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Economic convergence among the SADC members

  • Authors: Mbangezeli, Sinawo
  • Date: 2020
  • Subjects: Convergence (Economics)
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/48927 , vital:41171
  • Description: This study utilized beta convergence to investigate the catch-up process among the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for the period 1971 to 2017. The theoretical underpinning of this study was that of neoclassical economists, such as Solow (1956) and Barro and Sala-I-Martin (1990, 1991). Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates and per capita growth rates were used to test for the convergence hypothesis. This study employed conventional unit root test which include the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test, Phillips Perron (PP) test and the Kwiatkowski Phillips Schmidt Shin (KPSS) test. As well the Dickey Fuller-GLS and NG-Perron modified unit root tests. In addition, the Lee-Strazicich (LS) and Zivot- Andrew (ZA) unit root tests were used to allow for structural breaks. The conventional and modified unit root tests showed that most countries show evidence of GDP growth convergence, the exception being on the KPSS unit root test. Furthermore, most countries showed evidence of convergence when classified according to income levels. Meanwhile, when the structural breaks unit root tests when performed there was a strong evidence of both GDP growth and GDP per capita growth rates. Except in a few cases of the Lee-Strazicich tests. Lastly, the Flexible Fourier Form (FFF) unit root test was performed following the Enders and Lee (2012) methodology. The t-statistics under the FFF test reveal that all members besides Congo and Zimbabwe converge towards the SADC average growth rates. Similarly, all lower-middle economies catch up to the upper-middle- and high-income level economies and upper-middle economies converge to Seychelles’ GDP growth rates. Whereas only Congo and Tanzania among the lower income economies converge toward the average GDP growth rates of the other countries. In addition, all members show evidence of per capita GDP convergence except when the test is performed in panel A. Based on the reported results, the paper recommends that measures should be put in place to aid non-converging member states, adoption of growth promoting policies and that there should be harsh consequences for countries that do not improve their growth rates.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

A strategy to promote awareness and adherence to information security policy at Capricorn District Municipality

  • Authors: Mamabolo, Mokgadi Hellen
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Computer security -- Management , Data protection -- Management Computer security Computer networks -- Security measures
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MPhil
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/40867 , vital:36245
  • Description: The purpose of this research was to investigate the reasons for non-adherence to the ISP and to measure the current level of adherence to the ISP. The research revealed that non adherence to the ISP is caused by lack of training or awareness, and through non-communication of the ISP to employees. The study was conducted at Capricorn District Municipality, Polokwane Local Municipality, Molemole Local Municipality and Blouberg Local Municipality. A web-based questionnaire (QuestionPro) was developed and it was directed to every official who uses or interacts with municipal information, to quantify the level of adherence to ISP by employees. An email with the questionnaire link administered by www.questionpro.com was then sent to the population of 152 employees. Presently ISP adherence is one of the key concerns that are faced by organisations. Employees are perceived as one of the reasons that there are security breaches within organisations; hence, it is of paramount importance that these security breaches are noticed, as well as technical matters. Most researchers have reasoned that non-adherence to ISP is one of the major challenges faced by organisations. The non-adherence to ISP will lead to potential information security threats and unauthorised access to information that might compromise municipal business operations. The Information Security Officer together with the help of management must educate employees regarding the value of IS and why it is crucial to adhere to these policies. The proposed strategy summarises the various concepts required in the promotion of awareness and adherence to an effective ISP. Ultimately, this research study concludes that if management continually trains employees, raising awareness about ISP and monitoring their adherence to ISP, this should increase the adherence level.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

The diffusion of Max condoms among young women in KwaZulu Natal

  • Authors: Donald, Charlene Chenaye
  • Date: 2019
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MBA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96870 , vital:31342
  • Description: HIV is a disease that has a myriad of effects across different settings, and its prevalence varies across countries with different epidemiological drivers. The growing and disproportionate impact on young women has encouraged new ideas in HIV prevention strategies. The profusion of studies on HIV prevention strategies notwithstanding, the aspect of condom innovation has been largely ignored in literature. Drawing on the Diffusion of Innovation theory, this study examines how Max condoms have gained popularity among young women aged 18-24 years. The hypotheses are tested using an innovation-decision conceptual model and a comprehensive data set of 131 participants from rural, peri-urban and urban districts in KwaZulu Natal. Results reveal that the impact of marketing material and an effective public launch were significant in increasing Max condoms uptake, while the influence of peers and other members of one’s social system are critical for normalising the behaviour change. Young women have adopted Max condoms and uptake is continually influenced by positive perception of Max condoms’ relative advantage.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

