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Twenty-four years ago, the National Heritage Resources Act, No. 25 of 1999 (NHRA) was enacted in South Africa. This was a moment of change, when the heritage of those marginalised during the colonial and Apartheid eras would finally be given its rightful place on the national heritage list. There was a sense of optimism amongst politicians that the African past was finally to be recognised in an inclusive and representative future. This was echoed in archaeology, given its central role in uncovering and telling the story of precolonial South Africa. The discipline slowly opened its doors to academics of all ethnic groups and new perspectives were identified. But an examination of the practical consequences and impact of this progressive legislation for transforming officially declared heritage in the past 24 years shows surprisingly little change in the overall body of recognized, listed heritage. Recent studies of transformation in South African archaeology have focussed on institutional transformation; possible transformation of the types and frequency of sites declared as national and provincial heritage sites has not yet been examined. It is this issue which our paper addresses. The paper presents analysis that relies on the South African Heritage Resources Information System (SAHRIS) database covering the period 1936 to mid-2022. Whilst sites associated with European colonialism still predominate, there has been a change in the frequency of types of heritage declared since 1999, with an increase in sites associated with the Black liberation struggle. Yet the list remains very unbalanced, with only a single heritage site connected to the precolonial past of Black South Africans having been declared as a national heritage site since 1999. We discuss and classify the types of heritage declared since 1999 and suggest reasons for the distortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xenophobia in South Africa is often depicted as anti-immigrant sentiments and stereotypes that emanate from social, political, and economic misconceptions. This paper argues that though the causes of xenophobia are many and complex, they stem from the dashed hopes of independence and the legacy of apartheid. This narrative has over the years been overshadowed by the view that xenophobic attacks in South Africa are a product of hate and anti-migration. We argue that the failure of successive governments of the ANC to correct the wrongs of the apartheid past and make the economy inclusive has stoked the tensions between citizens and foreign nationals. To underscore this point, this paper undertakes a discussion on the pertinent implications of the political trajectory of xenophobia in South Africa and makes some recommendations on what can be done to reduce incidences of xenophobic attacks in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the root causes of student unrest in South African universities and evaluates the institutional responses to these protests, otherwise regarded as social unrest. The study is lensed through social movement theory and institutional theory. The study adopted transformative paradigm under qualitative approach and participatory research design to analyze the experiences of universities in South Africa that have experienced significant social unrest in recent years. Focus group discussion was conducted with university management staff, student activists, and security officers of the selected universities. The findings showed that lack of access, socio-economic inequalities, ineffective communication, and open engagement are the primary causes of social unrest. In contrast, providing equitable access, economic liberation, effective communication, and open engagement is the possible institutional response that alleviates social unrest on university campuses. Hence, promoting equitable access and economic liberation coupled with effective communication and open engagement among stakeholders was recommended. Plain Language Summary: Causes and Institutional Responses of Social Unrest. This paper investigates why South African university students protest and how the institutions respond. Using social movement and institutional theories, the study talks to university managers, student activists, and security officers in universities with recent protests. The key issues identified are limited access, economic inequalities, poor communication, and exclusion from decision-making. The suggested solution is to focus on fair access, reducing economic disparities, improving communication, and involving everyone in decisions. The researcher recommends promoting equitable access and economic fairness, alongside better communication and inclusive decision-making, as a way to address and prevent social unrest on university campuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic on society raised the question of how best to gauge society's psychological adaptation to continually evolving global disruptor events, such as Covid-19. This paper aims to illustrate the use of different approaches to monitor society's psychological response to Covid-19, in order to argue for a more comprehensive, multi-model, approach. The results from different approaches are presented in two studies employing measures of mental disorders and mental distress, respectively, using South African samples for demonstration. The first study presents findings from repeat administration of measures of common mental disorders (major depressive and generalized anxiety disorders) across three consecutive years, while the second study presents findings from mood response profiles (measured with the Brunel Mood Scale) collected across five time points during the Covid-19 pandemic. Both studies showed that the Covid-19 pandemic was temporally associated with adverse mental health outcomes across the mental health continuum, and that mental health profiles were associated with both time since onset of Covid-19 and subsequent wave occurrence. Elevated prevalence of common mental disorders, as well as fluctuating patterns of mood response profiles, are discussed against the context of Covid-19. The paper concludes that a multi-modal approach, for instance measuring specific mental disorders as well as more general mental distress, is crucial to comprehensively understand society's psychological adaptation to major disruptor events, and guide health sector responses. The paper serves as a reminder to continue to observe mental health more inclusively to appropriately respond to the psychological needs of communities. Plain Language Summary: Measuring mental health across Covid-19 waves The impact of Covid-19 on mental health raised the question of how can we best measure how society adapts, psychologically, to major events that disrupt life. This article looked at two specific ways to measure and monitor society's psychological response to Covid-19. The first study looked at the prevalence of mental disorders, and the second looked at levels of mental distress. Both studies used South African samples to demonstrate this. The first study presented data from a repeat administration of scales that identify depressive and anxiety disorders, completed across three consecutive years. The second study presented findings from mood response profiles (measured with the Brunel Mood Scale) collected across five time points during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results showed that the pandemic was associated with adverse mental health outcomes—across the mental health continuum—and that mental health profiles were associated with both time since the start of Covid-19 and fluctuated with the subsequent waves across the pandemic time-line. This article demonstrated the importance of using a multi-modal approach to fully understand society's psychological response to major life disruptions. It also acted as reminder to monitor mental health continuously to be able to respond to the psychological needs of communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to show the potential value of using the constructivist grounded theory (CGT) methodology in the Urban and Regional Planning discipline. This is done by reflecting on the application of the CGT fundamentals defined by Kathy Charmaz, applied in a doctoral thesis in Urban and Regional Planning. The substantive area of research in which the thesis took place was the practical training experience of planners in becoming professionally registered. The thesis collected primary data through interviews with 14 planners who have undergone the process of practical training to record, document, and analyse their experiences as a prerequisite and requirement of professional registration. The use of the CGT methodology provides valuable insight into the registration process of planners in South Africa and encourages doctoral candidates to use CGT methodology with the aim of generating new knowledge and theory in the built environment. This paper recommends that