This dissertation evaluates the vision of empowering African elites iQ the International Church of Pretoria and suggests the ways to successfully train and empowers these Africans for the positive socio-political transformation of Africa. Such Christian empowering is so complex that it has to deal with the spiritual, psychological, intellectual and/or technical and socio-political aspects of the life of the trainee. After describing the problems that prevent these elites from behaving adequately and the portrait that can facilitate the successful selection of their trainers the dissertation proposes the guidelines of the empowering programmes for different elite groups. In the main the curriculum comprises a four-level conversion component for proper Christian life, and a psychotherapy empowerment coupled with horizontalisation for their liberation from psychological and socio-political evils, and a programme for the selection and the training of the spiritual leaders of the African elites. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

This dissertation evaluates the vision of empowering African elites iQ the International Church of Pretoria and suggests the ways to successfully train and empowers these Africans for the positive socio-political transformation of Africa. Such Christian empowering is so complex that it has to deal with the spiritual, psychological, intellectual and/or technical and socio-political aspects of the life of the trainee. After describing the problems that prevent these elites from behaving adequately and the portrait that can facilitate the successful selection of their trainers the dissertation proposes the guidelines of the empowering programmes for different elite groups. In the main the curriculum comprises a four-level conversion component for proper Christian life, and a psychotherapy empowerment coupled with horizontalisation for their liberation from psychological and socio-political evils, and a programme for the selection and the training of the spiritual leaders of the African elites. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

The study has empirically examined the relative impact of public and private investment on economic growth and has also tested the crowding in or crowding out effect of public investment on private investment in four Southern African economies – Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The analysis used annual time-series data covering the period from 1970 to 2014. The study provides new evidence to contribute firstly to the current debate regarding the relative importance of public and private investment in economic growth processes and secondly, on whether public investment crowds in or crowds out private investment in the selected countries. For this purpose, the study employed two empirical models using the recently developed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL)-bounds testing approach to cointegration. Model 1 examines the relative impact of public and private investment on economic growth while Model 2 investigates the crowding in or crowding out effect of gross public investment and its subcomponents (infrastructural and non-infrastructural) on private investment. The results of Model 1 largely supported the private investment-led economic growth strategy. In all the study countries, private investment had a positive impact on economic growth. Also, public investment positively contributed to economic growth in Zimbabwe, but in the remaining study countries, public investment had a negative relationship with economic growth. Results from Model 2 reveal that: (i) the crowding out effect of gross public investment on private investment predominates in the study countries; (ii) infrastructural public investment crowds in private investment in South Africa and Zimbabwe in the long run while it crowds out private investment in Malawi and Zambia in the short run; and (iii) non-infrastructural public investment crowds out private investment in South Africa and Zambia. On balance, the results from Model 2 show that public investment tends to crowd out private investment in the selected countries and this further underscore the importance of the private sector-led economic growth processes in the study countries. / Economics / D. Phil. (Economics)

The rise of civil society organisations in South Africa is crucial to development as it contributes to the bridging of the communication gap between civil society and local government organisations and municipalities and promotes access to resources. The contribution of civil society organisations to development has been widely acknowledged as they are involved in service delivery, advocacy, innovation and poverty reduction initiatives. In spite of the development work done by civil society organisations in developing countries, they still face challenges in promoting development as poverty, inequality and unemployment persist. This research focused on the social capital approach as a strategy for the development of local communities in South Africa. The social capital approach involves increasing social stability and enhancement of development issues. Social capital relies on the basic idea that “it is not what you know but who you know”. Social capital refers mostly to social cohesion, which makes a community more committed to better living conditions for all. People in communities have the capacity to improve the quality of their lives with the support of all sectors, civil society, the state and the market by letting the people in communities get involved in all the stages of the programmes because they know better from living in those communities. Civil society organisations can meaningfully add value to economic and social development in any third world country through their work. The government, the market and civil society can complement each other and add value to the development of the country. This study employed a qualitative research design. It used in-depth interviews, direct observation and focus-group interviews to collect data, which was later transcribed and analysed thematically. The main focus of this study was to critically evaluate the roles and strategies of civil society organisations in the development of South African communities, using Planact as a case study. The specific objectives were to: 1) To explore the role Planact plays in development in Johannesburg; 2) To evaluate how Planact uses social capital as a strategy in promoting development if at all; 3) To explore the challenges of civil society organisations, particularly that of Planact in the development process of poor communities and 4) To make possible recommendations in the light of the roles and strategies of civil societies identified in analysing Planact ‘s strategy in development process for the poor. This study found that as a civil society organisation Planact is acting as a voice for the voiceless through its advocacy programme. It contributes to policy making, good governance and accountability. In addition, Planact promotes participation and assists in education and training. Planact uses different strategies to promote development in the community, such as mentoring, promoting integrated human settlement, using technology in networking, encouraging participation, community economic development and social organisation. Furthermore, the organisation uses forums, awareness campaigns and empowerment as strategies to promote development in the community. However, the study found that the organisation faces challenges because of limited funding. The community also encounters certain challenges as they engage with the organisation, for example, lack of accountability, unresponsiveness and inaccessibility. It was noted that civil society organisations should adopt a higher priority in development planning and practice and should allow the participation of poor people in the development process. / Development Studies / M.A. (S.S.)