Thesis (MPhil (School of Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / The word ‘ecovillage’ is evocative of a kind of human settlement that exists in complete harmony with nature and examples of such settlements are indeed in existence almost everywhere in the world, some nearly half a century in the making. The Gqunube Green Ecovillage near East London can hardly be described as one of a proliferation of such settlements in South Africa, but it is anticipated that an examination of that project will contribute to the limited academic literature on the topic of sustainable human settlement. In Chapter 1, this thesis introduces the Gqunube Green Ecovillage and, in the following six chapters, traces its origins and demonstrates how models for ‘ideal’ human settlement developed. It explains how and why an international ecovillage movement reached South Africa and how Reverend Roger Hudson responded to that movement by starting the Gqunube Green Ecovillage in South Africa. The conclusion is that Reverend Hudson has achieved his primary objective, namely the establishment of an ecovillage, but the challenges described in this thesis have been significant. One of the most significant potential stumbling blocks to the future smooth management of Gqunube Green is its own regulatory environment that dictates the relationship between the settlers and their ecovillage. The proposed sociocratic management style, combined with a strongly spiritual, eco-theological objective, is driven by a strongly worded and rule-orientated ecovillage constitution that is shown in Chapters 2 and 3 to have the potential to both alienate and unite the inhabitants of the Gqunube Green Ecovillage – depending on how it is interpreted and enforced. The external regulatory environment, both enabling and restricting development, is analysed in Chapter 4. National, provincial and local government legislation, policies and guidelines intersect to influence the progress of the Gqunube Green Ecovillage, creating opportunity for controversy between conservationists and developers. However, the debates between the various interest groups over the appropriateness of various development options for the east bank of the Gonubie Estuary were largely incidental and somewhat irrelevant to the delays in the development of the Gqunube Green Ecovillage that are described in Chapter 5. Although bureaucratic delays in the formal process of development have restrained the full rollout of the ecovillage project, the Gqunube Green Ecovillage was eventually established at the end of 2005 and the chronology leading to this milestone is described in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 of this thesis examines the timing of the Gqunube Green Ecovillage project within a changing and enabling paradigm shift, enabled by cooperative local government and efforts at the integration of legislation and policy to align with the constitutional aims of sustainable development. The concept of an ecovillage is not always acceptable to everyone as the ideal development model, especially when big business has a stake. However, it has been argued that the very fact that the establishment of an ecovillage has succeeded where big business was about to establish itself is a victory in itself for the founders of the Gqunube Green Ecovillage.

Thesis (MPhil (Sustainable Development Planning and Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / Despite our best planning and Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) efforts we seem to be failing in our pursuit of Sustainable Development. In South Africa we find ourselves confronted with the harsh reality that after 14 years of democracy, more than a decade of compulsory EIA, and 12 years of legislated Integrated Development Planning (“IDP”), poverty remains widespread and persists alongside affluence, while inequalities are also growing. In addition South Africa’s life-supporting ecosystems continue to deteriorate at an alarming rate. Critically reflecting on what is going wrong, it is clear that there is an emergent consensus in the discourse that points towards the inadequate consideration of alternatives. A literature review of the historical development and social construction of the concept of “sustainable development”; a theoretical analysis of sustainable development, planning and EIA; as well as an analysis of the legislative and policy framework for EIA and IDP in South Africa, shows that the consideration of alternatives is the “heart” and “soul” of EIA and IDP, and therefore of the pursuit of sustainable development in South Africa. A content analysis of a sample of EIAs and IDPs undertaken and produced in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, however, indicates that alternatives are not being adequately considered during the current practice of EIA and IDP in South Africa – resulting in only slightly less unsustainable development and a perpetuation of the unsustainable and unjust “business-as-usual” development types and patterns of the past. EIA and IDP can never be, and were never supposed to be completely separate processes. EIAs must be considered within the context to be provided by the sustainable development vision, goals and objectives to be formulated in, and the desired spatial form and pattern of land use to be reflected in an area’s IDP and Spatial Development Frameworks (“SDF”). Properly informed Strategic Environmental Assessment based IDPs and SDFs, refined by Environmental Management Frameworks, should therefore provide the strategic context and decision-making framework for the consideration of need, desirability and alternatives; with the actual and potential socio-economic and ecological impacts of a specific proposal to be considered during the project-level EIA. Project-level EIAs in turn providing “feedback” to the planning processes to ensure reflexivity and continued improvement. The improved integration and convergence of IDP and EIA decision-making methodologies and practice are therefore paramount to the adequate consideration of alternatives and the pursuit of sustainable development in South Africa. While the challenges to be addressed by EIA and IDP in South Africa are complex and ‘wicked’, and the pursuit of sustainable development solutions is therefore also a complex and ongoing process, the need for fundamental alternatives that will lead to drastic and urgent change for the better are, however, just as real. The urgency and importance of the sustainable development challenge for South Africa calls for bold decisions and the search for sustainable alternatives that will deliver urgent and fundamental change for all South Africans. The practice of EIA and IDP should be driven by these realities and reflect the need for urgent and fundamental change.

Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The Further Education and Training (FET) and Higher Education and Training (HET) bands in South Africa are characterised by major challenges resulting in the high rate of unemployment in the country despite the promulgation of a plethora of transformative pieces of legislation post-1994. These challenges include failure by post-matric applicants to meet minimum university requirements for admission; unemployed graduates; and tension within the higher education and Training (HET) band among various quality assurance bodies and explicit mutual doubt about each other’s capacity to perform quality assurance of HE learning programmes. In an endeavour to find solutions to these problems, the researcher contemplated whether the cause could not be the current system of quality assurance in South Africa. This perception has dominated the current discourse on quality assurance, which has warranted a need for research in this area to find concrete answers to the current problems, as well as potential solutions. In this study, the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) are used as units of analysis to determine the veracity of the arguments pervading the current quality assurance discourse that there are uneven levels for quality and different and presumably inconsistent varying capacities for quality assurance in the current education system. The objective of the study was to test the veracity of this hypothesis for the purposes of making recommendations informed by concrete and scientific empirical data. The major findings of this study are that the South African Qualification Authority (SAQA) policy, requiring CHE and the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) to coordinate the entire HET band, has not been implemented as envisaged. The degrees of quality assurance and capacity for quality assurance in South Africa vary dramatically between the SETAs and CHE and also among the SETAs when compared with one another, and there is a lack of consistency and co-ordination at National Qualification Framework (NQF) Level 5. Furthermore, the current legislative framework underpinning the SETAs and CHE is fundamentally contradictory. On the basis of these findings it is recommended that the current quality assurance and accreditation system be overhauled by bringing about one council responsible for the quality assurance and accreditation of all workplace and vocationally orientated learning programmes in line with international best practices. CHE should concentrate on learning programmes that are academically orientated. Lastly, the current legislative framework governing the operations of SETAs and CHE should be amended.