Balancing the interests of employer and employee in dismissal for misconduct

  • Authors: Pillay, Prushothman Subramoney
  • Date: 2018
  • Subjects: Employees -- Dismissal of -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Labor discipline -- Law and legislation -- South Africa South Africa -- Employment Equity Act, 1998 South Africa -- Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997 South Africa -- Labour Relations Act, 1995 Unfair labor practices -- South Africa Labor laws and legislation -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , LLM
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/34414 , vital:33375
  • Description: South Africa emerged from a history dogged by an oppressive system in which race was used as a medium of oppression. Workers and in particular African workers’ rights were severely curtailed. However, following the advent of the Constitution, several employees’ rights and freedoms are now entrenched key amongst them in the right to fair labour practices is enshrined in section 23 (1) of the Constitution. Post 1994, South Africa adopted various new forms of labour legislation, including the Labour Relations Act. This marked the watershed in changing the balance of power away from the employer. The LRA gives form and content to the rights enshrined in the Constitution by establishing substantive and procedural requirements prior to dismissal. Equally important is the guidelines contained in schedule 8 to the LRA which depict an attempt by the legislature to ensure that employees are protected against unfair dismissal. The historical background of the employment relationship stems from the Master and Servant Act. The common law evolved in South Africa from Roman-Dutch and English practices. The common law was shaped against the backdrop of Apartheid modified to some extent through the Wiehahn Commission4 and more recently politically through union and National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) involvement regulating labour practices through legislation. In South Africa, the employment relationship is regulated by three main sources of law. These include the Constitution, labour legislation and the law of contract. Besides these sources, South Africa is a member state of the International Labour Organisation.
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  • Date Issued: 2018

The impact of capital adequacy requirements on loan pricing : the case of South African Commercial Banks

  • Authors: Mgxekwa, Bahle
  • Date: 2018
  • Subjects: Bank loans Banks and banking -- State supervision Financial institutions -- State supervision
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , (MCom) Economics
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/10188 , vital:35373
  • Description: Capital adequacy requirements are viewed as an important form of regulation within the banking sector and they represent a major change in banking regulation. The capital accord is a globalised regulation which seeks to reduce banking failures and achieve a stable and efficient financial system for the growth of the global economies. Through the adoption of the capital adequacy requirement in the South African banking system as well as having internationally active financial institutions, the South African economy is no exception to the benefits ensued by this regulation to the global economies. In light of this, this study examined the impact of capital adequacy requirements on loan pricing of South African commercial banks, using quarterly time series econometric analysis over the time period 2000-2016. The study used interest rate on loan, the dependent variable as a measure of loan pricing and the following independent variables: risk of default, market structure, Treasury bill and capital adequacy ratio. To confirm the level of integration, the study employed the Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Phillips-Perron tests. The Johansen co-integration and the Vector Error Correction Model were employed to obtain long-run and short-run coefficients. The findings of this study show that the measure of capital adequacy requirements CCAR is negatively related to real interest rate on loans CRL. This agrees with theory and expected priori. In addition, past studies in the developing countries’ context support these findings. Estimation of results reveals that all other variables such as market structure CMS, Treasury bill rate TB and loan loss provisions GLLP have a positive impact on interest rate on loans.
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  • Date Issued: 2018

A Cross-cultural analysis of the normative indicators of the Beck Depression Inventory II(BDI-II) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) amongst young adults in the Eastern Cape,South Africa

  • Authors: Fourie, Claire
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: Stress (Psychology) Depression, Mental -- Psychological aspects
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , M Soc Sc
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/10405 , vital:35445
  • Description: Mental illness rates are climbing, locally and globally. The World Health Organization (2001) has claimed that one in four people will be affected by a psychiatric disorder during their lifetime. With this in mind, there is an array of psychometric assessment measures that are used as tools to assist in the mental health care field. Two such measures are the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). These measures are used globally to assist with the diagnosis and treatment of depression and anxiety. However, in South Africa, a paucity of normative indicators exists. This research set out to determine if there are significant differences in performance on the BAI and BDI-II when comparing a sample from the Eastern Cape, South Africa, to the international norms. It was found that performances on the BAI between the local sample and the international sample did not differ significantly. The local sample, on average, performed 4.76 points lower on the BDI-II than those assessed in the international norms. A series of theoretical models are explored in elucidating the findings in this study.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

