Magister Commercii - MCom / The transition of South Africa's political system from an apartheid administration to a democratic rule in 1994 resulted in the end of years of international sanctions imposed on the country. This move placed the country back on the global trading market. In addition, improvements in living conditions, education attainment, and labour market outcomes of societal groups who were previously disadvantaged by the apartheid administration were expected. Looking at the labour market in greater detail, government devised policies aimed at addressing, amongst others, the racial and gender inequalities in job access and remuneration as well as improving the employment conditions. Despite these attempts, women have been known to be subjected to different kinds of discrimination. As a result, they have been segregated, and in most case were over-represented in low income, less secure employment as well as over-represented in the unemployed pool of the labour force. Numerous South African studies in the past only derived the “trends” labour market activities by gender since the transition by comparing the 1995 October Household Survey (OHS) with the latest available Labour Force Survey (LFS), without taking into consideration the comparability issues of the datasets. Hence, this thesis uses all the South African labour survey data in 1995-2009 to investigate the trends in the performance of each gender in the labour market since the transition, specifically looking at the following: labour force participation likelihood, employment likelihood, remuneration and working conditions of the employed, characteristics of the unemployed, as well as whether gender discrimination in the labour market (with specific focus on employment probability gap and wage gap) still exists since the advent of democracy.

Magister Economicae - MEcon / The South African economy faces a challenging socio-economic problem of high and persistent unemployment since the transition. Looking at the unemployment problem in greater perspective, numerous studies found that it is most serious amongst the youth. Since the beginning of the 2000s, a few studies focused particularly on youth and graduate unemployment, but there has been a lack of research in this area in recent years. Hence, this dissertation aims to fill some gap in the available research by investigating the extent, nature and causes of graduate unemployment in South Africa. This study firstly defined the relevant concepts and discussed some theories relevant to graduate unemployment, before reviewing the results of the past studies on the nature and extent of graduate unemployment. Thereafter, the possible causes were investigated, such as lack of experience, lack of soft skills, skills mismatch, poor quality of education of the graduates, discrimination by employers, etc. Graduate unemployment in India, China and Europe were also considered, and it was found that graduate unemployment was not in a unique problem in South Africa. The study proceeded with an analysis the Statistics South Africa 1995-2010 labour survey data and conducted more up-to-date statistical analyses of the profile of graduate unemployed. The results showed that the characteristics of unemployed graduates were, in general, the same as what was found by the previous studies, as graduate unemployed were more likely to be female and black, aged 15-34 years at the time of the survey, residing in Gauteng, with only post-Matric certificates or diplomas, and graduating from the fields of Business /Commerce / Management, and Education / Training / Development. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition was also applied, and the results indicated that employment discrimination against black graduates was very likely, after controlling for differences in demographic and educational attainment blacks and whites. Hence, the results of the empirical analysis showed that graduate unemployment persists. Finally, graduate employment elasticity coefficients and employment absorption rates were derived by educational attainment category, and the results showed that although graduate unemployment is clearly less serious than unemployment in other educational categories, the labour demand for graduates is not rapid enough to absorb all the graduates.

The intention of this work is to explore how Aboriginal learners are produced in the Saskatchewan Adult Basic Education (ABE) curriculum. In addition, this study examines the production of instructor identities in the curriculum. This thesis explores the social and historical contexts influencing the production of the ABE curriculum. Current prevailing discourses about Aboriginal people influence the curriculum documents. These discourses construct a grand narrative about Aboriginal people, producing Aboriginal people in particular ways that become acceptable and legitimate ways of thinking about and behaving toward Aboriginal people. This work examines how such a grand narrative functions to uphold dominance and structural inequalities rather than challenge them. The effect of reinforcing the current, particular grand narrative about Aboriginal people is that, rather than challenge dominant ideologies, the new curriculum re-inscribes them. This work employs the methodology of discourse analysis as a means of examining the production of particular identities for Aboriginal learners in ABE and uses deconstruction to explore the ways that the documents betray themselves in relation to their objectives. This thesis provides analysis of the ways that the curriculum documents produce and reproduce Aboriginal people as deficient and requiring change. This work provides analysis of the conflict within the documents between a desire to challenge dominance and the re-inscription of dominance through discursive practices. In addition, this work demonstrates how the ABE curriculum aids in the production of dominant instructor identities, and how such dominant identities assist instructors to define themselves as innocent and helpful. This analysis of the ABE curriculum reveals that while the curriculum aspires to be a proponent of social justice for Aboriginal learners it has many weaknesses in this regard. This work concludes with recommendations for changes to the curriculum and instructor practices, and for further critical analysis.

The intention of this work is to explore how Aboriginal learners are produced in the Saskatchewan Adult Basic Education (ABE) curriculum. In addition, this study examines the production of instructor identities in the curriculum. This thesis explores the social and historical contexts influencing the production of the ABE curriculum. Current prevailing discourses about Aboriginal people influence the curriculum documents. These discourses construct a grand narrative about Aboriginal people, producing Aboriginal people in particular ways that become acceptable and legitimate ways of thinking about and behaving toward Aboriginal people. This work examines how such a grand narrative functions to uphold dominance and structural inequalities rather than challenge them. The effect of reinforcing the current, particular grand narrative about Aboriginal people is that, rather than challenge dominant ideologies, the new curriculum re-inscribes them. This work employs the methodology of discourse analysis as a means of examining the production of particular identities for Aboriginal learners in ABE and uses deconstruction to explore the ways that the documents betray themselves in relation to their objectives. This thesis provides analysis of the ways that the curriculum documents produce and reproduce Aboriginal people as deficient and requiring change. This work provides analysis of the conflict within the documents between a desire to challenge dominance and the re-inscription of dominance through discursive practices. In addition, this work demonstrates how the ABE curriculum aids in the production of dominant instructor identities, and how such dominant identities assist instructors to define themselves as innocent and helpful. This analysis of the ABE curriculum reveals that while the curriculum aspires to be a proponent of social justice for Aboriginal learners it has many weaknesses in this regard. This work concludes with recommendations for changes to the curriculum and instructor practices, and for further critical analysis.