): 44–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.7.3.
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The Department of Higher Education intends to transform the traditional education theories and practices in the education and training of teachers for the twenty-first century. The attributes of a competent and qualified teacher underpin the envisaged changes in the curriculum to aptly prepare teachers. However, the realizations of the intentions of the department appear to be in vain. Accordingly, the current case studies conducted through qualitative procedures aimed to investigate how teacher educators adhere to the proposals of the Minimum Requirement of Teacher Education Qualifications (MRTEQ). The data gathered through the analysis, of course, guides intended to search for the link between the Life Science curriculum content knowledge and the plan to assess the competences promulgated by the South African Qualification Authority (SAQA). The findings pointed out that the course guide indicated learning outcomes, critical outcomes, and course and module outcomes; however, the assessment criteria were not aligned to the learning outcomes, module outcomes, and assessment techniques or tools. Therefore, the study recommends that academics in teacher education should explore and reflect on the models that could explicitly measure the performance of competencies (foundational, practical, and reflexive) authentically and reliably.
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Holness, Dave. "Improving Access to Justice Through Compulsory Student Work at University Law Clinics." Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal/Potchefstroomse Elektroniese Regsblad 16, no. 4 (May 17, 2017): 327. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2013/v16i4a2417.
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In this paper an analysis is offered of compulsory so-called "live client" clinical legal education as part of the LLB as a means of improving access to justice for the indigent. This study first explores the factors which motivate which the establishment of a year’s compulsory community service during the LLB studies, and making clinical legal education compulsory. The motivation includes inducing law students and graduates to aid in the achievement of access to justice. The research then focuses on what the value of community service is in higher education generally. In the South African civil justice system many ordinary people cannot afford to use the courts because of the expense involved, or because they are ignorant of their rights. This is particularly the case in civil as opposed to criminal matters, as legal aid is more frequently focused on criminal than on civil matters in this country. This paper will consider the role which senior law students may play in rendering pro bono work as part of clinical legal education in their LLB studies. In this regard particular focus will be made on the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the only university offering law studies in greater Durban. As for pro bono work by students during their LLB, consideration could be given to making clinical legal education a compulsory part of such students' curricula. Possible compulsory community service for law graduates (ie post-LLB) as envisaged in the proposed Legal Practice Bill falls beyond the ambit of this paper.
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Windapo, Abimbola, and Nnedinma Umeokafor. "Editorial." Journal of Construction Business and Management 5, no. 2 (December 27, 2022): v—vii. http://dx.doi.org/10.15641/jcbm.5.2.1309.
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Introduction
This is the tenth issue of the Journal of Construction Business and Management, a combination of the regular issue and a special issue of selected papers from Construction Business and Project Management CBPM 2021 conference proceedings. This issue contains five blind double peer-reviewed articles by seventeen scholars in Nigeria, South Africa, and Malaysia covering strategic management, environmental pollution, compliance with building standards, dispute resolution, and performance management. Despite the difference in the topics, one of the key issues highlighted by the papers is the emphasis on improving education and awareness in the industry to address the issues identified in the papers. Following this introduction is the discussion of the papers, after which the conclusion follows.
Discussion of the papers
Compliance with construction regulations, standards and codes is fundamental to improving the key performance indicators, by implication, project performance (Umeokafor et al. 2022). Further, this means that it has implications for project risks. While developed countries still record compliance issues which have resulted in tragic events such as the Grenfell fire incident, the developing ones are not left behind, demonstrated to be worse in many indicators. Opawole, Alao, Yusuf, Adu and Ofoetan (2022) examine one of the major issues in building construction in Nigeria, construction materials-related building collapse. Using survey questionnaires, the authors assess the determinants of compliance with concreting materials standards in building projects in Nigeria, using one of the country's major cities, Lagos, as a case study. Being site-based and non-site based, the factors are in six categories, regulation, procurement, capacity, technical, performance and skills components. Production quality control, non-compliance with specified concrete mix, low concrete grade and supervision by incompetent persons are among the site-based factors. However, non-site-based ones include procurement policies and regulatory frameworks in efficiency and professionalism. It was also found that non-compliance with the national standards results in rework, project delays, additional costs, and environmental issues. To improve the quality of buildings through compliance with concreting materials and reduce or eliminate building collapse, the regulatory policies and enforcement mechanism, competencies and training, and ethical standards of stakeholders require more attention. While the generalisation of the findings is limited to Lagos state, given that it is one of the states with a high volume of construction, the study is, at least, indicative of what happens in major cities in Nigeria, such as Abuja and Port-Harcourt.
The second paper, by Rambaruth, Adam and Krishna (2022), on strategic management in construction small and medium enterprises (SMEs), addresses another pertinent issue. SMEs outnumber the large enterprises, the heart of the economies of countries. Yet, they face challenges, which in many cases are different from their large counterparts, for example, limited access to funds and competent persons. Many of these SMEs in construction lack strategic planning, one of the factors for early failure (Rambaruth et al., 2022). Many policies, strategies and studies are informed by large enterprises' views and contexts, overlooking the SMEs. Consequently, the authors examine the determinants of a company's decision to adopt a strategic plan, the role of strategic planning in improving a company's performance, and the challenges associated with a strategic plan in place. Using the eThekwini region of South Africa as a case study, the study found that key factors for strategic management in the construction SMEs examined include increased productivity, the quest to gain competitive advantage and improved decision-making. It was good to find that most of them adopted strategic management practices to improve business performance. The authors conclude that one of the ways of improving strategic management in construction SMEs is through improved education and awareness education and broadened skills curriculum by the government. Government and tertiary institutions can also integrate strategic management into SME training programmes. The need for education and awareness, consistent with the recommendations of Opawole et al. (2022), highlights the need for more attention to education and training in the construction and property industry.
Graduate architects are the future of tomorrow in the profession; they are yet to pass the professional examination but hold a master's degree in Architecture. The need to exploit education to improve the construction industry's performance is furthered in the third paper by Tiew, Hashim and Zolkafli (2022). Tiew et al. (2022). investigate the major performance barriers that graduate architects encounter in project implementation. These factors are skills-based, poor project documentation management, lack of soft skills, inadequate quality assessment management, and a shortfall in design management. While it highlights the areas the universities can focus on, adequately integrating them into the curricula is consistent with the recommendations of Opawole et al. (2022) and Rambaruth et al. (2022) in this issue.
While education empowers the learners with knowledge, the process may have implications for their health and the environment. Addressing educational issues that have consequences for the environment and students' health is the focus of Nkeleme, Mbamali and Shakantu (2022). The authors measured the number of combustion pollutants generated while learning and teaching in laboratories at one of Nigeria's leading universities (Ahmadu Bello University Zaria) and their effect on indoor air quality. Nkeleme et al. found that the presence of CO during the combustion is above ASHRAE 62 and NAAQS limit of 9ppm reaching up to 45ppm at some points and oxygen at the critical level, 20.9 per cent or below 20.4 per cent. The authors also found that the laboratories are congested, and inadequate ventilation systems exacerbate the discomforting effects of combustion-generated pollutants. Adequate ventilation should be provided, which is one of the paper's recommendations. The students learning environment, including the physical ones, is one of the barriers to learning; it should facilitate and support education (Cleveland and Fisher 2014).
Undoubtedly, COVID-19 has socio-economic and health implications globally. However, it has increased attention on technology, mental health and some aspects of risk management in construction. Amoo, Lukman and Musa (2022) is the last paper, focussing on dispute resolution methods in construction during COVID-19, where South Africa is used as a case study. The aim is to determine their appropriateness and effectiveness. The findings demonstrate the negative implication of an interest-based approach rather than the right-based approach to resolving disputes in construction. Further, the study shows that negotiation, mediation, and conciliation were adopted to resolve unforeseen delays, claims, and added costs during the pandemic. The pandemic draws attention to pricing methods as a significant source of dispute in the supply and demand chain network during the period. It highlights the imperativeness of clear language in contracts, risk management training, communication improvement, and dynamic project schedule documentation as some conflict and dispute resolution tools post-COVID.
Conclusion
This issue which contains five papers from seventeen scholars in Nigeria, South Africa, and Malaysia, covers strategic management, environmental pollution, compliance with building standards, dispute resolution, and performance management. While the findings vary, one consistent key finding or implication of this is the need for education and training to improve the construction industry's performance. This is in terms of performance improvement skills of graduate architects, risk management training for those with contract and risk management responsibilities, integrating strategic management education in curricula, and building materials standard compliance training.
We thank the authors for their contributions and the reviewers for their efforts to improve the quality of the papers published by the journal. The journal editorial board and panel of reviewers also play a critical part in the higher quality assurance of the manuscript and in keeping the journal on the path to attaining the expected standard and quality. Criticisms, feedback, and suggestions from readers on improving the journal's quality are also welcome.
References
Amoo, O. T., Lukman, Y. and Musa, N., 2022. Dispute Resolution Mathods adopted by Contractors during Covid-19 in Eastern Cape, South Africa: A Case Study. Journal of Construction Business and Management, 5(2): 54-67.
