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The role of tutorship programmes at universities is well documented. Given the continual challenges faced by universities such as low pass rates, low retention rates, low graduation rates, under-preparedness of first-year students, low throughput rates, and at-risk students, tutorship programmes have become an indispensable part of teaching and learning at universities. Tutorship programmes are one of the key interventions put in place by universities to ameliorate these challenges as part of student support and development mechanisms. It is said that a positive correlation exists between tutorship and improved student academic performance. Additionally, tutorship programmes are beneficial for tutors as well, as they develop critical skills throughout the programme. As such, it is befitting to reflect critically on the sustainability of the tutorship programme as a tool for student development (both the tutor and the student). This paper adopts a systems approach to reflect on the question of how to sustain a tutorship programme at a university of technology. A systems approach is a management technique used for examining all critical areas of an organisation. Within the context of higher education, it makes it possible to analyse teaching and learning enterprise and enable an appropriate analysis of the critical areas of the tutorship programme. A systems approach is adopted in this paper to demonstrate the holistic functioning of the tutorship programme, its tenets, as well as the factors that affect its sustainability. To understand the sustainability of tutorship, it is not enough to view it merely as a product of teaching and learning and the responsibility of academic departments and lecturers: rather, tutorship should be seen as an integral part of a university system, a more complex phenomenon than a mere sum of its constituent tenets, because the interrelationship between parts of the university plays a critical role for the sustainability of the tutorship programme.

This paper examines how political changes affect the management of extractive resources in South Africa. It does this by utilising the "Political Settlement" framework, which considers the roles of politics, power, and institutions in shaping economic and development outcomes. This article applies this approach to South Africa's political settlement in post-Apartheid South Africa, examining political and economic interests that have impacted the governance of the extractive industry, using the platinum group metals (PGMs) mining sector as a case study. It argues that political and economic elites' interests have influenced the governance of the extractive industry and the potential for inclusive development, with significant consequences for poor black South Africans. Consequently, South Africa's political settlement has contributed to the marginalisation of mining communities. The findings show that politics shapes the governance of the extractive industry in South Africa and that the country's stability is inextricably linked to the governance of its extractive mineral resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional development of academics in higher education in South Africa has been offered in an uncoordinated and unsustainable manner. Ever since the new dispensation, concerted efforts have been implemented to address this problem. As part of the solution, universities through their academic development units, have introduced various pedagogical training workshops to equip academics with teaching skills. This study investigates perceptions of academics pertaining to this training. A multi-method cross-sectional research design was adopted to understand lecturers' perspectives regarding professional development. A total of 45 participants were purposefully selected to participate in the study from the academics who attended the pedagogical training. A questionnaire (closed and open-ended) was used to collect data. Quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), while thematic analysis was applied to analyse qualitative data. Results of the study revealed that the training was well-received and academic staff members felt motivated and confident to implement various instructional strategies acquired from the training. Participants expressed a need and willingness to learn and develop new instructional techniques and acquired a positive outlook on teaching and learning following the professional development training. The study recommends redesigning the pedagogical training to include ongoing support activities and customisation in addition to the generic version. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infertility is a serious reproductive health challenge that has a far-reaching impact on women's lives as they, inevitably, are the ones blamed for the failure to conceive. Despite availability of Western treatments to manage infertilit y, women frequently consult indigenous healthcare practitioners (IHCP) for healthcare, preferring these services to Western practice due to reasons such as accessibility and affordability. The study used a qualitative explorative, descriptive, and contextual design. Both purposive and snowballing technique were used to identify five women whom indigenous practitioners had assisted to conceive. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted and data were analyzed using the Tesch method of data analysis. IHCPs are known experts in managing infertility, experiences of women on indigenous management of infertility and continuous holistic management of infertility among women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has exposed the inequalities and polarisation of South African communities and institutions of higher learning on the continuum of privilege. As nine social work educators, we share our reflections on how we traversed the higher education space during the beginning of the pandemic, using an autoethnography lens, with the pedagogy of discomfort and critical social work theory as the threads in the complex tapestry of our stories. We describe our orientations as social work educators, the successes, challenges, and recommendations on reimagining and reframing learning and teaching in relation to student-institutional relationships, boundaries and support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the spillover effects of external financial conditions to South Africa using quarterly domestic and international data from 1996Q1 to 2014Q4. First, principal component analysis and vector autoregressive model are utilized to build financial conditions indices for South Africa and its main trading partners, namely, China, Germany, the United States, Japan, the United King, Netherlands, Italy, France and Belgium. Consistently across both methodologies, the financial conditions indices obtained track each other fairly well and capture the 2008/09 global financial crisis. Second, a Global Vector Autoregressive model comprised of financial indices and other macroeconomic variables is implemented to assess how international financial shocks spillover into South Africa. Our findings show that a sudden tightening of the US financial conditions has a significant but short lived effect on the South Africa's real GDP growth while the spillover effects from other trading partners appear to be of negligible impact throughout the sample