Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Greifswald.

According to the latest Education Statistics Report published by the Department of Basic Education in March 2013, there were 12 680 829 learners and students in the basic education system in 2011, who attended 30 992 education institutions and were served by 441 128 educators. The vision of the Department of Basic Education is of a South Africa in which all our people have access to lifelong learning and education and training, which will, in turn, contribute towards improving the quality of life. Ultimately this will influence the building of a peaceful, prosperous and democratic South Africa. The emphasis is on excellence. Therefore maintaining high standards of performance and professionalism is a national imperative. However, this has not always been the case in terms of performance. For more than a decade we have witnessed dismal results in literacy and numeracy. This was accompanied by a low throughput rate. Despite the poor matric, literacy and numeracy results in South Africa as well as the low throughput rate, no teacher has been formally charged for poor performance in the last two decades. South Africa’s education budget is regarded as one of the highest in the developing world. Since 1993 the education budget has also grown substantially. South Africa’s education expenditure on education has grown from R30 billion in 1994/05 to R101 billion in 2007/08. Spending on education grew even further from R207 billion in 2012/13 to a projected R236 billion in 2014/15. Additional allocations of R18.8 billion over the medium term are accommodated, including equalisation of learner subsidies for no-fee schools and expanded access to grade R.6 Over the rest of the medium-term-expenditure framework (MTEF),7 spending on education, sport and culture will amount to R233 billion in 2013/14. The investment in education has not yet yielded the desired results and the outcome of education is not in keeping with the substantial input. This crisis in education is one of the major challenges facing Government, Administrators, educators, parents and children of today. According to Spaull,9 the South African government spends the equivalent of $1225 (R12440.26)10 per child on primary education, yet accomplishes less than the government of Kenya which spends only the equivalent of $258 (R2620.80)11 per child. Various reasons such as poverty, management, leadership, imbalances of the past, two unequal education systems, poor management, training and development, non-accountability, role of government and unions, have been identified for the poor state of our education system. However, what is noticeably absent and hardly mentioned in any of the position papers, is that not a single teacher has been held accountable and dismissed for incapacity for the poor performance in the education sector. Unfortunately, there is no record in any of the provincial education departments’ annual reports that a teacher has been dismissed or at least placed on a formal programme of incapacity for poor performance. Therefore, we have to ask the question: “Are we getting value for money?".

Thesis (doctoral)--Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt a. M.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (January 19, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 29-31)

Labour law in South Africa has evolved over the past century at an ever increasing pace. The establishment of a democratic government in 1995 has been the trigger for a large number of labour law statutes being promulgated, particularly with reference to the laws governing the employment relationship and dismissal. From very humble and employer biased dispute resolution application under the common law of contract, labour law in this country has evolved through the various acts culminating in a labour law system which is highly regulated and codified. Dismissal for medical incapacity in this treatise is reviewed with regard to the applicable statutes and the various codes of good practice as the law has evolved and developed from the period covered by the common law through that covered by the 1995 LRA up to and including the current period. Particular attention is paid to both substantive and procedural requirements as well as the remedies applicable under the different legal regimes and the pertinent tribunals and courts. Regard is also given to the duration and causes of incapacity and the effect this may have on the applicable remedy applied by these tribunals. It will become apparant that the medically incapacitated employee occupied a relatively weak and vulnerable position under the common law as opposed to the current position under the 1995 LRA. The influence of the remedies applied by the tribunals under the 1956 LRA are clearly evident in the current regulations and codes under the 1995 LRA which contain specific statutory provisions for employees not to be unfairly dismissed. Distinctions are drawn between permissible and impermissible dismissals, with medical incapacity falling under the former. v Furthermore, a distinction is drawn statutorily between permanent and temporary illhealth/ injury incapacity with detailed guidelines for substantive and procedural fairness requirements to be met by employers. The powers of the specialist tribunals (CCMA, Bargaining Councils and Labour Courts) are regulated by statutory provisions and deal with appropriate remedies (reinstatement and/or compensation) a wardable in appropriate circumstances. Certain specific areas nonetheless still remain problematic for these tribunals and hence questions that require clear direction from the drafters of our law are: 1. How to distinguish misconduct in alcohol and drug abuse cases? 2. What degree of intermittent absenteeism is required before dismissal would be warranted? In certain other areas the tribunals have been fairly consistent and prescriptive in their approach and remedies awarded. Included here would be permanent incapacity, HIV cases and misconduct. It will emerge, however, that under the 1995 LRA the position of employees and the protections afforded them have been greatly increased.

