Abstract The exclusion of Africans, women and the disabled from employment and active participation in the economy, has until recent years been a defining characteristic of the South African private and public sectors. As far back as the founding of the Union of South Africa in 1910, laws were passed to improve the lot of the White minority at the expense of other population groups. Blacks, women and the disabled were considered second class citizens not deserving equal and fair treatment in employment or any other vital aspect of life. The post-1994 democratically elected government inherited the negative legacy of apartheid and thus found itself responsible for correcting the many societal injustices and imbalances of the past. This article investigates the progress made by the post-apartheid government, if any, in promulgating and implementing policies to address the imbalances of the past. More specifically, the focus of the article is on assessing the effectiveness with which the Employment Equity Act, 1998 (no. 55 of 1998) is being implemented in the public service. The study demonstrates that progress has been made in employing Blacks and women, but not in employing the disabled. Possible causes and remedies to address the poor representation of disabled persons in the public service were also addressed. The former National Department of Agriculture is used as a practical case study to add empirical evidence in support of literature survey and anecdotal data.

The study of leadership is one of those disciplines that invoke fierce debate among scholars and at the centre of the leadership debate lies the many approaches to the discipline that are employed by scholars and these approaches have led to different definitions of the discipline such as the trait theory of leadership, the behavioural theory of leadership and the contingent theory of leadership. This study was undertaken for two main reasons. Firstly, to investigate the leadership behaviour of deputy directors of the Department of Agriculture and secondly, to establish how those leadership behaviour of deputy directors impacted on the employee morale of their subordinates. The study was conducted within the public administration environment and it was conducted using the leadership behaviour theory whose main assumption is that leadership is a relationship between the leader and the followers and as such, the behaviour of the leader has direct impact on the morale of the followers. The key leadership behaviour that were used for the study came from the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) survey instrument that was developed by Kouzes and Posner (2002) and five key factors were identified as central to the study of leadership behaviour for the purpose of this study. Firstly, leaders are expected to act exemplary (model the way) by ensuring that what they say is what they do. Secondly, leaders are expected to inspire a shared vision so that their followers are able to assimilate the vision being pursued. Thirdly, leaders are expected to challenge the existing institutional processes and systems so that all resources can be directed towards the realisation of the new vision. Fourthly, leaders are expected to enable their followers to act by creating an environment that is conducive to effective service delivery and fifthly, leaders are expected to encourage their followers to endure where challenges seem overwhelming so that followers should not be discouraged and give up. Since the study was conducted within the public administration environment, its main purpose was to discover how frequently do deputy directors engage in those five factors. The study yielded mixed results where in some of the factors, deputy directors engaged frequently whereas in the other factors, they had infrequent engagement. The participants to this study were grouped into three categories: deputy directors (as leaders being evaluated), and directors and subordinates (as observers). The study used the Likert scale where the data was interpreted by means of graphs. / Public Administration and Management

The study of leadership is one of those disciplines that invoke fierce debate among scholars and at the centre of the leadership debate lies the many approaches to the discipline that are employed by scholars and these approaches have led to different definitions of the discipline such as the trait theory of leadership, the behavioural theory of leadership and the contingent theory of leadership. This study was undertaken for two main reasons. Firstly, to investigate the leadership behaviour of deputy directors of the Department of Agriculture and secondly, to establish how those leadership behaviour of deputy directors impacted on the employee morale of their subordinates. The study was conducted within the public administration environment and it was conducted using the leadership behaviour theory whose main assumption is that leadership is a relationship between the leader and the followers and as such, the behaviour of the leader has direct impact on the morale of the followers. The key leadership behaviour that were used for the study came from the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) survey instrument that was developed by Kouzes and Posner (2002) and five key factors were identified as central to the study of leadership behaviour for the purpose of this study. Firstly, leaders are expected to act exemplary (model the way) by ensuring that what they say is what they do. Secondly, leaders are expected to inspire a shared vision so that their followers are able to assimilate the vision being pursued. Thirdly, leaders are expected to challenge the existing institutional processes and systems so that all resources can be directed towards the realisation of the new vision. Fourthly, leaders are expected to enable their followers to act by creating an environment that is conducive to effective service delivery and fifthly, leaders are expected to encourage their followers to endure where challenges seem overwhelming so that followers should not be discouraged and give up. Since the study was conducted within the public administration environment, its main purpose was to discover how frequently do deputy directors engage in those five factors. The study yielded mixed results where in some of the factors, deputy directors engaged frequently whereas in the other factors, they had infrequent engagement. The participants to this study were grouped into three categories: deputy directors (as leaders being evaluated), and directors and subordinates (as observers). The study used the Likert scale where the data was interpreted by means of graphs. / Public Administration and Management

