Constructing confidence intervals for polarization mode dispersion
- Authors: Erlank, Warrick
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Fiber optics , Polarization (Light)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:10571 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/951 , Fiber optics , Polarization (Light)
- Description: Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) causes significant impairment in high bit-rate optical telecommunications systems. Knowledge of a fibre’s PMD mean value, and the relevant confidence interval, is essential for determining a fibre’s maximum allowable bit-rate. Various methods of confidence interval construction for time series data were tested in this dissertation using simulation. These included the autocovariance-matrix methods as suggested by Box and Jenkins, as well as the more practical and simpler batch means methods. Some of these methods were shown to be significantly better than the standard method of calculating confidence intervals for non time series data. The best of the tested methods were used on actual PMD data. The effect of using polarization scramblers was also tested.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
Constructions of masculinity in young men's narratives of violence in the homeplace
- Authors: Stride, Lorenzo
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Family violence , Masculinity , Men -- Identity , Men -- Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , M Soc Sc (C Psy)
- Identifier: vital:11847 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/185 , Family violence , Masculinity , Men -- Identity , Men -- Psychology
- Description: This research was undertaken with a view to advancing scholarship on the production and reproduction of notions of masculinity through everyday experiences of violence in the domestic sphere. In particular, the researcher sought to explicate constructions of masculinity in men’s narratives of their experiences of violence in the homeplace. The participants in this study constituted a fairly homogenous sample in terms of age, education, geographic location, and socio-economic status. A homogenous sample was purposefully selected because it aided an analysis of the phenomenon under study without diversions from extraneous variables. Data was collected from semi-structured, personal, in-depth, face-to-face interviews with eight young men. In these interviews participants were asked to recall and to talk about one particular experience of domestic violence that they witnessed or that had happened to them in the past. Photo elicitation was used as a reflective technique aimed at facilitating recall and discussion during the interviews. Data was analysed by means of a discourse analysis. The main findings of this research were that the participants grew up in communities where a more traditional hegemonic masculinity was commonplace and where violence as a means of exerting control was associated with being a ‘real man’. The participants did however question this notion of masculinity as a result of their experiences, particularly when they perceived the violence that they had been exposed to as excessive or unwarranted.
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- Date Issued: 2008
consumed society
- Authors: Krueger, Anton
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/229840 , vital:49716 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC47802"
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- Date Issued: 2008
consumed society
- Authors: Krueger, Anton
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , poem
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/462952 , vital:76350 , ISBN 0028-4459 , https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.10520/EJC47802
- Description: New Coin is one of South Africa's most established and influential poetry journals. It publishes poetry, and poetry-related reviews, commentary and interviews. New Coin places a particular emphasis on evolving forms and experimental use of the English language in poetry in the South African context. In this sense it has traced the most exciting trends and currents in contemporary poetry in South Africa for a decade of more. The journal is published twice a year in June and December by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA), Rhodes University.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Contextual obstacles to the delivery of effective psychological treatment of PTSD in a South African community setting
- Authors: Swartz, Kerry
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Post-traumatic stress disorder -- Treatment -- South Africa Rape victims -- Counseling of -- South Africa Psychic trauma -- Treatment HIV infections -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3068 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002577
- Description: The present study presents three individual cases; all three clients had endured a traumatic event, namely rape, and all three met the criteria for PTSD. Despite the fact that each of the clients was initially assessed as being a suitable candidate for psychological treatment, none of the cases proceeded to the therapy phase of treatment. A number of obstacles, both personal and contextual, were encountered during treatment implementation, preventing or limiting a successful outcome of psychological treatment in each case. An examination of these cases highlights a few of the many obstacles frequently faced when delivering psychological treatment to the South African context. In so doing, this research provides an opportunity to consider the possible reasons for the limited documentation of treatment efficacy within the South African context, as well as to enhance our understanding of and sensitivity towards the cultural and contextual factors playing a role in psychological treatment.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Contextualising formal education for improved relevance: A case from the Rufiji Wetlands, Tanzania
- Authors: Hogan, Rose
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373591 , vital:66705 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122762"
