Teaching and Learning Activity Solutions

Module: Academic Literacy (HALP1181)

Week number (Date): 2 (08 August 2019)
Unit covered: 2 - Language literacy: Reading and listening

Instructions:
Activity 2 is based on Unit 2 (Language literacy: Reading and listening) of the prescribed
courseware for this module. This are the solutions to the activity posted last week

Question 1:
At a Higher Education (HE) level it is important to develop and cultivate your reading
skills. With this in mind, consider the following article: Rising Cape Town gang violence
is yet another legacy of apartheid (Bax, Sguazzin & Vecchiatto, 2019), and answer the
questions that follow

Tip: Use a dictionary or the Google search engine to look up any words that you are not
familiar with.

1.1. Identify and define one (1) type of reading method you have used to analyse the
article above (2 marks)

Unit 1 – p. 43
Any one (1) of the following:
 Reading for gist (skimming and scanning) √: This is when we want to identify
the main theme or general message of a text √

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  Reading for detail √: This is when we want to learn more from the text, and
are interested in knowing the finer details √.

 Reading for general meaning √: This is when we want to gain a broader

understanding of the text, but are not necessarily interested in the finer
details √.

 Reading to critique √: It aims to foster an awareness of the context of the

reading material and its subject matter, as well as the intentions of the writer
√.

1.2. Using Elaine McEwan’s (2004) Seven Strategies of Highly Effective Readers,
answer the following questions:

Note: Answers may vary. There are no right or wrong answers. Use the answers
below as a guideline

1.2.1. What would you consider the main topic of this article prior to actually
reading it? (1 mark)

Unit 2 – pp.46 - 47
Based on the headline, one can infer that the main topic is about gang
violence in Cape Town √
OR
Based on the headline and keywords within the article, one can infer that
the main topic is about gang violence on the Cape Flats and the deployment
of the army √

1.2.2. What knowledge of the topic did you have prior to reading the article? (2
marks)

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 Unit 2 – p.46
Activating prior knowledge:
Answer may vary from students who actually live on the Cape Flats or
similar areas, to those who have knowledge of the topic based on media
articles, the news, and social media, to those who have no knowledge of
the topic at all.

1.2.3. What are your feelings and thoughts around the topic? (2 marks)

Unit 2 – p.49 – 50
Brainstorming:

Answers will vary – some possible answers include, but are not limited
to:
 The topic is a personal issue as you have family, and/or you may
reside in a gang-infested area; √
 The topic is a communal issue in that it affects your family; √
 Gang violence is a by-product of the apartheid regime’s urban
planning; √
 Gang violence is linked to poverty, which makes it difficult for gang
members to extricate themselves from the gangs; √
 Gang members could end the cycle of violence and poverty by
finding legitimate jobs. √

1.2.4. What are the authors of the text trying to persuade you to believe? (4 marks)

Unit 2 – p.43
Infer meaning from text:
The article suggests that the high levels of gang activity in the Cape Flats
area is a result of apartheid and the then ruling regimes spatial planning √,

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 which has led to high levels of unemployment and, in turn, drug trafficking
in the area√. It has also resulted in the unequal allocation of policing in
certain areas √. As a result of the ongoing gang activities – which has
resulted in around 900 murders in 2019 – the army has been deployed on
the instruction of President Cyril Ramaphosa √.

1.2.5. Identify the source of the article (1 mark)

Unit 2 – p. 48
Skimming:
The source of the article is an online newspaper article √

1.2.6. Could the article be used for academic purposes? Provide reasons for your
answer (2 marks)

Unit 2 – p. 48
Questioning the author/text:
The article is useful in that it discusses a current topic in South African
society, namely gang violence on the Cape Flats and its link to the former
Apartheid regime √. The authors also draw on other studies and trends in
order to substantiate their point of view and findings. √

1.2.7. Highlight or underline the key words of the article (5 marks)

Unit 2 – p. 57 & 68
Text annotation: see below

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Rising Cape Town gang violence is yet another legacy of apartheid

While Cape Town is South Africa’s top tourist attraction, few of its 1.7 million annual foreign visitors
venture beyond the iconic areas around Table Mountain to the Cape Flats, a mishmash of sandy,
windswept neighborhoods filled with low-rise apartment blocks and shacks designed by the apartheid
regime to keep the city’s black and mixed-race residents out of view. Decades of government neglect
and high unemployment √ have contributed to a proliferation in gang activity √ there. Police estimated
in 2013 that there are 100,000 gang members in the city of 4 million people.

