The research presented in this thesis is a case study analysis of the school-based intervention initiated by the David Rattray Foundation [DRF]. David Rattray, a South African historian well known for his contribution to the 1879-1896 Anglo-Zulu War heritage, was murdered in January 2007. In response to his untimely death, the DRF was established by family and friends with the hope of improving education within the Umzinyathi rural municipal district of KwaZulu-Natal. This study consisted of three phases: Phase I (May-December 2011); Phase II (January-December 2012), and Phase III (December 2012-October 2013). During Phase I, the focus was on describing the broader context in which the case is located. It resulted in a narrative account of the emergence of the DRF as a non-governmental organisation [NGO] working towards change within the local rural school community. During Phase II the focus shifted from the broader socio-political and economic context to the human dimension which included teachers, principals, volunteer workers and a district official working in the schools. During Phase II the approach to change adopted by the DRF was critically analysed in relation to models of change described in the literature. Teachers’ experiences of change were also examined. Phase III was a synthesis of the findings from the first two research phases. By drawing on systems and complexity theory perspectives, insights were gained enabling a deep understanding of the DRF’s school-based intervention as a whole. This research is a qualitative study that seeks to understand individual teachers’ experiences and participation in a process of change that reaches beyond the individual and his/her immediate context. The adoption of a realist ontology (Maxwell, 2012) and application of an explanatory heuristic based on the critical realist philosophy of Bhaskar (1979, 1980, 2011) enabled the layered analysis and in-depth interpretation that characterises the study. The findings of the study reveal a complex and ongoing process of change within a rural school context. The results illuminate the efficacy of a collaborative partnership between civil society (the DRF), the local community, under the leadership of a tribal authority, and the local government (KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Education). It also reveals how teachers within this particular context do not have a strong voice in the change process and hence participate only superficially in the school-based intervention. It is probable that the constraining mechanisms revealed through this research are not exclusive to this particular case study, but are common across the South African rural school context. The main contention of this thesis is that these mechanisms need further interrogation in order to enable further change and permit the active participation of teachers in the process.While the study illuminates many of the tensions and problems faced by the schools and the community in which they are located, it also highlights the achievements and selfless attitude of many people working towards change and improvement within the schools. This case study thus provides an example to all South Africans of what can be achieved with commitment and effort.

The de-industrialisation process that was a common feature of North America and Western Europe in the 1970s, through into the 1980s has become an observable feature in African countries and South Africa in particular in the last two decades. Globally, hard hit areas include those associated with the early Industrial Revolution characterised by mass production and the agglomeration of iron and steel, coal and textile industries. General changes in the global market, especially the falling demand for extractive heavy minerals like coal and gold have also affected many countries region and localities. In the case of South Mrica, the previous high economic dependence on mined minerals like coal and gold has resulted in many once prosperous mining regions of the country being reduced to a shadow of their former selves. The worst affected areas in South Africa are those of the Klerksdorp Goldfields in the North West Province and Free State Goldfields, with the latter alone losing 100,000 jobs during the 1990s. This trend has also been acute in the coal-mining industry of the KwaZulu-Natal province since the late 1970s. The firms that had grown in the shadow of the major mining company supplyipg machinery, or who processed the semi-manufactured product are also severely affected by the closing down and restructuring in the mining and iron industries. These industries have often been forced to close down because of a break in the vital connections they developed with these mining industries. Such localised economic crisis has encouraged the universal trend towards the devolution of developmental responsibilities to the local governments and other local stakeholders to - empower them to respond to these changes. This study investigated the local economic initiatives which have been undertaken in the three municipalities of north-western KwaZulu Natal i.e. Utrecht, Dundee and Dannhauser to respond to the closures which have taken place in the mining industry of this region, which used to be among the most prosperous coal mining regions of South Africa. Using their new developmental mandate the local governments, in partnership with the communities and other external interveners have tried to respond to these localised economic crisis and also indirectly to the general poverty and underdevelopment, which characterises this region of KwaZulu-Natal. The effects of apartheid policies, and previous discriminatory rural development policies in, particular, and the Regional Industrial Development policy, which was intensively applied in the 1980s by the pre-1994 government regime, have further compounded the magnitude of the challenge. The lack of capacity in some municipalities has constrained successful implementation of Local Economic Development has led to some communities acting alone to face their situation with or without external intervention.

