This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2016 / This study assesses agonism's practical possibilities for constructive, rather than destructive, outcomes arising from state-society strife, by drawing on the case of the Johannesburg city administration. / GR2017

Thesis (MTech (Quality))-- Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2010 / During the past decade, project management skills have become increasingly recognised as highly desirable for managers at all levels of organisations. Most people can benefit from the application of project management skills to some parts of their daily operations. The rapid growth of global markets and the introduction of total quality management, continuous improvement programmes and more recently, the drive to redesign business processes, all require some form of project management skills. In spite of the obvious benefits from project management, research has shown that more often than not, the traditional practice of project management does exist within organisations. This then may lead to service failure; thus impacting adversely on the efficiency and image of the organisation. This dispensation also applies to projects undertaken by the Eskom, which will serve as objective of this research study. The primary research objectives of this study are the following: To improve the quality of goods and services through the application of project management. To emphasise the importance of project management within an organisation. To demonstrate that project management, if used in conjunction with a quality management system, can improve service delivery. It is anticipated that the research will lead to an improvement of the control of processes and the overall service or product quality delivered by Eskom.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Communication Science at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / The under-resourced and overused public health sector of South Africa has been the subject of national policy reform initiatives and frequent government led investigations. Subsequently, in October 1997, the government introduced eight Batho Pele principles to serve as acceptable policy and legislative framework regarding service delivery in the public service. However the media has constantly criticised the public health system for their pathetic service delivery. Hospitals and clinics have been portrayed as being overburdened and under-productive. Multiple efforts by the government to remedy (and rescue) the situation have not decreased nor diminished the problems. The primary goal of this study is to examine the current quality of service offered by the public health system in South Africa especially in terms of service delivery proposed by the Batho Pele principles. More importantly, how the Batho Pele principles are communicated to the external publics will be evaluated to ascertain the challenges key government sectors face in the adoption and application of these principles. The participation of patients and staff members of two public health facilities in KwaZulu-Natal provided this study with valuable information on which this study is based. The data was collected through the use of structured interviews of in-patients and questionnaires for both outpatients and staff members. A total of 255 patients and 92 staff members participated in this study. Further, the study exposes provocative and controversial issues in the public health system and hopes to stir awareness amongst its respective leaders and its publics. This study demonstrates how challenges faced by the public health organisations through poor ineffective communication techniques caused it to fail to meets its intended purpose. This study also exposes provocative and controversial challenges which place our health care system at risk of total annihilation if left unattended. The study speaks to issues of accountability such as: planning, budgeting and decision making and the plight of the people of our nation.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters (Information Science) in the Department of Library and Information Studies at the University of Zululand, 2017 / This study investigates the different medical records management regimes within public and private hospitals in the Umhlathuze Area, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. The study made a comparison and examined whether the current management practices support service delivery in the context of the Batho Pele principles. In doing this, the study reviewed extensive literature on records management standards and theories, legislative framework of medical records in order to establish the extent of the level of compliance to the set regulatory framework in the management of medical records in South Africa. It also assessed the depth of the integration of ICTs in the management of medical records in South Africa. The targeted study sample in both the public and private hospital was 193. Of these, only 180 responded and this represented a respondent‟s rate of 93.5%. The study was largely a quantitative research. The study adopted a survey research design and used multiple forms of data collection techniques such as structured questionnaires, observations and document review. Quantitative data collected was analysed to obtain some descriptive statistics while qualitative data was analysed using content analysis to derive particular themes pertinent to the study. The two sets of results were compared and contrasted to produce a single interpretation and then conclusions were drawn. The study findings established that the records management practices in both hospitals were not well entrenched thus undermining quality health service delivery. This was evidenced by lack of awareness and existence of the records management policies and procedures manual; lack of adherence records management standard; lack of security measures, with rampant cases of missing files, folios and torn folders; delays in access and use of records; lack of an elaborate electronic records management programme and low levels of skill and training opportunities in records management. The use of paper records is still dominant in the public hospital; while the electronic medical record system was in place in the private hospital with some degree of success even though implementation challenges continue to exist. The integration of ICTs in the management of medical records was more evident in the private hospital while the public hospital continues to be underfunded undermining the current capacity for effective medical records management. The role of accurate, reliable and trustworthy medical records in the ii | P a g e context of quality health service delivery in accordance with Batho Pele principle in both hospitals remains problematic. In order to enhance the role of medical records for quality service delivery, the study recommended that a regulatory framework for records management should be developed and implemented in both hospitals. It is also recommended that more technical and human resource capacity is required in the public hospital to help speed up the services to its user while the private hospitals need to entrench their evolving capabilities in medical records management. The study further recommends that training around records management should be provided to all staff that deal with medical records management in both hospitals.