An appraisal of the role of the National Rural Youth Service Corps in youth development in peri-urban Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa

  • Authors: Noruka, Asanda
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: Youth -- Employment Youth development -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSoc
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/5795 , vital:29395
  • Description: Youth unemployment is a global problem, but more-so in Southern globally positioned countries such as South Africa. The government of South Africa has implemented different interventions that attempt to alleviate national youth unemployment. Some of these programmes, such as the National Rural Youth Service Corps (NARYSEC), specifically target youth in rural and peri-urban areas. NARYSEC aims to develop skills of the youth in rural and peri-urban areas as well as assist in rural development. Despite the introduction of NARYSEC, unemployment among the youth continues to be a problem. Against this background, this study sought to examine rural youth and development interventions implemented by NARYSEC in peri-urban Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. Furthermore, the study assessed the extent to which NARYSEC interventions are contributing to rural youth and development in peri-urban Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. Lastly, the study examined the limitations of NARYSEC interventions in peri-urban youth development. To achieve the above objectives, the study used a qualitative research approach. The sampling procedure was purposive as the research required specific participants who have gone through NARYSEC training. A total of 24 respondents were eventually selected. In-depth, semi-structured interviews and key informant interviews were the primary data collection tools. Some of the main findings are that NARYSEC provides various skills training programmes which prepare young people for the labour market. NARYSEC interventions are also helping communities to reduce crime through providing youth employment opportunities. Furthermore, some youth actively participate in rural development projects such as rehabilitation of local clinics and construction projects. However, the study also found that there are a number of limitations and challenges that are experienced in the implementation of the NARYSEC programme. These challenges include lack of strategic planning in the programme, irregular stipend payments, strained professional relationships between NARYSEC programme facilitators and youth participants, limited passion and commitment to the programme by both youth participants and facilitators.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

Thermodynamic and electrical performance monitoring of a domestic split-type air conditioner and development of a simulation based R22 permanent replacement

  • Authors: Bantan, Mafor Glory
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: Air conditioning
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/4857 , vital:28537
  • Description: The difficulty that exists in accurately monitoring the performance of air conditioners has made performance prediction an arduous task. Nevertheless, the performance still needs to be monitored and predicted as it helps solve a lot of problems resulting from this technology like effect of the technology on the grid, energy consumption, water utilisation and GHGs emission. With the introduction of regression modelling as a means of system monitoring and prediction some years ago, the accuracy was still a call for concern. It is worth realising that increasing the number of predictors will enhance this method’s accuracy. As such, this document intends to increase the accuracy of this method’s monitoring and predicting ability by increasing the number of predictors to cut across system thermal, environmental and human behavioural variation. These predictors experimentally gotten are used to build an environ-behavioural model that monitors the coefficient of performance and energy consumption of a domestic split-type air conditioner with higher accuracy. Refrigerants have undergone evolution in the past decades in a bid to come up with a refrigerant that has zero ODP, lower – than – R22 GWP and much better than R22 thermodynamic performance. No pure refrigerant has been found to possess these qualities as such mixtures or blends are the best shot at the moment. R410A could stand the test of time to be the long term R22 replacement but for the fact that besides R410A’s higher GWP than that of R22, the former’s system performance is lower than that of the latter’s due to the lower thermodynamic performance of the former. This means the search continues. In this document, a combination of carefully chosen refrigerant components are carefully blended to come up with a simulation based R22 long term replacement, which will be referred to in this document as BTEP.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

Between"culture" and "Cruelty"narratives of widows on land dispossession in Gqadu administrative area, Mbashe Municipality , Eastern Cape

