An analysis of impediments to deliver sustainable transport in cities of the developing countries : the case of Harare, Zimbabwe

Abstract: Africa is urbanizing at a rapid rate. The rapid rise in population coupled with constrained real economic growth has created unintended consequences impacting on the economy, social fabric and the environment. Ironically, as the urban population grows, the provision of services has declined. For instance, the formal public transport that was dominant in many African cities has disappeared. The twin factors of increasing population and the dearth of conventional public transport have stimulated the growth of informal public transport, which has become the major form of public transport in many countries. Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe, exhibits these characteristics which are common in most cities. Public transport is the preserve of the informal sector. The informal public transport sector continues to grow and the city’s main urban public space is increasingly more congested; impeding rather than facilitating the urban population’s ability to access the required social and economic services. A clear mismatch between the demand for traffic space and its availability is evident. The need to provide a sustainable urban transport system cannot be overemphasised. Sustainability creates and maintains conditions under which society can cope and viably support livelihood requirements. The key stakeholders in Zimbabwe have agreed on the need to craft a sustainable urban transport system in Harare. Notwithstanding this agreement, there is no indication of addressing the challenges and the transport system is deteriorating. The paper assesses the impediments to the realisation of a sustainable urban transport system which is vital for economic growth

Traditional Igbo dances as non-verbal communication: A study of Iduu dance

The popularity of dance as an art form in Africa is outstanding. But little knowledge on dance communication is affecting its popularity, and this limits the body of knowledge available in the area of choreographic practice of non-verbal communication in traditional Igbo dances. The inability to explore, preserve and sustain the use of body language, symbols, signs and paralanguage, as creative metaphor in African traditional dances is a big problem. The poor level of documentation of most Igbo dance semiotics has deemphasized its essence as mere festive performances which in real scholarship are far beyond that. Also, the dearth of literature on the Iduu dance is worrisome and it calls for more findings and documentation. Similarly, most traditional Igbo dances have received limited scholarly attention though, some researches had earlier been done in the area of traditional Igbo dance performances. This study therefore, looks at non-verbal cues in Igbo traditional dance as means of interpretative communication for cultural propagation and preservation as well as an interpretative connecting cord between thoughts, ideas and impressions of a given people. The research study adopted the Semiotic Theory. The positive interpretative potency of the use of semiotic theory in our traditional dances assumes that individuals are not entirely bound by culture, rather they can act systematically and consciously to free themselves to some extent from cultural, historical and institutional constraints while doing performance analysis on any dance. It also gives a detailed overview on the historical origins and analytical views of the Iduu dance performance thereby, bringing the meaning of the dance and its central metaphor before the audience, who can now  appreciate every movement in the dance performance towards understanding the communicative potency of the semiotic non-verbal communication cues used in the dance based on its socio-cultural effectiveness. It is on the foregoing, that the researcher recommends that dance as an art should be practiced, studied and equally appreciated in our various societies. Societal changes, religious practices, ignorance of the art and personal understanding should not be an impediment to dance appreciation

An analysis on institutional preparedness to bus route tendering in the context of a fragmented liberalized market: case study of Harare, Zimbabwe

In many cities of the developed world, the previously public owned and subsidized bus operators which provided services with minimal exposure to competition have been deregulated. Literature suggests that deregulation especially uncontrolled deregulation has resulted in an unprecedented proliferation of minibus operators, both registered and unregistered. The oversupply of vehicles inevitably leads to a reduction in round trips and reduced profits to operators. In order for operators to remain afloat in business, their drivers have developed dangerous driving behaviors typified by tailgating, picking up and dropping off passengers at undesignated sites, establishing and operating from incidental bus termini (along major roads). This behaviour is both a road capacity and safety concern. In 2012, the Government of Zimbabwe published their first National Transport Policy, which identified route tendering as one option among others, to address some of the operational challenges emanating from a deregulated urban public transport market. The objective of this paper is to interrogate whether the intention to implement bus route tendering augurs well with awareness of what route tendering entails. The following questions will be addressed: What are the views of stakeholders on competitive tendering? What benefits can accrue? What pre-conditions are necessary for the successful implementation of route tendering? Is the prevailing urban public transport institutional framework conducive and prepared for route tendering? These are pertinent questions as the country has no experience of route tendering and there are very few examples in Africa to learn from.Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

Performing arts and change management in syncretized African performances: a study of “Odiiche Dance”

African performances and tradition form important parts of literature in Africa. In fact, even in this 21st century, which is characterized by audio and digital recordings, the bulk of African performances are still not recorded. African performance, as generally known, is dependent on the performer(s) and audience. The audience, until recently, played an active role in traditional African performances. This was at a time when the performer(s) and the audience held the same belief and cultural system. In whichever way the performance manifested itself; in dance, music, drama, oral poetry recitals or folktales, the performers and the audience mostly merged as one and saw the performance as a communal activity and, therefore, did all there was to ensure its success. But recent developments, beginning with Euro-Christian advent, have served to distraught a once active audience into a modern passive one. The advent of the foreigners who introduced beliefs and cultural systems new to the African, has served to disrupt the African performance which had always been the main form of entertainment, education and moral edification. Sad to say, as a result of this, African performances in its original rendition, have now metamorphosed into western classical performances. This trend cannot be reversed easily; however, it can be adapted to boost active participation in African performances. This paper examines those beliefs and cultural systems which have shattered the very foundations of African performances. The researchers therefore evaluated and analyzed these challenges through interview, case study and content analysis approaches of the qualitative research method. Most importantly, the paper focuses on the blending of both the European and African cultures for a positive change. It concludes that despite the changing nature of the performances, African performances still retains its taste and her audiences are still alive, hence, with the case study of the “Odiiche Dance”. It is also the recommendation of the researchers that African-centered courses be taught throughout the educational levels in such a way as to refute the thinking that only the uncivilized persons participate in African traditional performances

