Soil biota in a megadiverse country current knowledge and future research directions in South Africa
- Authors: Janion-Scheepers, Charlene , Measey, John , Braschler, Brigitte , Chown, Steven L , Coetzee, Louisee , Colville, Jonathan F , Dames, Joanna F , Davies, Andrew B , Davies, Sarah J , Davis, Adrian L V , Dippenaar-Schoeman, Ansi S , Duffy, Grant A , Fouries, Driekie , Griffiths, Charles , Haddad, Charles R , Hamer, Michelle , Herbert, David G , Hugo-Coetzee, Elizabeth A , Jacobs, Adriaanas , Jacobs, Karin , Jansen van Rensburg, Candice , Lamani, Siviwe , Lotz, Leon N , vdm Louw, Schalk , Lyle, Robin , Malan, Antoinette P , Marais, Mariette , Neethling, Jan-Andries , Nxele, Thembeka , Plisko, Danuta J , Prendini, Lorenzo , Rink, Ariella N , Swart, Antionette , Theron, Pieter , Truter, Mariette , Ueckermnn, Eddie , Uys, Vivienne M , Villet, Martin H , Willows-Munro, Sandy , Wilson, R U
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/448682 , vital:74751 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedobi.2016.03.004
- Description: Soils are integral to agricultural productivity, biodiversity, and the maintenance of ecosystem services. However, soil ecosystem research depends on foundational biological knowledge that is often missing. In this review, we present a comprehensive, cross-taxa overview of the soil biota of South Africa. We discuss the literature and sampling methods used to assess soil biota, the available taxonomic expertise and main collections within South Africa, the availability of identification guides and online resources, and the status and distribution of described species. We include species lists for all South African soil biota and, for groups with sufficient distribution records, species richness maps. Despite South Africa being only 0.8% of the earth’s terrestrial area, it contains nearly 1.8% of the world’s described soil species (mean per taxon 3.64%, range 0.17–15%; n = 36 groups), with nematodes and earthworms showing a remarkable (6.4 and 7.7%) proportion of globally described diversity. Endemism is high for most groups, ranging from 33–92%. However, major knowledge gaps exist for most soil biota groups. While sampling has been relatively comprehensive in some areas for a few groups (particularly those with direct socioeconomic impacts), the Nama-Karoo, Northern Cape and Eastern Cape are poorly sampled. Natural soils in biodiversity hotspots, such as the Fynbos Biome, are also understudied. We argue that a more integrative approach to acquiring foundational knowledge in soil biodiversity is needed if applied soil research is to be effective in ensuring sustainable soil health. Considerable investment will be required to bring our understanding of the soil biodiversity in this megadiverse region to a level where the Millennium Development Goals can be reached.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Popular justice in a "new South Africa": from people's courts to community courts in Alexandra
- Authors: Nina, Daniel
- Date: 1992-03
- Subjects: Justice, Administration of -- Political aspects -- South Africa , Justice, Administration of -- South Africa , Courts -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/72807 , vital:30116 , 187485680X
- Description: Imagine a "new South Africa" in which, to borrow an idea from a former bureaucrat of the US State Department, history has come to an end.3 A new society in which class, race and gender are no longer necessary categories to define the social phenomenon. South Africa will be, then, the "terrestrial paradise". However, I am afraid to remind the reader that in this particular African country, history has not come to an end. This country experiences the most open and rude expression of struggle (class, race and gender), and it is difficult to foresee that in this period of transition, history or the struggle, will come to an end. Popular justice vis ei vis state justice is, perhaps, one of the best examples in which the struggle between the oppressed and the oppressors is manifested. But the popular justice that I am thinking of, is that particular experience of "people’s legality" that has emerged in South Africa since the popular revolts of the mid-1980s. It could have its origins in African (customary) traditions (Bapela, 1987), but the cultural experience that emerged during the last decade went beyond its traditionalist roots (Suttner, 1986). Thus, the distinctive element of popular justice is that it has been ingrained in a democratic movement for empowering the people. What people?4 Whose justice? In the specific context of South Africa, by people I understand the working class and working classes, unemployed and marginal sectors, and different social sectors that are struggling for equality (ie the youth, women, gays and lesbians, and others). By justice, I mean the development of a new legality that will take into consideration the many gains that have been achieved within the Western legal system of "rights and obligations" (Pashukanis, 1978:100), and that goes beyond that model in the construction of a democratic society with wider social participation. So far, it has been in South Africa’s black townships that an incipient expression of popular justice has emerged.6 The 1980s people’s courts represented a synthesis of a popular project defining its own structures of legality. State repression over these popular structures did not represent the end of the project. In contrast to other points of view that have viewed this experience as a prefigurative enterprise that did not accomplish its aims (see in general Allison, 1990), I argue that the experience of popular justice of the 1980s laid the foundation for a (long term) project leading towards a radical conception of democracy (Laclau, 1990:chapter 6). , Occasional papers (University of the Witwatersrand. Centre for Applied Legal Studies) ; v. 15
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- Date Issued: 1992-03
Action notes: No. 6: Constitutions
- Authors: Human Awareness Programme
- Date: 1990-05
- Subjects: Nonprofit organizations -- Management , Nonprofit organizations -- Finance
- Language: English
- Type: instruction , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60086 , vital:27731 , ISBN 1-874808-03-1
- Description: Before an organisation can draw up a constitution, it must decide what kind of organisation it wants to be. An organisation can be a legally constituted organisation which registers with government bodies or it can be an organisation by constitution alone. If an organisation makes a profit from selling things or else administers large sums of money, it must be legally constituted. Such an organisation would be called a closed corporation or a trust fund. If you want to write such a constitution, you should consult a lawyer for advice. Organisations such as civic organisations or advice offices are usually organisations by constitution alone. This means that there is a clause in the constitution which says the organisation has its own personality and that it can be sued or be in debt just like an ordinary person. This book will help those who want to write constitutions for organisations which are organisations by constitution alone.
