Search

Literature on heritage tourism planning in sub-Saharan Africa is underdeveloped. The aim in this paper is to investigate one highly significant heritage site, which is located in metropolitan Johannesburg, South Africa’s leading urban tourism destination. The specific focus is on Kliptown, a township of modern Soweto, situated 25 km south-west of Johannesburg city centre. In South African history, Kliptown is important in the anti-apartheid struggle for hosting the 1955 Congress of the People and the signing of the Freedom Charter. The planning of Kliptown as a destination for heritage tourism and its local impacts for physical area regeneration are analysed. It is demonstrated that at Kliptown, as has been the case with several other heritage tourism projects implemented during the post-apartheid period, the promised developmental effects for local communities have not materialised.

Scholars examining racial stereotyping and prejudice in racially organised social systems have largely focused on how non-White ethnic and racial groups experience racial stereotyping in White-majority national contexts such as the US, Australia and European countries. There is only scant scholarship on experiences of ethno-racial communities in Black-majority countries such as South Africa, a country where Whites are a minority. Even though there is ample scholarly work on racial stereotyping of racial groups in South Africa such as Coloured people, much of it is focused on their experiences during colonial and Apartheid eras. Little is understood about how Coloured people experience racial stigmatisation in post-Apartheid South Africa. This paper addresses this gap. Based on interviews with fourteen Coloured participants from Westbury, Johannesburg, this study found that many interviewees claimed that Coloured South Africans were negatively racially stereotyped as people who use drugs, as aggressive and violent people, as alcoholics and as criminals. Many participants also resisted and countered the negative stereotypes by talking about Coloured people in positive ways, which shows their agency. The negative stereotyping of Coloured people which prevailed during colonial and Apartheid times is still deployed by society to describe Coloured people in post-Apartheid South Africa. To capture the continuity of negative stereotyping in South Africa about Coloured people, I developed the analytical term of 'perpetual racial stereotyping'. Many decades after the end of the Apartheid system, negative racial stereotyping of Coloured South Africans still continues in everyday life, and Coloured people are still associated with racist prejudices, narratives, discourses and stereotypes that were invented many decades ago by settler colonialism and Apartheid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid waste constitutes one of the most pressing environmental problems, requiring urgent action from urban managers to find appropriate management mechanisms. The rapid increase in municipal solid waste generation is undoubtedly due to the accelerated population growth rate triggered by massive rural-to-urban migration. This paper analyses solid waste management challenges in low-income communities in South Africa, using a case study from Alexandra, Johannesburg. Using qualitative and quantitative research approaches, findings revealed that solid waste is not reliably collected and transported in low-income communities in South Africa. The main obstacles include the scarcity of resources and equipment necessary for waste treatment. To widely involve residents of Alexandra Township in the waste management process, the municipal council should embark on a public awareness campaign. The findings further encourage effective waste sorting techniques, such as separating biodegradable from non-biodegradable waste, so that valuable goods can be taken to the local government recycling centre. The results further encourage the involvement of the homeless and unemployed in the recycling and waste management process, thereby reducing the shortage of human resources and creating jobs. These issues are analysed within the context of evolving arguments that focus on developing a pro-poor approach in solid waste management that may present an opportunity for achieving sustainable solid waste management in Johannesburg, South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion and spirituality are powerful social forces in contemporary South Africa. Traditional Health Practitioners (THPs) are commonly consulted for both spiritual and medical ailments as a first line of care. Many studies have assessed African traditional health seeking behaviors but few have examined beliefs, practices, and behaviors of THPs themselves. This study sought to explore spiritual worldviews among South African THPs. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 THPs in Johannesburg, South Africa between January and May, 2022. Interviews were transcribed and translated into English. Data were managed using NVivo 12 software and thematically analyzed. The majority of THPs interviewed indicated that initiation as a THP was almost always preceded by a sickness accompanied by dreams/visions that represented an "ancestral calling" to become a healer. Most THPs also trained as both sangomas—who healed according to traditional beliefs—and prophets—who healed according to Christian beliefs. This reflects a syncretic relationship between traditional African beliefs and Christianity. However, not all churches are accepting of traditional beliefs and subsequently these THPs are members only at non-Pentecostal AIC churches who blend both African and Christian practices. Similar to these forms of religious pluralism melding Christianity and traditional beliefs, many THPs also often practice medical pluralism, mixing Western treatments with traditional practices/medicines. THPs are able to adapt elements of Western and African beliefs into healing practices that span multiple religious and medical fields. Thus, collaborative and decentralized healthcare services may be highly acceptable among such a pluralistic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There exists a dearth of research on the psychological experiences of childhood communication disorders. Caregivers of these children are one source who can provide us with this information since the child exists within a system. Literature on the experiences of caregivers of children with communication disorders, specifically in the South African city context, is lacking. Objectives: The article presents the reported experiences of six parental caregivers raising a child with a communication disorder within Johannesburg. Method: Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and underwent an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results: Five themes are presented: feeling out of control; barriers to accessing services; caregivers left speechless; a misunderstood disability; and relinquishing control: ‘I needed to be a mommy’. Conclusion: The caregivers relayed an initially negative experience in raising a child with a communication disorder, marred with worry and fear for the future. In accessing services, they narrated their experiences of multiple barriers to access, including an overreliance on the private sector, financial barriers, time constraints, limited resources and poor information on available resources. Eventually, the caregivers were able to identify strengths, skills and capabilities within their children and themselves that allowed for adjustment and coping. Contribution: The findings highlight the importance of considering how barriers to care may marginalise and seclude parental caregivers. Over time, the caregivers were able to empower themselves through building their own knowledge and reformulating their narratives by challenging assumptions and retitling the source of disability as a product of the failure of society.

The Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences at the University of Pécs, which serves as the foundation for our journal, maintains a longstanding partnership with Stellenbosch University, particularly with its team of dedicated geographers. This collaboration led to a visit from Professor Ronnie Donaldson, our guest editor for this issue, who joined us in May 2023 at our invitation. During his visit, in addition to delivering an insightful lecture on rural gentrification, the seeds of this special issue were sown, providing an exciting opportunity to showcase current research from the Small Town Research Unit of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Stellenbosch University, as well as other esteemed geography departments in South Africa, including Rhodes University, North-West University, and the University of Johannesburg.

Researchers have extensively studied self-identification among Coloured people in different places in post-Apartheid South Africa and finding varied self-identification patterns. Little is known about how Coloured people in Westbury, described as a Coloured area, in Johannesburg, self-identify in the post-Apartheid context. The aim of this paper is to explore how Coloured people in Westbury self-identify. This paper forms part of a larger study that explored how Coloured people in Westbury experienced racial marginalization in post-Apartheid South Africa. Eight male and six female participants were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling techniques. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Participants self-identified themselves in several ways. While some subscribed to the Apartheid-created Coloured classification, other participants identified as multiracial South African, South African, South African and Coloured, half-Black, mixed-race South African, and so-called Coloured. I argue that individuals in post-Apartheid South Africa are defining themselves in multiple and complex ways rather than rigidly subscribing to Apartheid racial categories. I also argue that historically race-coded areas in South Africa do not necessarily coincide with self-identification choices of their residents. Furthermore, even if Coloured South Africans are reclassified as ‘Black People’ in Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 (EEA) and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003 (BEE), participants eschewed self-defining as Black People.

Mental disorders are among the most poorly treated illnesses in sub-Saharan Africa. It is estimated that 70%–80% of South Africans consult traditional health practitioners for the treatment of psychological ailments. As traditional health practitioners maintain a strong role in assessing and treating patients with mental illness in this context, this study contributes to the burgeoning research literature on the topic. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 traditional health practitioners in Johannesburg, South Africa, between January and May 2022. Interviews were transcribed and translated into English. The data were managed using NVivo 12 software and thematically analysed. Traditional health practitioners interviewed generally perceived mental illness to be of supernatural causation, either as a result of bewitchment, a calling for patients to become THPs themselves, due to displeased ancestors, or due to natural causes. Traditional health practitioners identified eight primary treatments that they use for treating mental illness. Among these were throwing of bones (tinhlolo) to start communicating with ancestors, steaming (ukufutha) to start a cleansing process, sneezing (umbhemiso) to forcefully dispel the spirit causing the illness, induced vomiting (phalaza), and the administration of laxatives (mahlabekufeni) to remove the spirits poisoning the body as well as animal sacrifice to purge spirits and communicate with ancestors. This is all followed by cutting (ukucaba), which is the final part of the treatment and ensures that the evil spirit cannot return. Due to the ubiquity of traditional health practitioner usage for mental illness in sub-Saharan Africa, it is essential to understand what conceptions traditional health practitioners have of the aetiology of these disorders as well as their modalities for administering treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shannon Walsh and Arya Lalloo are co-directors of the documentary feature Jeppe on a Friday, which documents life in the Johannesburg neighbourhood of Jeppestown. Bettina Malcomess and Dorothee Kreutzfeldt are co-authors of a book on Johannesburg entitled Not No Place (Jacana Media, 2013). What follows is an edited transcript of a conversation about the process of making the documentary film and the book, on the occasion of their tenth anniversary, with special focus on the distinct approaches to, and difficulties of, representing the city of Johannesburg.

