The psychological experience of being in hiding against the background of political repression in South Africa during the 1986 general State of Emergency: a phenomenological explication
- Authors: Scheepers, Esca
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Violence -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3111 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004586 , Violence -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994
- Description: This is a study in Critical Psychology which examines the psychological costs of one of the direct outcomes of political repression - the experience of being in hiding. The aims of the study can be depicted on two levels: it is first and foremost an attempt to provide a true account of the phenomenon of being in hiding. On a second level of equal importance it is an implicit and overt critique of the social order in which this phenomenon takes place. The psychological experience of being in hiding is examined and discussed in its proper socio-political context. Therefore, the theoretical part of the mini-thesis has a strong political bearing, focusing on the State, and extra-parliamentary opposition in South Africa. repression The empirical part of the mini-thesis explicates the psychological experience of being in hiding with the aid of the phenomenological method of investigation. Due to the lack of research on this or similar topics, it is discussed within the framework of the experience of a stressful life event. For the five subjects being in hiding was an extreme intervention which was imposed upon their existences and which brought about a qualitative transformation in the individual subjects mode of being-in-the-world - not only in terms of practicalities, but also on a deep experiential level. It was a phenomenon which touched on fundamental parts of their experience of themselves and their individual worlds and the way in which they actualized themselves. For them it essentially entailed a loss of relationships and roles which resulted in an experience of a measure of encapsulation or separation from the world of others . It was a profound, multi - dimensional disruption of the structure of the subject ' s existence which infused a rich emotional experience .
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- Date Issued: 1988
Workshop package on discussion document on economic policy
- Authors: ANC Department of Economic Policy
- Date: 1990?
- Subjects: South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994 , Social planning -- South Africa , South Africa -- Economic policy
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66065 , vital:28896
- Description: This package was prepared by the ANC Department of Economic Policy to assist branches to discuss the discussion document on economic policy. It serves as a guide to discussion and is not a replacement for the document. The package contains ideas for inputs, illustrations and guide questions for discussions. The illustrations can be made into WALL CHARTS or TRANSPARENCIES and used with an overhead projector. We suggest that a group of people (the political education committee) come together to plan a workshop for branch members. Read both the package and the discussion document before planning. The ANC is in the process of setting up ANC Economic Associations in each region. If you need help, contact members of the Association through the regional office.
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- Date Issued: 1990?
ANC policy guidelines for a democratic South Africa : draft for discussion
- Authors: Policy Unit of the African National Congress
- Date: 1992-04-27
- Subjects: South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994 , Social planning -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66055 , vital:28891
- Description: The basic objectives of ANC policy are threefold: * To overcome the legacy of inequality and injustice created by colonialism and apartheid, in a swift, progressive and principled way; * To develop an economy and state infrastructure that will progressively improve the quality of life of all South Africans; and, * To encourage the flourishing of the feeling that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, to promote a common loyalty to and pride in the country and to create a universal sense of freedom and security within its borders. These are not mutually exclusive goals. On the contrary, the future of our country depends on the harmonious and simultaneous realisation of all three. The advancement of the majority of people will, in the medium-and-long-term, release hitherto untapped and suppressed talents and energies that will both boost and diversify the economy. Developing the economy will, in turn, provide the basis for overcoming the divisions of the past without creating new ones. Finally, the achievement of a genuine sense of national unity depends on all of us working together to overcome the inequalities created by apartheid. The beacons guiding these advances are equal rights, nonracialism, non-sexism, democracy and mutual respect. A broad, inclusive approach, free of arrogance or complexes of superiority or inferiority, is fundamental. We have to develop a truly South African vision of our country, one undistorted by the prejudices and sectarianism that has guided viewpoints on race and gender, in the past. We have to rely on the wisdom, life experiences, talents and know-how of all South Africans, men and women. There can be no apartheid in finding solutions to the problems created by apartheid. This document does not present a rigid ANC blue-print for the future of South Africa, to which our supporters will