Just 12 miles from Cape Town’s beaches, five-star hotels, and internationally lauded restaurants,
gangs fight for turf in the area’s rapidly expanding drug trade. The conflict has led to 900 murders in
2019 √, more than the annual total for 2018, in a country that already has one of the world’s highest
murder rates. The root cause of the bloodshed lies in the five decades of apartheid social engineering
√, during which the Cape Flats were starved of funding, quality education, and police resources.
Despite 25 years of democracy, that legacy has persisted.

On July 12, the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa said it would call in the army √ to quell the
violence. “The deployment √ shows that there has been a failure on the part of the police to meet its
constitutional mandate: to prevent, investigate, and combat crime,” says Dalli Weyers, head of policy
and research at the nongovernmental Social Justice Coalition, which is based in the Cape Town
township of Khayelitsha.

Ramaphosa was quick to emphasize that the deployment—which took place on July 18—was a
“defense force of democratic South Africa.” But for many South Africans, the presence of troops in the
Cape Flats evoked memories of the last years of apartheid, when townships were patrolled by
government forces and protests were put down with a heavy hand. Since 1994, the army has only
been deployed twice in major cities—Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town—to end bouts of
xenophobic violence.

Inequities in policing have remained an issue, however. In December, the Western Cape Equality
Court ruled the allocation of police resources √ in the province discriminates against black and poor
people √.

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“There’s really been a woeful underinvestment in neighborhoods √ like Nyanga, Manenberg, and
Khayelitsha,” says Ziyanda Stuurman, an expert on policing strategies and a Fulbright scholar at Brandeis
University. “From 2010 we’ve seen a huge rise in gang activity, organized crime, and drug trafficking.” √

In Camps Bay, a popular beach strip that’s home to trendy bars and multimillion-dollar luxury apartments,
the number of police per 100,000 residents averaged 887 from 2013 to 2017, while the murder rate
averaged 72 per 100,000 people. In the Delft neighborhood, located in the Cape Flats, there were 168
police and 445 murders per 100,000 residents over the same time period. A study conducted by the
government of Western Cape Province in 2017 and 2018 found that 95% of people in the Cape Flats felt
unsafe on the street at night. Daylight wasn’t safe, either: Children out playing have been the victims of
stray bullets from shootouts.

South Africa has the world’s highest recorded youth unemployment √, with 53% of people ages 15 to 24
jobless, according to the International Labour Organization. Cape Town is a conduit city for heroin
trafficking √—the country is one of three major routes for the drug out of Afghanistan. The trade in South
Africa is worth at least $260 million, according to a conservative estimate by Simone Haysom, a senior
analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Cape Town is the epicenter of
gang activity, which also feeds off protection rackets and trade in other drugs including crystal meth. Some
analysts say the administration of ex-President Jacob Zuma is partly to blame for the spike in gang
violence. During his nine-year rule, corruption, some of it linked to the state, rose significantly. “There has
been massive and heavy-handed repression of drug users, but no attempt to undermine organized crime’s
control of the drug market,” says Haysom. “The criminal justice system needs to reconstitute itself after a
period of corrosion of the institutions under the Zuma administration. That’s really the legacy of the last 10
or so years.”

Those years have also been characterized by bickering between the national government of the ruling
African National Congress, which controls the police, and the opposition Democratic Alliance party, which
runs Cape Town and has regularly been accused of favoring the predominantly white residents of
wealthier suburbs.

Source:
Bax, P., Sguazzin, A. & Vecchiatto, P. 2019. Rising Cape Town gang violence is yet another legacy of Apartheid.
Boomberg Businessweek, July 24. Retrieved from: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-24/rising-
cape-town-gang-violence-is-yet-another-legacy-of-apartheid [Accessed 02 August 2019]

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 1.2.8. Draft a summary of the article. Your summary should be approximately 100
words in length. (5 marks)
Tip: The summary can be in the form of a short paragraph, a list or bullet
points.

Unit 2 – p. 57-58
Summarising the text:
There are high levels of gang activity in the Cape Flats area, which is as a
result of spatial planning during the apartheid era √. This area has been,
and according to some is still, starved of proper funding, quality education,
and police resources √. This underinvestment, in addition to high levels of
unemployment, has led to an increase in gang activity √. Gangs thrive off
the drug trade in Cape Town, which has resulted in gang fights with regards
to turf and drug trade routes √. This has led to around 900 murders in 2019
alone √. In order to combat this, President Cyril Ramaphosa has deployed
the South African army into the area in an attempt to quell the gang violence
√.

1.2.9. Create a visual/graphic representation of your summary in Q. 1.2.8 (10

marks)

Unit 2 – p. 58-62
Visualising the text by using graphic organisers:

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