Enter any additional information or requests for the Library here. ; This article is concerned with reconstructing and interpreting the South African political environment in 2016 and the strategic implications thereof. There is currently widespread consensus that the South African political environment is becoming increasingly unstable. Some have even labelled the current political situation "a perfect storm". The resulting outcomes of this state of affairs include patterns of political and social instability, the securocratisation of the state, and a postcolonial dynamic manifesting in anti-colonial and anti-Western sentiments. The manner in which the aforementioned factors interact with each other creates a politically unstable environment with far reaching consequences for public institutions in general, and universities in particular. Until recently, universities were relatively insulated from the dynamic and disruptive political forces in society. This situation changed irrevocably after 2015 with the advent of the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall campaigns and demands for rapid transformation of the higher education sector. At the time of finalising this paper, a second wave of #FeesMustFall has commenced with revolutionary violence affecting virtually all university campuses across South Africa. Prominent political, economic and social drivers of change currently define a scenario of punctuated equilibrium in the political environment. These drivers, and their possible outcomes, are analysed with specific reference to South African universities.
Enter any additional information or requests for the Library here. ; Die Suid-Afrikaanse politieke omgewing betree tans 'n fase wat as uiters dinamies en polities onstabiel beskryf kan word. Sedert die bewindsoorname van Jacob Zuma in 2009 is 'n tendens wat voorgehou kan word as die sekurokratisering van die Suid-Afrikaanse staat duidelik waarneembaar. Dit is veral binne die raamwerk van die sogenaamde sekerheidsgroepering dat politieke en staatkundige magsbasisse toenemend sekurokraties deur die regering van president Zuma hanteer word. Deur gebruik te maak van 'n ontledingsraamwerk waarin tendensbepalings moontlik is, word daar veral op die Suid-Afrikaanse Polisiediens en die intelligensiedienste as voorbeelde van sekurokratisering gekonsentreer. 'n Tendens bekend as neopatrimoniale pretorianisme word geïdentifiseer met negatiewe implikasies en risiko's vir die konsolidering van demokratiese waardes binne die groter Suid-Afrikaanse staatkundige bestel.
The period after 1994 can be described as the period of political transformation in South Africa. With a revolutionary point of departure, political transformation established itself as a political ideology in South Africa. In general political ideologies are characterised by a hard core of ideas that is extremely difficult to change and a softer periphery (policy application context) that is more pragmatic and dynamic in nature. Changes are normally taking place on the level of the periphery which serves as a protective belt for the hard core of the ideology. Political transformation as an ideology is no exception to this general role and currently needs changes in its protective belt to ensure its survival. This article investigates the ways in which the trans-formation ideology can reposition itself in the future. ; Die periode sedert 1994 kan beskryf word as die periode van politieke transformasie in Suid-Afrika. Met 'n rewolusionêre benadering as vertrekpunt, het politieke transformasie as ideologiese raamwerk in Suid-Afrika beslag gekry. Politieke ideologieë akkommodeer in die algemeen 'n harde kern van idees wat uiters moeilik verander en 'n sagter periferie (beleidstoepassingskonteks) wat meer pragmaties en dinamies is. Aanpassings vind meestal op die toepassingskonteks plaas, wat as 'n tipe beskermingsgordel dien vir die harde kern van die ideologie. Hierdie artikel ondersoek die wyses waarop transformasie-ideologieë hulself in die toekoms op beleidstoepassingsvlak kan heroriënteer. Politieke transformasie as ideologie is geen uitsondering op die reël nie en die beleidskonteks moet tans geheroriënteer word om die oorlewering van die ideologie te verseker.
In this article the concept of political transformation, as it has occurred since 1994, is analysed and then empirically applied in the South African context. Political transformation in reaction to an unacceptable political past is presented as a reactive, progressive, planned, fundamental and rapid change. The phenomenon of political transformation — as an extremely dynamic societal process — is explained against the background of the political hegemony of the ANC; the restructuring of opposition politics; political and economic capacity; political conflict and patterns of violence, as well as the impact of South Africa's transformation initiatives on the Southern Africancommunity. The article places in perspective the influence of the previous (apartheid) government's evolutionary change on the ANC's revolutionary strategy, as well as the implications for South African society and politics.
