This thesis examines the topic of the position of women in rural development. This topic has become the focus of extensive international debate at theoretical and policy levels, but for historical reasons remains relatively undeveloped in South Africa. After reviewing a number of contemporary approaches, the thesis argues in favour of the "Gender and Development" approach, and applies this to a case study of the gender division of labour in a rural black community in South Africa. Chapter one reviews the variants of the "Women in Development" (WID) approaches, as well as the claims of "Global Feminism". It is argued that, although Global Feminism began as a critique of WID approaches, it is in fact similar in many respects to the contemporary "empowerment" focus within the WID tradition. Although useful, these approaches are not sufficiently explicit in their theorizing of gender relations in the context of development. Chapter 2 sets out the key elements of the "Gender and Development" approach, which emphasises the complexity of the issue of women's interests, and warns against assuming a commonality of interests amongst all women. Instead, the GAD approach demands a detailed investigation of socially constructed gender relations in specific communities, with a special focus on the gender division of labour. For GAD theorists such analysis is a requirement of development planning which seeks to advance the position of women. Chapter 3 spells out the methodological implications of the GAD approach, and develops a specific research design, influenced by GAD as well as feminist methodology, for the investigation of the gender-specific needs of women in Merino Walk, a rural black community. Chapter 4 presents a brief overview of the general context of rural women in Southern Africa, and a specific history of the Merino Walk community. Chapter 5 presents the results of the research. In the context of this thesis, the results are presented essentially as an illustration of the application of the GAD principles to a specific South African example. The conclusion draws out some of the issues which emerge from the research.

Migration is recognised as an escalating phenomenon of human behaviour worldwide. In the Southern African region African migrations and migrants have remained a focal point of discussion amongst politicians, citizens and migrants themselves in recent years. In South Africa, a major destination of migrants from various African Diasporas, this renewed interest in the topic has occurred in the context of xenophobic related violence aimed at foreigners within the broader economic, political and social arena. These factors extend to South Africa’s relationships with her near neighbours. Thus, Zimbabwe’s political, economic and social crisis has overflowed into South African borders, contributing large numbers of migrants to her population. Previous research has underrepresented the perspectives of migrants and Zimbabwean migrants in particular. Zimbabwean migrants seek economic opportunities to better themselves and maintain the survival of their families who remain in their country of origin. They are transnationals who engage in continuous movement between one place and the next, supporting various livelihoods. Little is understood about migrant adaptation to their complex contexts. In this research project, content analysis was conducted of data gathered during interviews and participant-observation of Zimbabwean migrant traders on the beachfront informal market in Port Elizabeth. The maintenance of the cultural values and identity of the myth of the hero as upholder of household honour was found to be significant in the adaptation of migrants to their multi-faceted lives. The findings indicate that migrant life is indeed uncertain and ever-changing. Their resilience in the face of continual change illustrated both conflict and compromise between “social cohesiveness (and) social flexibility” (Bauman, 1998: 15-16)

The research is a quantitative descriptive survey. The sample is a stratified random sampling of the workforce (n=4,010) of the four hospitals in Gauteng that fall under the jurisdiction of Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg Metropolitan Councils. The research examines the extent of the impact of age, gender, occupation, salary level, tenure and race on workplace absenteeism. The data were collected in three phases involving auditing of hard copy files, structured interviews and information technology system. The findings of the research reflect high workplace absenteeism in females by 83.2%, age group between 45 to 49 years by 22.35%, salary range of 2 to 3 by 35.3%, African race group by 96.3%, tenure of 11 to 20 years by 44.3%, nurses by 20.8% and administration support by 35.4%. The research found that the mature employee in age and of higher year of tenure presented comparatively with lower rate of absenteeism. / Public Administration / M.A. (Public Administration)

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Globalisation calls for countries to focus on putting programmes together that seek to improve productivity and competitiveness of enterprises as the only reliable shield against the ever increasing global competition. It is against this background that the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) of South Africa conceived the Workplace Challenge Programme to help meet the challenge of South Africa‟s re-entry into the global market and the need for companies to become more productive and competitive. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Workplace Challenge Programme whose objective is to improve productivity and competitiveness of participating firms. The target population for the study was made up of firms who were within the twenty four months implementation period of the Workplace Challenge Programme during December 2010 when the study was conducted. The entire sample frame was targeted because of the manageable size of the number of companies in Workplace Challenge implementation phase. A response rate of 50 per cent was achieved and considered adequate for the purpose of drawing meaningful inference when compared to other survey results. The data were analysed using Microsoft Excel in conjunction with the productivity model which looked at the relationship between goods and services produced and resources used to produce them. The results clearly endorsed the Workplace Challenge Programme as an effective programme that is achieving its primary mandate of improving productivity and competitiveness of participating firms. The Workplace Challenge Programme deserves to be strengthened and expanded to reach even more firms within the South African economy since literature has shown that improving productivity and competitiveness is at the core of improving citizens‟ quality of lives.

