The purpose of the study was to investigate and examine the impact of the government housing subsidies in Alexandra, Gauteng, in terms of improving the socio-economic conditions of poor people. The ANC government promised to change the material conditions of people by among other things eliminating poverty when it ascended to power. Access to adequate housing is regarded as a fundamental right in terms of the prescripts of the South African constitution. By implication the government has a developmental duty to provide housing to eligible citizens. A policy decision by government in 1995 to provide housing subsidies to poor households, particularly those earning between R0-3500 rand provided a significant catalyst in the objective to improve the socio-economic conditions of poor people. That is why the study was conducted in the Alexandra Township, given the proximity of the area to affluent suburbs such as Sandton. This also provided a perfect case study to measure the effectiveness of the housing subsidy system and how the system has been managed to maximise the housing delivery impact in terms of outcomes. In terms of research findings, the expectation was that delivery of low cost housing using government subsidies should not have experienced problems on housing delivery backlogs and administrative blockages. The research results revealed that the failure to quickly improve the socio-economic conditions of poor people through providing adequate housing and creating a progressive environment to create and access job opportunities has exacerbated the state of poverty, which perpetuates dependency on state assistance. The research findings further showed that there is no conclusive evidence that many if not all beneficiaries were using their subsidised house as an asset in terms of leveraging it to improve their financial position; and that there is still a high level of dependency on government for assistance even on maintenance of these units, especially after taking ownership. This has exposed a grave lack of knowledge or information on the side of beneficiaries on how to utilise the house as an asset in order to be progressive as far as improving social and economic conditions. The overall research results demonstrated that vi the existing low cost housing funding model (in Gauteng) is not sustainable in terms of delivering subsidised housing units; and significantly improving the quality of life and standard of living of poor people. In terms of limitations, the study took to account that the new government needed enough time to translate policy into concrete implementable ideas as far as housing was concerned, hence the period of study was from 1995 to 2012. This study is important because its findings contribute knowledge in the field of Public Administration and housing literature; and also assists the Department of Human Settlements (DHS) to explore recommended solutions to improve the Housing Subsidy System. Most importantly, the study provides valuable data relating to the impact of government housing subsidies, including challenges on housing allocations and subsidies management. The study concludes with recommendations on what an effective government subsidy programme should look like. This provides an opportunity to review the entire government subsidy system, as recommended in the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 vision. The government of the day needs to urgently review the existing grant and subsidy regime for housing with a view to ensuring diversity in product and finance options that allows for more household choice and greater spatial mix and flexibility. Moreover, government should ensure that state funding does not support the further provision of non-strategic housing investments in poorly located areas. / Public Administration / D.P.A.

M. Tech. Comparative Local Development / Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) play a critical role in the economic development. Indeed, SMMEs have been recognised as major sources of poverty reduction, employment creation and incomes. It is therefore not surprising that policy makers and researchers, particularly in developing countries have acknowledged SMMEs as an important topic in development policy. Despite their belated discovery by policy makers and their contribution to the economy, their growth remains constrained by a number of key constraints including access to finance. Access to finance has a significant impact on the development or failure of SMMEs. That is to say, finance has increasingly been recognised as a major obstacle in the development of SMMEs. Without finance, SMMEs may not able to develop and sustain their businesses through innovation, hiring of additional staff and the addition of more facilities. The SMMEs sector is known to be very diverse. Indeed, Studies point that there is no single definition of SMMEs, they are defined differently in different contexts and most of SMMEs in Africa operate in the informal sector. This situation has challenged policy makers, making difficult the development of one size fits all policies. The objective in this study is to examine the problem of finance in SMME development and promotion in Africa and more particularly in Gabon and South Africa. The study examined the existing literature on SMMEs in general and more particularly the problem of access to finance in SMME development. The study highlights that SMME's access to finance is constrained by factors such as a lack of information, high interest rates, financial sector policy distortion, the high risk of SMME operations, blacklisting of SMME owners and a lack of government support awareness. In addressing this problem, a number of policies have been developed and include the market developing policies, the market enabling policies and the market harnessing policies.

