M. Tech. Language Practice

A great deal is expected of the construction industry and this study will stimulate reflections by participants on their role and performance. Leadership and collaboration are needed to enhance the capability and focus of all who engage in the delivery process- a focus to grow, transform and nurture the national asset base of the construction industry. The study highlights areas of progress and provides insight on the significant challenges to the construction industry growth and creation of infrastructure, challenges that are closely linked to the need for raised levels of performance and empowerment. Construction accounts for about I 0 per cent of the world economy and approximately 70 per cent of construction investment is accounted for in the USA, Western Europe and Japan. The continent of Africa accounts for about one per cent. Per capita investment in construction in the developed world is approximately $2500 per annum compared to $46 per annum in Africa. Embodied in the policies and legislations is a fundamental recognition that a developing society inherited a construction sector that supports a strategically developed industry with world-class capability and an established material manufacturing sector. The post-1994 expansion of South African engineering and construction services into global markets is testament to this inherent capability and the potential of the industry, and was enabled by the country's passage to democracy. In parallel with policy and institutional reform, a range of early practical initiatives were introduced by government to direct the process of change. In this context, growth needs to be coupled with sustainable employment, empowerment and investment in human capital as a pre-requisite for improved industry performance and competitiveness. The policy framework also addresses the role and potential impact of government as facilitator, regulator and major client to the industry. These included the implementation of preferential procurement to stimulate access to the market by historically disadvantaged enterprises, and measures to address supply-side constraints such as access to entrepreneurial training, finance, and credit. The Black Economic Empowerment is defined as empowerment of a broad-based process, and adopts a scorecard approach covering ownership, management, employment equity, skills development, procurement, corporate social investment, as well as investment and enterprise formation. By meeting any, or a combination of these objectives, every company has the potential to promote empowerment (SA Construction Industry Report, 2004 ). The main objective is to create new business ventures which play a significant role in economic growth. For this reason, it makes sense to explore correlations between black economic empowerment activities and lagged indicators of procurement policies and procedures. Some of the findings are: •Lack of consistency in the application of preferential procurement policies • Ambiguous regulations • Clients' planning shortcomings • Inadequate budget • Capacity constraints The biggest concern is the lack of core skills among emerging contractors, that is, financial literacy, record-keeping and marketing Although there are excellent examples of financing initiatives in South Africa (SA), there are only a small number of financial institutions in SA that have low default rates on small business loans. / (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2006

The study revolves around factors influencing the perceptions of service delivery by local municipalities in the Central District Municipality in the North West Province. Service delivery in general, as perceived by communities, has been a serious dilemma for most South African local municipalities. Factors in service delivery, as applicable in service marketing, have been examined through a detailed SERVQUAL research method. The focus areas have been service quality dimensions: • Reliability : the ability to deliver the promised service dependably and accurately; • Responsiveness : willingness to help and provide prompt customer service; • Assurance : knowledge, courtesy and ability of service providers to inspire trust and confidence • Empathy : caring and individualised attention given to clients; and • Tangibles : appearance of physical facilities, equipments, personnel and written materials. All five local municipalities in the Central District were involved in the study, and the main findings indicate that the residents in all the affected municipalities do not have confidence in the local government for service delivery. All five municipalities performed badly on the aspect of reliability and there is negative perception on responsiveness and willingness to provide prompt service by all the municipalities. The municipalities are perceived not to be able to command respect and instil confidence on their residents. The performance on empathy, where individual customised services are expected is poor. It is only on tangibles, where physical facilities are regarded as satisfactory. It is recommended that all municipalities should look inwardly and improve on their capacity on skills, financial management as well as bench-marking with international cities and towns for effective municipal service delivery. Service marketing as a management principle should be implemented immediately to save the current situation of loss of clientele and customer confidence. Other areas of quality improvement to be looked at are Total Quality Management and Work Improvement Team Strategy. / (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2006

The restructuring of state assets was expected to contribute towards black economic empowerment and a broader redistribution of wealth to those who were previously excluded from participating actively in the economy of this country. However, there have been several accusations leveled at government. Some people believe that privatization of state assets has benefited a few. This has led to the enactment of the Broad based black economic empowerment act. There is also a concern from the communities and unions that privatization of state assets will result in poor service delivery and unemployment. The study was conducted through a quantitative methodology. The final questionnaire was administered to 40 taxi owners, 20 government employees, 20 contractors, 20 business owners and 40 local residents. Out of the 140 people, II 0 responded, thus a 79 % response rate, all was used for data analyses. The various variables (responses to individual questions) in the questionnaire were arranged to obtain a rating for each dimension covered. This procedure assumes equality of interval of the Likert scale and therefore the data is regarded as the least interval data (rather than ordinary data). The findings on the study showed that majority of the respondents were not in favour of privatisation. Recommendations made were as follows, the government through its education programmes in schools and in Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) canters must educate citizens about socio-economic and political issues as well as familiarizing them with the government's macro - economic policy, in particular the GEAR policy. The government should only make partial privatization, and not complete/ whole privatization. / (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2006

