IRM 1501 PORTFOLIO EXAM

IRM 1501 PORTFOLIO EXAM INDEX QUESTION 1 What is document-based research? lOMoAR cPSD| 2 (Page 3) QUESTION 2 Summary of case of Molefe v Mahaeng 1999 (1) SA 562 (SCA) (Page 4) QUESTION 3 Make a distinction between quantitative and qualitative research methodology and provide examples. (Page 5) QUESTION 4 List different sampling tools that may be used by researchers. (page 5) QUESTION 5 Discuss the basic principles of transformative constitutionalism (Page 6-7) QUESTION 6 Find the case of Soobramoney v Minister of Health, KwaZulu-Natal 1997 12 BCLR 1696 (CC). Write an essay about this case (Page 8-9) BIBLIOGRAPHY (Page 10) QUESTION 1 lOMoAR cPSD| 3 Document-based research is also referred to as the qualitative method of research or quantitative research. They are synonyms. Whenever mention is made of qualitative research, you should know that the research is document based and vice versa. Document-based research has to do with the reviewing of sources that are mostly sourced from or found in the library. These sources include law reports, legislation, textbooks, law journals, and so forth. Basically, researchers assess the available literature to find the required answer or what has been written on a specific subject. In doing all this, researchers seek to “immerse themselves in the subject matter” and cultivate contemporary concepts that significantly enhance their understanding and clarification of reality. Hancock, Ockleford and Windridge state that document-based research … attempts to broaden and/or deepen our understanding of how things came to be the way they are in our social world. If the research question involves exploring how people experience something, or what their views are, exploring a new area where issues are not yet understood or properly identified (e.g. before developing questionnaire items), assessing whether a new service is implementable, looking at ‘reallife’ context, or a sensitive topic where you need flexibility to avoid causing distress, your team probably needs to discuss using qualitative methodology. In doing research of this nature, researchers seek to answer or respond to the question “why?”. According to Black, researchers do all this to “study things in their natural setting, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them”. Specifically, they attempt to describe and explain certain phenomena or positions within a wider context. Accordingly, words (written or unwritten), objects, and pictures are collected. Thereafter, a researcher would do a review of literature, for example case law, statutes, and other sources, such as textbooks and journal articles. Generally, any form of research is important when one is searching for an answer to a legal problem. In this context, document-based research is important because of the following: • It provides current answers to the legal problem being researched. • It provides information about what other scholars have written on the subject. • It indicates whether anyone has written on the subject yet. • It indicates whether the subject being investigated has been fully explored and has thus become saturated. • It indicates whether there is a gap in the available literature that still needs to be explored. • It indicates whether there is a need to conduct further study of the subject. lOMoAR cPSD| 4 Downloaded by ERICK MURIMI () QUESTION 2 Molefe v Mahaeng 1999 (1) SA 562 (SCA): This is a civil case. At about 11:00 on 11 August 1991 the appellant and the respondent were driving their respective motor vehicles in opposite directions in Mothusi Road, Thabong, Welkom. As they were about to pass each other the respondent's car suddenly moved onto its incorrect side of the road where it collided with the appellant's vehicle and immediately thereafter with a motor car driven by M r Jacob Khatiti, a traffic officer, who was travelling behind the appellant. It then came to rest on the right-hand side of the road after hitting the fence of a private house. The appellant then went to court to sue the respondent for the damages at the Welkom Magistrate court for the damages that were caused on his vehicle. The appellant alleged that the collision between then two cars was caused because the respondent’s sole negligence. The respondent denied that he was negligent and pleaded that the collision between the two cars was unavoidable, because immediately before the collision happened an unforeseen and unavoidable black out happened which resulted to him being unable to control the car. The matter went to trial on the question of negligence only. The magistrate was of the view that as the respondent had raised the defence of automatism, he bore the onus to establish that defence. He rejected the respondent's version and found in the appellant's favour, subsequently the parties reached agreement on the appellant's damages and the magistrate entered judgment in the appellant's favour for the agreed amounts and costs. The magistrate's decision was reversed by the Orange Free State Provincial Division (Hancke and Cillie JJ) on appeal. That court held that, as a matter of probability, the respondent had suffered a blackout and that the collision was not due to his negligence, the appeal was therefore allowed and the appellant's claim was dismissed with costs. The respondent presented the court with the evidence that he slipped on a banana peel and fell on his head and injured his right leg at a mini market in the morning of the day he collided with the appellant’s car. The respondent said he drove normally until he got to Mothusi road that was when he realised something was wrong with him, and he does not remember anything when the collision happened