From a Political Science perspective nothing is more difficult to understand than the nature of political change and specifically disequilibrium change. Political change or "the alteration of an existing state . (or) condition . (or) an observed difference between a past and present condition" becomes more and more a reality of our everyday life (compare Palmer 1987:7). The well-known futurologist Alvin Toffler (1990:3), emphasized the fact that "(we) are living at a moment when the entire structure that held the world together is now disintegrating. A radically different structure of power is taking form and this is happening at every level of human society." In South Africa we are not insulated from political change and even fundamental (disequilibrium) political change on all levels of society. During the past decade South Africans experienced far-reaching political, economic and social changes with the promise of even more changes in the next five to ten years.
Land remains a contentious political issue that has the potential for further conflict in South Africa. Expectations over land are a legitimate result of a history of dispossession, displacement and deprivation during the pre-colonial, colonial and Apartheid eras. The importance of placing discussions on land within a historical context is salient. Legitimate perceptions around the slow pace of sustainable land reform since 1994 have left a vacuum for politicians to continue to use the land issue as tool for political mobilisation. However, development programmes that are meant to deliver on the expectations such as the National Development Plan (NDP) and the New Growth Path (NGP) are often undermined by the same politicians. The ideological divisions between the NDR and the NDP/NGP within the ruling African National Congress-run (ANC) government hamper progress towards achieving the land redistribution objectives outlined in these development plans and programmes. The dilemma that this creates is that factors required to mitigate this problem such as an emphasis on sustainability of redistributed land for increased food security have fallen victim to this ideological tug-of-war. The widening gap between the politically fuelled expectations trajectory on the one hand, and the inability to meet these expectations by current development programmes on the other, are sources of increasing social conflict in society.
Background: Research supports the view that the South African traditional healer does not hold a modern medical identity, but developed from the traditional African religions and cultural environment as a kind of caregiver. The name healer with a medical connotation arose from early colonists and missionaries misunderstanding the role of a traditional healer in Africa, especially in early South Africa. There is even a misunderstanding today about the African meaning of spiritual healing. As such, the traditional healer is a remnant from a previous, pre-modern time. Traditional healers were forced to the foreground recently in South Africa by the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007). This act makes the traditional healer an exclusive healthcare practitioner with statutory status under the name traditional health practitioner. Such a healer can practice in the formal healthcare sector, including the public hospitals. The Act gives the healer the right to diagnose, treat and make, and prescribe pre-modern health products to his/hers clients unhindered. It is clear that the various resolutions and implementations of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007) intend to bring the South African traditional healer into the practice domain of the South African medical doctor. Aims: The study aimed to determine if the traditional healer has a medical identity in modern South Africa. Methods: This is an exploratory and descriptive study that makes use of an historical approach by means of investigation and a literature review. The emphasis is on using current documentation like articles, books and newspapers as primary sources to reflect on the traditional healer's medical identity in modern South Africa. The findings are offered in narrative form. Results: The New South Africa did not start changing socially, economically and politically after 1994. They have started to move into new cultural and life domains centuries ago. Some left behind many of the pre-modern beliefs, like the traditional healer and his supernatural activities and practices. The present-day political and cultural pressure from politicians (with outdated thoughts) by means of things like the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007), are being met more and more with resistance by the broad population. It is therefore important to research on the changes in cultural values and styles, economical positions and the medical needs of the country's population to understand if the traditional healer has a truly medical identity in modern South Africa. Conclusion: The Traditional Health Practitioners Act (No 22, 2007) has failed to include the outdated traditional healer into the modern South African society and formal healthcare sector as a specific medical entity. The foundations of South African society had changed too dramatically to allow space for a pre-modern cult practitioner.
Background: South Africa's development and growth in healthcare since the 1900s is phenomenal, but certain present-day healthcare policies such as the Traditional Health Practitioners Act (Act No 22, 2007), could jeopardize it. Aims: The study aims to determine if the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 is a godsend to the South African healthcare or if there is an indication of doom. Methods: This is an exploratory and descriptive study that makes use of an historical approach by means of investigation and a literature review. The emphasis is on using current documentation like articles, books and newspapers as primary sources to reflect on the thinking and opinions around the contribution of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 of 2007 to the South African healthcare sector. The findings are offered in narrative form. Results: It seems that the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007) was promulgated without comprehensive exploratory research and an in-depth consultation with all the role-players involved in South Africa's healthcare, especially the already statutory registered health professionals. Conclusion: Political influences played a strong part in the promulgation of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act in 2007. In 2017 it is still not fully operational and the indication is that it will take years for the traditional health practitioner to become a full member of the health sector, if ever. This health Act can cause serious long-term disturbances for the already established healthcare practitioners and the statutory healthcare sector.