- Description: The aim of this action research case study was to engage a community of villagers, teachers, students and district officers in a participatory process to adapt a module of a school curriculum to the local context, and teach it in order to describe one way in which contextualisation, using local and indigenous knowledge and active discovery teaching-learning processes, can be done. The major research question was: Does integrating local environmental cultural knowledge into formal schooling contribute to curriculum relevance? If so, in what way? This paper summarises the background and context of the research, the motivation and the theoretical basis for the work, the methodology and methods, and the action research process itself. The results are interpreted and discussed in light of current theoretical perspectives on education and environmental education.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Contextualising learning in Advanced Certificate in Education (Environmental Education) courses : synthesising contexts and experiences
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Le Roux, Cheryl , Loubser, Callie , Schudel, Ingrid J , O'Donoghue, Rob B , Shallcross, Tony
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:21224 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7167 , http://0-hdl.handle.net.wam.seals.ac.za/10520/EJC32180
- Description: We report on experiences in the Advanced Certificate in Education (Environmental Education) courses of two South African universities, namely, Rhodes University and the University of South Africa. We focus specifically on the whole school approaches which were influenced by a project between these two universities and Manchester Metropolitan University. We illustrate how contextual profiling influenced the perspective or entry point from which the whole school message was approached in the ACE (EE) courses. Through illustrative examples from these two courses, we report on two different approaches to contextual profiling, starting by problematising an approach that relies solely on a priori contextual profiling. We then illustrate how this approach can be complemented by contextual profiling within courses and within context through situated learning processes.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Corporate governance for sustainable development : implications for non-executive directors and the management accounting function
- Authors: Jodwana, Thembinkosi Anthony Vincent
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Corporate governance , Sustainable development , Directors of corporations , Corporations -- Finance -- Management
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MTech
- Identifier: vital:8975 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/807 , Corporate governance , Sustainable development , Directors of corporations , Corporations -- Finance -- Management
- Description: This paper will discuss the role that corporate governance can play in promoting sustainable development. Sustainable development is discussed in relation to three things: • Current development which does not result in the damage and destruction of the environment to the detriment of future inhabitants of this planet. This paper will discuss the role that corporate governance can play in promoting sustainable development. Sustainable development is discussed in relation to three things: • Current development which does not result in the damage and destruction of the environment to the detriment of future inhabitants of this planet.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Corporeal identification in selected works by Berni Searle
- Authors: Taggart, Emma
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Searle, Berni Lacan, Jacques, 1901-1981 -- Criticism and interpretation Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 1908-1961 -- Criticism and interpretation Women artists -- South Africa Body art -- South Africa Self-portraits
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2434 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004576
- Description: Through a detailed analysis of a selection of works produced between 1999 and 2003 by the South African artist Berni Searle, this thesis explores the need to theorise a corporeal viewer in the process of interpreting art works. Such an approach is particularly necessary when dealing with an artist such as Searle because her work, which deals predominantly with the theme of identity, appeals not only to conceptual but also to experiential and corporeal understandings of identity. Searle incorporates the viewer into an experience of her own identity through a physical identification that the viewer feels in relation to her work. For viewers this means that they are made aware of how their own identity in the moment of interpretation is contingent on visual, mental and physical components. In order to develop this argument the work of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty is drawn on. These two theorists are very useful for an argument of this nature because both interpret identity as a construction involving an enfolding between the mind and, via the act of vision, the body of the subject. Through an inclusion of the corporeal element in interpretation, this thesis also offers a critique of interpretive theories that would reduce analysis to an interaction between eye and mind by analyzing how the viewer's body participates in the act of looking.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Corporeal tales : an investigation into narrative form in contemporary South African dance and choreography
- Authors: Parker, Alan Charles
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Sichel, Adrienne Krouse, Matthew Dance -- South Africa Choreography -- South Africa Choreographers -- South Africa Dance criticism -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2157 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007658
