A research report submitted to the Department of Psychology in the School of Human and Community Development in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Education (Educational Psychology) in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, March 2017 / Currently there is a growing interest around the world in exploring mental health from a systemic perspective. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive study using semi-structured interviews was conducted in order to explore the experiences and perceptions of 8 practicing educational psychologists who have worked in a systemic reflecting team. The research aimed to ascertain whether this type of training has been perceived as influencing the educational psychologists’ way of thinking in terms of the importance of working systemically within the South African context. Findings suggest positive perceptions of systemic intervention, although various challenges hinder implementation. The reflecting team was perceived as being useful in terms of supervision and training. The educational psychologists perceived their training on a reflecting team as being beneficial for their own development and in terms of their current practice. While this was the case the educational psychologists perceived being observed by the reflecting team during their training on the reflecting team as anxiety provoking. The findings suggest the need for more practical training and an in-depth theoretical foundation of systemic family therapy. Future research which explores other methods of family therapy as well as the effectiveness of family therapy within the school system has been recommended. / XL2018

Thesis (M.Com. (Accountancy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Accountancy, 2014. / At the 2013 budget presentation, the South African government indicated its intention to introduce carbon tax starting 1 January, 2015 at the rate of R120 per ton of Co2 equivalent. Prior research confirmed that carbon taxes have the potential to increase price levels, make exports uncompetitive and reinforce income inequality. It was suspected that the proposed carbon tax in the face of other similar taxes in South Africa would result in similar outcome. Furthermore, the socio-economic circumstance of South Africa could make the tax unfair to taxpayers. The object of this research was to evaluate the fairness of the proposed carbon tax in South Africa using the tenets of tax fairness Proposed by Smith (1776). The research methodology adopted was content analysis and correspondence analysis to analyse survey responses. The results of the analysis confirmed that the proposed carbon tax would result in price increases, make exports uncompetitive and reinforce income inequality. It was concluded that the proposed carbon tax would be unfair to taxpayers if implemented as currently designed

A thesis submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education Johannesburg, 2016 / Homework has become an integral part of the school curriculum and policy, yet the evidence base for its inclusion is contestable and inconclusive. In South Africa homework is a statutory requirement for all schools (DoE, 1998) and nearly all schools have included it in the standard process of learning. The main argument of this research is that despite its adoption and application in schools, the justification for its use is barely understood. Its application in schools seemed to be based on anecdotal evidence. Considering there is very little empirical data that demonstrates the extent of the utilisation of evidence around homework-based decisions in South African schools, this study intends to establish what sources of evidence are available to schools to support decision-making around the key policy matters, perceptions, implementation, benefits and challenges associated with the applications of homework in school. Forty educators and two HoDs were recruited for the questionnaires and interviews respectively. The selected educators represented certain types of characteristics and had comparative teaching styles. This was done because some teachers give assignments that combine learning and ecstasy while others give homework that upset the whole process, therefore the administration of homework is different. Random sampling was used in selecting the educators and purposive sampling was used only in selecting the HoDs and this was done by selecting participants with certain characteristics to provide the best information to address the purpose of the research. The researcher concludes that most educators claimed they receive very little support from the education department in terms of homework issues. The study suggests there is a correlation between homework and achievement, but is not adequate to conclude beyond reasonable doubt that it is indeed the case. However, the study can argue there are some benefits beyond academic acquisition of knowledge. By contrast, the study also highlights that homework marginalises economically disadvantaged students who find it difficult to complete homework tasks due to environmental issues. In concluding; the study suggests that for homework to be effective, homework implementers need to undertake critical research in order to understand the short comings of homework incompletion.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of philosophy. March 2016. / The use of found objects is evident in a range of contemporary artmaking practices. The use of found objects can, however, no longer be understood as a rupture from tradition as they were in the early decades of the twentieth century when they were first used by Picasso and later by Duchamp, because found objects have become part of a longer genealogy in art making. A new approach is needed in order to understand the significance of the use of found objects in contemporary art. This study explores the significance of the use of found objects in selected contemporary South African artworks in order to move beyond an understanding of the use of found objects as the anti-art gestures like those of the historical and neo-avant-gardes. I propose that a shift in focus, from the idea of the found objects as anti-art, to an exploration of the changing ontological status of the found object as it moves through different social fields is one such new approach. Chapter one introduces the study, while chapter two outlines the research methods and theoretical frameworks used. Chapter three explores the meanings that objects accrue in everyday practices, while chapter four focussed on the difference between artworks and more quotidian objects. Pursuing the question of the manner in which the ontological status of the object shifts as it enters into and becomes part of the field of exhibition, chapter five considers the ways in which meanings are constructed for objects in the field of exhibition through the conventions of display. I explore the ways in which artists make use of or invert these conventions as a means of challenging the field of exhibition. Acknowledging that the objects are also active agents within this process, in chapter six I explore the manner in which the materiality of found objects contributes to the meaning of the artworks, and by extension, I consider what new possibilities of meaning a focus on the materiality yields. In the final chapter, I use the concept of the everyday to draw the themes that have emerged throughout this study together. I conclude by situating the contemporary South African art practices within the genealogy of the avant-garde.