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- Date Issued: 1990-05
Self-esteem and aggressive behaviour: a pilot study
- Authors: Rossouw, Gabriel Johannes
- Date: 1987
- Subjects: Aggressiveness , Self-esteem
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3151 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007471 , Aggressiveness , Self-esteem
- Description: From Introduction: "That man is an aggressive creature will hardly be disputed. With the exception of certain rodents, no other vertebrate habitually destroys members of his own species. No other animal takes positive pleasure in the excercise of cruelty upon another of his kind" (A. Storr, 1968 p. ix). It is a sombre fact that man is the cruellest and most ruthless specie that has ever walked on earth. We recoil in horror when we read the daily newspaper or in a history book of the atrocities committed by man, but as A. Storr puts it: "....., we know in our hearts that each one of us harbours within himself those savage impulses which lead to murder, to torture and to war." (p. ix). Our warranted concern with this phenomenon is portrayed by the tremendous amount of research in this field which can be sub-divided into two distinct categories. The first category consist of those that emphasize nurture in their attempt to gain a deeper understanding of human aggression, of which the behaviourists and social learning theorists are staunch supporters. Underlying their concern and endeavour is the personal belief that aggression is attributable to environmental factors. In short, they maintain that humans are not aggressive by nature and if one follows their argument to its logical conclusion it would allow for a sigh of relief and inspiration. Their research results indicate that well deliberated methods of control would most certainly result in the extinction or near extinction of aggression. The second category consist of those, notably the psycho-analytic school of thought, who emphasize nature in their understanding of human aggression and do not allow themselves the naivety of projecting aggression into environmental conditions and situations. In short, they argue that aggression is innate and serves a particular function in the psychological development of the human being. It is their contention that aggressiveness supports the individual in his drive towards independence. The aim of this paper is to present both stances and to broaden the perspective by introducing a view that straddles both nature and nurture. Following this view, of whom Rollo May (1972) is a strong supporter, to its logical conclusion would indicate that aggression is the result of nature as well as nurture and that it serves the function of re-establishing a sense of worth and significance that has otherwise been thwarted. Finally, this paper sets out to prove that aggression and violence "feeds on a low self- esteem and self-doubt" (Toch. 69, p. 212).
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- Date Issued: 1987
Work in Progress Issue no.36
- Authors: WIP
- Date: April 1985
- Subjects: WIP
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111431 , vital:33453
- Description: Police shootings in Uitenhage's Langa township have deepened an already serious crisis of township rule. In rural and urban areas alike, black townships look more like war zones than residential areas. With police and army occupation, and a legal ban on gatherings in areas most affected, the claim of civil war is not far-fetched. Under pressure from organised capital and conservative Western interests, government lurches from blunder to crisis in an attempt to give substance to its 'new deal'. Increasing pressure from a surprisingly united disinvestment lobby in the USA and elsewhere, is matched by a growing international belief that the Botha government cannot deliver even limited reforms. Moderate and conservative Western interests have at last realised that change South African government-style does not necessarily involve progress. While the rebellion of the townships involves attacks on the symbols of political power - police, local authority or community council representatives - the underlying basis of rebellion is increasingly economic. Millions are unemployed. More and more school leavers and boycotting pupils know that they will never be employed. Retrenched workers experience a desperate situation as one-time family breadwinners - with little or no social security, savings, or prospects of employment. Sustained economic recovery seems unlikely without transforming the very nature of the economy. And any containment of the ever-growing township crisis is dependent on high economic growth. Neither world economic trends, nor government's monetarist policies, seem likely to pull the economy out of its fatal combination of high inflation and stagnation. If recession is to be a permanent feature of the next few years, then an increasingly ungovernable crisis-ridden society is a real prospect.
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- Date Issued: April 1985