Rights and religion; bias and beliefs: Can a judge speak God?

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 guarantees everyone the right to freedom of expression and religion. The Constitution also places the power to resolve disputes impartially in the judiciary. The requirement that judges be impartial may, in some circumstances, mean that a judge’s beliefs or convictions may appear to be in conflict with one or more constitutional principles. This article analyses the relationship and apparent tension between a judge’s duty to apply the law in a fair and impartial manner and his/her own personal right to freedom of religion. More specifically, it examines the extent to which a judge may allow his/her religious beliefs to influence his judgment. It argues that judges, like all other citizens, do not surrender their rights to freedom of expression and religion when they are appointed to the bench, and that a judge who publicly expresses his religious beliefs should not be, ipso facto, without more ado, criticised for it

The perceived relationship between the shareholder primacy and the non-service of the bottom of the range pyramid market (BOP)

Thesis (M.M. (Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014The problems of poverty and other complex challenges society is facing has been a front burner issue in development discourse around the world. The limitations that multilateral and aid agencies are facing in addressing these issues have called for the involvement of business as creators of wealth to bring forth their capabilities and business core competencies in helping address these complex problems of our time. This market based solution to poverty has brought about a proposition by CK Prahalad which is termed the ‘Bottom of the pyramid proposition’ (BOP), which argues that low income markets present prodigious opportunity for Multinationals to profit by bringing prosperity to the aspiring poor. The main objective of the BOP proposition is for business as creators of wealth to make substantial inroads on the social challenges that confront societies while at the same time earning financial rewards. The problem of shareholder primacy has been cited as the Achilles heel for businesses when contemplating serving other stakeholders and society at large. This thesis sought to investigate the association between the shareholder primacy and the BOP market. In theoretical support of the shareholder primacy represented by the shareholder power and legitimacy of their interest, shareholder activeness within the business and the short-termism of those interests having a pernicious relationship with other stakeholders and society at large. Questionnaires were distributed to South African Business School students who are a closer approximation of business managers. The study achieved a turnover of 160 questionnaires with usable responses of 148 questionnaires. The statistical correlation was used to find an existence of relationship and simple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The data shows that prioritization of shareholder power and legitimacy of their interest may lead to increased non-service of the BOP market. The verdict on shareholder activeness and short-term shareholder interest is inconclusive. However, directions for future research are given. These results suggest that all actors, such as Multinational corporations, business managers, researchers, management education, policy makers and government should be genuinely frustrated by issues that affect society and radically shift their mindset in viewing poverty as another opportunity to reconfigure their role in society and to the poor who are in the BOP market

Understanding the livelihoods of small-scale fisheries in Lamberts Bay : implications for the new small-scale fisheries policy

Small-scale fishers (SSFs) are among the most vulnerable socio-economic groups because of their high dependence on marine resource harvesting. While small-scale fisheries employ the overwhelming majority of the world's fishers and contribute substantially to the global catch, they are, on the whole, marginalised and ignored. Despite their importance in providing food security and livelihoods in coastal communities, state management authorities routinely neglect small-scale fisheries in favour of industrial fisheries. In South Africa, the exclusion of small-scale fishers is intricately linked with the oppressive policies of the apartheid government, which limited access to the fisheries for the largely Black and Coloured smallscale fishers. Changes within fisheries management practices led to the development of management tools that moved away from conventional resource-centred strategies, to management approaches that recognised the complexity of natural and ecological processes inherent within small-scale fisheries. Many of these new approaches have been embraced in South Africa's new small-scale fisheries policy. The policy represents a long line of arguably failed attempts at reforming South African fisheries undertaken by the South African government. While the policy is unique in the scale of participation by the small-scale fishers themselves it is still faced with the hurdle of implementation. The adoption of the individual rights approach embodied by the individual quota (IQ) system in the post-apartheid reforms has led to divisions within the community. Fishing rights benefited a small elite and disenfranchised many more fishers for whom fishing was a livelihood, but were excluded from the rights allocations. The new small-scale fisheries policy is widely acknowledged as progressive and carries the hope of inclusion for small-scale fishers along South Africa's coasts. After decades of disenfranchisement and individual rights allocations, the major challenge in the new policy's implementation will be dealing with the range of complex and unique communities in which the policy will be carried out. The purpose of this study was to establish a profile of the Lamberts Bay small-scale fisher groups and their perceptions regarding the new small-scale fisher policy, in order to inform the policy's implementation in Lamberts Bay