Introduction South Africa has a two tiered health care system: a private sector catering for seven of the 47 million people and public sector providing care to the majority. The private sector consists of for-profit providers that are funded either through medical schemes, health insurance policies or out of pocket expenditure. To attain the goal of the health care system of improving health, it is essential that healthcare financing is understood. The provision of quality, accurate and comprehensive financial data is necessary for the efficient mobilization and allocation of financial resources. Health Expenditure Reviews and National Health Accounts provide such invaluable information. Aim To provide a trend analysis of health financing and expenditure data for the private health care sector in South Africa from 01 January 2003 to 31 December 2006. Methods This study is employs an observational, descriptive cross-sectional design. The methodology used in the study is adapted from the World Health Organization’s guide to producing National Health Accounts. Data was obtained from the Council for Medical Schemes annual reports and from Statistics South Africa Income and Expenditure Survey. The annual average medical inflation for each of the years was removed from the nominal value so that a real trend analysis could be observed. Results For the four year period, the overall cost-drivers of consolidated schemes were private hospitals (31.0-35.0%), medical specialists (20.0-21.0%), medicines dispensed out of hospital (17.0-22.0%) and non-healthcare expenditure like administration and broker fees (14.0-15.0%). From the households’ consumable expenditure on health, 37.0% was spent on medical services, 35.0% on pharmaceutical products and 11.0% on hospital services. Discussion The majority of expenditure in the private sector is through medical schemes. The precise amount spent by households is unknown due to the lack of data but it is a large amount for the South African household. Proper National Health Account Matrices could not be constructed since access to data was limited, not routinely available and not disaggregated at the required level. Recommendations Better quality information on out-of-pocket household expenditure and expenditure in the traditional sector is needed. To improve access to the private sector, the proposed policy and legislative changes need to be implemented. / Thesis (MMed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

This dissertation relates to the study of valuing a business. Edcon, a well known listed retailer, was found its market values to be lower than its net asset value at 2002 financial year-end, while all of the major competitors of Edcon had a market value considerably in excess of net asset value. It was possible that Edcon's share was underpriced at year-end recently, as it was known that Edcon was a well-managed company with sound fundamentals. The "true" value of Edcon was investigated in this dissertation. Two valuation models, Discounted Free Cash Flow and Economic Profit model, were used and simple assumptions had to be made in order to arrive at a consensus valuation in this dissertation. Finally, all valuation performed in this case revealed that the share of Edcon was underpriced at year-end, and it was concluded that investors using these fundamental valuation methods and buying the shares could have made a profit. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

Fraud and corruption cost South Africa billions of rand yearly. Institutions of higher learning are no less vulnerable to fraud and corruption than other organisations, but are also subject to risks that are unique to academia. The Public Finance Management Act. No.1 of 1999 requires Public entities including the councils (university or college controlling body) of public institutions of higher learning to adopt enterprise risk management, which includes a fraud and corruption risk management policy and procedures. The function of the fraud and corruption policy is to provide an objective strategy to prevent, detect and investigate any possible irregularity in order to prevent further loss in line with Corporate Governance requirements. The anti-fraud and corruption strategy measures include setting the appropriate tone by management of the institution, being proactive (fraud risk assessments), and being reactive (reporting process, investigation and taking appropriate action). The actions include disciplinary action and criminal or civil proceedings in order to recover assets lost. The procedures address the implementation of the policy. This research focused on identifying the relevant issues that could be included in the formulation of fraud and corruption risk management policies and procedures for institutions of higher learning. The research was conducted using a qualitative methodology consisting of a document analysis and interviews. It was found that, out of eleven institutions of higher learning investigated only one institution meets the criteria set out in the framework developed in the research as an assessment tool. The other institutions involved in the research did not have fraud and corruption risk management policies or procedures and therefore did not comply with the Public Finance Management Act.

