Sustainable tourism requires accommodation businesses to balance economic, environmental and social issues, taking into account the needs of current and future generations. However, despite the ever E increasing attention on sustainable tourism and the acknowledgement of the impacts of tourism on the environment, this form of tourism only represents a minor share of all tourism. Ecotourism forms part of sustainable tourism and is one of the most common forms of commercially focused wildlife management on privately owned land. Luxury safari lodges are expected to provide a high level of hospitality , luxurious facilities and exquisite cui sine . Consequently, these lodges consume large quantities of resources and are reliant on the adequate supply of water and energy. Safari lodges are also reliant on the natural environment to attract guests. Therefore it is prudent of these businesses to conserve and protect water, energy and ecological resources to ensure the perpetuity of the lodge. Furthermore, both the environment and society benefit from the conservation of these resources. This study investigates the awareness of sustainable tourism and environmental practices in luxury safari lodges. Twenty-five luxury safari lodges in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa were approached and a total of six safari lodges participated in an email E based questionnaire and one took part in semi -structured interviews. The research reveals that luxury safari lodges are aware of sustainable tourism and its importance. In addition, they involved in a number of environmental activities in order to achieve sustainability. The environment is emphasized as central to sustainable tourism, stemming from the fact that these lodges rely on the natural environment to attract guests. Balancing financial commitments to sustainability was found to have an impact on certain aspects of the luxury safari lodges attitudes and actions. The research indicated two key directions to pursue to sustain environmental activities in the luxury safari lodge industry. Firstly, education and awareness of staff and guests is acknowledged as central to supporting and achieving sustainability in luxury safari lodges. Secondly, lodges affiliated with voluntary initiatives such as FTT and Greenleaf are audited regularly to ensure a specific standard has been achieved, thus maintaining sustainable best practices in the lodges. The research concluded that the motivation for achieving sustainable tourism within luxury safari lodges can be seen as driven by: the need to preserve the natural environment, the opportunity to reduce operating costs (increase profitability) and the growing demand for environmentally friendly safari lodges.

As greenhouse gas emissions drive anthropogenic climate change, flooding and flood related risk are likely to increase in frequency and intensity. The burden of these risks are expected to be concentrated in urban areas, particularly affecting highly vulnerable informal settlements. Adapting to these risks will largely fall under the responsibility of local governments. However local governments, in particular those in developing countries, often lack the capacity to implement effective adaptation strategies for long-term resilience. Drawing on social network analysis this research examines the role of social ties and social capital in facilitating knowledge sharing to improve the capacities of local governments to deal with flood-related risks. Using the case studies of Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality and Mossel Bay Local Municipality in South Africa, this research found that patterns of social interactions in the two local governments were largely a result of the size of structures of governance. The larger Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality network consisted of poorly connected sub-groups with poor knowledge dispersal. This led to poor adaptive and inclusive governance because poor levels of collaboration and social learning inhibited effective flood management. The smaller Mossel Bay Local Municipality network consisted of a bonded network with high knowledge transfers. These characteristics contributed to improved adaptive and inclusive governance because strong collaboration enabled informed and flexible flood management. The poor collaboration in NMBMM is likely to negatively affect the municipality's capacity to build resilience for informal settlements by negatively affecting coping, adaptive and transformative capacity. The strong collaboration in MBLM can foster coping and adaptive capacities, but may be hampering the transformative capacity of the municipality. Thus social networks have a considerable role to play in the governance of flooding, thereby influencing the ability of the two local governments to build resilience in informal settlements.

