Thesis (M.Dev) --University of Limpopo, 2010. / This study focuses on the poverty alleviation projects established in Fetakgomo Municipality which forms part of the Sekhukhune District in the Limpopo Province. The aim is to assess whether or not these projects are sustainable. The objectives of the study are: to find out how the projects are designed and implemented; to examine project resources used for sustainability; to establish the extent of the benefits which members derive from the projects and to recommend measures which could improve the manner in which the projects are managed. Sustainability concept is seeking more attention throughout the world today. Sustainable development is crucial if the world hopes to use the natural resources in a manner that future generations will also have these resources to fulfil their own demands. This study focuses on the assessment of the sustainability of Poverty Alleviation Projects because they play an important role in job creation and provide food security. It is, therefore, imperative to assess the sustainability of these projects. Furthermore it is important to promote awareness and implementation of sustainable development. The consequences of unsustainable development have a social, economical and environmental negative impact. Primary data was collected through the use of questionnaires, and interviews. The findings in the study indicate that most poverty alleviation projects are not sustainable. Sustainability and sustainable development need skilled and well trained project coordinators. Most projects are managed by unskilled or semi skilled project co-ordinators because there is no proper recruitment of these coordinators. Furthermore there are no properly trained Financial Officers who can manage the finance and donations of the projects effectively and efficiently. Some of the projects do not have a Financial Officer (treasurer) whereby every project member is responsible for the collection of the money for the sales. The level of education of most project members is low, some of them are illiterate. Crime is another challenge as most projects do not have security. Some of the agricultural implements and projects properties are stolen. Water shortage is another challenge faced by most projects in Fetakgomo. Naturally the area is hot and dry. There is not even a single dam, except Flag Boshielo which is in Makhuduthamaga Municipality. 4 Other findings include poor road infrastructure which makes marketing difficult because of inaccessible roads. Funding for the projects is limited as well as shortage of agricultural extension officers. In conclusion an integrated developmental strategy is needed if the government hope to promote sustainable development. Sustainability of the Poverty Alleviation Projects remains a challenge in Fetakgomo Municipality.

The basic premises of this study is that the poor people should not be manipulated by the rich and powerful for their selfish end. Though they are poor, they are God’s people and God loves them as well. Growing up in the poor rural areas of Herschel, the researcher was the victim of apartheid laws at an early age. He experienced the pangs of hunger and on many occasions was tempted to steal. As a small boy he had many unanswered questions, when he saw white boys of his age being well fed, clad, and staying in beautiful homes. Later as a minister, working with Rev. S.R. Kumalo, in Ivory Park informal settlement, the researcher was touched by the plight of the poor living in shacks. In 2001 he was stationed in the neighbouring Olievenhoutbosch informal settlement. Here he was confronted with circumstances that perpetuated poverty among the poor, such as lack of job opportunities, no formal school buildings, sports facilities that keep the youth away from crime, no sites for churches, shops, clinics and police station. The people felt neglected and betrayed by the very government they voted for in 1994 and 1998. The government has failed to fulfill the promises made then. The poor even question the existence of God, as poverty in this area is absolute. If God does exist, as far as they are concerned, he has either forgotten them, or turned his back on them. Caring for the poor was a major challenge to the researcher. He had to study and acquire skills of empowering and liberating the poor from their morass. The researcher used Gerkin’s biblical traditional method of shepherding God’s people, as used in Old Testament times. He also applied Masango’s liberation theology as a way out to freedom from bondage of oppression. The researcher also identified five forms of poverty that affects the poor people of Olievenhoutbosch, but emphasis is zeroed on economic poverty, as it affects all their spheres of life. The daily struggle of the poor here is how to keep the body and soul together. The economic poverty has resulted in other evil repercussions, such as prostitution or sex work, which in turn leads to wide spread of pandemic HIV/AIDS, crime such as house breakings, car hijackings and general robbery, are on the increase. The poor are neglected by the politicians and the rich. Every time during political campaigns the politicians remember that there are people to be addressed in Olievenhoutbosch, they visit them. After elections the politicians disappear to come back again when there is the next political campaign. The researcher views this as the manipulation of the poor by the powerful for their own selfish ends. The researcher has included the stories of the poor to back up their suffering after being used as pawns by the politicians. As means of healing the poor people of Olievenhoutbosch informal settlement, the researcher has recommended some pastoral care guidelines. The poor must be encouraged to re-evaluate and come out of their state of inertia and start to live a new life. They must be empowered to use their voting power to change their circumstances and lives. They must end their exploitation through their sheer numbers. The lesson of liberation will also focus on the powerful as they are the victims of greed and power hungry. Nobody can really be happy and live comfortably when the neighbor is starving and unhappy. The boycotts and marches taking place recently in the townships are a sign that the masses can no longer tolerate their sufferings, and unfulfilled promises. In concluding this study the researcher has suggested the way forward for pastoral care-givers. He has further suggested some researches that need to be done. At the end of this study the researcher also became aware of his own weaknesses, which are his personal ongoing struggles and challenges that must be subdued in the new democratic South Africa. / Dissertation (MA(Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

