The Traditional Courts Bill: A silent coup?

This article calls into question the representation of traditional governance and customary law that underpins the Traditional Courts Bill (B15-2008)(TCB). It argues that the Bill presents a flawed view of traditional custom and practice by, amongst other things, failing to recognise the changing nature of custom and cultural practice. In so doing the Bill provides a legal basis upon which prejudice and discriminatory practices may be entrenched. The article argues that African cultures have always valued individual rights and choices, and affirmed these as integral to each individual being part of a community. This is in no way represented in the Bill. The author argues that the TCB has not only disregarded five years of work of the SALRC, funded by tax-payers, but also proposes a system that contradicts the Constitution

"An exploratory study of the relationship between government contracts and entrepreneurship in South Africa": a case study within eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Public procurement of goods, services, and infrastructure has the potential to create synergies between entrepreneurship and economic growth. The South African Supplier Diversity Council (SASDC) concurred with OECD findings and added that procurement through both public and private sector could be used as leverage to promote entrepreneurship. The 1997 Green Paper on public procurement reforms had intended for public procurement to be utilised for the advancement of entrepreneurship and SMME development. At the time of public procurement reforms in 1997, government spending accounted for 13% of GDP. National Treasury has budgeted R1.56 trillion in 2017 for public expenditure accounting for 29% of GDP. However, despite this significant public expenditure from which public procurement is derived, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) reported that South Africa’s (SA) rate of entrepreneurial activity is very low for a developing nation compared to other sub-Saharan African countries. GEM also found that the level of business discontinuation is higher than the rate of business start-ups in SA. Within public procurement, ‘tenderpreneurship’ has taken centre stage and is seen to be preventing entrepreneurs from participating in government tenders. This happens during a period of entrepreneurship evolution where in countries like China, entrepreneurship is transitioning from network-based to innovation based in anticipation of the 4th industrial revolution. The study aims to explore whether a relationship between government tenders and entrepreneurship exists in SA. The data collection instrument used was a survey questionnaire which was administered by the researcher within eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. Dependence on government tenders was found to be high as descriptive statistics indicated that participants’ businesses derived 90.48% of income from government tenders. Data was further analysed using Principal component analysis and regression analysis. Principal component analysis was used to explore the dimensions of tender recipients’ opinions on the relationship between entrepreneurship and tenders and to further explore the dimensions on the personality traits exhibited by tender recipients in relation to entrepreneurship. Ordinary least squares regression modelling was used to develop a model of the degree of dependence on government tenders. The results show that ‘tender-minded’, ‘non-tender minded,' ‘business growth-minded,' and ‘conservative driven’ participants had a significant higher degree of dependence on government tenders

Comparative digestibility and productive performances between Landrace and Iberian pigs fed on a corn- or a sorghum-acorn- based diet

Although digestible energy (DE) values for most commonly used feeds in pig industry are mainly predicted by their chemical composition, other likely effects could affect digestibility. The present paper try to explore the effects likely caused by animal breed (lean v. fat line) and dietary ingredients used

Postgraduate supervision support in Open Distance and E-learning: Supervisors’ and key stakeholders’ views

This descriptive case study explores the support that supervisors in the College of Education (CEDU) at the University of South Africa (UNISA) give to Ethiopian doctoral students. It is important to inquire into supervisors’ views about the support that they give to students as part of their supervision especially in the open distance and e-learning (ODeL) higher education context. Twelve supervisors who are or have supervised Ethiopian doctoral students were selected by convenience sampling and interviewed individually to gather their views about the support they give (or have given) to their students. Supervisors’ views were augmented by other key stakeholders’ views to deepen the understanding of support. The findings reveal that supervisors, though faced with unique challenges, made efforts to support students emotionally, academically, and by being the extended hand of UNISA when students could not access certain services or resources. Doctoral students who are faced with contextual challenges can succeed if they are given proper support which is motivated by mutual respect between the supervisor and student. The study can also benefit supervisors in African universities to reflect on the support that they give to their students, especially in the situations that are posed by the students’ circumstances