  • Authors: Baleka, Zola
  • Date: 2016
  • Subjects: Widows -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Land tenure -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Right of property -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , Degree
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/5083 , vital:29057
  • Description: This study highlights the cultural underpinnings of specific indulgences pertaining to land ownership with reference to widowhood in the rural Eastern Cape. The study does this by examining the narratives of widows about their experiences of land dispossession in Nqadu Administrative Area. Nqadu Administrative Area is a rural community in Mbhashe Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study focuses on widows’ experiences relating to the cultural practices of the community regarding land ownership. A qualitative, case study design was adopted. To uncover the widows’ narratives, the study utilised in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, with a sample of 50 widows. Further empirical data were obtained from four members of the municipal Land Committees, two Ward Councillors, four Traditional Leaders and two officials from the Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, using in-depth and key informant interviews. The study found that widows were vulnerable to land ownership violations and dispossessions, and that these violations were perpetrated by community members, particularly relatives of deceased husbands. Low levels of education and fear of antagonising clan relatives played a vital role in preventing widows from fighting for their legal rights. The failure of widows to fight for their rights increased their chances of being heavily exposed to dispossession of their land rights. Cultural practices within the communities catalysed abusive practices against widows, particularly against those whose marriage was not ‘recognised’ due to various stated reasons. The study also revealed that widows who had married as second wives and those who did not bear children experienced egregious abuses. Another finding was that men from Nqadu Administrative Area were given priority during the allocation of land, based on cultural and traditional practices, and were given land of their own choice depending on availability. The study thus highlights the impact of cultural practices and the ways in which these became instruments of gender abuse, despite the existence of laws designed to prevent specific social cruelties.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Comparative analysis of characteristics of the various sugarcane bagasse types in terms of gasification

  • Authors: Kula, Mpumezo
  • Date: 2016
  • Subjects: Bagasse Sugarcane -- Breeding Coal gasification
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/13392 , vital:39656
  • Description: The insight that the fossil fuel reserves are limited, together with concerns over security of supply (i.e. the oil crises), initiated the first raise of interest in biomass and all other renewable energy forms. However, the concern grew that global warming and the resulting climate change were enhanced by carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions resulting from fossil fuel consumption. Meanwhile, biomass energy is thought to account for 14–15percent of total world energy consumption. Hence, the exploitation and utilization of biomass energy are effective and necessary for relieving the pressures caused by environmental pollution and fossil fuel shortage (Lv et al., 2010). Recently, extensive research aimed at converting biomass to useful energy have been carried out, especially pyrolysis and gasification, which are particularly suitable for the effective and efficient utilization of biomass. Sugarcane bagasse is the main byproduct of sugarcane mill, ready available at the production site so that it may be a suitable raw material for the production of biofuels, chemicals, and electricity. Among the methods that have been previously studied, is this particular study we explore thermochemical process, gasification. The properties of sugarcane bagasse relevant to gasification are briefly reviewed. The compositions of the bagasse as a fuel are variable, especially with respect to inorganic constituents important to the critical problems of sintering, fouling and slagging. Alkali and alkaline earth metals, in combination with other fuel elements such as silica and sulfur, are responsible for many undesirable reactions in a gasifier system. The three sugarcane bagasse types namely washed, unwashed and the depithed sugarcane bagasse were subjected in different types of characterization to review and compare their characteristics for gasification. Ultimate analysis was used to determine the elemental compositions and this was helpful in estimating the energy input of the materials. Elemental compositions were determined with the CHNS analyzer which gave the percent compositions of each fuel in terms of Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Sulphur as well as Oxygen (by difference) and the SEM/EDX which gave the elemental composition of the materials as can be viewed from the EDX. The proximate analysis which is the physical characterization of the materials was carried out to preview the behavior of the sugarcane bagasse when subjected into high temperatures as the gasification process uses very high temperatures. These were determined by the TGA and the volatile matter content; fixed carbon content, moisture content and ash content were extrapolated from the resulting thermogram. SEM images for surface structures of the bagasse and FTIR for the structural functionality and bonding structures. The characterization of the bagasse was conducted to compare their gasification properties.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Comparative analysis of characteristics of the various sugarcane bagasse types in terms of gasification

  • Authors: Kula, Mpumezo
  • Date: 2016
  • Subjects: Bagasse Bioenergetics Sugarcane -- Breeding Solar energy
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/1929 , vital:27584
  • Description: The insight that the fossil fuel reserves are limited, together with concerns over security of supply (i.e. the oil crises), initiated the first raise of interest in biomass and all other renewable energy forms. However, the concern grew that global warming and the resulting climate change were enhanced by carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions resulting from fossil fuel consumption. Meanwhile, biomass energy is thought to account for 14–15% of total world energy consumption. Hence, the exploitation and utilization of biomass energy are effective and necessary for relieving the pressures caused by environmental pollution and fossil fuel shortage (Lv et al., 2010). Recently, extensive research aimed at converting biomass to useful energy have been carried out, especially pyrolysis and gasification, which are particularly suitable for the effective and efficient utilization of biomass. Sugarcane bagasse is the main byproduct of sugarcane mill, ready available at the production site so that it may be a suitable raw material for the production of biofuels, chemicals, and electricity. Among the methods that have been previously studied, is this particular study we explore thermochemical process, gasification. The properties of sugarcane bagasse relevant to gasification are briefly reviewed. The compositions of the bagasse as a fuel are variable, especially with respect to inorganic constituents important to the critical problems of sintering, fouling and slagging. Alkali and alkaline earth metals, in combination with other fuel elements such as silica and sulfur, are responsible for many undesirable reactions in a gasifier system.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Development of part-of-speech tagger for Xhosa