Thesis (MPhil (Sustainable Development Planning and Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Gender equality and access to basic water services are complexly interlinked objectives for both poverty alleviation and sustainable development. In South Africa, research shows that despite the emphasis on mainstreaming gender equality in the water services sector, (and the concomitant policies and structures) the lives of poor women in this sector are not substantively being transformed. This study was therefore aimed at deriving principles that would enhance the impact of gender mainstreaming in the water services sector, and at evaluating current South African guidelines according to these principles. The study was qualitative in nature, and both theoretical and empirical information was used to derive the above principles. The initial literature survey indicated a need for a systemic approach to gender mainstreaming in the water services sector. Therefore, theoretical information was principally obtained from literature on poverty, sustainable development, complexity theory, feminism and governance. Empirical information was obtained from three sources, namely (1) participant observation of the meetings of the Strategic Advisory Group on Gender of the Water Services Sector Leadership Group (WSSLG), (2) individual interviews with a range of stakeholders, and (3) focus group interviews with community members involved in six water services projects – three each in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga Provinces. The study resulted in a proposed framework of fourteen focus areas for gender mainstreaming in the water services sector. These focus areas, along with illustrative questions, are the following: (1) Policy premises and formulation (Is the policy premised on equity and poverty alleviation?) (2) Approach to gender mainstreaming (How is the 50/50 campaign being implemented?) (3) The role of the gender officials (Is the gender focal point part of the strategic management team?) (4) Co-operative governance (Are IDP officials and women’s organizations involved?) (5) Public participation (Is the public participation process adequately resourced?) (6) Advocacy and awareness raising (Do family gender relations feature in awareness raising initiatives?) (7) Access to basic services (Are women specifically targeted in service provision?) (8) HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence (What measures are in place to decrease the risk of disease?) (9) Economic empowerment (Are the employment opportunities created sustainable?) (10) Leadership by women (How is the leadership capacity of women being developed?) (11) Capacity development of women (Is the training aimed at portable skills?) (12) Project/programme management (What monitoring and evaluation processes are being used?) (13) Environmental sustainability (What measures are in place to conserve water and reduce pollution?) (14) Engaging with traditional culture (How are restrictive cultural traditions addressed?) When the above framework was applied to the WSSLG Gender Mainstreaming Strategy and Action Plan (DWAF, 2005), the WSSLG strategy was in certain respects found to be non-responsive to the learning garnered in this study. Particularly, the WSSLG strategy neither adopts a poverty alleviation approach, nor addresses environmental sustainability and traditional culture. It also does not facilitate co-operative governance and programme management. Finally, gender inequality in the water services sector impedes both poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Systemic solutions are required, and these study results might be germane to these.

Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Research was conducted in this paper on organisational performance management. Various definitions are offered in order to provide an explanation to the topic. Different models on performance management were discussed including the balanced scorecard. The City of Cape Town was identified as a case study to ascertain how the provisions for the performance management system, as stipulated in legislation, were implemented. The use of the balanced scorecard was also reviewed. Officials were interviewed, as well as various documentation considered, dealing with performance management in the City of Cape Town. From the findings various recommendations were made to improve the performance management system.

Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / The dawn of a democratic South Africa in 1994 was seen as the beginning of a new era in South Africa. Land Reform, as a matter of moral reconciliation, and within the context of rural development, was high on the agenda to be addressed by the new democratic ANC-led government. Although South Africa’s history of systematic racial land dispossession is not unique; the extent of the dispossession, and racial nature of the dispossession gave a uniqueness to South Africa’s land history. In 1994 the racially skewed land ownership pattern reflected that 55 000 white commercial farmers owned 87 per cent of the land, yet the African majority of had access to 13 per cent of the marginal land. The land reform imperative was restricted in approach by the compromise reached during the negotiations resulting in a transitional government for South Africa. In addition, the early 1990’s, was a period of increasing dominance of the neo-liberal ideology with its minimal state and minimal state intervention, and reliance on the free market principles informing interventions and programmes. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa enshrined private property rights protection; and whilst given recognition to the requirement of land reform it enshrined a market-led approach with enabling legislation and policy statements such as a “willing-buyer/willing-seller” requirements for redistribution and market related prices for land acquisition. The Department of Land Affairs, a national government department, was tasked with the development and implementation of land redistribution. Therefore, despite the neo-liberal principles informing land reform, a state-led approach towards the actual implementation was embarked upon. In 1998 a target was set to be achieved within 5 years; which the Department failed dismally to reach. The target was then extended to be reached by 2014, and the thesis predicts that unless the delivery mechanism currently utilised for land redistribution is changed the target will not be reached by 2014. The New Public Management paradigm, and various alternative delivery mechanisms have been considered, in addition to assessing the delivery mechanisms and approaches towards land reform in Brazil and the Philippines in an attempt to identify suitable delivery mechanisms for land reform in South Africa to enable it to achieve its target and objectives. A detailed evaluation of an existing Public-Private Partnership, which exists to implement land redistribution was undertaken in terms of primary data collection and secondary data statistics. The evaluation assessed whether this delivery mechanism will enable targets to be met and land redistribution objectives in relation to rural development be achieved. The thesis argues that the Public-Private Partnerships alternative delivery mechanism is a suitable vehicle to delivery land redistribution across agriculture commodities, with key recommendations on matters to address within the PPP mechanism. For land reform to be implemented at the required scale and to achieve its developmental objectives innovation is required within partnership approaches and not a traditional bureaucratic-led approach.

Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The Staff Performance Management System (SPMS) was introduced and implemented in the public service at the start of the 2003/2004 financial year. Apart from being called to align with the Constitution and other relevant acts, it signalled a change in approach and philosophy to measure performance. One of the aims of this new system was to assist in communicating and reinforcing the organisation strategies, values and norms and to integrate individual and corporate objectives. It also aims to ensure that employees are evaluated in terms of a system that is fair, objective, transparent and which provides equitable rewards and recognition. Prior to the implementation of the system it was envisaged that the SPMS should be a system that is characterised by the following: • Managers/supervisors provide leadership and integrate performance with other aspects of their work by accepting primary responsibility to manage the people entrusted to them. • Employees understand that their performance directly contribute to the ongoing success or the organisation. • Individual employees have a full understanding of their work responsibilities and the standards of work expected of them. • Individual employees receive regular and structured feedback on their performance. • Valued performance is recognised and rewarded. However, when the system was implemented no norms and standards were developed against which performance of staff at the Gene Louw Traffic College could be managed. The focal point of this study was to collect data on the current practices of the SPMS as implemented at the Gene Louw Traffic College in order to analyse the data and to identify possible challenges. The key question that stimulated this study is – How can the SPMS be improved to prevent low morale? Recommendations are made regarding the proper implementation of the system, development of norms and standards, SPMS training and incentives in order to alleviate low morale and inefficient performance.

Thesis (MPhil (Sustainable Development Planning and Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Both Afghanistan and Sudan have experienced extended periods of war and violent conflict. Sudan has been engulfed in a nearly continuous and bitter civil war since independence in 1956. Afghanistan has been in a state of conflict since the Soviet invasion in 1979. Both nations are also among the poorest and least developed in the world. The article on Sudan addresses the interlinkages that exist between conflict and natural resources and how access to and unequal distribution of natural resources have triggered and fuelled violent conflict. In the case of Afghanistan, the article looks at the reasons for US military intervention in 2001 and analyses the reconstruction and development programmes devised by the international community in order to rebuild the country. Based on these, the article looks at the potential for creating a sustainable society in Afghanistan and putting in place an effective system of environmental governance. Although it is recognised that both countries have managed to address some of the causes of conflict, the articles also state that in both cases, the agreements that were signed between the warring parties are far from being comprehensive. This is illustrated by the fact that in Afghanistan, conflict with the Taliban has increased dramatically in recent months, and in Sudan, by the still ongoing conflict in Darfur. It is argued that in both countries the potential for promoting long-term sustainable development is limited not unrelated, in large measure, to the nature of the development agendas being imposed by external decision-makers. Financial institutions and other international development actors have played an instrumental role in devising these agendas. They are promoting development strategies mostly based on neo-liberal policies and reliant on market forces, despite the fact that these policies have, in the past, often failed to trigger economic growth and alleviate poverty. Finally, while issues relating to the management of natural resources, particularly those of global and strategic importance, receive a fair amount of attention in the development plans, environmental protection as such, is often lacking political and financial commitment.

Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The birth of democracy in South Africa launched a paradigm shift in the public sector aligning it with the new political ideology. To meet this objective, state organs had to be radically transformed to embrace this new political ideology so as to extend and enhance service delivery to all South Africans. The democratisation of state organs led to the transformation of public institutions both statutory and non-statutory. The urgency to transform strategic state institutions whose mandate was to provide basic and primary needs like health, housing and social services, led to the neglect of other like sport, culture, and the natural environment. The transformation of some of the latter institutions was attended to only after a couple of years after the democratisation. This led to flaws in these legislative development processes which resulted in the creation of different institutions by various laws. This was the root cause of fragmentation. The provisions of these Acts are in some areas ambiguous and contradictory. The consequences are duplications and overlaps in the implementation processes. Heritage institutions have different regulatory frameworks and management systems – regulations, policies, guidelines and procedures. Furthermore, complex internal management systems expedite fragmentation of this sector. This institutional fragmentation has enormous impact on heritage conservation and management. There is limited cooperation and collaboration between heritage institutions. This study will outline how theories, strategies and instruments from the new public management approach, can be utilised to address these challenges. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Met die totstandkoming van ‘n demokratiese Suid-Afrika het in paradigma verskuiwing in die openbare sektor gevolg wat dit in lyn gebring het met die nuwe politieke ideologie. Om hierdie doelwit te bereik staats instelling moes radikaal getransformeer word om hierdie nuwe politieke ideologie te ondersteun en diens lewering na alle Suid-Afrikaners uit te brei. Die demokratisering van staatsinstellings het tot die transformasie van beide statutere en -nie statutere instellings gelei. Die noodsaak om strategiese staatsinstellings wie se mandaat dit was om basiese en primere dienste soos gesondheid, behuising en maatskaplike dienste te verskaf en transformeer, het tot die verwaarlosing van sport, kultuur en omgewingsake gelei. Dit het ‘n paar jaar geduur na demokratisering voordat die transformasie van hierdie instellings aandag gekry het. Die gevolg was ‘n gebrekkige wetgewende ontwikkelingsproses wat tot die totstandkoming van verskillende instellings in terme van verskeie wette gelei het. Hierdie is die bron van fragmentasie. Die voorskrifte van hierdie wetgewing is in sekere areas dubbelsinnig en teenstrydig. Die gevolg is duplikasie en oorvleuling in die implementeringsprosesse. Erfenis oorvleueling instellings het verskillende regulatoriese raamwerke en bestuurstelsels- regulasies, beleide, riglyne en prosedures. Verder vererger die komplekse interne bestuurstelsels fragmentasie in die sektor. Die institusionele fragmentasie het groot impak op erfenisbewaring en-bestuur. Daar is beperkte samewerking tussen erfenis instellings. Hierdie studies sal aandui hoe teoriee, strategie en instrumente van die nuwe benadering tot openbare bestuur aangewend kan word om hierdie uitdagings die hoof te bied.

Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / This study was carried out to assess the extent of citizen participation in local government decision-making, with focus on the local government budgeting processes. A framework of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil is used to assess participation in budgeting in the Mantsopa Local Municipality in the Free State Province with a view to drawing appropriate lessons for South Africa as a whole. The research looks at three important concepts in governance. The first is the issue of good governance. The second is citizen participation and collaboration as cornerstones of good governance. The third is participatory budgeting as an aspect of citizen participation and collaborative decisionmaking. A multiple research approach was employed, which included the use of focus group discussions, and interviews to examine the level of citizen participation in local government decision-making process within the Mantsopa Municipality. Municipal documents and records were used to analyse the existing situation within the municipality. The research found out that the political and administrative elites are still holding on to power that should be in the hands of citizens. Civil society groups are still being neglected in local government decision-making. Citizens are also not being encouraged and mobilised to take part in the budget process. The issue of racial discrimination in engaging citizens in decision-making still exists. Mostly, the white business and farming community felt that they were largely excluded from these processes.