In this thesis the feasibility of making social transfers conditional in South Africa is examined with specific focus on the Child Support Grant. Currently, there are more than 8.7 million children receiving Child Support Grants, which is impacting positively on poverty alleviation. Yet, social outcomes, especially in health and education are poor. The conditionality of transfers will compel the parents/guardians of these children to ensure that the children regularly attend school and also utilise the health services. Conditional cash transfers, by their nature, attempt to address the low demand for these services, which are available but are not being utilised. The National Income Dynamic Study (NIDS) is employed to test empirically whether it will be feasible to institute conditionality to the CSG. The methodology adopted is to determine if there is any statistically significant difference (education and health outcomes) between the recipients of the CSG with non-recipients of the CSG. Moreover, the population (as extrapolated from the sample) is separated into four groups, namely, children that qualify and receive the grant (QR), children that qualify and do not receive the grant (QNR), children that do not qualify and receive the grant (NQR) and children that do not qualify and do not receive the grant (NQNR). Subsequently, educational and health outcomes are compared between these groups to determine if there is any statistically significant difference between them. The results demonstrate that school attendance is high among children, and there is no significant difference in school attendance between the recipients and non-recipients of the CSG; as well as between the QR, QNR, NQR and NQNR. Moreover, there is no substantial difference in education outcomes (grade repetition) between the recipients and non-recipients of the CSG; as well as between the four groups. Similar results are found for health where there is no statistically significant difference between the groups regarding utilisation of health services as well as health outcomes. Therefore, conditionality of the CSG would not be feasible, as it does not address the causes of poor health and education outcomes, which are mainly due to supply-side deficiencies. Government should rather strengthen current poverty alleviation policies which seem to be impacting positively on poverty reduction. / Economics / D. Com (Economics)

The importance of formal education in socioeconomic development is an established fact. Formal education leads to better living standards through improved productivity, health and earnings. However, opportunities to acquire quality education are a function of a country's economic policy. This study inquires into the capacity ofthe South African macroeconomic strategy of Growth, Employment and Redistribution( GEAR) to afford people the opportunities to get quality education. The study shows close linkages between GEAR and structural adjustment programmes( SAPs). The study argues that SAPs and thus GEAR tend to have negative impact on the poor as social spending is reduced and education gets affected. This study concludes that GEAR is likely to impoverish the public formal education system, particularly in poorer communities. / Development Studies / M. Admin. (Development Administration)

The importance of formal education in socioeconomic development is an established fact. Formal education leads to better living standards through improved productivity, health and earnings. However, opportunities to acquire quality education are a function of a country's economic policy. This study inquires into the capacity ofthe South African macroeconomic strategy of Growth, Employment and Redistribution( GEAR) to afford people the opportunities to get quality education. The study shows close linkages between GEAR and structural adjustment programmes( SAPs). The study argues that SAPs and thus GEAR tend to have negative impact on the poor as social spending is reduced and education gets affected. This study concludes that GEAR is likely to impoverish the public formal education system, particularly in poorer communities. / Development Studies / M. Admin. (Development Administration)