  • Authors: Delman, Xolani
  • Date: 2016
  • Subjects: Computational linguistics -- Methodology Natural language processing (Computer science) Linguistic models
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/11872 , vital:39114
  • Description: Part-of-Speech (POS) tagging is a process of assigning an appropriate part of speech or lexical category to each word in a given sentence of a particular natural language. Natural languages are languages that human beings use to communicate with one another be it Xhosa, Zulu, English etc. POS tagging plays a huge and important role in natural language processing applications. The main applications of POS tagging include machine translation, parsing, text chunking, spell checkiXhosa (sometimes referred to as isiXhosa) is one of the eleven official languages of South Africa and is spoken by over 8 million South Africans. The language is mainly spoken in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces of the country. It is the second most widely spoken native language in South Africa after Zulu (sometimes called isiZulu). Although the number of speakers might seem to be high, Xhosa is considerably under-resourced. There are very few publications in Xhosa, very few books have been published in the language and also the domains that use the language as a medium of instruction are very limited. However, the language is finding momentum nowadays. An Oxford approved Xhosa dictionary has been developed recently, and Xhosa newspapers that did not exist in the recent past are now published. Text from previously mentioned sources can then be combined to formulate a larger text that can be used to train the tagger. This work aims to develop an effective POS tagger for Xhosa. g and grammar. This thesis presents/describes the work that needed to be done to produce an automatic POS tagger for Xhosa. A tagset consisting of 36 POS tags/labels for the language were used for this purpose. These are listed. A total of 5000 words were manually tagged/labelled for the purpose of training the tagger. Another 3000 words were used for testing the tagger and these were disjoint from the manually tagged training data. The open source Stanford CoreNLP toolkit was used to create the tagger. The toolkit implements a Maximum Entropy machine learning model which was applied in the development of the tagger presented in this thesis. The thesis describes the implementation and testing processes of the model in detail. The results show that the development of the Xhosa POS tagging model was successful. This model managed to obtain a tagging accuracy of 87.71 percent.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

An analysis of the tax consequences of the double tax agreement between South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo

  • Authors: Mkabile, Nwabisa
  • Date: 2015
  • Subjects: Double taxation -- South Africa , Double taxation -- Congo (Democratic Republic) , Income tax -- South Africa -- Foreign income , Income tax -- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Foreign income
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
  • Identifier: vital:916 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017539
  • Description: As a result of the different tax systems adopted by countries, foreign-sourced income earned by taxpayers may be subject to double taxation. This may therefore impede cross-border trade and investment. Double taxation relief is provided unilaterally, in terms of a country’s domestic laws or bilaterally in terms of Double Taxation Agreements. South African residents earning income from the Democratic Republic of Congo may be subject to tax in both countries. To eliminate such double taxation the South African Income Tax Act, No 58 of 1962, provides for unilateral relief from double taxation in the form of exemptions, rebates and deductions. The double tax agreement between South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo came into effect recently and double taxation relief for South African residents is now also available in terms of tax treaty law. The objective of the research was to determine whether the combination of the unilateral measures and the double tax agreement provide relief in respect of all types of income earned by South African residents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was concluded that the double tax agreement, together with the unilateral relief provided for in the Income Tax Act will grant relief for all types of income earned by South African residents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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  • Date Issued: 2015

Androcentrism and misogyny in late twentieth century rock music

  • Authors: Berkland, Darren Gary
  • Date: 2015
  • Subjects: Music -- Social aspects , Gender identity in music , Music -- Performance -- Psychological aspects , Emotions in music , Rock musicians
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:8440 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1021199
  • Description: Judith Butler’s writings on gender ostensibly changed the way gender is considered with regard to an individual’s subjectivity. Her writings expressed a discursive parameter that changed the theoretical standpoint of gender from that of performance, to that of performativity. In short, the notion of gender became understood as a power mechanism operating within society that compels individuals along the heteronormal binary tracts of male or female, man or woman. Within the strata of popular culture, this binarism is seemingly ritualized and repeated, incessantly. This treatise examines how rock music, as a popular and widespread mode of popular music, exemplifies gender binarism through a notable ndrocentrism. The research will examine how gender performativity operates within the taxonomy of rock music, and how the message communicated by rock music becomes translated into a listener’s subjectivity.
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  • Date Issued: 2015

