Browsing by Department "Centre for Rhetoric Studies"

Now showing 1 - 12 of 12
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    Arab political movements in Israel: different ideologies and disparate rhetoric
    (University of Cape Town, 2020) Khatib, Mouad; Salazar, Philippe-Joseph
    Arab Palestinians in Israel live under highly complex circumstances. In 1948, when they became Israeli citizens, they found themselves facing challenges at different levels: national, social, political, financial, educational, as well as the very challenge of existence. The Palestinian community in Israel underwent various stages of development and witnessed major events under the new Israeli rule, bringing about fundamental changes in their lives, their attitudes, and consequently, their rhetoric. Arab politicians, particularly those who represent Arab Palestinians in the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament), often find themselves compelled to adjust the approach and rhetoric they use to address the Arab public. They do it not only to satisfy the Arab public's expectations, but also to adapt to the ever-changing Israeli political atmosphere and to avoid conflict with the Jewish public, the majority of whom, as polls indicate, are not happy about Arab representation in the Israeli Knesset. Discussion of the rhetoric used by the Arab parties in Israel that represent the Palestinian people who before 1948 were a majority and after that year became a minority that suffers inequality, oppression, and discrimination, is important in order to understand how argumentation and methods of persuasion are influenced by the kind of circumstances that national minorities like Palestinians in Israel experience. This thesis will examine the rhetoric used by the main Arab political movements in Israel when addressing several key issues that are currently the subject of heated debate and are expected to have remarkable effects on Arabs and their lives as non-Jews in the Israeli state. These issues are: Arab representation in the Israeli Parliament, recognition of Israel as a "Jewish State", and National Service for Arabs. The largest part of the research will focus on the Arab representation in the Knesset, being the most controversial topic among the Arab minority in Israel, and which also determines to a great extent the positions of the parties on other issues. After reviewing the position of each party/political movement on each of these topics, I intend to analyze the rhetoric each of them uses to defend their position or promote it to gain the support of the public, especially during parliamentary elections. Is the rhetoric of Arab parties in Israel coherent and harmonious as it represents a Palestinian minority dealing with Israeli policies as a collective entity, or does each of the parties have a unique rhetoric of its own, based on its ideology and agendas? What are the arguments that these parties use to justify their views, and how do they present these arguments? Are the arguments used by each party from the deliberative branch of rhetoric, the forensic, or the epideictic? Do Arab politicians mostly use ethos, pathos, or logos to persuade the audience and gain their support? This thesis will answer these questions by analyzing the parties' publications and official statements and political charters, and it will show that the positions, the rhetoric, and the argumentation of the different Arab parties are far from being homogeneous, and are highly influenced by their ideological background.
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    The communication of communication. An illustration: The South African rhetorical promotion of ICTs
    (Taylor & Francis, 2004) Péjout, Nicolas
    The South African government expects a ‘radical democratization’ from the access to and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as political resources. A close look at the official discourse reveals that these technologies ought to foster a deliberative and participatory democracy (electronic democracy) on the one hand and a ‘delivery democracy’ (electronic government) on the other. However, this public rhetoric is flawed by a lack of logical coherence and, therefore, can be read as a miscommunication. It is also problematic in its content. Indeed, ICTs cannot, by themselves, realize the ideal of the public sphere as conceptualized by Ju¨rgen Habermas. Characterized by the reign of the prefix ‘cyber-e-tele’, the South African discourse is embedded into a complex mix of myth, ideology and utopia.
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    Media rhetoric in South Africa: a case study of the floor crossing debate
    (2002) Mpokotho, Constance Sebolelo; Salazar, Philippe-Joseph
    This paper makes a critical analysis of media rhetoric in South Africa. It does so by looking at the Floor Crossing Legislation debate. It makes analysis of material, and texts that were reported by different media institutions to create a particular perception by repeatedly stating the same view through different forms of communication during the floor crossing debate. It also looks at the active part that the media plays in policy formulation particularly its influence on any bill that draws significant attention. Rhetorically, the paper will look at whether the methods or arguments employed by the media were successful in manipulating public perception and presenting a particular view.
