Thesis (MBA) -- University of Limpopo, 2010 / Refer to document

Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / Higher performing organizations are characterized by their effective implementation of their strategies and goals. The Mpumalanga Department of Education is one organization which has not performed to its maximum potential because of several factors. The purpose of this research study was to critically analyze some of the factors which affect the implementation of strategies. The following are some of the factors which are perceived as affecting the implementation of strategies and cause performance problems in the department. • Lack of effective organizational communication of strategies to all employees, • Shortage of relevant and competent human resources, • Lack of resources to support the implementation of departmental programs, • Shortage of appropriate policies and procedures to regulate implementation process, • Organizational structure which is not supportive of strategies, • Lack of influential leadership, • Lack of commitment by most officials, • Unproductive organizational culture prevailing in the department, • Negative attitude displayed by senior and middle managers towards strategic planning processes, The focus of the study was to develop strategies to deal with challenges as raised. Chapter 5 provided recommendations which are believed to be the cornerstone towards achieving better results and improve performance.

Thesis (M. Dev. ) --University of Limpopo, 2014 / The legacy of apartheid has left the current democratic government of South Africa grappling with vast challenges. Eighteen years of governance has not been enough for the state to address issues of land redistribution, and in particular redistribution of commercial farm and the improvement of their functionality after redistribution. The main aim of the study is to assess the general functionality, productivity and challenges of redistributed farms. Qualitative research methodology (descriptive research design) is used to diagnose historical and current issues impacting on the functionality, productivity and challenges facing LCPA. Probability random sampling, more especially stratified random sampling was used as a sampling method. The results indicated that the farm is experiencing a number of challenges, conflicting views regarding the farm path. Due to the lack of financial support, malfunctioning or aging infrastructure, and most importantly the lack of agricultural technical and farming knowledge. Challenges experienced among others include the following, consistent decline in production, lack of technical and strong agricultural farming knowledge, lack of persistent strong financial support; and lack of integrated support from agricultural stakeholders. To change the status quo, consistent training of beneficiaries in farming and farm management has to be tailor made for them, and a multidimensional support for beneficiaries has to be put in place.

M.Tech. Business Administration. Business School. / In South Africa emerging farm enterprises are a primary focus of government interventions with the view of improving and increasing productivity and profitability of the land redistribution beneficiaries. However, the state of productivity and profitability of the emerging farm enterprises is not well documented. The problem faced by emerging farm enterprises in South Africa is that they are not graduating from emerging to commercial farming enterprises as was expected from 1994. Smallholder farmers find it difficult to participate in the markets because of a range of constraints and barriers reducing incentives to participation. There are several factors contributing to this, but lack of information on productivity and profitability seem to champion the dilemma. Not much is known about the productivity and profitability of emerging farming enterprises. The aim of this study was to contribute to the body of knowledge, in pursuance of measures of productivity and profitability for improving the emerging farmers' situation.

Thesis (MTech. degree in Education.)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2011. / The Constitution of South Africa in its Bill of Rights and the Language Policy introduced nine more official languages in addition to English and Afrikaans which were the only languages used as media of instruction in schools before 1994. The other nine official languages now embraced by the Policy as the media of instruction in schools are isiZulu, siSwati, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, Xitsonga, and Tshivenda. The purpose of this study was to determine how the Language Policy is implemented in secondary schools in Mpumalanga.

Thesis (MTech. degree in Education) -- Tshwane University of Technology, 2009. / The purpose of the study was to determine whether rural farm educators are managing the Revised National Curriculum Statement as a new approach to teaching the curriculum of outcomes-based education. For this purpose, Witbank 3 rural farm primary schools were selected. The study followed a qualitative approach. Data were collected from three principals and three educators who were all teaching multi-graded (combined grades) classes. The study found that the educators and the principals were not coping with the demands of the curriculum, therefore learners did not benefit from their everyday learning. The educators felt that there is too much paperwork involved in managing the implementation of the curriculum. The lack of support from parents, subject advisors and the deputy chief education specialist (circuit manager) is detrimental to managing the implementation of Revised National Curriculum Statement. This has led to a serious communication breakdown among these stakeholders. The research revealed grey areas in the Revised National Curriculum Statement in its interpretation of learning. The policy states that every child has the potential to learn, but it fails to state the conditions that allow for effective learning to all the learners. The study also found that the training received at the workshops is suitable for urban schools. Educators struggle to apply the teaching and learning strategies at rural farm schools. Subsequently rural farm educators resort to using the old traditional (telling and recalling) method of teaching/learning.

