http://hdl.handle.net/10500/2723 2013-05-13T09:12:45Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/8842 Language attitudes and language choice within the correctional services with reference to Pretoria Central Prison Mabule, Dorah Riah The focus of this study is an investigation of the language policy and language policy implementation in the Department of Correctional Services of South Africa. Language usage is a right of all the citizens of South Africa as enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) which is the supreme law of the country. It is imperative that language policy makers in the Department of Correctional Services should adhere to the provisions of the constitution. It also aims at establishing whether the Department of Correctional Services’ policy is aligned to the national language policy framework as well as provincial language policy framework that provide for the use of the eleven (11) official languages in general and in particular. In this research study, background information serves to give an overview of how language policy of South Africa since 1994 has been perceived by various scholars and the historical overview of the language policies during the apartheid era. The African languages were given a low status as the language diversity of South Africa was not acknowledged by the government of that day. The evaluation of the contents of language policies that were used previously and currently in the Department of Correctional Services shed light to the issues of language attitude, language choice and language use in this department. During the apartheid era there were working languages set for prisoners as well as staff regarding communication either verbally or in writing in the Department of Correctional Services. The official languages were English and Afrikaans of which the latter was dominant. The question of whose language, for what purpose and how was it received was also investigated. 2013-04-04T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/6106 Post-independence Shona poetry, the quest and struggle for total liberation Tembo, Charles This study pursues the quest and struggle for total liberation in post-independence Shona poetry. The study also relies on views of key respondents obtained through interviews and questionnaires. Couched and guided by Afrocentricity and Africana womanism, the study elucidates the politico-economic and socio-cultural factors that militate against Africa’s total liberation in general as well as women’s liberation, respectively. Simultaneously, critical judgments are passed on the extent to which poets immerse their art in African existential philosophy. The study is energized by the idea that pursuing the quest for authentic liberation provides a lens through which one can understand threats to Africa’s true liberation. It observes that poets and key informants largely attribute ersartz independence to internal problems. The researcher holds that it is problematic to hold a domesticated vision of the African condition to the extent that poets and other literary workers need to widen their canvas beyond fighting internal oppression and internationalise the struggle. The researcher argues that it is myopic and self-defeating to protest against Africa itself without giving adequate attention to the incapacitating hegemonic world system. Therefore, the poetry is lacking on its critique on domination. The centerpiece of the thesis is that in order to be purposeful and functional, poets need to grapple with both endogenous and exogenous factors that obstruct the march towards genuine liberation. The study also observes that in some instances poets produce cheap literature which is marked by a narrow and moralistic approach and this is attributable to the fact that poets lack a scientific vision in understanding reality. Concerning women’s authentic liberation, the commonly identified obstacles to women’s freedom are the male counterpart, self-depreciation, lack of education and culture. The study observes that women poets in Ngatisimuke (1994) and key respondents seem to approach gender relations from a feminist perspective and hence fail to situate women’s condition in the context of the history and culture that shape African gender relations. Women poets in Ngatisimuke fall short of internationalising their struggle in concert with the male counterpart such that their poetry degenerates into sponsored and misguided activism. 2012-02-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/5895 Linguistic challenges faced by foreign migrant workers and informal traders in Gauteng Rwodzi, Christopher The research project takes a hard look into the linguistic challenges faced by foreign migrant workers and informal traders in Gauteng province, South Africa. The research makes a panoramic view into the linguistic challenges faced by foreign migrant workers and informal traders. The focus of the research is on the challenges regarding language use in business domains. It dissects into business communication dynamics and the cultural contexts in the developing economies of Southern Africa. The study focused on finding out language challenges for immigrants as a consequence of migration. The research undertakes to discover language policy frameworks operating in industries and informal business environment in Gauteng. It seeks to establish the strategies that could be used to solve the language problems faced by foreign migrants taking into consideration that most of the immigrants in the construction industry and informal sector are semi-literate or illiterate. In other words, the research explores alternatives and the different roles of different organizations in the approach to language challenges when doing business. The study attempts to make some recommendations that can rescue immigrant challenges. These include language training programmes and changing attitudes as they have to learn the indigenous languages used in Gauteng province. The discussion reviews the sociolinguistic aspects in view of the changing demands of the developing economies of Africa where languages are used as vehicles for economic development and technological innovation. It attempts to reflect on why European languages continue to dominate business operations in Africa while African languages remain marginalized. 2011-11-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/5542 The portrayal of women in Xitsonga literature with special reference to South African novels, poems and proverbs Machaba, Rirhandzu Lillian The new dawn that brought about democracy in South Africa in 1994 and the social and political experiences have since changed the expectations of women’s roles in society. Literature is the important part of this experience because it mirrors and interprets the experience from the point of view of those who write about it. This study, therefore, attempts to examine the image of women in Xitsonga literature, to investigate whether there is a link in the expected cultural roles of Vatsonga women and their roles as characters in Xitsonga literature; and whether there is a shift in the way women characters are portrayed to represent the current social and political reality. The study employs African feminist literary criticism as a tool in critically analysing the various literary genres. It also adopts purposive sampling of Xitsonga novels, poetry and proverbs that have women characters in them and analyse how these women characters have been portrayed. The naming of female characters is examined in relation to their roles in the texts and the titles of the texts are also investigated and critically analysed to establish whether they portray any gender stereotypes. The themes of the selected texts are also examined to establish if there is any gender biasness. Both male and female-authored texts have been investigated to explore whether male authors depict women differently from their female counterparts. The study concludes that there is gender-biasness in the manner in which women characters are depicted that do not reflect the current political and social order, however, some women authors, unlike their male counterparts do not reflect gender-biasness in their depiction of female characters. 2011-09-01T00:00:00Z