Effects of an enriched physical activity programme on selected anthropometric, physiological and performance characteristics of an underprivilieged ethnic group
- Authors: Van Rooyen, Frederick
- Date: 1994
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:21115 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/6455
- Description: Fifty pre-pubescent Xhosa-speaking children from two primary schools within the township of Rini, Grahamstown, were selected in this study to determine the effects, if any, of an enriched physical activity programme. Subjects were divided into experimental and control groups with only the experimental group physically participating in the enrichment programme. Selected anthropometric, physiological and motor performance tests were administered on both groups, before and after the programme, to monitor the effect of the enrichment programme on growth, cardiovascular efficiency and physical performance. Somatotype ratings showed no change after the training programme. However body composition showed greater gains in fat mass in the control group and marked drops in fat mass and increases in lean body mass in the experimental group. Longer running distances, higher predicted VO2 max mean values and improved recovery heart rate (HR) as well as larger gains in relative power, absolute power and velocity were experienced by individuals who participated in the training programme. The performance of the experimental group in the two motor performance tests out-weighed by far the performance of the control group as a result of the additional programme. The enrichment programme not only produced a positive effect on body composition but also improved aerobic and anaerobic efficiency. Improvements in both motor performance tests favoured the experimental group.
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- Date Issued: 1994
Identity and transformation within the Playhouse Dance Company, 1993-1997
- Authors: Ballantyne, Tammy Marguerite
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Playhouse dance company , Dance -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2131 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002363 , Playhouse dance company , Dance -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis examines the principles and policies underlying the need for transformation within the Playhouse Dance Company (PDC) in Durban and the actualities of implementing these visions and procedures. It is proposed that artistic structures, ideals and processes cannot remain impervious to the climate of change. Alterations in the political arena demand radical permutations within arts councils and their concept of repertoire, educational programmes and training. Transformation is linked to the problem of identity and it is suggested that the company is in the midst of a journey towards "becoming" rather than "being". Chapter One comprises an overview of changing trends in the arts globally and the impact on South Mrican art forms and processes. There is also an examination of the past, the establishment of arts councils and the colonial heritage of the dance companies within these councils. The formative years of the NAP AC Dance Company and the strategies formulated by former artistic directors have, it is suggested, hampered the transformation process. Chapter Two focuses on the PDC's endeavours to transform between the years 1993 and 1997. Lack of funding, conservative public tastes and training processes are. all' issues confronting management, choreographers, educators and performers in attempting to provide a clear direction towards transformation. The company walk a tightrope as they struggle to balance the heritage of their artistic past while giving birth to a new heritage for the future. Chapter Three discusses two areas that reveal measurable attempts at transformation. Hawkins offers re-inventions of the classics which encourages innovation, and Siwela Sonke was conceived to draw on dance forms located in Kwazulu-Natal in the search for a South Mrican dance aesthetic. Chapter Four investigates whether transformative visions are becoming a reality and suggests how the company could extend the process further. This chapter concludes with .. ideas about the nature of culture and how this informs,the exercise of transformation. This thesis proposes that transformation within the PDC is occurring even though it has its shortcomings. The main thrust of the research is to investigate, identifY and document factors that are contributing to current dance trends in Durban.
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- Date Issued: 1998
The effects of criminalising publication offences on the freedom of the press in Uganda, 1986-2000
- Authors: Mbaine, Emmanuel Adolf
- Date: 2003
- Subjects: Freedom of the press -- Uganda , Press and politics -- Uganda , Mass media -- Political aspects -- Uganda , Political participation -- Uganda , Democracy -- Uganda
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3462 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002917 , Freedom of the press -- Uganda , Press and politics -- Uganda , Mass media -- Political aspects -- Uganda , Political participation -- Uganda , Democracy -- Uganda
- Description: The press in Uganda has come a long way right from the colonial days when newspapers sprang up, mainly from missionary activity, through the eras of Obote 1 (1962 – 1971), Idi Amin (1971 – 1979), Obote 11 (1980 – 1985), Tito Okello (1985 – 1986) and the Museveni administration (1986 – to date). For most of this time, the press in Uganda enjoyed very little or no freedom to do its work. The year 1986 saw the ascendancy to power of the Yoweri Museveni as president after a five-year bush war with promised to restore peace, democracy, the rule of law, economic prosperity and civic rights and freedoms. Several achievements in these areas have been registered since 1986. Newspapers have sprouted and the broadcast industry liberalised to allow private ownership that has seen the proliferation of FM stations. However, the relations between the government and the press remain strained with journalists arrested and/or prosecuted mainly for offences relating to sedition, publication of false news and criminal libel. This study was intended to examine why journalists in Uganda continue to suffer arrests and incarceration when the country has been reported to be moving towards democratisation. The study was also aimed at assessing the impact of arresting journalists and arraigning them before the courts of law in the period under study and what this portends for freedom of the press and democratisation. It is recommended, among others, that journalists in Uganda need more unity of purpose to pursue meaningful media law reform that will de-criminalise publication wrongs. The civil remedies available to people who feel offended by the press are sufficient, if not excessive. The efforts already undertaken by the Eastern Africa Media Institute (EAMI) Uganda Chapter in this direction should be pursued to a logical conclusion.