be expected to rally and our opponents required to submit. Rather, the document represents a set of basic guidelines to policies we intend to pursue. These ideas will be developed through discussion within the ANC, and through consultation with the broadest spectrum of South African public opinion. The policies will be adapted according to these processes and on the basis of experience. Our problems run deep It is necessary to dwell on the problems which will be faced by the first government which is elected under a new democratic constitution. It will help create an understanding of the magnitude of the tasks involved in transforming our country into one where everyone can enjoy a reasonable standard of living combined with peace and security. It will underline the fact that there are choices to be made and priorities to be established. The nationalist government has pursued active political and social policies which, amongst others things, have led to: extreme levels of poverty and disease in the rural areas; the creation of urban ghettos where people have been denied access to even the most basic means of survival as a result of severely limited access to decent homes, electricity, water-borne sewerage, tarred roads, and recreational facilities; an education system preparing the majority of South Africans for lives of subordination and low income wage jobs; a social security system geared almost entirely to fulfilling the needs of the white minority; a health system that has seriously neglected the wellbeing of most South Africans; the social and political marginalisation of the majority of people, the African community in particular, their exclusion from public life and decision [ making as well as the denial of their culture. Gender discrimination has either excluded or subordinated the nature of women's participation in all socio-economic and political institutions. Combined with apartheid, this has resulted in African women being the most exploited and poverty stricken section of the South African population. Both the political system of apartheid and the pattern of economic development in our country, have been responsible for these developments. The white minority have used their exclusive access to political and economic power to promote their own sectional interests at the expense of black people and the country's natural resources. Black people have been systematically excluded and disadvantaged economically with the result that South Africa has one of the most unequal patterns of income and wealth distribution in the world. Since the mid-1970s, the South African economy has stagnated. An average growth rate of 6% in the 1960s declined to 3% in the 1970s and is now below 1%. Unemployment is estimated at over 40% of the economically active population. For over forty years, economic strategy was based on expanding industry through the substitution of hitherto imported manufactured goods for the wealthy minority. There has also been an emphasis on strategic industries such as arms and petrochemicals. This led to the emergence of a significant manufacturing sector in our country, but one which is generally uncompetitive in terms of international costs and prices. The alienation of land from the indigenous people and the denial of the African majority's rights to land and political power in our country are intimately connected. The agricultural sector in South Africa is currently experiencing a deep crisis. Debt levels of white farmers have reached R14 billion. These problems have led to rapidly increasing unemployment and a serious decline in living standards. Our people remain divided. We do not know each other. We are prevented from developing a national vision, in terms of which, we would see our country through the eyes of all its citizens, and not just one group or another. We live apart, physically separated, spiritually alienated, frightened of getting too close, knowing that we have different life-chances and different views of what change means. We are ruled by a multiplicity of fragmented departments, boards, councils and ministries. Apartheid has left us apart. Policies for transformation In this context it is vital that the ANC develops a clear response. This response must be aimed both at establishing a new and democratic political dispensation that replaces the racist and undemocratic apartheid constitution and addresses the legacy of apartheid in the broader socio-economic sphere. This document is a direct response to the above challenges. It sets out for discussion a comprehensive set of guidelines highlighting the ANC's broad policy response to all the major areas of political, social and economic life. The document is structured so as to highlight the strong relationship between the creation of political democracy and social and economic transformation. It is critical, however, that we honestly face up to the extent of the problems confronting our country. They are not going to be solved overnight and there are no easy or quick solutions. The problems run deep and resources are limited. Accordingly, the policies proposed here represent our broad vision. These policies highlight, our ultimate goals, which will need to be transformed into effective and realisable programmes in the short-term. In other words, we will need to establish priorities both within each of the different policy areas and between these broad areas. These priorities must be arrived at through democratic discussions and decision making processes and we must establish just and efficient mechanisms for implementing these decisions. Progress will also depend on involving as many sections of our society as possible in finding solutions.
