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- ItemExamining Attachment of Earnings Orders: Does the English Wage Garnishment Mechanism Offer Solutions to the Challenges Experienced by its Contemporary South African Counterpart?(Thomson & Reutors, 2023) Van der Merwe, StephanThe ability to garnish a debtor’s wages is a popular and important contemporary legal mechanism to facilitate civil debt collection in many jurisdictions, including South Africa. Despite recent amendments to the primary legislation regulating South African emolument attachment orders, the mechanism remains prone to a number of significant shortcomings which facilitate debtor abuse. Consequently, calls have been made for further legislative intervention. In order to guide this development, comparative wage garnishment mechanisms should be investigated. A detailed analysis of the ostensibly effective and historically relatable English attachment of earnings order mechanism could provide meaningful insights to improve the system and enhance debtor protection in South Africa. The article therefore conducts an examination and evaluation of the historical development and contemporary application of English attachment of earnings orders in order to determine whether the mechanism provides any solutions that could assist further legislative development.
- ItemMoontlikheid en werklikheid. Waarom kan Suid-Afrika (nog) nie die droom van ’n inklusiewe samelewing verwesenlik nie?(LitNet, 2022) Lategan, Bernard C.Die artikel fokus op die vraag waarom Suid-Afrika na bykans drie dekades van ’n inklusiewe politieke bestel skynbaar nog nie daarin kon slaag om die ideaal van ’n inklusiewe samelewing te verwesenlik nie. Verskillende faktore dra hiertoe by. Een faktor wat nie voldoende in aanmerking geneem word nie, is oorgelewerde denkpatrone wat die nuwe bestel in sy nuwe formaat steeds kniehalter. Wat onderskat word, is die vertrekpunt van hierdie denke, die kontoere wat dit volg en veral die rigting of oriëntasie waarin dit plaasvind. Om hierdie probleem te illustreer, word insigte uit Mahmood Mamdani se onlangse boek, Neither settler nor native, as uitgangspunt geneem. Mamdani (self ’n sterk voorstander van dekolonialisering) beweer dat die dekolonialiseringsprojek in vele opsigte misluk het omdat die nuwe bewindhebbers die denkwyses, sosiale kategorieë en burgerskapsmodelle van die koloniale era oorgeneem en steeds gehandhaaf het. Aan die hand van voorbeelde soos die “makmaak” van die Amerikaanse Weste, die opkoms van die Nazi-ideologie in Duitsland, die skynbaar onoorbrugbare kloof tussen Israeliet en Palestyn in die huidige staat Israel en die verdeling tussen Noord- en Suid-Soedan maak hy duidelik hoe die (koloniale) verlede steeds die (gedekolonialiseerde) hede beïnvloed. Suid-Afrika is volgens Mamdani die een uitsondering, waar die bestaande orde op radikale wyse vervang is deur ’n inklusiewe politieke bestel waarin alle burgers in teorie dieselfde regte het. Die ironie is egter dat formele inklusiwiteit nog nie in dieselfde mate tot sosiale inklusiwiteit gelei het nie. Waarom word die moontlikheid wat die Grondwet bied, nie ’n werklikheid nie? Die insigte van Eberhard Jüngel oor die verhouding tussen moontlikheid en werklikheid bied ’n sleutel om hierdie dilemma te ontknoop. Anders as Aristoteles, wat die werklikheid as van “meer waarde” as die moontlikheid ag, dring Jüngel daarop aan dat die prioriteit aan die moontlikheid gegee word. As die bestaande werklikheid die norm is, kan ons alleen herhaal wat reeds werklikheid was. As die moontlikheid die voorrang het, open dit geleenthede om ’n nuwe werklikheid tot stand te bring. Hiervoor is verbeelding nodig – nie as ontvlugting uit die werklikheid nie, maar as die energie wat “intensie” (Husserl) loslaat om – vry van die hede – ’n alternatiewe toekoms te bedink en strategieë te ontwikkel om vanuit hierdie visie terug te dink na die hede. Hierdie moontlike toekoms word werklikheid deur elke dag op te tree in terme en volgens die waardes van die nuwe visie.