The study examines the woodcraft trade in the Hazyview area through the application of the value chain methodology as adapted from the works of writers such as Kaplinsky and Morris (2001), McCormick and Schmitz (2002) and Sturgeon (2001). Several methods of collecting data were employed (triangulation): value chain analysis, interviews, observation and focus group discussions. The findings reveal that the woodcraft value chain comprises several actors: the informal craft workers, assistant craft workers, retailers and consumers of crafts, located at the various levels of the chain. The informal craft workers, who are the main focus of this study, are mostly involved in the production and selling level of the value chain, while the formal traders (e.g. craft retailers, wholesalers, curio shop owners) are involved in selling, marketing and branding of the crafts. Although craft workers also sell and 'market' their crafts by the roadside, the findings show that these activities do not yield substantial profit for them, as they lack the necessary rents to make a sustainable income out of crafts. The lack of innovation (introduction of new products), product diversification, access to new markets, and other factors that characterize the informal wood craft trade have implications in terms of competitiveness and the sustainability of the woodcraft trade as a source of income of the informal traders. The findings show that the challenges facing the informal woodcraft traders are also aggravated by high levels of competition that has emerged in recent years due to globalization and democratization, which have seen the opening of South African borders to craft workers from other parts of the world, especially Africa. Of importance though is the fact that the informal traders lack crucial rents that are essential for them to remain competitive. These rents include: resource, marketing, infrastructure, financial and policy rents. The findings show that, unless traders acquire these rents their trade remains uncompetitive and unsustainable. There are also economic and environmental implications emanating from the findings as the analysis shows that wood for carving is no longer a free natural resource as it used to be in the past years, but a scarce economic resource. The analysis further shows that the problems that traders experience are both endogenous and exogenous in nature. It is clear that traders need to deal with endogenous issues such as innovation, upgrading of the value chains, diversification and other internal issues and processes. With the necessary support, traders could deal with these problems. Policy would, however, need to address exogenous issues such as controlling the flooding of the SA craft market with cheap crafts, mostly from the neighbouring states and other countries in Africa (not excluding countries outside the continent of Africa). Creating an 'enabling environment' for the woodcraft trade is important e.g. Financial, logistic, capital and other support measures. Indeed, what has emerged in the analysis of this study is that people's livelihoods (under the current and prevailing conditions) are under threat. In the context of poverty and high unemployment levels, something would have to be done to deal with the crisis facing the informal traders. This study concludes by making the necessary recommendations on what could be done to redress the situation. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

