Health status of an elderly population in Sharpeville, South Africa

The objective of this cross-sectional study was a comprehensive nutrition and health assessment to provide a basis for future intervention strategies for an elderly population attending a day-care centre. Socio-demographic, health and 24-hour recall dietary intake questionnaires were administered and anthropometric and biochemical measurements taken. The results indicate that the majority of respondents had an income of between R501 and R1 000 (South African rand) per month and most of them reported an occasional lack of funds to meet basic household needs, confirming the presence of food insecurity. Daily dietary intakes (mean [+ or -] Standard Deviation [SD]) of the women were 5 395 [+ or -] 2 946 kJ energy, 47 [+ or -] 27 g protein, 28 [+ or -] 21 g fat and 196 [+ or -] 123 g carbohydrates compared to 8 641 [+ or -] 3 799 kJ, 86 [+ or -] 48 g, 49 [+ or -] 32 g and 301 [+ or -] 139 g of the men, respectively. The majority (83.6%) of the women were overweight (body mass index [BMI] [greater than or equal to] 25) or obese (BMI [greater than or equal to] 30) whilst 78% had a mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) of [greater than or equal to] 21.7 cm. Mean intakes of micronutrients were low in comparison to reference standards and serum zinc levels were suboptimal. Obesity, hypertension and raised total serum cholesterol levels indicated an increased risk for coronary heart disease. It can be concluded that a low income, household food insecurity and risk factors associated with malnutrition and non-communicable diseases were prevalent in this elderly population. OPSOMMING Die doelwit van hierdie dwarssnitstudie was ‘n omvattende bepaling van voeding- en gesondheidstatus om as basis te dien vir toekomstige intervensiestrategieë vir ’n groep bejaardes wat ’n dagsentrum besoek. Sosiodemografiese, gesondheid- en 24-uur herroep-dieetinname vraelyste is voltooi en antropometriese en biochemiese metings is geneem. Die resultate het bevestig dat die meerderheid respondente ‘n maandelikse inkomste van tussen R501 en R1 000 (Suid-Afrikaanse rand) gehad het. Die meeste het ‘n geldtekort vir basiese huishoudelike behoeftes gerapporteer wat dui op huishoudelike voedselinsekuriteit. Daaglikse dieetinnames (gemiddeld±standaardafwyking [SA]) van die vroue was onderskeidelik 5 395±2 946 kJ energie, 47±27 g proteïen, 28±21 g vet en 196±123 g koolhidrate in vergelyking met 8 641±3 799 kJ, 86±48 g, 49±32 g en 301±139 g vir die mans. Die meerderheid (83.6%) van die vroue was oorgewig (liggaamsmassa-indeks [LMI] >25) of vetsugtig (LMI > 30) en 78% het ’n middel-bo-armomtrek (MUAC) van > 21.7 cm gehad. Gemiddelde mikronutriëntinnames was laag in vergelyking met die verwysingstandaarde en serumsink was suboptimaal. Vetsug, hipertensie en verhoogde totale serumcholesterolvlakke het op ‘n verhoogde risiko van kardiovaskulêre siekte gedui. Die resultate het dus bewys dat lae inkomste, huishoudelike voedselinsekuriteit en die risikofaktore wat met wanvoeding en leefstylsiektes geassosieer word, teenwoordig was.

The food multimix concept: new innovative approach to meeting nutritional challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa

Food insecurity, chronic hunger, starvation and malnutrition continue to affect millions of individuals throughout the developing world, especially Sub-Saharan Africa. Various initiatives by African governments and International Agencies such as the UN, the industrial nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation to boost economic development, have failed to provide the much-needed solution to these challenges. The impact of these economic shifts and the failures of structural adjustment programmes on the nutritional well-being and health of the most vulnerable members of poor communities cannot be over-emphasised. The use of ad hoc measures as an adjunct to community-based rural integrated projects have provided little success and will be unsustainable unless they are linked to harnessing available local resources. The present paper therefore focuses on exploring alternative ways of harnessing the scant agricultural resources by employing a scientific approach to food-related problem-solving. The food multimix (FMM) concept offers a scientific contribution alongside other attempts currently in use by the World Food Programme, WHO and FAO to meet the food insecurity challenges that confront most of the developing world in the twenty-first century. It is an innovative approach that makes better use of traditional food sources as a tool for meeting community nutritional needs. The FMM concept employs a food-based approach using traditional methods of food preparation and locally-available, cheap and affordable staples (fruits, pulses, vegetables and legumes) in the formulation of nutrient-enriched multimixes. Developed recipes can provide >= 40% of the daily nutritional requirements of vulnerable groups, including patients with HIV/AIDS and children undergoing nutrition rehabilitation. The FMM approach can also be used as a medium- to long-term adjunct to community-based rural integration projects aimed at health improvement and economic empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

FARM-Africa South Africa Northern Cape land reform and advocacy programme 2004-2008: final evaluation

FARM-Africa South Africa has played a crucial and important role in filling the gap that existed after the return of land to communities by government in the Northern Cape. Their support to farmer communities during the post-settlement phase has been critical for making productive use of land. During 2004-2008, FARM-SA has worked in 20 community projects in the Northern Cape, benefiting 745 poor households.

