The role of rural youth in the smallholder farming sector: challenges and opportunities in Okhahlamba Local Municipality, South Africa.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal,Pietermaritzburg.Smallholder farming is seen as an important vehicle through which the goals of addressing poverty, food insecurity and unemployment can be achieved. However, factors such as adverse climatic conditions, shortage of labour and poor market access have affected agricultural production, threatening food security now and in the future. This calls for improvements in the smallholder farming sector in order to address these challenges. Integration of youth in smallholder farming is, therefore, an important factor towards the improvement and development of the sector. This is because of qualities such as higher levels of energy and education, openness to new technology and ideas associated with the youth. In spite of these qualities, most of the youth are losing interest in and leaving smallholder farming. This has resulted in a loss of the most productive and potentially innovative segment of the agricultural labour force, affecting agricultural production and food security now and in the future. The study, therefore, seeks to identify the roles, challenges and opportunities of youth participating in smallholder farming, and recommends ways to retain and stimulate interest among youths towards farming. Data were collected from randomly selected youths living in Okhahlamba Local Municipality (OLM), located in northern KwaZulu-Natal. A mixed method approach combined both qualitative and quantitative data and methods to answer the research questions. The data were analysed using a chi-square test, binary logistic analysis, descriptive and content-based thematic analysis. The results from the descriptive analysis reveal that 5.2 % of the youths had reached a primary level of education, while a large proportion (91.1%) had reached a secondary level of education and only 3.7% had reached a tertiary level of education. Planting and harvesting of crops were the main roles of youth taking part in farming. Lack of tools, capital and government support were some of the challenges facing youths in smallholder farming. The results show that the sex of the household head, household size and access to market information by household head influences the decision to participate in smallholder farm among youth in OLM. The findings of the study serve as a basis for decision making to the government and other actors with the agenda of promoting human, rural and agricultural development. The study recommends that youth should be provided with the necessary agricultural training, farming implements and also the government should focus on mechanising the smallholder farming sector. This can be done by introducing two-wheel tractors in the smallholder farming sector

Intraparty politics and the local state: factionalism, patronage and power in Buffalo city metropolitan municipality

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology. 2016This thesis focuses on the everyday operation of the African National Congress (ANC) as a dominant party in post-apartheid South Africa. It examines the scope of intraparty politics, particularly the trajectory of factionalism in ANC local structures after 1994. Despite the dominance of the ANC in South Africa’s political field, its more recent political trajectory most particularly since it became a party of government in 1994 is much less well understood (Butler and Southall 2015: 1). The party has traditionally been studied using a top-down perspective and with a focus on elite level exchanges in which dynamics at the national level are viewed to reverberate downwards whilst drawing on information from party leaders. The contribution made by this thesis is that it offers a detailed qualitative focus on the operation of ANC intraparty politics at a local level drawing on evidence from Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. The overriding aim of this study which is informed by theoretical expositions on the dominant party approach and on patronage and clientelism, is to understand how factionalism in the ANC has evolved in the post-apartheid era. The thesis observes that the ANC’s political dominance after 1994 saw the gradual conflation of the party and state partly through two processes related the party’s transformative agenda. Firstly, the state itself had to be transformed to reflect the demographic composition of the country and for the most part the ANC deployed its cadres into the state who could tow the party line. Secondly, the party relied on the state as a vehicle for redistribution and the transformation of the broader political economy to achieve equity and growth. Hence black economic empowerment, state preferential procurement and other policies to uplift previously disadvantaged social groups became stepping stones for the emergent African middle and upper class. Whilst these processes transformed the state, they also fundamentally transformed the party itself as it became a site of accumulation. Intraparty contestation intensified over the limited opportunities for upward mobility provided by access to the state. The thesis argues that factionalism increasingly became characterised by patronage as competing groups within the party sought to ring-fence their political power and the opportunities for upward mobility provided by the state. This was also compounded by deepening neoliberalism whose consequences of unemployment, poverty and inequality especially at the local level led to increased dependence on the local state and the development of factionalism based on patronage politics. The thesis then explores how patronage operates in everyday practice at the local level. It shows how patron-client relationships are not merely the exchange of state resources for political support but rather they embody a field of power relations (Auyero 2001). Evidence from Buffalo City offers an important insight into how patronage exchanges are preceded by complex relationships of power that are established over time and through various enactments. The thesis demonstrates how patrons, brokers and clients exercise various forms of power every day that inform inclusion or exclusion into networks for distributing scarce state resources. It challenges views that regard factionalism and patronage as elite driven practices.MT201

Exploring the role of remittances in household livelihood strategies in Glen-Norah, Harare.