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- Date Issued: 2003
An investigation into the journalistic identities of news workers at the state owned Lentsoe La Basotho/Lesotho Today Newspaper
- Authors: Kotele, Mothepane
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Lentsoe La Basotho/Lesotho Today Mass media -- Economic aspects -- Lesotho Mass media -- Social aspects -- Lesotho Mass media -- Employees Journalists -- Lesotho Sotho newspapers Journalistic ethics -- Lesotho
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3449 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002903
- Description: Informed by the political economy framework and the public service role of media in democracy, the main objective of the study was to use in-depth semi-structured interviews to understand news-workers’ professional journalistic identities in relation to their status as government employees and the understanding of their public service role as outlined in the paper’s mission statement. The main interest was to understand the complexity of negotiating these role identities. Through reference to the theories of journalism professionalism, the study highlighted the extent to which news-workers in the small newsroom of Lentsoe la Basotho/Lesotho Today see themselves as public service journalists in a democratic country. The interest was borne partly out of the views of the paper’s critics who see it as not serving the public but rather promoting the activities and policies of the government of the day, thus falling short of its democratic role. The contention of the study was that as a public service newspaper, the paper should have news-workers who do impartial journalism and reflect the public’s right to know in their reporting. The findings of the study suggests that news-workers at Lentsoe la Basotho/Lesotho Today continuously have to strive to negotiate the potential conflict between being a professional and working for a government-controlled newspaper. While they sometimes lay claim to being journalists, the reality is that in their political coverage they end up adopting the role of government mouthpieces.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Re-imagining love and intimacy in the poetry of Gabeba Baderoon, Ingrid De Kok, and Makhosazana Xaba
- Authors: Du Preez, Jenny Bozena
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Women in literature -- History and criticism , Sex discrimination against women
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8479 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020039
- Description: This dissertation explores the ways in which the poetry of Gabeba Baderoon, Ingrid de Kok and Makhosazana Xaba challenge the sexist discourses that allow for the exploitation of women‘s bodies. It will also examine how they re-imagine the script 1 of heterosexual romantic love which places women in a submissive position and closes down possibilities for human connections which do not fit within the narrow strictures of this notion of love. The poems selected come from Baderoon‘s two collections, The Dream in the Next Body (2005) and A Hundred Silences (2006), an anthology of Ingrid de Kok‘s poetry spanning all her previous collections entitled Seasonal Fires: New and Selected Poems (2006), and Makhosazana‘s Xaba‘s first poetry collection, These Hands (2005). All three of these contemporary, South African, woman poets present critiques of the sexual exploitation of women and offer explorations of romantic love, relationships and sexual intimacy alternative to contemporary, patriarchal heteronormativity. This analysis will take cognizance of the influence of apartheid and colonial history on the formation of gender politics. It will also examine the representation of women as sexual objects and the spectacularized and graphic depictions of sex and how these poets can be seen to re-present women and re-script sex. Whilst Baderoon and De Kok are concerned with re-imagining heterosexual romantic love and sexual intimacy, their rethinking of love can also be read as useful in engaging with 'queer'2 sexuality and romantic love outside of the heterosexual norm along with Xaba, who is concerned with lesbian desire. Finally, all three poets experiment with traditional poetic form and techniques and it is through this experimentation with poetic language, and the employment of what Julia Kristeva calls the semiotic, that these poets are able to re-imagine love and intimacy. Thus they might be said, to use Kristeva‘s phrase, to stage a 'revolution in poetic language'.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Voting and meaning in Hooggenoeg, Grahamstown : an audience's reception of Grocott's Mail's 2011 municipal election coverage