M. Tech. Business Administration / The aim of this research is to investigate the extent of mobile banking usage among low-income people in Johannesburg. A descriptive design was conducted; data by means of a survey, using self-administered questionnaires, was collected from the inhabitants of the informal settlements of Tembisa and Alexandra Townships in Johannesburg. This represented a total population of about 6000 households. From which, a sample of 200 households was systematically selected randomly.

Over the last century, developing countries have undergone rapid urbanisation resulting in marked social, economic and environmental changes. Africa is the least urbanised continent in the world but trends indicate that it is also the most rapidly urbanising region, accompanied by rising urban poverty. Urbanisation processes are often most pronounced in smaller urban centres since they experience the most severe pressures of population growth. Little is known about the role natural resources play along the rural-urban continuum and even less is known about the contribution of these resources within an urban context, particularly in small urban centres. In many sub-Saharan African cities, urban agriculture (the informal production of food in urban areas) has been used as a strategy to cope with increasing poverty levels but its role remains widely debated and uncertain. This thesis seeks to analyse the impacts of urbanisation on livelihoods and natural resource use, including home gardening and the collection of wild resources, in two South African towns and data was collected along the rural-urban continuum in Queenstown (Eastern Cape province) and Phalaborwa (Limpopo Province). Practices and contributions associated with agriculture and wild resource use were found to be significantly higher in Phalaborwa and this could be attributed to favourable environmental conditions and accessibility to wild resources due to the surrounding Mopani Bushveld. Rural households in Queenstown and Phalaborwa were more reliant on natural resources than their urban counterparts, but still diverse and incorporated a number of land-based and cash income generating strategies. Urban households tended to rely on one primary cash income strategy such as wage employment or state grants. However, natural resources did appear to play a subtle role in urban settings and particularly in the townships, where exclusion of natural resource contributions saw poverty levels increase up to 5%. Home gardening was practised by a wide range of people and not restricted to any one income group and, not surprisingly, wealthy cultivators who had access to resources such as land, water and fertilizer enjoyed increased benefits such as high produce yields. The results obtained suggest that rural-urban dynamics are complex and natural resource use in local livelihoods is contextualised within environmental settings, social preferences and historical contexts. Increasing pressures from the influx of people into small urban centres calls for a better understanding to how these processes are affecting livelihoods and natural resources to ensure sustainable management in the future.

PhDRDV / Institute for Rural Development / See the attached abstract below

Thesis (DPhil (Psychology))—University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Very little is known about the experiences of black children living in poverty in South Africa. This compromises the delivery of appropriate psychological services. This dissertation considers the contribution that psychoanalytic infant observation might make to a needs assessment process within the community psychology paradigm. To date, infant observation has predominantly been used for training psychotherapists and other professionals in Western contexts. The goal of the present project was to conduct a "classical" observation of a mother and child in a lowincome South African community in the first year of the infant's life, in order to ascertain what kind of description it would yield. The question was whether such a description is useful for the needs assessment process, and ultimately, whether infant observation is a viable tool for psychologists working in low-income communities in South Africa. The study was set in a poor, semi-rural, so-called coloured township in the Western Cape. The data were analysed using an intersubjective psychoanalytic lens and a social constructionist grounded theory approach. In overview, the findings relate to two main areas, namely a) the nature and content of the resultant description, and b) the effect of the process. The analysis of the case material showed that the observation produced an extremely detailed account of the experience of poverty and oppression, involving the way in which it influences all relationships, including the one between mother and child. The knowledge gained offers clear pointers to the kind of intervention that would benefit the particular infant in the present study, and potentially other infants in vulnerable social contexts as well. One surprising outcome was the extensive way in which the observation functioned therapeutically for the whole family. It is therefore concluded that infant observation can provide a very rich contribution to low-income communities on a number of levels, if it is able to make both the theoretical and practical adjustments needed. It is thus argued that it is necessary to look at infant observation in more critical ways, both in terms of how it has traditionally been conceptualised and how it is and can be applied across all contexts.