Background. There are limited data on the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH). Objectives. The aim was to study the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with MG admitted to the CMJAH over two decades. Methods. A retrospective study was undertaken of patients with MG admitted to the multidisciplinary ICU of CMJAH over a 20-year period, from 1998 to 2017. Demographic data, clinical features, management and outcomes of patients were assessed and reviewed from the case records. Results. Thirty-four patients with MG were admitted to the ICU during this period: 24 female and 10 male. The mean age ± SD was 37.4 ± 13.0 years, with a range of 16 - 66 years. Four patients were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive. The mean length of stay (LOS) in ICU was 10.6 ± 20.1 days, ranging from 1 to 115 days. Two patients were diagnosed with MG in the ICU after failure to wean from the ventilator. Overall, 22 patients were intubated and ventilated on admission. Morbidities included self-extubation, aspiration pneumonia and iatrogenic pneumothorax. History of thymectomy was present in 12 patients. The treatments received for MG included pyridostigmine (73.5%), corticosteroids (55.9%), azathioprine (35.3%), plasmapheresis (26.5%) and intravenous immunoglobulin (8.8%). The overall mortality in the ICU was 5.9%. Conclusion. MG is a serious disorder with considerable morbidity and mortality. It is, however, a potentially manageable disease, provided that appropriate ICU resources are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual health is essential to the complete well-being of every individual, and provision of all-inclusive and superior-quality information about living a healthful sexual life is necessary for everyone in a community, especially for youths. Using data collected in 2019 from 467 male and female immigrant youths between 18 and 34 years of age who resided in a suburb of the inner city of Johannesburg, this secondary analytical study examined the determining factors of sources of information about sexual health, using condoms inconsistently, and engaging in multiple sexual relationships. Binary logistic regression and negative binomial regression models were employed to understand the relationships between explanatory variables and outcome variables. The determinants of the sources of information about sexual health were gender, educational attainment level, wealth index, and age at first sexual intercourse. Gender, age group, marital status, and migration status were the determining factors for inconsistency of condom use. Gender, migration status, marital status, age at first sexual intercourse, and having had sex while drunk were the determinants of engaging in multiple sexual relationships. Avoiding behaviours that expose individuals to sexual risks and the negative consequences of unprotected sexual activity is crucial for youths. This study shows that receiving information about sexual health from informal sources and high-risk sexual behaviour are major public health problems amongst the immigrant youths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: access to family planning services is an important preventive strategy against maternal mortality as it can considerably reduce unintended pregnancies and prevent sequelae of unsafe abortion. We aimed to describe the sociodemographic and reproductive characteristics of abortion seekers and investigate factors associated with uptake of contraceptives following induced abortion at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa. Methods: this study was a crosssectional study among women who had legal termination of unwanted pregnancy at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH), from 1st January 2021 to July 2021. Questionnaires were administered to 80 consenting consecutive clients after undergoing induced abortion. Information on sociodemographic and reproductive characteristics and pattern of contraceptive uptake of the respondents were obtained. Descriptive and bivariate analysis were conducted to determine the pattern and relationship of socio-demographic and reproductive characteristics and contraceptive uptake. Results: the mean age of the 80 respondents was 25.6 ± 6.6 years. Majority of the participants were of the Black race (96.25%, n = 77/80), single (90.00%, n = 72/80), of the Christian faith (80.00%, n = 64/80) and unemployed. The median number of children alive among the clients was 1(0-2), with about 37.5% of the participants being nulliparous. About 16.25% of the participants had had at least one previous termination of pregnancy. The prevalence of post-abortion contraceptive uptake was 97.5% (95%CI: 90.36% - 99.39%, N = 78/80). More than half chose injectable contraceptive (53.85%, 95%CI: 42.60% - 64.71%, N = 42/78), followed by oral contraceptive pills (21.79%, 95%CI: 13.90% - 32.49% N = 17/78). We found no association between socio-demographic and reproductive characteristics, and contraceptive uptake among the abortion clients (p values >0.05). Conclusion: the immediate post-abortion contraceptive uptake in our facility is very high. Majority of the clients accepted injectable contraceptives. The demographic and reproductive characteristics of our clients did not affect uptake of post-abortion contraception. More education is needed to improve uptake of other long-acting contraceptives that may not require frequent contact with the health facility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incidences of residential building hijacking which characterize post-apartheid Johannesburg have drawn debates from diverse fields of scholarship: anthropological, legal, social, literary and even cinema. Do they instantiate outright criminality, incomplete adjustment into the city, strategies for socio-economic restitution or acts of inverse racism? This article, an interdisciplinary probe into the representation of building hijacking in Ralph Ziman's Gangsters Paradise: Jerusalema (2008), uses reductionism philosophy to theorize the practice as an actuation of eccentric post-apartheid culture. Three arguments follow. First, that culture after apartheid has shifted from collective to individual