Old versus new : a South African Police Service culture attitudinal comparison.

M. Soc. Sc. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2016.Contemporary ethnographers (Cockcroft, 2013; O’Neill, Marks & Singh, 2007; Sklansky, 2005) argue that new developments in policing have changed the police, and that traditional understanding of police culture, as a consequence, are no longer relevant. More specifically, these researchers fashionably imply that the South African Police Service (SAPS) has changed many of the traits of police culture that accentuate the cynicism of and isolation from the public. This masters’ dissertation is an attempt to contribute to this narrative by comparing the police culture themes of solidarity, isolation, and cynicism attitudes of two (2) different cohorts of new South African Police Service (SAPS) recruits separated by ten (10) years. By making use of the 30-item police culture themes of solidarity, isolation, and cynicism questionnaire, designed by Steyn (2005), the study established that a representative sample (138 out of a population of 140) of new SAPS recruits from the SAPS Chatsworth Basic Training Institute (August 2015), had remarkably similar attitudes in support of police culture themes of solidarity, isolation, and cynicism, compared to a representative sample of all new SAPS recruits that started their basic training in January 2005 (Steyn, 2005). Although small in representation, the current study refutes the claims made by Cockcroft (2013), O’Neill, Marks & Singh (2007), and Sklansky (2005), that traditional understandings of police culture are no longer relevant. The current study further argues that new developments in the South African Police Service (SAPS) over the past ten (10) years (2005-2015) have not done much to counteract traits of police culture that accentuate the cynicism of and isolation from the public

A Miscellaneous Hindrances to an Effective Response to Cable Theft in Durban Railway Stations, South Africa

This study focuses on notable miscellaneous hindrances to an effective response to cable theft in Durban railway stations of South Africa. From a qualitative standpoint; data was collected from Eight (8) purposively selected individuals to solicit their respective perceptions and experiences on this subject. This involved the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) ‘Security Personnels – Cable Theft Investigators and Cable Theft Railway Patrollers, all involved in combating cable theft in Durban railway stations. Inductive Thematic Analysis was used for data analysis. This study found that scrap metal dealers are the major key contributors to cable theft in the Durban railway stations; and also the value of copper cable on the market promotes the exponential rise of cable theft. It was also established that, there was no proper protection of the rail infrastructure, and cable thieves get lighter sentences. It was further stablished that cable theft is perpetuated by the shortage of indispensable resources and workforce or police visibility in the stations. For the recommendations: More attention must be paid to scrap metal dealers by offering strict rules on the issuing of trading licenses. Moreover, severe stiff sentences should be handed to pontetial offenders and better working relations should be established, with more resources geared to the PRASA security department

Legal Frameworks and Foreign Investment: A Primer on Governments' Obligations

Legal frameworks, and how they interact, are often invisible in the day to day. Yet they are powerful forces that influence government actions and that help to shape who benefits and who loses from foreign investment. Understanding these legal frameworks, and how they interact, is critical for anyone concerned with how foreign investment can be better harnessed to support, rather than weaken, sustainable development and human rights. This primer provides a brief overview of host government obligations under international investment law, international human rights law, domestic law, and relevant investor-state contracts. It also highlights some of the ways in which those legal obligations may affect or conflict with each other

Statut et ambiguïtés de la parole en milieu Bantu à l'épreuve de la théologie de la parole de dieu

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Cybercrime Preparedness A Critical Snapshot of BRICS Countries

As the global stage prepares for the many benefits and new opportunities brought about by the advances in information and communications technology (ICT), particularly in the context of the fourth industrial revolution, there is little doubt that these new opportunities will usher in new challenges and threats deriving from the growing misuse of ICTs for criminal activities and the increasing malicious use of ICTs by state and non-state actors. Against this backdrop this paper provides a snapshot of cybersecurity ‘preparedness’ on the part of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, (BRICS) countries, to mitigate these challenges. This has been obtained through discussion of literature and media reports written on the topic and through content analysis of some critical policy documents that govern cybersecurity frameworks in the BRICS countries. The paper makes recommendations for the BRICS Think Tanks Council (BTTC) to play a more significant role in shaping policy initiatives collectively, while maintaining sovereignty, should it see a role for itself in shaping a new world order

Optimised path planning of a UAV for inventory management applications

Inventory management in warehouses is a crucial task in the logistics industry. Manual stocktaking in larger-scale warehouses can be time-consuming and labour-intensive. To automate this process, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have gained popularity due to their potential to offer a safer, timeous, and more efficient solution. However, deploying drone systems can face challenges and therefore requires planning tasks such as path planning. This study investigates two commonly used UAV flight paths to identify the optimal path within a warehouse: zigzag and up-down flight paths. A Gazebo simulation was considered with a six-rotor UAV model to analyse the different flight paths. The accuracy of both path types is measured for comparison, and flight times were considered as a means for optimisation. The results indicated that the zigzag flight path is the most optimal with the shortest flight time. The study found that the zigzag path resulted in a 27.25% shorter estimated flight time compared to the up-down path

Reliability of visual inertial odometry on an unmanned aerial vehicle

There is a need to ensure that an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can fly safely in indoor environments. In this paper, the visual-inertial odometry (VIO) implemented in a commercial UAV is tested to determine its reliability to keep its position in confined indoor spaces. The experimental results indicated that the UAV was able to track the subject from an average distance of 3915.23 mm in the y-direction, with RMSEx and RMSEy of 452.47 mm and 332.66 mm, respectively. This shows that the UAV can track objects in confined environments, such as the aisles of an indoor warehouse

Design of HERMES: a mobile autonomous surveillance robot for security patrol

The HERMES autonomous surveillance robot platform is a low-cost outdoor autonomous surveillance vehicle. It is designed to autonomously patrol outdoor areas performing surveillance and providing automated alerts of detected vehicles and people. The design and testing of this system are covered in this paper. The design philosophy focused on the use of off-the-shelf components wherever possible with the base of the robot being a modified electric quadbike. The testing has verified that the surveillance robot can perform real-time person and vehicle detection, video streaming, manual and autonomous navigation on a low-cost platform. The development of the robot platform is continuing with the current focus being on the improvement of the autonomous navigation, ingress protection (IP) rating and verification of the battery life

Aggressive Behaviour of Metastatic Melanoma in a Patient with Neurofibromatosis Type 1

Malignant melanoma is a common skin neoplasm bearing poor prognosis when presenting with metastases. Rarely melanoma metastases present without an identifiable primary cutaneous lesion despite exhaustive workup. We describe the case of a solitary lung metastasis in a patient with neurofibromatosis type 1 without an identifiable primary tumour. The rapid progression of this malignant neoplasm that led to the patient’s death within 1 year is described