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Mitchell L. Neilsen / The computer industry has seen a growth in the development of mobile applications over the last few years. Tablet/Mobile applications are preferred over their desktop versions due to their increased accessibility and usability. Android is the most popular mobile OS in the world. It not only provides a world-class platform for creating several apps, but also consists of an open marketplace for distributing them to Android users everywhere. This openness has led to it being a favorite for consumers and developers alike, thereby leading to a strong growth in app consumption. The main objective of the project is to design and develop an Android software application for USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) structural design that can be used on Android tablets. The different components of USDA that can be designed using this application are SingleCell, TwinCell, Cchan, Cbasin and Drpws3e. The USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) structural design application was previously developed using FORTRAN. But FORTRAN is not supported by Android Tablets. So, F2J Translator software was used to convert the FORTRAN source files to java source files which are supported by Android. Also, many other formatters such as CommonIn, CommonOut, and SwapStreams were used to translate some common blocks of FORTRAN code that cannot be translated by F2J Translator. The developed Android software allows users to access all different components of USDA structural design. Users can either directly enter the data in the forms provided or upload a file that already has data stored in it. When the application is run, the output can be accessed as a PDF file. Users can even send the output of a particular component to their personal email address. This output provided by the software application is helpful for design engineers to implement new structural designs.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Social Work)) --University of Limpopo, 2018 / Despite the laudable progress on HIV and AIDS interventions encountered in South Africa, new HIV infection remains a challenge. Limpopo Department of Agriculture is not an exception as far as new HIV infections are concerned, regardless of the intervention efforts made. This study aimed at exploring on perceptions of LDA employees on social-behavioural and structural core drivers of HIV infection. Qualitative research methodologies were applied. A purposive sample of twenty participants (10 men and 10 women) was selected from Department of Agriculture, Mopani District, Limpopo Province. Constructivism and structuralism theoretical framework were used to navigate the study. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were designed. Data was collected through interviews, audio-recorded and transcribed. Eight steps of data analysis were followed as proposed by Creswell. Guidelines for the prevention of new HIV infection were developed. Some of the major findings are that: the socio-behavioural core drivers that place all partners at risk of contracting new HIV infections is the Multiple Sexual Partnerships (MSPs). Age-disparate relationships in a workplace were also socio-behavioural drivers of new HIV infection. Young women and men who enter into age-disparate relationships have intention of obtaining permanent employment. Patriarchy was found to be amongst the structural core drivers of new HIV infections. The fact that men are not tested involuntarily is viewed as a structural barrier towards eliminating the spread of new HIV infections. Stigma has been also found to be a core driver of new HIV infections. Some conclusions made are: MSPs is a closed sexual network system, characterised by “secrecy” and “trust”. Despite some reforms purporting to improve women’s status, patriarchal domination is still at its toll. Unsymbolised stigma remains a threat towards elimination of the spread of HIV infections. The major recommendations are that working women still require empowerment in number of areas of their social functioning, and the leadership involvement in the fight against the spread of new HIV infections.

In the modern days government organization are operating in a new climate environment of accountability. According to Rennekamp (2000:1), funders want more than accurate record keeping and the summary of what was done with their appropriation. They want information that communicates value of the programs. Therefore, more attention is being paid to customer satisfaction as funding decisions are made. Even when an organization meets its performance goals, few taxpayers want to finance an organization if it's programs are viewed as irrelevant or official are perceived as rude. The major objective of this study is measuring farming community perceptions and expectations of the quality of extension services rendered by the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs (DAEA) within uMngungundlovu District. Research indicates that customers judges service quality based on multiple factors i.e. dimension of service quality : *Empathy - the provision of caring individual attention (statements 1-4), *Responsiveness - the willingness to help the customer (statements 5-9), *Assurance - the knowledge and courtesy of the employees (statements 10-14), *Reliability - the ability to perform the promised service reliably and accurately (statements 15-18), *Tangibles - the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, communication materials (19-22) ( Zeithaml and Bitner 2006 : 153). These five dimensions of customer satisfaction were used as framework for both the collection and presentation of data. The results of the study have shown that all five dimensions of service quality are significantly important as far as extension work is concerned in the DAEA. The average gap score between the extension service perception and expectation for each of service quality dimensions are empathy (-0.23), responsiveness (-0.25), assurance (-0.23), reliability (-0.36) and tangibles are (-0.31). There is a narrow gap between the extension services - perception and expectation for all five dimensions. However the negative differences implies that the expectation scores have exceeded the perception scores. This calls for some level of improvements. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

