This study focuses on the motivations of caregivers who have adopted children affected by, and infected with, HIV/AIDS. The caregivers who participated in the study are from Rustenburg, in the North-West Province. These caregivers form part of the ethnic group classified as Coloured. The community from which these caregivers come have many caregivers who regularly adopt and look after more than four children, at least one of whom is affected by, or infected with, HIV/AIDS. None of the children who were adopted lived with their biological parents, as their parents had either died of HIV/AIDS or had abandoned them when they were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. This research is a phenomenological study that followed a qualitative descriptive research design. This research design allowed the caregivers to share their motivations for adopting children affected by and infected with HIV/AIDS. The caregivers found it very rewarding to communicate and share their perspectives on, and motivations for, adopting children affected by and infected with HIV/AIDS, and to share their real thoughts and feelings. The caregivers were able to give profound and sincere answers about their motivation to adopt HIV/AIDS affected and infected children. Four female caregivers were purposefully selected from the Rustenburg area. All four of the caregivers were single parents; they have all lost their spouses as a result of death or divorce during the past 10 years. The researcher, therefore, collected data through observation, a focus group discussion, in-depth interviews and a collage activity. The focus group discussion and in-depth interviews were recorded on a digital voice recorder. The focus group discussion was conducted with the caregivers; one week prior to the in-depth interviews. The focus group discussion included a collage activity, where the caregivers used pictures and words to express their motivations to adopt HIV/AIDS affected and infected children. Thematic data analysis was used to transform the transcribed data into meaningful information on adoption. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This study focuses on the motivations of caregivers who have adopted children affected by, and infected with, HIV/AIDS. The caregivers who participated in the study are from Rustenburg, in the North-West Province. These caregivers form part of the ethnic group classified as Coloured. The community from which these caregivers come have many caregivers who regularly adopt and look after more than four children, at least one of whom is affected by, or infected with, HIV/AIDS. None of the children who were adopted lived with their biological parents, as their parents had either died of HIV/AIDS or had abandoned them when they were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. This research is a phenomenological study that followed a qualitative descriptive research design. This research design allowed the caregivers to share their motivations for adopting children affected by and infected with HIV/AIDS. The caregivers found it very rewarding to communicate and share their perspectives on, and motivations for, adopting children affected by and infected with HIV/AIDS, and to share their real thoughts and feelings. The caregivers were able to give profound and sincere answers about their motivation to adopt HIV/AIDS affected and infected children. Four female caregivers were purposefully selected from the Rustenburg area. All four of the caregivers were single parents; they have all lost their spouses as a result of death or divorce during the past 10 years. The researcher, therefore, collected data through observation, a focus group discussion, in-depth interviews and a collage activity. The focus group discussion and in-depth interviews were recorded on a digital voice recorder. The focus group discussion was conducted with the caregivers; one week prior to the in-depth interviews. The focus group discussion included a collage activity, where the caregivers used pictures and words to express their motivations to adopt HIV/AIDS affected and infected children. Thematic data analysis was used to transform the transcribed data into meaningful information on adoption. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Published Article / Titanium has fired the imagination of engineers and designers for decades by its 'ideal' combination of high strength, low density and good corrosion resistance. However, its application has unfortunately been limited to those niche markets where performance is more important than cost, such as in the aerospace, military, medical and off-shore oil drilling fields. Extensive efforts have been and still are being expended on ways to make this metal cheaper. There are promising new processes but these have yet to be demonstrated commercially. Nevertheless, there has been a global surge in interest in titanium over the past decade, and in South Africa the government has recently made this a particular focus for research and development funding. With the increased availability of higher quality titanium powder, metal injection moulding offers an attractive method for producing small, intricate components at a reasonable cost. This paper will present an overview of the metal injection moulding process and discuss the particular challenges related to the use of titanium and titanium alloy powders. The state of the global and local industry and markets will also be reviewed.

