• Title/Summary/Keyword: South Africa

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COVID-19's Rapid Digitalization of Construction Education: Built Environment Instructor Experience in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa.

  • Mall, Ayesha;Haupt, Theodore C
    • International conference on construction engineering and project management
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    • 2022.06a
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    • pp.476-483
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    • 2022
  • The novel coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on society and everyday life. The pandemic imposed a global shutdown leading to many challenges such as the suspension of academic programs at universities. The result of this suspension contributed to the rapid overnight migration of educational activities from traditional face-to-face learning to a virtual environment which until then was unfamiliar to both instructors and students. This study identified the experiences faced by built environment higher education instructors in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa during this sudden switch to online teaching and learning. This pilot study employed a quantitative research approach to survey instructor experiences on online teaching and learning during a global pandemic. The data was computed and analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data collected. The study sample comprised of 20 higher education instructors in the region of the KwaZulu Natal province in South Africa. Findings from the study revealed that instructors faced adaptive challenges with rapidly having to redesign and remodel the mode of academic course delivery and assessments to suit an online platform. Additionally, instructors observed that students faced technological challenges such as connectivity and navigating the online learning management system platforms. The challenges identified by instructors and students can be effectively transformed to opportunities for future learning under the 'new normal'.

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Indicators for assessing neighbourhood satisfaction in state provided housing in South Africa

  • Aigbavboa, Clinton;Thwala, Wellington
    • International conference on construction engineering and project management
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    • 2015.10a
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    • pp.361-366
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    • 2015
  • The objective of this paper was to establish the attributes that determines neighbourhood satisfaction in South Africa lowincome housing subsidy scheme ultilising the Delphi approach. This is because the perception and housing satisfaction of lowincome housing beneficiaries toward their housing condition can be studied by examining their satisfaction toward s the neighbourhood factors. The Delphi method was used where the views of housing experts were solicited on 26 potential attributes as identified from li terature. Consensus was achieved after three iterative rounds. The expert"s scored each attributes on a 10-point ordinal scale of impact significance, where 1-2=No impact and 9-10= very high impact. The scales adapted for consensus were: strong consensus, median 9-10, inter quartile deviation (IQD) ≤1; good consensus, median 7 ≤ 6.99and IQD≥2.1≤3. The key findings indicate that there was a good to strong consensus of 19 attributes which were key attributes that the experts perceived as determinants of neighbourhood satisfaction; while 6 other attributes had weak consensus, as they were considered to have a le sser impact in determining residents" neighbourhood satisfaction. However, attributes with weak consensus were the attributes that are highly regarded as core neighbourhood factors in other housing settings. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on th e subject where no consensus has been reached pertaining to indicators for measuring neighbourhood satisfaction in subsidised low-income housing in South Africa.

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HOUSING SATISFACTION IN SUBSIDIZED HOUSING SCHEMES: A SOUTH AFRICA PERSPECTIVE

  • Clinton O. Aigbavboa;Wellington D. Thwala
    • International conference on construction engineering and project management
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    • 2011.02a
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    • pp.636-646
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    • 2011
  • Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) techniques have been developed to provide a means for evaluating occupant responses to changes in an environment and linking this response to physical measures of that environment. POE has been used to systematically evaluate the performance of buildings after they have been built and occupied for some time. This paper present findings on factors (social and physical), which influences housing residential satisfaction of a sample of occupants in four different government Housing Subsidy locations in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Descriptive statistics were carried out on the data obtained through the use of occupant survey. Findings emanating from the survey revealed that the respondents were satisfied with their overall housing situation, but had complaints about certain aspects of the housing unit. However, the respondents felt that most of their housing needs were not being met. Also, a comparison is also made of the perceived factors of dissatisfaction amongst the housing subsidy occupants. It is recommended that a wider systematic coverage of the subject through investigation and diagnostic POE and occupants need assessment should be carried in housing subsidy schemes in South Africa.

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THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL SECURITY AND RETIREMENT REFORMS AND RETIREMENT SAVINGS CULTURE IN SOUTH AFRICA

  • Nevondwe, Lufuno;Odeku, Kola;Matotoka, Mothlatlego
    • East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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    • v.1 no.3
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    • pp.71-84
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    • 2013
  • Purpose: The South African government is determined in alleviating poverty while encouraging job creation and protecting the disposable incomes of poor households. This article looks at the challenges that are facing the South African Social Security system and argues that the provision of income security is amongst the most practical expressions of a nation's cohesion and values. Research Design, Data and Methodology: There are seven proposals in the Social Security and Retirement Reform and these proposals are based on the following two principal objectives of the government, that is, to ensure a basic standard of living and to prevent destitution in old age or in circumstances of unemployment or incapacity partly or wholly through redistributive measures, and to encourage savings to provide for the replacement of income on retirement, disablement or death through long-term insurance arrangements. Results: This article evaluates these seven proposals, state old age pension, wage subsidy, mandatory participation in a national social security system for all, mandatory participation in private occupational or individual retirement funds, Voluntary additional contributions to occupational or individual retirement funds, reform of the governance and regulation of the retirement funding industry and reform of the tax system. Conclusion: This article concludes that the population size of South Africa has increased significantly to 51, 8 million in 2011 and therefore the time is right for bold new steps in improving income security of the poor and strengthening the fabric of social solidarity that binds all South Africans together.