CGT methodology should be encouraged, particularly when contributing to fields that are under-researched, limited, or non-existent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When conducting research, it is fundamentally important to adhere to universal ethical principles with the intent to minimise harm and maximise benefits. This is not always relevant as these principles are based on the Western way of doing things. In Western culture, the focus of ethics is mainly on individualism and this value undermines the essence of ubuntu. However, in the South African context, the individual is always seen in relation to significant others, meaning that relational philosophies need to inform context-specific ethics in these communities. This paper aims to advocate for the utilisation of contextually relevant ethical principles to embrace diverse South African contexts. The paper is based on the author's reflexive practice in conducting research in South Africa's rural areas. The reflection focuses on the researcher's dilemma in implementing universal ethical principles in a rural South African context. The paper highlights congruent ethical approaches in a diverse African context guided by relational ethics which is grounded in ubuntu principles. The approaches ensure that researchers remain ethical by embracing ubuntu principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies from developed western societies have shown that the legitimacy of correctional officers is pivotal to incarcerated offenders' voluntary compliance and deference. However, we are uncertain if such an assertion holds for incarcerated offenders in transitional African correctional settings, such as South Africa. From a cross-sectional survey of participants from selected correctional centers in South Africa (Male = 89.6%; African = 85.1%; M age = 25 years, SD = 0.81), this paper explores incarcerated offenders' perception of the legitimacy of correctional officers. Findings indicate that procedural justice, the effectiveness of the correctional officers, gender, and offender citizenship predicted the perception of correctional officers' legitimacy. The implications of these findings for the effective management of custodial institutions are discussed. Plain Language Summary: Incarcerated Offenders' account on correctional officers' legitimacy in South Africa This article aimed to explore the views of incarcerated offenders about the legitimacy of correctional officers in South African correctional centers. To conduct this research, we adopted a survey approach and selected participants from six correctional centers that covers three provinces of South Africa (Gauteng, Free State, and KwaZulu-Natal). Our results show that procedural justice experience of the offenders predicted their perceived legitimacy of correctional officers, more so than other factors. The implications of findings for the effective management of correctional centers in South Africa are explicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When conducting research, it is fundamentally important to adhere to universal ethical principles with the intent to minimise harm and maximise benefits. This is not always relevant as these principles are based on the Western way of doing things. In Western culture, the focus of ethics is mainly on individualism and this value undermines the essence of ubuntu. However, in the South African context, the individual is always seen in relation to significant others, meaning that relational philosophies need to inform context-specific ethics in these communities. This paper aims to advocate for the utilisation of contextually relevant ethical principles to embrace diverse South African contexts. The paper is based on the author's reflexive practice in conducting research in South Africa's rural areas. The reflection focuses on the researcher's dilemma in implementing universal ethical principles in a rural South African context. The paper highlights congruent ethical approaches in a diverse African context guided by relational ethics which is grounded in ubuntu principles. The approaches ensure that researchers remain ethical by embracing ubuntu principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Giving a voice to youth and promoting their health and well-being is essential for successful future communities. However, millions of youth, particularly in low-to middle-income countries, are misunderstood, lack a voice, and face many challenges, which maintains their disengagement. As approaches for youth engagement evolve, this paper presents an innovative, qualitative methodology to engage vulnerable youth (NEETs - acronym for youth who are Not in Education, Employment or Training) in identifying and ranking their needs and giving them a voice to contribute to prevention programming. Drawing on principles of empowerment theory, the paper expands on the popular youth-adult partnerships' literature by injecting a new engagement approach that focuses on (i) using a literature-based community needs assessment, (ii) engaging vulnerable youth in small group discussion to rank their needs, (iii) comparing rankings between groups, (iv) creating spaces for youth to include other pressing issues not identified in the literature, and (iv) comparing rankings across surrounding communities. The ideas presented demonstrate that the Needs Ranking activity, as an engagement and data collection tool, may be particularly relevant in gathering viewpoints and opinions of underserved youth. These youth are traditionally not well represented through the more conventional and common methods currently employed in research and community development such as local government community development board meetings and needs assessments, and research interviews. The paper also creates awareness around the Needs Ranking activity as a viable and verifiable qualitative approach in youth engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to show the potential value of using the constructivist grounded theory (CGT) methodology in the Urban and Regional Planning discipline. This is done by reflecting on the application of the CGT fundamentals defined by Kathy Charmaz, applied in a doctoral thesis in Urban and Regional Planning. The substantive area of research in which the thesis took place was the practical training experience of planners in becoming professionally registered. The thesis collected primary data through interviews with 14 planners who have undergone the process of practical training to record, document, and analyse their experiences as a prerequisite and requirement of professional registration. The use of the CGT methodology provides valuable insight into the registration process of planners in South Africa and encourages doctoral candidates to use CGT methodology with the aim of generating new knowledge and theory in the built environment. This paper recommends that CGT methodology should be encouraged, particularly when contributing to fields that are under-researched, limited, or nonexistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration is reputed to have development prospects for the sending and host countries as well as migrants. Therefore, an effective migration governance system must be put in place to achieve this triple-win developmental aspiration. This paper, however, argues that when they migrate, migrants have their own subjective well-being in mind, and not some common national development objectives. The other developmental outcomes depend on this self-interestedness of migrants. As such, the institutional provisions for migration governance must be put in place to achieve migrant well-being, as a precondition for positive macro-developmental prospects for both the receiving and sending countries. The paper explored this objective in South Africa. The Migration Governance Framework (MiGoF) and the subjective well-being framework proposed by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) were used to assess the assumptions of this objective. Reviewing literature of surveys conducted with immigrants in three cities (Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg), it was found that while South Africa has one of the most mature and developed migration governance infrastructure, it has not been sufficiently translated into realising migrant well-being. Despite all the attractive pull factors and opportunities, most immigrants in South Africa live in socio-economic misery and political uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper describes findings from research conducted on students who participated in a service-learning course in South Africa. Objective: The study aimed to understand how participants constructed their experiences of service-learning and to interrogate their emotional investments in these constructions. Method: Data were collected and analyzed using a psychosocial methodology, consisting of discursive and psychoanalytic readings of interview transcripts, reflective journal entries, and researcher