The origin of sub-surface source waters define the sea-air flux of methane in the Mauritanian Upwelling, NW Africa

Concentrations and flux densities of methane were determined during a lagrangian study of an advective filament in the permanent upwelling region off western Mauritania. Newly upwelled waters were dominated by the presence of North Atlantic Central Water and surface CH4 concentrations of 2.2 ± 0.3 nmol L-1 were largely in equilibrium with atmospheric values, with surface saturations of 101.7 ± 14%. As the upwelling filament aged and was advected offshore, CH4 enriched South Atlantic Central Water from intermediate depths of 100 to 350m was entrained into the surface mixed layer of the filament following intense mixing associated with the shelf break. Surface saturations increased to 198.9 ± 15% and flux densities increased from a mean value over the shelf of 2.0 ± 1.1 µmol m-2d-1 to a maximum of 22.6 µmol m-2d-1. Annual CH4 emissions for this persistent filament were estimated at 0.77 ± 0.64 Gg which equates to a maximum of 0.35% of the global oceanic budget. This raises the known outgassing intensity of this area and highlights the importance of advecting filaments from upwelling waters as efficient vehicles for air-sea exchange.

Divergent Paths of Development: The Modern World-System and Democratization in South Africa and Zambia

This article examines whether a Modern World- Systems (MWS) perspective can provide an improved understanding of the processes of democratization in Africa (and other developing regions of the world) by conducting a comparative case study of South Africa and Zambia in the 1990s, examining the transitions to democracy and divergent processes of democratic consolidation in each country. Semiperipheral South Africa has, due to its more advantageous position in the world-system, been better equipped than peripheral Zambia to safeguard democracy against erosion and reversal. Th e central irony of the MWS is that the weakest states in the MWS can be pushed around by core powers and are more easily forced to democratize while at the same time they are least likely to possess the resources necessary for democratic consolidation. Semiperipheral states can maintain their independence vis-à-vis the core to a higher degree, but if the decision is made to undertake a democratic transition they are more likely to possess the resources necessary for successful consolidation. Th e MWS perspective allows for an improved understanding of the causal pathway of how position in the MWS translates into the ability to consolidate democracy than does approaches that emphasize domestic factors.

The African National Congress and its Critics: 'Predatory Liberalism', Black Empowerment and Intra-Alliance Tensions in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Post-apartheid South Africa is characterized by centralized, neo-liberal policymaking that perpetuates, and in some cases exaggerates, socio-economic inequalities inherited from the apartheid era. The African National Congress (ANC) leadership’s alignment with powerful international and domestic market actors produces tensions within the Tripartite Alliance and between government and civil society. Consequently, several characteristics of ‘predatory liberalism’ are evident in contemporary South Africa: neo-liberal restructuring of the economy is combined with an increasing willingness by government to assert its authority, to marginalize and delegitimize those critical of its abandonment of inclusive governance. A new form of oligarch power, combining entrenched economic interests with those of a new ‘black bourgeoisie’ promoted by narrowly implemented Black Economic Empowerment policies, diminishes prospects for broad-based socio-economic transformation. Because the new policy environment is failing to resolve tensions between global market demands for increasing market liberalization and domestic popular demands for poverty-alleviation and socio-economic transformation, the ANC leadership is forced increasingly to confront ‘ultra-leftists’ who are challenging its credentials as defender of the National Democratic Revolution which was the cornerstone in the anti-apartheid struggle.

Dispossessing bare life: Towards a theoretical framework for examining power relations through economic development at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa

In the past twenty years an increasing number of Global South nations have vied for the rights to host prestigious and expensive sport mega events. This trend requires significant reflection given the enormous economic costs of these events, which often produce little capital gain for the host nation (Whitson & Horne, 2006). Furthermore, sport mega events are often utilized for their symbolic capital (Belanger, 2009), which sometimes manifests through forcing people from their land for the sake of “beautification” (Davis, 2006). In this project, then, I asked how technologies of power were utilized by FIFA, corporate stakeholders, and the South African government to control people who were marginal to, or impeded the success of, the World Cup in Nelspruit, South Africa. This project consisted of two parts: the first involved constructing a theoretical framework for better understanding power as it operates through sport mega events in general. To this end I employed Marxian notions of the ordering of physical space, Foucauldian conceptions of sovereignty and governmentality, and Agamben’s (1998) state of exception to determine how particular bodies are constituted and controlled through sport mega events. In the second part, I applied this theoretical framework to the events in South Africa to better elucidate how people became displaced and killed because of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I used South African popular news and documentaries as empirical evidence and conducted a discursive analysis of said news media. Through this coverage it became apparent that the mega event created the conditions in which new forms of rogue sovereign partnerships could arise through a historically and spatially contingent process of capitalism. The rogue sovereigns’ para-juridico-political orders, the discourses and practices of accumulation by dispossession as a tactic and effect of govermentality, and other historical non-capital subjectivities such as racial identity, all contributed to constituting Agamben’s state of exception in which people could be displaced, killed or left to die in the events surrounding the World Cup.