The “What” and “Why” in information system development in resource restricted environments is already well covered in literature. However, the “How” to do it still has not been explored. This thesis reports on the development of a locally flavoured participatory user requirements elicitation framework for the development of information systems in resource restricted environments. It uses existing participatory design practices, user requirements elicitation literature and local participatory norms and traditions to achieve this. In doing so, it takes a step towards the way information systems could be developed in resource restricted environments. The topic of this thesis is mainly motivated by the recent calls in existing literature for developing countries to start developing their own information systems in order to address their own requirements. Accordingly, and to lay a foundation towards the realisation of this goal, this research is positioned within the user requirements elicitation region of information systems development. Current user requirements elicitation methods use traditional methods where experts/designers ask system users questions through interviews or learn about their environment through observations. This research proposes a shift from this approach to one that not only views users as equal partners in the elicitation process but in the whole information systems development process. This is in the spirit of participatory design, which was developed in Scandinavia more than four decades ago. Further, recent research in participatory design emphasises the importance of its contextual nature and concedes that there is no single best practice for participatory design in information systems that applies to all contexts. This research explores the information systems development discourse in resource restricted environments in Africa. Its purpose is to enhance understanding of the local contexts, thus providing new insights on how to develop a framework that speaks to local challenges using norms and traditions in order to develop information systems that address local requirements. Thus, the main contribution of this research lies in laying a foundation for a locally flavoured participatory approach for information systems development in resource restricted environments. It contributes to the existing information systems development, participatory design and user requirements elicitation body of knowledge by developing a framework for participatory user requirements elicitation. In addition, it contributes to the participatory design body of knowledge by introducing an age-old African participatory decisionmaking approach to the academic participatory design community. In doing so, it adopts the meaning of participation from an African value system point of view, which is something that has only been previously explored in the Nordic countries and North America. Finally, recommendations for the application, limitations and avenues for further research are incorporated into the findings of this research.

The role of institutions – economic freedom – is a critical determinant of economic growth, yet the global distribution of economic freedom is skewed. Economic freedom focuses on personal choice, the ability to make voluntary transactions, the freedom to compete and the security of property rights. The SADC is attempting to alleviate poverty and achieve sustainable development and economic growth. This thesis illustrates that economic freedom, in aggregate, and on an individual component basis, drives economic growth. The annual data for the 12 SADC counties from 2000 to 2009 are used to construct a panel data model to conduct the empirical analyses. Cross-sectional effects, as well as time (period) effects, are valid; and thus, a two-way error-component model is estimated. The Hausman test showed the regressors to be endogenous and correlated with the error term. The Pesaran CD test, suitable for dynamic panels, determined that cross-sections are interdependent; and the cross-correlation coefficient indicated a relatively weak, yet substantial, correlation. The LSDV two-way error-component model is re-estimated using the Driscoll and Kraay standard errors and time-demeaned data to correct for cross-sectional dependence. Given the endogeneity between the idiosyncratic disturbance term and the regressors, the presence of heteroskedasticity and serial correlation, as well as the interdependence amongst the cross-sections, the econometric model is then estimated using the two-step system general method of moments with forward orthogonal deviations – instead of differencing. The results meet all the post-estimation diagnostic requirements: the Arellano and Bond test for second-order serial correlation fails to reject the null hypothesis of no autocorrelation; theSargan test for over-identification fails to reject the null hypothesis that the over-identification restrictions are valid, and the difference-in-Hansen test fails to reject the null hypothesis that the instrument subsets are strictly exogenous. The empirical results confirm the a priori expectations. Economic freedom is a positive and significant driver of economic growth. Investment and economic openness are positively related to growth, whereas government debt decreases growth. Government consumption is an insignificant driver of a country’s growth. The Granger causality test confirmed the direction of causality; economic freedom precedes economic growth; and it is possible for the SADC to improve their growth rates by becoming economically freer. The coefficient of adjustment derived from the error-correction model indicates that the dynamic system takes approximately two years to adjust to the long-run structural level. The Koyck Transformation indicates that the relationship between economic freedom and growth is intertemporal, requiring a lag structure. An impulse-response function shows that a permanent, positive ‘shock’ to economic freedom results in an increase in economic growth, although the extent differs for each country, as well as for the different freedom components. The five individual economic freedom components are all highly significant and positive drivers of growth; however, the magnitude of the elasticity parameters varies. The causality amongst the components indicates that bidirectional causality is present. Therefore, improving economic freedom in one area improves economic freedom in another, creating a multiplier effect.