This qualitative study explores the maternal experiences of black South African mothers living in a township in Johannesburg. Extensive research and literature has begun to address the experiences of motherhood from the mother’s perspective, however research into the experiences of black mothers is still limited. In the past psychological literature on South African motherhood tended to focus on at-risk mothers and children rather than exploring their personal narratives. This study presents the narratives of six black mothers living in Alexandra township in Johannesburg, Gauteng. The six mothers participated in individual, semi-structured interviews. The data was analysed using the narrative analysis technique. The analysis provides insight into the personal experiences of motherhood and highlights the central narratives that these mothers told. What emerged is that mothers have individual and unique stories to tell, their stories about becoming a mother are central to their narratives on motherhood and the context in which mothers mother is pivotal in shaping their mothering experiences.

D.Arch., Faculty of Architecture, University of the Witwatersrand, 1953

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 25 October 2016 in Johannesburg, South Africa. / Ecosystem services, nature’s benefit to people, contribute to human well-being. Extensive reliance on, and unsustainable use of, natural resources is typical of the rural poor in developing countries and can lead to ecosystem degradation, decreased ecosystem service provision, and increased vulnerabilities of rural populations. Most ecosystem services are intangible or difficult to quantify, but fuelwood provisioning can be measured directly and can serve as a proxy for the status of other ecosystem services (e.g. aesthetic and spiritual services, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration). South African rural communities have a high reliance on fuelwood despite extensive access to electricity. Within this context, live wood harvesting occurring around rural settlements in increasing amounts has been deemed unsustainable. However, the ‘fuelwood crisis’ of the 1970s, and subsequent predictions of woodland collapse through fuelwood supply-demand models, has still not occurred despite substantial population growth in developing countries. Hypothesised reasons for modelled supply-demand mismatches are based on underestimation of fuelwood supply and woodland regeneration, as well as overestimation of fuelwood demand by discounting behavioural adaptability of users. It is likely that the spatial configuration of fuelwood use allows for the co-adaptability of both humans and ecosystems. A lack of understanding of the spatial configuration of these social-ecological dynamics limits our insights into current and future adaptive responses and thus, the degree of sustainability. This thesis aimed to assess woody biomass stocks and vertical structure changes, as a proxy for provisioning ecosystem services, in a spatially and temporally explicit manner, to describe the status and impact of wood extraction in semi-arid, savanna communal lands. Using repeat, airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data from 2008 and 2012, we surveyed three-dimensional woodland structure in Bushbuckridge Municipality communal lands – the grazing and harvesting areas for densely populated rural settlements in former Apartheid ‘homelands’ in South Africa. Woody biomass in 2008 ranged from 9 Mg ha-1 on gabbro geology to 27 Mg ha-1 on granitic geology. Land-use pressure was associated with compensatory regrowth of savanna tree species through post-harvest coppice in the 1-3m height class. Woody biomass increased at all sites, contrary to previous fuelwood models of the area. Change detection in the vertical canopy structure revealed that biomass increases were almost solely attributable to the 1-3m and 3-5m height classes. These changes were exacerbated by wood extraction intensity in the communal lands – the communal land with the highest wood extraction pressure experienced the greatest biomass increases, likely a strong regrowth response to high harvesting levels. Within communal lands, areas closest to roads and settlements experienced substantial biomass increases as a result of shrub level gains. This relationship was mediated by the usage gradient – the greater the wood extraction pressure on the communal land, the larger and more spatially coalesced the ‘hotspots’ of shrub-level increases were in relation to ease of access to the communal land. However, biomass increases are not necessarily indicative of woodland recovery, as shrub-level increases were coupled with losses of trees >3m in height. To explore these tall tree dynamics further, we tracked >450 000 individual tree canopies over two years over contrasting landscapes – a private reserve containing elephants, two communal lands under different wood extraction pressures, and a nature reserve fenced off from both elephants and humans. Humans are considerable drivers of treefall (defined here as a ≥75% reduction in the maximum height of each tree canopy) in communal lands. Humanmediated biennial treefall rates were 2-3.5 fold higher than the background treefall rate of 1.5% treefall ha-1 (in the control site – the reserve containing neither elephants nor humans). Elephant-mediated treefall was five fold higher than the background rate. Rate and spatial patterns of treefall were mediated by geology and surface water provision in the elephantutilised site where relative treefall was higher on nutrient-rich geology, and intense treefall hotspots occurred around permanent water points. Human-mediated rates and spatial patterns of treefall were influenced by settlement and crop-land expansion, as well as ease of access to communal lands. Frequent fires facilitated the persistence of trees >3m in height, but was associated with height loss in trees <3m. The combined loss of large trees and gain in shrubs could result in a structurally simple landscape with reduced functional capacity. Shrub-level increases in the communal lands are likely an interactive combination of newly established woody encroachers and strong coppice regrowth in harvested species. The more intensely used the communal land, the greater the bush thickening and the stronger the relationship between biomass gains and structural changes in the lowest height classes. The exacerbation of bush thickening in natural resource-dependent communities has critical implications for ecosystem service provision. There is potential for coppice regrowth to provide fuelwood to communities using ‘tree thinning’ programmes, but there is a lack of data on the quantity and quality of the regrowth, as well as the sustainability of coppice, the impacts of different harvesting methods, and the potential feedbacks with changing climate and CO2 fertilisation. Woody resource spatial distribution in communal lands is centred around settlement-level wood extraction pressure, as well as natural resource accessibility in the woodlands. In highly utilised areas, woodland regenerative capacity has been underestimated. Additionally, natural resource extraction is still highly localised, even at the communal land scale, with major structural changes occurring around the periphery or close to existing infrastructure. However, it is these underrated coupled adaptive responses in social-ecological systems that explain the failure of fuelwood supply-demand models’ predictive abilities. Nevertheless, loss of large trees in the landscape and the persistence of ‘functionally juvenile’ coppice stands will have implications for seedling production and establishment in the landscape with repercussions for the future population structure and ecosystem service provision. I discuss the implications of increased natural resource reliance in an African development context and the positive feedback between rural poverty and environmental impoverishment. Potential constraints to the data are unpacked, together with opportunities for further research in this area. / LG2017