This dissertation examines the impact of various modes of transport on Grade 3 primary school learners' well-being in a rural school in the Cape Winelands district of the Western Cape, South Africa. The study moves beyond this narrow frame of physical transport to include the physiological, emotional, and educational domains of learners' lives. The individuals' physiological, emotional and educational well-being are utilised as analytical categories. The research used a mixed-methods design in a case-study approach. The qualitative data was derived from learner focus groups, open-ended interviews, and learner and teacher questionnaires. The quantitative data was derived from school records of learner attendance, Western Cape Education Department (WCED) term schedules and the WCED Systemic test results for the school. The main findings were as follows: (1) On a physiological level, irrespective of the mode of transport, access to school was found to be difficult but not impossible due to dangers and similar safety issues for all learners including pedestrians (2) On an emotional level, again all learners faced similar fears and trauma possibilities, and lacked the support of professional counsellors (3) Educationally, the bus passengers performed worse than other MoTs, whereas the pedestrians were the highest performing group. Also, seasonal change influenced learner absenteeism and similar attendance patterns were found for all MoTs in summer but in winter the pedestrians came to school more often than the bus passengers.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-81). / This exploratory study aimed to investigate the role that design houses play in the Cape Town clothing value chain of production. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants, buyers in clothing retail companies, heads of design rooms in design houses, and homeworkers. Findings reveal that design houses act as intermediaries between retailers and clothing manufacturers or between retailers and homeworkers. In their latter role design houses are forging links between the informal and formal clothing economy. As in buyer-driven chains of production, retailers in the clothing value chain wield a substantial amount of power in determining prices. It was found that design houses are not completely powerless in their relationship with retailers, in fact, they posses knowledge that enables them to bargain over prices. The relationship between design houses and homeworkers was found to be an oppressive one, with homeworkers possessing little to no bargaining power. The increase in the number of design houses in Cape Town has assisted in the survival of the industry in the face of a number of difficulties. The continued presence of design houses creates the potential for development in the industry.

There is extensive literature about the role of the principal in creating a school culture that fosters a positive school climate. How the principal addresses staff culture is among the many issues that affect lasting change. The purpose of this investigation is to examine the activities and behaviors of four suburban high school principals and how they influence change. Cross-case site analysis utilizing ethnographic method of investigation was conducted in four suburban high schools to examine how principals influence change. The culture of each school site was examined from the perspective of principals and department chairpersons concerning elements of change. Data were collected through interviews with principals and department chairpersons. The Developmental Research Sequence (D.R.S.) model was used to identify a set of specific dimensions for more in-depth investigation. This process of analysis provided a method for focusing the study to discover cultural themes and patterns about how principals influence change in high schools. Triangulation of data was addressed by using multiple data sources and multiple method data analysis. The major findings of this study were that principals who influenced change demonstrated a high degree of interest and care for school community members on a professional and personal level. Principals who valued what and how people thought were recognized as being connected to the school culture. It was through this awareness that principals could then channel ideas and provide opportunities to involve people in the change process. Principals recognized for using this type of approach cultivated and nourished a culture that was open to examining and entertaining change for both personal and professional growth and improvement. These results will have implications for educational practitioners who recognize the significance of change as a fundamental ingredient in today's educational climate and modern day society. / Ed. D.

Recent trends in sustainability research have particularly propagated transdisciplinary approaches in knowledge production. These new modes of knowledge production seek to deconstruct universalist principles and epistemic authorities from positivist research approaches. The potential of replicating existing power dynamics into these transdisciplinary spaces has, however, not sufficiently been critically questioned yet. This study proposes that transformative change in development of African cities requires a deconstruction of these power dynamics, that current transdisciplinary sustainability research is not yet sufficiently engaging in. To examine the power dynamics, the study applied a decolonial lens in its analysis. In a novel approach to contesting climate knowledge, the study sought to deconstruct the foundational concepts that are operationalised in the transdisciplinary knowledge generation. The analysis focused on tracing assumptions to identify imaginaries, that construct the geopolitical space and condition knowledge politics within a transdisciplinary research programme in Windhoek, Namibia. It further sought to reveal the mechanisms in the programmatic research design that condition epistemic authorities and subjectivities in the collaborative processes. Power dynamics were traceable through imaginaries as well as the evidencing of epistemic authority. Two overarching imaginaries could be traced, which are based in the construction and engagement of the geopolitical space in Windhoek: the imaginary of the social impact and desirable future and the imaginary of the sciencepolicy interface. Both imaginaries were underpinned by the vision of transformation, whose operationalisation revealed to be instrumental in determining the actual transformational potential in contrast to the envisioned one. The analysis indicated the concept of transformation to be an inhibiting factor due to uncontested power dynamics that were replicated in the transdisciplinary space. Epistemic authority was especially evident in connection with the climate information that was generated to inform the knowledge co-production. A contestation of authoritative knowledge was evident with regards to contextualising the information for present and future climates in Windhoek. However, the scientific climate information itself was not questioned for its authority. The conceptual design of the stakeholder engagement revealed to be the main mechanism that created subjectivity. The study concluded with an exploratory section, an ‘epistemic disobedience’, which engages the principle of Walking With that is used by the indigenous activist movement of the Zapatistas in Mexico to create a vision of a new world. Walking With is used to reconstruct a vision of a decolonial approach to generating climate knowledge in an African urban space. This exploration further exemplifies a dimension of decolonial criticism, which is the importance of going beyond deconstruction towards fostering decolonial thinking.

