Voicing the voiceless: exploring the communicative practices, attitudes and perceptions of black men who have sex with men (BMSM) in the Msunduzi Local Municipality towards pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

Masters Degree. Media and Cultural Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2018.Background: The approval of Truvada as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) by the Medicines Council of South Africa in 2015, signalled a new beginning in the fight against HIV and AIDS especially for underserved key populations such as Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM). Though this may be the case, there has been a protracted implementation which has been attributed to a lack of empirical research on the acceptability of PrEP amongst MSM in South Africa. This study, therefore, provides an overview of the general awareness, perceptions and attitudes and communicative practices of a sample of Black Men Who Have Sex with Men (BMSM) residing in the Msunduzi Local Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, hence making contributions to this area of research. Method: The study used a cross-sectional mixed-methods approach. Firstly, a questionnaire collecting data on socio-demographics, HIV status and sexual behaviours, PrEP awareness and adoption intention, as well peer health communication practices was carried out in English or IsiZulu amongst 120 MSM (109 BMSM) around Msunduzi. Univariate and bivariate statistical analyses were conducted on questionnaire data using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Following this, 10 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted in either English or IsiZulu and analysed, using the various phases of Thematic Analysis proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006). Results: Univariate analyses revealed that BMSM, in Msunduzi, were young, with a low Socio-economic Status (SES). Bivariate analysis established correlations between some socio-demographic characteristics, sexual behaviours and PrEP adoption intention. Although there was awareness and enthusiasm to adopt PrEP, this evolved into concerns about the implications PrEP could have on the quality of life of respondents, notably adherence self-efficacy. Dyadic communication between friends emerged as the main form of sexual health communication BMSM used to experience and validate their sexuality, discuss health prevention methods and influence behaviour change, including promoting the adoption of PrEP. Conclusion: There is significant potential for the implementation of PrEP amongst BMSM in Msunduzi Local Municipality. For effective implementation, more information and education are needed. Furthermore, the programme should address concerns such as PrEP’s impact on daily lives. Dyadic communication amongst friends and the use of social networks have the potential to encourage PrEP engagement and to increase adherence self-efficacy

The impact of land legislation on farm dweller evictions

Thesis (M.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, Political Studies, 2014Eviction of farm dwellers by farmers and landowners in post-Apartheid South Africa has increased at an alarming rate. The consequences of being evicted can be devastating for the livelihood of farm dwellers as it is often accompanied by the loss of work, income and homes, the loss of access to land for food production, generating urban slums and displacement areas not within reach of municipal basic services as well as other negative effects such as the breakdown of family and social structures and disruptions to children’s education. Plus land security is important for poor farm dwellers usage to produce their own food and complement low farm wages. The livelihood strategies of farm dwellers have been affected by the introduction of the 1997 Extension of Security tenure legislation, which aims at protecting and restoring the land rights of farm dwellers working in farms. Farmers and landowners responded to legislation reforms by evicting farm dwellers off their land. The ESTA legislation has not been implemented effectively and has failed to restore the land rights of evicted farm dwellers and protect those facing the risk of eviction. It has only served to disadvantage those it was supposed to protect. It is therefore important to protect those made worse off by legislation and identify factors keeping the poorest farm dwellers vulnerable and struggling to survive. The research would focus on the impact of the Extension of Security Tenure land legislation on farm dwellers evictions in selected areas of Mogale and Randfontein Local Municipalities under the Westrand region in Gauteng

A study of the impact of water scarcity on customer service: the case of Mhlathuze water.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Water scarcity is a major global issue and all spheres of society on a daily basis feel its impact. Stakeholders in the water services sector, especially water services providers, are affected by water scarcity as they are at the forefront of water provision, both for economic growth and for social development; hence the need for mitigation measures to be timeously implemented so as to minimise the impact on the water value chain. This qualitative study aimed to investigate the role of water scarcity, its challenges, and related mitigation strategies to Mhlathuze Water and its bulk water customers. Critical case sampling was used with a sample size of 15. In order to collect data, interviews were conducted with the management of Mhlathuze Water, as well as the management of the institutions where Mhlathuze Water supplies water (i.e. customers). This data was thereafter analysed with the computer programme NVivo in order to conduct thematic analysis of the data. The research indicated that water scarcity plays a role in Mhlathuze Water and its customers in that water scarcity affects customer service. The fact that there is a supplier-customer relationship means that if Mhlathuze Water is unable to supply water due to its scarcity, then the entity is unable to fully meet its contractual obligations, which ultimately affects the services it renders. The challenges of water scarcity were also discussed, with the main ones being the decline in revenue, the inability to service customers, the loss of business and unemployment. This is because Mhlathuze Water’s core business operation, as a water board, is the supply of water; hence if water is scarce then it poses economic and social challenges. Finally, based on the challenges that were highlighted, the recommended mitigation strategies were presented. These included awareness, alternative water sources, planning and infrastructure development

