South Africa (2009) - Salient Contemporary Features in Facts and Figures

South Africa is a demographically diverse country where many divisions (still) tend to coincide with racial boundaries, beset by a wide range of socio-economic problems typical of developing countries and otherwise stemming from its colonial past and a discriminatory past policy of apartheid. The paper describes the country's salient features in facts and figures in order to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of society in terms of demography, education, employment, public health care, poverty, housing, crime and the economy. The picture presented tends to be on the dark side, but also hopeful for the future thanks to inter alia a strong globalised economy

What we have learned : student teachers' views on the quality of mentoring and teaching practice in township schools

Published ArticleIn South Africa a high premium should be placed on the value of effective education and training to achieve an array of economic and social objectives. The development of a strong and functional education system is closely linked with the quality of teaching and learning taking place at schools. In this regard, the nagging shortage of skilled educators underscores the importance of effective training of student teachers to address the shortages and ultimately contribute to the establishment of a competitive and sustainable education system. The present article examines the effectiveness of mentoring and teaching practice experiences of student teachers at a South African university who completed their practical training at township schools. These schools are typically under-resourced, overcrowded and situated in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. Not only are many of these schools' teachers under-qualified, but the schools also experience acute shortages of teachers in scarce subjects. An empirical study was conducted that targeted all final-year education students who had completed their teaching practice at 34 township schools. The empirical findings provide food for thought as to the success of mentoring in these schools. While 16 aspects of mentoring rendered a positive result ranging from 'positive' to 'strongly positive', seven aspects of mentoring were regarded as 'mildly adequate' and five skills were evaluated as between 'below adequate' to 'inadequate'. Even though the findings of this study cannot be generalised to mentoring at all township schools, some noteworthy trends were identified

Exodus of \u27mineral rights\u27 from the South African Mineral Law

Transformation of the mineral law system as part of the new political&nbsp; dispensation in South Africa has long been foreseen. Subsequent to a Green and White Paper, as policy documents, the Department of Minerals and Energy published a Mineral Development Draft 8il12000 for public comment. This eventually culminated in the acceptance by Parliament of the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002, which came into operation on 1 May 2004. The Act will transform thE! mineral law system and the mining industry in&quot; general. In this article the phaSing-out by the Act of the historical notion of \u27mineral right\u27 is examined. It is argue..d that the Act will lead to an exodus of the notion of mineral rights and will replace It with less secure prospecting rights and mining rights which, albeit real in nature, will depend on compliance with provisions of the Act and the exercise of discre.Von by the Minister.<br /

Mineral rights are dead! Long live mineral rights!

Whilst being mindful of the eventual extinction of the legal notion of mineral rights in South Africa upon expiry of the transitional measures in terms of schedule II of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 on 30 April 2009, the classification of mineral rights by the supreme court of appeal in the Anglo decision is to be welcomed, even though it is somewhat ironic at this stage. (As to the extinction of the notion of mineral rights, see Badenhorst &quot;Mineral rights : \u27year zero cometh?\u27&quot; 2001 Obiter 119; &quot;Exodus of \u27mineral rights\u27 from South African mineral law&quot; 2004 Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law 218.) It will, however, be shown in this discussion that the decision of the supreme court of appeal will extend beyond the statutory transitional period and will also have an impact on rights to minerals or rights to petroleum as created in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (hereafter referred to as the act). For purposes of this discussion, one can simply continue to refer to mineral rights that developed from the common law as &quot;mineral rights&quot;, whilst referring to the new rights created in terms of the act as &quot;rights to minerals and petroleum&quot;. The present decision only deals with coal as &quot;minerals&quot;.<br /

A tale of two expropriations: Newcrestia and Agrizania

A comparison will be made between the decision of the High Court of Australia in Newcrest Mining (WA) Ltd v The Commonwealth1 (&ldquo;Newcrest&rdquo;) and the decisions of the South African Courts in the Agri South Africa line of cases.2 Although the mineral law systems of the two countries differ insofar as historical development and content,3 the simplified facts of the Newcrest and Agri SA decisions and principles of expropriation law are similar enough to draw an interesting comparison between the respective cases. Both cases dealt with the issue of whether the mineral rights/mining rights of private holders were expropriated by legislation which prohibited mining in one way or another. A comparison between the cases shows the approaches towards the issues and what exactly constitutes deprivation and/or acquisition of property for purposes of expropriation and whether deprivation and/or acquisition actually took place.The differences between the mineral law systems of Australia and South Africa (before the enactment of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 (hereafter &ldquo;MPRDA&rdquo;)) and the protection afforded against the resumption/expropriation of mineral rights or mining rights will be set as background information for a better understanding of the respective decisions. The facts of the two cases will first be set out and simplified for comparative purposes before the respective decisions are discussed. At the end, a comparison will be made between the decisions and a conclusion reached about the similarity of principles and the correctness of the respective decisions

Dreaming and the dorsolateral frontal lobes : towards a better understanding of the mechanism of dreaming

Includes bibliographical references.The exact mechanism of dream production is still poorly understood. Based on exploratory findings that damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex does not cause changes in these patients subjective experience of their dreams (Solms, 1997), a study was conducted in order to investigate the role of this area in dream production. The dreams of seven patients with damage to tile dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were compared with those of normal participants. A content analysis found no significant quantitative differences between the dreams of dorsolateral prefrontal patients and normal controls. In addition, none of the patients with damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex reported any subjective changes in their dreams since falling ill. These findings are congruent with those or numerous neuro-imaging studies, which indicate that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is deactivated during dreaming, and provide support for the theory that deactivation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during sleep accounts for many of the formal features of dreams