period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Awareness of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW 1979) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC 1989) is relatively high within academic and political circles in South Africa and elsewhere around the world. In South Africa, this can be ascribed mainly to the powerful women's lobby movements represented in government and academic sectors. Women and children's issues have been especially highlighted in South Africa over the last few years. In this process, the aforementioned two international human rights instruments have proved very useful. There is a gender desk in each national department. The Office on the Status of Women and the Office on Child Rights have been established within the Office of the President, indicating the importance attached to these institutions. These offices are responsible for co-ordinating governmental efforts towards the promotion and protection of women and children's rights respectively, including the two relevant treaties. Furthermore, there is also great awareness amongst non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in respect of CEDAW and CRC. This can be ascribed mainly to the fact that there is a very strong women's NGO lobby and NGOs are actively committed to the promotion of children's rights. Women are increasingly vocal and active within the politics of South Africa, but the weight of customary practices remains heavy. The foregoing is evident in the widening gap between policy theory and practice in the fraternity of vulnerable groups - children and women in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Assigning qualified interpreters is considered one of the most effective approaches to facilitate communication in language-discordant encounters in mental healthcare. However, particularly in settings with fewer resources, they are not always available and informal practices are often used., Objective: This study aimed to investigate informal interpreting practices in mental healthcare in South Africa, focusing on security guards (SGs) serving as interpreters., Methods: Guided interviews were conducted with SGs (n = 12) and mental healthcare providers (MHCPs) (n = 18) at a psychiatric hospital in South Africa. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach., Results: Despite recognizing that SGs serving as interpreters is not an ideal solution to overcome language barriers and could potentially jeopardize the quality of treatment and its outcomes, MHCPs reported relying heavily on them due to the underrepresentation of South Africa's linguistic diversity among them. Given the lack of formal interpreting services, the perceived racial, linguistic and socioeconomic similarities between SGs and some service users, as well as their immediate accessibility, were described as beneficial to providing a minimal level of care (e.g. obtaining information about service users' backgrounds, getting an understanding of their symptoms, psychoeducation, explaining treatment options). Drawbacks reported are SGs being pulled away from their actual duties, experiencing emotional distress, juggling multiple sometimes conflicting roles, and the risk of incorrect interpretation, which could compromise ethical standards of care. Additionally, the complexity of power became apparent: While SGs hold little institutional power within the mental healthcare system, they become powerful figures when serving as interpreters., Conclusion: It can be assumed that MHCPs will resort to informal interpreting practices as long as effective alternatives are lacking. In doing so, risks such as reduced quality of care are accepted, and the consequences and effects on those serving as interpreters are neglected, which raises concerns from an ethical point of view., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Security guards (SGs) play a significant role in health care and are an integral part of many psychiatric institutions. While their main duty is to ensure service users' (SUs) and staff's safety and protect the premises, they are also called upon for other tasks, often ones for which they are not adequately trained. This study aimed to explore the roles, formal and informal tasks performed, training, working conditions and well-being of SGs working in psychiatric services., Methods: Guided interviews were conducted with n = 12 SGs and n = 18 mental healthcare providers (MHCPs) at a psychiatric hospital in the Western Cape of South Africa. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach., Results: In addition to ensuring safety, SGs take on numerous informal tasks, often for which they are not adequately trained and which formally fall under the purview of other MHCPs, mostly nurses, including talking with SUs about their mental health issues, dressing, showering, feeding, and administering medication. SGs also serve informally as interpreters, raising ethical concerns regarding accuracy and confidentiality. SGs lack formal training for working in psychiatric services and handling aggressive SUs, which may lead to increased violence instead of de-escalation and, in the worst case, injuries. SGs work under precarious working conditions (i.e. low salary, outsourced employment, absence of labour rights and job insecurity) and lack professional recognition, potentially leading to lower job satisfaction and increased emotional distress., Conclusion: Addressing the challenges outlined in the study requires collaborative efforts between government, psychiatric institutions, private security companies, SGs and MHCPs. The establishment of clear roles, implementation of comprehensive formal training, psychosocial support and improved working conditions, particularly in-house employment, higher pay, increased employee rights and job security, are needed., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: The burden of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in areas of sub-Saharan Africa with poor access to health care services is not well documented. In remote areas of South Africa, we investigated the prevalence of STIs and approaches to providing STI services through a mobile clinic., Methods: We recruited 251 adult women visiting a mobile clinic that normally provides general health education and screening services, but not STI care. Clinical and sexual history was obtained and vaginal specimens were tested for Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Trichomonas vaginalis, and Mycoplasma genitalium infection and for Candida albicans and bacterial vaginosis., Results: Laboratory test was positive for 133 (53%) of 251 women for at least 1 STI: C. trachomatis was observed in 52 (21%) women, N. gonorrhoeae in 39 (16%) women, T. vaginalis in 81 (32%) women and M. genitalium in 21 (8%) women. Eighty-one (32%) women met the criteria for vaginal discharge syndrome, of which 58% (47/81) would have been treated accurately. Among asymptomatic women 84 (49%) of 170 were diagnosed with an STI but untreated under the syndromic approach. We could not identify factors associated with asymptomatic STI infection., Conclusions: There is a high unmet need for STI care in rural South African settings with poor access to health care services. Provision of STI services in a mobile clinic using the syndromic management approach provides a useful approach, but would have to be enhanced by targeted diagnostics to successfully address the burden of infection.