Sustainability reporting guidelines for higher educational institutions in South Africa

In the higher education sector, a number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are playing a leading role in promoting sustainable initiatives. Managing these initiatives effectively can be a complex task and requires data and information from multiple sources. HEIs must ensure financial sustainability, social sustainability, environmental sustainability and educational sustainability. HEIs in South Africa are required to produce a sustainability report for the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) on an annual basis. HEIs are not required to use a specific set of guidelines to create a report that complies with the DHET reporting requirements. HEIs face a number of challenges in effectively managing and reporting on sustainability information, such as poor sharing and communication of information and combining information from different sources to form an integrated report. Well-structured guidelines that adheres to institution standards and governmental reporting requirements can effectively streamline the sustainability reporting process. This study investigates the requirements and challenges of effective sustainability reporting for HEIs in South Africa. A set of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 guidelines were reworked to support effective sustainability reporting by South African HEIs. Nelson Mandela University is one such HEI, which is affected by the challenges of managing and reporting on strategic sustainability information. Nelson Mandela University was therefore used as a case study in this research study. An in-depth study was done exploring how prominent international universities apply the GRI guidelines to contribute and generate integrated sustainability reports for their specific HEIs and general reporting needs and requirements. Additionally, an in-depth study of the German integrated reporting guidelines for HEI’s was conducted. Furthermore, a study of the South African DHET reporting requirements was conducted to explore the similarities that exists between the GRI (G4) guidelines and DHET requirements. The guidelines were evaluated by Nelson Mandela University personnel and academics. The final product consists of a set of GRI guidelines that have been adapted to satisfy both GRI and DHET requirements for integrated sustainability reporting for South African HEIs. The contributions from this study are a set of GRI G4 guidelines and examples for integrated sustainability reporting and management for HEIs in South Africa. The set of adapted GRI guidelines for HEIs in South Africa was created with the assistance of the strategic management departments at Nelson Mandela University. The GRI guidelines have been reworded to be specifically applicable to South African HEIs and contain instructions and guidelines on how to generate an integrated sustainability report for a South African HEI

Still life object photography

ThesisSince 1839 photography has been a vital means of communication and expressiOn, being at once a science and an art, both aspects are inseparably linked. It can only be through the skilled hands of a photographer that photography can rise as an independent art form. "Conceptual photography is the photography of ideas - the representation of ideas through photography and the creation of new ideas about photography. It is the realm of the imagination, the territory of fantasy, the province of persuasion. it is images that intrigue the mind, as well as catch the eye. " (O'Connor 1989:87). The most important factor when producing a photograph of an object (studio still life, natural found) is to decide what you wish to say and to whom. The next great step is to decide what mood you wish to express. This is then accomplished by composition, lighting, choice of lens and camera, props and background. "Photographers in general, and still life photographers in particular, require a rudimentary working knowledge of chemistry, physics, mathematics, optics, art history, composition, colour and light, psychology, carpentry, plumbing, electronics and house painting. Additionally they should have strong backs.

A STOIC REMEDY FOR DISEASED EARS (PERSIUS 5.86)

In his fifth satire Persius uses the metaphor of the cleansed ear (aurem mordaci lotus aceto, line 86) to convey his message that Stoicism should be used as the remedy for cleansing the diseased ears of mankind. This metaphor also appears in Satire 1 and is there interwoven with an ear motif ridiculing contemporary literary style and judgement. The purpose of this paper is to study the poet's use of the ear motif and metaphor in Satires 1 and 5 and to ascertain the importance which Persius attached to these references

REDAKSIONEEL / EDITORIAL

Recently it has been the policy of Akroterion to publish articles for a wider audience in order to promote an interest in the Classics amongst members of the public. Illustrated contributions have helped in working towards this goal. This volume, for instance, features a comparison of the film “300” with the original graphic novel on which the film was based, and also with Herodotus, the primary source for the battle at Thermopylae. It is very gratifying that the article is the work of a young scholar. Stimulating articles from such young aspiring scholars can only benefit and enrich the field of Classical Studies

Performing masculinities in the iconographies of selected white South African male artists