This study looks at the experiences of migrants accessing notions of justice at the Wits Law Clinic, the pro-bono public interest law clinic of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. This study explores the way migrants engage with public interest law in the light of an overwhelming adversarial and threatening experience of the law. The law in the form of state law and its powers embodied in law enforcers and petty bureaucrats is mainly used against them and confines them to a ‘state of bare life’. One could therefore expect that this compels migrants to keep their heads down and avoid any form of formalization, and instead reverting to a total reliance on informal survival strategies. This study however shows that migrants retain a strong faith in the law and draw a huge sense of hope from the services they receive from the Wits Law Clinic – even though the only action that is sometimes taking place is the endless writing of letters. But it appears that the reduction of the law to absolutely mundane bureaucratic activity still holds enough symbolic power of giving migrants a sense of moving closer towards the promise of justice, which the law also holds, even though it might be over and over deferred.

M. Com. (Development Economics) / In recent years unemployment has received considerable international attention from scholars, policy makers, and labour practitioners, because it has reduced economic welfare, reduced output, and eroded human capital. Researchers argue that South Africa is faced with structural unemployment because of the insufficient demand for low-skilled resources and the sufficient demand for highly skilled resources. However, in terms of highly skilled resources, young South Africans have become better educated over the last decade, resulting in a significant growth in the size of the graduate labour force. This growth emanates particularly from the fact that the majority of the graduate labour force has completed their tertiary education. Despite this growth, graduate unemployment appears to be rising along with the overall unemployment rate. The aim of this study is to sensitise policy authorities to the impact of graduate unemployment on the economy by highlighting the perceived causes of graduate unemployment in South Africa’s banking sector. The research was conducted with the aid of a survey administered to two groups, namely a graduate group and a human resource (HR) manager group. The result derived from the research shows that the quality of tertiary institutions which relates to educational standards and culture, the quality of education, high expectations, a shortage of skills, a lack of work experience, and a lengthy process of application and job search are perceived to be the possible causes of graduate unemployment in South Africa. The study makes several tentative recommendations relating to what can possibly be done to reduce graduate unemployment. Among the recommendations proposed are the improvement of the quality of education and institutions, a well-planned career guidance mechanism, and a graduate recruitment subsidy.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / The thesis attempts to illuminate the process through which identitities, apparently strongly "ethnic", are constructed by migrant women, and to examine how these differ from the equivalent identities constructed by men. The focus is upon northern Transvaal migrancy, and special emphasis is given to the central role played by musical performance - particularly that of the style called kiba - in constituting migrant associations. Men and women form separate dance associations: the thesis is concerned particularly with migrant women, and sets the dance groups in the broader setting of female migrancy in southern Africa. This is a phenomenon which has been neglected in the literature. The thesis criticises the adaptive emphasis of earlier Writings on migrant association, and the lack of "local knowledge" in Marxist accounts, Performers of the genre emphasise that the music is "traditional",and their lyrics legitimate the present experiences of contemporary composers by juxtaposing them with the past experiences of older ones. They view the roles they play in relation to their family members both living dependents and deceased forebears - in terms of stereotypes laid down by Sotho custom. But these independent migrant female performers of the genre, in contrast to their rurally-domiciled and. dependent counterparts, are women whose disrupted and geographically mobile upbringing has led them to seek out modernity and progress rather than an adherence to the ways of "traditionalists". They are primary breadwinners for their natal families. Custom and tradition provide an idiom in terms of which, while retaining affiliations to men's kiba sufficient to ensure their continued access to a performance space and an audience, they enunciate an identity as relatively autonomous and emancipated migrants in an urban context. / Andrew Chakane 2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management (in the field of Public Policy) , April 2016 / Child labour is a social problem that affects several countries worldwide, and South Africa is not an exception. It is the result of adverse economic conditions in the country, where children feel they have to resort to finding employment in order to support their families. There is a general consensus that child labour in South Africa needs to be dealt with, and this is seen via the ratification of the two most important ILO conventions that speak to child labour. The ratification of these conventions led to the development of a child labour policy for South Africa; the Child Labour Programme of Action. However, despite the existence of this policy and its implementation, child labour continues. This report looked at how the child labour policy was implemented, and to verify if the continued occurrence of child labour was due to a disconnection between the policy as it is presented on paper, and those who are supposed to implement the policy on the ground. The report used qualitative methods, specifically documentary analysis and interviews. The documents that were analysed included the Child Labour Programme of Action, as well as its follow up documents. Meanwhile, government officials as well as members of civil society were the interview subjects. The main finding of the research is that the implementers of the policy do not have a full understanding of the policy and what it entails. And because of this they are unable to properly implement the policy to produce an effective solution against child labour. The report concludes with recommendations intended to help the government to get more out of the Child Labour Programme of Action. / MT2018