Link between ghost artefacts, source suppression and incomplete calibration sky models

  • Authors: Nunhokee, Chuneeta Devi
  • Date: 2015
  • Subjects: Interferometry , Calibration
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
  • Identifier: vital:5556 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017900
  • Description: Calibration is a fundamental step towards producing radio interferometric images. However, naive calibration produces calibration artefacts, in the guise of spurious emission, buried in the thermal noise. This work investigates these calibration artefacts, henceforth referred to as “ghosts”. A 21 cm observation with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope yielded similar ghost sources, and it was anticipated that they were due to calibrating with incomplete sky models. An analytical ghost distribution of a two-source scenario is derived to substantiate this theory and to seek answers to the related bewildering features (regular ghost pattern, points spread function-like sidelobes, independent of model flux). The theoretically predicted ghost distribution qualitatively matches with the observational ones and shows high dependence on the array geometry. The theory draws the conclusion that both the ghost phenomenon and suppression of the unmodelled flux have the same root cause. In addition, the suppression of the unmodelled flux is studied as functions of unmodelled flux, differential gain solution interval and the number of sources subjected to direction-dependent gains. These studies summarise that the suppression rate is constant irrespective of the degree of incompleteness of the calibration sky model. In the presence of a direction-dependent effect, the suppression drastically increases; however, this increase can be compensated for by using longer solution intervals.
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  • Date Issued: 2015

Perceived breach and violation of the psychological contract in a collectivistic culture

  • Authors: Van der Merwe, Sophie Wilhelmine
  • Date: 2015
  • Subjects: Collectivism , Employees -- Attitudes , Contracts -- Psychological aspects , Industrial relations , Breach of contract , Personnel management -- Psychological aspects , Organizational behavior , Psychology, Industrial
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
  • Identifier: vital:855 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017523
  • Description: The significance of relationships on economic actions and employee behaviour makes it critical for employers to understand the dynamics of employment through mutual obligations (Rousseau, 1990; Guest, 2004b). The psychological contract affords a broad platform to study the employment relationship (Thomas et al., 2010), and is an important tool for organisational success (McDermott et al., 2013). The literature review contained in this study indicates the differences in contracting environments due to the prevailing cultural orientation. However, there is a dearth of research in collectivistic culture, to which this study will add. The literature also makes a distinction between perceptions of breach and violation. While perceptions of breach of the psychological contract is the perception that the employer has not met all obligations and promises, violation is the emotional and affective state following breach (Morrison & Robinson, 1997) and results in negative or deviant behaviours (Chiu & Peng, 2008). Both breach and violation perceptions negatively affect employee behaviours and attitudes in the workplace (Aggarwal & Bhargava, 2014). This research assumed a constructivist paradigm and builds understanding of the outcomes of breach and violation of the psychological contract on employees’ working life in a collectivistic environment. Primary data collection was by in-depth semi-structured, one on one interviews with five employees of a state-subsidised organisation in East London, making use of convenience sampling. Follow up interviews were conducted, resulting in 7ₑ/₄ hours of interviewing time. Cultural orientation was ascertained through the use of a questionnaire. The findings of this study confirmed that the type of psychological contract entered into influences the outcomes of perceptions of breach and violation. Both dimensions of collectivism, namely institutional and in-group, were practised in this environment, which also impacted on both the individual’s experience and outcomes for the organisation. The latter was influenced by commitment to organisational goals and supervisory or collegial relationships. Most notable of the results is the effect of expectations of transitional justice on experience of the psychological contract. Practical implications and recommendations for future research are made. This research is presented in three sections; firstly the research is presented in the format of an academic paper and includes a concise summary of literature and research method. The second section is an expanded literature review of the psychological contract and its influencing factors, as well as the outcomes of breach and violation. The last section describes and justifies in detail the design of the research and the research procedure followed. , Alternate name: Van der Merwe, Somine
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  • Date Issued: 2015

The socio-economic impact of a food production programme: Qamata irrigation scheme