- ItemExploring connections : reflections on mother-tongue education in postcolonial Uganda(Dept of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University, 2013) Ssentanda, Medadi E.Mother-tongue (MT) education in Uganda, like in many other countries, is a highly contentious subject. A plethora of problems plague MT education and all are similar to those mentioned in more than six decades of research and evaluations on the topic from numerous countries across the world. Based on fieldwork conducted in four primary schools in the Rakai district of Uganda, this paper attempts to demystify and critically theorise practices and ideologies of language in education. This study is inflected by the theoretical work of Tollefson (1991), particularly his challenging remark that “language is built into the economic and social structure of society so deeply that its fundamental importance seems only natural. […] For this reason, language policies are often seen as expressions of natural, common-sense assumptions about language in society” (Tollefson 1991:2). This paper therefore sets out to surpass the mere cataloguing of problems bedevilling MT education in Uganda by proposing an account of their possible genesis. Through an examination of dysfunctional state and government structures, the role of linguistic ideology as well as the distribution of symbolic and material wealth, it is herein argued that there should be a shift from the structural-functional model, where policies are considered bodies of discourse that should, or that fail to, be implemented. It is proposed rather that the education system mirrors a wider societal concern in which colonial legacies are miserably reproduced in postcolonial Ugandan structures.
- ItemThe pragmatic markers anyway, okay, and shame : a South African English corpus study(Dept of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University, 2013) Huddlestone, Kate; Fairhurst, MelaniePragmatic markers are “a class of short, recurrent linguistic items that generally have little lexical import but serve significant pragmatic functions in conversation” (Andersen 2001:39). While pragmatic markers are receiving growing consideration in the literature, pragmatic markers in South African English have been given little attention compared to other varieties of English. This paper provides a description of the distribution and functions of the pragmatic markers okay, anyway and shame as they occur in the spoken component of the South African version of the International Corpus of English (ICE). Using the commercially available Concordance program, WordSmith Tools, all instances of okay, anyway and shame were identified in the corpus and all non-pragmatic marker instances were then excluded. The remaining instances of okay, anyway and shame were then hand-coded to determine the primary functions that these elements exhibit. The classification of the functions of the pragmatic markers was carried out according to Fraser’s (1996, 1999, 2006) framework for identification of pragmatic markers. The findings of the corpus investigation included identifying the functions of okay as both a conversation-management marker and a basic marker, as well as its role in turn-taking. Anyway was found to function as an interjection, a mitigation marker, a conversation-management marker and a discourse marker. Shame, as a uniquely South African pragmatic marker, was found to function both as an interjection and as a solidarity marker, as an expression of sympathy or sentiment.
- ItemHugo Claus als meervoud. Pleidooi voor een wetenschappelijke documentaire varianteneditie van Claus' verzamelde poezie(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2012) T'Sjoen, YvesThe selection of a base text for textual edition is not only a matter of literary-historical data or a consideration based on the genetic process or the publishing history of a work of art. Also the poetics or aesthetics of the editor are in some cases decisive for that (final/fundamental) choice. Depending on the poetical ideas of an editor one or another authorized text is chosen for the final edition. In that way the editor’s choice determines the image of a literary work for a cultural community and does so for several years, if not for ever. In some cases we deal with a variety of text versions in a literary archive. Each of these texts is written from an aesthetic point of view and represents a stage in the development of an author. From that perspective it is not only relevant but also necessary to present all full text versions and for instance not only the variants in a specific apparatus. For my article I want to consider the collected poems by Hugo Claus (1929–2008). Four years after his death it becomes necessary to discuss the way in which scientific editors will present the collected works of the Flemish author. I want to suggest an edition with all complete versions of the poems. Claus was a legendary re-writer of his own (and even other’s) literary texts. For instance, when he presented a new collection of his poems in the sixties and the nineties, he worked on a different version. From this point of view, each version represents another or a slightly different poetical vision by the author. The digital medium can provide an environment to present all full text (versions). Also in a published edition I would like to consider a publication of all different versions. Perhaps we have to make a difference between a scholarly edition, intended for researchers who work on the complete works by Claus, and an edition for an interested public (of non-scholars). Although these readers also deserve a complete works by Claus, including all versions of texts Claus worked on during different periods in his writing career.