This study investigates whether it is possible and necessary to acquire a second and third language simultaneously in our present multicultural, multilingual South Africa with its eleven official languages. The qualitative, descriptive empirical research was executed for the duration of the first school term within a multiracial grade four class at Richmond Primary School in KwaZulu Natal. Afrikaans and Zulu were taught in separate periods, simultaneously, for the exact number oflessons per week, with the exact same content, method and teacher. The success ofthe research, rested on maintaining absolute reality within the normal daily routine of the school day, in order to see if it is possible to acquire two languages simultaneously. The very positive outcomes of this research cannot be generalized, but rather indicate possible tendencies that it is indeed possible to acquire two languages simultaneously. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (with specialisation in Guidance and Counselling)

Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / As an attempt to usher in a paradigm shift in the way public services are rendered in the new dispensation, Section 195 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act No. 108 0f 1996, envisages a Public Administration governed by specific values and principles intended to act as a guide in government‟s endeavours of seeking to provide services impartially, fairly and without bias. According to the supreme law of the country, this could be achieved among other things by responding adequately to the needs of the people and further entrenching the participation of the citizenry in the policy processes of government; thus deepening good governance. Part of the challenge that faces the realization of what the Constitution envisages centres largely around the transformation of public servants sothat they begin to deliver services in a way that puts the citizen first. To this extent government has already responded with a very ambitious Batho Pele program, the implementation of which is intended to effect a turn around in the Public Administration status quo bequeathed by the past, so that it is deliberately focused on the needs of the client. The current section of the thesis is an introduction to the entire work aimed at assessing the levels of implementation of the Service Delivery Improvement Policy of Provincial Government within the Department of Arts Culture and Tourism in KZN.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1986.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This paper was written with the intention of investigating how Knowledge Management (KM) influences an organization's competitive advantage. The objective of the research questions was to determine KM's role in a competitive advantage. Knowledge is the critical asset of any organization whether profit or nonprofit. This paper will discuss the meaning of the competitive advantage focusing attention in a non-profit organization, which will serve as a framework for subsequent argument and the remainder of the study. Research into KM's relation with business issues such as leadership, IT for KM, organizational structure was conducted. The objective was to determine the readiness of the institution in implementing Knowledge Management as a basis for its competitive advantage and also to determine the role of the leadership for KM and IT for KM and to propose a new agenda for the Chief Knowledge Officer. This paper is organized around six chapters. It begins with introduction and background chapters where the research question, research setting and KM's competitive advantage are discussed. An in-depth literature review follows in chapter two. Chapter three deals with the detailed description of the methodology followed to compile this paper. A data report and analysis in chapters four and five followed by recommendations for rolling out of KM initiative are considered. Research concludes in chapter six. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studiestuk is geskryf met die bedoeling om die wyse waarop Kennisbestuur (KB) 'n organisasie se mededingende voordeel beïnvloed, te ondersoek. Die oogmerk van die navorsingsvrae was om KB se rol met betrekking tot mededingende voordeel te bepaal. Kennis is 'n belangrike bate vir enige organisasie met of sonder winsbejag. In hierdie stuk word die betekenis van mededingende voordeel bespreek met die klem op 'n organisasie sonder winsbejag wat as raamwerk sal dien vir daaropvolgende argumente en die res van die studie. Navorsing is oor die verband tussen KB en sake-aangeleenthede soos leierskap, inligtingstegnologie (IT) en organisatoriese struktuur gedoen. Die oogmerk was om die gereedheid van die instelling te bepaal vir die implementering van KB as 'n grondslag vir sy mededingende voordeel en ook om die rol van leierskap vir KB en IT vir KB vas te stel en om 'n nuwe agenda vir die Hoof Kennisbeampte voor te stel. Hierdie stuk bestaan uit ses hoofstukke. Dit begin met 'n inleiding en 'n hoofstuk met agtergrondinligting waar die navorsingsvrae, navorsingsomgewing en KB se mededingende voordeel bespreek word. 'n Deeglike literatuur-oorsig volg in hoofstuk twee. Hoofstuk drie handel oor 'n gedetailleerde beskrywing van die metodologie wat gevolg is om hierdie stuk te lewer. 'n Dataverslag en -ontleding word in hoofstukke vier en vyf oorweeg, gevolg deur aanbevelings vir die uitrol van 'n KB inisiatief. Die navorsingsgevolgtrekking is in hoofstuk ses vervat.

This study investigates whether it is possible and necessary to acquire a second and third language simultaneously in our present multicultural, multilingual South Africa with its eleven official languages. The qualitative, descriptive empirical research was executed for the duration of the first school term within a multiracial grade four class at Richmond Primary School in KwaZulu Natal. Afrikaans and Zulu were taught in separate periods, simultaneously, for the exact number oflessons per week, with the exact same content, method and teacher. The success ofthe research, rested on maintaining absolute reality within the normal daily routine of the school day, in order to see if it is possible to acquire two languages simultaneously. The very positive outcomes of this research cannot be generalized, but rather indicate possible tendencies that it is indeed possible to acquire two languages simultaneously. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (with specialisation in Guidance and Counselling)