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    Persuasion as a social heuristic: A rhetorical analysis of the making of the constitution of Namibia
    (2009) Mathe, Audrin; Salazar, Philippe-Joseph
    The study focuses on the rhetoric used during the drafting of the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia. The thesis will offer a framework for understanding negotiations in terms of distinct and coherent rhetoric. Primary sources for this thesis consist of five volumes of the Hansard of the Standing Committee on Standing Rules and Orders and Internal Arrangements of the Windhoek Constituent Assembly. To understand the rhetoric under which the Namibian Constitution was drafted, the Hansard of the Standing Committee was analysed. By analysing the Hansard, one can begin to formulate a picture of the rhetoric that led to a new Constitution of the Republic of Namibia and begin to understand rhetoric in the Namibian context. In order to make valid assertions, one has to go beyond what was said in the Constituent Assembly and look at what the participants said elsewhere. The thesis is concerned here with their words, not with their thoughts. But there is a recognition that sometimes thoughts matter as much as words. No judgements are made on the merits of their arguments. The study simply intended to examine their rhetoric and how rhetoric impacted on the final outcome of the negotiations. The study revealed that, with very few exceptions, most of the debates of the Windhoek Constituent Assembly were initially built on argument and many of them were solved through practical reasoning. This can be explained in part by the attitude of the members and in part by the constraint of the process. The study also revealed that the informative role of deliberation helped the framers of the Namibian constitution to form a more complete set of preferences than they originally had or even forced them to change positions when they were exposed to the full consequences or incoherence of their original proposals. For another, when political actors needed to justify their proposals, they found that impartial arguments were not available or, if they were, they were too obviously tied to a particular interest to be convincing. vi Persuasion as a Social Heuristic: A Rhetorical Analysis of the making of the Constitution of Namibia The appeal to fear strategy, as a means to enable delegates to better recognise the nature of the problems facing the political community and to begin thinking about potential solutions, was clearly at play at the Windhoek Constituent Assembly. Finally, the proceedings of the Windhoek Constituent Assembly which framed the Constitution show that many of the provisions of that instrument which are seemingly straightforward and artless rest in reality upon compromises, and are often laboured and tortuous. The outcome of constitution-making in Namibia was greatly influenced by the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments among the framers.
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    Postgraduate Guide to physically distanced learning at UCT
    (2022) UCT Postgraduate Office
    This is a video prepared in 2022 for physically distanced learning at the University of Cape Town for postgraduate students.
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    The rhetoric of Kwame Nkrumah: analysis of his political speeches
    (2014) Opoku Mensah, Eric; Salazar, Philippe-Joseph
    The study focuses on an examination of the political speeches of Kwame Nkrumah. The primary data of the study comprises audio-recorded and five volumes of selected published speeches of Nkrumah. Beyond these sources, the study explores the historical, political, and diplomatic circumstances which gave birth to Nkrumah's rhetorical inventions. In terms of the theoretical framework, the study applied three main correlative approaches: Aristotle (2007) on Levels of Proofs and Rhetorical Regimes, Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1969) on Argument and Lloyd Bitzer on Situation (1968).Six major speeches were chosen for the study. They were selected chronologically ranging from 1950 to 1964. They were analyzed, applying the vertical and horizontal rhetorical structures. The study sought to find out the rhetorical strategies and tools, which Nkrumah employed in his political speeches. The study revealed that as part of his logical strategy, Nkrumah regularly employed logical association. With this tool, Nkrumah associates two entities either positively or negatively for the purpose of achieving good or bad publicity for a giving entity. The finding demonstrates that Nkrumah employed negative association in his political speeches to tag his Ghanaian and Western political adversaries to engender negative image for them whilst he used positive association to enhance his ethos. The study also showed that Nkrumah employed the argument of inclusion of the part in the whole. This argument becomes central to the subject of Africa's unity as Nkrumah argues for continental unity in Addis Ababa. In this argument, the importance of Africa is brought to the fore whilst minimizing the focus on individual states. Thus, through his argumentation, Nkrumah deepens the continental discussion which seeks to project the debate on Africa's freedom. The study also demonstrated that Nkrumah repeatedly applies symbolism as a strategic means of establishing his ethos as well as creating solidarity with his audience. The study further established that Nkrumah employs the collective memory of his audience to create pathos in his address. Lastly, the study showed that Nkrumah repeatedly used his messages to address composite audiences both immediate and remote.
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    The rhetoric of public mourning : the case study of the Ellis Park cleansing ceremony
    (2002) Young, Bridget; Salazar, Philippe-Joseph
    Bibliography: leaves 39-41.
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    A rhetorical analysis of the budget speeches of South Africa : 1985, 1993, 1994, 2002
    (2004) WynSculley, Catherine; Gitay, Yehoshua
    The annual national Budget Speeches made by the Ministers of Finance of South Africa are epideictic (ceremonious) speeches that praise the government's economic policy for the coming year, recommend it to the nation, and also present the proposed Budget to the world. This speech contains information that is the policy of the government since it is ultimately written into law and so affects the fortunes of every citizen of South Africa. The Ministers of Finance have to persuade the nation to adopt a plan for distributing the wealth of the nation which becomes a greatly significant exercise in the context of a developing third world country like South Africa where there is still great inequality. The Ministers of Finance do this by using ceremonious rhetoric that attempts to unite the people of South Africa under a common vision for the economy. In this thesis, I provide an analysis of the political rhetoric of four Budget Speeches of South Africa, each selected because of their importance in the various stages of South Africa's political history. This thesis is not an economic analysis; it is a rhetorical analysis of the speeches since the technique of rhetoric is used to analyse the Budget Speech. The selection of speeches is as follows: the Budget Speech of 1985 represents the apartheid era, even though at that time there were some moves towards reform. The peculiar two-pronged apartheid rhetoric of providing a place for all South Africans, of working together to build the nation and the economy, while there is still racial oppression is present in the introduction and conclusion of this speech. With the development of negotiations in the early 1990s which culminated in the first democratically elected Government of National Unity in 1994, the Budget Speeches of 1993 and 1994 became more representative of the interests of all South African citizens. In these speeches there is the rhetoric of hope for the future, transparency and nation-building. The 2002 Budget Speech represents a mature Budget Speech of a post-1994 South Africa where a democratically elected majority black party is in power. In the 2002 speech there is the rhetoric of solidarity, poverty and nation building. In the chapters containing the rhetorical analysis for each speech there is a description of the rhetorical situation, a summary of the speech, and then an analysis of the inventio, dispositio, and elocutio of the speech. In the final section of the thesis I provide a comparison of the four speeches analysed. Included in this dissertation are illustrations of the Ministers of Finance, the official print version of their speeches, a selection of media articles published on or around the day that each of the Budget Speeches were delivered, and also the transcripts of two interviews that I conducted with two of the former Ministers of Finance.