Cleveland, B. and Fisher, K., 2014. The evaluation of physical learning environments: a critical review of the literature. Learning Environ Res, 17:1–28
Nkeleme, E. I., Mbamali, I. and Shakantu, W. M. I., 2022. A Measure of Combustion-Generated Pollutants in University Laboratories and its Effects on Indoor Air Quality. Journal of Construction Business and Management, 5(2): 44-53.
Opawole, A., Alao, O. O., Yusuf, A. O., Adu, E. T. and Ofoetan, M. A., 2022. Evaluation of Compliance of Concreting Materials to Standards in Building Projects in Lagos State, Nigeria. Journal of Construction Business and Management, 5(2): 1-19.
Rambaruth, A., Adam, J. K. and Krishna, S. B. N., 2022. Elements and Issues to Strategic Management in the Construction Industry Among Small and Medium Enterprises: A Case Study in South Africa’s eThekwini Region. Journal of Construction Business and Management, 5(2): 20-28.
Tiew, S. Y., Hashim, H. A. and Zolkafli, U. K. B., 2022. Performance Barriers affecting Graduate Architects in Architectural Firms: A Systematic Literature Review. Journal of Construction Business and Management, 5(2): 29-43.
Umeokafor, N. I., Evangelinos, K. and Windapo, A. O., 2020. Strategies for Improving Complex Construction Health and Safety Regulatory Environments. International Journal of Construction Management.Doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1707853.
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Bell, Diane, and Estelle Swart. "Learning Experiences of Students Who Are Hard of Hearing in Higher Education: Case Study of a South African University." Social Inclusion 6, no. 4 (December 6, 2018): 137–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/si.v6i4.1643.
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Students who are hard of hearing (HOH) are being granted access to university increasingly, yet they remain significantly under-represented and under-supported, often resulting in poor academic outcomes with elevated levels of attrition. This situation places a growing obligation on universities to improve the support provided to these students in order to have a positive influence on their overall academic experience and eventual economic independence. This trend is relevant to South Africa, where Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are accepting and registering students with a hearing loss but are not providing adequate academic support and inclusive curricula. Furthermore, in South Africa, almost no research has been conducted concerning students who are HOH in higher education regarding their teaching and learning needs or the coping strategies which they use to survive academically. However, what is known is that, of those HOH students who do enter higher education, many do not graduate successfully (up to 75%) and, of those that do graduate, many continue to be excluded from professions. The aims of this article were to report on the teaching and learning experiences of students who are HOH at a South African university, who prefer to make use of spoken language, to share the daily barriers with which they are faced, and to provide recommendations for teaching and learning, as well as curricula transformation. This study adds to the existing body of knowledge on this topic in South Africa and could be relevant in similar contexts.
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Opoku, Maxwell Jnr, and Angela James. "PEDAGOGICAL MODEL FOR DECOLONISING, INDIGENISING AND TRANSFORMING SCIENCE EDUCATION CURRICULA: A CASE OF SOUTH AFRICA." Journal of Baltic Science Education 20, no. 1 (February 5, 2021): 93–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.33225/jbse/21.20.93.
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In Africa, Science education curricula have been instrumental in promoting Western worldviews as being universal. An educational transformation and decolonisation of the school curriculum is required. A focus on an African worldview and an integration of the local context and community-based information is necessary for survival, i.e., Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS). While IKS is enshrined in the schooling curriculum, Educators experience challenges with implementing it, because the pedagogical strategies have not been clearly described. An in-depth qualitative study was conducted with the Indigenous Knowledge (IK) holders of the Zulu cultural group and Senior High School (SHS) Science teachers to explore how IK on environmental sustainability could be taught in South African science classrooms. The research employed an interpretivist, multi-site ethnographic, qualitative approach, and naturalistic research style. In-depth interviews were used to generate data from the purposively selected community persons. The thematically analysed findings were used to develop a culturally specific pedagogical model on how to teach IK in science classrooms: touring cultural places; demystifying indigenous practices and perception; utilizing indigenous pedagogies; teaching wisdom behind indigenous practices etc. The research recommends that future studies be conducted on applying the model in different geographical and cultural schooling contexts. Keywords: context sensitive curricula, pedagogical strategies, South African curriculum, Western worldview
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Madhav, Natasha, and Philip Baron. "Curriculum Transformation at a Private Higher Educational Institution: An Exploratory Study on Decolonisation." Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South 6, no. 3 (December 8, 2022): 26–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v6i3.267.
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Decolonisation of higher education is an important subject which has gained much support in public universities in South Africa. While curricular and other changes are currently being implemented in public universities to align with decolonisation goals, there currently does not exist a decolonisation and transformation strategy for private higher education institutions (PHEIs). The private sector’s role in education is becoming increasingly important, with a higher growth rate than that of the public sector. Despite this, most studies on decolonisation continue to reflect the public sector context. There is little scholarly work, if any, that reflects decolonisation initiatives in the private educational sector. However, private higher education has an important role to play in South Africa, and decolonisation is thus also important in this domain. The purpose of this study is to explore ways to transform curricula at a private higher education institution in South Africa. This article, which is an exploratory study, aims at initiating conversations that support curriculum change and to unpack some of the obstacle’s lecturers face regarding transformation at a private tertiary educational institution.
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Dirsuweit, Teresa. "Feminist Pedagogy and the South African Curriculum: The case of Women and Food Security." Journal of Geography Education for Southern Africa 5 (October 1, 2020): 42–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.46622/jogesa_5_2020_42-68.
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There is a food security crisis in South Africa and black working-class women are the shock absorbers of this crisis. It follows that where food studies are included in the South African curriculum, the relationship between women and food security should be understood and critiqued by learners. Improvements in gender equality have also been identified as one of the primary drivers of improvements in food security. In this paper, the South African curriculum is analysed in terms of food studies, gender studies and the promotion of gender equality. Using the lens of feminist pedagogy, a set of qualitative indicators were developed to assess the content and praxis of the curriculum. While there is content which deals with gender and with food, these are presented separately. In the Geography and Agriculture curricula, there is a marked lack of focus on gender concerns. This article concludes that the curriculum could be reoriented to include an awareness and critique of the nexus of women and food and that more positive representations of women as active and powerful agents are needed in the South African Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS).
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Dirsuweit, Teresa. "Feminist Pedagogy and the South African Curriculum: The case of Women and Food Security." Journal of Geography Education in Africa 3, no. 1 (October 31, 2020): 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.46622/jogea_3_2020_1-14.
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There is a food security crisis in South Africa and black working-class women are the shock absorbers of this crisis. It follows that where food studies are included in the South African curriculum, the relationship between women and food security should be understood and critiqued by learners. Improvements in gender equality have also been identified as one of the primary drivers of improvements in food security. In this paper, the South African curriculum is analysed in terms of food studies, gender studies and the promotion of gender equality. Using the lens of feminist pedagogy, a set of qualitative indicators were developed to assess the content and praxis of the curriculum. While there is content which deals with gender and with food, these are presented separately. In the Geography and Agriculture curricula, there is a marked lack of focus on gender concerns. This article concludes that the curriculum could be reoriented to include an awareness and critique of the nexus of women and food and that more positive representations of women as active and powerful agents are needed in the South African Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS).
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Klein, Melanie. "Creating the Authentic? Art Teaching in South Africa as Transcultural Phenomenon." Culture Unbound 6, no. 7 (December 15, 2014): 1347–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.1461347.
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The question about what art and craft from Black individuals in South Africa should look like as well as how and for what purposes it could be created was of prominent importance within the contact zone of educational institutions from the 1930s onwards. Art teachers of mostly European origin established provisional art educational venues for African students first, within the curricula of mission schools and then as workshops and art schools in their own right. They transferred modernistic concepts from Europe into the South African context, yet were also confronted with divergent expectations of their students and the overarching policy of Bantu Education that was launched in 1953.
A closer look at selected case studies reveals complex and ambivalent theoretical approaches that were negotiated and discussed in the seemingly autonomous context of art schools and workshops. The teachers’ attitudes seemed to oscillate between the search for an ‘authentic’ African idiom and the claim to partake in global archives or in the making of an art history that was imagined as universally applicable. Art educational institutions perceived as transcultural contact zones exemplify a genesis of modern art from South Africa that was formed by mutually influencing perspectives apart from the restrictions for and the re-tribalisation of Black people imposed by the apartheid regime.
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Saleh, Ibrahim. "Media and Information Literacy in South Africa: Goals and Tools." Comunicar 20, no. 39 (October 1, 2012): 35–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.3916/c39-2012-02-03.