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- Date Issued: 1992-04-27
Ambiguities of South Africa's quest for democracy: inaugural lecture delivered at Rhodes University
- Authors: Southall, Roger J
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: African National Congress , Afrikaner nationalism , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:670 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020739 , ISBN 0868102628
- Description: Inaugural lecture delivered at Rhodes University , Rhodes University Libraries (Digitisation)
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- Date Issued: 1993
The role of the international community in the South African transition: a critical review
- Authors: Dormehl, Andries Christian
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Democracy -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994 , South Africa -- Foreign relations -- 1989-1994
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2772 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002982 , Democracy -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994 , South Africa -- Foreign relations -- 1989-1994
- Description: There is a dearth of position papers on international participation in the South African transition. Political parties and organisations in South Africa instead spend most of their time describing various forms of desirous IC intervention after the transition. This might explain why most articles and academic papers on 'the role of the international community' are suffixed - in the 'new South Africa' or 'post-apartheid South Africa' - few focus on the actual transition and then mostly from a systemic perspective, broadly outlining the constraints imposed by the 'new world order'. Perhaps the first serious attempt to address this gap in the debate over South Africa's future was D. Kempton and L. Mosia's 'The International Community in South Africa's Transition to non-racial Democracy' (1992). Before multiparty negotiations collapsed in June 1992, Kempton and Mosia examined the attitudes toward international intervention of most of the CODESA participants, as well as the major actors that had remained outside CODESA. This paper takes up the issue where Kempton and Mosia left off. It tries to explain transitional politics since the IC introduced an on-the-ground presence after the UN Security Council debates on South Africa in July 1992. It asks why, eight months after multiparty talks were suspended, the IC has been unable to revive multiparty negotiations, has apparently had little or no impact on the violence, and despite events like Boipatong and Bisho, still plays a minor peacekeeping role, confined to observer status. The research describes internal and external components of international intervention, examines the rationale behind the agreed forms of international participation, and assesses the viability of the internationally-supported conflict-resolution and transition-management structures that were formed to facilitate the transition. The evidence uncovered by the research leads the author to the conclusion that more of an international role is necessary, and sooner rather than later, but he concedes that this is not feasible, or likely, under the status quo.
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- Date Issued: 1993
The impact of the end of the Cold War on transition in South Africa
- Authors: Du Preez, Roni
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: Cold War , International relations , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994 , South Africa -- Foreign relations -- 1989-1994 , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1978-1989 , South Africa -- Foreign relations -- 1978-1989
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2773 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002983 , Cold War , International relations , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994 , South Africa -- Foreign relations -- 1989-1994 , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1978-1989 , South Africa -- Foreign relations -- 1978-1989
- Description: This thesis argues that F.W. de Klerk's historic February 1990 speech was the end product of a set of circumstances in recent South African and global history which made possible the new phase of transitional politics which South Africa is currently experiencing. It seeks to establish that of all the factors that contributed to change, it was the late 1980s thaw in the Cold War, and its resultant repercussions internationally and regionally which was the catalytic factor which made the new era possible. In all the literature on transition there has been no comprehensive analysis of the plausible link between the two superpowers agreeing in the mid-1980s to abandon confrontational practices and to change their approaches to regional conflicts and the South African government agreeing to negotiate for a new political dispensation. This thesis will seek to establish and analyse such a link. By 1986 there was in certain governmental circles a non-public view that the policy of apartheid had failed both as a solution to the problem of black political aspirations and as a legitimating ideology. Constraining any serious move towards political change was a widely held fear at the top level of government that an accelerated reform process would make South Africa vulnerable to external aggression and internal revolutionary forces. This thesis suggests that the collapse of communist rule in Eastern Europe and the 'new political thinking' in Soviet foreign policy resulted in the notion of a communist-inspired total onslaught against South Africa losing currency - as did the position of those within the ruling elite who remained dogmatically attached to it. The end of the Cold War is the common thread which links South Africa's international , regional and domestic environments. Two important events occurred in the international and regional arenas, which against the backdrop of the end of the Cold War, strengthened the credibility of the alternative view in government: (i) the October 1986 Reykjavik Summit and (ii) the South African Defence Force setback at Cuito Cuanavale. P.W. Botha's resignation as leader of the National Party and soon after as State President created the political space through which the view of the reformers could emerge as dominant. Recognising that neither the international nor regional environments sustained the beliefs and fears held by the military hawks, F.W. de Klerk was able to capitalise on the ambience of negotiations and apply it to the South African situation. De Klerk's February 1990 speech was therefore the culmination of a process which had its origins in the mid-1980's.
