A constitutional perspective on the Sparrow judgements

The cases of ANC v Penny Sparrow and State v Penny Sparrow, respectively in the Equality Court and the magistrate’s court, concerned a Facebook entry posted by Penny Sparrow, a whiteestate agent. The Equality Court found that Sparrow’s words constituted hate speech in terms of sec. 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000(“the Equality Act”); in the magistrate’s court, she was found guilty of crimen iniuria. This contribution considers whether the judgements in these matters comply with the constitutionalapproach in dealing with hurtful or harmful expression related to group characteristics, in particular race, broadly referred to as hate speech, which approach is crucial for the protection as well asthe transformation of South African society. Both these aims are put at risk by an indiscriminate comprehension and application of the wide-ranging phrase “hate speech”. This observation iscorroborated by the fact that international agreements concluded in the aftermath of the atrocities of World War II set out on the quest for the narrowest restriction of free speech, reservingcriminalisation for extreme forms of expression only. In line with this approach, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, clearly distinguishes between expression under its sec.16(2), in particular sec. 16(2)(c), which warrants no protection, and expression that falls outside this ambit, which does enjoy constitutional protection, although subject to limitation. Thisdistinction is particularly relevant in the application of sec. 10 of the Equality Act, which is primarily aimed at transformation instead of punishment. The article first argues that the Equality Court in the matter of ANC v Penny Sparrow disregarded the distinction above, and consequently failed to further the transformative aims of the Equality Act. It also failed to consider the cyber context within which the Sparrow comments were made. It is contended, in this regard, that the characteristics of internet communication increase the risks of extreme hate speech, on the one hand, and have the potential to generate sincere transformation through social pressure when it comes to expression that falls outside the ambit of sec. 16(2), on the other. In the same vein, the article argues that the common law offence of crimen iniuria, construed as to extend to a verbal attack, not against an individual, but against a group of which he/she is a member, is not in keeping with international law or the Constitution, and negates the purposively drafted provisions of the Equality Act

Die effek van die regulering van maksimum werkure op werknemers se grondwetlike reg op gelykheid

The paper examines the effect of the provisons regulating maximum working hours, with reference to the principle of equality entrenched in section 9 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Section 9(1) read with section 10(1) of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75/1997 has the effect that, subject to certain exceptions, employees are not allowed to work for the same employer for more than 55 hours per week. This does not prevent employees from working longer hours in total for different employers, an option that entails clear disadvantages. As a result of the adverse effect of past discrimination, black people, women and people on low socio-economic levels are disproportionately more unfavourably positioned in respect of levels of income, occupational status, financial ability and, consequentially, opportunities for promotion and improvement. This disadvantage often creates a need to work longer hours, specifically for the same employer. An application of the test developed in Harksen v Lane NO leads to a conclusion that the provisions referred to constitute unfair discrimination in terms of section 9 of the Constitution. The provisions also fail the proportionality test of section 36 of the Constitution

Air Pollution and Climate Forcing of the Charcoal Industry in Africa

The demand for charcoal in Africa is growing rapidly, driven by urbanization and lack of access to electricity. Charcoal production and use, including plastic burning to initiate combustion, release large quantities of trace gases and particles that impact air quality and climate. Here, we develop an inventory of current (2014) and future (2030) emissions from the charcoal supply chain in Africa that we implement in the GEOS-Chem model to quantify the contribution of charcoal to surface concentrations of PM2.5 and ozone and direct radiative forcing due to aerosols and ozone. We estimate that the charcoal industry in 2014 required 140–460 Tg of biomass and 260 tonnes of plastic and that industry emissions could double by 2030, so that methane emissions from the charcoal industry could outcompete those from open fires by 2025. In 2014, the largest enhancements in PM2.5 (0.5–1.4 μg m–3) and ozone (0.4–0.7 ppbv) occur around the densely populated cities in East and West Africa. Cooling due to aerosols (−100 to −300 mW m–2) is concentrated over dense cities, whereas warming due to ozone is widespread, peaking at 4.2 mW m–2 over the Atlantic Ocean. These effects will worsen with ongoing dependence on this energy source, spurred by rapid urbanization and absence of viable cleaner alternatives

Restructuring manufacturing in South Africa's lagging regions : the case of the Free State