Background: The South African medical doctor has been well established over the years as the keeper of the holy medical grails. Entrance for newcomers to the medical domain has not been and is still not easy. The hostility towards the allied professions in the 1950s and later in the 1980s provides evidence of this. Certain prerequisites for entrance were set and jealously guarded by the medical fraternity. The Traditional Health Practitioners Act, (Act No 22, 2007) is another such a challenge. This time it is not an outsider fraternity that is fighting alone for its own recognition. They are backed by a government and political force to get the traditional health practitioner (previously known as the traditional healer) statutorily recognized. Aims: The study aimed to reflect on the future professional relationship between the medical doctor and the traditional health practitioner in South Africa. Methods: This is an exploratory and descriptive study that makes use of an historical approach by means of investigation and a literature review. The emphasis is on using current documentation like articles, books and newspapers as primary sources to reflect on the future professional relationship between the medical doctor and the traditional health practitioner in South Africa. The findings are offered in narrative form. Results: It is clear that the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007) will put enormous pressure on the medical doctor, not only to relinquish some of his healthcare empowerment, but also to see and to accept the traditional health practitioner as a new, respectable health co-practitioner and colleague. Facts hereto reveal that there are in terms of training, health ethics, practice approaches, attitudes and views, basically not a single point of similarity or agreement between the medical doctor and the traditional health practitioner whatsoever. Notwithstanding these enormous differences, the existence of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007) is a fact that the medical doctor can not erase easily from the South African law books. Conclusion: The traditional health practitioner and the traditional health fraternity will not easily be absorbed into the formal healthcare establishment, notwithstanding the intentions of Section 49 of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007) to reach this goal over time. Whether the traditional health practitioner will become a true and beloved colleague of the medical doctor, who rubs shoulders with him in his practice, remains to be seen.
Enter any additional information or requests for the Library here. ; Background: Years of South African legislation on traditional healing practices preceded the Traditional Health Practitioners Act (Act No. 22, 2007). The first laws date as far back as 1895. It seems as if the intention of the pre-1994 legislation was not to promote traditional healing practices, but to limit the power of the traditional healer. Aims: The study aims to describe the history that came before Act No. 22 of 2007. Methods: This is an exploratory and descriptive study in line with the modern-day historical approach of investigation and reviewing research. The emphasis is on the use of present-day documentation, like articles, books and newspapers, as primary sources to reflect on the development and promulgation of Act No. 22. The findings are offered in narrative format. Results: Various political and legal processes can be identified as contributing to the promulgation of the Act in 2007, especially after the 1994. Conclusion: It had taken more than 45 years of unofficial and seven years of official struggle to get Act No. 22 promulgated in 2007. Today, nearly a decade after promulgation, it has still not been fully enacted.
Enter any additional information or requests for the Library here. ; Background:The traditional healer in Southern Africa received new status as a statutorily recognized health professional with the promulgation of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007). Usually such recognition is only awarded after a profession's formal education in the form of established study programmes and training and places of learning has been confirmed. Lawmakers involved in the promulgation of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 failed to confirm the existence of such an education culture and foundation. Very little can be gauged from the formal literature on the kind and the quality of the training that the traditional healers receive and their abilities to diagnose and treat without risk to the lives of patients. The prominent question at this stage is whether traditional healers' levels of education and training meet the minimum requirements prescribed for health professionals in the healthcare sector. Aims: The present study aimed to determine the education and training levels of practicing South African traditional healers. Methods: This is an exploratory and descriptive study based on the modern historical approach of investigation and literature reviewing. The emphasis is on using present-day documentation, like articles and reports, books and newspapers, as primary sources to reflect on the present status and levels of traditional healers' education and training. The findings are offered in narrative form. Results: No formally established education and training infrastructure has ever been developed for the South African traditional healing profession. Up to 2007, there was also no governmental support in this regard. A formal education and training system is still in its infancy. There is, however, a well-established informal training system that developed over many years. Conclusion: The absence of an advanced and statutorily recognized education and training system can make the immediate change-over from traditional healing as an unregulated endeavour to a profession and acceptance of the traditional healer as part of the healthcare establishments, very difficult and problematic. Over against this, there is a functioning informal training system exists, confirming that minimum levels of education and training are present.