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The South African government has emphasized the need to expand the role of media education to promote equal access, with a level of quality and relevance that will empower disadvantaged groups. However, it is a challenging, time-consuming process, as well as requiring considerable and consistent expenditure and partnerships between many donor agencies. There is little research on the causes behind unequal access to technology, or comparative studies of the barriers that impede the diffusion and adoption of media and information literacy in South Africa. It is thus not surprising that the media and information literacy component is still missing from the agenda that lists Africa’s myriad problems, as well as the absence of qualified teachers, training for the trainers and the presence of IT literacy in the curricula, all of which are essential elements for any future development. The UNESCO model of curricula could help close the digital divide and promote social inclusion. As a contribution to that goal, this study investigates some of the pertinent issues related to media and information literacy via a sample of students at the University of Cape Town. This research offers some practical solutions on how to help raise the levels of media and information literacy among the disadvantaged, in the case in South Africa. El gobierno de Sudáfrica ha realizado recientemente un enorme esfuerzo en la expansión del papel de la educación en medios, con el objeto de ofrecer un acceso equitativo y de calidad a toda la población, especialmente hacia los grupos desfavorecidos. Sin embargo, este proceso requiere tiempo y recursos ingentes y constantes, además de la necesaria colaboración de otras instituciones. Actualmente, existe en Sudáfrica escasa investigación sobre las causas de las desigualdades de acceso a la tecnología o los obstáculos que existen para la difusión y puesta en marcha de la alfabetización mediática en Sudáfrica. No es sorprendente, por ello, que entre los múltiples problemas que existen hoy en África todavía la alfabetización mediática e informacional no sea una prioridad. Siguen existiendo muchos maestros con escasos conocimientos en esta materia, la capacitación de formadores es muy pobre y su incorporación en programas de alfabetización muy anecdótica. El Currículum UNESCO MIL de Alfabetización Mediática es un reto para ayudar a superar esta brecha digital y promover la inclusión social. Con este objetivo, este estudio analiza algunas cuestiones relacionadas con la alfabetización mediática a partir de una muestra de estudiantes de la Universidad de Cape Town, proponiendo algunas soluciones prácticas sobre cómo ayudar a mejorar los niveles de alfabetización mediática e informacional en las sociedades menos favorecidas, como es el caso de Sudáfrica.
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Sibanda, Lucky, and Chux Gervase Iwu. "THE ACADEMIC JOURNEY OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS. THE SYSTEMS THEORY APPROACH." Education: Modern Discourses, no. 4 (December 20, 2021): 135–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.37472/2617-3107-2021-4-13.
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In its fifth report, South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), published on 31 March 2020, called for institutions to carefully investigate undergraduate business education (curricula) after the business, economics, and management studies (in the Classification of Educational Subject Matter (CESM)) category presented the highest dropouts and lowest throughput rates. To understand the academic journey of entrepreneurship students, this study reviewed the literature through the lens of the General Systems Theory (GST), together with Tuckman’s (1999) Tripartite Model of Motivation for Achievement (TMMA). Accordingly, this study viewed the journey of students as a dynamic system with the students having some characteristics and motivations (inputs) when entering higher education, and what the higher education institutions should do (processes) to achieve improved academic performance (output) of students. From the literature reviewed, this study suggests the need to profile students based on their pre-enrolment information and capturing the perceptions of what they think influenced their academic performance in high school. Apart from this, the need to understand the entrepreneurial profile of students has been suggested considering the importance of entrepreneurship in employment creation, especially in South Africa, with an unemployment rate of 32.6%. Thus, it is necessary to produce graduates with the much-needed entrepreneurial capabilities in the South African economy.
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ZWANE, T. "Determinants of Savings in Urban and Rural Households: Case of South Africa." Demography and social economy, no. 4 (December 15, 2021): 151–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.15407/dse2021.04.151.
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Savings have been described as a significant fi nancial and economic matter and represent an essential driving force of economic growth and development. Despite this, many studies investigating the determinants of savings in South Africa have looked predominantly at the drivers of savings only at a national level, without focusing on urban and rural differences. This is critical as these localities are structurally different, with different characteristics. It is, therefore, likely that the determinants of savings in these unique geographical localities would differ, given the negative impact of past policies of marginalisation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the urban-rural disparities in savings for South African households. We used data sourced from the five waves of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) observed from 2008-2017. The novelty of this study is in its application of a novel two-stage least square estimation technique which addresses possible endogeneity problems which might have plagued previous studies in this field. It was concluded from the research that the determinants of savings are different across samples (urban and rural). We found that having access to land is an important predictor of savings in rural areas where the poor live (positive and significant), but the coefficient is not significant in the urban sample. Although there was a positive correlation between income and savings across samples, but the income impact on savings is higher in absolute values for households residing in rural areas, compared to household living in urban areas. We also found that, despite the coefficient of employment being similar in the direction of the impact (positive and significant) across the samples, the magnitude of the coefficient was stronger in the rural sample. Based on the higher magnitude of the coefficient, we found that household size has more effect in urban than rural areas. The study recommends that government should design and implement policies that foster job creation, even low-skilled jobs, which will generate more income and reduce unemployment.
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Kiravu, Cheddi, François Diaz-Maurin, Mario Giampietro, Alan C. Brent, Sandra G. F. Bukkens, Zivayi Chiguvare, Mandu A. Gasennelwe-Jeffrey, et al. "Proposing a master’s programme on participatory integrated assessment of energy systems to promote energy access and energy efficiency in Southern Africa." International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 19, no. 3 (March 5, 2018): 622–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijshe-04-2017-0048.
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Purpose This paper aims to present a new master’s programme for promoting energy access and energy efficiency in Southern Africa. Design/methodology/approach A transdisciplinary approach called “participatory integrated assessment of energy systems” (PARTICIPIA) was used for the development of the curriculum. This approach is based on the two emerging fields of “multi-scale integrated assessment” and “science for governance”, which bring innovative concepts and methods. Findings The application of the PARTICIPIA methodology to three case studies reveals that the proposed transdisciplinary approach could support energy and development policies in the region. The implementation of the PARTICIPIA curriculum in three higher education institutions reveals its ability to respond to the needs of specific contexts and its connection with existing higher education programmes. Practical implications Considering energy issues from a transdisciplinary approach in higher education is absolutely critical because such a holistic view cannot be achieved through engineering curricula. Deliberate and greater efforts should be made to integrate methods from “multi-scale integrated assessment” and “science for governance” in higher education curricula to train a new breed of modern-day energy planners in charge of coming up with solutions that are shared by all relevant stakeholders. Originality/value This paper presents an innovative higher education curriculum in terms of the attention given to energy access and energy efficiency that affect the southern Africa region and the nature of the methodology adopted to face these issues.
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Thornton, J. A., P. H. McMillan, and P. Romanovsky. "Perceptions of Water Pollution in South Africa: Case Studies from Two Water Bodies (Hartbeespoort Dam and Zandvlei)." South African Journal of Psychology 19, no. 4 (December 1989): 199–204. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/008124638901900403.
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A questionnaire survey of over 3 000 recreational users of inland waters in the greater Pretoria and Cape Town areas was conducted during 1987/8 for the purpose of quantifying, as far as possible, the perceptions of the public towards water quality and water pollution in South Africa. Respondents indicated that excessive aquatic plant growth and other visually aesthetic factors were the principal determinants of water quality, regardless of demographic background. These results are comparable to results obtained in similar studies in north America and appear to be indicative of a rising awareness of environmental issues in South Africa. There was a general willingness among respondents to meet the higher costs associated with the achievement of improved standards of water quality and the elimination of the perceived problems enumerated above.
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Awuzie, Bankole, and Fidelis Emuze. "Promoting sustainable development implementation in higher education." International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 18, no. 7 (November 6, 2017): 1176–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijshe-09-2016-0167.
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Purpose This study aims to review the zeal exhibited by universities in South Africa towards aligning institutional mandates of teaching, learning, research and community engagement to the sustainable development (SD) agenda. The implementation of the SD agenda across higher education institutions (HEIs) continues to draw attention from the wider society. This is because HEIs are increasingly being looked up to for leadership in this regard. However, although several studies are quick to identify various factors which have driven the adoption of sustainable practices in HEIs, the paucity of studies seeking to identify the drivers for SD implementation remains glaring. This is particularly so in developing countries like South Africa. Design/methodology/approach To confirm the exploratory data from desktop study on public university engagement with sustainability in South Africa, a single case study was conducted in the Central University of Technology (CUT). The single case study design adopted semi-structured interviews and document reviews as data collection techniques. Purposive snowballing sampling technique was strictly adhered to in the selection of interviewees. Interviewees were selected on the basis of their roles in the implementation of the CUT’s sustainability agenda. Findings Data emanating from these interviews were analysed thematically using qualitative content analysis. Although a plethora of drivers were identified, there appeared to be a consensus between most of the interviewees that the quest for cost reduction remained the most significant driver for the viable implementation of the sustainability agenda at CUT. Research limitations/implications It is expected that findings from this study would provide a platform for the development of effective implementation strategies in South African HEIs. Also, the findings contribute to filing the extant gap observed concerning implementation and drivers for engendering SD implementation in HEIs in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region. Practical implications By highlighting the drivers for SD implementation, this study contributes to the development of a more receptive social ontology among various stakeholders in an HEI towards the agenda, particularly within the SSA context where there is low level of awareness and buy-in by these stakeholders. Originality/value This study makes an original contribution to the research base of SD in HEIs and implementation.
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Ngcamu, Bethuel Sibongiseni. "Human resources department in crisis: A case of a university in South Africa." Corporate Board role duties and composition 10, no. 3 (2014): 19–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.22495/cbv10i3art2.
