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1 – 10 of over 1000This article aims to examine the sustainability of European and SADC states' practice of agreeing bilateral investment agreements (BITs) for the promotion and protection of…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to examine the sustainability of European and SADC states' practice of agreeing bilateral investment agreements (BITs) for the promotion and protection of foreign investments in light of the latter's recent inauguration of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) as a basic norm of regional customary international law and strategy for countering the social and economic legacy of apartheid rule on their territories for over half a century.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach taken is textual analysis and deconstruction of emergent SADC BEE legislation, substantive BIT legislation provisions, dispute settlement mechanisms and emergent jurisprudence on the tensions between BEE policy and BIT obligations.
Findings
The strong elements of exclusivity between European/SADC BIT dispute settlement mechanisms on the one hand, and the “ouster clauses” of SADC BEE legislation and regulations on the other, are mutually incompatible. This incompatibility threatens the sustainability of the EU/SADC states' BIT dynamic for the promotion and protection of foreign direct investments (FDIs).
Originality/value
Demonstration of BEE as SADC's emergent basic norm of social reconstruction for countering the social and economic legacy of apartheid rule in affected states and implications of that for EU/SADC policy on the promotion and protection of FDIs.
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The purpose of this paper is to argue that information is an important effect of documentation. It is in this way that documentation studies distinguishes between concepts of and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue that information is an important effect of documentation. It is in this way that documentation studies distinguishes between concepts of and practices with “information” and “document”: that is, documentation studies helps illuminate how information is created, stabilized, and materialized such that it can emerge and, in turn, how it can then be controlled, deployed, enforced, entrenched, managed, and used in many different ways, in various settings, and for diverse purposes.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a conceptual framework on documentation, drawing upon the work of Bernd Frohmann, Michel Foucault, Bruno Latour, Hannah Arendt, @@and Ian Hacking, and applied to a case study of Apartheid South Africa.
Findings
Apartheid’s documentation helped achieve apartness at the macro and micro levels of society: on the macro level, the creation and subsequent separation of different racial and ethnic identities were drafted, adopted, and turned into law through legislative documents; on the micro level, these identities were reinforced through routines with personal documents and public signs. This documentation functioned as a documentary apparatus, providing a tangible link between individuals and their official racial and ethnic categories by creating a seamless movement of documents through various institutions; further it helped transform these racial and ethnic identities into lived facts that disciplined and controlled life.
Originality/value
By examining documentation, one can present a fresh and unique perspective to understanding the construction of various things, such as the construction of identities. This conceptual framework contributes to Library and Information Science (LIS) by illuminating the central role of documentation in the creation, stabilization, materialization, and emergence of information. By using Apartheid South Africa as a case study, this paper demonstrates how this framework can be applied to shed new light on different kinds of phenomena in diverse contexts; consequently, it not only contributes to and extends parts of the scholarship on documentation studies within LIS, but also presents new directions for other academic disciplines and multidisciplinary analyses and research.
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Presents findings from a case study looking at African medicine vendors in Durban, South Africa. Compares the culturally repressive apartheid period with the post‐apartheid…
Abstract
Presents findings from a case study looking at African medicine vendors in Durban, South Africa. Compares the culturally repressive apartheid period with the post‐apartheid explosion of self‐realization of the African population. Shows that street vending is still seen as an eyesore and a problem but still plays an important role in the post‐apartheid era as a form of resistance to simplistic African policies.
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Apartheid is identified as the outcome of a form of (cultural)protectionism. Understanding the protectionist nature of apartheid inthe context of the use of state intervention to…
Abstract
Apartheid is identified as the outcome of a form of (cultural) protectionism. Understanding the protectionist nature of apartheid in the context of the use of state intervention to protect or promote an interest group, allows one to establish criticisms of this system based on a set of principles. While this analysis provides the means for evaluation of consequences, criticisms based on these principles do not require an evaluation of either the intentions or the consequences of protectionist policies. Most forms of interventionist protection are vulnerable to the same objections which are correctly raised against apartheid. Thus, public choice analysis provides evidence and arguments which suggest that evaluation of interventionist policies should be subjected to stringent criteria.
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Many human resources managers and others have dealt with changing worker motivations and declining productivity amidst change. However, when dramatic socio‐political events occur…
Abstract
Many human resources managers and others have dealt with changing worker motivations and declining productivity amidst change. However, when dramatic socio‐political events occur in a culture or globally, they often bring on new hopes and expectations for workers which may or may not be fully understood by ‘Mr. Company’, a patriarchal moniker South African workers often use when talking about the management of their employing company. South Africa's blue‐collar workers before and after apartheid are an example of the need to more frequently examine the impact of change on worker attitudes and of the perception of that change by management. This study revisits South Africa after apartheid to survey a sample of black workers and their white supervisors from three mining operations for changes in their attitudes since a baseline study performed by Harari & Beaty in the mid 1980's. The implications, to Mr. ‘Company's’ human resource managers and managers of other multinational enterprises, of these dramatic changes and resultant rise in workers' expectations are examined in light of the new, Nelson Mandela and African National Congress led, South African government's recommendations for enhancing black quality of life, involvement, and development.