M. Tech. Business Administration / The objective of this study was to identify factors that are responsible for employee absenteeism in Vodacom SA, which is the largest mobile cell phone company in South Africa. In the literature, it has been extensively reported that absenteeism is a major cause of loss of income and revenues among mobile cell phone operators in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to identify the root causes of absenteeism in the cellular phone industry in South Africa. Data was collected from a random sample of 120 employees of Vodacom SA working in Midrand.

The aim of the thesis is to identify the pressures that contributed to the rise in international labour migration in Lesotho, and to investigate how these pressures are impacting upon the modernization process in the country, particularly at a time when employment opportunities are scarce in the southern African region. International labour migration has been used as a development tool throughout history, but especially in the 20th century by developing countries with dual labour markets. Newly independent developing countries with dual labour markets adapted the strategy of import substitution industrialization (lSI), with an emphasis on protecting infant industries and promoting pro-labour policies. In the post-colonial period the international demand for lowskilled workers rose, particularly in the North (developed countries), and in mineral rich countries including the oil exporters and South Africa, and the newly industrialising countries in East Asia. International labour migration to these countries was adapted as an integral development tool by the governments of the lSI countries. Most migrants were low-skilled and temporary workers in the destination countries. Although no multilateral institutional framework existed, usually both the sending and receiving countries adapted unilateral and bilateral migration policies to guarantee the gains from migration. Workers were thus "protected" to varying degrees under such agreements. From the 1970s, the North experienced a slowdown in the growth in demand for unskilled workers. In the 1980s, many lSI countries experienced devastating economic crises that forced them to abandon the lSI policy and adapt the export-led industrialisation (EOI) policy with an emphasis on trade liberalization. The switch from lSI to EOI in developing countries with dual labour markets led to the downsizing of public sector employment, the removal of marketing boards formally used by small-scale agricultural farmers, and the expansion of export processing zones (EPZs). These outcomes resulted in a rise in push internal migration, and international migration from these countries especially to other developing countries. At the same time, since the late 1980s, capital has acquired greatly enhanced mobility at the global level. The adaptation of EOI and the full mobility of capital at the global level altered the institutional structure within which labour migration was governed both nationally, and internationally. At the national level stricter unilateral policies were reinforced by receiving countries for low-skilled labour, while less strict policies applied for skilled labour. These remain in operation in conjunction with the earlier bilateral agreements. At the international level, there remains a lack of policy to regulate international labour migration. Under the current enhanced mobility of capital, international migrants are thus left vulnerable. Lesotho fits this pattern. Faced with a dual economy and an abundance of semi-skilled labour, Lesotho has been a principal supplier of labour to the South Africa's mining industry since its independence. Lesotho's industrial diversification thus mirrors South Africa's industrial diversification. In the lSI phase (1968 - 1987), international labour migration became the most important tool of economic welfare generation in Lesotho. Bilateral agreements were signed in the early 1970s between Lesotho and South Africa to guarantee the gains from migration. Since the late I980s, the mining industry in South Africa began to downsize production and employment. Fewer novice miners from Lesotho were recruited to work in South Africa. The adaptation of the EOI policy in Lesotho in 1987 introduced EPZ industrialization and trade liberalization. Nevertheless, the retrenchment of mine workers from South Africa is occurring at a time when Lesotho is experiencing an employment crisis. The political independence of South Africa in 1994 was accompanied by stricter international migration policies by the new democratic government of South Africa. Most migrant workers in South Africa are thus now faced with a two-door policy (of the earlier bilateral agreements and the amendments to the Aliens Control Act). This system has left migrant workers vulnerable to exploitation by both employers and the law (police) in South Africa. Nevertheless, international migration from Lesotho to South Africa continues to expand, particularly of the new type of migration - semiskilled female workers in the services sector. At the same time, South Africa is also experiencing an employment crisis. The most important policy implications are, firstly, that migration is subject to the same "casualisation" as other work, with the effects made worse by the "statelessness" of migrants, who are most vulnerable to exploitation. Secondly, multilateralism is needed (e.g., SADC) and holistic, multilateral policies are required. It is clear that under the new global division of labour ad hoc policy towards international labour migration is ineffective.