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Human Resources (HR) departments in previously disadvantaged higher education institutions (HEI) in South Africa have contributed to the crisis that has led them to be governed by appointed Administrators assigned by the Ministry of Higher Education and Training. The malfunctioning of HR departments persists even in the post-Administrator’s era, with a prevalence of personal, interpersonal and operational challenges. This study aimed at interrogating challenges faced by the HR Department of the university concerned post the appointed Administrator era and its negative effects. This study adopted a qualitative research approach whereby in-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of 10 HR Department staff members. Focus group discussions were also carried out with 20 academic and non-academic university leaders. Further data was also collected through ethnographic observation and secondary data was also used. The non-probability purposive sampling was used for qualitative analysis and NVivo was used for organizing and analyzing data gleaned from the in-depth interviews. The study findings consistently revealed unclear roles and responsibilities, outmoded recruitment and selection processes and poor interpersonal relations amongst the HR department staff members as some of the challenges that still persist post the Administrator’s era, all of which have contributed to the paralysis of organizational culture. University leaders can use the study findings as a tool to devise and implement radical change management interventions aiming at re-engineering HR departments that are operating abnormally, as well as for designing a responsive HR Strategic Architect. This study will contribute to the body of knowledge in the HR fraternity as there is a dearth of published studies on the internal challenges faces by HR Departments (both interpersonal and operational), which have the potential to hamper smooth operations of higher education institutions.
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Styger, Anton, Gary Van Vuuren, and Andre Heymans. "Case Study Of Postgraduate Student Dropout Rate At South African Universities." International Business & Economics Research Journal (IBER) 14, no. 1 (December 23, 2014): 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.19030/iber.v14i1.9027.
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Public funding for higher education in South Africa is a significant investment. Large amounts of funds are invested in students and there is a national shortage of high quality students in scarce skills - in particular, students with a postgraduate qualification. Students tend to take longer to complete their studies which contributes to the workload of academic staff. Dropouts are affecting the deliverance of these students in a negative way and priceless research from these students is never delivered and published. Not only are fewer students and research being delivered, but large amounts of funding and human capital are wasted on educating students who will never complete their studies. Postgraduate studies have a potential greater loss, and a beta distribution on the dropout can predict the expected and unexpected loss for these students. The latter is an area for concern and needs to be assessed and addressed as soon as possible.
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Moodley, K., P. L. A. Bill, and V. B. Patel. "Interferon alpha in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis: Case report and review of the literature." Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases 31, no. 4 (December 31, 2016): 130–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajid.v31i4.76.
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Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis (SSPE) is a rare, rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by the measles virus. Spontaneous remission and survival longer than 4 years is rare. The disease commonly affects children and adolescents from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds. Prior to immunisation, the incidence of SSPE in South Africa (SA) was 2.6/100 000 people per year, which is higher than the global estimate of 1/1 000 000 per year. The post-immunisation incidence has dropped to 0.43/100 000 people per year. Currently, there is no curative treatment for SSPE. In developed countries, patients have been treated with antiviral therapy and interferon alpha (IFNα) with promising results. There have been no reported studies of children with SSPE treated with IFNα in South Africa. We report on a patient successfully treated with intraventricular INFα.
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Paterson, Andrew. "Articulation of Industrial R&D with Higher Education in the Telecommunications Sector in South Africa." Industry and Higher Education 19, no. 2 (April 2005): 179–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.5367/0000000053729851.
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This article shows how and why particular higher education-industry research and development networks articulate with the South African telecommunications sector. The range of competing and complementary data telecommunications technologies available in the South African market provide varying opportunities for enterprises to engage in R&D. Two case studies based in the South African telecommunications industry examine R&D interaction between industry and higher education institutions which have nascent rather than developed R&D capacity and which are dependent on industry initiatives. The analysis suggests that the origin of a particular industry-higher education R&D network is contingent on the growth trajectory of the industrial sector in which it is located and on the maturation of research capacity in the higher education sector with which it is linked.
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Stander, Sunelle. "Subordination vs. agency/resistance in South Africa: Virgins bargaining their way through higher education." STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal 2, no. 2 (December 31, 2016): 431–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.17570/stj.2016.v2n2.a20.
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Oppression manifests itself in various ways, such that intersections between different forms of oppression can be identified. This is also true for women living in South Africa, a country that has for years been plagued by many forms of oppression (racism, sexism, classism, etc.). Women are, amidst various forms of oppression, often left with few alternative options but to bargain with various forms of gender relations as a means to obtain basic human rights (like education). Recent student protests have highlighted the discriminating ways in which black students are kept from obtaining higher education. The so called “maidens bursary”, awarded to underprivileged girls who vow to stay virgins throughout their studies, will be used as a case study that examines an alternative route to which underprivileged women may resort in order to obtain a quality education. The notion of patriarchal bargaining will then be used to illumine the often unrecognized, complex and interwoven relationship between subordination and agency/resistance that operates within the South African context.
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Groome, Michelle J., Jacqueline E. Tate, Marion Arnold, Milind Chitnis, Sharon Cox, Corné de Vos, Mari Kirsten, et al. "Evaluation of Intussusception After Oral Monovalent Rotavirus Vaccination in South Africa." Clinical Infectious Diseases 70, no. 8 (May 24, 2019): 1606–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciz431.
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Abstract Background Postlicensure studies have shown an association between rotavirus vaccination and intussusception. We assessed the risk of intussusception associated with Rotarix (RV1) administration, at 6 and 14 weeks of age, in an upper-middle-income country, South Africa. Methods Active prospective surveillance for intussusception was conducted in 8 hospitals from September 2013 through December 2017. Retrospective case enrollment was done at 1 hospital from July 2012 through August 2013. Demographic characteristics, symptom onset, and rotavirus vaccine status were ascertained. Using the self-controlled case-series method, we estimated age-adjusted incidence rate ratios within 1–7, 8–21, and 1–21 days of rotavirus vaccination in children aged 28–275 days at onset of symptoms. In addition, age-matched controls were enrolled for a subset of cases (n = 169), and a secondary analysis was performed. Results Three hundred forty-six cases were included in the case-series analysis. Post–dose 1, there were zero intussusception cases within 1–7 days, and 5 cases within 8–21 days of vaccination. Post–dose 2, 15 cases occurred within 1–7 days, and 18 cases within 8–21 days of vaccination. There was no increased risk of intussusception 1–7 days after dose 1 (no cases observed) or dose 2 (relative incidence [RI], 1.71 [95% confidence interval {CI} .83–3.01]). Similarly, there was no increased risk 8–21 days after the first (RI, 4.01 [95% CI, .87–10.56]) or second dose (RI, .96 [95% CI, .52–1.60]). Results were similar for the case-control analysis. Conclusions The risk of intussusception in the 21 days after the first or second dose of RV1 was not higher than the background risk among South Africa infants. Clinical Trials Registration South African National Clinical Trial Register (DOH-27-0913-4183).
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Greyling, M., and J. L. Van Rooy. "Hydrogeological Properties of Gypseous soils in South Africa." South African Journal of Geology 122, no. 3 (September 1, 2019): 389–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.25131/sajg.122.0029.
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Abstract Gypseous soils occur in the western arid and semi-arid regions of South Africa and Namibia. These soils exhibit a complex nature and abnormal behaviour due to their gypsum content and as such they have become more prevalent in research. As these soils are finding more use in industry, an astute understanding of their hydrogeological properties and behaviour is required. Powdery gypseous soil samples collected from the Northern Cape (Geelvloer) and Western Cape (Rooiberg and R355) Provinces, as well as a prepared sample, are subject to XRD analysis, particle size distribution determination and falling-head permeability tests using both water and brine. The testing served as preliminary research to guide further studies into the topic. The prepared sample, with 19% fines, comprises 35% gypsum and 65% sand. Geelvloer samples, with 91.95% gypsum content, are comprised mostly of sand-sized particles with 45% fines. Rooiberg samples contain 75% fines with a slightly lower gypsum content of 83.25%, while R355 samples have 50% fines with 75.35% gypsum. It is generally understood that particle size distribution contributes to the hydraulic conductivity of soils, where a higher portion fines will result in a lower conductivity. In the case of gypseous soils, the solubility is of importance as well, as it may have long term effects. With the intent of evaluating the effect of the aforementioned factors on the hydraulic conductivity of gypseous soils in South Africa, the samples taken represent differences in particle size distribution and origin. Geelvloer had k-values in the order of 8.82×10-6 m/s, with the brine sample giving 9.43×10-6 m/s, while the k-values for Rooiberg and R355 were in the order of 3.90×10-6 m/s and 5.87×10-6 m/s, respectively. The brine resulted in 5.63×10-6 m/s for Rooiberg and 9.90×10-6 m/s for the R355 sample. The made sample, having less fines, had k values in the order of 2.15×10-5 m/s, and 4.19×10-5 m/s for the brine. The differences between the results are largely negligible and show that despite what is believed to influence the hydraulic conductivity, in the case of gypseous soils in South Africa, on a small scale, it remained unaffected.