field notes. Results: The discursive findings focus on how participants employed liberal traditional learning discourses to construct service-learning as linear resulting in subject positions that reinforced prejudices and the power structures supporting these. A psychoanalytic reading of the data suggests that participants invested in these constructions to defend against their own anxiety related to uncertainty and guilt about privilege in an unfamiliar context. Conclusion: Students invest in liberal traditional discourses of service-learning for defensive reasons, which can be understood as arising from the intersubjective and social context in which the service-learning takes place. Teaching Implications: Recognizing prejudice as emanating from anxiety generated by the affective work required for service-learning means thinking creatively about how to both contain and allow this affective work to take place in service-learning activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper lies at the intersection of discussions surrounding digitally mediated research methods and transnational research projects. It contributes to the current methodological debate surrounding online interviewing by focusing on tensions and affordances involved in Skype-to-phone interviewing in a transnational research context. While the Skype-to-phone facility does indeed increase further access to global participants, complex power hierarchies and ethical concerns continue to exist in relation to technological access/infrastructure, research governance regimes in different places and interpersonal research relations. We, therefore, propose that online researchers involved in transnational research projects using Skype methods move towards consideration of multiple competing constituencies and diverse social and spatial connectivities and power hierarchies in which they are researching. These social differences and spatial registers are not swept away through research conducted in a uniform virtual digital environment; rather transnational researchers must make explicit the multiple place-based contexts of their digitally mediated research, as they shape the research process in distinct ways. Thus, specific consideration must be given to ethical concerns that emanate from transnational online research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversity training for health professionals in South Africa has traditionally been conceptualized as differences in gender, race or ethnicity, culture and sexual orientation. More recently physical disability and mental illness was included as a dimension. Intellectual disabilities received lip service as a diversity concern. This paper reports on health professionals' perceptions of the extent to which diversity training prepared them to competently deal with intellectual disabilities. This explorative study included a purposive sample of 18 health care professionals experienced in intellectual disability services. Two focus groups were facilitated over three sessions. Transcripts were analysed thematically. Health professionals felt inadequately prepared to consider intellectual disabilities as a diversity issue. They could not effectively advocate for reasonable accommodation. There was a differential familiarity with issues related to diversity and intellectual disability with profession constituting an additional intersecting dimension of diversity. Health professions did not perceive their diversity training to prepare them to deal competently with intellectual disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world came to grips with the coronavirus diseases (COVID-19), educational institutions and the society at large faced the challenge of figuring out how to continue with teaching and learning in such a context. Many countries, including South Africa made efforts to help contain and suppress the spread of Covid-19. In the South African education sector, about 13 million learners and 440 000 teachers were released before the end of the first school term in March 2020. In addition, 30 000 Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, about 100 000 teachers were also required to end their term before the official closing date. For many young learners, the lockdown period meant that they would be at home with (a) Limited access to age appropriate, fun and explicitly educational resources to play with as many shops considered resources that could be used to develop children's sensory skills as not essential goods (b) They had limited exposure to structured learning and play as most caregivers are not qualified ECD practitioners (c) Children could not play outside, visit playgrounds and parks, yet, freedom of movement, activity and exercise is important for every child's development and young children learn best through play and experimenting (d) Most of their curriculum content cannot be fully taught using online platforms. Given this background, through a semi-ethnographic study, the paper documents the early literacy experiences of two 3 year old children during the Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa. In addition, analysis of parents or caregivers' feedback about their experiences in providing assistance to the young learners during the lockdown is presented. Findings of the study show that in both research contexts, literacy practices were different, but not lesser. Challenging as it was for the caregivers to support the development of literacy, the home environment provided many opportunities for learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population mobility makes patient-tracking and care linkage in the South African Development Community (SADC) challenging. Case-based surveillance (CBS) through individual-level clinical data linked with a unique patient-identifier (UPI) is recommended. We conducted a mixed-methods landscape analysis of UPI and CBS implementation within selected SADC countries, this included: (1) SADC UPI implementation literature review; (2) assessment of UPI and CBS implementation for high HIV-prevalence SADC countries; (3) UPI implementation case-study in selected South African primary healthcare (PHC) facilities. Research into CBS and UPI implementation for the SADC region is lacking. Existing patient-identification methods often fail and limit patient-tracking. Paper-based records and poor integration between health-information systems further restrict patient-tracking. Most countries were in the early-middle stages of CBS and faced UPI challenges. Our South African case-study found that the UPI often goes uncaptured. Difficulties tracking patients across prevention and care cascades will continue until a functional and reliable UPI is available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are we to think about femicide in South Africa – a country with one of the highest rates of gendered violence, globally? The rate of women murdered in South Africa is around five times the global average and at least half of women who are murdered die at the hands of an intimate partner. Every so often, a South African woman's murder is propelled into national (and sometimes international) media discourse. How these crimes are reported are important for shaping public consciousness about crimes against women, gendered violence and the sexist, misogynistic and patriarchal contexts that produce it. This paper reports on an analysis of instances of femicide that have been reported in South African national media over the past five years. It offers a decolonial feminist reading of the reporting, showing how it is characterised by an overarching narrative that spectacularizes the violence, drawing on long-standing, racialised, colonial tropes about black bodies and identities. The implications of this discourse on femicide are considered for how it contributes to the shaping of collective consciousness and public discourse around how to understand femicide, specifically its victims and its perpetrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 ushered in public health guidelines restricting face-to-face contact and movement, and encouraging social distancing, all of which had implications for conducting field-based research during the pandemic. For qualitative researchers, this meant adapting conventional face-to-face methods and resorting to virtual variations of the same in adherence to stipulated COVID-19 health protocols. Virtual qualitative research introduced new concerns and logistical challenges. This paper presents critical reflections on experiences of conducting qualitative research during the pandemic, from the perspectives of a cohort of postgraduate fellows. A critical reflection framework was utilised to explore fellows experiences and meanings ascribed to their experiences. The research findings illustrate three overarching processes which, in turn, shaped ways of thinking, doing and being. First, explicating tacit assumptions about their anticipated research journeys and interrogating these. Second, shifts in