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2016 / The banking industry plays an essential role in any economy in terms of resource mobilisation and allocation. Banks also accept deposits, create credit, offer agency, utility and money transmission services.A well-developed banking industry plays an important role in efficient financial intermediation and this helps to boost economic growth. The financial intermediary role performed by banks allows the banking sector to influence the direction of available resources, thereby affecting the rate of economic growth (Obadeyi, 2014).Due to these benefits derived from the banking sector, a large number of industrialised, developing and transition countries have undertaken extensive reforms in their banking sector over the past two decades (Swary and Topf 1992). Banking sector reforms are defined as government intervention in the banking industry to provide a panacea for existing anomalies in the banking sector (Azeez and Ojoh, 2012). The reforms that were implemented by various countries included interest rates liberalisation, the removal of quantitative controls on lending, lifting barriers to competition, deregulation of the banking sector, the privatisation of public financial institutions and the introduction of market based securities. They were implemented to enhance the intermediation role of banks, ensure that banks are well positioned to greatly mobilise savings and optimally allocate these mobilised savings in the form of credit extension to profitable investments (Ajayi, 2005). The treatise investigates the effectiveness of banking sector reforms on financial intermediation in African Countries using data of eleven countries. Annual time series and panel data which covered a period of 20 years from 1980 to 2000 was used.Secondary data which was used for this treatise was gathered fromjournals, books, peer-reviewed articles, International Monetary Fund statistics (IMF), Global Banking (Center for financial markets Milken Institute) and World Bank Financial Development database was used in this research. The regression results showed that the banking sector reforms had a negative impact on financial intermediation on the eleven countries under study. Thus, the reforms failed to achieve their objectives of mobilising savings and increasing intermediation activities (lending). In addition, the results showed that the control variables which were inflation and gross savings had an inversely relationship with financial intermediation except for income per capita which had a positive relationship. The main causes of the failure of the banking sector iii reforms in Africa were the macroeconomic imbalances, financial system instability and wrong sequencing of the reforms. / GR2018