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Mawonde, Albert, and Muchaiteyi Togo. "Implementation of SDGs at the University of South Africa." International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 20, no. 5 (July 1, 2019): 932–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijshe-04-2019-0156.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how universities can play a pivotal role in implementing sustainable development goals (SDGs). It recognises the advantage that universities have in responding to social challenges through their functions and operations, mainly through research and innovation and academic prowess. Not much guidance is available on how they can contribute to SDG implementation. The research is a case study of the University of South Africa, a distance education institution. It showcases how its science campus in Johannesburg has incorporated SDGs in its operations. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through interviews with campus operations managers and sustainability office managers, a survey with environmental science honours students was conducted and observations of the Unisa Florida campus environment were undertaken to establish practices that contribute towards SDG implementation. Document analysis assisted in complementing the data collection process. Data were analysed by aligning practices with SDG indicators. Findings The research revealed a number of practices that align with SDGs in teaching, research, community engagement and campus operations management. Unisa is however challenged by financial limitations and as an open distance education and learning (ODeL) institution, it struggles to involve students in these projects. The paper concludes that while the most obvious contribution of universities to SDGs is towards quality education (SDG 4), higher education, including distance education institutions, can play an active role in implementing other SDGs as well. Research limitations/implications This research was limited to one institution, Unisa, owing to time limitations. While this might seem like the research was too selective, it was intentional, as the aim was to research a distance education institution. The research targeted staff involved in campus operations at Unisa’s Florida Campus, which is located in Johannesburg. Interviews were limited to students pursuing BSc Honours in Environmental Management. This was a methodological decision to contain the research, but making sure that the targeted respondents were the most informed. Individual case studies are often critiqued for being insufficiently representative to allow generalisations to other contexts (Jupp, 2006). This applies to this research in terms of “populations and universes” (Yin, 2003, p. 10), but generalisations to “theoretical propositions” (ibid) are possible. Originality/value There are few studies in Africa which researched implementation of SDGs in universities, let alone in ODeL institutions. The research revealed the challenge of involving students in sustainability practices in distance education institutions and serves as a testimony that such institutions can still have successful projects on and off campus. It suggests involving students in applied research based on the current sustainability projects on and off campus.
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Mujinga Tshiani, Valerie, and Maureen Tanner. "South Africa’s Quest for Smart Cities: Privacy Concerns of Digital Natives of Cape Town, South Africa." Interdisciplinary Journal of e-Skills and Lifelong Learning 14 (2018): 055–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.28945/3992.
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Contribution: This study contributes to scientific literature by detailing the impact of specific factors on the privacy concerns of citizens living in an African city Findings: The findings reveal that the more that impersonal data is collected by the Smart City of Cape Town, the lower the privacy concerns of the digital natives. The findings also show that the digital natives have higher privacy concerns when they express a strong need to be aware of the security measure put in place by the city. Recommendations for Practitioners: Practitioners (i.e., policy makers) should ensure that it is a legal requirement to have security measures in place to protect the privacy of the citizens while collecting data within the smart city of Cape Town. These regulations should be made public to appease any apprehensions from its citizens towards smart city implementations. Less personal data should also be collected on the citizens. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should further investigate issues related to privacy concerns in the context of African developing countries. Such is the case since the population of these countries might have unique cultural and philosophical perspectives that might influence how they perceive privacy. Impact on Society: Cities are becoming “smarter” and in developing world context like Africa, privacy issues might not have as a strong influence as is the case in the developing world. Future Research: Further qualitative studies should be conducted to better understand issues related to perceived benefits, perceived control, awareness of how data is collected, and level of privacy concerns of digital natives in developing countries.
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Antwi, Michael, and Clarietta Chagwiza. "Factors influencing savings among land reform beneficiaries in South Africa." International Journal of Social Economics 46, no. 4 (April 8, 2019): 474–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijse-06-2018-0309.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of socio-economic factors of land redistribution for agricultural development project beneficiaries on savings in the North West Province, South Africa. Design/methodology/approach A binary logistic regression model was employed to determine the effects of socio-economic factors of project beneficiaries on their savings. Findings The results show that the average number of trainings attended by the beneficiaries, the proportion of youth per project and the average net farm income of the project positively and significantly influence the level of savings by the beneficiaries. About 62 percent of the beneficiaries did not have savings; thus, only 38 percent of beneficiaries had savings. Of the 38 percent who had savings, the majority (77 percent) had an annual net farm income of less than R1,000. Only 2 percent of the projects had an annual net farm income of more than R10,000. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study are valuable to policymakers dealing with the issue of land reform and could shed some light on how land redistribution can achieve its intended purposes. These findings should be granted serious consideration when formulating policies aimed at improving savings within collective groups. Practical implications The findings of this study have revealed the importance of training and participation of youth in influencing savings. As well, the findings imply that an organization or household with a health income have a higher propensity of saving. Social implications The research findings point out to the importance of saving. With savings, a household is in a better position to deal with situations that arises in case of emergency. Originality/value This paper is among the few studies to analyze the determinants of savings at a group or project level. Most studies are done at household or individual level.
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Bokaba, Morongwa, Perpetua Modjadji, and Kebogile Elizabeth Mokwena. "Undiagnosed Hypertension in a Workplace: The Case of a Logistics Company in Gauteng, South Africa." Healthcare 9, no. 8 (July 30, 2021): 964. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9080964.
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A large proportion of the population with hypertension remains undiagnosed, untreated, or inadequately treated, contributing to the rising burden of cardiovascular diseases in South Africa. A workplace may either mitigate or accentuate the risk factors for hypertension. A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension and associated factors among 312 employees in a Logistics Company, South Africa. A modified, validated, self-administered WHO STEPwise questionnaire was used to collect data on demography, lifestyle factors, anthropometry and blood pressure (BP). Hypertension was defined at BP ≥ 140/90 mmHg. Data was analysed using STATA 14. Mean age of employees was 40 ± 10 years, with a 50% prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension. No significant association was observed between occupation and undiagnosed hypertension, except for high prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension among truck drivers and van assistants (43%), and general workers (27%), having higher odds of increased waist-to-height ratio. Hypertension was associated with age (OR = 2.3, 95%CI; 1.21–4.27), alcohol use (AOR = 1.8, 95%CI; 1.05–2.93), waist circumference (AOR = 2.3, 95%CI; 1.29–4.07) and waist-to-height-ratio (AOR = 3.7, 95%CI; 1.85–7.30). Improved and effective workplace health programs and policies are necessary for management of undiagnosed hypertension among employees. Longitudinal studies on mediation of occupation in association of demographic and lifestyle factors with hypertension in workplaces are needed.
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Kajogoo, Violet Dismas, Sylivia Sarah Swai, and Sanyukta Gurung. "Prevalence of occult hepatitis B among HIV-positive individuals in Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis." SAGE Open Medicine 10 (January 2022): 205031212110727. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20503121211072748.
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The prevalence of hepatitis B virus among HIV-seropositive individuals is believed to be high, and yet the disease remains neglected in many areas of the continent. Little is known about occult hepatitis in HIV individuals. This review assessed occult hepatitis B infection and its prevalence in the different regions of the African continent. It also determines its prevalence in the HIV population which is endemic in the region. Studies were searched from the Cochrane, google scholar, PubMed/Medline, and African Journals online. Authors included cross-sectional studies, case controls, and cohorts, from 2010 to January 2021, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and Participants, Interventions, Comparisons, Outcomes, and Study design frameworks to develop the search strategy. All studies had participants who were HIV-positive, covering different regions of the continent. Risk ratio was used to measure effect size, and Stata 14 software was used for analysis. Eleven studies met the eligibility criteria, with 2567 participants. Overall prevalence of occult hepatitis B was 11.2%. Regional prevalence was 26.5% for the south, 11% for the north, 9.1% for the east, and 8.5% for the western region. Approximately 10% of HIV-seropositive individuals were co-infected with occult hepatitis B virus. Regionally, the prevalence was highest in the southern region and lowest in the west. The prevalence of occult HBV infection was compared between the southern region and the other regions. It was higher in the south compared to the east (risk ratio = 0.87, 95% confidence interval (0.83–0.91)). It was also higher in the south compared to the north (risk ratio = 0.82, 95% confidence interval (0.79–0.85)), and it was also higher in the south compared to the west (risk ratio = 0.85, 95% confidence interval (0.82–0.87)). Public health measures and interventions are required to raise awareness, increase prevention, and reduce spread of the disease. More evidence-based studies need to be carried out.
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Dickens, Lisa, and Peter Marx. "NEET as an Outcome for Care Leavers in South Africa: The Case of Girls and Boys Town." Emerging Adulthood 8, no. 1 (October 15, 2018): 64–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2167696818805891.
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A well-documented outcome for emerging adults in determining their “success” is whether they are Not in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET) or engaged in Education, Employment, and Training (EET). Being NEET can create psychological, emotional, financial, and health challenges and is a significant risk factor in youth making successful transitions into adulthood. This article describes and compares the NEET and EET status of care leavers from Girls and Boys Town after 1 and 2 years and in relation to other outcomes. The results suggest that while care leavers’ NEET rates are high, they are not significantly higher than those of the South African general population as seen elsewhere in the world. Furthermore, being NEET is associated with more negative care leaving outcomes than being EET; however, this article also highlights the vulnerability of those who are EET. Relationships with family and support networks play a critical role in helping and supporting these youth.
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Coetzee, Stephanus, and Karen Puren. "Towards safe campus environments through environmental design: two universities as case studies." Challenges of Modern Technology 7, no. 4 (December 30, 2016): 28–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0010.8799.