- Authors: Amzat, Ajibola Taofeek
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Grocott's Mail (Grahamstown, South Africa) Local elections -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Elections -- South Africa Press and politics -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Journalism -- Objectivity -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Newspapers -- Objectivity Journalism -- Political aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:5970 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011729
- Description: This thesis examines the meanings that residents of the township of Hooggenoeg (in Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa) made of the election coverage in the Grocott’s Mail newspaper during 2011 municipal elections in South Africa. In addition, this study also sought to understand the particular set of ‘normative roles’ played by the paper, both with reference to the well-established body of theory about the normative roles of journalism in a democracy, and in terms of the paper’s own conceptualisation of its role in the functioning of local democracy. Grocott’s Mail, the oldest independent newspaper in South Africa, provided extensive pre-election coverage, which included producing and distributing an unprecedented free edition of the paper. The paper also facilitated a town hall debate in order to encourage residents to vote, and empower them to make a more informed choice about their vote. Three qualitative research methods, namely qualitative content analysis, focus group interviews, and individual interviews were used to examine the relationship between the content provided by the paper and the audience’s process of ‘making sense’ and deriving meaning from the content provided. The study concludes that Grocott’s attempt to encourage democratic culture in Grahamstown, in keeping with the more ‘facilitative’ normative roles that the local media can play, was only partially successful. Much of the election reporting subordinated the voices of the ordinary people, and privileged reporting that focussed narrowly on the voting process, and which foregrounded the views of political parties. Overall this coverage largely failed to resonate with the Grocott’s readers who live in Hooggenoeg (a largely ‘coloured’ area of Grahamstown), whose key concerns in terms of their daily life – such as poverty, unemployment, crime, lack of services – seemed, to them, unaddressed by this election coverage and, consequently, was not as engaging or convincing as the publishers/editors had hoped it would be. It can be also argued that Grocott’s narrow conceptualisation of democracy as entailing only public participation in electoral processes failed to cater for how audiences can be made aware of how they can participate in governance beyond the election period.
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- Date Issued: 2014
The design of an office and service facilities for the daily dispatch in East London
- Authors: Van Heerden, Ilka
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Office buildings -- Design and construction Interior architecture -- South Africa -- East London , Office layout -- Design Office buildings -- Design
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/18751 , vital:28719
- Description: A lack of understanding of the multi-dimensional field of built environment heritage places the non-monumental fabric of historic city centres under great threat. This fabric plays a vital role in contributing to the collective significance and character of a place, despite its comparatively less remarkable nature. These buildings are often most susceptible to change, especially with regard to use. Responsible conservation and innovative design can allow buildings to undergo inevitable change, without compromising their heritage significance, despite the increasing demands of contemporary urban building typologies. Office typologies of the 21st century are particularly demanding with regard to efficiency, flexibility, sustainability and the need for a creative environment that promotes collaboration among knowledge workers. The document sets out a process by which to sensitively manage the juxtaposed relationship between historic buildings and a contemporary use, to generate an innovative design, resilient in its ability to retain the historic meaning of existing buildings.