This is a study of the relationship between approaches to people management and competitiveness, by examining the case of the textile and clothing industry in Southern Africa. The textile and clothing industry has historically played a major role in many national economies (including many southern African countries) contributing not only to overall economic growth, but also to the creation of significant numbers of relatively well-paid jobs. In the Southern African Region (SAR), the textile and clothing industry has undergone many structural pressures in the face of increased cheap imports from South-East Asian countries – above all, China and Bangladesh - which have resulted in the closure of many firms, and the significant downsizing of many survivors. This study seeks to explore the relationship between HR practice and organizational sustainability in the textile and clothing industry in Southern Africa region, with a particular emphasis on the cases of three countries: South Africa, Mauritius and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Whilst at very different stages of national development, and with distinct political and developmental histories, all three countries were subject to active industrial policies, including the development of national clothing and textile industries. Again, all have faced the challenge of sustaining these industries in the face of liberalization and intensive competition from the Far East. This study is based on a multi-method approach, combining in-depth interviews with national industry surveys, and the usage of relevant documentary sources. It takes cognizance of the increasing relevance of new HRM practices and discourses to the growing field of Development Studies in the 21st century. The existing HRM literature suggests that there are a number of alternative people management strategies through which firms may secure their competitiveness, most notably strategic approaches to hard HRM (which treats people as an instrument to be strategically deployed to promote competitiveness), soft HRM (which promotes cooperative approaches to managing people) and traditional labour repression (managing people simply as a cost, to be managed in a short-term, un-strategic manner). The literature on HRM in Africa has suggested an alternative paradigm, which combines autocratic paternalism with elements of communitarianism. This study found that the bulk of firms encompassed by the study employed HR policies that recognizably fell within the soft HRM paradigm, enabling high value added production. However, an important exception lies in the area of security of tenure: firms tended to combine high levels of employee involvement and participation; as well as a commitment to human resource development, along with a persistent reliance on the usage of redundancies to adjust changes in the relative need for labour. Hence, this study highlights the limitations of theoretical approaches which see HR strategies as being necessarily coherent and self-reinforcing. Firms may broadly adhere to one approach, whilst adopting aspects of another as needs arise and in response to external pressures. An important exception to this was Mauritius, in which security of tenure appeared to be stronger, perhaps owing to the greater ease of enforcing regulations against illegal imports in a relatively small island country by allowing firms to plan for the future with greater confidence. In contrast, firms in South Africa were characterized by much lower security of tenure, against a backdrop of declining profits, reflecting the competitive challenges posed not only by legitimate low cost imports, but also illegal imports and the proliferation of rural sweatships. One again, this study highlights the relative fragility of the position of many firms and the continued importance of governmental support, most notably in terms of export incentives, support and facilitation in the adoption of new technologies, as well as better policing against illegal imports.

No description available.

Phonetic mergers in American English have been studied throughout the last half century. Previous research has contributed social and phonetic explanations to the understanding of front and back vowel mergers before /l/, front vowel mergers before nasals and phonetically unconditioned back vowel mergers. Using data from the Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States (LAGS) and the Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States (LAMSAS), this thesis examines the spread of the front vowel mergers in Mary and merry and the back vowel mergers in horse and hoarse. The two complementary sources of data allow for a social and phonetic approach to the examination of the merger.

