This paper focuses on the lack of an efficient private sector debt market for the funding of public sector projects. A brief synopsis is presented on the current listing activity on the Bond Exchange South Africa (BESA), which highlights the lack of private sector participation in public sector projects. Research is conducted on an international and a local basis with the use of a self-administered questionnaire to establish the extent of private sector funding in public projects. The results of this research reveal that whilst many jurisdictions recognise the role of the private sector in funding public sector projects, many have yet to see the benefits that flow from the private-public partnership initiatives that have been implemented in the developing countries such as China, Taiwan and South Korea. In this regard, however, South Africa has already gone a long way in the process of developing a public-private partnership program with the implementation of regulations and a separate unit being established at National Treasury to facilitate such programs. Nevertheless, the municipal sector of the country still needs to promulgate critical legislation to allow for greater involvement by the private sector in financing the infrastructure needs of local government. To provide detail to the study, an interview was conducted with the listing director of BESA, which highlighted important concerns of investors and also presented solutions to address those concerns relating to the lack of development of the private sector funding of public projects. The main concern of investors relate to the lack of proper governance structures in municipal and other government organs. The proposed solution to address the concerns of investors is to adopt innovative financing techniques to attract private investors to such projects, such as the use of securitisation schemes. Finally the study also highlights gaps in extant knowledge relating to the use of private sector funding in South African public sector projects. The study finds that more research needs to be conducted into the financial engineering techniques that have been successfully employed in countries that have more experience in developing a private sector debt market for the funding of public sector projects. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

From Introduction: 1. Background to the thesis: During the 1950' sand 1960' s it would appear that the explicit objectives of economic policy in South Africa were full employment and economic growth with some occasional emphasis on the pursuit of relative price stability. Other goals such as efficiency in resource allocation and the pursuit of an "acceptable" income distribution were at best implicit and subordinate to these objectives. This is exemplified by the fact that a number of key prices which were controlled by the authorities such as the exchange rate, interest rates and public utility tariffs were generally set at levels which were either over- or under-priced relative to factor scarcities throughout this period.

Thesis (MTech (Public Management))--Peninsula Technikon, Cape Town, 2005 / One of the many challenges facing local government is to deliver an equitable service to the citizens of South Africa. Local government, like many other government institutions, has limited financial 'and human resources capacity to attend to these challenges. It is, therefore, important that local government strive within these constraints, to provide equitable services'to its people in terms of housing, water, electricity and sanitation. The purpose of the research is to evaluate the standard of municipal services delivered to the Phumlani settlement. The research survey included techniques such as a structured, self-administered interviews and observations. The target research population were a sample of households located in this settlement. The structured interview was designed to assess the achievement of the norms and standards as stipulated in the National Housing Code as promulgated in the Housing Act, 1997 (Act 107 of 1997) in respect of permanent residential structures for low-cost housing. The significance of the research is the evaluation of the service delivery as perceived by the previous Phumlani infonmal community. This research lists the existing shortcomings in the standard of service delivery to the Phumlani settlement evaluated in terms of the norms and standards as stipulated in the above National Housing Code.

The local government sphere is comprised of municipalities whose functions include the provision of consumer services. A substantial portion of municipal revenue, which is also used for service provision, is derived from rates and service charges. Through the billing process, the municipality stipulates the amount due to be paid by each account holder. In the case of rates and consumer tariffs, this usually occurs on a monthly basis. Towards the end of 2002, overdue rates and service charges in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality amounted to over R800 million. In spite of various attempts undertaken by the municipality to collect overdue amounts, some residents are struggling to pay. Various reasons have been advanced for this scenario. However non-payment of rates and service charges has a negative impact on municipal budget and service delivery. Probably, if alternatives to the current credit control and revenue collection processes could be found, non-payment of rates and service charges could be eliminated.

Efficiency analysis in the public sector assesses the performance of municipal and government entities in their provision of services to the public. South Africa, in particular, has experienced a large degree of negative feedback with respect to the ability of the government and its municipal departments to provide basic services to citizens. This has led to a number of service delivery protests throughout the country. To remedy this, the ability of the municipality to provide basic services needs to be assessed in order for improvements to be made. A first step in this process would be to determine the efficiency with which municipalities are providing these services. This study focuses on a particular municipal service, namely electricity distribution. Primarily, the efficiency with which municipalities provide electricity to consumers is determined. This is achieved using the parametric cost frontier approach, which is appropriate since municipalities aim to reduce the costs incurred in distributing electricity. The municipalities are compared to a frontier (theoretical best practice) from which inferences on their performances can be made. Those municipalities whose performances are not optimal, deviate from the frontier. The deviations (errors) are then assumed to be caused by two factors, namely stochastic random noise and inefficiency. This composition accounts for effects for which municipalities cannot control (stochastic random noise) and those for which it can (inefficiency). The parametric nature of the cost frontier approach allows for distributional assumptions to be made on these factors. Stochastic random noise is always assumed to be normally distributed, while inefficiency is assumed to be one-sided and positively skewed.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / The focus of the study was on the impacts of undocuments on the provision of housing, job opportunities and health in Limpopo Province: A case study of Polokwane Municipality and the measures taken by the government to deal with illegal immigrants. The study was qualitative in nature and concentrated on illegal Zimbabweans and South Africans residing in Western burg(RDP side),Greenside,Lethuli Park,buite and bok streets, Department of health and Social welfare, Department of Labour and the Department of Housing. The area of study was Polokwane Municipality under the Capricorn district. The research findings confirmed that illegal immigrants have negative impacts on the provision of housing, job opportunities and health facilities in Limpopo Province as many respondents indicated that illegal immigrants were residing in RDP houses, all of them have access to health facilities and most of them were employed but only pay tax through the purchasing of goods and commodities for use and resale in the country and back in Zimbabwe.