Includes bibliographical references / Climate change poses a major threat to living organisms, with maximum temperatures expected to continue to rise over the next few decades. Hot desert environments are particularly at risk because they experience high environmental temperatures, scarce vegetation, low productivity and unpredictable water sources. Endotherms such as birds face the challenge of maintaining a stable body temperature while avoiding dehydration. This study was carried out in the southern Kalahari, in South Africa's Northern Cape, where about 50% of bird species (36 species) depend on free-standing drinking water. Livestock farms within this area provide artificial water points, which benefit birds as well as livestock. This study determined the role of shade and cover in the use of these artificial water points by birds. An experiment was conducted at six waterholes using the Before-After, Control-Impact (BACI) design. After an initial baseline was established, three waterholes were shaded while the other three were left unshaded. Camera traps were used to record the pattern and intensity of water use by bird species at different times of the day and at varying air temperatures. A total of 36 bird species drank at the water holes, but data analysis was confined to the ten most abundant species. Of the ten, six species responded to the presence of shade/cover, with four species reacting positively (Cape Glossy Starling Lamprotornis nitens , Red - headed Finch Amadina erythrocephala , Black - throated Canary Serinus atrogularis , and Laughing Dove Spilopelia senegalensis ), four showing no significant change in drinking patterns, and two showing a decrease in visitor numbers when the site was shaded (Cape Turtle - Dove Streptopelia capicola, Namaqua Dove Oena capensis). This suggests that providing shade at waterholes is not a universal solution to the problem of increasing heat stress experienced by birds coming to drink. Certain species such as the Laughing Doves and Cape Turtle-Doves avoided waterholes during the warmest time of the day while the Namaqua Doves were frequent visitors at this time. However, the Laughing Dove took advantage of the shade provided at midday (warmest temperatures) as their numbers increased. The Red-headed Finch and Black-throated Canary also increased at water holes with temperature irrespective of the time of day. These patterns imply that the provision of shade modifies the behavior of some bird species in response to predation risk or heat stress. These species utilized shade at different times of day and with varying intensities as temperatures rose.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-69). / The south east and cape flats regions of Cape Town is home to abundant supplies of cheap and available unskilled labour. With the awareness that Cape Town may be slowly following the developmental path of Johannesburg and many other cities of the world, as decentralization, suburbanization, and the overall processes of economic 'tertiarisation' and urban transformation encompass the entire structure and culture of the city, we wonder about how the cities unskilled workforces are faring. Development has focused on the north of the city while the south east has been bypassed, causing residents to have to travel far out to find jobs and work. There is a clear spatial mismatch between places of work and places of residence for the workers of the South east, and overcoming this disconnection is challenged further by an inefficient and expensive public transport service, upon which they are fully dependent. By way of the interviews with businesses from various industrial areas in Cape Town, this thesis shows that many owners and management do not place much importance on where their workers, in particular unskilled and semi-skilled manual workers live and how they travel. It seems that when choosing a location for their businesses, size, price, and availability may limit owners' options of location choice and interviews reveal that owners may be responding to rather than driving development. Findings reveal that unskilled manual workers typically reside in the south east, while business owners, management and other white collar workers typically live in the northern and southern suburbs, as well as other central areas. Furthermore, transport patterns were evaluated and it is clear that the unskilled workers rely heavily on public transport while higher skilled occupational groups either have their own car, or are part of lift-clubs. The problem of a spatial mismatch is clearly skewed towards workers of the south east who rely on public transport, by intensifying the burdens of commuting times and costs. A further finding is that many businesses resort to highly informal methods of recruitment, such as word-of-mouth and internal referral techniques, revealing the significance of social networks in gaining access to job opportunities. This is especially important for workers trying to find employment in areas outside of the traditional economic nodes as it is expensive to commute to those areas regularly in search of employment. Having access to those businesses through employed family members, neighbours and relatives, is therefore critical.