"Although there have been some benefits accruing form privatisation in Africa generally and South Africa in particular, the exercise has impacted negatively on socio-economic rights and service delivery. With privatisation, the role of the state in the provision of these services has been taken over by private service providers over which states have no direct control or have failed to exercise control. Although it ought to be acknowledged that there has been an increase in the production levels of some goods and utility services, for instance water and electricity, it is unfortunate that with several people increasingly losing their jobs as public enterprises are privatised, they cannot afford to pay the increased costs of these services. This has been the case with water privatisation in South Africa where the 'full cost recovery' model and the introduction of 'pre-paid metres' have led to disconnections of water to those who are unable to pay, thus reducing access. As a result, since 1994, over 10 million South Africans have had their water disconnected. The main problem has been 'profit motives and cost recovery' on the one hand versus 'poverty, unemployment and inability to pay' on the other. This inevitably impacts negatively on the right of access to sufficient water and also affects the enjoyment of other socio-economic rights and services like food, housing, health care, inter alia. ... This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one will set out the content of the research, identify the problem and outline the methodology. Chapter two gives a general coverage of privatisation and its inter-relationship with socio-economic rights and services. Chapter three covers the international and regional legal regime governing the protection, respect, promotion and fulfilment of socio-economic rights. It also covers the obligations of both the state and non-state actors. Chapter four will analyse the water privatisation exercise in South Africa, and how it has impacted on the enjoyment of the right of access to water. Based on the findings in chapter four, chapter five will evaluate the privatisation process and determine whether it complies with international and constitutional human rights obligations, followed by recommendations and a conclusion." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2004. / Prepared under the supervision of Prof. Pierre de Vos at the Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape, South Africa / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Since its establishment in the 19th century, the City of Johannesburg has metamorphosed from a gold mining dormitory, a segregated town to a modern metropolitan municipality that is one of the flagships of South African municipalities. The formerly apartheid city had the legacy of fragmentation along racial lines based on the disintegrated economic logic that systematically developed areas disproportionately with black urban and peri-urban areas at the mercy of the white urban areas1. The advent of democracy in 1994 necessitated the city’s transformation into a democratic, non-racial, developmental and mega municipality encompassing the townships that were previously on its periphery. This required the national government, as the superior government to formulate a regulatory framework for local government to foster a developmental orientation, democracy, good governance and accountability to the constituent inhabitants, provincial and national government. Similar to all other municipalities country wide, it became paramount to improve the provision of public services to cover the backlogs that were created by the previous separate development policies of apartheid, but specific to Johannesburg, to maintain its position as the biggest city by population, gross domestic expenditure and economic growth. In this study the researcher maintains the seven assumptions advanced by Caiden (1982:14-6) about public administration i.e. that it is unavoidable, expects obedience, has priority, has exceptional size, has political top management, poses difficulties in performance measurement and that more is expected from it. Although public management is not entirely unique in the above ways due to the phenomenon of new public management (NPM), it is easy in the South African context to identify public administration through the schedules in the Constitution (1996), the Public Finance Management Act, 2002 (PFMA)2 and the formation structures of service providing municipal entities. Public policy analysis literature documents the paradigm shift in public management from traditional bureaucratic structure to decentralisation, NPM and policy networks amid the complexity theory in the public service endeavour to provide services. The local legislature i.e. the municipal council is granted the authority over the sphere of work of the municipality and therefore has the final say in the running of the municipality to meet the expectations of the electorate. In this study the researcher focuses on the analysis of the council’s choices of the above public management structures or policies options in exercising its authority. The council has to decide on functional activities i.e. municipal services from what the Constitution (1996) allows and decide on the executive institutions that are tasked to execute the functions within the budgetary allocations. Regarding research methodology, annual reports, departmental reports, AG performance reports, community complaints, council meeting minutes, provincial government reports, national treasury reports and primary data from questionnaires and expert interviews were consulted to answer the questions on the levels effectiveness and efficiency. It was found that the provision of services has substantially improved as from the beginning of the 21st century and the reason for this improvement is the public service reforms that include NPM. The semi permanency of entities and utilities could inhibit the provision of services in future. It was also found that the weaknesses with the utilities and entities can well be covered by the implementation of policy networks and the municipality finds it difficult to cope under exogenous complexity challenges.