One of the major sources of income to South African Municipalities is property rates. Income generated from property rates is meant to develop and deliver services to residents living in the said Municipal area. The main aim of the research was to identify the causes and effects of the non-payment of residential property rates, and also to develop workable strategies to maximise the collection of residential property rates in order to ensure developmental growth sustenance, specifically in Mahikeng Municipal area. Related literature was reviewed on the non-financial viability of Municipalities, maintenance of public infrastructure, service delivery and Municipal development plans in establishing the relationship with non-payment of residential property rates. Four hypotheses were set to guide the research with two testing positive with high level of confidence using the chi square method of testing. The research methodology employed in the research was mainly quantitative where the results and findings obtained from the questionnaire were statistically analysed. The research revealed that: The Mahikeng Local Municipality has failed to find the right medium to send rates bills to clients on time, is not taking active responsibility to recover rates debts, does not provide quality service delivery and the reluctance by locals to pay their property rates. The effects thereof, are the inability of the Municipality to deliver effective and efficient services, lack of maintenance of public infrastructure and development in the area. By implementing various options such as email, sms and the post to send rates bills to property owners, by employing different payment options, for example debit orders, transfers, bank deposits and discounts for property owners and embarking on periodic public awareness campaigns in educating the community regarding the importance of payment of property rates could serve as effective mechanisms to address the non-payment of residential property rates faced by the Mahikeng Local Municipality.

The advent of a political democracy in South Africa in 1994 generated hope for a better life for all South Africans especially those marginalised during the apartheid era. The newly formed democratic government was confronted with the mammoth task of expounding and decreeing policies and processes that would warrant equality and equity in the provision of basic services to its citizens. Local government being the third sphere of government and which is closest to the people was entrusted with the responsibility of rendering basic services to its people as well as to address the backlogs that have accumulated during the apartheid era as depicted in the 1996 Constitution. Despite the efforts made by government to meet the requirements of the people in providing them with adequate basic services such as clean water, electricity, roads housing and refuse removal, these services were either not provided at all or it was done at a snail‟s pace. This led to widespread service delivery protests. In light of the above, this empirical study investigates the causes of the service delivery protests in City of Johannesburg (CoJ) from 2009 until 2014. Numerous studies have been pursued to examine the reasons and causes for service delivery protests and the conclusions derived is the slow pace of providing electricity, water and sanitation to the local communities. It therefore can be deduced that no democracy can subsist and prosper if citizens are still living in deprivation and in a state of discrimination and unemployment without them having visions for a better life. The manifestation of service delivery protests is thus a risk to South Africa‟s young democracy and its sustainability, which cannot be ignored. The findings of this study clearly revealed that communities in the CoJ are discontented and disgruntled because of, amongst other things, the lack of delivery of basic services, the deployment of cadres to municipal management positions, the abuse of the tendering system, nepotism and favouritism, which have negatively affected service delivery. / Public Administration and Management / M. Admin. (Public Administration)

MA.CRM / Department of Criminal Justice / The policing response to increasing violent community violent protests in South Africa has received global attention in the last decade. The study was conducted with a backdrop of increased concern over skirmish and sporadic fighting and violence during service delivery protests. Criticisms have been voiced by various role-players in violent protests concerning arrests, injuries and killing of civilians by police during these demonstrations. Hence the study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of POP strategies in curbing common acts of violence during violent protests particularly in Vuwani area of Vhembe District, Limpopo Province. The study adopted a mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative method). Purposive sampling was used to select POP officials wherein Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were conducted in 9 difference POP units, each FGD was comprised of approximately 5 members which total to 45 POP members. A total of 200 questionnaires were randomly distributed to community members of Vuwani within 5 were found invalid. Quantitative Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicated that (86,2%) of participants believed that Vuwani protest was caused by municipal demarcation issues. The favourite methods of protests include littering with (80,0 %) and burning tyres with (76,4%) of participants. A total of (52,8%) community members argued that police presence perpetuate violence during service delivery protest. Common crimes that occurred during the protests was vandalism with (82,6%) and arson with (81,0%). Furthermore, (83,6%) community members agrees that rubber bullets was used as a strategy by the police at Vuwani protests. The overwhelming majority of participants with 80,0% believe that negotiation during protests can curb death and injuries. On the other hand, the study finds that POP official strategies start by negotiating with the protestors, identifying the leader, use of water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets as the last resort. Further emphasized that lack of manpower and resources are barriers that hinders effective policing of violent service delivery protests. It is therefore recommended that provision of resource and recruitment of manpower should be taken as a first priority by the SAPS national office. Lastly, the public should be educated about police presence during violent service delivery protests. / NRF

Women working in male-dominated professions and environments face experiences that are unique to their counterparts in more gender-balanced and female-dominated professions. The nature of these experiences affects women’s integration and potential success in male- dominated professions. To enhance employment equity in historically male-dominated professions and environments, an understanding of women’s experiences in such environments is beneficial. The purpose of this research was to explore the challenges and coping strategies of women working within male-dominated professions and environments. This was an exploratory qualitative study conducted within the interpretive research paradigm. A purposive sample consisting of five women working in identified male-dominated professions and environments was utilised. In-depth interviews were conducted and data was analysed using grounded theory. The main findings indicate that the central theme pertinent to women working in male-dominated professions and environments pertains to the types of challenges inherent in their work settings. The main challenges found were as follows: discrimination and bias; physical and health-related difficulties experienced; negative emotions resulting from working in male-dominated environments; lack of real transformation; and work/life balance. This study provides current insight into the plight of women working in male-dominated professions and environments in South Africa. / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)