Thesis (MTech (Cost and Management Accounting))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / Background: Research has shown that a high percentage of SMMEs in South Africa are not sustainable, most of them failing in their infancy stage. In order to make sound decisions and achieve desirable results, owners/managers need to make use of budgets in managing their businesses. Utilisation of budgets is the core of financial planning and decision-making in manufacturing enterprises. Lack of utilisation of budgets in managing businesses can lead to business failure. There is need to conduct a study on the utilisation of budgets by SMEs in the manufacturing industry. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which SMEs in the manufacturing industry in the Cape Metropolis use budgets for managing their businesses. This was achieved by determining whether the SMEs in the manufacturing industry used budgets or not, what types of budgets were used, the purposes for which the budgets were used and what challenges if any were faced by these SMEs when using budgets. Methodology: Data was collected from 108 respondents by means of a questionnaire comprising closed-ended questions. Descriptive statistics were employed to analyse the data in SPSS version 24. Frequency tables and pie charts were used to present the findings. Findings: The findings of the study reveal that most SMEs in the manufacturing industry in the Cape Metropolis use budgets for managing their businesses. The SMEs prepare budgets which are used for various purposes. The SMEs however face challenges when utilising budgets. Recommendations: Future interventions by Department of Small Business Development on financial planning should focus more on micro and very small enterprises. Other categories of enterprises may apply this information and emulate the utilisation of budgets from the SMEs in the manufacturing industry as they strive to survive and grow.

This study addresses the fact that the current Cadbury investment appraisal process does not adequately address the strategic implications of many capital investment decisions. Although attempts are made to quantify, in financial terms, the strategic benefits from a given investment, it appears that many perceived benefits are left out of the appraisal process because they lack precise financial quantification, resulting in managers placing greater reliance on the qualitative dimensions of their investment decision-making such as judgement and intuition. The current Cadbury process is based on the unequivocal advice that academics give to organisations and to managers about how to appraise largescale capital investment projects. The use of discounted cash flow techniques, based upon the discounting of decision contingent cash flows at the organisations opportunity cost of capital is regarded as the definitive investment appraisal technique. On this, the academic literature is clear. Whilst there are strong theoretical justifications for the use of discounted cash flow based models, managers continue to use non-DCF appraisal techniques such as payback irrespective of their theoretical shortcomings. The lack of use of a sophisticated risk assessment model is also disappointing, with Cadbury ignoring individual project risk and adopting a naive approach. Finally, this study indicates that Cadbury managers need not be forced into choosing either an economic/normative approach or a strategic/managerial approach to capital-investment decision-making but that rather a hybrid approach, including both the economic and strategic dimensions of choice, is more applicable for effective strategy incorporation.

Bibliography: pages 94-102. / There is currently much work underway internationally to improve the accuracy and to refine the detail of accounting for health care expenditures. This research was initiated by the increasing activity in the field of national health accounting, as well as by previous research indicating that the Reserve Bank might be underestimating private health care expenditure in the national accounts. The Reserve Bank estimate of health care expenditure is important as it is the only complete and regularly produced estimate of private sector health care expenditure for South Africa. It was posited that an independent estimation of private health care expenditure would show that its magnitude is underestimated in the expenditure estimates published by the Reserve Bank for the national accounts. This thesis was upheld by the results of the research. The thesis estimate of private health care expenditure was R15 billion, 39% higher than the Reserve Bank estimate available at the time. It was also 21% higher than the final Reserve Bank estimate published in December 1995. The methodology used to derive the thesis estimate involved a survey of national income accounting concepts and guidelines embodied in the internationally used publication, the 1993 System of National Accounts. Primary data was collected from a wide range of institutions in the South African health sector. Secondary data sources were also consulted in several instances. In particular, the Registrar of Medical Schemes was consulted for medical scheme expenditure estimates as they constitute the largest portion of private sector health care expenditure in South Africa. The thesis estimate was then calculated for a single year according to the 1993 System of National Accounts guidelines. The year chosen was the government financial year from April 1992 to March 1993. The year was chosen to coincide with the year chosen for a national health expenditure review. In the presentation of the results, the estimate was broken down in separate "sources" and "uses" matrices, which are being used internationally to present national health accounting information. From the comparison of the Reserve Bank and thesis expenditure estimates, one of the most important recommendations that emerged was that the Reserve Bank should consult a wider range of expenditure data sources, more timeously and regularly. In particular, it was suggested that the Reserve Bank should negotiate earlier access to the data held by the Registrar of Medical Schemes, as well as cross-check household survey data with independent estimates of out-of-pocket and statutory scheme health care expenditure. In addition to providing a new benchmark estimate for private sector health care expenditure in the government financial year 1992/93, the breakdown of the estimate into matrices provides a framework that could be used as the basis for the development of more detailed satellite national health accounts, in accordance with 1993 SNA standards.