Disclosure in Centre for Child Law v the Governing Body of Hoërskool Fochville

When a party refers to evidentiary material in the course of litigation, ordinarily this party is under an obligation to make this evidence available to his opponent, particularly when called upon to do so. However, over the years various principles have developed which make this obligation subject to certain limitations. The Fochville cases dealt with a situation where a party to litigation sought to withhold certain information from its adversary, notwithstanding the fact that the material had been relied upon as a ground for the institution of the litigation. This note critiques the judgments of the High Court and in particular the Supreme Court of Appeal in this dispute. In so doing, it draws on useful foreign law to argue that the Supreme Court of Appeal's judgment was an unfortunate one in that the court failed to clarify with reasonable precision the circumstances in which a party to litigation involving children's interests may legitimately resist disclosing evidence to his adversary, in which the party resisting disclosure invokes the principle of public interest immunity. In this regard, the note concludes that the High Court's overall approach to the issue is to be preferred.      &nbsp

The efficacy of individualised homeopathic treatment on constipation

Abstract:Background: Constipation is the term describing either infrequent bowel movements, difficult evacuation of stool, hard stool or a sensation of incomplete defecation (Longmore, 2012). The effects of constipation compound from impacting on the person’s physical health to effecting their moods and influencing their social life (Marks, 2012). Most conventional treatments strive to treat only local symptoms and do not address concomitant symptoms of constipation. Alternative treatment options such as homeopathy offer a more holistic approach and can be adopted; however, further research is needed to establish its effectiveness in treating constipation. Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of individualised homeopathic treatment on chronic constipation in adults. Methodology: This was a case study research design conducted at the University of Johannesburg Homeopathy Health Training Centre. Thirteen adults between the ages of 18 to 50 years who met the Rome II criteria for constipation were selected for participation and ten participants completed the study. The study consisted of four consultations per participant over a six week period. At the initial meeting a comprehensive case history was taken and analysed according to the principles of classical homeopathic prescribing and the best suited homeopathic remedy was administered. Data collection was in the form of case studies, which were analysed and described. The Bowel Function Diary and Bristol Stool Form Scale were used to assess changes in defecation quality and frequency and the results of these were then represented in the form of graphs. Results: The results of the case studies were positive and holistic. They indicated an improvement in stool frequency for all ten participants, and an improvement in stool form and ease of evacuation for the majority of the participants. The participants also reported that they experienced a better state of general and emotional wellbeing during the course of the research study. These results support previous findings which suggest that when an individualised homeopathic approach is correctly applied in a clinical setting, it is an effective approach for the management of chronic constipation in adults

On legal expressivism, incorporeal injuries and the equal protection clause: an analysis through the lens of the Civil Union Act

Thesis embargoed. To be released in 2024.Thesis (LLM) -- Faculty of Law, Law, 202

Physiotherapy and a Homeopathic Complex for Chronic Low Back Pain Due to Osteoarthritis: A Randomized, Controlled Pilot Study

Abstract:Context: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common cause of chronic low back pain (CLBP) and can be managed with the use of drug therapy and physiotherapy. Homeopathic remedies may assist in the management of OA; however, research that supports their effectiveness is limited. Objectives: The study aimed to investigate the efficacy of a homeopathic complex in combination with physiotherapy in the treatment of CLBP due to OA. Design: The study was a six-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot. Setting: The study took place in a private physiotherapy practice in Gauteng, South Africa. Participants: The participants were 30 males and females, aged 45-75 years, who were receiving physiotherapy treatment for OA of the lumbar spine from a therapist in private practice. Interventions: The intervention and control groups both received standard physiotherapy treatment—massage, thermal therapy, and joint mobilization—every 2 weeks. In addition, the treatment group received a homeopathic complex—6cH each of Arnica montana, Bryonia alba, Causticum, Kalmia latifolia, Rhus toxicodendron, and Calcarea fluorica. The control group a received a placebo. Outcome measures: The primary measure was a visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain. Secondary outcome measures included the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), an evaluation of each patient’s range of motion (ROM) of the lumbar spine, and a determination of each patient’s need for pain medication..

