Magister Artium - MA / International migration has been a growing phenomenon in the West African community from the late 1960s as the colonial period came to an end and most West African countries gained their independence. During this period this migration trend was essentially from West Africa to Europe facilitated by the relationship that existed between West African states and their former colonial master. In the 1990s Western countries started restricting immigration by applying stricter immigration laws. West Africans who could not make it to the West sought alternative destinations like South Africa where the apartheid regime had just come to an end and the first elected democratic government had been installed in 1994. West Africans in South Africa are mostly economic immigrants and as South Africa's immigration policies changed this group of people faced challenges to acquire the documents required to legalize their stay in the country. This study seeks to analyze why West Africans chose to immigrate to South Africa and specifically Cape Town, their struggle for documentation and the extent to which the possession or non-possession of the correct documents affected their lives in Cape Town. It drew on interviews with Nine West Africans to try and understand this.The study found out that the main reason for West African immigration to South Africa after 1994 was because of the fall of the apartheid regime and the coming to power of the ANC government which re-established diplomatic and economic relations with most West African states. Countries in the West African region were faced with crisis in the 1980s as a result of policies that were implemented in the pursuit to address the ills of colonialism. As the economies of most of these countries declined, most West Africans were faced poverty and became desperate. In their quest for a better live West Africans embarked on immigrating to more developed and affluent countries. Initially they were immigrating to the countries of their colonial masters but with time as more people were immigrating, other destinations in Europe and North America became sought after. Restrictive immigration policies in these countries forced West African to look for new destinations to go to. They found that in South Africa after 1994. Apart from the economic crisis in the West African region, poor governance, corruption, political suppression and tribalism served as push factors in contributing to the immigration of West Africans to South Africa. As pull factors, the reliance on kinship played an important part in most West Africans who immigrated to South Africa. Many of them relied on the friends and family who were resided in South Africa for information, directions and support to make the journey and eventually join them were they are based. The picture and information that the mass media projected about South Africa also had a huge impact on the perception people had about the country. These perceptions contributed to the decision of West Africans to immigrate to South Africa. This study explored the range of visas West Africans sought to enter the country. It found that the visa they chose to apply for was not necessarily the real purpose of their visit but was the most convenient. This allowed them entry into the country and once in they sought other visas and permits to legalise their stay. This study found that it was a long hard journey to convert asylum permits to refugee permits Further the struggle over documentation was mainly because of the logistical short comings of the Department of Home Affairs. This study argues that it is the Department of Home Affairs that renders many of them illegal due to delays in processing the permits. .While they waited for documents, the lives of applicants were full of insecurity and there were difficulties in making a living. The informal sector provided one avenue for some. This thesis argues that applicants were desperate for the correct documents but even though they eventually acquired them these did not necessarily open up opportunities.

The South African public sector is important for the sustainable growth and development of the country. One of its major responsibilities is to ensure that all citizens have access to and receive the services they need. The manner in which public sector institutions are structured has an impact on the delivery of effective and efficient services to citizens.Achieving a high degree of productivity is an important objective of public service organisations across the world given the pressure to deliver quality public goods and services within the limits of ever-increasing resource constraints. The South African Public Service is no exception to this global phenomenon. The focus on the public service is therefore continuously to improve performance to meet citizens’ needs. Where as performance is directed at measuring outputs achieved, productivity goes an important step further by measuring the relationship between the resources used to achieve outputs. The focus of this study is the analysis of change and transformation strategies in the Department of Home Affairs, Province of the Eastern Cape. The primary purpose was to assess the current state of service delivery in the Department of Home Affairs and to ascertain how continuous monitoring and evaluation could be factored in to enhance the delivery of services. The target population was the employees and clients of the Department of Home Affairs. Employees were selected randomly and asked to participate in the study. The sample was a convenient-purposive sampling and a quantitative research questionnaire was used.

The South African public sector is important for the sustainable growth and development of the country. One of its major responsibilities is to ensure that all citizens have access to and receive services. Achieving a high degree of productivity is an important objective of public service organisations across the world, given the pressure to deliver quality public goods and services within the limits of ever-increasing resource constraints. The South African public service is no exception to this global phenomenon. The challenge of the public service is therefore to continuously improve performance in order to meet citizens’ needs. The focus of this study is the challenges facing service delivery in the Department of Home Affairs. The aim of this study is to explore and describe the challenges that hinder full transformation and maximum customer/client satisfaction in regards to service delivery offered by the Department of Home Affairs. The objectives are: to identify the challenges experienced by staff offering services to clients at the Department of Home Affairs and to identify the problems experienced by clients who receive services at Home Affairs. The study employs a qualitative research methodology and uses observation and individual interviews as data collections tools. The findings from both sources indicate that the clients were not happy with the quality of service they receive at the ID section. Amongst other things, they complained about lack of information, lack of guidance, unprofessional staff, and technical problems that they had experienced. However, the staff also encountered a number of challenges, including being short staffed, lack of resources, and system problems as the system is new to them and they have not received enough training before it was implemented.

M. Tech. Business Informatics / Addresses the adoption of emerging technology through blended learning. In the study, the Department of Home Affairs has just adopted a new traveler processing system. To use this emerging technology, employees had to be trained, and blended learning was seen as an appropriate training style. The emerging technology, the new passport scanning readers, posed challenges that are unpacked in this mini-dissertation.

The purpose of this study is to explore the manager-subordinate conflicts or disagreements in relation to performance appraisal in the Department of Home Affairs in Tshwane area. An understanding of the reasons for manager-subordinate conflicts pertaining to performance appraisal is essential in order to identify viable solutions for improving workplace relations and morale. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, a qualitative research design was adopted, whereby semi structured interviews were used to collect data. A sample of twenty five research participants was selected from five offices of the Department of Home Affairs in Tshwane area using a purposive sampling strategy. Qualitative content analysis was conducted to analyse data obtained through interviews and observations. The major findings of the study revealed that performance bonuses and biased ratings are the sources of conflicts or disagreements between managers and subordinates in relation to performance appraisals. Therefore, is recommended that the National Department of Home Affairs should expose both managers, supervisors and operational staff members to training and development to ensure an effective performance appraisal process. In addition, managers and supervisors should be equipped with necessary conflict management skills to resolve manager-subordinate conflict in the workplace. / Public Administration / M. Admin. (Public Administration)