M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Submitted in fulfilment of Masters in Development Planning, Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, 2016 / The purpose of the thesis is to assess municipal own sources of revenue in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Section 229 of the Constitution of South Africa states that municipalities may impose rates on property and surcharges on fees for services provided by the municipality or on behalf of the municipality. The primary data obtained from the City of Johannesburg facilitated the assessment of property tax and user fees revenue performance of the municipality as well as the challenges in the administration of revenue. A case study approach was used and the data required was on assessment of property tax and user fees revenue performance of the municipality as well as the challenges in the administration of revenue. Data was therefore collected from the primary data sources.This research shed the light on challenges that the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality encounter in the process of tax rate and charges administration in order to raise enough revenue to cover the cost of service delivery. Findings in relation to revenue collection were based on the information obtained from a user’s survey, the department of revenue, head of property unit, MMC finance and the executive mayor. Amongst other challenges that affect the CoJ own source of revenue, is the issue of property valuation and billing system which is to allow the city to charges tax payers according to property market value. In addition, there is no proper line of communication between the city and the community about the necessity of property tax rates and fee charges. Hence, some members of local community are not fulfilling their property tax obligations because of poverty or by preference. Observations from the study indicates that practical difficulties related to tax base identification and the lack of human capacity contribute significantly to the underperformance of the property tax administration system across South Africa as a whole. The inadequate records on property information have contributed to the inefficiency of the property tax system since many taxable units are not known, and therefore, it becomes difficult for the taxing authorities to collect property tax. Consequently, the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is unable to collect enough revenue to cover the cost of service delivery. In order to rectify these problems some of the measures recommended include the need to improve human capacity and the communication/collaboration between local community and the municipality. / MT2017

This exploratory study set out to uncover views from the Occupy Movement’s Johannesburg leg. The Occupy Movement arose in late 2011, aiming to occupy public space and challenge conventional economics, politics, and governance. Data were collected by means of an online survey amongst 39 ‘core’ members of the group. The study took up a mixed methods approach underpinned by critical realism. Basic descriptive statistics and cross tabulations were used to analyse 6 closed-ended survey items in a quantitative fashion; thereafter, 4 open-ended items were qualitatively examined by delineating responses into discursive themes based on response content and positions taken up by respondents in their claims and statements. Finally, a cluster analysis was performed in order to cluster or profile significant groups that emerged from the data based on demographics, selection of closed-ended items, and quantitatively transformed response content to qualitatively examined open-ended items. It was found that the sample mirrored the demographics present in foreign movements as it was primarily male (61.5%), white (87.2%), highly educated (51.4% holding a bachelor’s degree or higher) and young (74.4% in the 21 to 40 age range). Furthermore, it was found that within a group that stood against various macro-level social systems, confidence in all social institutions was extremely low, in particular for big corporations, national government, and political parties. This sample was highly comparable to a representative South African sample as regards their views on the causes of social division; the factors that were seen as most socially divisive (in descending order) were: (1) socio-economic status; (2) race; (3) politics; (4) cultural differences; (5) language; (6) religion; (7) AIDS/disease. Qualitatively, the first item asked whether or not they believed that their movement lacked focus. Upon analysis it was found that four distinct themes existed in response: (1) duality (those revealing support for the movement but disdain for its processes); (2) aggressive justification (vehement justification and defense of the Occupy stance); (3) denial (lacking full knowledge of Occupy processes but ardently defending them while moving away from the difficult questions); (4) straddling the fence (vague and contradictory positions). Members responded to the question of whether their movement differed from foreign movements by stating that it did, based primarily on local socio-historical, economic, and contemporary issues peculiar to South Africa – these members sought a special place for their movement and acted in contradiction to the global Occupy stances; others said no and based this on appeals to homogeneity of cause, global concerns, and an Occupy solidarity. When asked why they, personally, were motivated to engage with the movement, the sample maintained either: (1) the unfair world argument (a strong theme in which perceived ‘systemic unfairness’ proved motivation enough); (2) socialist argument (a string of socialist-based positions connected to classic socialist disdain for the creation of capital, accruing of personal wealth, estrangement of labourers from produce etc.); (3) personal plight argument (exclusively personal standpoints appealing to individual socio-economic woes). Finally, pressure was placed upon the Occupy protestors to reveal what their ideal, utopian society would look like, given the option. The sample called for: (1) orthodox anarchy (stark calls for 4 absolute anarchy); (2) anarchic socialism (marrying socialism and anarchy – less extreme than anarchy, more equal than capitalism, incorporating multiple freedoms and backed by orthodox socialist rhetoric); (3) advancing through decentralized civil society (no clear ideology, rather providing a special place for civil society with few central power structures; driving forth through family and community); (4) fundamental equality and freedom (emphasis of final desires over process and ideology with a belief that society does not require strict regulation, it rather holds its own ‘homeostatic’ capabilities). The hierarchical cluster analysis for this study found 4 distinct clusters; each cluster was defined by a generally homogeneous set of responses and demographics. Significantly, cluster 3 included 50% of the cases analysed (50% of the sample) and uncovered a common profile (homogeneous demographics, vastly similar stances on sources of social division, similarity in terms of confidence in social institutions, and agreement on the rationale and motivation to be personally involvement in Occupy). Cluster 4 consisted of so-called outliers. / Psychology / M. A.( Psychology with specialisation in Research Consultation)

