Uhlalutyo lwee-akhawunti zopolitiko emzantsi Afrika

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:This study examines the effectiveness and inducement of political rhetoric in South Africancontext. Political discourse has become more significant in South Africa since the sanctionof a democratic political dispensation. This study is motivated by the events occurred asfrom 1998, which demand accounts from those implicated.Comments and reactions pertaining to events such as the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)-led land grabbing in BredeII, near Kempton Park, Gauteng; the Youth Day incident -16June 2001; the ongoing tug-of-war between the ANC and its ally, Congress of SouthAfrican Trade Unions (Cosatu) over strategic government policies; and Tony Yengeni'sadvertised refutation of getting kickbacks from the 'Arms Deal', have been the main focusof this study.These accounts have made it possible to apply Benoit's (1995) integrated imagerestoration strategies theory, which he developed from a variety of theories developed tounderstanding why certain utterances are made in certain contexts. The fundamentalapproach to developing Benoit's integrated theory originates from a constant interest bylinguists and communication theorists in particular, and social psychologists in general, tounderstanding the dynamics of politeness in social context.Chapter 2 of this study presents a theoretical background to the development of politenesstheory. Chapter 3 summarises the development of integrated image restoration strategiestheory in public and social contexts. Chapter 4 deals with the application of Benoit'sintegrated image restoration strategies theory through the critical analysis of the abovementionedaccounts from a weekly Internet publication, ANC Today, vol 1, no: 1, 2001,which serve as a platform for the ANC to counteract the pervasiveness of political scandalin South African politics. Tony Yengeni's newspaper advertisement was of great interestas it was the first independent and personally paid public statement by a South Africanpolitician since the new democratic dispensation.Through the critical analysis of these accounts, it has been found that South Africanpoliticians do make public statements implementing defensive and persuasive strategies inorder to protect or restore their images.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University