- Description: In the years following the fall of Apartheid in South Africa, dance and choreography have undergone considerable transformation. This investigation stems from one observation relative to this change that has been articulated by two of South Africa's most respected dance critics, Adrienne Sichel and Matthew Krouse. Both critics have noted a growing concern for narrative in South African contemporary choreography, coupled with an apparent propensity for narratives of a distinctly personal and 'autobiographical' nature. In Part One: 'Just after the beginning', the proposed preoccupation with narrative in South African contemporary choreography is discussed in light of the relationship between narrative and the notion of personal identity. The use of the performed narrative as a medium to explore questions about identity is offered as one explanation underpinning this increased proclivity, where the interrogation of the form of the danced narrative provides a site for exploration of personal identity. Part Two: 'Somewhere in the middle' interrogates the notion of form through an in-depth discussion of the experimentation with form within theatrical and antitheatrical dance traditions over the last fifty years. Specific works by three selected South African choreographers (Ginslov, Maqoma and Sabbagha) are discussed in terms of their general approach to narrative form. This provides an illustration of some of the approaches to narrative form emergent in contemporary South African choreographic practices. Part Three: 'Nearing the end' offers Acty Tang's Chaste (2007) as a case study to illustrate the practical application of the dance narrative as a means to interrogate questions relating to personal identity. A detailed analysis of Tang's particular approach to forming the narrative of Chaste is conducted, exposing the intertextual, multimedia and multidisciplinary approach to creating the danced narrative.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Cranial ontogeny of the sole, dagetichthys marginatus (soleidae), with considerations on the feeding ability of larvae and early juveniles
- Authors: Ende, Stephan Siegfried Werner
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Soleidae , Fishes -- Larvae -- Food , Flatfishes -- Nutrition , Artemia
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:5250 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005093 , Soleidae , Fishes -- Larvae -- Food , Flatfishes -- Nutrition , Artemia
- Description: The overall aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the feeding mechanisms of the larvae and early juveniles of the sole, Dagetichthys marginatus (Soleidae), with which to assess the suitability of current feeding protocols and to facilitate the development of an appropriate pelleted feed. This was achieved by examining the ontogeny of the cranium of laboratory reared sole, with particular emphasis on those elements associated with feeding and by comparing the cranium of juvenile fish with that of adult fish. At 4 dah (days after hatch) Dagetichthys marginatus larvae develop the first rudimentary branchial arches that facilitates the capture and ingestion of food items. Subsequent development of cranial structures, such as the oral jaws, suspensorium, neurocranium, hyoid and branchial arches and the opercular apparatus enables the larvae, at 16 dah, to switch from ram feeding to suction feeding on live prey. The use of live Artemia nauplii from 4 to 16 dah is therefore appropriate. The first morphological asymmetries developed at 16 dah in the dentaries and at 22 dah the maxillae and the premaxillae began to show asymmetries. Teeth were present only on the blind side of the oral jaw elements and during this period (16 to 22 dah) the existing elements began to ossify. From 16 to 35 dah the standard feeding protocol consists of a combination of pelagic (Artemia metanauplii) and benthic prey (dead, frozen Artemia nauplii) and from 25 dah onwards a sinking pellet is provided. The time (dah) at which frozen Artemia and sinking pellets were provided, appropriately corresponded to the initiation of benthic feeding behaviour. However at this stage the use of pelagic Artemia metanauplii is inappropriate and unnecessary. At 31 dah the cranial morphology resembled that of adult fish. Adult D. marginatus display extreme asymmetries among the elements of the oral jaws, the suspensorium and certain elements of the neurocranium. Elements on the blind side are larger and more robust than those on the ocular side and are adapted for feeding, while those on the ocular side appear to have a respiratory function. From 31 dah the cranial elements are identical to those of adult fish, suggesting that no further feeding behavioural changes occurred and that a sinking pellet, of which the nutrient composition meets the requirements of the fish, would be appropriate for ongrowing.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Creating a virtual classroom: evaluating the use of online discussion forums to increase teaching and learning activities in an introductory accounting class
- Authors: Bezuidenhout, L Peta
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6082 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008586
- Description: In teaching large classes, the educationally beneficial informal interaction between students and between lecturer and students is generally reduced, while effective use of both students' and lecturer's time is often a challenge. During student consultations, especially over the already stressful test and examination periods, many of the questions asked by the students are the same or similar. The lecturer needs to respond to each query by providing the same detailed explanation for the problem, resulting in ineffective use of time for the lecturer, while students waste time waiting for an appointment, or more often, simply don't bother to follow up on any queries they may have. Having a social presence is important for students' cognitive development, but in a large class posing questions or interrogating issues during a lecture appears to be challenging for many students. It is often not easy for students to initiate discussions or establish relationships with peers or the lecturer due to feelings of vulnerability and due to the size and impersonal atmosphere of the lecture theatre. This paper deals with the introduction of online discussion forums in an introductory accounting course and the benefits and problems experienced by the students, tutors and lecturer as a result thereof. Feedback received from these participants is discussed. The introduction and use of these forums resulted in a virtual classroom being created, where significantly more teaching and learning activities took place, to the benefit of all participants. Participation could have been peripheral - in the form of simply reading discussions; or active – through posting questions, or responding to questions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