Labour law in South Africa has evolved over the past century at an ever increasing pace. The establishment of a democratic government in 1995 has been the trigger for a large number of labour law statutes being promulgated, particularly with reference to the laws governing the employment relationship and dismissal. From very humble and employer biased dispute resolution application under the common law of contract, labour law in this country has evolved through the various acts culminating in a labour law system which is highly regulated and codified. Dismissal for medical incapacity in this treatise is reviewed with regard to the applicable statutes and the various codes of good practice as the law has evolved and developed from the period covered by the common law through that covered by the 1995 LRA up to and including the current period. Particular attention is paid to both substantive and procedural requirements as well as the remedies applicable under the different legal regimes and the pertinent tribunals and courts. Regard is also given to the duration and causes of incapacity and the effect this may have on the applicable remedy applied by these tribunals. It will become apparant that the medically incapacitated employee occupied a relatively weak and vulnerable position under the common law as opposed to the current position under the 1995 LRA. The influence of the remedies applied by the tribunals under the 1956 LRA are clearly evident in the current regulations and codes under the 1995 LRA which contain specific statutory provisions for employees not to be unfairly dismissed. Distinctions are drawn between permissible and impermissible dismissals, with medical incapacity falling under the former. Furthermore, a distinction is drawn statutorily between permanent and temporary illhealth/injury incapacity with detailed guidelines for substantive and procedural fairness requirements to be met by employers. The powers of the specialist tribunals (CCMA, Bargaining Councils and Labour Courts) are regulated by statutory provisions and deal with appropriate remedies (reinstatement and/or compensation) a wardable in appropriate circumstances. Certain specific areas nonetheless still remain problematic for these tribunals and hence questions that require clear direction from the drafters of our law are: How to distinguish misconduct in alcohol and drug abuse cases? What degree of intermittent absenteeism is required before dismissal would be warranted? In certain other areas the tribunals have been fairly consistent and prescriptive in their approach and remedies awarded. Included here would be permanent incapacity, HIV cases and misconduct. It will emerge, however, that under the 1995 LRA the position of employees and the protections afforded them have been greatly increased.

Elder financial abuse is an alarming problem in this era of aging population. Baby boomers are entering retirement with a higher life expectancy and more wealth than any generation before them. The combination of mental decline and substantial wealth renders many seniors vulnerable to overreach. Empirical studies suggest that financial abuse against seniors is hard to detect and likely prevalent. In private suits alleging elder financial abuse, courts often apply the mental capacity doctrine to avoid seemingly exploitative contracts, gifts and many other lifetime transactions. The formal rationales for avoidance are that the elderly party to the impugned transaction lacked mental capacity, and that the transaction was inequitable. Moreover, guardians and attorneys who manage property for the elderly may have perverse incentives to exploit their position. Presuming the worst from the property manager, courts and legislatures typically impose onerous fiduciary duties to minimize conflicts of interest and deter misconduct. Orthodox fiduciary law explicitly aims to overdeter. This Dissertation first argues that the mental capacity doctrine in prevailing American law is ill-suited for the era of aging population. In theory, the doctrine grants a mentally-incapable individual a power to choose whether to avoid her transactions. In reality, that power is usually exercised by a claimant who expects to inherit from the incapable individual. Prevailing doctrinal theories overlook the possibility that the claimant may seek to avoid a transaction to increase her expected inheritance rather than to advance the interests of the incapable individual. The mental capacity doctrine thus poses a heighted risk of avoiding transactions that actually benefited potentially incapable seniors and reflected their testamentary intent. This harms the welfare of many seniors by unduly limiting their ability to benefit their close relatives and friends, reward informal caregiving, and recruit their preferred caregivers. The mental capacity doctrine can nonetheless be reformulated to offer appropriate protection against elder financial abuse without undue intrusion into close families and personal relationships. In particular, when applied to transactions involving close relatives and friends, the doctrine should be narrow, determinate, and respectful of individual will and preferences. This Dissertation further argues that orthodox fiduciary law is too strict on most guardians and agents who manage property for the elderly. The problem is that mental or physical decline is common among seniors, but a lack of mental capacity typically stultifies the power to authorize a fiduciary to depart from adherence to strict fiduciary duty. By contrast, mentally-capable individuals are free to discharge those aspects of fiduciary law that they find intrusive and undesirable. In other words, while fiduciary law is mostly a default law when applied to capable individuals, it is a mandatory law when applied to elderly incapable individuals. Harming the welfare of many seniors, mandatory application of fiduciary law tends to stultify the pursuit of valuable other-regarding preferences in close families and personal relationships. Such strict and inflexible application further disregards the presence of intrinsic bonds and informal norms. To remedy these shortcomings, this Dissertation proposes a substituted-judgment defense to permit those departures from strict fiduciary law that the incapable individual would have authorized if she was mentally-capable. This defense should be made available to close relatives and friends but not to profit-driven professionals. To deter and sanction elder financial abuse by professional guardians and agents, this Dissertation also proposes reforms to harness their reputational concerns.

No description available.

LL.D. / Powers are granted to local authorities in South Africa by way of the specification of each power in the empowering legislation. The possibility has been mooted to change this way of empowerment to a specification of powers, combined with an additional general grant of powers to the effect that local authorities be authorized to do anything which may be required in order to perform their functions. Such a general form of authorization is in accordance with the situation in France and other continental systems as well as the majority of the federal states comprising the United States of America...

Le regime juridique instaure par le legislateur quebecois en matiere de consentement aux soins pour le majeur inapte merite d'etre revise. La determination de cette inaptitude produit des effets importants. Le constat d'inaptitude prive la personne majeure de son droit de prendre une decision a l'egard de sa sante, une des spheres les plus personnelles et privees de sa vie. Cette these utilise une approche transdisciplinaire, puisant a la fois dans le droit et la bioethique, pour evaluer de facon critique: l'encadrement de la determination de cette inaptitude, la determination juridique de cette inaptitude et les dispositions pertinentes du Code civil du Quebec qui s'appliquent en matiere de consentement aux soins lorsque cette inaptitude est constatee par le medecin. L'auteur conclut que l'objectif vise par le legislateur quebecois, le respect de la personne, n'est que partiellement atteint.