Enter any additional information or requests for the Library here. ; Background: The promulgation of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007) was seen as the long awaited start-up of the traditional healing profession in South Africa. Act No 22 (2007) was strongly politically driven from the late 1960s onward. Many of these political motivators were based upon outdated cultural ideas, customs and traditions, rooted outside the modern day healthcare needs and demands of the particular population that traditional healing intends to serve. An in-depth needs and skills analysis, to test the viability and sustainability of the South African traditional healers as well as their positions and roles as health practitioners inside the formal healthcare sector, as guided and stipulated by the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007), was lacking in this early development and start-up process. This resulted in the traditional healers' present and future roles as specific healthcare practitioners being both undefined and insufficiently formulated. In addition their existing education, training, skills and abilities to compete in the formal healthcare sector were ignored. Therefore, since the promulgation of the Act in 2007, there was limited professional-development for traditional healers, to improve their immediate professionalism and thus to promote effective role-playing and management in the formal healthcare sector. The South African traditional healing professional model is still in the foundational stage of its professional development; a stage which the other registered/regulated healthcare practitioners of the country surpassed long ago, making them well-equipped for role-playing and management as health professionals in the formal healthcare sector. The whole venture of the statutory recognition of the traditional health practitioners in 2007 as new healthcare professionals with the promulgation of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007) seems to increasingly be a failure. There is thus a definite need to establish how the South African traditional healers are equipped to compete independently in the healthcare sector. If this is not possible, what alternatives are available to steer some of them into the country's healthcare sector and still make them useful as health practitioners. Coupled to this need is the future status and role of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007), to uphold the roles of traditional healers. Aims: The study aims to determine the present and future roles of the traditional health practitioner in the South African formal healthcare sector, as guided by the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007). Methods: This is an exploratory and descriptive study that makes use of a historical approach by means of investigation and a literature review. The emphasis is upon using current documentation such as articles, books and newspapers as primary sources to reflect upon the present and future roles of traditional health practitioners within the regulated healthcare sector of South Africa, as guided by the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007). The findings are offered in narrative form. Results: It seems as though the professional position and foundation of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007) is on a level that is meant for the governing of a healthcare group with a well-established learning and management infrastructure. This is an unfortunate situation wherein the incoming traditional healer unfortunately cannot meet the requirements at the moment. Various negative factors have affected the South African traditional healers' development and position. These include early political out-casting and discrimination from training facilities and work opportunities in the healthcare sector under White Rule, while poor organization, strategy and future planning and a lack of self-promotion by traditional healers themselves regarding their positions and roles over the years, seem also to have contributed negatively to the situation. The immediate impact is that this predisposition unfortunately places the traditional health practitioners in situations wherein they cannot always take specific roles at present or in the future as healers in the South African healthcare sector, as intended and guided by the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 of 2007. Conclusion: To expect the South African traditional health practitioners to function at present and in future fully within the intentions of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007), executing certain roles as independent health practitioners in the formal healthcare sector, seems to a great extent impossible. Wherever they are successfully placed in the healthcare sector, their positions and roles seem to be limited. Furthermore, the traditional healers' places in the formal healthcare sector were already taken by the allied health professions, by such practitioners as homeopaths, naturopaths and ethno-therapists, etc. Thus they are obliged to compete with the already established nursing practitioners, psychiatrists and psychologists, as well as medical doctors, all established in clearly defined and functioning roles. These work inclinations and reservations further minimize their roles dramatically in the formal healthcare sector. To consider the future of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007) and its two outcomes, namely the Traditional Health Practitioners Council as well as the traditional health practitioner, there are at present three urgent issues. The prominent question is: can the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007) continue in its present form or must it be recalled? In its present manifestation the Act and the traditional healers seem to be ineffective and aimless. It is time to consider alternatives to assure the continuation of the traditional healers as practitioners in the South African healthcare sector. The most obvious and practical one is to accommodate some of the traditional healers, where applicable and possible, in some of the various already established professional Health Councils as healthcare professionals.