Creating a virtual classroom: evaluating the use of online discussion forums to increase teaching and learning activities in an introductory accounting class
- Authors: Bezuidenhout, L Peta
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6069 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004630
- Description: In teaching large classes, the educationally beneficial informal interaction between students and between lecturer and students is generally reduced, while effective use of both students' and lecturer's time is often a challenge. During student consultations, especially over the already stressful test and examination periods, many of the questions asked by the students are the same or similar. The lecturer needs to respond to each query by providing the same detailed explanation for the problem, resulting in ineffective use of time for the lecturer, while students waste time waiting for an appointment, or more often, simply don't bother to follow up on any queries they may have. Having a social presence is important for students' cognitive development, but in a large class posing questions or interrogating issues during a lecture appears to be challenging for many students. It is often not easy for students to initiate discussions or establish relationships with peers or the lecturer due to feelings of vulnerability and due to the size and impersonal atmosphere of the lecture theatre. This paper deals with the introduction of online discussion forums in an introductory accounting course and the benefits and problems experienced by the students, tutors and lecturer as a result thereof. Feedback received from these participants is discussed. The introduction and use of these forums resulted in a virtual classroom being created, where significantly more teaching and learning activities took place, to the benefit of all participants. Participation could have been peripheral - in the form of simply reading discussions; or active – through posting questions, or responding to questions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
Critiquing the viability of a trade biased approach to regional integration in Southern Africa
- Authors: Chipendo, Kudakwashe
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Regionalism -- Africa, Southern , International economic integration
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , M Soc Sc (Dev)
- Identifier: vital:11409 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/163 , Regionalism -- Africa, Southern , International economic integration
- Description: Africa’s international marginalization is preponderantly conceptualized through world systems approaches, particularly structural dependency. Consequently, the region’s socioeconomic quagmire, characterized by economic stagnation, abysmal poverty, inequality and foreign dependency, is often attributed to its colonial heritage. Particular reference is made to the small size of the African state and its structural specialization in primary production. Collective self reliance based on mutual interdependence (regional integration) thus suggests itself as a logical way to overcome the structural constraints imposed by the small size of the state, while at the same time representing a viable alternative to asymmetric trade with developed countries. It is within the context of this theoretical framework that this study critiques the predisposition of the regional body in Southern Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), towards a trade biased approach to regional integration (market integration). This critique is based on theoretical and empirical findings showing that trade led strategies are primarily suited for developed countries with robust manufacturing industries and complimentary production structures. Countries in Southern Africa are however characterized by a near absence of manufacturing industries, are at different levels of development and show low levels of trade complementarities. This study therefore concludes that market integration is an inappropriate strategy for regional integration in Southern Africa and in the process suggests development integration – a political economy approach, as an alternative.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Cross-cultural normative indicators on the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) associate learning and visual reproduction subtests
- Authors: Fike, Lauren
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Wechsler Memory Scale -- Cross-cultural studies Memory -- Testing Memory -- Cross-cultural studies Memory Assessment Scales Short-term memory -- Testing Long-term memory -- Testing
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2975 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002484