The animal experiments seem to be current theme of these days. This thesis is focused on using animals, especially rodents, in the Czech Republic for the last ten years. There is also emphasis on the legal principles of animal protection and observance of three "R" principles. In this study there were used data from available sources about using laboratory animals in the Czech Republic. Also there was prepared a questionnaire research in different scientific institutions which use animal models in their researches. There were found out from available sources that the amount of experimental animals is on the same level (about 230 000) during the years 2006-2015. There were no deflection. Also this fact is the same for using rodents (about 120 000) as biomodels. Further there was found out that the laboratory mouse (Mus musculus var. alba) is the most used experimental model. 66,7% of questioned respondents considered the laboratory mouse the most common used laboratory animal and 60% of questioned respondents supposed that the number of used laboratoty animals was decreasing.

The study was undertaken to establish the role that should be played by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) to strengthen existing second-tier agricultural cooperatives in South Africa to ensure that they are able to provide support services to member cooperatives. Ten existing second-tier agricultural cooperatives in the Zululand district of the province of Kwazulu Natal took part in the study. The results indicate that although these cooperatives understand the services to provide, they lack capacity mainly due to lack of the necessary infrastructure, finance and skills. The study recommends that DAFF should recognise the significance of this tier of cooperatives and provide direct and focused support. DAFF should develop a Cooperative Development Strategy for the sector that clearly articulates how it is going to support this level of cooperatives. Among others DAFF should also provide initial infrastructure to these cooperatives and facilitate private-public-partnership initiatives. / Public Administration & Management / M. Tech. (Public Management)

Monitoring and evaluation is multidisciplinary. It is interpreted differently and is instituted to achieve different outcomes. In South Africa, monitoring and evaluation is fairly new and as such extensive research on it is required. It enjoys immense legislative support and is implemented by multiple role players as a reform initiative to safeguard the use of limited resources, improve transparency, enforce accountability, and ensure that there is value for money and to improve service delivery to satisfy the needs of the society. Using a quantitative research method in which a research questionnaire was administered to a representative sample of respondents that were selected from the study area, the findings of this study reveals both the areas of effective and ineffective implementation of monitoring and evaluation. Effective implementation is verified by the findings through which the respondents report that monitoring and evaluation processes are clearly outlined, respondents have the expertise to implement monitoring and evaluation, monitoring and evaluation as a critical management tool complements other functions, improves service delivery, enforces accountability, promotes transparency, strengthens internal management processes and improves capacity. Adherence by the department to its financial reporting obligations to oversight institutions using the prescribed procedures is helpful and does not distract it from achieving its objectives. Contrarily, the findings also reveal areas of ineffective implementation, namely, majorities of respondents are not regularly trained on monitoring and evaluation, there is lack of accountability, support and failure by senior managers to prioritise monitoring and evaluation, the monitoring and evaluation directorate is inappropriately located and insufficiently resourced, progress in the implementation of the recommendations that are made in quarterly performance reports is not tracked and there is lack of evidence to support achieved targets. / Centre for Public Administration and Management / M.P.A. (Public Administration and Management)

The study was undertaken to establish the role that should be played by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) to strengthen existing second-tier agricultural cooperatives in South Africa to ensure that they are able to provide support services to member cooperatives. Ten existing second-tier agricultural cooperatives in the Zululand district of the province of Kwazulu Natal took part in the study. The results indicate that although these cooperatives understand the services to provide, they lack capacity mainly due to lack of the necessary infrastructure, finance and skills. The study recommends that DAFF should recognise the significance of this tier of cooperatives and provide direct and focused support. DAFF should develop a Cooperative Development Strategy for the sector that clearly articulates how it is going to support this level of cooperatives. Among others DAFF should also provide initial infrastructure to these cooperatives and facilitate private-public-partnership initiatives. / Public Administration and Management / M. Tech. (Public Management)