AFFRIKA Journal of Politics, Economics and Society

Over the past few years, student violent protest has been widely celebrated in many universities in South Africa. University of Venda is not an exception. At some point, student protest was cultured in the sense that it has consistently occurred at certain periods annually, in different universities across South Africa. It seems, these protests are organised without consideration of their socio-economic implications on the universities , the students and the universities’ hosting communities. Apparently, the perpetrators of protests may have little or no knowledge about the remnants such action resonates. This provides the impetus for this paper, which uses the 2018 students’ violent protests at the university of Venda, to provide insight into consequences of students’ violent protest, from the socio-economic point of view. Theoretically, it draws on Waters, Hyder, Rajkotia, Basu, and Butchart’s (2005) understanding of the consequences of youth violence, which looks at the effects of violence beyond personal harm. A mixed research design method was followed. Staff and students were interrogated on the concern using a self-developed semi-structured and structured questionnaires. Qualitative analysis was performed using Atlas ti v8. Mean ranks of three factors that emerged revealed that economic cost (42.5%) amassed the highest followed by academic cost (31.5%) and health cost (26%). To mitigate subsequent protest, the management should facilitate open dialogues on student-related challenges. Elected student representatives should be subjected to leadership skills training. The study also recommends further strengthening of security measures, as a way to discourage students’ protests that takes a violent path.

The Niger Delta region of Nigeria has a sad history of environmental pollution from gas flaring, gas blowouts, oil spills and oil well fires. These have made life and livelihood very difficult for the people of the region. The most prominent view on this matter is that oil companies’ negligence and un-circumspect oil and gas business are responsible for the problem. However, some current arguments have advanced that some local people have on their own been destroying their own environment. This paper therefore sought to evaluate the degree of complicity of stakeholders in the environmental woes facing the region. Using political ecology as theoretical thrust, the study adopted qualitative techniques namely content analysis and focus group discussion as methods of inquiry. The findings of the study revealed that oil multinationals and government – with its agencies – are the real culprits, and that oil bunkering – discontenting - activities by members of the host communities that result in environmental pollution are infinitesimally inconsequential compared to the damage being done by oil companies and government. What this implies is that the responsibility to salvage the situation overwhelmingly rests on oil multinationals and government. They both need to collaborate with oil producing communities to find a mutually acceptable way of exploiting the region’s resources in a way that fully recognises the need to protect the environment and ensure the rights of the people of the region.

The search for happiness is a universal human goal. We all want to be happy and lead a flourishing life of endeavor with fruitful relationships, free from worries and afflictions. However, not all of us are happy, despite growth in personal income over time. Subjective well-being has traditionally been in the realm of philosophy, suggesting that happiness, as the only ultimate purpose of life, is underpinned by virtuosity and moral principles. In recent times, happiness has attracted the attention of economists and researchers in other disciplines too. Psychology indicates that certain personality attributes are critical for higher happiness levels. Economic reasoning suggests that rising incomes with economic growth and good health enhance quality of life and subjective well-being. This paper takes on an interdisciplinary exploratory approach to examining happiness. It examines the economic and non-economic influences on the human life satisfaction and assesses the role of government to enhance well-being and happiness. The paper introduces the philosophical influence of the mode of action, goodness as an alternative individual approach to a good life and lasting happiness, and complements this with a panel regression analysis, reflecting that rising income per head, freedom, healthy life expectancy conditions and income inequalities are significant economic factors influencing happiness in a society. For citizens’ higher happiness levels, policy-makers should therefore promote economic growth with which rising income per capita is associated, ensure good health care conditions and minimize income inequalities.