Towards a "National Cinema" in South Africa : Limits and Possibilities

This study investigated whether a truly national cinema exists in contemporary South Africa. In the process, the study theorised and provided a working definition of “national cinema” and sought to determine the limits to and possibilities of the emergence of such a phenomenon. The backdrop to the investigation is the fact that the corpus of apartheid cinema was too racially divided and unjust to constitute a national cinema.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the commitment of businesses to contribute to sustainable economic development, working with employees, their families, the local community and society at large to improve their quality of life. The concept is based on a business organization’s configuration of social responsibility principles, social responsiveness processes, policies, programs, and observable outcomes relating to the firm’s societal relationships.

This study investigated the forms, meanings, and contours of contemporary urban culture, space, and identity in the South African port city and municipality of eThekwini/Durban. The production and representation of urban culture, identity and space were examined regarding media representations of the city and lived experiences of purposively selected participants, cultural actors, and practitioners who live and work in the city.

Despite more than two decades of democratic rule in South Africa, the country's agricultural industry is essentially unchanged, consisting of two distinct sectors: large-scale commercial white farmers and small-scale or emerging black farmers. This dual agrarian economy consists of thousands of emerging farmers who are typified by inadequate and inefficient on-farm infrastructure, a lack of arable land, uncoordinated production, and large-scale commercial farmers who produce nearly 95 per cent of agricultural products.

This study probed the cultural influences on how women construct their femininity in society and examined sexuality through women’s perceptions of their body, sex, and sexual pleasure using an African Feminist lens. The complexities of women’s desire to assert an identity combined with the contestation of normative femininity, sex, gender, and power relations in a culturally saturated township community were unbundled.

The history of South African Indian theatre coincides with the arrival of indentured labourers from India in 1860. This type of theatre has evolved and changed with South Africa’s shifting political terrain, moving from ritual theatre to realism and protest theatre during apartheid. These ongoing changes now include Bollywood theatre, an adaptation of Bollywood cinema, which resonates strongly within the South African Indian diaspora (Desai, 2004). The aim of this research is to describe the writing, directing, and staging of this type of theatre in the city of Durban in South Africa.

Early childhood is a formative period during which distinguishable development has projections of bearing desirable outcomes within an individual. This critical period requires interventions that have ramifications for later life. This research study aimed at exploring physical well-being of four-year-old learners in relation to their readiness for Grade R. The study was particularly interested in their level of independence when carrying out certain physical activities.

experience of pregnancy and childbirth are life changing for women. In most African societies, childcare is often a woman’s responsibility. The motherhood journey of a young woman may be significantly impacted by the presence and/or absence of a biological mother. The presence of a biological mother is regarded as important in all stages of development, particularly for female children. However, mothers are absent for a number of reasons including their death.

In the ever-changing landscape of higher education, the acceptance, use, and integration of digitalised learning environments have become a crucial transformation, giving another shape to knowledge dissemination. South Africa, as with any other country in the global community, has a complex higher education system coupled with diverse digital practices and experiences that are informed by the divided institutional contexts.

Police culture plays a crucial role in shaping law enforcement practices and the overall functioning of police organisations. In Africa, the study of police culture holds particular importance due to the unique historical, social, and political contexts that influence policing in the region. Academic research on police organisational culture has been one of the most robust and productive areas in the study of policing, uncovering many of the day-to-day realities, lived experiences and cultural meanings of police work.