The TRC and reformative social unification in the South Africa (남아공의 진실과화해위원회(TRC)와 개혁적 사회통합 -민주주의 이행과정으로서의 과거사정리정책-)

  • Kim, Young Su
    • Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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    • v.12 no.4
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    • pp.67-88
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    • 2009
  • In April, 1995, ANC government was established in South Africa. The Black government set up Truth and Reconciliation Committee in November, 1995. The Committee investigated approximately 50,000 cases for 3years. Through this process, Black and White in SA could be united into one. Finally, the system of racial discrimination, lasting for about 300 years, was abolished. The Committee played a role as a social infra-structure, which was to perform and solidify democracy in SA. Reconciliation, agreement, Participation, equality, Communication, and Reformation of law system were practically implemented by the Committee. Many people evaluate TRC's activity, which had the reformative and democratic character of the object of investigation, investigative criterion, investigative process, and the approval of investigative result. But De Klerk evaluates that TRC retaliated the White with legal. J. Cronin evaluates that TRC transiently change democracy of the South Africa, and many other social movement groups had a negative view about TRC. But the Black and White in South Africa transformed 'discriminated society' into 'united one'. The Committee took the initiative in such a change. The Committee was not an organization needed for the policy, but the committee was the policy itself to change the former society to the new one. Now The ANC government was forwarding TRC's roles and functions to the truth and reconciliation bureau of the Justice Department for further action. The ANC government has to execute some policy for social reconciliation. Firstly, the government needs to build construction social and national system for making close investigation into the White's historical guilt. Secondly, it must be executed to TRC's recommendation pursuit social reform of social infra-structure in the South Africa. Thirdly, The government should execute policy for the Black's right as labors and social member. Lastly, the government must investigate still-remaining historic state violence and infringement of human right for social reconciliation.

Streetwalkers: Phantom Monuments of the Post-Apartheid City ((거리의) 창부들: 흑인격리정책 폐지 후 도시의 환영적 기념물)

  • Maltz-Leca, Leora
    • The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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    • no.10
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    • pp.63-84
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    • 2010
  • This essay examines how the figure of Liberty has been refashioned in the streets of post-apartheid South Africa, addressing three public art works installed in Johannesburg over the past decade: Reshada Crouse's oil painting Passive Resistance, Marlene Dumas' tapestry The Benefit of the Doubt and William Kentridge's and Gerhard Marx's sculpture Firewalker. Even as these monumental works all reprise Delacroix's Liberty on the Barricades-an icon of the city street and its revolutionary barricades-so too this trio of Liberties have become mere phantoms of their vaunted archetype. Haunted specters, they quarrel with the mythologized chimera of Liberty, taking issue with the fraught tradition of pinning regime change onto the body of the female nude. Drawing instead on South African histories of women's resistance, in which female nudity has been repeatedly marshaled as a form of dissent, the Liberties circling Johannesburg hybridize their European template with local traditions of female political opposition to colonial and postcolonial male authority.

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Distribution of Tropical Tropospheric Ozone Determined by the Scan-Angle Method applied to TOMS Measurements

  • Kim, Jae-H.;Na, Sun-Mi;Newchurch, M. J.;Emmons, L.
    • Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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    • 2002.10a
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    • pp.7-11
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    • 2002
  • This study introduces the first method that determines tropospheric ozone column directly from a space-based instrument. This method is based on the physical differences in the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) measurement as a function of its scan-angle geometry. Tropospheric ozone in September-October exhibits a broad enhancement over South America, the southern Atlantic Ocean, and western South Africa and a minimum over the central Pacific Ocean. Tropical tropospheric ozone south of the equator is higher than north of the equator in September-October, the southern burning season. Conversely, ozone north of the equator is higher in March, the northern burning season. Overall, the ozone over the southern tropics during September-October is significantly higher than over the northern tropics. Abnormally high tropospheric ozone occurs over the western Pacific Ocean during the El Nino season when the ozone amounts are as high as the ozone over the Africa.

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Status of Pathology Services and Molecular Pathology in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for Combating Breast Cancer

  • Wajana Lako LABISSO
    • Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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    • v.55 no.3
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    • pp.121-131
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    • 2023
  • African breast cancer patients benefit less from classical pathology services owing to the complex molecular and clinicopathological nature of the disease, poor quality of laboratory supplies, and shortage of experts in the field. This review presents evidence and confirms the need for improving anatomic pathology services in Africa. Peer-reviewed international journal articles available in Medline, Scopus, PubMed, and Google scholars, describing the status of pathology services in Africa, were included. Besides the late presentation of patients, anatomic pathology laboratories are accountable for the escalated mortality of breast cancer patients in several parts of Africa. Conversely, molecular diversity and biological heterogeneity of breast cancers, which disprove the one-size-fits-all therapeutic approach, have been reported from different parts of the continent. Irrespective of the geographical background, the choice of therapeutic options and predicting disease outcome depends on the right identification of the molecular signature of the cancer type. In conclusion, we propose that upgrading and integrating anatomic pathology with molecular diagnostic pathology is essential in order to provide better diagnostic results that will profoundly impact curbing mortality from breast cancers.