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Universities are often considered to be safe sanctuaries. However, many higher education institutions have increasingly been confronted with crime and unrest. Violence and other crimes on campuses are currently an international concern. This paper reports on a study that investigated student’s perceptions of safety on two campuses namely Lahti University of Applied Sciences in Finland and the North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. Theories from Environmental Psychology and Urban Planning are combined in this study in order to incorporate aspects of the individual, social setting and spatial environment. Increasing people’s safety help to optimise their experience of their environment and can in turn create an enabling context for people to flourish and improve their quality of life. The research followed a qualitative research approach. In this study, 21 participants from a Finnish university and 16 participants from a South African university were selected through purposive sampling. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews supported by visual data of the spatial environment. All data were transcribed verbatim and analysed through qualitative content analysis. The literature and findings of the research both support that the spatial and social environment influences safety. It is therefore recommended that safe campus environments require a multi-disciplinary and integrated approach to proactively develop a Comprehensive Safe Environment Plan (CSEP). From a planning perspective, students’ perceptions of campus environments’ safety may include the creation of compact dedicated campus areas, land uses, building placing and orientation, territoriality, landscaping, visibility, control over fear-inducing activities, maintenance, security measures and pedestrian orientated areas.
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Bwalya, Kelvin Joseph. "Virtual Reality and Learning in an African University Environment." International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies 1, no. 1 (January 2011): 36–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/ijacdt.2011010104.
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Incorporating Virtual Reality aesthetics and semantics can contribute towards transforming the education landscape in both the developed and developing world. This can be realized by VR’s capacity to enable the design of more vibrant and dynamic/interactive multimedia applications that are user centric. VR has a positive impact on e-Learning, which is an emerging education model in Africa. This paper uproots the different initiatives, experiences, and challenges that have been met by various endeavors to employ VR as a tool for education, especially in African universities. Using exploratory approaches, two universities in South Africa and Botswana are reviewed as case studies in order to ascertain the status of VR use in higher education in Africa. The paper finds that the potential of VR education is evident in Africa but needs to be unearthed.
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Wagner, N. J., M. L. Mokwena, and A. Kolker. "Occurrence and probable source of chromium enrichment in Permian coals, South Africa." South African Journal of Geology 124, no. 3 (September 1, 2021): 611–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.25131/sajg.124.0013.
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Abstract The trace element data pool for South African coals is limited. However, certain elements are reported as occurring in considerably higher concentrations than global average values. These elements include chromium (Cr), as well as manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), and molybdenum (Mo), with Cr showing the most consistent enrichment. The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of Cr in South African coals sampled from five coalfields, and to assess the possible source of Cr. A total of 21 run-of-mine (ROM) coal samples from the Waterberg, Soutpansberg, Witbank, Highveld, and the Nongoma Coalfields were obtained from active mines. Coal characterization, mineralogy, and geochemical data were compiled. The Cr values for the Waterberg (23 to 28 ppm), Soutpansberg (4.7 to 43 ppm), Witbank (24 to 37 ppm), and Highveld (33 to 37 ppm) coal samples are higher than those for the Nongoma coals (1.2 to 2.5 ppm), and, in nearly every case, higher than the Clarke value for hard coals (17 ppm). Correlation coefficients, density fractionation, and selective leaching were used to infer (indirect) modes of occurrence. A dominant silicate (clay) affinity was determined with Cr, as well as an organic affinity in the ROM samples. The Nongoma coals, with illite and no kaolinite, have extremely low Cr values. The other samples are enriched in kaolinite and also have a high Cr content. Chromium values as high as 67 ppm were reported for 1.4 RD float fraction samples, indicating a positive correlation with organic matter. A Cr - silicate association was observed following selective leaching. These results imply multiple modes of occurrence of Cr in the South African samples, in agreement with studies conducted globally. Chromium in the South African coals could have originated from the Bushveld Complex (approximately two billion years old), the largest Cr reserve in South Africa, which predates coal formation (approximately 299 to 252 million years ago) and is proximal to the coalfields. The Cr, seemingly not associated with chromite, may have been redistributed in the peat swamps during peat deposition, accumulating in the sediments and organic material. The Nongoma Coalfield is the farthest distance from the possible Bushveld Complex Cr source, and these samples are depleted in Cr.
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Boyd, Kelly, Jacob Walker, Jenil Benett, Jeffrey Graupner, and Katherine Thompson. "ADDRESSING COVID-19 HEALTH DISPARITIES THROUGH VIRTUAL EDUCATION AND COLLABORATION." Innovation in Aging 6, Supplement_1 (November 1, 2022): 516–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igac059.1975.
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Abstract The South Side of Chicago, made up of predominantly Black and Latinx neighborhoods, has higher rates of COVID-19 infection and death rates and lower COVID-19 vaccination rates than other areas of Chicago. People aged 65 and older comprise nearly 15% of the region’s population. The SHARE Network at the University of Chicago has a long history of providing healthy aging education to organizations serving older adults on Chicago’s South Side. Using this pre-existing curricular structure, investigators created a monthly virtual workshop for community members to address COVID-19 related health disparities for older adults. Topics address aging concerns (i.e. dementia, mobility) and pandemic concerns (i.e. health disparities, vaccine hesitancy). At the end of the sessions, participants can ask questions to experts and share resources. Attendance has ranged from 15-20 participants, predominantly formal and informal caregivers. In post-attendance surveys, 80% of respondents identified as Black or African-American. Of the 20 respondents, 95% felt more knowledgeable about the topics discussed and all felt more knowledgeable about local health resources. Three-quarters felt more confident in the caregiving role, and 95% planned to make healthy lifestyle changes to benefit themselves or a loved one (i.e. more exercise, seeking respite care). These results demonstrate the positive impact of a timely community-informed virtual workshop. Providing virtual education on COVID-19 and healthy aging directly to older adult-focused community organizations and their clients is an early step health systems can take to address health disparities.
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Mutinda, Gladys, and Zhimin Liu. "On the Roles of World-Class Universities and the Sustainability Agenda in Africa: A Case Study of Two Universities in South Africa and Egypt." Higher Education Studies 11, no. 4 (October 6, 2021): 70. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/hes.v11n4p70.
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In the past decade, the World Class University discussion has become rampant due to the integral role that higher education plays in any economy's aspiration to compete globally while still pursuing sustainability. This article reports on a study that explored the roles played by world-class universities (WCUs) in fostering sustainability initiatives and practices in the African context. The article harnesses a document review approach that facilitates in-depth document analysis using two world-class institutions in Africa: The University of Cape Town in South Africa and American University in Cairo in Egypt as case studies. This study finds that world-class institutions in the two countries have rigorous, comprehensive sustainability organisations, synthesised and adopted from international agreements and concepts. The sustainability organisation is characterised by a less hierarchical approach to its management and leadership. Sustainability in research is fostered through environmental research and other key research areas such as food and medicine. Sustainable teaching is fostered through living-learning labs, redesigned curriculums, targeted degree programs and lecturer development through training and awards as incentives. Tangible, sustainable technology and innovation initiatives are also evident. This article comprehensively establishes the links and roles played by WCUs in fostering sustainability. It aids potential WCUs in Africa to understand and adopt sustainable initiatives within different and dynamic institutional contexts.
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Lubbe, Ilse. "Towards a global model of accounting education – a South African case study." Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies 10, no. 4 (September 7, 2020): 601–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jaee-01-2020-0017.
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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a contextual analysis of the professional accounting education system of South Africa (SA).Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses the Global Model of Accounting Education (Watty et al., 2012) to describe the accounting education system of SA, which is then compared with similar case studies of Australia, Japan and Sri Lanka. Information about the SA accounting education system is contextualised from multiple sources, using data triangulation.FindingsSeveral similarities between the SA accounting education system and that of Australia are found, such as the role and involvement of the professional bodies in the accreditation processes, with less similarities with that of Japan and Sri Lanka. The comparisons illuminate the economic development of each country and the level of involvement in the education programmes by the profession. Specific challenges in SA include the entrance hurdles to higher education and emphasis on an accounting degree.Practical implicationsThe application of the Global Model of Accounting Education helps to identify the similarities in the global accounting arena and illuminates the uniqueness of the SA accounting education system. This study illustrates the establishment of an accounting education system that aligns with the International Education Standards (IESs).Originality/valueThe study contributes to the discussions around challenges in accounting education, specifically those associated with accreditation and a strong controlling relationship between academe and the profession.
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Rosenberg, Eureta. "Is education blithely producing unemployed graduates? A reflection based on a review of environmental skills initiatives (2016-2021)." Journal of Education, no. 89 (January 10, 2023): 1–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i89a08.
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A statement from the president of the Black Business Council (BBC) that "our education system continues to produce the unemployed graduates" (NewZRoomAfrika, 2021) because "the courses they are doing are not required by industry" reflects the perennial perception that South Africa's education system is a cause of unemployment. In this paper, I explore aspects of this perception through a meta-review of environmental skills-related studies conducted over the past five years. Data used in these studies include graduation trends based on higher education, employer surveys, analyses of skills needs in the workplace compared to courses offered, and case examples of internships and teacher development. Using an ecological-systems model, I relate the findings, in a layered critical realist analysis, to the socio-cultural milieu in South Africa. I challenge the conception of relevant graduate education evident in the BBC's statement.