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    A rhetorical study of the open democracy bill : a Perelmanian approach
    (2001) Ngesi, Sifiso Eric; Salazar, Philippe-Joseph
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    A study of the rhetoric of the 2002 presidential election campaign in Zimbabwe
    (2005) Kangira, Jairos; Salazar, Philippe-Joseph
    This study focuses on rhetorical discourse of the 2002 presidential election campaign in Zimbabwe. The thesis analyses the rhetoric used by the two major contenders of this controversial election - the incumbent president Robert Gabriel Mugabe, candidate of Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) and the challenger Morgan Tsvangirai, candidate of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The study first traces the origin of rhetoric, the art of persuasive communication, to ancient Greek and Roman traditions. Following Hanson (1997), the study treats Kenneth Burke's and Chaim Perelman's different rhetorical theories as complementary. The argument is that, although the two contemporary scholars offer different views on the nature and process of rhetoric, these views are two sides of the same coin as the ultimate goal is to convince people, to create a communion between the rhetor and the audience. The study shows that both parties used negative advertisements in the election campaign. This persuasive attack produced negative images of both candidates. The rhetoric induced political cynicism of the candidates in the minds of the voters. Mugabe used collective memory and nostalgia in four funeral speeches in order to persuade the voters to vote for him. As the chief interpreter of past events, he chose those events that presented him as the vanguard of the values of the liberation struggle. His rhetoric called on the voters to guard against forces of imperialism by voting him back to the presidency. Consistently, Mugabe centred his campaign rhetoric on the achievements of his government over 22 years since independence in 1980 and attacked his opponent as a sell-out, a puppet of Britain and the whites in the country. Mugabe's land rhetoric was popular with people in the rural and peri-urban areas whose lives depended on land. Tsvangirai's rhetoric focused on the need for a change of government. He attacked Mugabe and his government for mismanaging the affairs of the country, resulting in the economic and political meltdown in the country. Tsvangirai offered practical ways of delivering the country from its economic and political quagmire and end the suffering of the people. This study argues that Tsvangirai's rhetoric of change was so persuasive to voters that had the electoral process been free and fair, he could have easily won this election.
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    Treading a tightrope: A rhetorical study of the tension between the executive and collective leadership of the African National Congress (ANC): From Nelson Mandela to Thabo Mbeki
    (2014) Ngesi, Sifiso Eric; Salazar, Philippe-Joseph
    This thesis endeavours to look at the rhetorical techniques or tropes employed by Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki in their capacities both as the Presidents of the African National Congress (ANC) and South Africa. In this regard, the speeches of the respective former Presidents are analysed from a rhetorical perspective. Not all their speeches are studied, but those that have a bearing on the study. One of the hallmarks of the ANC has been the reference to "collective leadership" and the party maintains that when it comes to decision-making, "collective leadership" is of paramount. It should also be borne in mind that the ANC is in alliance, known as the Tripartite Alliance (Alliance), with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). The study then seeks to ascertain how an ANC President - who is equally South Africa's President - strikes a balance, if any, between the dictates of "collective leadership" and upholding the constitutional obligation of ensuring that the interests of all South Africans are safeguarded. The thesis attempts to examine how the relations within the Alliance have played themselves out as the ANC metamorphosed from a liberation movement into a ruling party. What is the role of the Tripartite Alliance in the formulation of the policies pertaining to the country's social, economic and political transformation? Is there any role played by the alliance partners (SACP and COSATU) that are "technically" outside Government in this process or is this role the exclusive preserve of the ANC? Where there is an engagement between Government (ANC) and the Alliance partners or where there are disagreements, how are they handled or managed and what rhetorical arguments are advanced? On the part of the ANC, who is in charge or has the final say? Is it the ANC National Executive Committee? Is it the President or the "top six" (the ANC National Working Committee and the most politically influential leadership collective in the country, comprising the ANC President, Deputy President, Secretary-General, Deputy Secretary-General, National Chairperson and Treasurer-General)? Can one talk about "collective leadership" without a leader of the "collective"? The rhetorical study of the speeches of both Mandela and Mbeki reveals that there is a concerted effort on the part of the ANC Presidents to ensure or, at least, to create the impression that there is "collective leadership" within the ruling party or the Alliance. Equally, there have been instances where there was a deviation from "collective leadership".