M.A. (Politics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Comm. (Transport Economics) / In order to address the issue of who is responsible for airport development, maintenance, management and funding, a national airports policy is required. It is the opinion of the scheduled and charter airlines in South Africa that there is a lack of a formal comprehensive national airports policy and describes this problem as a major reason why there are problem areas at non-state airports with regard to management and funding. There is common concern in the airline industry in South Africa that passenger safety at airports is compromised and poses a disadvantage to both passengers and airline operators. The current policy with regard to airports in South Africa can therefore be regarded as being inadequately defined with definite shortcomings. In order to determine a policy research was undertaken to determine the current position and status of airport management, control and funding in South Africa and internationally. Shortcomings were identified and recommendations were made to address these shortcomings. The methodology followed for this study included a literature analysis of the role which aviation and airports play in the transportation system and what impact they have on economic development of a region, tourism, mobility and accessability to a region and a questionnaire survey of non-state airport operators to determine the status quo situation with regard to policy issues was undertaken. Personal interviews have also been conducted with airport operators, airline management, various local and regional authority officials. Interaction took place with the Airlines Association of South Africa (AASA) by means of a special committee. As part of the study an international overview has also been included. It became evident from the study that there are two main areas of concern where problems exist which need to be addressed namely safety and management which includes funding of non-state airports. With regard to passenger safety at non-state airports, the question which was raised in this study was whether the existing minimum legislative requirements with regard to equipment and facilities are adequate. This question was raised in view of the fact that the last amendment of the Aerodrome Regulations was in 1982 and since then there has been a substantial increase in passenger volumes as well as the introduction of much larger aircraft. To address this problem, it is recommended that the Ministerof Transport appoint a task group to evaluate the existing regulations and to make amendments where necessary. It is also recommended that once the regulations have been evaluated and amended, more emphasis is placed on enforcement of these regulations. With regard to the management and funding of non-state airports the study has shown that the authorities included in this study find it difficult to cope with the financial strain of being solely responsible for the management and funding of non-state airports in South Africa. In order to address this problem and to reach a mutually acceptable and favourable situation, three options were considered. These options were that of maintaining the status quo situation, increased involvement by the Regional Services Councils (RSC's) or Joint Services Boards (JBS's) and involvement by the recently established airports company. This study has proven that maintaining the status quo is unacceptable and that by increasing the responsibilities of RSC's and JSB's with regard to management and funding do not provide the ultimate solution to the current situation and that an alternative solution is required. It is recommended that, as is the case in other countries, the airports company become involved in the upgrading and improvement of certain major regional airports. It could in some cases result in new airports being developed. This solution does not necessarily mean that all non-state airports must fall under control of the airports company, and that all responsibility be withdrawn from the RSC's. The RSC's would maintain their regional responsibility as stated in the Regional Services Council Act of 1985 and the funding and management of only selected airports would fall under the joint responsibility of RSC's and the airports company. The selection of airports would be based on the airport's contribution to economic development and accessibility to a region, the extent of aircraft and passenger movements at the airport, and the airport's contribution to the tourism industry. This policy therefore proposes a joint venture between certain RSC's and JSB's and the airports company to finance, upgrade, maintain or even build new regional non-state airports that will benefit regions and therefore also South Africa. Co-operation between organisations similar to the airports company and nostate airports also exists in other countries. South African legislation which established the airports company appears not to preclude the proposed solution. A National Airports Policy for South Africa would therefore contain the following categories of Airports:- Major South African gateway airports (State-owned airports), managed by the airports company. Primary airports for feeder air services, managed and financed jointly by the airports company and the responsible RSC's/JSS's, or by the airports company only. Secondary airports for feeder air services, where the status quo is maintained (eg. control by regional services councils, local authorities, consortiums, mining companies, private companies, etc.). Local airports, where the status quo is maintained

M.Com. (Business Management) / The study was conducted to address a few of the fundamental factors that contributed to the present housing shortage in South Africa and also to emphasise certain aspects that may assist in the proper functioning of a future housing scheme in a post-apartheid South Africa. Substantial consensus has been reached by researchers that urbanisation should concentrate on employment creation, be development-oriented, and emphasise economic growth. Undesirable phenomena such as poverty, unemployment and the deterioration of land should be managed by the elimination of factors such as a high population increase, development backlogs and restrictions on mobility by means of long term strategies that are executed on a step by step basis. Affordable standards and realistic regulations for housing, physical infrastructure and social services should be implemented on an urgent basis to promote home ownership for all sectors of the market. The study substantiates the importance of the formulation of special programmes for the prevention and the reduction of housing backlogs as well as for the promotion of the upgrading of existing structures. All this must however be done within the financial ability of the state which in turn necessitates a substantial and urgent increase in contributions from the private sector.