M.A. / The provision of adequate housing is one of the critical components in ad dressing the political, economic and social challenges facing South Africa. The housing development strategy in the Greater Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan Council UMC) was investigated because, if it should fail, it would have far reaching implications for the rest of the country since the Greater Johannesburg area is the engine room of South Africa. The primary objective of this research project is to establish the main causes for the perceived slow delivery of housing in the Greater Johannesburg TMC's area of jurisdiction. A literature study on housing development is done in order to compare the South African hou—sing context with the international housing field. Relevant terms and definitions are conceptualised and a brief discussion is given of housing in the macro environment to give a holistic perspective. The chapter on the South African context gives a brief historical outline of the institutional framework of housing in South Africa to put the housing delivery process in its proper perspective. The housing backlog and the Central Government's housing budget and subsidy scheme are considered and analysed. A brief overview is given of the background of the establishment of the Greater Johannesburg TMC and it's organisational structures. The empirical findings of the research project regarding the provision of housing in the Greater Johannesburg area indicates that the Transitional Metropolitan Council is not ' ready or geared to meet the housing challenges in its area of jurisdiction. Recommendations are based on the empirical data and the theoretical information obtained during the research for this dissertation.

M.Tech. (Architectural Technology) / Contested territories have strongly contributed to the displacement of people worldwide, resulting in the loss of the right to belong. Considering the boundaries of belonging in Mayfair, a marginalised social landscape in Johannesburg, this architectural response to a social and urban investigation will ascertain whether and how architecture can respond to the global issue of xenophobia. Johannesburg as uitvalgrond has, since its founding, offered migrants opportunities for meaningful participation and self-actualisation. This reiterates the idea that the city’s in-between spaces often allow for a new realisation or actualisation of identity. The author argues that space-and-place-making and identity are intrinsically linked - the one enforcing, defining or denying the Other. The dissertation conceptualizes how architecture can acknowledge Mayfair residents’ unique and evolving post-national identity as a marginalised community in an young democracy. The study suggests how architecture can give form to contemporary African public space that contributes to a sense of belonging for both the Self and the Other in Mayfair. The methods used in this study are: observation through site visits, drawing, on-site interviews and film; mapping boundaries and edges defining various ethnic territories, open space network (utilised and unutilised), mobility, nodes and landmarks, actual land use as opposed to zoned land use and experiential observations; correspondence and discussions, making use of official databases to research historic maps and photographs; examining precedents, and applying all of the above into an appropriate architectural model. Each chapter concludes with a reflection extracting the most important notions from that chapter to be taken into the next section. This dissertation interrogates the importance and the role of architecture and public open space in Johannesburg by exploring new ways of thinking, doing and making in Johannesburg’s present, changing urban condition.