agency. Second, that building hijacking, a dimension of post-apartheid materiality, is a reliable metric of this cultural shift and a component of post-apartheid cultural semiology. And third, that a theory of this emergent post-apartheid culture can benefit from a reductive dialectic. The article concludes that reductionism is a usable critical frame to intercept contemporary nuances of individuated post-apartheid culture to which building hijacking is indexical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is an important destination for immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Migration and its impact remain significant in South African society: demographically, politically, economically and socially. Many migrants are forced to take up informal income-generating activities such as day labouring and car guarding. This study investigated the lived experiences and context of reception of foreign migrant car guards using a survey instrument among formal car guards working in the parking lots of shopping centres in the western part of Johannesburg. Demographic data, employment history and objective and subjective indicators were used to assess their socio-economic and labour market outcomes. The subjective well-being of the migrant car guards was analysed using descriptive statistics and an ordered probit model. The study revealed the extent and depth of the vulnerabilities experienced by individuals subjected to working in the informal economy as well as being migrants. They have to tolerate sub-standard employment in the informal sector as there are no other viable options. At the same time, they must provide for dependants back home. The result is emotional stress and low levels of subjective well-being. Migrant car guards' unique labour market status and relationship with the shopping centres and car guard companies deserve urgent research attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thireshen Govender founded Johannesburg‐based design‐research studio UrbanWorks as a means to read, speculate and intervene in urban situations. Here he illustrates how to look and decipher in a manner that provides tangible evidence for radical and realisable architectures in order to shift the trajectory of urban life in volatile contexts by deploying space and architecture as a political instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hannah le Roux is an architect and architectural historian specialising in the modern architecture of Southern Africa. An Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, here she documents the importance of football to local communities and its binding effect in strengthening societal bonds and providing a sense of self‐determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of long-term comparative research into the Gauteng City-Region, this article presents mixed-methods studies in the informal settlement of Denver, located in the industrial belt southeast of Johannesburg's city center. It unpacks the results of focus groups, ethnographic and expert interviews, as well as mapping with an innovative smartphone tracking application, comparing everyday life for several households in this area before the pandemic in 2019 and during the pandemic in 2020. Findings show that the pandemic exacerbated the disproportionate burdens related to gendered roles of household management, childcare, and mobility, both on the macro- as well as the micro-scale. The article thus defines the "gender--poverty--mobility nexus' that shapes space and everyday life in the Gauteng City-Region, precluding places like Denver from overcoming their marginality. Post-pandemic planning policy could be transformative for such spaces if it can build on this knowledge to better identify the needs of these vulnerable social groups and connect them to opportunities. It concludes with suggestions on how these empirically revealed dynamics could be translated into responses on the urban and regional scales, in the name of more equitable, resilient planning futures for Johannesburg and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leathermen communities have been documented in the Global North since the 1970s. In this article, I introduce, for the first time, the gay leathermen of Johannesburg to scholars of alternative sexualities. I argue that the leathermen subculture was brought ashore by global flows of culture in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as by international travellers in the 1970s, but is hidden in furtive gay and lesbian communities. A definable local subculture emerged between 1983 and 2000, and in 2001 leathermen coalesced around Metropolis, a bar in downtown Johannesburg. Drawing data from Exit, South Africa's longest running gay newspaper, as well as the owners of Metropolis, I map the development of the leathermen subculture between 1983-2006. I argue that their BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism) ethos and their public sex in leather bars are met by resistance and harassment from conservative elements in the gay and lesbian community, as well as police and public health official [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a huge demand for housing in Johannesburg, South Africa, due to significant in-migration as well as the legacy of apartheid. Rental housing supply in Johannesburg is particularly constrained. Despite this, little is known about the formal rental market in terms of middle income access. Thus, this explorative qualitative study seeks to partially address this research gap. Results show that specific legislative constraints, namely the National Credit Act and the Prevention of Illegal Eviction and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act, have created an imbalance between the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants, driving onerous credit checks and documentary demands, all of which are inadvertently excluding individuals from the formal rental market. Thus, while race previously excluded many from the suburbs under study, class now seems to be a significant factor in terms of who can access rental property. As such, rental housing supply is to some degree artificially constrained.