  • Authors: Mafu, Nozipho
  • Date: 2015
  • Subjects: Food security -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Irrigation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/7772 , vital:24283
  • Description: Irrigation Schemes were introduce to be hub for food production and provision of job opportunities for rural communities. The idea also focused on provision of water in most dry areas but with potential soil for production. The introduction of government food security program came as means to achieve these objectives by subsidizing farmers with inputs and mechanical operations so as to reduce cost of production. This paper analyses the social and economic impact of massive food program in changing the lives of communities at Qamata Irrigation scheme. The data were collected from households who were beneficiaries of massive food program at Qamata Irrigation scheme and analysed using a descriptive statistics. The results show that socio-economic factors which include storage facilities, access to markets channels, land acquisition and size, change in income limit the ability of farmers to produce and sell productively, since they cannot store their produce for better market prices and are also limited in terms of available market. They are forced to sell at local village level on credit or have their produce loss in poor storage facilities. Qamata irrigation scheme had limited access to formal markets and market information.
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  • Date Issued: 2015

Development finance in small and medium enterprises in Matjhabeng Municipality

  • Authors: Babalola, Oluwanifesimi Omolade
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Business enterprises -- South Africa -- Finance , Economic development -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
  • Identifier: vital:9187 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020215
  • Description: It has been generally accepted within the developed and developing countries of the world that SMES contributes significantly to employment creation as the world population increases and that it also contributes to the economic growth of the areas they are situated in. Finance is the blood (life) of any business, for a business to be successful it needs steady successful access to funds and post financial support which leads to actualization of ideas, leads to investment and expansion, improves access to market amongst others. This is why the impact of development finance can never be over emphasized. The aims of the study are: To understand the extent to which small and medium businesses are supported through the availability of financial assistance in Matjabeng Municipality. To establish the survival rates of businesses that has been funded and or supported and whether they are or not sustainable. In achieving the aims and objectives of the research, the researcher looked at development funds both from the supply side and the demand side. The supply side which involved semi structured interviews with consultants of government parastatals (the FDC and DETEA) who are involved in financing Small Medium Enterprises in Matjhabeng municipality. The demand side involved administering of questionnaires to Entrepreneurs in the municipality who are registered with the Local Economic Department (LED), which led to the acceptance of the hypothesis of the research that development finance actually helps in the growth of small medium enterprises but in conjunction with post financial support such as bookkeeping, accounting, monitoring and evaluation. The researcher also discovered some findings amongst others which includes: The most effective ways entrepreneurs heard about funding in the municipality are through the media and word of mouth. Most of the entrepreneurs that received some type of funding are startups. More entrepreneurs that had access to funds also got some post financial business support. Financial assistance to entrepreneurs yielded improvements after respondents received financial assistance, the range of goods offered was improved and more jobs were created, entrepreneurs were able to obtain better business premises either by renting or buying and entrepreneurs had access to better equipment. Some of the recommendations of this study includes; The municipal government should help small and medium enterprises in the municipality by linking them to new markets. Effective monitoring and evaluation systems should be put in place by development funders and non-financial support services. Entrepreneurial skills development should be provided by the public and private agencies by organizing workshops for aspiring entrepreneurs in order to expose them to business opportunities that are sustainable and viable.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2014

Exploring the fertiliser potential of biosolids from algae integrated wastewater treatment systems