D. Ed. (Education) / In this study two main educational issues are examined, namely language instruction and learning as well as classroom culture. The problems were not strictly formulated as research questions at the outset, but evolved partly during the pilot study and the fieldwork stage. The fragile character of South African education in this time of major transformation and socio-educational reconstruction, was the main impetus for this research. It was decided to focus on one educational micro-organism in order to try and sense if there were some noteworthy issues which could be reflected for generalization or subsequent research purposes. It was argued that the ecological and temporal validity of an extended emic study would reveal aspects of language Pedagogy, contextualized in a single classroom culture, which could potentially be of benefit to the wider educational community. The study was undertaken with the aim of giving a thick ethnographic description of classroom life, concentrating on linguistic factors. Two standard six English classes were observed for six months each, the one following upon the other. The same teacher taught the two comparable classes in which one major pattern emerged during the observation, namely the limited Cognitive, Academic Language proficiency (CALP) of most pupils.The choice of site was motivated by the fact that newly desegregated schools could perhaps benefit from a description (and interpretation) of English classroom life at an open school which has been functioning successfully for a number of years. During the pilot study it was presupposed that linguistic phenomena surfacing in a contemporary language classroom would be supported by the theory of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) , which 'is theoretically based on the theory of language acquisition and especially Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and which is the dominant second language teaching theory of the day. It became clear during the pilot study that a baseline of CLT would serve a valid purpose in that the theory could be applied and, to a limited degree, even assessed at this single site, but that the data' which would be forthcoming would be spread somewhat wider than the theory of CLT. Nevertheless, it was decided to broadly limit the theory pertaining to language didactics to CLT and SLA, as the interpretation of data would possibly reflect sufficiently strongly in the theoretical framework in these two domains. In addition to a framework from theory in Linguistics, a construction of the theory of Multicultural Education was also included. The main tenets of Multicultural Education, the most important one being equality of educational opportunity, were then woven into the theoretical unit referred to as "language classroom at an urban multicultural school". This unit included a brief foray into roleplay as language teaching tool. The third part of the theoretical scaffold consisted of an exploration of qualitative research methodology, specifically ethnography. As this study is to some degree also a study in qualitative methodology which is not widely used in some research milieus in South Africa, it is regarded as an important part of the theoretical framework.

M.Tech. (Architecture) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Ed. / Stereopsis -- binocular depth perception is a visual function which falls within the ambit of the hyperacuities. The term, Hyperacuity, is one coined by Westheimer (1976) to describe thresholds of discrimination which cannot be explained on the basis of the optical components or sensory elements of the eyes alone. By implication such levels of discrimination are effected by higher levels of brain function. It is reasoned that an individual's stereoscopic hyperacuity should in some way relate to other measures of higher sensory and motor brain functions. In a school situation hyperacuity should relate to measures of intelligence, as well as scholastic and sporting achievement. The design and implementation of an experiment to test this premise forms the basis of this thesis. A literature review is reported of current knowledge relevant to this study together with a description of the stereoscopic testing instruments commonly available in clinical practice. A rationale for modifying these instruments and testing methods to suit the needs of this study is also included. This study exposes new knowledge about the process of static nearpoint stereopsis. This stereopsis proves to be a complex of diverse skills, which are significantly age-related and developmental in nature. These skills are seen to influence and be influenced by educational interventions. It may be concluded from this study that there is value in measuring stereopsis in more depth than has been done previously and that it is crucial to measure the speed of stereo performance in its own right in addition to the measures of stereoacuity. The study reveals significant differences of performance which relate to stereopsis in front as opposed to behind the plane of regard and also related to figure/ground contrast differences. The two non-stereoscopic tests and the six different stereoscopic tests described in this thesis prove to be highly discriminative and diagnostic with respect to age, grade level, I.Q., scholastic achievement and sporting ability.

