Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2006

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The interaction between people and their natural environment, as well as the manner in which it occurs, is of a complex nature. The sustainable use of natural resources should be strived for and our guideline should be sustainable development. A common phenomenon in low cost housing projects in South Africa is the dependency on the natural environment and the over-utilization of resources. Numerous poor rural and urban communities do not have the opportunity to think about this over-utilization, as their first priority is that of survival. Resource allocation in South Africa reflects a pattern of uneven distribution. In housing development the less fortunate are placed in poor ecological areas where the quality of the environment can scarcely maintain the minimum standard of living. This inequality not only hinders the promotion of a stable ecological basis, but also prevents nation-wide sustainable development. Due to this, the connection between poverty and ecology were made an environmental priority. The importance of integrating the environment and development, to achieve environmental sustainability, is acknowledged and therefore greater emphasis is placed on sustainable development. In this study an attempt is made to determine how natural environmental sustainability can be ensured with low cost housing development. In the process an evaluation instrument, consisting of three components, namely the principles of sustainable I development; natural environmental indicators for sustainable low cost housing development; and socio-economic indicators for sustainable low cost housing development, are designed to try to reconcile the natural environment and development through the phenomenon of sustainable development. An extensive literature study of relevant published and unpublished literature was done and forms the basis of this research study. A research survey, done by the University of Stellenbosch about the case study of Wesbank, and of which the researcher was part, is also utilised in this study. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die interaksie tussen mense en hulle natuurlike omgewing, asook die manier waarop dit geskied, is van 'n komplekse aard. Daar moet gestreef word na die volhoubare benutting van natuurlike hulpbronne, en ons rigsnoer behoort volhoubare ontwikkeling te wees. In talle laekostebehuisingontwikkelings in Suid-Afrika is 'n algemeen waarneembare verskynsel die afhanklikheid op die natuurlike omgewing en die oorbenutting van hulpbronne. Baie arm landelike en stedelike gemeenskappe het nie die geleentheid om oor hierdie oorbenutting na te dink nie, aangesien hul eerste prioriteit dié van oorlewing is. Suid-Afrika se hulpbron-toewysing retklekteer 'n patroon van ongelyke verspreiding. Die minder bevoorregtes word, in behuisingontwikkeling, in ekologiese swak areas geplaas waar die kwaliteit van die omgewing skaars die minimum lewensstandaarde kan volhou. Hierdie ongelykhede bemoeilik nie slegs die bevordering van 'n stabiele ekologiese basis nie, dit verhoed ook landswye volhoubare ontwikkeling, en daarom is die verband tussen armoede en ekologie 'n omgewingsprioriteit. Die noodsaaklikheid daarvan om die omgewing en ontwikkeling te integreer, om omgewingsvolhoubaarheid te verkry, word erken en groter klem word op volhoubare ontwikkeling gelê. In hierdie studie gaan gepoog word om te bepaal hoe natuurlike omgewingsvolhoubaarheid tydens laekostebehuisingontwikkeling verseker kan word. In die proses gaan 'n beoordelingsinstrument bestaande uit drie komponente, naamlik: die beginsels van volhoubare ontwikkeling; natuurlike omgewingsindikatore vir volhoubare laekostebehuisingontwikkeling; en sosio-ekonomiese indikatore vir volhoubare laekostebehuisingontwikkeling, ontwerp word om sodoende te probeer om die natuurlike omgewing en ontwikkeling te versoen deur die verskynsel van volhoubare ontwikkeling. 'n Ekstensiewe literatuurstudie van relevante gepubliseerde en ongepubliseerde literatuur is gedoen en maak die basis van die navorsingstudie uit. Daar word ook gebruik gemaak van 'n navorsingsopname, gedoen deur die Universiteit van Stellenbosch oor die gevalstudie van Wesbank, waarvan die navorser deel was.

In this study, a comparison was made between two different land reform models in the Sarah Baartman District of the Eastern Cape to, firstly; evaluate and identify factors that influence long-term sustainability and prosperity of farms owned and run by beneficiaries, and farms jointly owned by beneficiaries and former farmer / mentor in a share equity scheme, referred to as Farmworkers Equity Share Schemes (FWES), and secondly; to identify forms of government support in each of the two models. Mixed methods were used to collect data for the study. It involved the administration of structured interviews to beneficiaries, and semi-structured interviews with the mentor and government officials. The study found that the equity share scheme improved the livelihood of the beneficiaries in terms of getting annual dividends and acquiring new properties, empowered beneficiaries in decision-making in terms of having a say in financial expenditure on farm operations and the structuring of dividend pay-outs, and the project showed great potential of long-term sustainability and prosperity. Conversely, the beneficiary-owned and run project did not improve the lives of beneficiaries, was prone to infighting and fraught with organisational and management problems with no prospects of long-term sustainability and economic viability.

