Structural orientation and social agency in South Africa: state, race, higher education and transformation

We have taken as our brief and context the latest upsurge in incidents of a racist nature in certain higher education institutions in South Africa. What we contribute to thinking on the subject is Goldberg’s (2002) theoretical framework in which he focuses on the emergence, formation, existence and transformation of racial formations as constitutive of social life. In the South African context we apply this framework and its understanding of racial traditions to higher education in order to reveal the shifts across the social formations of segregation, apartheid and constitutional democracy. Our central argument is that Goldberg’s concept of racial naturalist and racial historicist traditions of social agency when applied to higher education institutions disclose legacies of a differentiated racial regime. In this regard, we take up the trajectory of racialisation as in its segregationist and apartheid modalities of state formation; its deracialisation in our post-apartheid modality of social engagement towards the non-racial project of constitutional democracy as a movement beyond the shadow of racist thinking both implicit and explicit. The thrust of our engagement is that in order to make sense of racial formations and their modalities of structural orientation and social agency we need to think of racism within the complex of a state-race-class nexus. In sum then, the argument that we make vis-à-vis the differentiated racialised orders is that we need to embed ourselves within our national, South African, and continental, African, contexts in order to challenge the racial traditions that continue to bedevil efforts towards consolidating our constitutional democracy and its concomitant epistemic project.Keywords: developmental state, racial formations, higher education institutions, democracy, South Africa

State-in-Society: the Mutual Constitutiveness of the Developmental State and Higher Education in South Africa

Seeking to go beyond the pessimism and reification of contemporary analyses of the state in Africa, this article applies Migdal’s State in Society (2001) approach to the field of higher education transformation in South Africa. It argues that the state is best understood through its actual practices, particularly at those points where it reaches into society through policy implementation and, conversely, where society through its institutions in turn reaches into the state. In the course of these engagements, social boundaries are constituted through alliances, accommodations and resistances and have a mutually transformative effect on both state and society. The article shows how, with regard to both the image and the practices of the state, the relationship between the developmental state and higher education in South Africa reveals a range of tensions around issues such as accountability, autonomy, transformation and globalisation; and it concludes that Migdal’s approach offers a fruitful theoretical corrective to state-centric and socio-centric views of the state-society relationship.Key Words: Developmental state, South Africa, globalisation, higher educatio

Commodification of transformation discourses and post-apartheid institutional identities at three South African universities

Using mission statements from the UCT, UWC and Stellenbosch University (South Africa), we explore how the three universities have rematerialised prior discourses to rebrand their identities as dictated by contemporary national and global aspirations. We reveal how the universities have recontextualised the experiences and discourses of liberation struggle and the new government's post-apartheid social transformation discourses to construct distinctive identities that are locally relevant and globally aspiring. This has led to the semiotic refiguring of universities from spatial edifices of racially based unequal education, to equal opportunity institutions of higher learning, and to the blurring of historical boundaries between these universities. We conclude that the universities have reconstructed distinct and recognisable identities which speak to a segregated past, but with a post-apartheid voice of equity and redress.IS

Hemoglobin E syndromes in Pakistani population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hemoglobin E is an important hemoglobin variant with a worldwide distribution. A number of hemoglobinopathies have been reported from Pakistan. However a comprehensive description of hemoglobin E syndromes for the country was never made. This study aimed to describe various hemoglobin E disorders based on hematological parameters and chromatography. The sub-aim was to characterize hemoglobin E at molecular level.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a hospital based study conducted prospectively for a period of one year extending from January 1 to December 31, 2008. EDTA blood samples were analyzed for completed blood counts and hemoglobin variants through automated hematology analyzer and Bio-Rad beta thalassaemia short program respectively. Six samples were randomly selected to characterize HbE at molecular level through RFLP-PCR utilizing <it>Mnl</it>I restriction enzyme.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>During the study period, 11403 chromatograms were analyzed and Hb E was detected in 41 (or 0.36%) samples. Different hemoglobin E syndromes identified were HbEA (n = 20 or 49%), HbE/β-thalassemia (n = 14 or 34%), HbEE (n = 6 or 15%) and HbE/HbS (n = 1 or 2%). Compound heterozygosity for HbE and beta thalassaemia was found to be the most severely affected phenotype. RFLP-PCR utilizing <it>Mnl</it>I successfully characterized HbE at molecular level in six randomly selected samples.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Various HbE phenotypes are prevalent in Pakistan with HbEA and HbE/β thalassaemia representing the most common syndromes. Chromatography cannot only successfully identify hemoglobin E but also assist in further characterization into its phenotype including compound heterozygosity. Definitive diagnosis of HbE can easily be achieved through RFLP-PCR.</p

A three year descriptive study of early onset neonatal sepsis in a refugee population on the Thailand Myanmar border.