Published Article / Municipalities in South Africa are under pressure as a result of poor financial control and lack of accountability, leading to extensive corruption and financial mismanagement with detrimental consequences for effective and efficient service delivery. Financial control is of the utmost importance when it comes to determining the success or failure of local government in South Africa. Currently, several challenges exist that hamper effective and efficient financial management at municipalities. These challenges include, amongst others, a lack of expertise, an inability to collect arrear debt, extensive corruption, exorbitant salaries and bonuses, and so forth. These challenges also contribute towards ineffective and inefficient municipal service delivery. If municipalities want to overcome these challenges, it is essential for those involved to address matters in a sincere, honest and ethical manner. In this article the author investigates the challenges facing local government and proposes ways of overcoming the challenges by means of the enforcement of strict financial control measures for public accountability. This in effect serves as a guarantee for sound municipal financial management in South Africa.

Cross-border tourism development have become increasingly popular the last decades and especially within the European Union through Interreg-programmes. The contemporary research have mainly focused on the advantages and challenges associated with such collaborations with a perspective on visitors and private entrepreneurs in border regions. There are however an unfortunate lack of research on the role of local governments such as municipalities in cross-border tourism collaborations. Therefore the aim of this study is to analyse the interest and attitudes among public actors towards cross-border tourism development, and to identify challenges facing these on an interregional level in cross-border tourism collaborations. The case study have been the Öresund Region between Sweden and Denmark where recently a large scale cross-border platform was implemented party focusing on tourism development in the region. A qualitative approach has been utilized with semi-structured interviews focusing on advantages and challenges associated with cross-border tourism development among public actors in the region. The analysis have shown that there is a great interest among the informants for large scale tourism cooperation in order to reach distant markets and to become a stronger competitor on the global market. Identified challenges mainly concern uneven political power structures which may lead to barriers for further cooperation’s.

Enterprise Resource planning has gained prominence in the field of IS literature and is a significant phenomenon in practice in organizations and now also in higher educational institutions. These Institutions have their own unique method of operation and infrastructural facilities; and one of the biggest single most expenditure made by them is in their Enterprise Resource Planning Systems. The drive towards ERP is based on a desire to rationalize and streamline information systems across the whole organization seeking both improvement and business benefits. The ERP systems combine all discrete information into a single, integrated, real-time database. In the HEI context the ERP systems are seen as software solutions that address the diverse needs by tightly integrating all departments and functions within a single computer system configuration to serve particular needs such as students systems which manage all the student records/data and VLE systems like Blackboard which is a course management system. ERP addresses the institutions needs by providing a better service to its various users. The aim of this research study is to explore the quality, impact, benefits, utility and challenges of ERP systems specifically the student systems and VLE Blackboard in a Higher Educational Institution and analyse these ERP systems from a multiple perspective. The ERP systems have been applied by many Educational Institutions around the world as a key part of their organizational infrastructure and these systems tend to have a long life cycle in organizational use. The requirement is for the smooth functioning and utilization of these ERP systems while taking into consideration the changing demands as universities operate in a dynamic environment where there is a rapid change in technology. Millions of pounds and extensive deliberation is made on the implementation of the ERP system on the basis of expectations to align the institution objectives with business needs. This presents a huge challenge, if not properly addressed may lead to heavy investment without the corresponding institution efficiency.

The amount of electronics in vehicles is growing quickly, thus systems are becoming increasingly complex making the engineering of these software intensive systems more and more difficult. In particular, an architecture supporting the business goals is a prerequisite for successful design. In this thesis two case studies have been made including three automotive companies with purpose to investigate the key issues related to real-world decisions when developing Electrical and Electronic (E/E) system architectures in the automotive industry. The results show that many of the identified issues relate to non technical areas such as organization, process, methods and tools, and management. Examples of identified issues are the deficient understanding of the electrical system and software at management level, and the lack of a specific process for architecture development. To cope with these issues we suggest the following actions: Educate management, increase the use of structured decision making, improve the architecture development process, clarify responsibilities in the organization and clarify development strategies. As a possible solution to one of the suggested actions we have developed a method to evaluate how new functionality is successfully integrated into an existing architecture. Themethod is a combination of the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method, ATAM, and the Analytical Hierarchy Process, AHP. The method firstly supports a structured way of listing system goals, and secondly, it also supports the making of design decisions. / Business Oriented Concept Development of Electronic System Architecture and Platforms in Vehicles

Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / Families remain a major social support system that plays a key role in the provision of primary healthcare (PHC) for children, and this role is especially important as PHC would normally take place before a child is taken to hospital for further treatment. The literature shows that although families have a direct influence on their children’s PHC, the former’s role is limited as a result of socio-economic factors such as poverty, unemployment and distance to healthcare centres. In South Africa, PHC is offered by the state but is of a lower standard than the more specialised, ‘hi-tech’ health services available in the private sector. Although the public health sector is over-stretched and under-resourced, the government has established PHC facilities in many locations throughout South Africa. This status quo requires families to play a role by knowing the locations of such facilities in order to maintain their children’s health. The provision of primary health in South Africa is a two-tiered system that requires the involvement of both families and healthcare providers. The results of the study indicated that there were various interpretations of PHC by both parents and health professionals, owing to different levels of knowledge about the concept. The lack of knowledge of the various forms of home remedies greatly affected the application of PHC in terms of a need to appreciate PHC practices in the family setting; and health professionals need to disseminate knowledge to parents on a routine basis as part of their work at hospitals. The findings furthermore suggested that parents and healthcare workers faced various challenges in the provision of PHC. The implications of the study pointed to the need for a more extensive study that engaged a high number of participants of both parents and healthcare professionals to place the results into perspective. Other implications required a concerted effort from government, parents, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders to arrive at a prudent and logical improvement of PHC in South Africa.

This research explores a range of academic and socio-cultural challenges faced by seven Chinese post-graduate students at the University of the Witwatersrand. The main aims of this study are to identify and understand any academic discourse challenges these students have been experiencing, together with any challenges in their new socio-cultural environment, such as financial or social challenges, and then to investigate the impact of these challenges on their studies and their identities as students. The study is based on data gathered from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven Chinese post-graduate students, from location ‘maps’ completed by each student and from some examples of the writing of three of the students. The findings suggest that these Chinese students are encountering great challenges in relation to English language proficiency and adjustments to new Discourses (Gee, 1996) – both academic and social. The data provide evidence that although these students feel socially disempowered in many respects, their attitudes toward academic study remain positive and each is making steady progress in his or her progamme of study and research. This finding indicates that there seems to be no explicit connection between positive social experiences and academic achievement and contrasts with findings from other research studies in which there is a correlation iii between positive or negative socio-cultural experiences and success or failure in the academy.

Thesis (M.M. (Public and Development Management))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, 2014. / Microenterprises have the potential to address the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality because of the opportunities they present to the socially and economically disadvantaged in South Africa. This has a spillover effect of growing the economy. However, the challenges faced by tax compliant microenterprises as uncovered in this qualitative research, limits them in meeting potential. Twelve respondents comprising of three clusters (tax practitioners, microenterprise owners and SARS official) were purposefully and conveniently sampled to give their views and opinions about the challenges. The lack of expertise, SARS' evolving rules and regulations, financial costs of being compliant, onerous tax compliance preparations, and constitutional ambiguity and unclear definition of microenterprises were observed to be the major challenges that tax compliant microenterprises face. Although the South African government is not oblivious of the dilemma that tax compliant microenterprises often find themselves in, more needs to be done to ease their plight in operating in an enabling business environment. This study provides an insight into the current and future tax issues that government needs to address towards creating an enabling tax environment for businesses. The scope of this paper is limited as the researcher sought to bring to light the challenges faced by microenterprises. Other emerging issues, such as the benefits of being compliant could not be fully established and paves the way for further research.