Investments in productive assets by broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) enterprises in South Africa (SA) during the 1990s have been constrained, in part, by a lack of access to capital. Even if capital can be sourced, BEE businesses often face a liquidity problem, as conventional, equally amortized loan repayment plans do not take into account the size and timing of investment returns, or there are lags in the adjustment of management to such new investments. The aim of this dissertation, therefore, is to compare five alternative loan products to the conventional fixed repayment (equally amortized) loan (FRL) that lenders could offer to finance BEE investments in productive assets that are faced with liquidity stress, namely: the single payment non-amortized loan (SPL); the decreasing payment loan (DP); the partial payment loan (PPL); the graduated payment loan (GPL); and the deferred payment loan (DEFPLO-2). This is done firstly by comparing loan repayment schedules for the six loans using a loan principal of R200 000, repaid over 20 years at a nominal contractual annual interest rate of 10%. Secondly, data from five actual BEE loan applications to ABSA Bank and Ithala in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) during 2003 are used to compare how the FRL, SPL, DP, GPL, and DEFPLO-l, affect investment profitability, and both the borrower's and the lender's cash-flows, assuming that the lender sources funds from a development finance wholesaler. Results for the first part of the study show that the SPL has smaller initial annual repayments than the FRL (R20 000 versus R23 492) that ease liquidity stress in the early years after asset purchase, but requires a nominal balloon repayment of both interest and principal in year 20 of R220 000. The SPL is also the most costly loan, with total nominal and real repayments that are R130 162 and R43 821, respectively, more than the FRL. The PPL has the lowest total nominal and real repayments assuming that the borrower can make the nominal balloon repayment in year 5 of R202 173. If not, the ending balance of the loan in year 4 would have to be refinanced at current market interest rates. In this situation, the PPL uses very similar financing terms to that of the variable rate long-term loans already used in SA, and thus may not be a useful option to consider for BEE investments facing a liquidity problem. Interest rates may have risen over the last four years of the loan, encouraging lenders to add a premium into the interest rate for the refinanced loan, which could worsen the liquidity position of the BEE enterprise. The DP requires higher initial nominal annual loan repayments (R6 508 more than the FRL) that do not ease the liquidity problem in the early years of operation. The DP loan, however, has total nominal and real repayments that are R59 838 and R23 118, respectively, less than the FRL. A GPL with diminishing, finite interest-rate subsidy seems to have the most potential to ease the BEE investment's liquidity stress. The 17YRGPL used to buy land had total nominal and real repayments that were R84 634 and R67 726 (after subsidy), respectively, less than the FRL. If the GPL was used to purchase machinery-type assets, then the 6YRGPL would have required total nominal and real repayments of R13 957 and R12 596, respectively, less than the FRL. Finally, the DEFPLO-2 loan required a total nominal repayment of R531 128 (R61 290 more than the FRL) and a total real repayment of R345 358 (R26 095 more than the FRL). Clearly, the GPL and DEFPLO-2 loan repayment schedules can partly resolve the liquidity problem in the early years (assuming no major income shocks), although the DEFPLO-2 plan requires higher total repayments than the FRL. The question remains whether lenders would be prepared to implement these two financing plans for BEE investments in productive assets, where the funds to finance the diminishing, finite interest-rate subsidy or the deferment would be sourced, and how the interest-rate subsidy would affect asset values. In the second part of the study, the profitability of the five proposed BEE investments in KZN during 2003 was compared for the five loan products using the Net Present Value (NPV) and the Internal Rateof- return (lRR) capital budgeting procedures. The loan terms, interest rates, principal and characteristics of each BEE firm are different with current rates of return on equity varying by business type. Companies A (five-year loan) and C (10-year loan) are agribusinesses with a higher expected current rate of return of 8% on machinery investments, while companies B (eight-year loan), D (15-year loan), and E (20-year loan) invest in farmland with a lower expected current annual rate of return of 5%. The five business plans may not be representative in a statistical sense of all BEE firms in KZN, but were used because they were readily available. Initially it was assumed that donor/grant funds from a development finance wholesaler were lent to an intermediary (like a commercial bank), which in turn, could finance the five investments using any of the five alternative loans, with the lender's repayment to the wholesaler being via a