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- Date Issued: 2016
“I am 22 Million”: reading Winnie Madikizela as the intellectual face of anti-apartheid popular struggle
- Authors: Valela, Ntombizikhona
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/40802 , vital:25029
- Description: The purpose of this research is to read Winnie Madikizela Mandela as an intellectual. Through this research I want to examine whether Madikizela Mandela emerges from an intellectual tradition influenced by the political and intellectual discourse that existed at the time within the country such as the ideology of the African National Congress (not to say that this was without external influence but I would argue that the ideology of the ANC evolved to fit the domestic politics of the day), the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panther Party and Black Consciousness. Through trying to understand Madikizela Mandela’s intellectual journey this thesis will explore the larger question of intellectual production. Lewis Gordon argues that it is often presumed that theory is north and experience is south.1 As a result black people are often excluded from being possible intellectuals and shapers of intellectual discourse but are rather relegated to the categories of ‘actors’ rather than thinkers. The point of departure of my research will be through Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s image as it provides a clue into the type of intellectual influences and ideologies that she subscribed to. This flows from Charles R. Garoian and Yvonne M. Gaudelius’ “The Spectacle of Visual Culture” where they argue for images teaching us what to see and think.2 Winnie Madikizela Mandela was a frequently photographed person and it is through these images that we witness an evolution in the way she presented herself which, as this research argues, is influenced by certain intellectual traditions that guide the black liberation struggle. In What’s My Name: Black Vernacular Intellectuals, Grant Farred explores the role of clothing in the conveying of intellectualism influenced by a certain ideology. Therefore I argue that Winnie Madikizela’s iconicity is more than conventional standards of beauty, or her link to her husband Nelson Mandela. It is rather a tool that she uses to convey an ideology and this complements that which she says when she chooses to speak.
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- Date Issued: 2017
An interpretative phenomenological analysis of HIV positive individuals’ experiences of being in a support group
- Authors: Brink, Nicole
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: HIV-positive persons -- Social aspects Self-help groups AIDS (Disease) -- Patients -- Counseling of AIDS (Disease) -- Social aspects
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62988 , vital:28351
- Description: People who have been diagnosed HIV positive often experience distress and anxiety due to uncertainties pertaining to the implications of an HIV positive status. Research has shown that support groups have always been a way for people to cope with the distress and stressful circumstances associated with health conditions such as HIV. This research investigated the role of face to face support groups in the lives of those living with HIV. The primary focus of this research project is to provide an in-depth exploration of HIV positive individuals‟ experiences of being in a support group. The study aims to explore the positive and negative experiences of being in an HIV support group and aims to gain an understanding of the role support plays in the lives of those living with HIV. A qualitative research design was used to explore the above mentioned aim. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five individuals, (three women and two men) who had experienced HIV support groups. The interviews were transcribed and then analysed according to the principles of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The findings of this study revealed five super-ordinate themes, which revealed not only the positive and negative experiences of being in a support group, but also the challenges that the participants‟ experienced before joining the group. Getting a sense of the participants‟ experience before joining the group allowed the researcher to get a better understanding of how useful or not the support group has been in helping them deal with the challenges of living with HIV. The themes included: „struggling to survive after diagnosis‟, „struggling to cope: adopting negative coping skills‟, „experiencing a turning-point: a will to survive‟, „attending support group: a sweet experience‟ and lastly, „attending support groups: a bitter experience‟. Findings suggest that for these participants, the advantages outweighed the disadvantages of being in a support group. Therefore this study suggests that face to face support groups are a viable and even necessary option for support. These findings support previous research and literature in regards to the importance of social support in the form of support groups in effectively assisting HIV positive people in their journey to adjust to the consequence of living with HIV.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Effect of femininity on sexual health decision making of young females
- Authors: De Wet, Elna
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Teenage girls -- Sexual behavior -- South Africa , Women -- Identity , Adolescents -- Sexual behavior -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/30298 , vital:30928
- Description: South Africa is characterised by high levels of HIV infections and unwanted pregnancies, despite the vast amount of interventions aimed at combatting this issue. It becomes important to explore why these interventions are not actively achieving what they aim to. A major cause for concern is the increase in risky sexual behaviour in the adolescence and young adult (15-24 year) age group. In various cultures, women’s socialization has a direct impact on their ability to prioritize their sexual health. Steeped in patriarchal ideology, many South African cultures prioritise the power of masculinity over and above the femxle experience. Improved partner communication leads to decreased risky sexual behaviour, but it becomes tricky when the relationship is characterized by a gender power imbalance. This study is aimed at understanding South African femxle sexual health by focussing on 1) the extent to which the overarching traditional beliefs about femininity is related to their sexual self-efficacy. Furthermore, it is aimed at 2) the extent to which they engage in sexual activity and behaviour that would protect them from STIs and unwanted pregnancies. Research design is quantitative and include an online survey for femxle students between the ages of 18 and 24, enrolled at the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. The data was analysed statistically, where after the research findings will be interpreted from the perspective of Feminist Psychological Theory.
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- Date Issued: 2018