Browsing by Author "Hoskins, Jonathan Mark"

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    Incapacity, disability and dismissal : the implications for South African labour jurisprudence
    (University of the Western Cape, 2010) Hoskins, Jonathan Mark; Bosch, Craig; Dept. of Public Law and Jurisprudence; Faculty of Law
    Disability in South African labour law is reduced to incapacity. An evaluation of disability and incapacity was made to advocate a clear conceptual break between the two concepts. Also, that disability should be grounded in a social model paradigm of disability which was a materialist critique of how capitalism constructs disability. To enhance the analysis discourse analysis was employed to illustrate how language, ideology and power sustained the notion of disability in capitalist society. A comparative analysis was made drawing on American disability jurisprudence and Canadian disability jurisprudence to illustrate the difference in approach between the two legal systems with a suggestion that the Canadian approach was better suited to the development of a South African disability law. And the development of South African disability law it was argued would benefit if a legal construction of disability was crafted to deal with the obstacles that disabled people encounter in the work-place.
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    Race, class and law in post-Apartheid South Africa: A Marxist critique of Black Economic Empowerment
    (University of Western Cape, 2020) Hoskins, Jonathan Mark; Africa, Cherrel
    With the advent of democracy, the ANC government was faced with the problem of addressing abject poverty, persistent unemployment and rank economic inequality that beset black South Africans under apartheid. To address these problems in a structured and comprehensive fashion, the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003 (BBBEE Act) was promulgated. Several economists believed that growth in the economy is the bedrock upon which black economic empowerment would provide the foundation to correct these economic problems. This study sought to interrogate black economic empowerment as a means to address economic inequality and unemployment. The method of analysis and critique employed in this study is based on theories that Marx formulated in Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. In particular, this study draws on Marx’s theories of fictitious capital, surplus value production and appropriation, and the creation of the industrial reserve army. The thesis uses the theory to examine two BEE cases namely the Sanlam and Sasol equity transactions. It also analyses the relationship between productive capital and fictitious capital through an examination of Lonmin plc and Shanduka Pty Ltd, with a focus on the use of labour power to produce surplus value. Finally, it looks briefly at Sanlam and Sankorp to understand the rise of the black middle class in South Africa. Ultimately, this study charts a Marxist path to explain why black economic empowerment is unable to address economic inequality and unemployment. At the centre of this study is the problematisation of the capitalist mode of production on which black economic empowerment rests. The central argument advanced is that the very capitalist structure upon which this growth strategy was based, in fact laid the foundation for the reproduction of these self-same phenomena.
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    Twitter, political personalities, and race consciousness: the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters.
    (University of the Western Cape, 2023) Daki, Enathi; Hoskins, Jonathan Mark
    The thesis will discuss the racialisation process in contemporary South Africa, it builds on the argument that we are in constant exposure to ideology. Therefore, this exposure to ideology further perpetuates the racialisation process. I will outline this process by highlighting how Twitter becomes an enhancer of the racialisation process. I will apply Althusser’s concepts of ideology and draw on the theory of hailing and interpellation to draft out how ideology is disseminated on Twitter. The thesis will discuss how tweets posted on social media can influence how people view and understand racial consciousness. To be able to successfully undertake this route I will draw on Malema and Zille to highlight how these political personalities use the hailing and interpellation powers of Twitter to further the racialisation process in contemporary South Africa. Additionally, the research draws on Althusser to outline certain key features (Likes, Retweets) within Twitter that can be utilized to recruit individuals into a particular ideology. This demonstrates how these features can be applied by political personalities to interpellate/recruit individuals into their racial ideological views. The research sets out to investigate how Helen Zille and Julius Malema's Twitter usage involves the dissemination of their race consciousness. The propagation of their views is the encapsulation of ideology, and their ideologies are mass communicated to a fast and efficient platform. Twitter is a mass disseminator of information thus allowing for people to receive information quickly and there are no invisible walls that disable people from accessing the tweets. Julius Malema and Helen Zille have been under scrutiny for some of their controversial tweets about race, essentially, they help draw a picture of how race is perpetuated in society. Additionally, both individuals have different experiences of race thus their communication of race is also centred on their experiences. This also allows the research to identify how race is constant in our daily experiences and we exist as racializing subjects based on our race ideology that we are born into.