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Exploring the relationship between cryptocurrencies and South African macroeconomic variables.
(2025) Pillay, Mahendra.; Nomlala, Bomi Cyril.; Mvunabandi, Jean Damascene.; Aboluwodi, Damilola.
This study investigates the relationship between cryptocurrencies and South African (SA) macroeconomic variables using monthly data from January 2014 to November 2023. As cryptocurrencies gain global prominence, South Africa has steadily expanded its crypto market beyond traditional financial channels. Recent legislative reforms have supported integration into mainstream financial markets, attracting investors seeking alternative assets. These developments compel regulators and financial advisers to prepare for evolving mandates. The study focuses on Bitcoin as a proxy for the cryptocurrency market and five SA key macroeconomic variables: the equity market [Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Financial Times Stock Exchange (FSTE) All Share Index], the bond market (JSE FTSE All Bond Index), inflation (SA Consumer Price Index), the commodity market (SA gold price), and the currency market (SA real effective exchange rate). Quantitative techniques and econometric models are employed to investigate long-run, short-run, and causal dynamics. Stationarity testing using Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP) unit root tests indicated a mix of I(0) and I(1) variables. Accordingly, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was employed to test for long-run dynamics, but no statistically significant evidence of cointegration was found. In the absence of long-run relationships, a Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model was used to capture short-run interactions, revealing a statistically significant short-run relationship between the second lag of the bond market and Bitcoin. Granger causality tests indicated unidirectional causality from the SA bond market to Bitcoin. The long-run findings suggest potential for enhanced portfolio diversification between cryptocurrencies and South African macroeconomic variables, whereas the short-run results highlight forecasting opportunities arising from linkages between the bond and cryptocurrency markets. While the long-run evidence aligns with Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) by reinforcing the diversification potential of weakly correlated assets, the short-run dynamics offer a partial contradiction of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), pointing to transient inefficiencies in market adjustment. Collectively, the results provide insights for market participants, informing evidence-based decisions in portfolio construction, risk management, and market analysis relating to cryptocurrency investments in South Africa’s financial sector.
South African ‘Freirean’ literacy projects in the 1970s and 1980s: an exploration of their praxis.
(2026) Thusi, Zamalotshwa Florence Thembisile.; Harley, Anne.
This thesis explores the nature, practice, and strategic role of five ‘Freirean’ literacy projects that operated in apartheid South Africa between 1970 and 1990. It asks a central question: to what extent were these projects truly Freirean, in that they used Freire’s pedagogy as a tool for political transformation, rather an as a technical literacy teaching method? To answer this, I undertook archival research at several different archives in South Africa and interviewed 15 people involved in the case study projects and/or radical adult education at the time. Working in a critical paradigm, I analysed the data generated by drawing on an integrated theoretical framework: Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, and war or position versus war of manoeuvre, at the macro level to interrogate the ideological struggle within South Africa at the time; Freire’s notion of Education for Domestication and Education for Liberation, and in particular his ideas of praxis and conscientisation, at the meso level to examine the internal mechanisms and dynamics of the projects; and Lukes’ three dimensions of power at the micro level to further unpack mechanisms of resistance. The analysis shows that the projects were indeed deliberate, counter-hegemonic political interventions. They pursued a dual strategy of resistance. First, a ‘war of position’ on the ideological front (framed within Lukes’ third dimension of ‘power over’), where the projects focused on building ‘power within’, i.e. agency and dignity. This then laid the foundation for a tactical confrontation, contesting agenda-setting and coercive power, and advancing organised initiatives such as union building and subaltern leadership. The thesis concludes that whilst these projects faced structural compromises such as the tension of practising liberatory pedagogy within a racial hierarchy, these compromises were necessary strategic adaptations. A contribution of this thesis is its identification of a power translation mechanism, which demonstrates how ideological liberation within Lukes’ third dimension of power was systematically converted into organised confrontation within the first dimension. This translation across the case study projects shows how conscientisation and agency-building in the classroom provided the ideological foundation for collective mobilisation and direct contestation, thereby linking micro-level pedagogical practice to macro-level political struggle.
Competency development and leadership challenges among community education and training (CET) centre managers in KwaZulu-Natal .
(2025) Mbatha, Mhlumiseni Richman.; Mbatha, Lynette Lulama.
