Welcome to the Department of Sociology

The Department of Sociology at the University of Pretoria is a leading teaching and research centre on social transformation in South Africa. Its academic staff members are involved in various research projects and a number of their publications have won international awards from organisations such as the American Sociological Association and the International Labour History Association.

The Department of Sociology offers sociology at the undergraduate level, as well as post-graduate programmes at the honours, Master’s and doctoral levels in (i) sociology, (ii) industrial sociology and labour studies, and (iii) gender studies.

In the media:

Read an article on the implications of wild cat strikes in the mining industry for South Africa's industrial relations dispensation by Professors Sakhela Buhlungu and Andries Bezuidehout in City Press.

New publication:

We are proud to announce the publication of a new book, co-edited by Professor Sakhela Buhlungu from the Department of Sociology at the University of Pretoria and Dr Malehoko Tshoaedi from the Department of Sociology at the University of South Africa. The book draws on a survey of members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in order to make sense of changes that have been taking place in this labour federation. The book's title is "COSATU's Contested Legacy: South African Tade Unions in the Second Decade of Democracy" and is published in South Africa by HSRC Press and internationally by Brill. It brings together chapters with detailed analyses by a number of South Africa's top labour movement scholars.

Bumper crop of master’s degrees:

It has been a year of non-stop celebration given the number of master’s degrees that were awarded by the Department. Three of our staff members completed their Master’s dissertations this year. Vangile Bingma’s study, ‘Male early high school leaving in Orange Farm: a hidden epidemic’ is located in the sociology of education field and focused on young men in Orange Farm who left school early. Mpho Mmadi and Splagchna Chikarara both worked in the industrial sociology sector, with Mpho’s study, ‘Mobile Workplace: Community and Family Life of Taxi Drivers’, examining the mobile work place of taxi drivers. Splagchna’s study, Professionals 'gleaning' at the margins:  the workplace integration of Zimbabwean engineers in the public sector of the construction industry in Pretoria and Johannesburg, comprised an investigation into Zimbabwean engineers’ interaction with and integration into the workforce in the construction industry in South Africa. Vangile and Splagchna were supervised by Professor Janis Grobbelaar, the Head of the Department, and Mpho by Professor Andries Bezuidenhout.

In addition, six more students managed to get their dissertations in the bag. So we are doffing our caps to:

• Carolé Cilliers – ‘Asserting rights: HIV-positive mothers accessing primary health care in Tshwane Metro’ (Supervisor: Charles Puttergill);
• Elizabeth Mkandawire – ‘Socialisation of Malawian women and the negotiation of safe sex’ (Supervisor: Charles Puttergill);
• Tendai Patience Motsi, – ‘Perceptions of Zimbabwean migrants in Gauteng on “returning home” and “rebuilding the country”’ (supervisor: Charles Puttergill);
• Shadrack Temba Mzangwa – ‘Perceptions of grievance and disciplinary procedures: a study of a union’s members at a tertiary institution’ (supervisor: Charles Puttergill);
• Charlotte Sutherland – ‘Afrikaner student identity in post-apartheid South Africa: A case study’ (supervisor: Janis Grobbelaar).
• Tau Tawengwa – ‘The social functions of religion in a Charismatic church in Pretoria:  a case study’ (supervisor: Janis Grobbelaar).