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Black South Africans have been exposed to an unequal and divided education system. It has been expected that the basis for an equitable education system would be laid in the post apartheid period. In this thesis I have provided an analysis of education policy development in South Africa between May 1994 and mid-1997. My main aim has been to understand the policy vision that the post apartheid state has enacted as the basis for educational reconstruction. The conceptual framework of this thesis is located in the academic fields of Education and Development and Policy Sociology. I have focused on the interaction between the broad delimitations set by the structural, economic and political dimensions in society on the one hand, and the political and policy dynamics that have given education policy its specific meaning on the other hand. The role of the government in enacting a specific policy vision has been at the centre of my analysis. The government has effected a conservative vision with the adoption of the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) macroeconomic strategy. GEAR has targeted the development of an export-based global economy along post fordist lines. Predicated upon an emphasis on fiscal discipline, the dominant policy orientation has supported equity but without an emphasis on redress. This approach has not provided the necessary basis for education reconstruction. The National Qualifications Framework (NQF)and Outcomes-based education (OBE) embody a definite vision in terms of which education policy would be aligned with economic development. This vision is based on the false assumption that education should playa fundamental role in producing the sophisticated labour demands of a globally competitive economy. The logic of both GEAR and the NQF is internally inconsistent and the relationship between these two policy frameworks is unsustainable. By mid-1997 a definitive narrow and conservative education policy vision had been established which would impede the development of an equitable education system. Education policy 'narrowing' has not been achieved easily, nor has its outcome been inevitable. The specificity of the political context and policy processes has shaped the policy outcomes. A moderate constitutional dispensation has impeded the possibility of developing a radical policy vision. The semi-federal powers awarded to the provinces have led to inconqruence between national and provincial policy. Court challenges aimed at protecting historically acquired educational privileges, have been brought by conservative groups against national education legislation. The apartheid-era bureaucrats, whose jobs were protected by the negotiated constitution, have impeded the development of progressive policy. They brought the conservative policy reformism of the apartheid state into the new policy processes. The NQF has been developed on the basis of a policy consensus between labour and capital in support of skills training and upgrading of workers. Participation in policy processes has been determined 0[1 the basis of identified stakeholders This has given rise to a technicist policy approach that bas excluded many interest groups, academics and professional experts. Most teachers felt alienated by the curriculum policy process. Policy has been developed in a reconstituted civil society. The progressive education movement has been demobilised, and its place has been taken by a constellation of conservative forces who have used the moderate political climate to advance conservative policy interests. The government has had to make policy within a constrained political and policy environment. With regard to the main conceptual underpinning of this thesis, i.e. the relationship between equality and (economic) development, it is clear that the government has favoured the development dimension in pursuit of an education framework that would aid the generation of a globally competitive economy. Social equality has thus been sideline. I have advanced the view that where the government has reneged on the delivery of the social welfare and educational demands of an expectant polity, education policy has manifested as, means of compensatory legitimation at the symbolic level to 'signal', rather than give effect to real change. In my analysis of school access and school curriculum policy, I have suggested that policy has been limited to 'signalling' a commitment to a reconstructed and equitable education system. This has masked the conservative framework that has come to underpin education policy by mid-1997.

Thi s study aims to assess the implementation of the National Development P lan (NDP) and the impact it has had on the provision of human settlements in Gauteng. Th is dissertation has used qualitative research methodology. This nuanced approach has enabled an e laborate exploration and understanding of the NDP as a policy strategy and provided the tools to measure its impact on the provision of human settlements in Gauteng. For this research, the participants were selected purposively based on their expertise in the field of human settlements. The researcher conducted in depth interviews with 15 senior policymakers in the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements and South Africa’s National Department of Human Settlements and collect ed data on human settlements, wh ich fed, into the findings and recommendations of the dissertation This study has argued that housing policies in South Africa have evolved since 1994, moving away from redress and distribution to an approach of creating sustainable integrated human settl ements. It has also assessed how the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements set out to generate inclusive and integrated settlements through the creation of “new towns”. The building of these “new towns” is in line with the provincial government’s mandate of delivering integrated human settlements in the province. South Africa’s Department of Human Settlements and the Gauteng provincial government introduced the Megaprojects in 2014 as a R100billion economic corridor investment, which aims to provide 800 0 00 housing opportunities across five corridors in Gauteng. Despite these initiatives, the provincial Department continues to face several constraints such as population growth, migration, unavailability of land, housing backlogs, a high rate of informal settlements, corruption, poor implementation of policies, and a lack of economic growth and budgetary constraints. The dissertation’s findings suggest that t hese challenges need to be tackled at the policy level the Department of Human Settlements must pr ioritise implementation, good governance and promote greater professionalism within the housing sector in order to achieve these targets . The study further found that p olicymakers must also view housing as a specialised field that requires extensive consul tation and implementation plans that are carefully tailored to address any challenge s that the Department of Human Settlements could potentially encounter during the implementation phase . Only with these changes, can these targets be met. / Public Administration and Management / M. Admin. (Public Administration)