As part of long-term comparative research into the Gauteng City-Region, this article presents mixed-methods studies in the informal settlement of Denver, located in the industrial belt southeast of Johannesburg’s city center. It unpacks the results of focus groups, ethnographic and expert interviews, as well as mapping with an innovative smartphone tracking application, comparing everyday life for several households in this area before the pandemic in 2019 and during the pandemic in 2020. Findings show that the pandemic exacerbated the disproportionate burdens related to gendered roles of household management, childcare, and mobility, both on the macro- as well as the micro-scale. The article thus defines the “gender–poverty–mobility nexus” that shapes space and everyday life in the Gauteng City-Region, precluding places like Denver from overcoming their marginality. Post-pandemic planning policy could be transformative for such spaces if it can build on this knowledge to better identify the needs of these vulnerable social groups and connect them to opportunities. It concludes with suggestions on how these empirically revealed dynamics could be translated into responses on the urban and regional scales, in the name of more equitable, resilient planning futures for Johannesburg and beyond.

Johannesburg and South Africa's history and contingencies of colonisation, apartheid and a complex transition to democracy shaped different iterations of Pieter Roos Park. I argue that the dynamics and contingencies of the park in turn played a role in shaping those same histories. Using public space as a lens into history is revealing of how the formation of different publics and their resultant conflicts have produced a public culture of contestation that is embedded in Johannesburg. These dynamics were refracted and reflected in Pieter Roos Park, the development, management and use of which contributed to the changing public culture of the city. Lefebvre's spatial triad helps reveal how different drivers, motivations and processes interact to produce space, cutting through different levels of complexity and temporality in the interactions between public space and spatial (in)justice. Based primarily on archival research and interviews, this article shows how historical contestations that shaped the production of space at Pieter Roos Park demonstrate its shifting potential for publicness and spatial justice. This offers new insight into the micro-level realities of tensions and opposing sentiments that shaped public space and public culture during apartheid and the transition to democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Age, body mass index (BMI) and pre-existing comorbidities are known risk factors of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this study we explore the relationship between vitamin D status and COVID-19 severity. Methods: We conducted a prospective, cross-sectional descriptive study. We enrolled 100 COVID-19 positive patients admitted to a tertiary level hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. Fifty had symptomatic disease (COVID-19 pneumonia) and 50 who were asymptomatic (incidental diagnosis). Following written informed consent, patients were interviewed regarding age, gender and sunlight exposure during the past week, disease severity, BMI, calcium, albumin, magnesium and alkaline phosphatase levels. Finally, blood was collected for vitamin D measurement. Results: We found an 82% prevalence rate of vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency among COVID-19 patients. Vitamin D levels were lower in the symptomatic group (18.1 ng/mL ± 8.1 ng/mL) than the asymptomatic group (25.9 ng/mL ± 7.1 ng/mL) with a p-value of 0.000. The relative risk of symptomatic COVID-19 was 2.5-fold higher among vitamin D deficient patients than vitamin D non-deficient patients (confidence interval [CI]: 1.14–3.26). Additional predictors of symptomatic disease were older age, hypocalcaemia and hypoalbuminaemia. Using multiple regression, the only independent predictors of COVID-19 severity were age and vitamin D levels. The patients exposed to less sunlight had a 2.39-fold increased risk for symptomatic disease compared to those with more sunlight exposure (CI: 1.32–4.33). Conclusion: We found a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency among patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 and an increased risk for symptomatic disease in vitamin D deficient patients.

Stigma remains an important barrier to seeking and staying in care among individuals infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Despite continued widespread information, education and communication campaigns to raise awareness about the infection. The aim of the study was to identify factors related to HIV stigma among a commuter population in the inner-city Johannesburg. A self-administered closed-ended questionnaire was loaded onto personal tablet computers during a community outreach campaign. The outcome was measured by asking the respondents to rate their perceptions of stigma as ‘high or low’. About 1146 participants were enrolled in the study of which 585 (51.0%) reported high stigma levels. Overall, being married/cohabiting (Adjusted Prevalence Ratio (APR): 1.14 95%CI: 1.02–1.28), divorced (APR: 1.38 95%CI: 1.07–1.78), were associated with high levels of stigma; while being aware of HCT services (APR: 0.85 95%CI: 0.75–0.97) and employment status (APR: 0.78 95%CI: 0.71–0.87) were less likely associated with a high level of stigma. High HIV stigma still exists among those affected in our communities. Enhancement of health promotion intervention and reinforcing the benefits of knowing HIV status is essential to mitigate factors shown to influence stigma in the commuter population. Such an approach would help overcome stigma, an obstacle for expanding access to HIV testing and counselling.