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since 1994 the government of South Africa has spent substantial amounts of money on the development and expantion of infrastructure to include the previously disadvantaged. Each year the amount spent on infrastructure increased, and still the poor is marginalised. The title proposes that there should rather be a focus on creating a sustainable environment to deliver infrastructure. The economy, unemployment, people living in poverty and level of human resources determine the environment in which infrastructure is delivered. South Africa is on a growth path towards 2030 that aims to reduce unemployment by aproximately 10% and increase the economic growth rate 5% per annum. Key challenges that inhibits economic growth were identified by the National Planning Commision (NPC). These key challenges such as poverty, poor education, unsatisfactory public tranport and a divided society represent the environment that South Africa is currently operating in. If these key challenges could be addressed and nullified a sustainable environment could be reached. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate a sustainable environment to deliver infrastructure. Existing models will be analysed and the key principles will then be incorporated in the development of the proposed Infra-Connect Model. Strategic Planning and decision-making tools will also assist in the process towards developing the Infra-Connect Model. The theoretical results that are obtained are positive. It conforms to the goals that are set out based on the key challenges presented by the NPC. The financial resources are found to be distributed more effectively and the poor is empowered to take part in the economic activities and hence a sustainable environment to deliver infrastructure is created. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sedert 1994 is daar aansienlike bedrae bestee op die opgradering en uitbreiding van infrastruktuur. Steeds is die huidige infrastruktuur nie voldoende nie en onontwikkeld. Die behoeftiges is steeds uitgesluit uit die ekonomiese aktiwiteite en gemarginaliseer. Hierdie verhandeling beoog om die fokus te plaas op die skepping van ‘n volhoubare omgewing wat die ontwikkeling van infrastruktuur tot gevolg het. Die omgewing verwys na die ekonomie, die behoeftiges, vlak van werkloosheid, en die kwaliteit van onderrig en mense ontwikkeling. Suid Afrika is in die proses om ‘n groeiplan saam te stel vir 2030. Onbevredigende dienslewering, ‘n verdeelde samelewing, en onvoldoende onderrig is onder andere faktore wat die groei van Suid Afrika verhinder om ‘n positiewe, kompeterende land teen 2030 te wees, soos geïdentifiseer deur die National Planning Commision. Hierdie faktore verhoed dat Suid Afrika positiewe ekonomiese groei ervaar. Die doel van die verhandeling is om die skepping van ‘n volhoubare omgewing wat infrastruktuur lewering tot gevolg sal hê, te ondersoek. Bestaande modelle word geanaliseer en gebruik om ‘n model vir munisipaliteite saam te stel wat sal help om fondse reg aan te wend en die druk rondom infrastruktuur lewering te verlig. Die teoretiese uitkomstes is positief en daar is gevind dat die model die bepalende faktore aanspreek. Die behoeftiges is na afloop van die model beter af waar hul bemagtig is en ‘n werksgeleentheid gebied word. Die gevolg is dan ‘n verlaging in die werkloosheidskoers en ‘n verwagting dat Suid Afrika se ekonomie positief sal groei. Voldoende lewering van infrastruktuur en dienste word dan ook verwag. Sodoende word ‘n volhoubare omgewing geskep vir effektiewe ontwikkeling en lewering van infrastruktuur en basiese dienste.