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- Date Issued: 1994
An examination of the factors underlying decision-making about selection and presentation of photographs of political conflict in South African newspapers
- Authors: O'Dowd, Catherine Frances
- Date: 1997
- Subjects: Photojournalism , Photojournalism -- South Africa , Photojournalists -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3478 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002933 , Photojournalism , Photojournalism -- South Africa , Photojournalists -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994
- Description: What newspaper readers see of an event is detennined by what photographs are seley ted and how they are presented. This thesis attempts to deconstruct the decision-making process around selection and presentation of photographs, with the aim of detennining what factors are taken into account in that process. It is based on the hypothesis that there must be a number of factors involved in decisions about news photographs, although these factors may not necessarily be consciously acknowledged in the decision-making process. The study involves a comparison of how five case studies of incidents of political violence, which occurred between 1990 and 1994 in South Africa, were used'in lrinewspapers. The focus on images of political violence is based on the assumption that politically and visually controversial images will give rise to situations in which gatekeepers will be caned upon to question their decisions. The research is based on qualitative research interviews with the decision-makers involved in the case studies. The analysis of the decision-making procedures is based on the theory of gatekeeping. The interviews are analysed in terms of Lewin's theory offqrces, which suggests that, depending on the context, some factors will manifest themselves as positive forces working in favour of the photograph being selected or well presented, while others will take the form of negative forces. The analysis sets out to determine what factors were taken into account in the decision::making process, what detennined their relative degrees of importance and how those relative degrees of importance determined the final outcome. Following an introduction to the practical case study research, dealing with general issues such as picture policy in newspapers and decision-making procedures, each case study is dealt with in turn. After an outline of the context in which the event occurred, the kinds of pictures that were available to the newspapers are described. Then the decisions taken about which to choose and how to use them are analysed in terms of dominant themes. These are themes such as newsworthiness, gruesomeness of content and concern abo!Jt what other media were using. The analysis examines the way the news context and the decision-making context determine the relative importance of the various factors present. Finally the study looks at the conclusions that can be drawn from the five case studies. The conclusion supports the initial hypothesis in finding that these decisions can be shown to have their basis in a fairly limited set of factors. The different results, from study to study and from newspaper to newspaper within a study, are determined by the changing news context and the decisi~n-making context.
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- Date Issued: 1997
South Africa's growth, employment and redistribution strategy in the context of structural adjustment programmes in the South
- Authors: Lehloesa, Thembinkosi L
- Date: 2000
- Subjects: Growth, Employment And Redistribution Programme (South Africa) , South Africa -- Economic policy , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2794 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003004 , Growth, Employment And Redistribution Programme (South Africa) , South Africa -- Economic policy , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1989-1994
- Description: This study is a contribution to the ongoing debate concerning the future of South Africa’s macro-economic policy known as the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy. The study attempts to draw parallels between the GEAR macro-economic policy framework and structural adjustment programmes in the South. By making use of this comparison, the study argues that the outcome of the GEAR will be no different from structural adjustment programmes in that it will fail to reduce poverty and cause government to meet the basic needs of the people. These conclusions are drawn from the fact that the GEAR policy is premised on the faith that the market is capable of redistributing income and wealth, and providing people with their basic needs.
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- Date Issued: 2000