M.Sc. (Environmental Management) / This study explores the school-commuting phenomenon that occurs across the city of Johannesburg, with specific reference to inner city private schools. It was hypothesized that the school commute, much of which has its origins in spatial apartheid, is financially and socially unsustainable. As spatial apartheid continues to dominate the urban landscape in Johannesburg, it is posited that overall, the school commute hinders the City of Johannesburg’s progress towards becoming a sustainable city. In particular, a sustainable city has both sustainable social systems and a sustainable transport system, amongst other things. It is argued here that in Johannesburg, the existence of nonsustainable social systems in formerly designated ‘black only’ residential areas, such as dysfunctional and poorly resourced public schools, is driving a school commute to inner city private schools. In particular, historically disadvantaged individuals, who were forced under apartheid to reside on the urban periphery, are the ones who do the longest and most expensive commute to school. For the learners and parents, this decision to enroll in inner city schools comes at a financial cost, for transport, and in time spent commuting, which is lowering the overall quality of life for these families. The study is limited to inner city, low cost private schools within the City of Johannesburg (CoJ). The respondents were parents or guardians of learners enrolled in these schools. The study found that the majority of learners enrolled in these schools resided outside of the inner city itself, mostly in former designated ‘black-only’ space. The overwhelming majority of learners were black and identified with various tribal groups, although Zulu was the most dominant. They hailed from lower middle class to upper working class homes. Parents had elected to enroll their children in these inner city private schools, rather than in geographically close-to-home schools for reasons associated with academic performance, discipline and the perceived quality of the teaching. It was clear that local township schools were shunned by these parents who were prepared to spend significant amounts of money on the school commute and have their children spend more than 30 minutes getting to school each day instead of enrolling them in no-fee township schools within walking distance from home.

Organisations are confronted with the challenges of managing, controlling and putting in place retention strategies to mitigate against high turnover intention. This is also the case with public libraries. The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of the turnover intention of public librarians at the City of Johannesburg Libraries (COJLIS) in the Gauteng province of South Africa, with a view to developing a retention strategy. Turnover intention can bring devastation to the organisation and can also lead to negative consequences such as decreased morale and productivity, shortage of skilled and qualified librarians, direct and indirect costs to library organisation and loss of knowledge. This quantitative research study utilised the conceptual framework to investigate demographic, personal and organisational factors influencing turnover intentions of librarians. The conceptual framework for the present study incorporated aspects of a theory or theories, concepts from the literature, personal experiences, knowledge of the context and models The aspects of theory or theories and concepts from the literature on employee turnover “content” and “process” models such as Mobley (1977), Jerome (2017), Nair, Mee & Cheik (2016), Perez (2008), Spector (2005), Spector (1997), Price and Mueller (2000) and Price (2001)were modified to suit this study for public librarians at COJLIS. Mobley’s (1977) turnover process model was germane to this study, as it theorises a linear sequence consisting of the following: “dissatisfaction, thoughts of quitting, evaluation of subjective expected utility of job search and costs of quitting, search intentions, evaluation of alternatives, comparison of alternatives and present job, intentions to quit and quitting”. The constituents of the conceptual framework are demographics factors (age, tenure and job designation level), personal factors (job satisfaction and organisational commitment) and organisational factors (payment and fringe benefits, location of workplace, working environment: flexi working hours, perceived alternative employment opportunity, promotion and recognition, personal interaction, supervision and leadership, training and opportunity to utilise skills) as well as turnover intention. This study employed the census method and adopted the cross-sectional survey design method to collect data from 174 librarians working in 89 public libraries and three support sections at COJLIS. Data collection involved the use of a closed-ended questionnaire, as well as analysis documents such as strategic plans and human resource policies. Quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) according to the objectives of the study. The researcher conducted a linear regression test to find the instance of correlation between personal and organisational variables, and librarians’ intention to leave their workplace. The findings revealed that demographic determinants (age, tenure and job designation level) are significantly related to turnover intention. Tenure was a highly significant predictor of turnover intention. The major findings to this study were a negative and significant relationship between payment and fringe benefits, working environment: flexi working hours (work-life balance) promotion and recognition towards turnover intention. The study concludes that COLIS may be able to reduce turnover intention through the improvement of factors such as payment and fringe benefit, working environment: flexi working hours (work-life balance) promotion and recognition which would lead to increased job satisfaction and organisational commitment. It is recommended that in order to mitigate turnover intention and increase retention, the talent retention policy, strategy and initiatives should be developed which could incorporate the variables (e.g. payment and fringe benefits, promotion and recognition and training to develop and utilise new skills) of the suggested conceptual talent retention model for COJLIS. A further study to validate a newly developed retention model in COJLIS is recommended. / Information Science / M. Inf.