The main objective of the thesis was to investigate the feasibility of accurately and precisely fore- casting the number of both national and provincial bene ciaries of social security grants in South Africa, using simple autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. The series of the monthly number of bene ciaries of the old age, child support, foster care and disability grants from April 2004 to March 2010 were used to achieve the objectives of the thesis. The conclusions from analysing the series were that: (1) ARIMA models for forecasting are province and grant-type spe- ci c; (2) for some grants, national forecasts obtained by aggregating provincial ARIMA forecasts are more accurate and precise than those obtained by ARIMA modelling national series; and (3) for some grants, forecasts obtained by modelling the latest half of the series were more accurate and precise than those obtained from modelling the full series. / Mathematical Sciences / M.Sc. (Statistics)

In 1994, racial domination in the form of apartheid ended in South Africa and the first postapartheid government was elected through a non-racial and democratic franchise. The new government inherited an entrenched system of racial inequality as well as widespread poverty amongst the formerly oppressed population, and it sought to address these challenges through policies of redistribution based on a new progressive constitution which emphasised the realisation of socio-economic rights. At the same time, and despite its redistributive measures, the post-apartheid government has pursued a macro-economic strategy with pronounced neoliberal dimensions. One of its critical redistributive measures focuses on social assistance to poor blacks, and this has entailed the construction and expansion of a massive social grant system including the child support grant which is received by millions of black South Africans on a monthly basis. The objective of this thesis is to examine and understand the livelihoods of child support grant recipients (or caregivers) in the context of conditions of extreme vulnerability marked by poverty. It does so by focusing on the small town of Riebeek East located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Though undoubtedly child support grant caregivers are victims of poverty, the thesis demonstrates that they are not without agency. They exist in structural conditions of vulnerability and poverty, but they nevertheless seek to manoeuvre and negotiate their way in and through their conditions of existence. This does not necessarily alleviate their poverty in any significant manner but it does show evidence of reflexivity, decision-making and responsibility in the pursuit of livelihood practices and outcomes. In making this argument, I draw upon the mega-theory of Margaret Archer (specifically, her morphogenetic approach) and the more middle-level perspective of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. Beyond contributing to the prevailing academic literature on the child support grant in South Africa, this thesis also hopefully makes a small contribution to controversies about structure and agency within sociology.

This masters thesis main focus is a statement of cash flows as regulated by czech accounting legislation, International Financial Reporting Standards and US GAAP. First chapter describes the importance of Statement of cash flows and his value added for users of financial statements. The historical context of the statement is shown, it is stated which entities are obligated to report statement of cash flows and lastly the internal structure of the statement is discussed. The second chapter begins by general methods of preparing the statement, then so called specific items are dealt with. The solution of some advanced accounting transactions (government grants, leases, loans, deferred payments etc.) is described. In the end the presentation and dislocure requirements are discussed. Last chapter contains research, where 99 companies are researched, answers are made concerning stated research questions and research hypothesis are concluded.

The thesis is focused on finding administrative costs of the selected public spending program - the Operational Programme Education for Competitiveness. The work presents the theory of public expenditure, public spending projects and administrative costs to the extent required. There is also described the Operational Programme Education for Competitiveness itself. The core is in the analysis of administrative costs for the three types of projects, the administrative burden is watched in the selected projects at various levels of implementation structure. The values observed are compared, evaluated and commented. The problematic areas are formulated pursuant to the observed data. To determine the necessary data has been used a questionnaire survey.