Integrating random forest and synthetic aperture radar improves the estimation and monitoring of woody cover in indigenous forests of South Africa

Please read abstract in article.The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), The Southern Africa Science Service Centre for Climate and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL), The National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF), University of Pretoria.https://www.springer.com/journal/12518Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog

Evaluating pixel and object based image classification techniques for mapping plant invasions from UAV derived aerial imagery : Harrisia pomanensis as a case study

Invasive alien plants (IAPs) not only pose a serious threat to biodiversity and water resources but also have impacts on human and animal wellbeing. To support decision making in IAPs monitoring, semi-automated image classifiers which are capable of extracting valuable information in remotely sensed data are vital. This study evaluated the mapping accuracies of supervised and unsupervised image classifiers for mapping Harrisia pomanensis (a cactus plant commonly known as the Midnight Lady) using two interlinked evaluation strategies i.e. point and area based accuracy assessment. Results of the point-based accuracy assessment show that with reference to 219 ground control points, the supervised image classifiers (i.e. Maxver and Bhattacharya) mapped H. pomanensis better than the unsupervised image classifiers (i.e. K-mediuns, Euclidian Length and Isoseg). In this regard, user and producer accuracies were 82.4% and 84% respectively for the Maxver classifier. The user and producer accuracies for the Bhattacharya classifier were 90% and 95.7%, respectively. Though the Maxver produced a higher overall accuracy and Kappa estimate than the Bhattacharya classifier, the Maxver Kappa estimate of 0.8305 is not significantly (statistically) greater than the Bhattacharya Kappa estimate of 0.8088 at a 95% confidence interval. The area based accuracy assessment results show that the Bhattacharya classifier estimated the spatial extent of H. pomanensis with an average mapping accuracy of 86.1% whereas the Maxver classifier only gave an average mapping accuracy of 65.2%. Based on these results, the Bhattacharya classifier is therefore recommended for mapping H. pomanensis. These findings will aid in the algorithm choice making for the development of a semi-automated image classification system for mapping IAPs.The South African National Department of Environment Affairs through its funding of the South African National Biodiversity Institute Invasive Species Programme, project number P038.http://www.elsevier.com/ locate/ isprsjprs2018-07-30hj2018Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog

Participatory gesture design: an investigation of user-defined gestures for conducting an informational search using a tablet device

Multi-touch technology, used in consumer products such as the iPad, enables users to register multiple points of contact at the same time; this enables a user to interact with a touch screen interface using several fingers on one hand, or even both hands. This affords interface designers the opportunity to define gestural interactions based on what is most natural for users and not on merely what can be recognised and processed by technology. In light of this, the research question that this study aimed to address was: what is the most intuitive user-defined gesture set for conducting an informational search on a multi-touch tablet web browser? In addressing this research question, the aim of this study was to create a user-defined gesture set for conducting an informational search on a multi-touch tablet web browser, based on gestures elicited from participants with little or no experience with touch screen devices. It was necessary to use these participants as users who are familiar with touch screen interfaces would draw upon the gestures they have learnt or used before, and would therefore be biased in the gestures they proposed. Inexperienced or naïve users would simply provide gestures that came naturally to them, providing a more accurate reflection of what a typical, unbiased user would do. A set of hypotheses, relating to the gestures that would be elicited from this participant group, were drawn up and investigated. These investigations yielded the following key findings: • The use of two-handed gestures should be limited. • If two-handed gestures are developed for a specific function, an alternative one-handed gesture should be made available. • It is not be advisable to create completely novel gestures for tablet web browsing that do not correspond to any of the ways in which desktop web browsing is performed. • Should novel gestures be developed for tablet web browsing, gestures that are desktop computing adaptations, including those that require menu access, should be made available as alternatives to users. • Tasks should be designed is such a way that they may be completed with a variety of gestures. • Complex tasks should be designed in such a way that they may be achieved through varying combinations of gestures. These findings may assist interface designers and developers in the gestures they design or developer for their applications. In addition to these findings, the study presents a coherent, user-defined gesture set that may be used in practice by designers or developers