A compromise of rights, rights of language and rights to a language in Eugene Terre'Blanche’s (ET) trial within a trial: evidence lost in translation

The trial (within a trial) of Eugene Terre'Blanche (hereon referred to as the ET Trial) in a high court, which took place in Ventersdorp in January and February 2010 sparked intense interest in South Africa and abroad, and raised critical questions about issues of (i) language rights, (ii) communicative competence of law enforcement agencies, particularly the police, and (iii) the asymmetries in the police interaction with the accused persons. Apart from communicating the rights of the accused persons in a language that s/he understands, the police officers are entrusted with additional responsibilities which include, among others, being a channel or conduit that encodes and decodes information within milliseconds in an attempt to reconstruct an accused person’s narrative into formal evidence for purposes of court proceedings. This reality is further substantiated by Komter (2002/2003:202) who suggests that, "[...] police officers should record the fact that they informed the suspect about his right to silence and [...] that they record the suspect’s statement as much as possible in his own words". Against this backdrop, it is also worth stating that the South African multilingual setting is confronted by serious complexities, especially in cases where the accused is a speaker of an African language who can only rely on interpreting/translation services in order to follow the legal discourse, whereas languages of record are still solely in English and Afrikaans. Based on an examination and analysis of the judgement of the ET trial within a trial, this study finds that, despite the dawn of democracy, the South African Criminal Justice System is still confronted by linguistic and cultural challenges. Central to these challenges is the potential for miscarriages of justice. Furthermore, the main principles of Critical Sociolinguistic Analysis (CSA) employed in this study have uncovered the fact that power imbalances in the criminal justice system do not necessarily originate through legislation but through situated processes and practices (Eades 2010). As Fairclough appropriately argues, there is a need not just to examine the power in the discourse but also the power behind the discourse (1989).Keywords: language rights; communicative competence; asymmetry; transpreters; trial within a tria

Policy analysis as "text" in higher education: Challenging South Africa's "use of official languages act": A case-based approach

The literature on policy science demonstrates that deeper insight into the complexities surrounding notions of the policy process, and of policy formulation and policy-making, can be drawn from policy analysis. As such, some scholars who have taken note of this fact have paid serious attention to policy analysis. As a starting point in this paper, I deliberate on the assorted definitions of policy offered by various scholars in the field of policy science. Furthermore, the paper engages with the notion of policy analysis from the perspective of policy text. Regarding the methodological position, this paper makes use of a case study in respect of the Use of Official Languages Act 12 of 2012, with specific reference to the South African Qualification Authority’s language policy development and formulation process as a unit of analysis. From a conceptual and analytical perspective, the paper draws on the notion of presupposition as a viable tool for analysing policy text. Finally, in this paper I propose a textual cycle which could account for stages of policy text/word development, and thus, an account of pertinent research questions is provided

Investigating the Link between Economic Complexity Index and Monetary Policy Lending Rates in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries

This article investigates if there is a link between economic complexity index and monetary policy lending rates in selected Sub-Saharan African countries. Economic complexity index (ECI) as a measure of productive capabilities and a mix of sophisticated products that countries export, has been found to influence some economic indicators such as economic growth and inequality. Little attention has been paid to ECI's link to lending rates in monetary policy bank lending rate transmission mechanism. In this paper, the ECI-lending rate nexus has been investigated using a panel autoregressive distribution lag methodology. Results indicated a long-run significant relationship with the Kao and Johansen combined cointegration. It was further illustrated in the long-un that ECI estimates have a negative and significant impact on monetary policy lending rates. The series could correct to equilibrium at a significant rate of 25%. These results provided new insights needed for appropriate development economic policy to reduce monetary policy lending rates

The Effects of Expectation Inflation on Aggregate Demand: Examining the South African Inflation Expectation Channel of South African Monetary Policy

South Africa targeted inflation since February 2000 as its monetary policy framework to ensure long-run price stability and continues to pursue a target of 3-6% for headline CPI inflation. Monetary policy emphasises the importance of promoting economic growth that can be sustained and maintenance of low inflation in an economy. Therefore, the paper seeks to check whether a relationship between economic growth (GDP) and expectation inflation exists. The autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) econometric methodology was employed to achieve the objectives. The ARDL bounds test found that there is a long-run cointegration between GDP and expectation inflation. Moreover, the ARDL results revealed that in the long run expected inflation had a negative significant effect on GDP. This implies that lower expectation inflation could stimulate economic growth. It is recommended that South Africa should continue to target inflation because its target band of 3% to 6% keep policy makers on the loop