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg 1993. / The prediction that savanna communities with similar conditions of plant available moisture (PAM) and available nutrients (AN) have similar structural and functional features was tested for a range of southern African savanna types. This prediction forms the basis of an hypothesis that savannas can be classified functionally on the basis of PAM and AN. Nineteen South African savanna types were sampled over a rainfall gradient of 369 to 690 rnm pa and on different geological parent materials. Ecologically meaningful indices of PAM and AN were derived using climate and soil physical and chemical data. The floristic structural and functional characteristics of the woody plant and herbaceous components of the savanna communities were ordinated and classified in relation to the PAM and AN gradients. The functional classifications were assessed in the plane of PAM and AN. Plant available moisture was indexed as the mean number of growth days per annum derived form a water balance modelling approach. This index reflected the duration of the growing season in days and was suitably detailed for use at the community level. The AN indices ranged in complexity from a measure of the availability of individual nutrients in the soil to an index based on the results of a bioassay experiment. The usefulness of the AN indices was assessed on a number of criteria and the soil A horizon total nitrogen content in mg/kg was chosen as a suitable AN index. The species composition of the woody plant and graminoid communities was primarily related to the PAM gradient with AN having a significant but secondary effect. There was overall a high degree of similarity between woody plant and graminoid floristic types. The distribution of members of the woody plant families, Mimosoideae, Caesalpinoideae and Combretaceae were primarily related to the AN gradient. The higher taxonomic classifications of the graminoid communities, based on subfamilies and tribes, were primarily related to PAM. Structural trends of the woody plant and herbaceous communities were related to the PAM gradient but not to soil fertility. There were a range of structural types for similar conditions of PAM and AN. The functional trends of the woody plants were primarily related to the AN gradient with PAM having a secondary but significant effect while the graminoid community functional trends were primarily related to PAM with AN having a secondary but significant effect. The woody plant and graminoid communities were notgrouped into functional types in the same way. It was evident from this study that these South African savanna types were related floristically, structurally and functionally to either or both of PAM and AN, which are hypothesised to be the primary determinants of savanna structure and function. Although communities with similar conditions of PAM and AN were not consistently functionally similar, the functional classifications of both the woody plant ami graminoid communities mapped well onto the PAM-AN plane. This indicated that the PAM-AN plane does have potential foruse as an overall framework for the classification of savannas on a functional. basis. / AC2017

Submitted in accordance with the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Business Administration At the University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg / Generating sufficient domestic revenues to finance economic growth has been a critical hurdle for many African countries and, for decades, foreign capital has complemented domestically generated resources to finance growth. However, global financial crises over the past few decades tend to curtail, if not dry up the flow of capital to African governments. The unreliability of foreign capital with its attendant strings and sudden stops in the event of economic and political crisis has spurred the need for alternative sources of financing development. Despite the realisation that bond markets provide a viable source of funds for the African continent, the literature on the importance of bond market development and its interaction with other sources of funding remains underexplored. Moreover, the sparse empirical literature about bond market development in Africa is vague and largely overlooked. At the same time, knowledge of African bond markets is vital for channelling funds not only to efficient agents in particular, but also for fostering transparency and the flow of information within the continent’s capital markets. This thesis endeavours to address the vacuum apparent in extant literature and proposes a theoretical framework through a thorough assessment of the determinants of bond market development in African emerging market economies. The thesis examines four critical pillars of bond market development: (a) the environment for the creation of bond markets; (b) the relative performance and characteristics of bond markets across and within developing and developed economies; (c) the modelling of bond markets and (c) the institutional factors that underpin the efficient functioning of bond markets. Using macroeconomic, social, institutional and historical data on local currency bond markets from 26 African economies and 49 listed firms, this thesis extends previous studies on bond market determinants through tighter robustness measures by accounting for downside risk in a generalized methods of moments (GMM) and a feasible generalized least squares estimator (FGLSE) framework. Further, differential analysis of government and corporate bond markets are carried out, given their different investment horizons and issuance. The results suggest that from a macroeconomic perspective, inflation, central government debt, GDP, external debt, GDP per capita and fiscal balance are important drivers of local currency bond market development in African economies. Moreover, political unrest, governance, religion, former colonial ties and culture are institutional factors that exert statistically significant effects on local currency bond market performance in Africa. From a demand viewpoint, the study finds that firm level factors that influence bond market performance are firm risk, size, profitability and age. The results from this study are of importance to capital market participants, investors, regulators and policy makers who seek to address the perennial constraints to development occasioned by lack of capital. A number of policy measures for boosting bond market performance such as stable macroeconomic environments, reform of capital market rules and cross listing are discussed in the final chapter. JEL CLASSIFICATION: International Economics; Financial Economics; Economic Development; Innovation; Technological Change; and Growth. KEYWORDS: Africa; Emerging economy; Bond market; Institutions; Local Currency Bond Market; Performance; Development. / GR2018