The discourses that influence the application of the Ntu psychotherapy by psychologists based in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Master of Science in Clinical Psychology. University of KwaZulu- Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2017.The study made use of critical discourse analysis to explore how psychologists in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, talk about their practice of psychotherapy and Ntu psychotherapy in particular. The objectives of the study were to explore how psychologists define psychotherapy; to identify the type(s) of discourse which are used by psychologists in Pietermaritzburg regarding their preferred therapeutic techniques; to explore how discourses are used to promote or exclude particular psychotherapies.; to explore Pietermaritzburg psychologists‘ knowledge of the Ntu psychotherapy, and to explore Pietermaritzburg psychologists‘ position regarding the use or not of Ntu psychotherapy in their practice when working with black South African clients. The results of the study suggested that the definition of psychotherapy rests on the medical and scientific discourse and these continue to influence the choice of psychotherapeutic modalities by psychologists. None of the psychologists who participated in this study were aware of what Ntu Psychotherapy and culture was used as a resistive stance against the prevailing traditional psychotherapeutic modalities. Recommendations for training and methodology were also provided and discussed in this study

Narrative text production in L1 IsiZulu/L2 English speaking children from rural KwaZulu-Natal : a case study based on the wordless picture books Abongi’s Journey (Saadien-Raad and Rosser, 2004) and frog, where are you? (Mayer, 1969).

Master of Arts in Linguistics. University of KwaZulu-Natal. Durban, 2017.The investigation of children’s narrative skills is important as they yield literate language use and a child’s comprehending abilities (Curenton and Justine 2004) and at the same time provide access to a child’s level of competence concerning narrative-specific aspects of their linguistic development. Narrative abilities are interlinked to literacy development and academic achievement (Dickinson and Tabor 2001) and are often used to predict language progress (Botting, Faragher, Simkin, Knox and Conti-Ramsden 2001). Sadly, children in multilingual societies may find themselves in an “educational environment in which their cultural and linguistic practices are misaligned with the language(s) of their teaching and learning” (Tappe and Hara, 2013:299). Investigations of narrative text structure are needed in multilingual countries so that curricula may be adjusted in order to not only preserve cultural and linguistic diversity but to also cater for the needs of multilingual children. This study sets out to analyze narrations produced by isiZulu speaking children from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, by using the Narrative Scoring Schema (NSS) (Heilmann et al., 2010, 2010). This study aims to concentrate on language and culture specific narrative text structure elements and to investigate whether the children’s storytelling is based on a ‘Canonical’ Narrative Text Structure (CNTS, Heilmann et al., 2010, 2010) which is taught at school or on a Southern African Narrative Text Structure (SANTS, Tappe and Hara, 2013), which is akin to the text structure underlying traditional Southern African Folktales. The investigation furthermore considers the factors of “cultural familiarity” and “urban/rural upbringing” as possible parameters that might influence the children’s narrations. The participants in this study numbered 44 children (26 female and 18 male) whose age range was 10 to 16 years from Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, as the primary group of participants and a second group of 39 10-12-year-old children from the urban Centre Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The results reveal that in the children’s narration(s) some of the ‘canonical’ narrative text structure elements are absent or demoted. The children’s narrations consisted of more African narrative text structure elements than ‘canonical’ narrative text structure elements. This finding was also irrespective of the cultural familiarity of the stimulus material and the upbringing in a rural versus an urban area. Importantly, the results demonstrate that the narrations of children do not conform to the ‘canonical’ scoring schemas. The results reveal that children seem to possess a Southern African story grammar that is in line with Southern African folktales. The Southern African Text Structure appears to be different to the narrative text structure proposed by Stein and Glen’s (1979) and other versions of narrative text structure that researchers developed from Stein and Glen’s (1979) narrative text structure (see e.g. Anderson and Evans, 1996). This study recommends that further research be done to investigate narrative skills of Southern African children to explore the Southern African Narrative Text Structure proposal in greater depth. Additionally, it recommends that further research be conducted in languages which have been under-represented in or are absent from text production research. Existing research has not concentrated enough on macrostructural differences between texts produced in different languages, in particular, non-European languages; more research is therefore required to assess language- and culture-specific narrative text structure elements