power differentials demonstrated by role reversal between researchers and participants, and between fellows and supervisors as they re-negotiated their positionalities in virtual research spaces. Third, context specific sense-making, in which - narrative accounts support the notion of knowledge as a social construct. Our findings have important implications for qualitative research practice. Our study documents methodological nuances and social implications of conducting qualitative research during COVID-19 and in a-South African context. In addition, our study exemplifies the use of critical reflection in qualitative research practice in the specific context of postgraduate academic research. Further, our study illustrates how the use of technology shapes qualitative research protocol development, data collection and analysis phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 ushered in public health guidelines restricting face-to-face contact and movement, and encouraging social distancing, all of which had implications for conducting field-based research during the pandemic. For qualitative researchers, this meant adapting conventional face-to-face methods and resorting to virtual variations of the same in adherence to stipulated COVID-19 health protocols. Virtual qualitative research introduced new concerns and logistical challenges. This paper presents critical reflections on experiences of conducting qualitative research during the pandemic, from the perspectives of a cohort of postgraduate fellows. A critical reflection framework was utilised to explore fellows experiences and meanings ascribed to their experiences. The research findings illustrate three overarching processes which, in turn, shaped ways of thinking, doing and being. First, explicating tacit assumptions about their anticipated research journeys and interrogating these. Second, shifts in power differentials demonstrated by role reversal between researchers and participants, and between fellows and supervisors as they re-negotiated their positionalities in virtual research spaces. Third, context specific sense-making, in which - narrative accounts support the notion of knowledge as a social construct. Our findings have important implications for qualitative research practice. Our study documents methodological nuances and social implications of conducting qualitative research during COVID-19 and in a-South African context. In addition, our study exemplifies the use of critical reflection in qualitative research practice in the specific context of postgraduate academic research. Further, our study illustrates how the use of technology shapes qualitative research protocol development, data collection and analysis phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes critical theory to interrogate and problematize the practice of anonymising research sites as an ethical imperative. The contributing authors conduct research in and with various communities in southern Africa, position themselves and work from and within diverse areas and specialities of the social sciences. This article is developed from their rich and wide spectrum of field experience with a great diversity of communities, but mainly the poorer, under-resourced, socially and economically marginalized. The authors strongly identify with these communities whose anonymity in published research is seen as marginalizing. Such research sites are places and communities where these researchers grew up and live in, and thus not just as peripheral or 'out there' entities. Therefore, the naming of research sites in this context is deemed as being ethical, out of respect for participants, for a contextually embedded understanding, and for well-targeted interventions and policy influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing engagement with sovereignty in anthropology has resulted in a range of concepts that encapsulate how various (non-state) actors execute power. In this paper, we further unpack the concept of 'corporate sovereignty' and outline its conceptual significance. Corporate sovereignty refers to performative claims to power undertaken by (individuals aligned to) corporate entities with profit-making objectives within a state-sanctioned space. This contrasts with claims made by other (non-state) actors who operate in a permissive space that (regularly) lacks this legally grounded relationship with the state. By unpacking this state-sanctioned permissive space and highlighting the role of the state as the arbiter, our approach to corporate sovereignty offers a new comparative analytical perspective to theorize how sovereignty is performed and opens ethnographic avenues to explore how sovereignty is negotiated and co-produced across diverse localities. To elucidate our argument, we draw from ethnographic fieldwork conducted on coal mining companies in Mozambique and private security companies in South Africa. By focusing on cases that differ, we want to show the multitude of ways in which corporate sovereignty is enacted and takes shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron Age studies in South Africa are dominated by Huffman's (1982, 1986, 1993, 2001) ethnographically derived Central Cattle Pattern model, which identifies the cattle-based bridewealth institution of South Eastern Bantu-language speakers by the spatial distribution of specific archaeological features. The idea of the spatial expression 'on the ground' of a variety of symbolic codes was Adam Kuper's (1980, 1982) interpretation of predominantly Swazi ethnography. Surprisingly, Kuper's work has never been interrogated and consequently his misunderstanding of the ethnography was carried into the Central Cattle Pattern and interpretations of the last 1600 years of Iron Age, farmer archaeology in southern Africa. Two particular features, burials and subterranean grain storage pits, and their relationship to cattle-kraals are explored. Because cattle are central to the Central Cattle Pattern, much archaeological attention has been given to looking for evidence of cattle at archaeological sites, either by dung, bones or cattle-kraals. The paper presents the views of contemporary Swazi, Xhosa and Mfengu people that suggest the symbolic importance of cattle-kraals; in the extreme they may not reflect the presence of livestock at all, yet their persisting presence demonstrates the continuing importance of cattle, real or imagined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the light of recent media reports of racism in South African schools, this paper examines the role of school principalship standards in addressing race in South African educational leadership. The paper draws on tenets of critical race theory to examine how issues of race are addressed in the Policy for School Principalship Standard in South Africa and the implications thereof for leadership preparation and leadership practice. The methodology involves the employment of content analysis underpinned by key tenets of critical race theory that challenge notions of colour-blindness, meritocracy and neutrality. The analysis reveals that there is no explicit mention or treatment of race and ethnicity as social constructs in the principalship standards. It also reveals that diversity and culture are used more, suggesting the emphasis on difference rather than inequality. The paper argues that, although driven by principles of social justice, the Policy for School Principalship Standard is colour-blind. Through this omission, the policy denies the existence of racism and fails to recognise the power and influence of school leaders (and principals, in particular) in shaping the race dynamic in schools. The paper ends with implications for the improvement of leadership policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers facilitated a participatory action learning action research process with second year Social Sciences students at a University in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. This paper focusses on the facilitation of a participatory action learning action research process and the contribution of this to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning of the researchers. A social constructivist theoretical framework was employed. The significance of this research is that it adds to the understanding and implementation of participatory action learning action research, the evolving perception of participation as well as ownership within a participatory action learning action research process within the relatively less studied context of sub-Saharan African and South Africa more specifically. This paper demonstrates how utilising participatory action learning action research contributed to the researchers own "lifelong learning", particularly with regard to scholarship and collaborations in the process of knowledge production. The researchers' critical reflections and learning throughout this process could be of assistance to other researchers who are interested in embarking upon similar participatory