The manufacturing economy of the Free State reflects both historical dependence on locally available raw materials and high-levels of state intervention, in terms of support for import substitution and Homeland development. In the contemporary era, deindustrialization, the uncertain future of the clothing / textile industries and limited growth over the last ten years, suggests that, in terms of manufacturing, the Free State is a 'lagging' region. While there has been significant expansion in the number of small firms, this is not matched by employment growth and does not compensate for the loss of many large firms and economic downscaling in the Goldfields. Key sectors such as petro-chemicals and gold jewellery present certain opportunities for future growth

Maceration Before and During Fermentation: Effect on Pinotage Wine Phenolic Composition, Total Antioxidant Capacity and Objective Colour Parameters

Low-temperature maceration treatments (1, 2 and 4 days at 10 and 15°C) before fermentation and juice/skin mixing treatments (punching-down, pumping-over and rotor action every hour and every 3 hours) duringfermentation were investigated in terms of their effects on Pinotage wine phenolic composition, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and colour over three vintages (2000 to 2002). Results for pre-fermentation maceration were notconsistent between vintages. Very few significant differences in the phenolic content, TAC and objective colour parameters were observed between the control wines and wines subjected to different pre-fermentation macerationtreatments. Pre-fermentation maceration, especially at 15°C, resulted in wines with increased vitisin A content.  Improvement of wine quality when using pre-fermentation maceration treatments at 10°C was noted previously, while no detrimental effect on the wine TAC was observed. The pumping-over treatment yielded wines with lower TAC and phenol content, as well as less favourable objective colour values, indicating that the punching-down or rotor treatment would be preferred. Although mixing at hourly intervals yielded a higher content of some phenolic compounds compared to the 3-hour interval mixing, mixing frequency did not affect the TAC of the wine. The objective colour parameters, h* and b*, were slightly lower at the higher mixing frequency in 2002 indicating a shift in the direction of a magenta hue

Natural variation in abiotic stress responsive gene expression and local adaptation to climate in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Gene expression varies widely in natural populations, yet the proximate and ultimate causes of this variation are poorly known. Understanding how variation in gene expression affects abiotic stress tolerance, fitness, and adaptation is central to the field of evolutionary genetics. We tested the hypothesis that genes with natural genetic variation in their expression responses to abiotic stress are likely to be involved in local adaptation to climate in Arabidopsis thaliana. Specifically, we compared genes with consistent expression responses to environmental stress (expression stress responsive, "eSR") to genes with genetically variable responses to abiotic stress (expression genotype-by-environment interaction, "eGEI"). We found that on average genes that exhibited eGEI in response to drought or cold had greater polymorphism in promoter regions and stronger associations with climate than those of eSR genes or genomic controls. We also found that transcription factor binding sites known to respond to environmental stressors, especially abscisic acid responsive elements, showed significantly higher polymorphism in drought eGEI genes in comparison to eSR genes. By contrast, eSR genes tended to exhibit relatively greater pairwise haplotype sharing, lower promoter diversity, and fewer nonsynonymous polymorphisms, suggesting purifying selection or selective sweeps. Our results indicate that cis-regulatory evolution and genetic variation in stress responsive gene expression may be important mechanisms of local adaptation to climatic selective gradients

Hypertriglyceridaemia in adolescents may have serious complications

Acute pancreatitis is an often-overlooked cause of acute abdominal pain in children and adolescents. Severe hypertriglyceridaemia is an important cause of recurrent acute pancreatitis. Monogenic causes of hypertriglyceridaemia, such as familial chylomicronaemia caused by lipoprotein lipase deficiency, are more frequently encountered in children and adolescents, but remain rare. Polygenic hypertriglyceridaemia is more common, but may require a precipitant before manifesting. With the global increase in obesity and type 2 diabetes, secondary causes of hypertriglyceridaemia in children and adolescents are increasing. We report two cases of severe hypertriglyceridaemia and pancreatitis in adolescent females. Hypertriglyceridaemia improved markedly with restriction of dietary fat. An inhibitor to lipoprotein lipase was found to be the cause in one patient, while in the other limited genetic investigation excluded chylomicronaemia owing to deficiency of lipoprotein lipase, its activators and processing proteins