M.Tech. (Fine Art)In this research I explore performances of white South African masculinities in select works by the South African artists, Anton Kannemeyer and William Kentridge, as well as in my body of practical work. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the nature of performances of white masculinities depicted in the selected visual texts. The term 'performances', in the context of this study, refers to Judith Butler's (1990, 2004) concept of gender as performed identities, as free-floating, unconnected to an 'essence'. Within the context of gender performativity, I apply constructivist identity formation theory to examine masculine identities depicted in the visual texts. This research shows how the performances of white masculinity represented in the artists' selected works function to comment on how white South African men are reconceptualising their masculine performativities in order to adapt to the ideals of post-apartheid South Africa. The study explores a perceived existential crisis in emergent South African white masculinities, analysing how a changing post-apartheid socio-political environment cause white South African men to create new conceptions of identity which break down previously imposed preconceived identities. In this dissertation I explore Kannemeyer's, Kentridge's and my own visual texts relating them to a discourse of social commentary. A key deduction I make from my research is that the selected visual texts operate through Laurel Richardson's factors of lived reality and reflexivity in that the artists' appropriate elements from within their experiences and observations of South Africa to inform their visual narratives. Another key deduction is that the visual texts analysed are structured through heteroglot voices, voices the artist uses to differentiate between the artist as author (his author-voice); the artist as his recognisable alter-ego (his object-voice); and the voice that provides content, context and meaning, to the text (his subjectvoice). There are a number of white, male artists who grew up in apartheid South Africa and who critique performances of white masculinity. I choose Kannemeyer and Kentridge as, apart from their both growing up in apartheid South Africa and using their lived realities and observations of socio-political change to inform their art making, as do I, they also tend to focus on two-dimensional art

REDAKSIONEEL / EDITORIAL

It has been a great honour for me as outgoing editor to be able to see this specific volume of Akroterion through to its final stages. Writing the editorial column gave me the opportunity to reflect on what the journal has accomplished since 2001. It is gratifying to note that with the constant support of the editorial board, the continued submissions by authors (of which only about 60% are finally published), the selfless work of reviewers, the diligence of the editorial assistants (dr. Maridien Schneider and mrs. Carien Punt), and above all the positive feedback from readers, we have succeeded in what we set out to do eight years ago: “that efforts should be made to promote an awareness of Classics among the general public” and “that Akroterion should cater for a broader reading public by publishing articles that have a general appeal without sacrificing their academic value” (Editorial, Akroterion 46:2001)

PERSIUS ON POETIC (IN)DIGESTION

As a satirist, Persius is strongly opposed to the grand themes of epic and tragedy. In the first 29 lines of Satire 5 (cast in the form of a dialogue between the poet and his friend, Cornutus), Persius is mainly concerned with the style and themes of contemporary epic and tragedy (1-9), metaphorically linking the process of contemporary literary production (with special reference to tragic writers) and the consumption of ghastly, cannibalistic banquets dished up by tragic writers and actors. He then justifies his approach to his own poetry and the appropriate style for the satirist (10-29). Although reference will be made in passing to the whole of lines 1-29, this paper will focus on Satire 5:1-9 and 17-18 by discussing the meanings and nuances of key words first and then interpreting each pericope as a unit

A COMIC SCENE WITH A STOIC MESSAGE: TERENCE'S EUNUCHUS IN PERSIUS SATIRE 5.161-175

Introduction The Greekparaclausithyron is the song sung by the lover at his mistress's door as a part of the revel or komos which followed a symposium and after he had been refused admission to her house. It is usually a song of disappointment and sorrow, based on a more or less stereotyped incident: the lover's passage through the streets on his way to the girl's house after the symposium, her refusal to admit him into the house, and his lament in which he may combine a plea that the girl will relent, a warning of the lonely days to come when she will be too old for love, and a picture of his own sufferings. In the end he may hang his garland on the door or scribble some scraps of verse on the door. Then he lies down in the doorway to remain there until morning

TIlE RHETORIC OF A STOIC POET (PERSIUS SATIRE 5)

The narrative style in Persius Satire 5 produces a poem which is not so much a sermon, as a sermo or conversation. Persius' technique of using a quick exchange between poet! speaker and adversary/interlocutor (whether real or imaginary) is derived from the kind of philosophical discourse referred to as diatribe, a moral lecture focussing on a general issue and aiming at the improvement of mankind as a whole.2 The employment of this dramatic structure aids the development of the argument and theme of the satire by giving the question and answer process of thought in a form which is more accessible to the imagination of the recipient/audience

Sewer-system analysis with the aid of a geographical information system

Geographical information system (GIS)-supported sewer-system analysis has major advantages over the use of traditional standalone sewer programs, especially with regard to establishing network topology, input of sewage contribution data, querying, displaying and mapping of results. This paper reports on the development of a GIS-supported sewer analysis software package using ArcView GIS. It supports all the stages of sewer-system analysis, viz. defining the topology of a sewer network, the specification of sewage flow contribution parameters, the allocation of sewage-contributing areas to sewer manholes, hydraulic analysis and displaying the analysis results. A sewer program has been developed for hydraulic analysis and written in Avenue, the internal programming language of ArcView. The sewer program is therefore fully integrated with ArcView, and all the functionality of ArcView is available during the sewer-system analysis. Such an integrated software package where the input data, sewer program, GIS and program results are all dynamically linked is the perfect environment for scenario management. The software package has already been successfully applied to the main sewer system of the Inner Cape Metropolitan Region (Inner CMR), as part of an M.Sc. thesis in Geography and Environmental Studies. WaterSA Vol.28(3) 2002: 243-24