The purpose of this article is to underscore postcolonial approaches that undercut racial inequities as they foster racial equality and inclusivity at higher institutions of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to underscore postcolonial approaches that undercut racial inequities as they foster racial equality and inclusivity at higher institutions of learning, especially in racialised spaces in South Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
This article dwells on whistleblowing as a channel of demythologising Whiteness in South African universities. While the #RhodesMustFall movement at University of Cape Town enjoyed much critical attention, concurrent movements in other universities such as Open Stellenbosch movement did not. This could be attributable to the methods used, especially whistleblowing, an unorthodox method employed to radically question university symbols, to disrupt racial superiority. In revisiting the movement's campaigns, the article specifically highlights Kylie Thomas' whistleblowing to underscore the role of humanities in fostering social transformation beginning with spaces of knowledge production such as universities.
Findings
The research found that challenging apartheid murals and monuments on South African institutions of higher learning required aggressive but creative approaches. This called for unmasking foundations of White supremacism. Whistle blowing and activism against White supremacism boldly confronted apartheid legacies that appear to be well preserved.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited to the 2015 South African student movements. The emphasis is on Open Stellenbosch movement which has received lesser critical attention compared to #RhodesMustFall. It envisions equality, diversity and inclusion in learning institutions which is achievable only through robust activist approaches to institutional/systemic racism in the institutions, rather than armchair theorising.
Originality/value
This article examines ways in which unorthodox methods such as whistlelowing and activism work to disrupt regimented White supremacism in an institution of higher learning founded on racist ethos.
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Francis D. Boateng and Jihye Yoo Lee
Given the tumultuous history of policing in South Africa, the historic relationship between the police and the public, and the continuous rising crime rates, it is perplexing that…
Abstract
Purpose
Given the tumultuous history of policing in South Africa, the historic relationship between the police and the public, and the continuous rising crime rates, it is perplexing that little quantitative research has been conducted on legitimacy and the SAPS. The current study assesses public confidence in police in South Africa by analyzing data from a more than three-decade-old public opinion survey. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine changes in public confidence since 1981; and second, to determine factors that cause variations in confidence during a given period.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the objectives, the authors analyzed longitudinal data collected from 1981 to 2014 as part of the world Value Survey program. ANOVA and multivariate regression analyses were conducted.
Findings
Findings indicate that confidence in SAPS was highest during the period immediately after apartheid and then dwindled from 1999 onwards. Moreover, race, happiness and education have historically influenced public confidence in the police.
Originality/value
These findings provide information that could be useful for transforming the SAPS, especially in developing viable strategies to strengthen the police’s relationship with citizens. Additionally, the manuscript provides an original contribution to the study of public attitudes toward the police and police legitimacy, especially in a non-western society.
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Consumer boycotts are a powerful way to get businesses to changetheir policies, if rather difficult to harness. The author looks indetail at the position of Barclays Bank in South…
Abstract
Consumer boycotts are a powerful way to get businesses to change their policies, if rather difficult to harness. The author looks in detail at the position of Barclays Bank in South Africa, and at Nestlé′s marketing of baby milk to the Third World. The author concludes that management should be aware of their social responsibilities not least because of the economic and corporate image damage which can be inflicted by a concerted consumer campaign.
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After the Mandela government took power in 1994 in South Africa, one of its highest priorities was providing power to the impoverished rural areas, and particularly the…
Abstract
After the Mandela government took power in 1994 in South Africa, one of its highest priorities was providing power to the impoverished rural areas, and particularly the infrastructure‐poor black “townships.” In addition to a scarcity of resources, multiple stake‐holders with very different agendas were integrally a part of the decision‐making process. To this extent, what happened with the electricity industry is a metaphor for the multiple issues—social, economic, and political—which had to be negotiated by the new society. The multiple stake‐holders were brought together in a “Forum,” a non‐regulatory advisory body which was designed to specifically include all relevant interested parties in an open (“transparent”) problem‐solving process. This forum system was extensively used in the 18–24 months immediately before and after the 1994 elections to deal with a host of issues. The National Electricity Forum (NELF) was one of the earliest and most successful of these forums. This case reviews the build‐up to the 1994 elections, describes how the forum process worked, and outlines its structure.
Outlines a framework for social justice, describes both the social and educational context of South Africa, highlights inequitable funding practices, and then advocates for policy…
Abstract
Purpose
Outlines a framework for social justice, describes both the social and educational context of South Africa, highlights inequitable funding practices, and then advocates for policy changes in the form of vertical equity.
Design/methodology/approach
Provides a retrospective review of mandated segregation by race to hypothetical de‐segregation by post‐apartheid policies to de facto re‐segregation by class, in the “new” South Africa.
Findings
Describes how overt racism in the form of apartheid laws has been replaced by covert racism and class domination in the form of school fees.
Originality/value
Reveals how “new” educational injustices are preventing poor and marginalized groups from getting universal access to high‐quality education in the “new” South Africa.
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