The field of development communication has up until recently enjoyed little academic appraisal in the light of emerging environmental discourses within the sociological tradition. No more prevalent is such neglect than on the level of enquiry into the possible roles for community radio, in contributing meaningfully towards environmental education. Proponents of environmental education have to this date been sceptic about transmission pedagogies inherent in the mass media, yet no attempts have been made to consider the position occupied by community radio as alternative to mass media education. This is a pressing concern, since the accelerated development and expansion of this sector in South Africa provides widespread potential for radio initiatives to take up environmental education (in terms of both information transmission and action programmes), especially at the level of isolated rural communities. This study examines the possible reasons for such neglect, by drawing both on qualitative and quantitative approaches to expose and appease the orientations exhibited from the fields of community radio and environmental education. By considering how both fields are inherently critically-inclined and by drawing on the views of an exploratory sample of 45 participants in the Wakkerstroom district, it argues that community radio, as development communication, could provide a meaningful context and multiple roles for the facilitation of environmental education in that locality . Broader calls for the use of such a medium are also reinforced by a discussion on the pressing environment and development challenges facing the study area . Throughout its theoretical discussion the study surfaces emerging themes. The most significant of these state that community radio 's local modus operandi, its valuing in principle of action , its call for specificity in broadcast approach, its inherent status quo-challenging temperament, its unique ability to harness interpersonal social interactions and its opportunity to build a sense of community and collaboration on environmental matters , provides for a meaningful context in which to house action and experientially-geared environmental education processes. All these arguments are seen to compliment existing views held on the media and environmental education, by the study's exploratory sample. By repeatedly positioning the two fields within a framework of socially-critical methodology, the study suggests that future initiatives in environmental education should be receptive to grassroots calls for using community radio as an alternative to generalized media broadcasting approaches, in which specific and local contexts could facilitate understandings on environment and development matters. It closes with a broad agenda for such further initiatives, by emphasizing the need to build network, organizational and research links between these two fields. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