The lack of fundamental biological information on the honey badger Mellivora capensis and its vulnerable conservation status were the motivating factors behind this study. A study population of 25 individuals (12 females; 12 males) was radio-marked in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP), South Africa. Through a combination of radio telemetry and visual observations (5 244 h) of nine habituated individuals (five females; four males), the feeding ecology, scent marking and social behaviour of the honey badger were investigated. The honey badger is a solitary, generalist carnivore with strong seasonal differences in diet. In support of optimal diet theory, the cold dry season diet is characterized by low species richness, low foraging yield, high dietary diversity and increased foraging time while the reverse is true in the hot wet and hot-dry seasons. The honey badger appears to shift between alternative prey species depending on their availability on a seasonal and daily level. The daily activity patterns of both sexes show a strong seasonal shift from predominantly nocturnal activity in the hot-wet and hot-dry season to more diurnal activity in the cold-dry season and this appears to be primarily affected by temperature. Despite marked sexual size dimorphism (males a third larger than females), no intersexual differences in diet or foraging behaviour were observed, but there were sexual and in males age-related differences in movement patterns, scent marking and social behaviour. The honey badger appears to have a polygynous or promiscuous mating system, but did not fit the general mustelid pattern of intrasexual territoriality. Instead, adult males had extensive overlapping home ranges (548 km2) that encompassed the smaller, regularly spaced home ranges of the females (138 km2) and young males (178 km2). Receptive females are an unpredictable and scare resource in space (large home ranges) and time (no breeding season) with a long time to renewal (inter-birth interval > 1 year). As a result adult males adopt a roaming rather than a staying tactic with competition for access to the mating burrow mediated by a dominance hierarchy loosely based on age, mass and testes size. The hierarchy appears to be maintained through regular aggressive and agonistic interactions and scent marking. Data suggest that latrine scent marking in adult males is related to advertising social status and maintaining the dominance hierarchy though “scent matching”. In females and young males latrine visits are rare, but token urination is common and its association with foraging behaviour suggests that it mediates spatio-temporal separation and/or resource utilization. Interspecific interactions between the honey badger and other mammalian and avian predators were common and included intraguild predation and interspecific feeding associations between the honey badger and seven other species (two mammals; five birds). The most common foraging associations were observed between the honey badger and the pale chanting-goshawk Melierax canorus and black-backed jackal Canis mesomelas. These associations appear to be commensalisms, with associating species benefiting from increased hunting opportunities and intake rate but no significant costs or benefits to the honey badger. Copyright 2001, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Begg, CM 2001, Feeding ecology and social organisation of honey badgers (Mellivora capensis) in the southern Kalahari, DPhil thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11282005-145818 / > / Thesis (DPhil (Zoology))--University of Pretoria, 2001. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

Desolation is Key: Essays is a collection of eight personal essays that revolve around the themes of the redemptive qualities of desolation in nature; the legacy of violence in the family and in the relationship between man and his environment; and the struggle of the speaker to reconcile her adult self to the burdens of inheritance and loss from her childhood. The content is a blending of exterior observation and interior meditation; it straddles the line between narrative journalism and memoir, which allows the narrator both to treat the exterior as an entry point for personal reflection, and to use the personal as a frame to connect with more universal human experience. In addition to thematic connections, the essays share a setting: Southern California, and in particular, the Colorado Desert region in the southeastern corner of the state. Circling back to this desert setting again and again works as a frame for the speaker to contemplate the death of her parents, and her relationship with her father, who died by suicide more than two decades ago. As the essays build upon each other, family lore and personal recollection aggregates and culminates in what eventually becomes a full picture of the situation surrounding the father's death, and the reasons behind its haunting legacy for the speaker.

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for the Degree of Master of Science Johannesburg, 1997 / The palaeoclimate of southern Africa for the last twenty thousand years is investigated through the production of palaeoclimate maps based on an analysis of literature and data from the ongoing PASH project. The trends from the maps are compared with published reviews and modelling studies of the region' s palaeoclimates, and are contextualised in terms of global palaeoceanographic and palaeoclimatic dynamics. The changes evident in the past climate of southern Africa tend to mirror global climate changes, however, evidence exists that the timing of climate changes between the two hemispheres are not quite synchronous, and may 110tfit present theories of global palaeoclimate dynamics,

No description available.

Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Recently countries have become more aware of the potential anti-competitive effects of anti-dumping measures. This is mostly due to the view that anti-dumping measures, as trade policy instruments, are at odds with the objectives of competition policy. According to many economic writers the only rational economic justification for anti-dumping measures is predatory dumping as an extreme form of price discrimination. Apart from the dramatic change in the economic justification for the use of anti-dumping measures over the last decades, there has also been a significant change in the countries that implement these measures. Since the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations there has been a shift from developed countries to developing countries being the main users of these policy tools. In the last couple of years the member countries of the Southern African Customs Union have been under increased pressure by private firms to enable the use of anti-dumping measures on intra-regional goods trade. However, the appropriateness of utilising these measures on intra-regional trade in the context of a custom union has been a contentious issue in recent economic debate. These measures erect trade barriers among the member states which are against the basic premise of a customs union. This has resulted in most economists calling for the prohibition and replacement of anti-dumping measure with either coordinated domestic or harmonised regional competition policies. In developing the regional and national policies on anti-dumping the SACU member states can follow two main stream approaches. The first is the incorporation of various competition principles into anti-dumping rules to limit the negative welfare and anti-competitive effects of utilising anti-dumping measures, while the second is the abolition of anti-dumping measures in the region which is then replaced by competition policy. The option best suited for SACU depends on the differing viewpoints on implementing anti-dumping measures in a customs union. However, irrespective of which policy combination is chosen, regional and national polices and authorities will have to be created, adapted and/or amended in order to have an effective interaction between anti-dumping and competition policies applicable to intra-regional trade. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Lande het ontlangs meer bewus geword van die moontlike negatiewe uitwerking wat maatreëls teen storting van goedere in markte kan hê op plaaslike en internasionale mededinging. Dit is hoofsaaklik as gevolg van die siening dat teen-stortingsmaatreëls, as instrumente van handelsbeleid, se doelwitte teenstrydig is met die van mededingingsbeleid. Volgens vele ekonomiese skrywers is die enigste rasionele ekonomiese regverdiging vir teen-stortingsmaatreëls predatoriese storting as ‘n uiterse vorm van prysdiskriminasie. Afgesien van die dramatiese verandering in die ekonomiese regverdiging vir die gebruik van teen-storingsmaatreëls oor die laaste dekades, het daar ook ‘n beduidende verandering plaasgevind in die lande wat hierdie maatreëls om goedere handel implementeer. Sedert die Uruguay Rondte van Multi-laterale Handelsooreenkomste het daar ‘n verskuiwing plaasgevind van ontwikkelde lande na ontwikkellende lande as die belangrikste gebruikers van hierdie beleidsinstrumente. In die laaste paar jaar het private firmas die lidlande van die Suider-Afrikaanse Doeane-Unie onder toenemede druk begin plaas vir die gebruik van teen-storingsmaatreëls op invoere vanaf die res van die streek. Alhoewel, huidiglik is die toepaslikehid van die gebruik van hierdie maatreëls op handel, in die konteks van ‘n doeane-unie, steeds ‘n omstrede kwessie binne ekonomiese dabatte. Hierdie maatreëls rig handelsversperrings tussen lidlande op wat teen die basiese veronderstelling van ‘n doeane-unie is. As gevolg hiervan is die meeste ekonome van die opinie dat teen-storingsmaatreëls vervang moet word met óf gekoördineerde binnelandse of geharmoniseerde streeks- mededingingsbeleid. Die SADU-lidlande kan twee benaderings volg in die ontwikkeling van streeks- en nasionale beleid oor teen-storingsmaatreëls. Die eerste is the insluiting van verskillende mededingingsbeginsels in bepalings wat handel oor teen-storingsmaatreëls om sodoende die moontlike negatiewe gevolge van hierdie maatreëls te beperk. Die tweede opsie is om teen-storingsmaatreëls op streeks-invoere met bededingingsbeleid te vervang. Die mees gepasde opsie sal af hang van die verskillende standpunte rondom die toepaslikheid van teen-stortingsmaatreëls in ‘n doeane-unie. Alhoewel, ongeag die beleidskombinasie wat gekies word sal nasionale en streeks-beleid en owerhede geskep, aangepas en/of gewysig moet word ten einde ‘n effektiewe interaksie tussen teen-storingsmaatreëls en mededingingsbeleid binne SADU te verseker.