Enter any additional information or requests for the Library here. ; Background: The Traditional Health Practitioners Act (Act No 22, 2007) to regulate the traditional health fraternity had been driven since the 1960s and became a reality after the 1994 political change in South Africa. Although the Act was already promulgated in 2007 it is still not active. Certain definitions of the Act seemed to be very controversial; especially the role of the supernatural in healing that could be associated with witchcraft and criminal-related behaviour. Aims: The aim is to determine if the Witchcraft Suppression Act (Act No 3, 1957) is discriminatory against the traditional healer as well as well as to determine if the Traditional Health Practitioners Act (No 22, 2007) and the traditional healer are contravening the regulations of Act No 3 (1957). Methods: The exploratory and descriptive method was used to evaluate and to reproduce any research data. This method offered information to compare the two acts in their functioning with each other. Results: From the data extracted from various sources it seems as if Act No 22 (2007) was promulgated without in-depth research on the role that the traditional healer may play in witchcraft activities. The aim of Act No 3 (1957) was totally ignored. Conclusions: Act No 3 (1957) does not discriminate against Act No 22 (2007). Instead, it seems that various stipulations of Act No 3 have been transgressed by the traditional healers without legal action being taken against them.
Enter any additional information or requests for the Library here. ; Background: The Witchcraft Suppression Act (Act No 3, 1957) seems to have been totally ignored since 1994 as an old apartheid law by the new political dispensation. The question is: Why is this happening and can the Act can be seen as pre-modern and discriminatory to South Africans? Aims: The aim of the study was thus to determine what effect the Act has or can have in the future on the constitutional rights of the individual as well as groups and why the post-1994 government has kept it on the law books until now. Methods: The exploratory and descriptive research method, in line with the modern-day historical research approach to the investigation and reviewing of information, was used. Emphasis was on the use of primary research resources, like news papers, reports and articles, to reflect on present life situations, thinking, opinions, trends and activities around witchcraft. Research was also focussed on putting into perspective the future status of the Witchcraft Suppression Act in South Africa. The findings were offered in narrative form. Results: The putative error in keeping the Act on the statute books may have serious implications for every citizen, at present and in future. Agitation in public and in courts of law by certain individuals and groups, like the neo-pagans, traditional healers and human-rights activists that the Act is in conflict with the human-rights code of the Constitution, have become very intense and demanding. Pleas are heard that it must be repealed. Discussion: It seems that various other role-players can be identified, apart from the general opposition to the Act, who are backing it. It is specifically argued that the Act is successfully combatting serious crimes, such as murder and that it is not indiscriminately applied by law-enforcement authorities. Conclusions: Although Act No 3 of 1957 may be defined as a law with negative political and emotional connotations, six decades after its promulgation it is still working and may only be repealed if a better alternative can be put in place. Such an alternative has so far not been offered.
Enter any additional information or requests for the Library here. ; Background:The Traditional Health Practitioners Act (Act No 22, 2007), which elicits controversy in the South African healthcare and public sector since proclamation, went untested through the legislature, driven inside the post-1994 socio-political dispensation. No previous in-depth studies have been identified. Aims: The aim of this study was to determine and to reflect the Act's long term legal implications for the already statutory health professions and the public: specific with the focus on the Constitution and other legislations and possible ways to oppose it. Methods: This is an exploratory and descriptive research, in line with the modern-day history approach of investigation and reviewing research, using contemporary reports, news papers and articles as primary resources to reflect on the situation, thinking, opinions, trends and activities around Act No 22 and its implications on the Constitution and citizen's rights. The focus was also to put Act No 22 in a future in perspective. Findings are represented in narrative form. Results: Act No 22 (2007) was promulgated without an applicable and appropriate scientific needs-analysis. The Act seems to stand to a great extent in conflict with the Constitution as well as various other Acts, like the Witchcraft Suppression Act (No 3, 1957). Conclusions: The Act is still today, nearly a decade after promulgation, not fully active. It is a Constitutional mishap. Notwithstanding its constitutional controversy, the Act's political sanction by governmental agencies and political leaders will ensure that it will not vanish easily from the South African law books.