Ph.D. (Economics) / Street waste pickers are a visible group of people trying to survive under poor socio-economic conditions. They participate in the informal economy as self-employed entrepreneurs. Despite the income-earning opportunity generated by the waste that is freely available, their social and economic conditions remain poor. This study is the first national study to investigate the social and economic conditions of the street waste pickers in South Africa. The national study covers thirteen major cities in South Africa and uses a mixed method research design. A literature review on informal waste picking activities and the participation of the poor in these activities provide a basis from which the socio-economic conditions of the street waste pickers could be analysed. A theoretical overview of poverty theories, the unemployment problem, and the characteristics of the informal economy and informal recycling activities help to contextualise the street waste pickers in terms of the link that exists between poverty, unemployment, and street waste picking activities as a marginal form of informal self-employment. With this as background, qualitative and quantitative data on the socio-economic conditions of the street waste pickers was collected from the street waste pickers themselves and from the buy-back centres with whom they interact on an almost daily basis.

Research report submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Quantitative Conservation Biology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. / The study aimed: (1) to provide baseline data on aspects of wood utilisation in a resource area and a communal area In KwaZulu, (2) to investigate the effects of this wood utilisation on the resource base, and (3) to discuss the sustainability of current wood. utilisation. Wood utilisation in this study refers to the harvesting of dead and livewood for fuelwood, building poles and fencing posts. (Abbreviation abstract) / AC2017

A research project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MA Masters in Community-Based Counselling Psychology (Psychology) in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 15/03/2017. / This research examines the interaction between beggars and motorists at traffic light intersections in Johannesburg CBD. Drawing on approximately 80hrs of video recorded interactions, the research primarily demonstrates the ways in which beggars and motorists produce embodied actions in the management of their asymmetrical socioeconomic positions, and more so the inequalities consequent of which. The phenomenon in question takes place in everyday settings constituted by mundane practices and embodied actions. As such, an ethnomethodologically oriented means towards gathering data served best suited to this research. A qualitative Conversation Analysis approach serves an apt technique for analysing the kind of fine-grained focus of the interactional phenomena observed (both verbal and non-verbal). The analysis has been rooted in the analytic framework of the greeting, request and offer adjacency pair types The progression of the analysis, as it unfolds, lends an eye to a particular sequence organization that appears to have crystalized, and further been reproduced in all of the beggar-motorist cases that have been examined here. The discussion turns towards unpacking some of the socio-structural implications of the embodied practices highlighted in the interaction of interest; particularly converging some of the ideas presented regarding the way in which the beggar-motorist interactional practices contribute to and maintain what can be seen as an institutionalized form of inequality. / XL2018

The social conditions in the rural areas of South Africa are by now widely known and numerous researchers have documented the poverty stricken quality of life which generally prevails amongst black families in these areas (Wilson and Ramphele, 1989). The vast majority of rural households have incomes which are below subsistence levels and in the Homelands, agricultural productive ability has become so eroded that rural household income is now chiefly derived from remittances from migrants in the towns or from the wages of farm labourers (Nattrass and May, 1986). As such, at present the majority of black rural households living in Region E make up consumer communities which must purchase the majority of their subsistence needs, rather than producer communities in which subsistence needs can be met from the utilisation of local resources (Derman and Poultney, 1983). Despite this unpromising situation, the diminishing importance of agricultural production to the South African national economy (Bethlehem, 1989), and the dominance of urbanisation as a social force, it can be argued that the rural areas of Region E will be directly and substantially affected by efforts to restructure the South African economy as a whole. Consequently, revitalising the rural economy in a restructured social and economic system would be a concern in itself, even though the effect of this for a future growth path for South Africa may be uncertain (Kaplinsky, 1991:54). The report will first examine the broad demographic changes in Region E noting the impact of these changes on the rural areas. Thereafter, the economic processes which characterise the rural areas will be discussed, in particular, employment, income levels and income distribution. This will feed into a discussion of the social processes which will include changing dynamics of migration, and a socio-economic profile of rural households. The paper concludes by briefly examining access and usage of basic services and facilities in the rural parts of Region E.