À l'intérieur d'un État, la distribution des ressources publiques sur le territoire a une importance fondamentale, parce qu'elle représente un facteur de justice dans les rapports entre collectivités territoriales, de sorte qu’elle conditionne la capacité à assurer les charges liées à l’exercice de leurs compétences, dans le respect de leur autonomie, au profit des habitants qui doivent pouvoir bénéficier d’une qualité minimale des services publics. Cette thèse vise d’abord à étudier et à comparer quelle est l’influence de la forme d’État (unitaire pour la France et fédérative pour le Brésil) sur les mécanismes de la solidarité territoriale. Elle se propose de décrire et d’analyser l’efficacité des mécanismes plus importants (financiers : impôt local, dotations, fonds et transferts facultatifs ; coopératifs : institutions représentatives, politiques publiques nationales, mutualisation et contrats entre collectivités territoriales) mis en place, dès le prélèvement des impôts (nationaux ou locaux), en passant par les incitations fiscales, jusqu’au transfert des ressources aux bénéficiaires. Toute d’abord par une description de l’évolution historique qui explique l’organisation territoriale et la naissance des mécanismes de solidarité actuels, puis en montrant les inégalités importantes qui existent, principalement entre communes pour, enfin, finir avec une analyse prospective de l’efficacité et des défauts (guerre fiscale, corruption et évasion fiscales) de ces mécanismes qui visent à réaliser une péréquation (verticale ou horizontale) des ressources publiques. / Within a state, the distribution of public resources inside the territory have a fundamental importance, because it represents a factor of justice in the relationship between local authorities, so that it affects the ability to provide their obligations related to the exercise of their powers in respect of their autonomy, in benefit of citizens who need to have a minimum quality of public services. This thesis aims first to examine and compare what is the influence of the form of state (Unitary for France and Federal for Brazil) on the mechanisms of territorial solidarity. It aims to describe and analyze the effectiveness of the most important mechanisms (financial: local taxes, grants, funds and discretionary transfers; cooperative: representative institutions, national public policies, pooling and contracts between central state and local authorities). Firstly with a description of the historical evolution of territorial organization and the birth of the current solidarity mechanisms and showing the significant existant inequalities, moreover among municipalities, to finally end up with a prospective analysis of effectiveness and defects (tax war, corruption and tax evasion) of these mechanisms designed to achieve equalization (vertical or horizontal) of public resources.

The dropout of students funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is a perennial problem in many higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa. Despite this, little research has been conducted to investigate this phenomenon, and this study sought to address this gap by investigating the dropout of NSFAS-funded students from HEIs in Northern Gauteng. The study adopted a qualitative methodology and a phenomenological design to explore the lived experiences of students who dropped out of HEIs. Thirty-one NSFAS-funded students, three senior management officials from three HEIs and one NSFAS senior official were purposively selected to form part of the study. Semi-structured interviews, document analysis and observations were utilised as reseach instruments and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was employed to analyse data. The findings of the study established that a lack of support for students, and personal, socioeconomic, institutional and health factors contributed to the dropout of students from HEIs. It was further established that the majority of students who dropped out did so because of the inefficient operations of NSFAS and the new student-centred model. The study also found that insufficient funding, late allocation of funds, stringent NSFAS requirements, lack of communication, late payment or nonpayment of allowances contributed to students’ dropout. To address these shortfalls, the study recommends that the student-centred model should be overhauled and replaced with an integrated system including departments such as DOH, SARS, DSD and DOL to identify students who are eligible for funding and assist in the efficient administration of NSFAS. It is further recommended that funding administered by both the national and provincial government departments be centralized and administred by the NSFAS to circumvent double dipping. Finally, it is recommended that students who fall within the R0 – R350,000 per annum household income category including SASSA beneficiaries be flagged by the system to automatically qualify for funding. / Educational Management and Leadership / D. Ed. (Education Management)

This work is focused on development issues, the current situation in the real estate market, the impact of economic crisis and in particular to finance development projects through grants and developer, or. mortgage loans. Practical analyzes and evaluates offers banking institutions to finance a particular project. The result is a recommendation for the selection of individual bids.