The effectiveness of community education and training (CET) centres in KwaZulu-Natal is fundamentally reliant on the leadership and operational capacity of their centre managers. Acknowledging a perceived gap in managerial competencies, this study aimed to investigate the core competencies essential for effective performance, assess current competency levels, identify specific skill gaps, and propose strategies for a tailored competency-based training (CBT) programme within the KwaZulu-Natal CET College system. Grounded in the principles of competency-based theory, the study employed a qualitative, multi-method case study approach. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with CET centre managers, focus group discussions with lecturers and institutional stakeholders, and a review of relevant policy and institutional documents. The study adopted a reflexive stance, utilising my insider position to enhance depth while meticulously mitigating bias through systematic data triangulation and self-reflexive journalling. The findings establish a contextualised framework of core competencies critical for centre management, organised into strategic, operational, and relational domains. The research revealed notable skill deficits, particularly in financial resource management, community partnership facilitation, and the integration of technology for educational delivery. Furthermore, the analysis highlighted a significant disconnect between the self-perceived competence of managers and the functional skill gaps identified by institutional stakeholders. The thesis concludes by proposing an evidence-based blueprint for a CBT programme tailored to the unique socio-economic landscape of KwaZulu-Natal. This framework emphasises experiential learning, mentorship, and continuous professional development tied to observable performance outcomes. The study contributes practical recommendations for the KwaZulu-Natal CET College leadership, offering a pathway to systematically enhance managerial capacity, improve centre efficiency, and strengthen the overall mandate of CET provision in the region.
An afrocentric exploration of the Western Knowledge Systems over the African Indigenous Knowledge Systems: the case study of the African community in Edendale.
(2026) Obaje, Ojochogwu Joy.; Hlela, Zamo Augustine.; Harley, Anne.; Reddy, Sarasvathie.
This study examines the historical and ongoing influence of Western Knowledge Systems (WKS) on African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS) in Edendale, a peri-urban community in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. While Edendale’s land was collectively purchased in 1851 by African Christian converts (amakholwa) under missionary guidance, this research demonstrates that Edendale's enduring epistemic resilience derives not from these settlers, whose prior missionary enculturation had already ruptured direct intergenerational transmission of precolonial knowledge, but from Indigenous inhabitants whose families occupied the Msunduzi valley before colonial settlement and who moved to Edendale subsequently, maintaining AIKS continuity alongside mission control through oral transmission, ritual practice, and communal memory. Framed within an Afrocentric paradigm, the research employs an exploratory case study design that combines archival analysis with participatory methods, including oral history interviews, a transect walk, and a River of Life workshop, with ten knowledge holders from Edendale, all rooted in these Indigenous lineages.The study introduces the Learning–Unlearning–Relearning Analytical Model as an Afrocentric learning theory to interpret how communities navigate epistemic disruption. Findings reveal that Edendale was a site of precolonial African sovereignty, later reshaped but never erased by colonial education and land dispossession. Despite socio-cultural fragmentation and internalised epistemic alienation, AIKS persist through adaptive re-centring of African cosmologies rather than cultural purity. Crucially, the research distinguishes between agency within rupture (the amakholwa's constrained negotiation within already-transformed frameworks) and continuity despite displacement (Indigenous inhabitants' preservation of precolonial epistemic traditions). The study contributes theoretically by advancing the Learning–Unlearning–Relearning triad as an Afrocentric framework for analysing epistemic transformation. tracing temporal transformation across these simultaneously operating dimensions, avoiding the category error of conflating spatial layers with temporal sequence.
An exploration of the theological concept of shalom in the curriculum of the Evangelical Seminary of Southern Africa, 1980-1992.
(2026) Brook, Carl Ivor.; Harley, Anne.; Pitikoe, Selloane Florence.
This study seeks to demonstrate the presence of a shalom motif in ESSA's early curriculum during the founding couple's tenure, Phil and Carmena Capp. The influence of this concept is explored in the seminary's training program by examining its place across the Intended, Enacted, Experienced, and Hidden curricula. In some part, the study is also a history of the seminary during its formative years – a story that has not yet been told. Using document analysis and semi-structured interviews, it is discovered that while there is no explicit mention of shalom in the Intended curricula, the concept was Experienced by both faculty and students in profound ways.