In this article the authors explore the current state of higher education in South Africa in an attempt to locate the study within the current socio-economic and political imperatives driven by the knowledge economy and a changing global environment. The article is based largely on an examination of current education policy documents that address future developments in higher education in the South African context. The key aim is to understand the trajectory that higher education in South Africa is taking to help millions of young people in South Africa (including those who are currently excluded from sought-after fields of study and training institutions) access those opportunities that are available and, in the process

This paper interrogates the three ANC manifestos through intertextuality and interdisciplinarity that is grounded on critical discourse analysis (CDA). To achieve the objective of this study, the researchers draw from various scholars of CDA because it is believed that there is no single theory or method which is uniform and consistent throughout Critical Discourse Analysis. CDA refers to discourse analysis which aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and determination between discursive practices, events and texts, and wider social and cultural structures, relationships and processes (Fairclough 1993). For the purpose of this paper the focus will be on the reproduction and invocation of three African National Congress (ANC) documents: the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), the Freedom Charter and the Constitution of RSA.

Research shows that labour relations in South Africa are not entirely peaceful. The uneasiness manifests itself in different ways, including strikes, go-slows, overtime bans, deadlocks, disputes and disagreements (Tustin and Geldenhys 2000: XV). This conceptual paper examines the recurrence of strikes in one university of technology (UoT) in South Africa, focusing on a strike that took place in November 2011. Numerous reasons were given for the strike, first of which was a belief amongst the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (NEHAWU) that it was important as being the first legal strike in the history of the institution. Secondly, NEHAWU believed that the striking workers' demands were legitimate as a result of exploitative conditions. Thirdly, there was an over-reliance on contract workers as opposed to permanent workers, unequal income distribution pattern and numerous other anomalies. Fourthly, the strike demonstrated that labour relations in HEIs are an integral part of a capital/labour relationship characteristic of the dominant mode of production and relations of production and distribution.

This paper interrogates the various discursive or symbolic constructions or presentations of the African National