- Description: A comprehensive battery of commonly used neuropsychological tests, including the WMS Associate Learning and Visual Reproduction subtests, forming the focus of this study, were administered to a southern African sample (n = 33, age range 18-40). This sample composed of black South African, IsiXhosa speakers with an educational level of Grade 11 and 12, derived through DET and former DET schooling. The gender demographics were as follows; females n = 21 and males n = 12. This sample was purposefully selected based on current cross-cultural research which suggests that individuals matching these above-mentioned demographics are significantly disadvantaged when compared to available neuropsychological norms. This is due to the fact that current norms have been created in contexts with socio-cultural influences; including culture, language and quantity and quality of education distinctly dissimilar to individuals like that composed in the sample. Hence the purpose of this study was fourfold namely; 1) Describe and consider socio-cultural factors and the influence on test performance 2) Provide descriptive and preliminary normative data on this neuropsychologically underrepresented population 3) Compare test performance between age and gender through stratification of the sample and finally to 4) Evaluate the current norms of the two WMS subtests and assess their validity for black South Africans with DET and former DET schooling with comparisons to the results found in the study. Information derived from the statistical analyses indicated that a higher performance in favour of the younger group over the older age range was consistently found for both WMS subtests. With regards to gender, some higher means were evident for the male population in the sample than was produced by the female group. Lastly, due to the fact that most scores derived from the sample were considerably lower when compared to the available norms, it is felt that socio-cultural factors prevalent to this population are a significant cause of lower test performance and thus warrant the development of appropriate normative indicators.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Cultivating Grahamstown: Nathaniel Merriman, Shakespeare and Books
- Authors: Wright, Laurence
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:7033 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007367
- Description: In 1857, Archdeacon Nathaniel Merriman delivered two public lectures on Shakespeare under the auspices of the “General Institute” of Grahamstown. The first, “On the Study of Shakspeare”, was given on 2 September and “Shakspeare, As Bearing on English History” two months later, on Friday 6 November. This article sets out to place the lectures in their local context, by providing a brief sketch of literary and cultural life in the town, in which the appreciation of Shakespeare played no small part.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Curriculum recontextualising using gardens for the health promotion in the life orientation learning area of the senior phase
- Authors: Jenkins, Msawenkosi Wiseman
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Environmental education -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies School gardens -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Gardening -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Environmental education -- Curricula -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Environmental education -- Curricula -- Case studies Environmental policy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1487 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003368
- Description: With a view to understanding how curriculum is interpreted at classroom practice level, the study examined three stories of how the environmental discourse of the National Curriculum Statements (R-9) was recontextualised using school gardens in the Life Orientation Learning Area for the Senior Phase. To understand how the curriculum is recontextualised, I used Bernstein's theory of recontexutalisation where he explained how official pedagogic discourse (OPD) (in this case the environmental discourse is first delocated once it is transferred from the field of production (FOP) and relocated in the recontextualising field (where teacher educators and departmental officials mediate the discourse) and in the field of reproduction (FOR) which is the classroom and school. Bernstein explained that as the discourse is delocated and relocated it undergoes transformation. This transformation is influenced by practitioners' prior-knowledge, experience, culture and beliefs and other factors. To understand how transformation of the environmental discourse takes place, Bernstein's conceptual constructs of selective appropriation and ideological transformation were applied to an interpretation of three lesson processes, to explain how the discourse was changed. Each lesson was reviewed in terms of the selective appropriations and ideological transformations which took place. All three of the lessons observed took place in one school, and as such the study is designed as an interpretive case study where I have tried to make meaning from a rich, thick description of a specific case context. The school is located in Bizana, one of the villages in the O.R. Tambo District Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province,, and is currently in the process of implementing South Africa’s new National Curriculum Statement (NCS) like all other schools in South Africa. In conducting the research I observed lessons, interviewed the learners and teachers, and a community member and the manager of the SANBI greening project, and I also analysed documents which included the NCS for Life Orientation, and teachers planning documents and learners work produced in the lessons. I started the study by conducting a document analysis of the NCS, through which I identified dimensions of the Official Pedagogic Discourse. This was used as a framework to review the lessons to understand how the OPD was being recontextualised. The study concludes by discussing the key findings of the study in the form of a set of analytical statements. Some of the findings indicate that teachers have not been given adequate training for understanding and implementing the NCS which affects the recontextualisation process. The study shows that there is a dire need for professional development if the OPD is to be interpreted adequately by teachers so that its implementation at the meso and micro- levels becomes clear and effective.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Customer relations management in SMMEs: an integrated approach
- Authors: Sandekela, Lindela Prince