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Mangoukou Ngouapegne, Chriss N. ""An Investigation Of The İmpact Of Green Supply Chain Practices On Green Performance: Case Of Gauteng Province."." 11th GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 11, no. 1 (December 9, 2020): 168. http://dx.doi.org/10.35609/gcbssproceeding.2020.11(168).
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Worldwide, higher education is considered as a driver of economic, social and the political changes driving global knowledge (Ngoma, Ntale & Abaho 2017). Besides the increase access to education, the quality of graduate reflected by their academic performance is worrying (Ridzuan, Yunus, Abdullah, Bakar, Azlan & Ramlan 2018). Paloș, Maricuţoiu and Coste (2019), noticed that a large number of enrolled student graduates with poor grades or fail to graduate. In an attempt to retain and capture market share with the increase in study options, higher education all over the world are constantly struggling to provide a distinctive learning experience necessary to improve their students' performance (McGillicuddy & McGloin 2018). Considering the increasingly competitive and dynamic education environment, higher education can no longer ignore the needs and factors required to enhance student performance. Poor student performance in higher education institution has been a major source of concern for decision makers in the educational sector. Lai (2015), posits that the poor student performance can be attributed to the student-related factors such as attendance classes, score in high school, competence in quantitative subject and preparation to exam or tests. Moreover, Glew, Ramjan, Salas, Raper Creed and Salamonson (2019) state that poor attitude to the subject, lack of innovative teaching techniques, inadequate materials and inadequate funding to support the students negatively impact the performance of student. In addition, most prior research on performance has been done at high school or colleges, rather than at university level (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2017). While, studies on student performance in developed countries are well documented, little attention has been dedicated in less developed countries such as South Africa (Ngoma et al., 2017). Given the difference between culture in developed and less developed counties, this study focused on investigating the antecedents of student performance in South Africa. Keywords: Student royalty, student satisfaction, student motivation, student performance
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Pasara, Michael Takudzwa, and David Mhlanga. "Accelerating sustainable development goals in the wake of COVID-19: The role of higher education institutions in South Africa." Emerald Open Research 4 (September 13, 2022): 30. http://dx.doi.org/10.35241/emeraldopenres.14799.1.
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Background: Educational institutions are strategic tools in disseminating knowledge on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since education is an effective developmental tool. All the 17 SDGs are tied in one way or the other to education, that is, the ability of people to learn and apply. This study applies unorthodox theories which include convergence models, neo-functionalism, intergovernmentalism, neorealism and the Hofstede model to explain how educational institutions are an essential enabling environment which accelerates the attainment of SDGs. Methods: These factors are analysed in the context of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Empirically, some university case studies were highlighted in addition to unclear modus operandi, small, fragmented and heterogeneous markets and economies, political stability, deficient political will, and lack of standardisation of products and procedures among other factors. These dynamics affect both the quality of educational institutions and the quality of education thereby directly or indirectly affecting the attainment of the 17 SDGs and are compounded with the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic. Results: The study reveals that acceleration of the 17 SDGs will require a holistic approach as opposed to silos (scientific, economic, political, academic) which usually emerge when pursuing overarching goals of this magnitude. Conclusions: It concludes that accelerating progress towards the attainment of SDGs will not only require dynamic and visionary leadership but also well-functioning institutions which are based on economic feasibility as opposed to political alliances. Priorities should be placed on addressing poverty, inequality and quality education. Moreover, partnerships will be key in achieving sustainability especially given that the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded existing challenges.
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Loke, Palo Francis, Elmarie Kotzé, and Christiaan Cornelius Du Preez. "Soil Organic Matter Storage in Irrigated Tsitsikamma Dairy Farms with Minimum Tilled Pasture Mixtures: Case Studies." Agriculture 12, no. 6 (June 14, 2022): 858. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12060858.
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In recent years, pasture production changed from conventional tilled single pastures to minimum tilled mixed pastures in the Tsitsikamma region, South Africa. However, storage of soil organic matter (SOM) under minimum tilled mixed pastures is not yet quantified. This study evaluated SOM indices in the upper 60 cm soil of six-year-old mixed pastures in the Upper (UT) and Lower (LT) Tsitsikamma regions. Soil samples were collected at 0–15, 15–30, 30–45, and 45–60 cm soil layers of five farms (F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5) treated with different rates of fertilizer (NPK) alone and in combination with dairy effluent (DE) and/or poultry manure (PM). Results of this study indicated that there were no significant differences in bulk density, total nitrogen (N), and rate of potentially mineralizable N (PMN) between farms in the UT region. In the LT region, NPK, DE, and PM combinations improved soil C accumulation relative to the soil application of NPK. Higher C/N ratios in the LT region suggested adequate C for microbial energy and maintenance. Integrating manure into minimum tilled pasture mixtures as a replacement for synthetic fertilizers seems to be a feasible option to promote SOM storage, but remains only feasible by applying site-specific management strategies.
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Olutola, Bukola G., Nandi S. Mwase, Joyce Shirinde, and Janine Wichmann. "Apparent Temperature Modifies the Effects of Air Pollution on Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in Cape Town, South Africa." Climate 11, no. 2 (January 19, 2023): 30. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cli11020030.
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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the top cause of mortality and a main contributor to disability globally. The evidence so far is varied on whether cold or heat modifies the CVD effects of air pollution. Weather conditions and air pollution sources and levels are different in different countries. Studies in low-and middle-income countries are lacking. Mortality data were obtained from Statistics South Africa. Air pollution and meteorological data were obtained from the South African Weather Service. A time-stratified case–crossover epidemiological design was applied. The association between air pollutants (PM10, NO2 and SO2) and CVD mortality was investigated using conditional logistic regression models. Susceptibility by sex and age groups was investigated. In total, 54,356 CVD deaths were included in the 10-year study. The daily PM10, NO2 and SO2 levels exceeded the daily WHO guidelines on 463, 421 and 8 days of the 3652 days, respectively. Higher air pollution risks were observed in this study compared to those reported in meta-analyses. In general, the elderly and females seemed to be vulnerable to air pollutants, especially at high and moderate apparent temperature levels. Harvesting effects were observed at longer lags. The results can be used to develop an early warning system for the city.
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Radder, Laetitia, and Wei Huang. "High‐involvement and low‐involvement products." Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal 12, no. 2 (May 9, 2008): 232–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13612020810874908.
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PurposeKnowledge of brand awareness and its role is important for the design of an organisation's marketing strategies. This study aims to determine the brand awareness of high‐ and low‐involvement products among Black and non‐Black students enrolled at a South African university.Design/methodology/approachA self‐administered survey was completed by a convenience sample of 300 students of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The focal high‐involvement product was sportswear clothing and the low‐involvement product, coffee.FindingsThe results indicated a higher awareness of high‐involvement product brands than of low‐involvement product brands. Advertising played an important role in the awareness of sportswear clothing brands, but seemed unimportant in the case of coffee. The brand name was important for coffee, while the name and the logo played a role in students' awareness of sportswear brands.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was limited to students of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and to sportswear clothing and coffee product categories. Future studies could comprise larger samples, different contexts and other product or service categories.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that marketers employ different strategies to create and increase brand awareness for high‐ and low‐involvement products.Originality/valuePrevious research found that brand awareness played an important role in low‐involvement products; however, little is known about brand awareness differences between high‐ and low‐involvement products, particularly with respect to the brand awareness of South African students.
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Skuy, Mervyn, and Melissa Skuy. "Contribution of Intelligence and Cognitive-Affective Variables to University Grades among African, Indian, and White Engineering Students in South Africa." Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology 5, no. 1 (January 2005): 25–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/194589505787382568.
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In previous studies significant differences in measured intelligence between African and non-African first year engineering students have been found. Intellectual ability was found to correlate with academic performance, and black studednts had higher dropout and failure rates and performed less well than did their non-African counterparts. Given the low magnitude (r = 0.3), albeit significant, of the correlation between intelligence and academic performance, the question arose of the role of non-intellective factors, relative to intelligence, in determining academic performance of engineering students at University. Accordingly, 93% (n=100) of the second year Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering class were assessed on two measures of intellectual ability, and on measures of self concept, motivation, study attitudes and strategies, anxiety, locus of control, and autonomy. Whereas the intelligence test scores of non-African students (n=36) were significantly higher than those of African students (n=64), this was not the case for any of the non-intellective measures, or for academic achievement. Moreover, although the intellectual measures did not yield significant correlations with academic achievement, certain of the non-intellective measures did, and were able to differentiate between high and low academic performers. This was particularly true for the African group, suggesting that non-intellective variables can contribute significantly to academic performance, particularly in mitigating the effects of lower IQ.
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Nelson, Kristin N., Neel R. Gandhi, Barun Mathema, Benjamin A. Lopman, James C. M. Brust, Sara C. Auld, Nazir Ismail, et al. "Modeling Missing Cases and Transmission Links in Networks of Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa." American Journal of Epidemiology 189, no. 7 (April 3, 2020): 735–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwaa028.