Communicating across cultures in South African law courts: Towards an information technology solution

No abstract available

A case study on the language and socio-cultural challenges experienced by international students studying at Cape Peninsula University of Technology

no abstrac

The Impact of cyber crime on e-commerce and regulation in Kenya, South Africa and the United Kingdom

A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Laws, at Strathmore UniversityAs the use of the internet increases across the world, it becomes imperative to be aware of the ways in which economies can benefit from such use and to be equally aware of the impediments to the maximisation of these benefits. Cybercriminal activity is considered to be one of the impediments to the economic growth promised by e-commerce. This study seeks to examine the impact of cybercrime on e-commerce and regulation, a research direction that has potential to provide insight in respect of the mechanisms meant to safeguard against cybercrime. The study underscores the need to direct more robust efforts towards combating cybercrime in both Kenya and South Africa, an idea that could lead to significant contribution to the growth of African economies (namely Africa). This study is mainly underpinned by the Routine Activity Theory. A descriptive research design is employed. The study relies on reviews of relevant documents which include but are not limited to: legislation, case law, international law instruments. With these materials, an analysis has been carried out to interrogate cybercrime and cybersecurity and the way in which these concepts relate to each other in the context of e-commerce, and the extent to which they impact e-commerce and regulation. The findings reveal that while Africa is ahead of the international landscape in developing legislation, there are efficient mechanisms used internationally that African (mainly in Kenya and South Africa) dispensations can apply to her context. Future studies on this topic could broaden the scope of the study by exploring the impact of cybercriminal activity on Small Medium Enterprises which have also been identified as significant contributors to African economies

Community-driven initiatives to relieve poverty and inequality : case study of Lubisini, Elundini Local Municipality, Eastern Cape, South Africa

The eradication of poverty and the reduction of inequality remains one of the biggest global challenges in the 21st Century. In the last two decades the democraticg overnment of South Africa still grapple with rising levels of poverty and inequality. The aim of this research was to facilitate a roots-driven community intervention that would allow the community members from the rural village of Lubisini (Eastern Cape, South Africa) to create opportunities that will help reduce their inherent levels of poverty and inequality. In order to achieve this 132 community members were workshopped through a community asset mapping programme (CAMP) to identify their inherent human, social, environmental assets, they were then assisted to develop ideas for small businesses, their own measures of success in overcoming poverty and inequality and the improvement in their own quality of life. The CAMP process is documented, and the intervention was followed by monitoring and evaluation of challenges and successes over an 18 month period. The research concluded with various recommendations that will enable rural communities to drive their own indicators of successful sustainable development.GeographyM. Sc. (Geography

Effects of Some Monetary Variables on Fixed Investment in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries

Monetary variables are not only important for the attainment of stable inflation but also for exercising influences in various ways on the behavior of the real economy, including the level of investment activity. Investment is very crucial in improving a country’s productivity and growth and increasing its competitiveness in the long run. The study aims to investigate how monetary variables such as lending rates, exchange rate, and money supply affect investment actions in some selected Sub-Saharan African countries in the period 1980–2018. Using the panel autoregressive distributive lag method in the long run, a negative and significant relationship between lending rates and investment was discovered. Also, investment is positively related to both money supply and exchange rate in the long run. It is recommended that when central banks take contractionary measures, they must always consider the resulting change in investment as it is an essential part of aggregate demand. In a sluggish economy, interest rates should not be raised to the point where investment is discouraged and assets are suppressed

Language rights, intercultural communication and the law in South Africa

This article seeks to explore the present language scenario in courts of law. The article makes use of section 6 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996), as a point of departure. At face value this section seems to entrench the language rights of individuals. This would mean that individuals could request trials to be held in their mother tongues, with fluent and competent speakers of that mother tongue sitting on the bench. However, this has not materialised. Contrary to popular opinion, the article argues that individual language rights are to some extent entrenched in the Constitution, but there are no mechanisms to secure such rights in the public domain. The article argues that it is often only language privileges that are preserved in institutions such as the justice system. Legally speaking, there is an obligation on the State to provide interpreters to facilitate access to all eleven official languages in courts of law. This in itself presents numerous challenges. The article argues further that the corollary to this is that there is very little space for intercultural communication in courts of law (as defined by Ting-Toomey, 1999, and Gibson, 2002). There has been little or no capacity building in this regard. It is English, to some extent Afrikaans, and the western cultural paradigm, which prevails. The result is further communication breakdown and language intolerance. In this article, the notion of language rights in courts of law is explored against the backdrop of existing theories of intercultural communication