Morphology of the internal auditory canal : deriving parameters from computer tomography scans. An observational STROBE-MR study

Person-specific three-dimensional computational modelling plays a vital role in modern-day research of cochlear implants to assist in understanding the neural interface of the cochlea and implanted electrode array. Further improvements are made to these models as more parameters are included. Landmark assessment provides information and is frequently used to register coordinates for model generation as it captures small variations. OBJECTIVES : The objective of this study is to identify and define landmarks to adequately describe the internal auditory canal for inclusion in three-dimensional computational models of the cochlea and its surrounding structures. PARTICIPANTS : Computer tomography scans of live human cochleae were collected in the retrospective period. Descriptive and comparative statistics were used to describe the data obtained from the scans. RESULTS : The mean anterior-posterior (AP) diameter at the base of the basal turn, the diameter of the AP at the midpoint of the IAC, and the anterior and posterior length of the internal acoustic canal were measured. 57.14% of the internal acoustic canals observed presented with a cylindrical, 40.48% was funnel-shaped and 2.38 % were bud-shaped. A statistically significant differences were found between the diameters of male and female internal acoustic meatus. CONCLUSIONS : This paper serves as a reference that provides a set of references for the description of the internal acoustic canal for inclusion in three-dimensional computational reconstruction of the cochlea and surrounding structures.https://journals.sagepub.com/home/EARhj2023AnatomyElectrical, Electronic and Computer Engineerin

Informal settlement upgrading and safety: Experiences from Cape Town, South Africa

Informal settlement dwellers are disproportionately affected by ill health, violence and many other socio-economic challenges. These are largely connected to the unhealthy and unsafe physical conditions within which they live. Interventions in the built form through the provision of physical infrastructure have been proposed as a strategy to improve economic, social and health outcomes for informal settlement dwellers and are also suggested as tools to address violence and insecurity, which have reached unprecedented levels in many cities of the South

Colloidal dual-band gap cell for photocatalytic hydrogen generation

We report that the internal quantum efficiency for hydrogen generation in spherical, Pt-decorated CdS nanocrystals can be tuned by quantum confinement, resulting in higher efficiencies for smaller than for larger nanocrystals (17.3% for 2.8 nm and 11.4% for 4.6 nm diameter nanocrystals). We attribute this to a larger driving force for electron and hole transfer in the smaller nanocrystals. The larger internal quantum efficiency in smaller nanocrystals enables a novel colloidal dual-band gap cell utilising differently sized nanocrystals and showing larger external quantum efficiencies than cells with only one size of nanocrystals (9.4% for 2.8 nm particles only and 14.7% for 2.8 nm and 4.6 nm nanocrystals). This represents a proof-of-principle for future colloidal tandem cell

Determining factors affecting English literacy levels at Ntuthuko Primary School.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Learners in South Africa are performing poorly in the area reading and writing English. The South African Department of Education conducted a systemic evaluation of language competence of intermediate phase learners in South Africa and found that a large majority (63%) were below the required competence for their age level. The problem in reading and writing English is also common at Ntuthuko Primary School a public primary school in KwaZulu Natal province. For instance, an observational study and literature at the school indicates that pupils at Ntuthuko Primary School have difficulties in reading and writing English, the First Additional Language. English literacy is one of the key focuses in education. Therefore the purpose of this study is to determine factors that adversely affect English literacy levels at Ntuthuko primary school. The target population for this study were teachers Ntuthuko primary school. Non-probability sampling purposive sampling was used to select a total of 8 teachers. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were used to generate the data needed from participants to understand the research problem under study. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. The study reveals that factors that adversely affect learners' English literacy include opportunity to learn, aptitude for learning, quality of instructions and family factors. There is need to address factors that adversely affect the English literacy of learners at Ntuthuko Primary School. In addition, there is need to encourage parents to enrol their children in R to help them develop early literacy skills, support parents to develop positive attitudes towards English literacy. Parents should also be encouraged to communicate with learners while teachers should help learners reduce English learning anxiety by showing learners that it is possible to learn to write and speak English proficiently