Worldwide urbanization and climate change are influential in changing precipitation patterns and hydrological flow resulting in event driven urban flooding. The approach to flood protection has recently shifted from engineered and technical solutions to more sustainable and integrated solutions, by considering social, ecological and physical implications and exploring sustainable urban drainage options. Attenuation of peak stormwater flow using natural wetlands is one of many sustainable urban drainage methods used to reduce flooding and is an approach of interest for this research. The study site is located within the small, urbanized river system of the Liesbeek River in Cape Town, South Africa, which is prone to localized flooding during annual winter rainfall events. The study measures the attenuation capacity of a small-scale wetland adjacent to an urban river using a 2D PCSWMM hydrodynamic model. Research is focused on illustrating the attenuation capacity of this wetland. The model ran historic flow data to determine the attenuation capacity and to measure peak flow reduction. While the reduction is not sufficient to reduce damaging floods, the findings provide new knowledge and understanding of the attenuation capacity of this wetland and motivation for expanding sustainable urban drainage within the catchment. The study aims to build a baseline dataset for the research site with the data available at present. Peak flow of the Liesbeek River was reduced in scenarios with the Valkenberg Wetland present to accept on a portion of this flow. Attenuation was most effective for rainfall events with sudden spikes in peak flow, where a 42 per cent reduction of peak flow was observed. For a scenario with lower flow rates yet a prolonged peak flow rate, the wetland was less effective, with a 20 per cent reduction observed. This wetland was found to have the potential to provide valuable ecosystem services to the area by attenuating peak flow and thus reducing the occurrence of property damaging flooding downstream.

Climate change is one of the most challenging problems of the 21st century. Its effects have already been experienced in the different parts of the world. Farmers face particularly high risks considering that their occupation is climate dependent. Therefore farmers have been implementing different adaptation activities in an effort to reduce the impacts of climate change on their livelihoods. Weather index insurance (WII) has been recommended as one potential climate change adaptation strategy. In Malawi WII was introduced and piloted in 2005 to help farmers get access to loans. In this study the implementation of WII in Malawi is assessed to examine whether it has any role to play in climate change adaptation. Focus group discussions involving 15 farmers, and individual interviews involving two state and five non-state actors who were involved in implementing WII, were conducted. Perceptions and understandings of weather index insurance as a climate change adaptation strategy were examined, and the roles of state and non-state actors were established. The potential for weather index insurance as a means for securing finance for investment into climate resilient crops was also investigated. The study reveals that the design of WII affects how farmers perceive and understand it. In general, farmers see WII as a means for securing loans and not a potential climate change adaptation tool. The study also found that most implementing organisations did not take up the role of promoting awareness about WII and this may have affected the uptake of WII by farmers and organisations that are implementing climate change adaptation projects. The study finds that farmers do not get cash payments when there is a loss event and farmers are not able to choose how the payout must be used. Furthermore, most of the study participants did not have knowledge about climate finance despite its increasing attention at the international level. This study can inform the design of WII so that it can be better implemented as a climate change adaptation tool in Malawi.