research projects in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the cases of denuclearized countries, namely Belarus, Kazakhstan, South Africa, and Ukraine and primarily intends to answer the questions of how (process), why (reasons for denuclearization), and for what (benefits and gains) did these four countries abandon their strategically advantageous nuclear arsenals. For conceptual analysis, 'a trading state' is employed, for they commonly faced the imminent need of guaranteeing state sovereignty and the influence of changing security dynamics. The four cases exhibit both generalizable commonality and distinctive experience in the process of denuclearization. They demonstrate that two mutually-reinforcing forces, 'global-scale structural change in world politics' and 'pressure for regime creation or change', interactively led to the final decision to enact complete denuclearization, albeit not effortlessly. Furthermore, unveiling the differences in the process of denuclearization – in terms of resistance, negotiation tools and leverage, stage of nuclear development, domestic-grown technology, internal justification for legitimacy – helps to clarify the gains and benefits received in return for denuclearization. Shedding light on these four countries, under pressure from nuclear weapons states, complements conventional realism-leaning interpretations of nuclear politics and offers policy insights to understand countries with nuclear ambition in contemporary world politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the call for papers for this special issue and the questions it poses, the authors show how the ontological posthumanist shift of agential realism does not erase but keeps the child human of colour in play, despite the inclusion of the other-than-(Adult)human in its methodologies. Through a montaging technique, the authors explore the philosophical complexity of 'decentering without erasure' by re-turning to data from a large international research project – Children, Technology and Play (2019–2020). Through an agential realist reading of interview data 'of' 'seven-year-old' Henry when visiting him at home in an informal settlement in Cape Town, they show what else is going on, and the politically radical and subtle philosophical difference this makes for reconfiguring child subjectivity. To do more justice to the complexity of reality, the analysis bounces around like Henry's sack ball and zooms in on the role apparatuses such as GoPros play in research. The authors 'follow the child' literally but differently, without excluding or erasing the more-than-(Adult)human. In meeting Henry, they also meet Eshal, who introduces the GoPro(blem). By diffractively reading Karen Barad's scholarship through visual and aural texts, the authors respond to the question of how posthumanist research makes a difference to childhood studies. They show how the agential realist move(ment) from Object and Subject to Phenomenon explodes ageist, ableist, racist, extractive and settler-colonial logics in education research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the South African context, children with severe to profound intellectual disabilities are not accommodated in the compulsory education system, although steps are being taken in this direction in acknowledgement of their right to education. Critical to this development is the training of educators and caregivers. There is a paucity of studies from South Africa addressing the training of educators and caregivers. The Teacher Empowerment for Disability Inclusion (TEDI) project developed a course on the education and care of children with severe to profound intellectual disabilities to facilitate and empower teachers to provide quality education for these learners. This paper explores, through a qualitative analysis, the ways in which 30 participants attending this course developed professionally and personally. The findings show that there was personal as well as professional learning in the areas of disability approaches, collaboration, advocacy, self-care, and confidence. These findings are discussed and future implications are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars studying race and racial classification in post-apartheid South Africa have paid little attention to how African refugees navigate the South African racial classification scheme and how they self-identity in the face of their everyday encounters with imposed racial classification in South Africa. This paper addresses this research gap by exploring how first-generation Eritrean refugees self-identify in the context of an imposed South African racial classification system. The result reported here forms part of a broader research study that explored how Eritrean refugees in South Africa self-defined in the face of racialization. The broader study identified various themes but this paper only reports on those who defined their race as Habesha in the face of their experiences with racial classification. I argue that by defining their race as Habesha, participants re-defined race as a pan-ethnic identity dissociating racial identity from physical appearance and skin colour. Some refugees who never self-identified in terms of phenotype-based racial categories are nuancing traditional definitions of racial identity in post-apartheid South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents WhatsApp as a means of data collection among vulnerable populations, reporting on a study conducted in South Africa and Zimbabwe, to determine the terminology used for and among different genders and sexually diverse individuals. 19 LGBTIQ+ individuals, recruited through a modified snowballing technique, participated in the study. Using WhatsApp text-based information, the interview questions and information regarding the study and ethics-related information were forwarded from one participant to another. The same approach was used for data-collection purposes, where responses (either voice notes or written texts) were forwarded until they reached the initial two participants and/or the principal investigator. Data were analysed using Collazi's steps for data analysis. As the study focus was on the data collection technique, the paper highlights the ethical implications related to using WhatsApp as a data collecting tool. The study also indicates the advantages and disadvantages of using this platform and further emphasises that voice note WhatsApp messages yielded higher-quality and more in-depth responses than text messages. The limitations of using WhatsApp, and ways of enhancing its use as a means of data collection among vulnerable populations, are also addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the case of South Africa's latest land redistribution strategy known as the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy, to explore whether, and how, research can have direct and positive impacts on beneficiaries of land reform. The study is situated within the practice of action research: to explore how it can generate knowledge that can be shared back and forth between stakeholders, as well as how it may ignite changes that the participants desire. The findings are that Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy is not meeting the overall goals land reform. But action research has allowed the beneficiaries to emerge from the process with new knowledge about their rights, as well as what options they have to move forward in their fight for secure land rights and decent livelihoods. We introduce a concept of a 'learning and action space' to explain our practice of action research. The paper concludes that action research is a desirable approach for land reform, but while it succeeded in educating beneficiaries, it is only one ingredient in ongoing struggles to challenge power relations among citizens and between citizens and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper traces the evolution and periodization of shifting ideas about the critical issues shaping city planning in South Africa, looking both at the relative and variable importance ascribed to health and other factors such as labour, economic reconstruction and housing. While the evolution of the South African city cannot be read without an understanding of the role of public health, changing ideas about cities and public health necessitate careful historical unravelling before any causal relationships can be identified. Any urban reconstruction, including post-COVID-19 reform, will demand deep knowledge of how the health/planning nexus has evolved, alongside expert advice on how to maximize urban health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the public frenzy over Thabo Mbeki's speech, "I am an African" that was delivered in 1996, South Africa has since become a subject of debate as to who is an African and what constitutes as African. This has been going on for almost two decades and a half now. Mbeki's speech appears to have evoked solemn questions relating to the issues of identity and