BACKGROUND: Each year an estimated four million neonates die, the majority in the first week of life. One of the major causes of death is sepsis. Proving the incidence and aetiology of neonatal sepsis is difficult, particularly in resource poor settings where the majority of the deaths occur. METHODS: We conducted a three year observational study of clinically diagnosed early onset (<7 days of age) neonatal sepsis (EONS) in infants born to mothers following antenatal care at the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit clinic in Maela camp for displaced persons on the Thailand-Myanmar border. Episodes of EONS were identified using a clinical case definition. Conventional and molecular microbiological techniques were employed in order to determine underlying aetiology. RESULTS: From April 2009 until April 2012, 187 infants had clinical signs of EONS, giving an incidence rate of 44.8 per 1000 live births (95% CI 38.7-51.5). One blood culture was positive for Escherichia coli, E. coli was detected in the cerebrospinal fluid specimen in this infant, and in an additional two infants, by PCR. Therefore, the incidence of bacteriologically proven EONS was 0.7 per 1000 live births (95% CI 0.1-2.1). No infants enrolled in study died as a direct result of EONS. CONCLUSION: A low incidence of bacteriologically proven EONS was seen in this study, despite a high incidence of clinically diagnosed EONS. The use of molecular diagnostics and nonspecific markers of infection need to be studied in resource poor settings to improve the diagnosis of EONS and rationalise antibiotic use

An Open Randomized Comparison of Gatifloxacin versus Cefixime for the Treatment of Uncomplicated Enteric Fever

OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of gatifloxacin versus cefixime in the treatment of uncomplicated culture positive enteric fever. DESIGN: A randomized, open-label, active control trial with two parallel arms. SETTING: Emergency Room and Outpatient Clinics in Patan Hospital, Lagankhel, Lalitpur, Nepal. PARTICIPANTS: Patients with clinically diagnosed uncomplicated enteric fever meeting the inclusion criteria. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were allocated to receive one of two drugs, Gatifloxacin or Cefixime. The dosages used were Gatifloxacin 10 mg/kg, given once daily for 7 days, or Cefixime 20 mg/kg/day given in two divided doses for 7 days. OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome measure was fever clearance time. The secondary outcome measure was overall treatment failure (acute treatment failure and relapse). RESULTS: Randomization was carried out in 390 patients before enrollment was suspended on the advice of the independent data safety monitoring board due to significant differences in both primary and secondary outcome measures in the two arms and the attainment of a priori defined endpoints. Median (95% confidence interval) fever clearance times were 92 hours (84-114 hours) for gatifloxacin recipients and 138 hours (105-164 hours) for cefixime-treated patients (Hazard Ratio[95%CI] = 2.171 [1.545-3.051], p&lt;0.0001). 19 out of 70 (27%) patients who completed the 7 day trial had acute clinical failure in the cefixime group as compared to 1 out of 88 patients (1%) in gatifloxacin group(Odds Ratio [95%CI] = 0.031 [0.004 - 0.237], p&lt;0.001). Overall treatment failure patients (relapsed patients plus acute treatment failure patients plus death) numbered 29. They were determined to be (95% confidence interval) 37.6 % (27.14%-50.2%) in the cefixime group and 3.5% (2.2%-11.5%) in the gatifloxacin group (HR[95%CI] = 0.084 [0.025-0.280], p&lt;0.0001). There was one death in the cefixime group. CONCLUSIONS: Based on this study, gatifloxacin is a better treatment for uncomplicated enteric fever as compared to cefixime. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN75784880

Antibiotic use on paediatric inpatients in a teaching hospital in the Gambia, a retrospective study

Background: Antibiotics are useful but increasing resistance is a major problem. Our objectives were to assess antibiotic use and microbiology testing in hospitalized children in the Gambia. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of paediatric inpatient data at The Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital in Banjul, The Gambia. We extracted relevant data from the admission folders of all patients (aged >28 days to 15 years) admitted in 2015 (January-December), who received at least one antibiotic for 24 h. We also reviewed the microbiology laboratory record book to obtain separate data for the bacterial isolates and resistance test results of all the paediatric inpatients during the study period. Results: Over half of the admitted patients received at least one antibiotic during admission (496/917) with a total consumption of 670.7 Days of Antibiotic Therapy/1000 Patient-Days. The clinical diagnoses included an infectious disease for 398/496, 80.2% of the patients on antibiotics, pneumonia being the most common (184/496, 37.1%). There were 51 clinically relevant bacterial isolates, Klebsiella species being the most common (12/51, 23.5%), mainly from urine (11/12, 91.7%). Antibiotic resistance was mainly to ampicillin (38/51, 74.5%), mainly reported as Coliform species 11/51, 21.6%. Conclusions: More than half of the admitted patients received antibiotics. The reported antibiotic resistance was highest to the most commonly used antibiotics such as ampicillin. Efforts to maximize definitive antibiotic indication such as microbiological testing prior to start of antibiotics should be encouraged where possible for a more rational antibiotic use

Deracialising universities: reflexive conversations

As a policy goal, staff equity, more specifically at the level of "race" ushers in several implementation challenges for the university sector. This article seeks to contribute substantively to this complex phenomenon. It relates the need for staff transformation (in terms of "race") with that of the democratic imperative as required by our diverse society. Having established the broad rationale for change it hones in on micro-level staff equity practices of recruitment and curriculum. It focuses on the extent to which "race" operates and intersects with other social factors. Furthermore, given the close conceptual relationship between "race" and the dimension of perceived alienation on the part of black academics, the article offers some insights into the meanings associated with the notion of alienation. (South African Journal of Higher Education: 2003 17 (3): 144-151