Subcontracting in gold mining: Western Deep Level Mine, Carletonville

M.A.This project examines the phenomenon of subcontracting as it occurs in the gold mining industry in South Africa. The point of departure for the researcher is that subcontracting is not something totally new in the gold mining industry. What seems to be new is the manner in which it is currently used and this could be attributed to variety of factors, which have made reliance on permanent workforce not viable for the employers. Downscaling and large-scale retrenchments have become the order of the day. This happens at a time when there is an unprecedented increase in the number of subcontract workers. This has raised concerns among organised labour who, feel that such form of atypical employment is meant to undermine the gains of the labour movement has gained over the years. Such perception is made even more real by the decline in labour standards. Contractors actively discourage their employees from joining trade unions. Subcontract workers are paid wages as low as R700 a month, while they are forced to work under dangerous conditions. Their terms of contracts are unilaterally changed without any consultation and they can be easily dismissed without any warning, in some cases dismissed for being injured at work. Tensions mount between subcontract and permanent workers as the latter view the former as a threat to their job security. All this makes subcontracting an interesting area of study and this is even made more so by the fact that little has been done to investigate subcontracting in South Africa's gold mines.Prof. Peter. Alexande

Design of an integrated real-time information sharing model for a train incident response and handling between related departments at WitsMetrorail

The average time (response time) it takes currently for the information on a train that has stopped in the middle of nowhere to flow from the train crew through related departments (operations, planning, maintenance) at Wits Metrorail headquarters before technicians can leave for the place of Incident is 40 minutes. This time is too long and by the time the technicians get to the train passengers might be frustrated to the point of torching the train coaches. This has resulted in a loss of assets. The UML’s Sequence diagram has been used in this work because of the following features: it models real-time applications and shows explicit sequence of stimuli messages exchanged between object instances participating in the interaction. Thus its use by related departments at Metrorail ensures fast exchange of train Incident information within these departments. SOAP, web services and mobile computing applications form part of the model. An integrated real-time information sharing model that enables related departments to see information at the same time has been developed. This model can reduce the current response time to train Incident by 75%. The model ensures accuracy and reliability of information through the communication chain and also fast exchange of information between related departments than any system that we know of within the railway companies in South Africa

Health Sciences undergraduate education at UCT: A story of transformation

Undergraduate education and training in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town has become socially responsive. A story of transformation that is consonant with wider societal developments since the 1994 democratic elections, outlining the changes in undergraduate curricula across the faculty, is presented

Health sciences undergraduate education at University of Cape Town: a story of transformation

Undergraduate education and training in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town has become socially responsive. A story of transformation that is consonant with wider societal developments since the 1994 democratic elections, outlining the changes in undergraduate curricula across the faculty, is presented