culture. Subsequent to that speech, the South African public began to question what it meant to be African. The central point of enquiry was: what makes one an African? Is it the color of their skin? Their citizenship? Or is one merely an African because others regard him or her as such? These and many other questions arise when one touches upon the subject of Africans. These perplexing questions, however, are not only unique to the South African context; they apply, to some extent, to the general continent of Africa. With talks and debates about African renaissance, decoloniality, and indigenization, the question of African identity and culture resurfaces. Here, the discussion hubs around the issue of African persona and what it means to be authentically African. By means of document analysis, this paper critically employs a philosophical approach in order to grapple with the subject of identity and culture. This is done through a systematic discussion of the following facets: (a) history, (b) identity, and (c) culture. These three facets are therefore critically engaged in order to establish what constitute an African and what can be characterized as an African identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, little research has been conducted on subject leadership by primary and/or junior secondary school heads of department (HODs). Unlike their senior secondary school counterparts, South African science HODs have the more complex task of leading in the multidisciplinary context of natural sciences (NS 1). Such leadership comes in addition to the complications of role ambiguity, limited time and authority that are inherent in the HOD position. Using interviews and 360° multi-rater by four teachers and subject meeting observations, data were transcribed and categorised into themes that describe the instructional leadership practices of three NS HODs in South Africa. This paper is part of a more comprehensive PhD study. It suggests that providing leadership for NS teaching is more complex in practice than has been reported to date. In the context of increasing focus on accountability and national testing, the unintended consequence has been the neglect of the junior secondary NS teachers by the HODs. Furthermore, the data suggest that the HODs tend to limit their attention to areas of their own specialisation. The paper concludes with a conceptual framework that provides guidance for improving instructional leadership by the HODs in such multidisciplinary contexts, especially for the junior secondary school levels. It also recommends the restructuring of the conglomerate departments to make them more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the result of the research carried out on the effect of temperature on the Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC), South Africa. The BIC has high virgin rock temperature. If the platinum mines advance to ultra-deep levels, then the virgin rock temperature at a depth of 5 km will be approximately 140°C. Hence, there is a need to improve the understanding of the behaviour of rock under high temperatures. Five rock types were tested in a 2600 kN servo-controlled testing machine. The testing was done at a controlled loading rate and a confining pressure 0, 10, and 30 MPa within temperature range of 20-140°C. Comparison was made between the results obtained from the laboratory experiments and numerical modelling. It was observed from the stress-strain behaviour of the samples that an increase in temperature results in the reduction of the Young's modulus and peak strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies highlight the emergence of standards, including multi-stakeholder initiatives developed and applied within the global South where supplier firms are usually based. This trend has created a complex ethical terrain whereby transnational standards flow through global production networks and intersect with domestic initiatives at places of production. The paper complements global production network analysis with the concepts of 'space of flows' and 'space of places' and insights from relational economic geography, to examine how some multi-stakeholder initiatives in the global South can shape the broader governance of labour standards in global production networks. The following questions are addressed: How is the governance of labour standards in global production networks shaped by dynamic spatial interactions between actors? What role have diverse Southern multi-stakeholder initiatives played in influencing the governance of South African fruit and wine? We draw on research conducted over seven years into two standards in South Africa, the Wine and Agriculture Ethical Trade Association and Sustainability Initiative of South Africa. Our analysis shows that these two Southern-based multi-stakeholder initiatives contributed to shaping the broader governance of labour standards through dynamic non-linear waves of interaction over time, involving both collaborative and contested exchanges between actors across space of flows and places. We further argue that despite the development of multi-stakeholder initiatives by Southern actors, commercial power asymmetries in global production networks limit their ability to promote significant improvements for producers and workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing pressure on water resources is driving the development of technology to improve water-use efficiency in irrigation. Uptake of these technological advances are essential to ensure long-term water security in catchments, particularly in water-scarce regions and where agricultural activities and urban centres compete for the same resources. Research suggests that uptake of technology lags far behind the development of new products. The study presented in this paper interviewed 29 commercial farmers from the water-scarce Central Breede River Valley in South Africa to investigate their reasons behind the use or non-use of irrigation technology for scheduling, and in particular the uptake of a free, government-funded remote-sensing service called FruitLook. Evaluating the uptake of a free service eliminates monetary cost as one key barrier to uptake. In-depth interviews revealed a high uptake of technology (83%), but use of only one type – soil water measurement. Among the farmers that use water-use efficiency technology, 78% use the same probe service provider. Perceived accuracy and ease of use, as well as personalised after-sales service are the key reasons for this probe's popularity. While 86% of the farmers have heard about FruitLook, only one farmer uses it for irrigation purposes. The non-use of the free service can mainly be attributed to the time cost associated with the product's initial set-up, use, and interpretation of information. The study revealed that the integration of information from various products is essential for farmers – too much information in different formats is too time-costly. Developers of new technology should focus on these latter two findings to improve the likelihood of new product uptake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a process to develop and trial new metrics in South Africa to quantify school leadership and management practices or processes that are considered theoretically related to literacy outcomes. The predictive validity of these measures is assessed in challenging contexts, including 60 township and rural primary schools in South Africa. We observe a randomness to how better leadership and management practices are distributed across better and worse performing schools. Regression analyses confirm weak and inconsistent linkages between measured leadership and management dimensions and literacy outcomes across the sample. However, we find evidence of stronger linkages with intermediate outcomes, including monitoring curriculum coverage. This research contributes to a burgeoning, yet underdeveloped literature on educational management and leadership in Africa and the challenges of measurement in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, some members of the Humanities Faculty at the University of Cape Town proposed that animal products be taken off the menu at official Faculty functions. The proposal was rejected. Cordeiro-Rodrigues, in his paper "The racialization of animal advocacy in South Africa", this journal, blames the proposers for this rejection, claiming that "the proposal's approach neglects the racialized history of animal advocacy in South Africa, while also being carried out at an inopportune time and context." We dispute Cordeiro-Rodrigues' claims on a number of grounds, and argue that not only does he fail to substantiate his claims against the proposers, he also mischaracterizes the history of animal advocacy in South Africa, and, most worryingly, ignores the immense suffering perpetrated on animals in animal agribusiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender equity and women's access to senior leadership and management positions