M.Com. (Business Management) / The subject of this study is the legal position of the company director in South Africa and the influence of the law on the exercise of his management function in the business entity. The law as it pertains to the director is often thought to be unclear and it is a fact that many directors are not aware of all their duties. It is thus necessary to find out what the legal position is and the director must be aware of what the effect of this 'viII be on his function to manage. Is it possible that changes in the law can lead to more efficient management? In this study the conclusion is made that the legal position of the director is quite clear. However, a few changes to the legal position are recommended. The South African director has stringent duties of loyalty and good faith, but very light obligations of skill and diligence. It is recommended that a higher degree of care and skill should be required from the director. A distinction is drawn between the executive director and non-executive director. The main difference being that the executive director participates in the day-to-day management of the company's affairs or of a portion thereof, while the non-executive director does not. For this reason the executive director is the focus of the study. The focus of his management function is strategy formulation. He must keep the undertaking on track through effective strategic management. We are entering the information age where flexibility, creativity and innovation will determine success. Third-wave management will be critical in the future and the director will have to adopt this new approach to management to make sure that his undertaking will be adaptable to change.

M.Com. (Financial Economics) / The main concern of this study was to evaluate whether an announcement to host major international sporting tournaments in South Africa is perceived by stock market investors to be associated with net economic benefits for the domestic stock market. If the economic activities associated with a tournament are perceived to be beneficial stock prices should react positively and if such activities are perceived to be bad then prices should react negatively; else there should be no reaction if such announcement conveys no relevant investment information for the stock market. The study applied an event study methodology to analyse the daily historical log returns of the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) All Share Index (ALSI). It uses bidwinning announcements that South Africa would host three major international sporting tournaments, namely, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, 2003 Cricket World Cup, and 2010 Soccer World Cup. Event windows of 41 days, inclusive of announcement dates, are used to observe price reactions. The estimation samples consisted of 250 daily returns in the pre-event window period. Overall, the results showed that in South Africa all announcements led to a positive price reaction. Thus, the announcements for South Africa to be hosting these tournaments conveyed useful positive information to investors in the JSE.

An increasing number of people are in need of housing that would improve long-term tenure for them. Private ownership is a well-known incentive for peoples’ participation in housing programmes. The current difficulties in obtaining credit for housing, following the global economic crisis, show that private individual home-ownership is not effective enough in addressing the housing needs of the low and middle income groups. As a result of this, the need to find an option that will solve the housing needs of the people became intense. However, the implementation of the co-operative housing delivery option in South Africa has not been successfully implemented as a result of the actions or the inactions of the role players. The study sought answer to the causes of the inability to successfully implement the co-operative housing approach through the use of ‘triad model’ that has to do with the ideology of co-operatives, the praxis and the organisational structures of the various housing co-operatives. The study was domiciled in a pragmatic paradigm, using the mixed methods research approach by conducting a three-stage research whereby convergent parallel design was adopted as the methodology. Questionnaires were administered to the chairpersons of the housing co-operatives identified in this stage one of the study. Stage two consisted of conducting interviews with chairpersons of six housing co-operatives using the purposive non-probability sampling method. The final stage was the survey among the members of the housing co-operatives interviewed. It was discovered, inter alia, that the membership of housing co-operatives was not voluntary; policy and legislative documents on social housing were biased against the co-operative housing approach; limited understanding of the co-operative approach exists among officials of government responsible for the implementations and a lack of training to members of the housing co-operatives by agencies of government responsible for propagating the approach was evident. Based on the findings, framework for sustainable housing co-operatives in South Africa was proposed from the strategies identified. The strategies identified were classified into the following factors: Policy and legislation; support services; education, training and information; and governance.

