Questioning the Validity of Race as a Social Construct: Examining Race and Ethnicity in the ‘Rainbow Nation’

Governments have historically classified their populations according to race and ethnicity, which has been done to either exert power over minority groups or ensure equality among these groups. However, viewing ones racial identity through a historical lens raises doubts about the validity of race as a social construct, since the concept has seldom served as a strong foundation for social identity formation. As such, we posit that ethnicity is a more accurate predictor of identification than race. Using South Africa as the research context, we examine whether within each race group ethnic differences exist on national identity and social capital measures. Data were collected on race, ethnic identity, national identity, and social capital. Significant differences between ethnic groups within one race group indicate that the current racial classification system in South Africa is open for distortions of how the South African people feel about their nation

Capacity Building and Institutional Development Partnership: University of Florida and Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa

Capacity building and institutional development through training is a key component for the vitality and sustainability of the tourism industry in South Africa. The overall advancement of qualified, trained and skilled labor force is crucial, given the rate of growth and future trends. In order to address this major need, the University of Florida and Tshwane University of Technology have formulated a three-year partnership (2009-2012) to strengthen curriculum, research, and faculty enhancement initiatives in tourism management in South Africa. This presentation will outline and expand the partnership objectives and accomplishments. This example can be a model for international academic partnerships

Removal of rain from images by means of digital filters and camera obscuration techniques

M. Ing. (Mechanical Engineering)This research aims at identifying techniques which can be used to remove rain from a digitized rain distorted image. The research commenced with computer implemented rain removal techniques but also lead to camera obscuration techniques. Camera rain obscuration technique: Before a rainy scene is digitized, rain can be removed from the projected image by the correct selection of camera aperture and shutter speed settings. These settings will determine the way the real image is transformed through the lens and onto the recording plane. Computer image restoration technique: Rain removal after digitization is performed in both the frequency and the spatial domain by means of two dimensional image processing and filtering techniques. Time consuming frequency domain techniques were replaced by equivalent convolutional techniques. Experiments on simulated and real scenes corrupted with rain indicated that it is possible to improve the image appearance with only a marginal decrease in signal to noise ratio

Perceptions of restaurateurs on quality grading

A restaurateur's strategic focus is to maximise wealth for the owner(s). To achieve wealth maximisation, a restaurateur could implement one or more of the following strategies: focus strategy, cost-leadership strategy and/or differentiation strategy. A management intervention a restaurateur could implement to achieve this is quality differentiation. Grading of an establishment will assist a restaurateur in becoming a market leader. Currently there no national restaurant grading system exists in South Africa. As support and participation of restaurateurs in any future quality grading system are essential, it is imperative to test their perceptions of the implementation of a quality grading scale. The aim of this paper is to gather the perceptions of restaurateurs of an envisaged scale that could be used to grade independent full-service restaurants. In this study the researcher tested the perceptions of restaurateurs using nine possible outcomes of implementing quality grading in the independent fullservice restaurant segment. The outcomes to be tested were presented to restaurateurs in a questionnaire uploaded on "survey monkey". This was emailed to 3 286 restaurateurs and 265 responses were received. Respondents who were positive regarding grading indicated that they were enthusiastic about the impact grading would have on international tourism, as well as the fact that it could contribute to an increase in the value of their establishments

Participatory development of peri-urban and rural poor communities in tourism in the Garden Route area of Southern Cape, South Africa

Participatory development approach facilitates implementation of principles of sustainable tourism development by creating better opportunities for local people to gain larger and more balanced benefits from tourism development taking place in their localities. The main objective of this study was to examine nature of community participation in tourism development in order to ensure their participation in the benefits of tourism in the Garden Route area in South Africa. A conceptual framework was developed by examining typologies of community participation. Under the guidance of this conceptual framework, a field research was designed and applied where ninety (90) different stakeholders in the tourism industry across the different sub-sectors were sampled. This Chi-Squared test was done to test the statistical significance on the differences of the responses from the respondents in the different group sectors (accommodation, government department, travel/tour operators, transport and other). It was found that community members expect to be involved in three different stages of the process of tourism development which are decision-making, actual development and marketing as well as the management of operating tourism projects in their areas

Quality of Life, Event Impacts, and Mega-Event Support among South African Residents before and after the 2010 FIFA World Cup

The purpose of the study was to explore the role of mega-event impacts on perceived satisfaction with quality of life and support among South African residents before and after the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Limited research has empirically tested whether quality of life (QOL) is perceived as an exchange benefit that facilitates resident support of mega-events. Intercept data were collected from residents in five host cities three months before (March 2010) and eight months after (March 2011) the event (N = 3,789). Results indicate significant differences in perceived impacts before and after the event. Before the event, the influence of political impacts, psychological impacts, and social benefits on perceived QOL was significant, while QOL mediated the relationships between political, psychological, and social benefit impacts and resident support. After the event, economic impacts emerged as a significant predictor of QOL in contrast to the preevent sample

Africa Insight

Africa Insight is published quarterly by the Africa Institute of South Africa, an independent study centre concerned with African affairs.This journal focuses on contemporary issues of Africa

Africa Insight

Africa Insight is published quarterly by the Africa Institute of South Africa, an independent study centre concerned with African affairs.This journal focuses on contemporary issues of Africa