This is a transdisciplinary study of how ‘popular cultures of survival’ regenerate and rehumanise township residents and communities whose social fabric and intergenerational bonds have been violently torn by endemic suffering. I focus specifically on township mothers’ and daughters’ lifeworlds with the aim of recentering these marginalised lives so that they can inform us about retheorising marginality and in this way enrich our limited academic discourses on the subjectivities of poor urban African women. Located in the interdisciplinary field of popular culture studies, the study draws on and synthesises theoretical insights from a number of disciplines such as sociology, political-science, anthropology, history, literary studies, womanist and feminist studies and indigenous studies, while using a variety of methods and sources such as interviews, reports, observation, newspapers, field notes, photo-albums, academic articles and embodied expressions to create a unique theory on the lived and embodied suffering and healing experiences of township women. I have called this situated conceptual framework that is theoretically aligned to African womanism and existential phenomenology, but principally fashioned out of township mothers and daughters ways of understanding the world and their place in it--Township mothers’ and daughters’ lived and embodied ‘cultures of survival’. And in order to surface their popular cultural survival strategies I have adopted an African womanist interpretative phenomenological methodological framework. This suggested conceptual and methodological framework has allowed me to creatively explore the dialectical tensions of the everyday township philosophies, aesthetics and moralities of ‘ukuphanta’, to hustle and ‘ukuhlonipha’, to respect, and show how they create the moral-existential ground for township mothers and daughters not only to continue to survive, but to reclaim lives of dignity and sensuality amidst repeated negation and historical hardships. / Sociology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)

This is a transdisciplinary study of how ‘popular cultures of survival’ regenerate and rehumanise township residents and communities whose social fabric and intergenerational bonds have been violently torn by endemic suffering. I focus specifically on township mothers’ and daughters’ lifeworlds with the aim of recentering these marginalised lives so that they can inform us about retheorising marginality and in this way enrich our limited academic discourses on the subjectivities of poor urban African women. Located in the interdisciplinary field of popular culture studies, the study draws on and synthesises theoretical insights from a number of disciplines such as sociology, political-science, anthropology, history, literary studies, womanist and feminist studies and indigenous studies, while using a variety of methods and sources such as interviews, reports, observation, newspapers, field notes, photo-albums, academic articles and embodied expressions to create a unique theory on the lived and embodied suffering and healing experiences of township women. I have called this situated conceptual framework that is theoretically aligned to African womanism and existential phenomenology, but principally fashioned out of township mothers and daughters ways of understanding the world and their place in it--Township mothers’ and daughters’ lived and embodied ‘cultures of survival’. And in order to surface their popular cultural survival strategies I have adopted an African womanist interpretative phenomenological methodological framework. This suggested conceptual and methodological framework has allowed me to creatively explore the dialectical tensions of the everyday township philosophies, aesthetics and moralities of ‘ukuphanta’, to hustle and ‘ukuhlonipha’, to respect, and show how they create the moral-existential ground for township mothers and daughters not only to continue to survive, but to reclaim lives of dignity and sensuality amidst repeated negation and historical hardships. / Sociology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)

It is widely acknowledged that poverty has declined globally over the last few years. In fact, this idea has become so ingrained in our society that it is almost taken for granted and assumed as an incontestable fact. The question that remains unanswered is where all the poor are now. Are they living a prosperous life or are they tinkering on the edge of poverty? This research study focuses on the precarious non-poor, who are the people surviving just above Upper Bound Poverty Line used by Statistics within South Africa. Although they are not ‘officially poor’ they are still a group that is often overlooked or ignored within the global development community since they are not poor enough to warrant intervention yet not secure enough to demand action. As the research study will show through using a mixed-method approach, they are far from being prosperous and in fact, still struggling to survive. The quantitative findings are based on a statistical analysis of the General Household Survey (2011) that overlaps with the latest Income and Expenditure Survey (2011). It gives valuable background to the problem that was also used during the qualitative phase of the research study to inform the sample choice and interview guide. The quantitative analysis shows that the precarious non-poor is not a unique problem, and as a group, they are found across South Africa. The qualitative findings are based on in-depth interviews conducted in Cape Town, Western Cape and Newcastle, KwaZulu Natal. Framed by the capability approach, set out by Amartya Sen, and a focus on basic capabilities such as employment, education and housing, the results show that the precarious non-poor lack access and choice in terms of capabilities and the opportunity to realise them into functionings. The precarious non-poor in this study are mostly employed within insecure, uncertain or underpaying jobs, underpinned by a social support program, living in neighbourhoods where they feel unsafe while trying to secure a better future for themselves and especially their children. In fact, they are probably no better off than their poor counterparts with prosperity remaining out of reach. / Sociology / Ph. D. (Sociology)