This diploma thesis deals with harvesting electrical power from renewable resources - natural raw materials, specifically from biomass, by means of energy producing equipment - biogas station. Theoretical part is focused on possibilities of energy production from renewable resources, analysis of administrative measures connected both with power engineering legislature and limited company establishing. It deals with procedures necessary for implementation of the plan and funding possibilities - grants and long term bank loans. Following analytical part is aimed to particular identification of surroundings, chances and risks connected with proposed design. Prospectus with the objective of establishing limited company BS Cerekvice nad Loučnou, s.r.o. is described in the project; this company will be focused on construction and operation of biogas station, producing electric power and heat.

MSCPNT / Department of Nutrition / Objectives: The study objectives were to determine demographic and environmental factors that can affect nutritional status of children receiving CSG, to assess the nutritional knowledge of caregivers, to determine the proportion of CSG spent on food and to determine the nutritional quality of food bought from CSG. Design: Cross-sectional descriptive with an analytical component Subjects: PCG of children under the age of 5 receiving CSG in Mogalakwena Municipality. 189 caregiver-child pairs were interviewed, in their households. Methods: Data collected by the interviewer included demographic data, Use of CSG, nutritional knowledge and the HHFI and anthropometric measurements were done by a 3rd year Nutrition student. Results: About 36.5% of participants were in the age 26-35 years, 75.7% were unmarried, 84.1% were unemployed and 72% had no matric. Mean age for children studied was 2.84±1.33, 77.8% of participants stayed in a household of more than 5 people. In terms of types of housing, 56% had formal houses, 55% had access to pit latrines and 52.9% used communal taps to access water, 41.3% used electricity for energy while 23.3% used wood to stretch the availability of electricity. Mean CSG received was R386.22 ±R208.75. Majority of participants (56.1%) indicated that CSG supports the whole family and 64.6% of the families depended solely on CSG for survival, while 27% of families had elderly people receiving pension grant which was supplementing the CSG. The CSG was used for different items, majority of families used 94.2% of the money for food at a mean of R171.55±159.25, followed by toiletry (71.6%) at a mean R61.89±69.24, then clothing (68.9%) at a mean of R70.77±97.14. Stokvel was also mentioned as one of the items contributed for by CSG, 32.3% of participants used more than R50.00 for stokvel. Different food items were purchased using CSG, 80.5 % of the money was used to purchase starchy food, mealie meal being the highest commodity at 43.7%. Offal (35.8%) was the highest protein source purchased followed by poultry at 26.4% and soya soup at 20%. Potatoes (19.6%) were mentioned as the most purchased vegetable, followed by cabbage (14.8%). There was a 53.5% of prevalence of stunting, of this 19.6% of children were severely xiii stunted, 5.3% underweight, and 32.3% of wasting. There were 22.1 % of PCG who were overweight and 12.1% were obese. The PCG BMI was negatively associated with WAZ (r= -0.48, p=0.515). There was a positive association between PCG BMI and HAZ (r=0.103, p=0.158), however when caregivers BMI was correlated to BAZ the association was strongly negatively significant (r=0.206, p=0.004). Most PCG received nutrition education from relatives, 71.1% were never educated on nutrition, 57.9% of children were fed 3X/ day. Conclusion: It is apparent from the study that malnutrition, precisely stunting is still a problem in South Africa, however this does not disregard the impact that CSG has on the lives of the poor. It affords the families to access basic needs in the household such as food, toiletry, electricity and even stokvel. The role of nutritionists/ dieticians is paramount in helping mothers to choose healthier economic food for the children in order to curb the burden of malnutrition. / NRF

The child protection system includes foster care. Yet some foster children are neglected, physically or emotionally abused and are used to obtain Foster Care Grants. The essence of this study is to develop a thorough and comprehensive understanding from the frame of reference of social workers on the factors that contribute to the neglect and abuse of foster children as well as their suggestions about possible interventions. The qualitative research approach was applied. The researcher utilised purposive sampling to select social workers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather information and data was analysed. It is clear from the findings that the foster care system needs to be reviewed to minimise or stop neglect and abuse of foster children. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Work)