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Abstract Patterns of transmission of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) remain poorly understood, despite over half a million incident cases worldwide in 2017. Modeling TB transmission networks can provide insight into drivers of transmission, but incomplete sampling of TB cases can pose challenges for inference from individual epidemiologic and molecular data. We assessed the effect of missing cases on a transmission network inferred from Mycobacterium tuberculosis sequencing data on extensively drug-resistant TB cases in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, diagnosed in 2011–2014. We tested scenarios in which cases were missing at random, missing differentially by clinical characteristics, or missing differentially by transmission (i.e., cases with many links were under- or oversampled). Under the assumption that cases were missing randomly, the mean number of transmissions per case in the complete network needed to be larger than 20, far higher than expected, to reproduce the observed network. Instead, the most likely scenario involved undersampling of high-transmitting cases, and models provided evidence for super-spreading. To our knowledge, this is the first analysis to have assessed support for different mechanisms of missingness in a TB transmission study, but our results are subject to the distributional assumptions of the network models we used. Transmission studies should consider the potential biases introduced by incomplete sampling and identify host, pathogen, or environmental factors driving super-spreading.
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Oberholster, Paul J., Maronel Steyn, and Anna-Maria Botha. "A Comparative Study of Improvement of Phycoremediation Using a Consortium of Microalgae in Municipal Wastewater Treatment Pond Systems as an Alternative Solution to Africa’s Sanitation Challenges." Processes 9, no. 9 (September 18, 2021): 1677. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pr9091677.
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The reuse of wastewater has been observed as a viable option to cope with increasing water stress in Africa. The present case studies evaluated the optimization of the process of phycoremediation as an alternative low-cost green treatment technology in two municipality wastewater treatment pond systems that make up the largest number of domestic sewage treatment systems on the African continent. A consortium of specific microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris and Chlorella protothecoides) was used to improve the treatment capacity of domestic wastewater at two operational municipality wastewater pond systems under different environmental conditions in South Africa. Pre- and post-phycoremediation optimization through mass inoculation of a consortium of microalgae, over a period of one year under different environmental conditions, were compared. It was evident that the higher reduction of total phosphates (74.4%) in the effluent, after treatment with a consortium of microalgae at the Motetema pond system, was possibly related to (1) the dominance of the algal taxa C. protothecoides (52%), and to a lesser extent C. vulgaris (36%), (2) more cloudless days, (3) higher air temperature, and (4) a higher domestic wastewater strength. In the case of the Brandwag pond treatment system, the higher reduction of total nitrogen can possibly be related to the dominance of C. vulgaris, different weather conditions, and lower domestic wastewater strength. The nutrient reduction data from the current study clearly presented compelling evidence in terms of the feasibility for use of this technology in developing countries to reduce nutrient loads from domestic wastewater effluent.
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Mudaly, Leushantha, and Michael van der Laan. "Interactions between Irrigated Agriculture and Surface Water Quality with a Focus on Phosphate and Nitrate in the Middle Olifants Catchment, South Africa." Sustainability 12, no. 11 (May 26, 2020): 4370. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12114370.
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Little is understood on the interaction between irrigated agriculture and surface water quality in South African catchments. A case study was conducted on the Middle Olifants Catchment, which contains the second largest irrigation scheme in South Africa. Dams, rivers, irrigation canals, and drainage canals were sampled between the Loskop and Flag Boshielo Dams. Results were compared to historical water quality monitoring data from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS). While DWS data indicate that phosphate-phosphorus (PO4-P) does not pose a eutrophication risk, our monitored data were above the eutrophication threshold for the majority of the sampling period. In general, phosphorus (P) pollution is a bigger issue than nitrogen (N), and concentrations of these nutrients tend to be higher during the summer rainfall months, potentially indicating a link to agriculture and fertilization events. We estimated that waste water treatment works (WWTW), which are currently systematically failing in South Africa, have the potential to pollute as much P as irrigated agriculture. Electrical conductivity levels increased downstream, moving from the acceptable towards the tolerable category, while the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) presents a moderate risk of infiltrability problems. The pH values were generally in the ideal range. This study has highlighted existing and looming water quality issues for irrigation and the environment in the Middle Olifants. Similar scoping studies are recommended for other intensively-irrigated catchments in the region to identify issues and allow timely intervention.
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Mbombi, Masenyani Oupa, Livhuwani Muthelo, Peter Mphekgwane, Inos Dhau, Joseph Tlouyamma, Rathani Nemuramba, Reneilwe Given Mashaba, Katlego Mothapo, and Eric Maimela. "Prevalence of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in a Rural Setting: A Case Study of DIMAMO Health and Demographic Surveillance Site, Limpopo Province of South Africa." Journal of Respiration 2, no. 2 (June 1, 2022): 101–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jor2020008.
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Background: The primary purpose of introducing the COVID-19 vaccine was to fight the pandemic. However, the vaccine was not well received worldwide. This challenge has threatened the effective implementation and roll-out of COVID-19 immunization campaigns. The challenge of vaccine hesitancy was reported to be more prevalent in rural areas due to various factors such as cultural beliefs, misinformation, poverty, lack of education, and distrust of vaccines. Yet there seems to be a scarcity of studies determining the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy in deep rural areas of Limpopo. Purpose: The study aimed to explore the prevalence of COVID-19 hesitancy among the rural black population in South Africa. Study Methods: A longitudinal quantitative study was conducted with data from the DIMAMO Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (HDSS) database for 2020 to 2022. A non-probability total sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Trained fieldworkers collected data using an electronic data capture questionnaire. A comparison of categorical variables was performed using Chi-Square in SPSS version 26 and the statistical significance was set at p < 0.05, with a 95% confidence interval to analyze the data. Results: The limited availability of vaccination sites in Limpopo Province, South Africa, was associated with a reduced certainty that the vaccine would be accepted, as reported in the current study. The prevalence of visiting traditional healers was significantly higher in non-vaccinated than vaccinated participants among the rural black population, indicating a different cultural belief among the rural black population that existed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: The present study findings show diverse factors of concern associated with vaccination hesitancy for COVID-19 among rural black people. Lack of education, gender, not being diagnosed with COVID-19, not being a Christian, visiting traditional healers, vaccine mistrust, unknown side effects, and a lack of confidence in the vaccine itself. Conspiracy theories were factors that impacted vaccine acceptance among black people living in rural areas. The prevalence of visiting traditional healers was significantly higher in non-vaccinated than vaccinated participants. Therefore, the present study findings emphasize the need to collectively integrate and utilize the traditional healers in the South African healthcare system.
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Mavhandu-Mudzusi, Azwihangwisi. "THE NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS OF STAFF AND STUDENTS LIVING WITH HIV AND AIDS IN A SOUTH AFRICA RURAL-BASED UNIVERSITY." Africa Journal of Nursing and Midwifery 16, no. 2 (January 21, 2015): 30–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/2520-5293/34.
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Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) are making an impact in institutions of higher education. Studies have revealed that though few students and staff have been recorded to be suffering from HIV/AIDS, more have become ill and some have died in ways that signal the impact of HIV/AIDS. Universities can contribute to addressing the needs and expectations of staff and students living with HIV and AIDS. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the preparedness of a South African rural-based university in addressing the needs and expectations of staff and students living with HIV and AIDS. A qualitative study design was followed, with one South African rural-based university as the case setting. Qualitative interviews were conducted stemming from the central research question, “How is the university addressing the needs and expectations of staff and students living with HIV and AIDS?†Following an open coding method of data analysis, three themes emerged relating to how the needs and expectations of staff and students living with HIV and AIDS are addressed: persistence stigma and discrimination, limited assurance to confidentiality and, inadequate treatment, care and support. Recommendations were made for improvement of service delivery to address the needs and expectations of staff and students living with HIV and AIDS and further research should be conducted on large scale to determine other needs and expectations of SSLWHA other South African rural-based universities and how they are addressed.
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Schoeman, Monique, Sonja Loots, and Leon Bezuidenhoud. "Merging Academic and Career Advising to Offer Holistic Student Support: A University Perspective." Journal for Students Affairs in Africa 9, no. 2 (December 28, 2021): 85–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v9i2.3700.
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Higher education in South Africa has focused extensively on widening access to further inclusivity and to economic development. However, as students need to persist and succeed in their studies, access alone is not enough. Furthermore, the responsibility of higher education to help students succeed does not end with graduation; institutions need to produce graduates who are ready to enter the labour market. Therefore, it is important to integrate career information and concepts into these practices when conceptualising holistic academic advising. Since academic advising is still developing as a professional practice in the South African context, no clear, practical framework has been used uniformly at universities. Career advice is also not necessarily integrated into academic advising in a conscious manner. This may result in students who are struggling to integrate all the academic and career information provided to make informed decisions regarding their studies and career paths. This paper argues that the 3-I Process is an appropriate framework for the integration of career and academic advising in the South African context. In this case study, we draw from the experiences of nine advisors from the central advising office, faculties, and the career office at the University of the Free State to understand the extent to which they have been incorporating the elements of the 3-I Process into their existing academic advising practices and how they view the possibilities of following a more integrated approach. We also map how the framework can be adapted to the broader South African context to inform and develop more holistic and professionalised advising practices, as well as to contribute towards students’ success beyond university.