in universities are a major challenge not only in South Africa but on the African continent, too. For women to take up senior leadership roles more potently, it is essential that they not only cope with and compete in patriarchal systems but more so, are equipped to change patriarchal hegemony and shift the management discourse and culture to a pluralistic leadership culture where transformational leadership becomes the norm and praxis. This paper examines a needs analysis for leadership and professional development competencies of women in senior leadership positions in South African higher education and presents the discussion on these findings, based on the data collected from 74 participants. The conclusion reveals the participants' enthusiasm for personal leadership development as well as their readiness for impacting their leadership contexts. These findings, in turn, shape the content development of the Women in Leadership programme, designed by Higher Education Leadership and Management under the auspices of Universities South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black bodies have been the site of devastation for centuries. We who inhabit and love these bodies live in a state of perpetual mourning. We mourn the disproportionate dying in our families, communities and the dying in the black diaspora. We are yet to come to terms with the death that accompanied the AIDS pandemic. Tuberculosis breeds in the conditions within which most of us live. We die from hours spent in the belly of the earth where we dig for minerals to feed the unquenchable thirst of capital. Malaria targets our neighbors with deathly accuracy. Ebola stalks west Africa where it has established itself as a rapacious black disease. It kills us. In the black diaspora, African Americans are walking targets for American police who kill and imprison them at rates that have created a prison industrial complex. Africans die in the Mediterranean ocean and join the spirits of ancestors drowned centuries ago. With South Africa as the point of departure, this paper stages a transcontinental examination of black death. It is animated by the following questions. What are the dimensions of black death, what is its scale and how is it mourned? What does the COVID-19 pandemic mean for we who are so intimately familiar with death? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we critically reflect on our conceptualization and operationalization of "rapid photovoice" as a close-up, emancipatory, action research methodology which has multiple, intersecting social-justice goals; and consider the methodology's potential for helping to achieve such goals. We first consider photovoice in relation to its typical use in public health research, as well as in prior research into student experiences of higher education. We then consider our pragmatic redesign of the methodology as rapid photovoice (RPV), which we conceptualized in response to the goals, parameters, and constraints inherent in our project, which studied student movement violence and wellbeing. In the third part of the article, we describe and discuss our operationalization of RPV in this study on four university campuses in South Africa. In the fourth section, we reflect on some of the ethical considerations arising from the topic and the methodology. In the final section of the article, we critically assess the interim outcomes of our use of RPV in terms of (1) psychologically empowering students to reflect on traumatic experiences in a safe space and enhancing their self-awareness of wellbeing, wellbeing resources and coping strategies; (2) the politically emancipatory potential of photovoice to represent student experiences authentically and with immediacy to higher education policy role-players, and (3) its ability to co-create artifacts of collective memory that provide authentic empirical material for making trustworthy knowledge claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does temperature affect household energy demand in low-income countries? This paper uses 132,375,282 hourly electricity consumption observations from 5,975 households in South Africa to estimate the causal effects of short-term temperature changes on household electricity consumption. The estimates flexibly identify a constant log-linear temperature response--for every 1°C increase in temperature, electricity consumption decreases by 4.1% among temperatures below the heating threshold but increases by 8.1% among temperatures above the cooling threshold. This relationship is driven more strongly by seasonal than hourly temperature changes. Holding all else constant, a 3.25°C increase in temperatures would reduce electricity consumption by 1,093.4 kWh (6.2%) per year per household. Widespread use of electric heating due to limited residential gas heating infrastructure likely drives this. These results point to important regional heterogeneity in how temperature increases may affect household energy demand in the coming decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In antithesis to the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development (socioeconomic inclusion for all) and a relatively progressive refugee policy framework (Refugee Act 130 of 1998), refugees in South Africa continue to face targeted exclusion and reduced living potentials. Impediments to refugee groups ability to 'thrive and not just survive' (as called for in the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees), are examined in this paper through a synopsis of the conditions surrounding their access to legal documents (a conduit to socioeconomic rights), their equitable participation/inclusion within the formal labour markets, financial sectors etc. In examining these issues, a case-study-based interpretive research design technique with eight FGD participants and two life history participants (drawn from Congolese refugees' residing in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) was done. Several conceptual frameworks as well as a single principal theory (Murphy's theory of monopolization) were utilized so as to fully examine forced migrant groups socioeconomic participation/inclusion in South Africa. This articles findings revealed that primary cultural, as well as structural agentive processes of obstruction significantly inhibit refugee groups full socioeconomic participating in the life of their host communities. The said obstructions included but were not confined to: adverse forms of incorporation, opportunity hoarding, as well as the normative unobtainability of social, cultural, and symbolic forms of capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African intellectuals are debating the future of knowledge construction in the wake of the collapse of colonization, European settlerism, and apartheid. Tawanda Sydesky Nyawasha has posited the debate between Afrocentricity and Eurocentrism in his paper "I am of Popper; I am of Asante: The Polemics of Scholarship in South Africa" published in Studies in Philosophy and Education as an expression of this contested ground. This response article argues that Africans have a duty to interrogate their own epistemological discourses in order to understand the history of knowledge construction on the continent of Africa. As the construction of the first pyramid at Sakkara was a consolidating event of human study, detailed investigations, elaboration of ideas, and advancement of the sciences and arts around 2700 BCE, clearly, African studies should stand at the head of the discourses about knowledge. Therefore, in this response, the author challenges Nyawasha's understanding of Afrocentricity and criticizes the marginalization of African perspectives as just another assertion of Eurocentric ideas as universal when in fact they arise from a specific history and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the housing bubble burst in overheated property markets around the world, South Africa's so-called 'affordable housing market' appeared to be bucking the trend. From 2010, affordable housing prices were rising and selling quickly, especially in Gauteng, Johannesburg's city-region, chronically short of actually affordable housing and with a growing black middle class. Touted as 'SA's best-kept investment secret', the affordable housing market offered a lifeline to the property industry and the potential to democratize segregated property markets. Yet, in practice, the tapping of South Africa's lower-income housing market by capital has been a limited one, narrowly catering to particular subjects and spaces. Drawing on heterodox approaches to 'actually existing markets' and qualitative fieldwork conducted in Johannesburg between 2012 and 2013, this paper traces how the boundaries of the affordable housing and mortgage submarket are produced and shift through the investments of multiple communities with their own theories of housing markets and different interests in 'making the market work'. Despite these investments and contestations, the submarket