The political and socio-economic challenges over the last nine years broadly referred as the ‘Zimbabwe crisis’ have witnessed the flight of millions of Zimbabweans to save themselves and their families left behind. As a result, remittances being sent back to support families are estimated to be around USD1 billion a year. However, despite these huge flows of remittances, studies that try to understand this phenomenon especially amongst recipients are scant. This study takes a micro-level approach by exploring the role of remittances in household livelihoods in the high density suburb of Glen Norah in Harare. The study utilises in-depth interviews with recipient household heads in Glen Norah as the primary data collection technique and also uses informal conversations and observation to support them. The research also uses these methods to draw information from remittance senders and other actors involved in remitting in Johannesburg. This research shows that households in Glen Norah have adopted multiple strategies to allow them to manage in the crisis. However, it will be argued that as resources have dwindled in the country, an external means of sustenance in the form of remittances has increasingly been playing a more central role as the crisis has deepened. The study shows how patterns of remittances have changed to allow households to cope as the crisis has deepened. It also shows how remittances have been used to support survival and livelihood strategies before concluding that remittances have enabled households in Glen Norah to manage at probably the most difficult juncture of the crisis and may have capacitated them to engage in livelihood strategies

Bovine B cells Heterogeneity, activation and targeted antigen presentation

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DX189036 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Brief 4 : reflections on the movement for democratic change's defeat in the July 2013 election in Zimbabwe

The defeat of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),28 in the July 2013 general election in Zimbabwe offers important insights from which opposition parties within the country and across the continent can draw. Whilst there have been claims that the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) (ZANU PF) massively rigged the vote, the MDC requires an introspection as a political party. This brief details some major weaknesses that led to the MDC’s dismal performance. Essentially, the party lost its focus on the electorate through undemocratic practices in the party, increased social distance from its constituency, and the failure to form an electoral pact with other opposition parties. The brief makes three recommendations. First, the MDC should favour an internal direct popular election instead of the Electoral College system, which suppresses popular will. Second, voter registration and education campaigns should not be perceived as events but rather as significant processes in their aspirations towards election victory. The MDC has to start to mobilise the vote now by engaging and enlightening various constituencies in preparation for the 2018 general elections. Finally, the formation of electoral pacts is advisable for opposition parties attempting to wrestle power from a dominant party

Governing the urban peripheries

No abstract available

Philanthropy in Contemporary Africa: A Review

Despite the availability of a wide range of literature on what is can be construed to be philanthropic behaviour in Africa, there is limited conceptual discussion on what constitutes philanthropy in African context(s). Yet, philanthropic behaviour is culturally rooted phenomena manifesting in diverse forms, expressions, and models. This review contributes to a growing body of literature on conceptions and manifestations of African philanthropy. The review illustrates a complex plurality of actions that fall under cultures and practices of giving in Africa. These include the giving of money, time, knowledge, influence and visibility in support of a cause, valuable goods, and body parts/organs from living and dead. While some of these actions conform to dominant Western notions of philanthropy, others do not. From an analysis of these practices, this paper proposes that African philanthropy can be conceptually structured on the basis of spheres of philanthropic practice, and the underlying bases and motivations for philanthropy. On spheres of philanthropic practice, at least three forms of philanthropy exist: institutional (formal); non-institutional (non-formal/informal/direct); and a hybrid form that blends practices from the formal and informal spheres. On motivations for giving, the predominant forms are based on mutuality, solidarity and counter-obligation inherent in collectivist and humanistic African philosophies of life. Further, motivations are drawn from religious obligations, institutional requirements on corporate bodies, and institutional arrangements in the development process. There are, nonetheless, significant overlaps between spheres of practice and motivations in contemporary philanthropic practices in Africa. For instance, philanthropic culture in Africa manifests as religious giving, donations to individuals or institutions, mutual aid, reciprocal, self-help revolving fund organisations, corporate social responsibility activities, and individual/family donations to public benefit organisations. These practices highlight a rich tapestry of spheres of practice and motivations for giving practices, where the wealthy and the poor are equally involved. The review, concentrates (by choice) on giving of money and time (volunteering, especially informal volunteering) due to dearth of academic literature on other forms of giving as philanthropy in Africa