  • Authors: Mlambo, Patricia Zanele
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Sewage disposal plants , Sewage sludge as fertilizer , Algae -- Biotechnology , Sewage -- Purification -- Anaerobic treatment , Plant regulators , Biofertilizers , Microalgae -- Biotechnology
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
  • Identifier: vital:5957 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013342
  • Description: High rate algae oxidation ponds (HRAOP) for domestic wastewater treatment generate biosolids that are predominantly microalgae. Consequently, HRAOP biosolids are enriched with minerals, amino acids, nutrients and possibly contain plant growth regulator (PGR)-like substances, which makes HRAOP biosolids attractive as fertiliser or PGR. This study investigated HRAOP biosolids as a starting material for a natural, cost-effective and readily-available eco-friendly organic fertiliser and/or PGRs. Various HRAOP extract formulations were prepared and their effect on plant growth and development was evaluated using selected bioassays. Initial screening included assessing the effect on change in specific leaf area, radish cotyledon expansion as an indicator of PGR-like activity, and seed germination index (GI). More detailed studies on fertiliser efficacy and PGR-like activity utilised bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants. Combined effects of sonicated (S) and 40% v/v methanol (M) extract (5:1 SM) had impressive plant responses, comparable to Hoagland solution (HS). Other potentially fertiliser formulations included 0.5% M, 1% M, 2.5% S and 5% S formulations. The 5:1 SM and 5% S showed greater PGR-like activity, promoting cotyledon expansion by 459 ± 0.02% and 362 ± 0.01%, respectively. GI data showed that none of the formulations negatively impacted germination. Further investigation showed that the 5% S formulation increased leaf length, width and area by 6.69 ± 0.24, 6.21 ± 0.2 mm and 41.55 ± 0.2 mm². All formulated fertiliser extracts had no adverse effect on chlorophyll content and plant nutrient balance as indicated by C:N (8-10:1) ratio. In addition, plants appeared to actively mobilise nutrients to regions where needed as evidenced by a shift in shoot: root ratio depending on C, N and water availability. Furthermore, 5% S caused a 75% increase in tomato productivity and had no effect on bean productivity. Whereas, 5:1 SM and 1% M formulation improved bean pod production by 33.3% and 11%, respectively but did not affect tomato production. Harvest index (HI) however indicated a 3% reduction in tomato productivity with 5:1 SM and little or no enhancement in bean productivity with both 5:1 SM and 5% S treatments. Bean plants treated with 5:1 SM and 5% S produced larger fruits, which could be an indication of the presence of a PGR effect. Overall, HRAOP biosolids extracts prepared and investigated in this study demonstrated both fertiliser characteristics and PGR-like activity with performances comparable and in some cases exceeding that of commercial products. However additional research is needed to confirm presence of PGR-like activities and fertiliser efficacy.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2014

An assessment of change readiness prior to significant organisational change

  • Authors: Bedser, Mark Bernard
  • Date: 2013
  • Subjects: Organization change -- South Africa -- Case studies Eskom (Firm) -- Management , ADKAR model
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
  • Identifier: vital:716 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001870
  • Description: This research paper is broken up into three sections, namely an evaluation report, a literature review and research methodology. The evaluation report section is the assessment of the current state of change readiness within the Eskom Contact Centre’s based upon what the literature on change readiness prescribes. The timing of the change readiness assessment is just prior to significant organisational change. The organisational change that was about to be initiated by the organisation was initiated from the boardroom of the most senior echelons of the organisation, and was directed in a top down approach, being a strategic organisational change. The change is deemed to be critical to the organisation being able to meet its long term strategic and sustainability objectives. A critical examination of the literature explored the meaning of change readiness, the importance of it and explained the consequences for organisations that commit to transformational agendas without being ready. Key concepts such as such resistance to change and organisational inertia are described and differentiated from change readiness. The ADKAR change model and its change readiness assessment instrument were used due to the organisations preference for the model. The ADKAR model formed the framework for the analyses of the data, the discussion of the results and the recommendations to the organisation. The research conducted was quantitative in nature; a questionnaire was distributed to the employees of the seven Eskom Contact centre sites around the country through an email. A slightly modified version of the ADKAR change readiness questionnaire was sent via email with an on-line questionnaire link on it; and questions on individual readiness for change were used to assess the level of readiness of the employees. Most of the descriptive and inferential statistics were analysed with the use of Excel (version, 2010), with Factor Analysis being done in research showed that: - The factors as proposed by the ADKAR change readiness assessment questionnaire (i.e. Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement) are not different enough to be considered as independent factors for this data set. Based on factor analysis, the factors were subsequently amended from five to three, namely Readiness, Opportunity Realisation and Uncertainty. - The Contact Centre employees were somewhat ready for change. - The Contact Centres needed to focus on all amended ADKAR factors in order to improve the readiness of the department. - The readiness levels in response to the roll out were more or less uniform. The study shows that given Eskom’s preference for the ADKAR model, future research within Eskom should therefore be conducted more circumspectly with respect to ascertaining the validity of the ADKAR factors. The study also makes mention that future work and/or research will need to be conducted, specifically on the readiness of the organisation itself, in order to improve the probability of transformational success. The ADKAR assessment is a people focused assessment and therefore focuses only on the readiness of the individual. Factors such as the adequacy of the current state of resources within the organisation, which incorporate aspects such as infrastructure, technology and staffing, will also need to be assessed to make a more holistic statement of change readiness. A concise review of the literature is incorporated into the Evaluation Report of Section 1 to underpin the study. In Section 2 a more extensive review of the literature is presented. Similarly, the design of the research is discussed in more detail in Section 3 to both describe and justify the appropriateness of the research methodology, and to give a detailed account of the way in which the research was carried out.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2013
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