is narrowly territorialized within developer-driven housing largely in Gauteng for public-sector workers, to optimize the market within mortgage capital's frameworks of risk, return, race and space. The South African mortgaged affordable housing submarket is not so much in need of market information or constitutive of a new frontier of global finance, as a territorial fix for domestic capital vis-à-vis development imperatives. To investigate struggles over this submarket, I draw together socio-institutional approaches to markets with critical political economy of housing markets and put them into conversation with critical development studies scholarship on markets. This combination allows us to make space for multiple projects of 'improvement' and profit in our analyses of market-making, as well as how these are shaped by, and shape, space and conjuncture. I seek to contribute to a growing literature on the geographies of markets from a Global South context where housing is framed as both a market good and constitutional right by examining a case of apparent 'market failure'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research ethics committee (REC) is a key element of university administration and has gained increasing importance as a review mechanism for those institutions that wish to conduct responsible research, along with safeguarding research ethics standards, scientific merit and human rights of participants. Given the critical role of the university REC, it is argued that there is a need to assesses and understand the work of RECs to identify areas for improvement and thus focus on capacity building to respond to the escalating volume, type and complexity of research. This paper reports on the research ethics outcomes of a social science REC in a Business Faculty at a South African university during its seminal period of operation (2010–2015). Content methodology and a standardised questionnaire were used to assess the REC. The results show the increasing workload of the REC with favourable scores for submission/review processes and minute-taking. However, lower scores were seen for ethics education/training and tracking previously approved research. These shortcomings appear to be related to inadequate funding and resource support for research ethics education/training and administrative structures. Factors contributing to proposal rejections included weak research questions or hypotheses, poor questionnaires/interview schedule design and inadequate research ethics consideration in the proposal. It is argued that the complexity and escalation of research submissions to South African RECs necessitates that they are appropriately developed and capacitated to enhance their utility and thereby support the research mandate of universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy flows are not quantifiable and calculating processes but part of the uneven movement of ideas and experiences that involves power and personalities. Processes of learning and policy circulation have thus proven difficult to study especially as the exchanges taking place between actors and localities rarely lead directly to uptake. This paper outlines a conceptual and methodological framework for conducting policy mobilities research by attending to the plethora of ordinary practices – be it through engagements with fellow practitioners, their toolbox of material solutions, or a particular moment of discovery – that form the assemblages of learning. The paper then unveils a set of procedures for unravelling the assemblage, first by “following the people” and their understandings of mobile policy; second, by “following the materials” to experiment with a Latourian approach to materiality; and finally, by “following the meetings”, that is, the conferences, workshops and seminars where the people and materials mingle. The proposed methodology is sensitive to the ephemeral, ethereal and experiential assemblages that carve and sustain the pathways for the movement of knowledge. This interpretation of the methods for studying mobile knowledge is a critical predecessor to any empirical analysis of policy mobilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South African women are vulnerable to rape and other forms of brutality experienced at the hands of men, including their intimate partners. The culturally entrenched patriarchal system encourages the dominance of women by men and expresses the underlying tenor of sexual domination of women. So called 'traditional' forms of African masculinity in turn appear to disempower women and portray the African man as 'strong and aggressive.' The further socialization (normalization?) of various strands of hegemonic masculinity has been identified as the root of gender based violence. The izikhothani- ('township slang' for a man who is supposedly well groomed, and obsessive about fashion and styling his body) offer potentially an alternative construction of (heterosexual) masculinity. For the izikhothani, sex and sexuality play a huge role, especially when it comes to their sense of how they see themselves and how they wish to be seen (by women). However, in tandem with their keen fashion sense and body grooming is their claim that women should be respected and not abused. Given this claim by the izikhothani, this paper brings an empirical gaze to how izikhothani construct their masculinity as well as their perceptions on how women should be treated sexually. The paper asks whether this can be viewed as a potentially alternate and 'softer' kind of African masculinity. Findings reveal however, that rather than offer an alternate form of masculinity, the izikhothani further objectify women, whilst simultaneously chorusing their respect for the opposite sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines student mobility in South Africa via the narratives of three immigrant students who are registered for a post-graduate degree at the University of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN). Their narratives highlight the complexities of assimilation and accommodation in the context of identity, belonging and citizenship. For many student immigrants, particularly from within Africa, South Africa is seen as the 'New York' of Africa, with good infrastructure, a highly developed educational system and enduring political stability. These 'pull' factors aided by 'push' factors in their home countries such as poverty, political violence, lack of basic amenities, has collectively led to an influx of cross border student mobility. This paper identifies and discusses the 'push' and 'pull' factors of cross-border student mobility and the challenges and constraints they experience at UKZN in the context of language barriers, academic facilities, identity, transient families and xenophobia. The findings of this paper concludes that student mobility at the University of Kwazulu-Natal share similar trajectorial paths in the context of decision-making and assimilation in the host country. The paper also argues that to some extent, higher education is used as a channel for emigration to South Africa. The narratives in this study provide an opportunity to document the lives of immigrant students from their own perspective, thereby providing some insight into the complexities of student mobility and its overall implications for South African tertiary institutions. Findings and conclusions from this paper will add to current debates on student mobility both within an African and international context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about the notion of skills transfer in South Africa and the influences that emanate from outside the country. It takes the position that while the concept is recent, skills transfers actually predate its introduction into academic discourse. This is because the skills that slaves and indentured labourers carried with them across continents were not ascribed with the recognition it deserved. The discussion here emphasizes that slavery and indentured labour were characteristically imbued with skills that were requisite to build the infrastructures for which colonial empires became so famous, but they were denied the recognition. Most often concepts such as "unskilled labour" serve as a justification for exploitative conditions under which workers are employed. But beyond the history of these issues is the transference of skills that are also not given due recognition if they are not classified as "certified expertise" through theoretical and sometimes practical training from recognized institutions. In recognizing this contemporary feature among migrants and the skills that they carry with them, this paper highlights the relevant legislative devices that are meant to guide recruitment in South Africa, and suggests that much can be learnt from the technical and entrepreneurial skills that foreigners carry with them into South Africa as instructive lessons for employment among the masses of the unemployed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]