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Item Open Access Strategies for ensuring sustainable democracy in South Africa(University of the Free State, 2001) Hilliard, Victor G; Notshulwana, MxolisiEnglsih: This article examines the South African experience of democracy and focuses in particular on the democratisation of South Africa’s government and administration. The democratisation process has not been problem-free. The tone was set by the negotiation of the 1993 Interim Constitution Act, and later the promulgation of a 1996 Constitution Act. Both these Constitution Acts made provision for a host of human rights and for a democratic dispensation intended to function in a multiparty context. To promote sustainable democracy, and to ensure that the majority of constitutional principles are upheld as far as possible, various checks and balances have to be built into the South African governmental system. It is essential that all public functionaries be accountable for their actions and/or lack thereof. This article examines some of the mechanisms or strategies to keep democracy vibrant and to ensure that public functionaries serve the general good, and do not pursue selfish, parochial interests.Item Open Access Practise what you preach: Stanford’s German songs(University of the Free State, 2001) Van der Mescht, HeinrichEnglsih: Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) had an immense influence on the young composers who were his students at the Royal College of Music in London where he taught from 1883. Unlike many other composers, Stanford committed his views on composition to paper: they are to be found in his book Musical composition: a short treatise for students (1911) and in certain chapters (especially “The composition of music”) of his book Interludes, records and reflections (1922). The application of his strict ideas on composition to his own German songs (all eighteen on texts by Heine), reveals that he generally adheres to his own advice: he practises what he preaches. An analysis of the songs also shows them to be worthy of much wider recognition. With a few exceptions, the meaning of the text is very convincingly and movingly conveyed.Item Open Access Doubling effects in Michael K: the text, the language and the writer(University of the Free State, 2001) Sarinjeive, DeviEnglish: This paper seeks to correct binary readings of Life & Times of Michael K by using a post-modernist paradigm that takes into account contradictions and paradoxes in the text. By reading through a revisionary postmodern escape-entrapment framework, the encoded presence of resistance and its effectiveness in praxis in the allegorical narrative and language are assessed. It is also shown how the writer, J M Coetzee, in his discursive practices and philosophical standpoint, is caught up in the linguistic web he himself weaves.Item Open Access Die uitbeelding van swart mense in Suid-Afrikaanse skoolgeskiedenishandboeke(University of the Free State, 2001) De Wet, CoreneEnglsih: Curriculum 2005 and the Chisholm Report tolled the knell of history as an individual discipline in South African schools. In future history will form part of the human and social sciences. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the portrayal of black people in school history textbooks. It appears that 1994 was a watershed year. Before then, black people were represented as faceless, peripheral figures in school history textbooks. Their actions, religion and civilisation were strongly criticised. After the first democratic election a total paradigm shift occurred. School history textbooks now represent the view of black people; hence white colonists and the apartheid regime have become the target of scathing criticism.Item Open Access Institutionalising parliament in South Africa: the challenges to parliamentary leadership(University of the Free State, 2001) Kotzé, HennieEnglish: As democratisation moves from a transitional phase to one of consolidation, the legislature becomes integral to the process. In South Africa, the conflict-regulating capacity of the new democratic system is determined to a large extent by the constitutionally created institutions, on the one hand, and political leadership, on the other. This study will attempt to gauge the attitudes of the South African elites and the public to the performance or worth of parliament as an emerging institution in the aftermath of the country’s first democratic elections, and in so doing, to ascertain the progress of the institutionalisation process. It is argued that attitudes are based primarily upon the performance of parliament, with the parliamentary leadership and the opportunities and dilemmas it faces forming the core of this discussion.Item Open Access An eye for an eye: ocular motifs and picaresque envisagement in pictures(University of the Free State, 2001) Van den Berg, DirkEnglish: Conjectures regarding portraits of the Fool as performative hyper-icons in the picaresque tradition initiate an investigation of canny performances of duplicity in pictures on display. The focus falls on performances of unexpected convolutions acted out by spectators while looking repeatedly at deceptive pictures. The emphasis is on the role of the eye in visual shaping and in iterated performance of rhetorical roles and on recurrent ocular motifs as typiconic features in the picaresque tradition.Item Open Access Music as an agent to human development: a systems approach(University of the Free State, 2001) Van Schalkwyk, GertinaEnglish: Human beings are uniquely rhythmic beings — without rhythm there is no life. From conception to death the human being is embedded in rhythmic patterns and pulsations. Patterns of biological and personal functioning represent the everchanging rhythmical dance of life. This article will discuss the connections between the structural and functional components of the individual and music. The dynamic processes observed in the interactions between the human being and music in various contexts lead to an understanding of the dynamics of developmental outcomes which are never a steady hum, but rather symphonic.Item Open Access Academic workload, performance appraisal and staff development: issues of quantification, criteria, perception and affect(University of the Free State, 2001) Ruth, DamianEnglish: There is graving concern over the intrusion of managerialism into academe. The debate often centres on the concept of quality management and involves problematic assumptions about the notions of workload, performance and development. This article problematises these assumptions, with reference to the role of perception and affect in the quantification of workload, the production of performance criteria, and the construction of development programmes. It argues that these activities need to be part of an organic process arising out of specific circumstances. There are real conceptual difficulties involved and any failure to attend to the role of perception and affect will seriously undermine education.