M.Sc. (Environmental Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The aim of this study was to identify problems experienced by African educators in developing the school curriculum. The kinds of attitudes and beliefs of African educators in developing the school curriculum are also determined. The study indicates that African educators experienced problems in developing the school curriculum. Learners in urban areas had more advantages than those in rural areas such as availability of facilities and well qualified staff. Schools need adequate resources in order to be effective. The implication the study suggested was that, building schools was not a guarantee for society's success. The advantages of multicultural institutions are caused by the socio-economic backgrounds of various learners of diverse cultures. The differs from the environment of public schools of the rural area where learners had the same background and same culture and have many things in common. Educators at public schools need more training and workshops. African educators should become so confident that they could produce good results at the end of the year. / (M. Ed.) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005

M.Ed. / The Department of Education in North West is inundated with disputes as a result of procedures not being followed, in respect of promotional posts. This state of affairs has caused the Department a lot of money, a lot of stress to those affected as well as affecting the progress of many schools in the North West Province. The aim of this study is to describe a prevention strategy to be used in order to reduce the number of disputes experienced in the Department of education. In this work exploratory and descriptive, qualitative design is mainly used. The aim being to develop new insight into the phenomena and to increase understanding. Through interviews, the research has been able to explore and describe the viewpoints of, Director for co-ordination, District managers, affected Education Labor relations Council, with regard to causes of such disputes. The researcher has been able to develop prevention and an intervention strategy in North West. Prevention strategies, focusing on causes of such disputes, should be designed taking cognizance of factors highlighted by this study such as low level of illiteracy among School Governing Body members and unclear procedures on selection.

The Kalahari Goldridge mine is located within the Archaean Kraaipan Greenstone Belt about 60 km SW of Mafikeng in the Northwestern Province, South Africa. Several gold deposits are located within approximately north - south-striking banded iron-formation (BIF). Current opencast mining operations are focused on the largest of these (D Zone). The orebody is stratabound and hosted primarily in the BIF, which consists of alternating chert and magnetite-chloritestilpnomelane-sulphide-carbonate bands ranging from mm to cm scale. The ore body varies in thickness from 15 to 45 m along a strike length of about 1.5 km. The BlF is sandwiched between a sericite-carbonate-chlorite schist at the immediate footwall and carbonaceous meta-pelites in the hanging-wall. Further west in the footwall, the schists are underlain by mafic meta-volcanic amphibolite. Overlying the hanging-wall carbonaceous metapeiites are schist units and meta-greywackes that become increasingly conglomeratic up the stratigraphy. Stilpnomelane-, chlorite- and minnesotaite-bearing assemblages in the BlFs indicate metamorphic temperatures of 300 - 450°C and pressures of less than 5 kbars. The BIF generally strikes approximately 3400 and dips from 60 to 75°E. Brittle-ductile deformation is evidenced by small-scale isoclinal folds, brecciation, extension fractures and boudinaging of cherty BIF units. Fold axial planes are sub-parallel to the foliation orientation with sub-vertical plunges parallel to prominent rodding and mineral lineation in the footwall. Gold mineralization at the Kalahari Goldridge deposit is associated with two generations of subhorizontal quartz-carbonate veins dips approximately 20 to 40°W. The first generation consists of ladder vein sets (Group lIA) preferentially developed in Fe-rich meso bands, whilst the second generation consists of large quartz-carbonate veins (Group lIB), which crosscut the entire ore body extending into the footwall and hanging-wall in places. Major structures that control the ore body are related to meso-scale isoclinal folds with fold axes subparallel to mineral elongation lineations, which plunge approximately 067°E. These linear structures form orthogonal orientation with the plane of the mineralized shallowdipping veins indicating stretching and development of fluid - focusing conduits. A second-order controlling feature corresponds to the intersection of the mineralized veins and foliation planes of host rock, plunging approximately 008°N and trending 341°. G0ld is closely associated with sulphides, mainly pyrite and pyrrhotite and to a lesser extent with bismuth tellurides, and carbonate gangue. The ore fluid responsible for the gold deposition is in the C-O-H system with increased CH₄ contents attributed to localized hydrolysis reaction between interbedded carbonaceous sediment and ore fluid. The fluid is characterized by significant C0₂ contents and low salinities below 7.0 wt % NaCl equivalent (averages of 3.5 and 3.0 wt % NaCl equivalent for the first and second episodes of the mineralization respectively) . Calculated values of f0₂. ranging from 10⁻²⁹·⁹⁸ to 10⁻³²·⁹⁶ bars, bracket the C0₂-CH₄ and pyrite-pyrrhotite-magnetite buffer boundaries and reveal the reducing nature of the ore fluid at deposition. Calculated total sulphur content in the ore fluid (mΣs), ranges from 0.011 to 0.018M and is consistent with the range (10⁻³·⁵ to 10⁻¹M) reported for subamphibolite facies ore fluids. The close association of sulphides with the Au and nature of the fluid also give credence that the Au was carried in solution by the Au(HS)₂ - complex. Extensive epigenetic replacement of magnetite and chlorite in BIF and other meta-pelitic sediments in the deposit by sulphides and carbonates, both on meso scopic and microscopic scales gives evidence of an interaction by a CO₂- and H₂S-bearing fluid with the Fe-rich host rocks in the deposit. This facilitated Au precipitation due to changes in the physico-chemical conditions of the ore fluid such as a decrease in the mΣs and pH leading to the destabilization of the reduced sulphur complexes. Local gradients in f0₂ may account for gold precipitation in places within carbonaceous sediments. The fineness of the gold grams (1000*Au/(Au + Ag) ranges from 823 to 921. This compares favourably with the fineness reported for some Archaean BIFhosced deposits (851 - 970). Mass balance transfer calculations indicate that major chemical changes associated with the hydrothermal alteration of BIF include enrichment of Au, Ag, Bi, Te, volatiles (S and CO₂), MgO, Ba, K and Rb but significant depletion of SiO₂ and minor losses of Fe₂O₃. In addition, anomalous enrichment of Sc (average, 1247%) suggests its possible use as an exploration tool in the ferruginous sediments in the Kraaipan greenstone terrane. Evidence from light stable isotopes and fluid inclusions suggests that the mineralized veins crystallized from a single homogeneous fluid source during the two episodes of mineralization under the similar physicochemical conditions. Deposition occurred at temperatures rangmg from 350 to 400°C and fluid pressures ranging from 0.7 to 2.0kbars. Stable isotope constraints indicate the following range for the hydrothermal fluid; θ¹⁸H₂O = 6.65 to 10.48%0, 8¹³CΣc = -6.0 to -8.0 %0 and 8³⁴SΣs = + 1.69 to + 4.0%0 . These data do not offer conclusive evidence for the source of fluid associated with the mineralization at the Kalahari Goldridge deposit as they overlap the range prescribed for fluid derived from devolatization of deep-seated volcano-sedimentary piles near the brittle-ductile transition in greenstone belts during prograde metamorphism, and magmatic hydrothermal fluids. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