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Customer relations -- Management , Small business -- South Africa -- Management , Customer services
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:8725 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/889 , Customer relations -- Management , Small business -- South Africa -- Management , Customer services
- Description: The research study was conducted to cover the Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) retail industry with direct emphasis on the supermarket industry. The research problem is as a result of the retail businesses in the BCM that continue to consider that if they have large data warehouses with masses of customer information, they have all what it takes to run a profitable business. Their failure to understand the organizational implications of moving towards a customer-centric approach often results in high costs from bad customer service and handling of customer complaints. The main problem was stated and sub-problems introduced from the main problem to address them by way of qualitative and quantitative research. Related literature was reviewed on Redefining the Customer, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Relationship Management and a Customer Management Model was proposed. During empirical survey, a questionnaire based on literature reviewed was designed for the survey. A pilot study was conducted to identify and rectify problems and shortcomings relating to the questionnaire. The pilot study indicated that the data likely to be collected will address the main and sub-problems of the research. A total of thirty five questionnaires which contained closed-ended and open-ended questions were distributed to the population sample as selected. Results of the study were critically analysed and interpreted quantitatively and qualitatively by means of tables and discussion for the development of an Integrated Model for managing customers. The analysis of the study which was based on the literature reviewed and the findings from the empirical survey were concluded to present a solution to the problem. In view of the shortcomings identified by the literature review and integration thereof with the results of the empirical study, an Integrated Customer Management Model was developed.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Cutting tradition: the political regulation of traditional circumcision rites in South Africa's liberal democratic order
- Authors: Vincent, Louise
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141922 , vital:38016 , DOI: 10.1080/03057070701832890
- Description: The South African Xhosa ethnic group, the majority of whom live in the country's Eastern Cape province, are one of several ethnic groups in southern Africa that practise the ritual of circumcision as part of a rite admitting boys to manhood. Recent years have seen a rise in casualties among those participating in traditional circumcision rites. Since 1995 more than 6,000 boys have been admitted to Eastern Cape hospitals, more than 300 have died and 76 have had their genitalia amputated due to botched circumcisions. The state has responded by putting in place a variety of mechanisms to regulate the practice, most recently in the form of the 2005 Children's Bill which gives male children the right to refuse circumcision and makes those who circumcise a child against his will guilty of an offence punishable by imprisonment. Attempts by the state to regulate traditional practices (of which circumcision is just one and virginity testing is another) have been met with outrage and resistance in some quarters.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Decentralisation and development: the contradictions of local government in Uganda with specific reference to Masindi and Sembabule districts
- Authors: Galiwango, Wasswa Hassan
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Decentralization in government -- Uganda , Local government -- Uganda , Uganda -- Politics and government
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:8238 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/780 , Decentralization in government -- Uganda , Local government -- Uganda , Uganda -- Politics and government
- Description: Decentralisation is the process through which Central Government transfers authority and functions to sub-national units of the Government and it traces its origin in Uganda from the “ bush” period (1981 – 1986) when Resistance Committees were established by the NRM/A in the Luwero triangle. The Mamdani Commission Report of 1987 on the Local Government system in Uganda recommended devolution of powers. Subsequently, decentralisation was launched in 1992, constitutionalised by the 1995 Constitution, and operationalised by the Local Governments Act (LGA) in 1997. Among the services devolved were education and health, which this study used as case studies to illustrate whether decentralisation has enhanced development in Uganda during the period 1993 – 2006. The study used both primary and secondary data in analysing the linkage between decentralisation and development in the two selected districts in Uganda, namely Masindi and Sembabule. Primary data was collected through interviews, questionnaires and focus group discussions while secondary data was gathered through a literature survey of relevant textbooks, newspapers, reports, legislation and journals. The findings of the study established that if decentralisation is properly planned and implemented it can make a meaningful contribution to enhancing development. However, since decentralisation is a process and not a once-off project, it evolves from one stage to another and, as it does so, it also unfolds new challenges and contradictions that need to be effectively addressed. These challenges include aspects relating to the legal framework, as well as political, fiscal and administrative decentralisation. The study recommended mitigation measures to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, accountability, transparency, and subsequently the quality of services delivered (development) under decentralised local governance in Uganda.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008