Mini-thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Management in the field of Security (MM-S) In the Graduate School of Public and Development Management University of Witwatersrand February 2017 / This is a report on Security Vetting in the Department of Home Affairs. The South African Public Service (including the Department of Home Affairs) as an employer has an obligation to deliver services in an accountable and transparent manner and because of that people who obtain employment in the public sector are expected to possess a high level of integrity and professional ethics. The Security Screening Investigation (SSI) commonly known as Security Vetting or Vetting was introduced in government departments with the objective of ensuring that all the individuals employed in government with access to classified information possess the qualities that will enable them “not to cause classified information or material to fall into unauthorised hands, thereby harming or endangering the security and/or interests of the State”. The process of vetting is, however, the mandate of the State Security Agency (SSA), with the responsibility of a larger portion of the vetting process while the smaller portion of the function lies with some government departments, of which the DHA is one. It has been observed that regardless of the decentralization of the functions of vetting by the SSA, there are still challenges that are experienced in DHA with the current vetting approach/strategy. This study was undertaken with the purpose of identifying and describing the challenges relating to the current vetting process in the DHA and as a follow-up to determine the possibility of establishing a strategy that will address the current shortcomings. Interviews were undertaken with Home Affairs officials to collect data on the effectiveness and efficiency of the current vetting strategy in the department, the challenges and the shortcomings concerning vetting, as well as how vetting strategy can be constructed in order to alleviate the challenges and the shortcomings. The findings indicate that the current vetting strategy is neither effective nor efficient. The report further indicates that there are several challenges with the current vetting strategy in DHA, such as DHA reliance on SSA for the completion of the vetting process, a shortage of vetting officers in the department, delayed turnaround times on the conclusion of the vetting process as well as failure in the implementation of the vetting strategy. The conclusion is that the current vetting strategy needs to be reviewed and improved. / MT2017

This study focused on constructing a psychological retention profile by investigating the relationship between an individual’s psychological career-related attributes (psychological contract and psychosocial career preoccupations), biographical variables (generational cohorts, gender, race, marital status, job level and employment status) and retention factors (compensation, job characteristics, training and development, supervisor support, career opportunities, work/life balance and commitment) in order to inform retention management practices for diverse groups of employees in the context of higher educational environment in South Africa. A quantitative survey was conducted on a purposively selected sample of academic and support staff (N = 579) at the University of South Africa. The canonical correlation analysis indicated employer obligations and state of the psychological contract as the strongest psychological career-related variables in predicting the retention factor variables of compensation, training and development opportunities, supervisor support, career opportunities and organisational commitment. The canonical correlation data were used to inform the structural equation modelling, which indicated a good fit between employer obligations and compensation and training and development opportunities and between the state of the psychological contract and supervisor support and career opportunities. Hierarchical moderated regression showed that psychosocial career preoccupations significantly moderated the relationship between the psychological contract and training and development opportunities as retention factor. Moderated mediation modelling found that the effect of positive perceptions of employer obligations on high levels of retention factors satisfaction through the state of the psychological contract increased when the scores on psychosocial career preoccupations were high. The results also indicated that the effect of positive perceptions of employer obligations on high levels of retention factors satisfaction through positive state of psychological contract increased when the age group of participants was lower (i.e. younger generations). Tests for significant mean differences revealed significant differences in terms of the biographical variables. On a theoretical level, the study expanded the understanding of the individual and behavioural elements of the hypothesised psychological retention profile. On an empirical level, this study delivered an empirically tested psychological retention profile in terms of the behavioural elements. On a practical level, individual and organisational interventions in terms of the psychological retention profile were recommended. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

The research study covers the following topic “Vetting as a Technique to Investigate Employment Fraud in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan”. The researcher intends to evaluate the current procedures which are used in the process of forensic vetting as employment fraud investigation method in CoJ. Furthermore, to build the ground work for potential future innovation, problem solving, decision making and proper planning of the use of forensic vetting as employment fraud investigation method. The researcher applied the qualitative approach throughout the research because qualitative involves interaction between the researcher and the subject that was identified as a problem that concerned CoJ The researcher had selected ten (10) forensic investigators to partake in this study. The total population to be interviewed and collect data from was considerable and appropriate for evaluating forensic vetting as an employment fraud investigation method. The researcher used purposive sampling to choose the participants for this research. It was found that every individual within an organ of the State must be subjected to the vetting process. It was further found that the institutions in governmental, organs of the State and private spheres must adopt the forensic vetting practice to minimize fraudulent activities in their organizations. / Department of Police Practice / M. Tech. (Forensic Investigation)