Cross-departmental collaboration in strategic sourcing as a catalyst for supplier development : the case of Eskom

Abstract: The objective was to analyse the integration of and collaboration between strategic sourcing and supplier development at Eskom, South Africa’s primary electricity supplier, and to determine how strategic sourcing can be a catalyst for supplier development. Problem investigated: To address fragmented and inefficient procurement, Eskom instituted two departments, Commodity Sourcing (CS), to drive strategic sourcing, and Supplier Development and Localisation (SD&L), to drive supplier development. The problem is that collaboration between CS and SD&L has not materialised and thus their mandates have not been entirely achieved. Research design: A case study research design was employed, drawing from multiple sources of data to triangulate findings. Managers from two departments, CS and SD&L, were separately surveyed, while face-to-face interviews were conducted with executive management. Results: The findings revealed a lack of planning, implementation and monitoring of supplier development in the strategic sourcing process of CS. Although the procurement spend in CS is used to drive supplier development objectives, from the perspective of SD&L, in practice this does not fully materialise..

Travel patterns and challenges experienced by University of Johannesburg off-campus students

When universities across the world emerged, the majority of students were provided with oncampus accommodation. However, with the increase in the number of universities, students seeking to enter universities and the decline in university funding, the result was an increase in the number of students residing off-campus. This lead to more limited social-contact opportunities with other students, which are vital for the enhancement of their learning and development. It also resulted in off-campus students spending a considerable amount of time travelling to and from university. This study aimed to investigate the travel patterns, characteristics and challenges faced by University of Johannesburg off-campus students by ascertaining inter alia: the means of transport used; travel time; the views of students in regard to the challenges they face; and possible improvements thereto. A quantitative approach was predominantly used to collect data from students by means of a questionnaire and this was supplemented with focus group discussions on two campuses. The study results revealed that off-campus students experience considerable challenges accessing campuses

Multi-stakeholder dialogue on formal and informal forms of public transport in Harare, Zimbabwe: Convergence or divergence perspective

Cities in the developing world are growing both geographically and demographically. Thisgrowth has increased pressure on services, including the public transport systems used bythe majority of people. In the last two decades public transport provision has undergoneconsiderable changes. Concomitant to these changes there has been debate on the formof public transport to be operated. Such debate has been informal, general, and at timesacademic, and therefore not able to provide substantive understanding of the views of keystakeholders. Zimbabwe has had an explosion of informal transport activity in the formof minibuses, and decision makers appear to be in a policy dilemma because of a need tostrike a balance between maximising passenger welfare whilst protecting the livelihoods ofindigenous minibus operators and striving to build an efficient and environmentally soundurban transport system. Critical questions for policy dialogue in this conundrum include,inter alia: How do stakeholders perceive the current public transport system? How can publictransport be sustainably provided? This study seeks to answer these questions using a casestudy of Harare. A qualitative research approach blended with some quantitative aspects wasused. Initial steps involved the identification and clustering of key urban public passengertransport stakeholders, followed by structured and unstructured interviews. Although thereis lack of consensus on the form of public transport that the City of Harare should adopt, thereis a strong view that a mass transit system is the backbone of sustainable public transport

Effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on DMARDs: as determined by antibody and T cell responses

Objectives To assess antibody and T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Methods This prospective study recruited 100 patients with RA on a variety of DMARDs for antibody and T cell analysis, pre-vaccination and 4 weeks post-vaccination. Positive antibody response was defined as sera IgG binding to ≥1 antigen. Those that remained seronegative after first vaccination were retested 4 weeks after second vaccination; and if still seronegative after vaccination three. A T cell response was defined an ELISpot count of ≥7 interferon (IFN)γ-positive cells when exposed to spike antigens. Type I IFN activity was determined using the luminex multiplex assay IFN score. Results After vaccine one, in patients without prior SARS-CoV-2 exposure, 37/83 (45%) developed vaccine-specific antibody responses, 44/83 (53%) vaccine-specific T cell responses and 64/83 (77%) developed either antibody or T cell responses. Reduced seroconversion was seen with abatacept, rituximab (RTX) and those on concomitant methotrexate (MTX) compared to 100% for healthy controls (p<0.001). Better seroconversion occurred with anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) versus RTX (p=0.012) and with age ≤50 (p=0.012). Pre-vaccine SARS-CoV-2 exposure was associated with higher quantitative seroconversion (≥3 antibodies) (p<0.001). In the subgroup of non-seroconverters, a second vaccination produced seroconversion in 54% (19/35), and after a third in 20% (2/10). IFN score analysis showed no change post-vaccine. Conclusion Patients with RA on DMARDs have reduced vaccine responses, particularly on certain DMARDs, with improvement on subsequent vaccinations but with approximately 10% still seronegative after three doses

Coping with demand for urban passenger transport in Zimbabwe : challenges and options

Paper presented at the 25th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 10 - 13 July 2006 "2010: Will transport infrastructure and systems be ready?", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.This paper was transferred from the original CD ROM created for this conference. The material on the CD ROM was published using Adobe Acrobat technology. The original CD ROM was produced by Document Transformation Technologies Postal Address: PO Box 560 Irene 0062 South Africa. Tel.: +27 12 667 2074 Fax: +27 12 667 2766 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.doctech.co.z