Haliotis midae is the cornerstone of the South African abalone fishery. For more than a decade, the wild abalone stock of South Africa has suffered decline due to over-exploitation and illegal activities such as poaching. Prior to 1970, no regulations were in place concerning the annual landings. As a result the fishery was exploited as if it were an infinite resource. It is this initial uncontrolled harvesting (regardless of age) and poaching that has driven the abalone resource decline. Due to the slow growth rate exhibited by abalone as a species, natural replenishment of wild stock following exploitation and poaching was far below the rate of exploitation of this resource. Studies on the growth of abalone have mainly been conducted under laboratory conditions. The purpose of this study was to measure the growth of abalone, fed different diets, under commercial culture conditions. Three food types were used namely; commercial pellets, seaweed (Ulva spp.) and dried kelp bars (Ecklonia maxima). Four diets were obtained from the three food types namely; combination of commercial pellets and seaweed (Diet A), commercial pellets only (Diet B), seaweed only (Diet C) and dried kelp bars only (Diet D). The food types used in this study represent both artificial (Commercial pellets) and natural feeds (seaweed and kelp) used in commercial abalone culture. The growth of two cohorts (40-50 mm and 50-60 mm) was followed over a 426 day period, with data for the first 183 days being used for statistical analysis to determine performance of a given diet. The best growth rates were found in abalone fed Diet A (40-50 mm: 2.64 mm.month-1; 50-60 mm 2.78: mm.month-1) and B (40-50 mm: 2.20 mm.month-1; 50-60 mm: 2.35: mm.month-1). These (Diets A and B) gave higher growth rates when compared to Diets C and D (natural diets), whose growth rates ranged between 0.50 mm.month-1 and 1.71 mm.month-1 for both cohorts. Also observed in this study was that, the mixture of formulated diet and seaweed gave better growth than formulated diet given exclusively.

In this dissertation, a study is undertaken of recruitment and selection policies with specific reference to the Sundays River Valley Municipality. The dissertation comprises of six chapters. The study is based on the assumptions that the Sundays River Valley Municipality does not have adequate recruitment and selection policies in place and that no clear division of duties has been made between councillors and officials with respect to the employment processes. Another assumption is that with better recruitment and selection policies in place, the Sundays River Valley Municipality will attract the best possible candidates for posts and better service delivery to communities. Further, this study is based on the assumption that in order for councillors and officials to be able to execute their duties effectively and efficiently and meet the requirements of the laws governing local government, they need to be knowledgeable and possess special skills and expertise. The primary objectives of the research included, inter alia, an investigation into theoretical processes of recruitment and selection policies with specific reference to the Sundays River Valley Municipality and motivation why the municipality needs to adopt formal guidelines to guide its recruitment and selection processes. This was followed by the constitutional and legislative measures affecting local government. The empirical survey and the research methodology are described as well as the interpretation of the research findings. This is followed by an explanation of the survey questionnaire used for the accumulation of data needed for the analysis. The research findings of the empirical survey were statistically analysed and reported. Finally, a number of conclusions are presented that were arrived at during the study, followed by specific recommendations. These are based on the findings of the empirical survey in order for Sundays River Valley Municipality councillors and officials to adopt formal guidelines to guide its recruitment and selection processes.

Due to the continual increase in competitive pressure from international organisations, it has become necessary to assess the degree of transformational change within South African organisations to overcome the effect of global forces. Transformation was investigated in terms of organizational restructuring and the various work designs that are utilised by organisations to deal with the effect of global forces. To examine the main problem, three sub-problems were identified. The first sub-problem that had been identified dealt with the extent of which global forces impacted on the business environment. It was investigated by evaluating various economic, technological and sociopolitical forces. From the results it may be concluded that global forces have a large impact on the local business environment. The second sub-problem looked at the degree to which work designs assisted organisations to manage the effect of global forces. It was evident that the flexible types of work designs were more readily utilised to optimise productivity and employee moral. Finally, the third sub-problem investigated the various structures that organisations could adopt to deal with the effect of global forces. Organisational structures were analysed in terms of customer orientation, fulfilment of company objectives and the types of structures that are used within organisations. The results showed that 75% of the sample population believed that their organisational structures co-ordinated all activities within their organisations. Feedback on the type of structures that were used by organisations revealed that various types are being used.

During the period 1994 to 2004, the Registrar of Co-operatives, situated in Pretoria (South Africa), considered applications and subsequently de-registered 102 agricultural and non-agricultural South African co-operatives, which then converted to alternative business forms. This research was conducted to determine the strategies driving co-operatives to convert to alternative business forms in South Africa, and to evaluate the level of success achieved in a specific case. During the research, the changing legislation relating to co-operatives was identified as one of the main drivers to convert, although during pilot testing, the respondents submitted capital forming or growth restrictions as main drivers for conversions. The main concerns about the impact of changing legislation were about voting rights changing to a one-person-one-vote, which, according to the respondents, could affect control within the co-operative. Financial ratio analysis to determine liquidity, debt management and profitability of a specific converted case was conducted by disseminating and processing data by means of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. In the selected case the conversion did not guarantee success, and the financial figures showed that a conversion did not have immediate impact, although the last three years of the 10-year period analysed showed signs of a positive growth on the return on total assets (ROA). External influences, especially legislation in the broad sense, and specifically regarding Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE), Employment Equity and Labour practise may have serious impact on the choice of business form the prospective entrepreneur decides upon, or the existing enterprise bases its decisions on as to its future business form.