Cultural tourism is a vehicle for economic growth. Cultural representations are made in order to make the cultural tourism sector a more vibrant one. Given this argument, research in cultural tourism should take a critical stance in the analysis of cultural representations. An understanding of the meaning of culture is necessary to analyse the comparison of daily life with cultural representations. Observing the daily lives of host communities creates a conductive environment for realising and understanding the gaps between tourists experiences and the daily realities of the host communities. This research analysed how people represent their culture to tourists through the sale of crafts and dance performances. The research was carried out in Leboeng village, on the border between Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces, near the small town of Ohrigstad.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Traditional top-down decision-making models have become unpopular since public institutions have been demanding more democracy at local level. New approaches and techniques have focused on how the majority of people can be involved in a bottom-up approach to development and decision making. Techniques, such as Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRAs), have identified people's concerns regarding the use of natural resources centred on land issues. Land is essentially a subject of public concern. Land as a spatial phenomenon controlled politically and used by all for survival and other purposes needs to be assessed in an integrated and time-spatial way for better planning and decision making. Geographical Information Systems (GISs) have often been used by statutory "experts" in evaluating, analysing and mapping of land and land-related features. GISs have a lot of potential in being applied as decision-making tools. If this is the case, how can public perceptions and politics be presented and mapped in a GIS to improve and democratise decision making even further? The study has investigated new methods of representing people's perspectives at grassroots level in a non-traditional way. A sub-region of the Lowveld, situated in the Mpumalanga province, has been selected because of the various kinds of land owners in the region. The Kruger National Park lies to the east of the study area, from where some black communities claim to have been removed. To the west of that is one of the districts of the former homeland KaNgwane, namely Nsikazi, and west of that two areas of intensive large-scale commercial fruit and vegetable production in the Nelspruit-White River and Kiepersol-Hazyview areas. Towards the escarpment north-west of these lie large commercial exotic forest plantations, owned mainly by Safcol and MandL Given the high demand and need for land from the overpopulated Nsikazi district, the process of land reform is a matter of great concern. White male commercial farmers in both regions where commercial farming is active were interviewed about their knowledge and perceptions of land reform. Various themes were presented to the farmers to comment on, namely the history of forced removals, land use, land potential, hydrology and where land reform should take place. Interviews were taped in Afrikaans, transcribed and translated to English. "Mental maps" were drawn on tracing paper overlaid on topographical maps of the Land Surveyor General, Mowbray. These were digitised and managed in Arclnfo, and displayed and analysed in ArcView, from where output maps were produced. The results of this technique proved to be very useful and can certainly broaden the use of GISs in decision making and public participation. However, GISs alone cannot be seen as the solution to better development and better decision-making. Public participation is of the utmost value in facilitating and initiating these processes. Land use planning needs to be the responsibility and concern of all land users and owners at a local level, where GISs can be applied as a tool to provide easier and more effective analysis and results for the implementation of initiatives. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Tradisionele bo-na-onder besluitnemingsmodelle het in die laaste paar dekades baie ongewild geraak met die totstandkoming van instellings wat die publiek se mening hoog ag en demokrasie op grondvlak probeer bevorder. Nuwe benaderings en tegnieke poog nou om die publiek se mening in 'n onder-na-bo benadering tot ontwikkeling en besluitneming te integreer. Grondhervorming is basies die erns van die publiek, meer so as die staat. Grond is 'n ruimtelike verskynsel wat polities beheer word maar deur die meerderheid gebruik word vir oorlewing asook ander doeleindes. Dit behoort op 'n tyd-ruimtelike basis op 'n geïntegreerde wyse vir beter beplanning en besluitneming ondersoek te word. Geografiese Inligtingstelsels (GISs) word hoofsaaklik deur statutêre "kenners" gebruik in die evaluering, analise en kartering van grond en verbandhoudende verskynsels. Dit beskik verder oor die potensiaal om in besluitnemingsprosesse gebruik te word. Die vraag ontstaan egter hoe die publiek se menings en politieke strukture met 'n GIS verteenwoordig en gekarteer kan word ter verbetering van besluitneming op 'n meer demokratiese wyse. Die studie het nuwe metodes ondersoek waarvolgens mense op grondvlak se persepsies op nie-tradisionele maniere verteenwoordig en ondersoek kan word. 'n Sub-streek van die Laeveld wat geleë is in die Mpumalanga provinsie, is geselekteer vanweë die verskeidenheid grondeienaars wat daar voorkom. Die Kruger Nasionale Park is geleë in die oostelike deel van die studiegebied vanwaar sekere swart gemeenskappe gedurende die Apartheidsregime verskuif is. Direk wes hiervan lê die voormalige tuisland KaNgwane se Nsikazi distrik en wes daarvan twee areas, naamlik Nelspruit-Witrivier en Kiepersol-Hazyview, waar die kommersiële boerdery van vrugte en groente op groot skaal beoefen word. In die noordwestelike gedeeltes van die studiegebied kom grootskaalse uitheemse bosbouplantasies voor wat aan Safcol en Mondi behoort. Met die stygende aanvraag na grond vir residensiële- en landbougebruik in die streek, veral vanuit die Nsikazi distrik, is grondhervorming en die toepassing daarvan, 'n probleem, indien nie 'n bedreiging, vir die meeste grondeienaars. Onderhoude is met blanke manlike kommersiële boere, in albei die kommersiële streke gevoer om hul menings en kennis van grondhervorming te ondersoek. Verskeie temas is as besprekingspunte gestel, naamlik die geskiedenis van gedwonge verskuiwings, grondgebruik, grondpotensiaal, water hulpbronne en waar hul meen grondhervorming sou moes plaasvind. Onderhoude was in Afrikaans opgeneem, getranskribeer en in Engels vertaal. "Kognitiewe kaarte" was op deursigtige papier geteken wat oor 'n reeks topografiese kaarte van die gebied gelê is. Die resultate is versyfer en in Arelnfo gemanipuleer en daarna in ArcView ontleed en vir verslaglewering gekarteer. Die resultate van die tegniek beloof om vir beide besluitnemers en die publiek as deelnemers in die proses baie bruikbaar te wees. Dit verbreed ook die gebruik en toepassing van GISs en die sisteem se vermoëns. GISs kan egter nie alleenlik aangewend word om ontwikkeling en besluitneming vir die publiek beter of meer aanvaarbaar te maak nie. Alle mense se deelname is van die uiterste belang en waarde in die inisiëring, fasilitering en implementering van strategieë en projekte. Grondgebruiksbeplanning moet die verantwoordelikheid van almal word wat grond op plaaslike vlak gebruik of besit, nie net van die wat deur 'n probleem of program, soos grondhervorming, geraak word nie. 'n GIS kan aangewend word om die prosesse van ontwikkeling en besluitneming te vergemaklik deur analises vinniger en op 'n meer effektiewe manier te ondersoek vir beter en meer demokratiese besluitneming.