FRL. It was then assumed that the lender could repay its borrowed funds using the same loans, or combinations of them, that it had granted to these companies. Results show that GPLs and DEFPLs can resolve the liquidity problem associated with investments like land in the early years after purchase provided that projected business performance is adequate, while the SPL and GPL are preferred for BEE projects with stronger initial cash-flows like machinery investments. The study also shows that the loan product that best improves the borrower's liquidity is not always best suited to the lender. In most cases, the GPL suited the borrower, but in four of the five cases, the lender would prefer the SPL and to repay the wholesaler using the SPL. The SPL, however, is unlikely to be used, given the large negative real net cash-flows that it generates when the final payments are due. Recent SA experience with the GPLs (interest rate subsidies funded by private sector sugar millers via Ithala) and the DEFPLs (via the Land Reform Empowerment Facility (LREF) which is a wholesaler of funds in SA) suggests that there is scope to alleviate the liquidity problem if a wholesaler of funds can offer such terms to private banks and venture capital investors who then on-lend to finance BEE asset investments that are otherwise considered relatively high credit risks. This would shift the liquidity problem away from the client to the wholesaler of the funds, but requires access to capital at favourable interest rates. Such capital could be sourced from dedicated empowerment funds earmarked by the private sector, donors and the SA government. The lesson for policymakers is that broad-based BEE could be promoted in other farm and non-farm sectors in SA using similar innovative loan products to complement cash grant funds via financial intermediaries, bearing in mind the limitations of the GPL and DEFPL - such as how to finance the subsidy or deferment, and the impact of income shocks. Donor and National Empowerment Fund capital could be used to allocate grants to provide previously disadvantaged individuals with own equity and also to fund finite, diminishing interest-rate subsidies via GPLs, or to fund DEFPLs (many LREF loans have been leveraged by a cash grant component). This could create an incentive for public/private partnerships, as public/donor funds could be then used to attract private sector funds to finance broadbased BEE investments in SA that satisfy empowerment criteria. The five case studies did not show how the GPLs and DEFPLs could make all profitable (positive net present value) but financially infeasible (returns do not match the size and timing of the lender's financing plan) BEE investments in productive assets under the FRL feasible, except for Company E that showed a positive NPV and IRR when the 19YRGPL was used. They did, however, show how the alternative loans could improve liquidity for investments with either strong or poor cash-flows. The financiers consulted to source case studies in KZN in 2003 at the time of the study could not provide the researcher with any profitable, but financially infeasible, BEE business plans. This raises some concern about how effective these empowerment loan products could be in the future as there is uncertainty over how many potential BEE investments in productive assets in SA are likely to be profitable but financially infeasible. Further research is thus needed to assess the impact of these alternative loans on a wider range of broad-based BEE investments, particularly non-farm projects, than considered in this dissertation. / Thesis (M.Agric.Mgt.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

This research is based on the problem of allocating indirect overheads to construction projects in order to establish the performance of each project. Traditional costing (TC) systems and Activity-Based Costing (ABC) systems are both used for the allocation of overheads. Both primary and secondary data were used in this research. Primary data was collected by means of two questionnaires, one addressed to construction companies and the other to consultants. The sample of respondents was obtained from the register of contractors and construction industry companies. The researcher sent the links to the Lime survey by email to all respondents. The purpose of the literature review was to identify gaps and justify the need for this research. It considered existing findings by previous researchers. Primary data was therefore required to find answers specific to the problem of overheads allocation in the construction industry. According to the respondents, the use of TC systems produces distorted project cost results while ABC produces more accurate results when used in the construction industry. However, contractors had not adopted the ABC system but used TC systems despite their producing distorted project costs. It is recommended that both TC and ABC systems be used in the construction industry since they complement each other. Contractors may have to adopt the ABC system to enhance their decision-making while continuing to use the TC systems for external reporting. / Management Accounting / M. Com. (Accounting)