The aim of this study was to explore how the newly acquired democratic dispensation in South Africa has affected the lives of secondary school learners. A literature review was undertaken on democracy, democratic citizenship and democratic government. An empirical investigation using a qualitative phenomenological approach examined the situation of secondary school learners using the various agencies of citizenship, namely the family, peer groups, the school and the community. Data was gathered by focus group interviews. It emerged from the examination of the collected data that democratic citizenship has improved the situation of secondary school learners regarding their interpersonal relationships with their families, peer groups, school-mates and other members of the community at large. However, the findings indicated that the democratic dispensation has not yet had a significant impact on the situation of secondary school learners at school and in their communities. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Science, School of Geography, Archaeology & Environmental Studies, 2016. / The aim of this thesis is to expose the effects of water scarcity on rural livelihoods. The chosen study site for this investigation is Borakalalo village in Lehurutshe region (North West Province). The aim of this study was to explore the water usage patterns of households in Borakalalo village in order to unpack the various water-related activities that households in Borakalalo engage with. The main argument made in this thesis is that in order to comprehend the effects of water scarcity on rural livelihoods, it is paramount that the water usage trends of rural dwellers be documented and, the contribution made by various water-related activities in generating a livelihood income be scrutinised. Therefore, using the sustainable rural livelihood framework of analysis, the goal of this study was to investigate the role that water plays in securing a livelihood for households in Borakalalo village. The introduction chapter explains the relevance of this study in the context of South Africa as a whole, also paying special attention to Borakalalo village, which is the chosen study site for this investigation. The methodology chapter highlights the advantages and disadvantages of methodological techniques employed in this study. A critical engagement with literature on water scarcity reveals some of the key conceptual dilemmas in defining water scarcity. Furthermore, the social, political and economic impacts of water scarcity on a global and national scale are looked into. A household survey that was conducted with 150 households in Borakalalo village aimed to uncover the water usage trends of rural households and, to examine how water serves the livelihoods of households in Borakalalo village. In the discussion chapter some of the main findings in this investigation are brought forth through looking at the ways in which water-related activities such as agriculture, livestock herding and small water-related rural enterprises sustain rural livelihoods. Although the discussion uncovers the role of water in a productivist rural economy, the results also seem to suggest that there is a shift in the rural economy from productivist to post-productivist livelihood activities. Henceforth, as much as water scarcity poses a threat to productivist livelihood activities, it also limits the expansion of the emerging post-productivist rural livelihoods. Furthermore, the increased need for monetary income in rural households in order to compensate for the loss of productive rural activities is evident. However, high levels of unemployment in rural areas limit the capacity of rural households to generate monetary income, and henceforth, livelihoods in Borakalalo village are enormously threatened by current water shortages in the village. / MT2016