This study explored the methods available for measuring corporate sustainability and created an instrument to measure corporate sustainability in the Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) automotive manufacturing sector. The instrument was created based on three components of sustainability which are environment, society and economy. The study went a step further and added a fourth dimension, current trends to design a measuring instrument. The instrument was then applied on participating companies and further refined to improve it. A total of 16 multi-dimensional indicators to measure corporate sustainability were created and applied to 12 companies in the automotive manufacturing sector. The indicators were used to create a composite corporate sustainability index which can be used to compare the corporate sustainability performance of companies. These indicators were created based on theoretical research and fist hand experience observing the automotive manufacturing sector in the NMB. The indicators were applied to companies as a pilot to test whether they are feasible. Following this, the indicators were refined, improved and applied to more companies to measure corporate sustainability performance. The results of the study were the measuring instrument created, the creation of a composite index as well as the application of the instrument on 12 companies to determine whether the instrument was refined enough to detect differences in the corporate sustainability performance of companies. The results are discussed and further recommendations are made for improvements in the creation and application of the instrument to measure corporate sustainability in the NMB automotive manufacturing sector.

Despite the establishment of local municipalities, rural villages are still under-developed. Under-development is an economic situation in which there are persistent discriminatory customary laws, high inequality, low levels of income and employment, low consumption, high dependence, weak community structures, little or no access to resources and inadequate services. Rural communities have not reached a satisfactory stage of economic development. This is due to the fact that these communities start from a low developmental base. They require assistance from government and other development agencies, such as Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in order to achieve economic stability and a sense that they are living a meaningful life. The fundamental purpose of this study is to gain better understanding of rural livelihoods, and unpack efficiency of policy interventions that assist people in rural areas to pursue livelihood strategies that could help them to reduce poverty. The study mainly used documents from Statistics South Africa and Integrated Development Plan (IDP) documents from Elundini Local Municipality that made it possible to access socio-economic information about the village. The study found that, education levels, hawkership, welfare grants, Expanded Public Works Programme, livestock production and migration are strategies that determine livelihood in Makhoaseng village. The socio-economic conditions such as low levels of education, age, lack of access to basic infrastructure have effect on poverty and kind of livelihoods pursuit in different households. These conditions hinder people in the village to meet their basic needs. On the hand, the agricultural sector has a potential to boost Local Economic Development (LED) in the village. Lack of financial and social support from the government and private sector causes deficiencies in agricultural sector. Moreover, the village has weak structures with strong patriarchal norms. This confirms the need for holistic support from the government because few private sectors are willing to invest in such village. The implications are that, without community interest in education, attainment of better educational qualifications, skills and jobs will remain a challenge in the village. Other sectors of the population such as women will remain disadvantaged if community structures do not abandon patriarchal norms. Rural people are not waiting for government or development agencies to come up with interventions but they are engaging in some economic activities such as hawkership and wool production that enable them to go out of poverty. The government must partner with Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to support community economic initiatives. On-farm activities ought to be intensified by venturing into mutton and beef production in the village. Government and development agencies must support women hawkers by developing them as cooperatives and explore other economic opportunities such as stone brick making and thatch for roofing. Low levels of education worsen the low living standards and create high dependency in the village. These conditions force the majority of the households in the Makhoaseng village to pursue involuntary livelihood strategies, while very few pursue deliberate livelihood strategies.

M.A (Public Administration) / Training in local authorities in South Africa is seen against a background of development problems which include insufficient management skills and, inferior education. These are typical problem of black people in South Africa. It is against this background that, in the present day South Africa, there is a greater sensitivity to the importance of good local government management than ever before. Where skilled local government officials are scarce, as they were in the former black local authorities, they should be developed. Training and development are perhaps the first steps towards that end, though obviously they alone are not enough to solve all the human resource deficiencies within these local government structures. This dissertation identifies the priority training and development needs, describes current training and development efforts in local government and proposes further steps that local government should take to encourage, develop and support appropriate human resource development. Taking cognisance of lessons learned in training and developing elected councillors and appointed officials in local government, a need for a more scientific assessment of participants (councillors/officials) under going training and development was identified thereby ensuring that training becomes more targeted and effective. The original sample targeted for the assessment was 200 participants, being a little more than 20% of the total of potential partic.ipants. Eventually 107 respondents (11.2%) participated in the assessment. The sample is however enough to draw conclusions and make generalisations. The assessment was carried out in five centres: Germiston, Vanderbijlpark, Randfontein, Johannesburg and Pretoria. It was done largely using focus group discussions where open-ended questions gave participants enough opportunity to express themselves in an informal environment this proved to be very effective. The most pressing need identified by the participants was for training on the budgetary processes.

An increasing number of people are in need of housing that would improve long-term tenure for them. Private ownership is a well-known incentive for peoples’ participation in housing programmes. The current difficulties in obtaining credit for housing, following the global economic crisis, show that private individual home-ownership is not effective enough in addressing the housing needs of the low and middle income groups. As a result of this, the need to find an option that will solve the housing needs of the people became intense. However, the implementation of the co-operative housing delivery option in South Africa has not been successfully implemented as a result of the actions or the inactions of the role players. The study sought answer to the causes of the inability to successfully implement the co-operative housing approach through the use of ‘triad model’ that has to do with the ideology of co-operatives, the praxis and the organisational structures of the various housing co-operatives. The study was domiciled in a pragmatic paradigm, using the mixed methods research approach by conducting a three-stage research whereby convergent parallel design was adopted as the methodology. Questionnaires were administered to the chairpersons of the housing co-operatives identified in this stage one of the study. Stage two consisted of conducting interviews with chairpersons of six housing co-operatives using the purposive non-probability sampling method. The final stage was the survey among the members of the housing co-operatives interviewed. It was discovered, inter alia, that the membership of housing co-operatives was not voluntary; policy and legislative documents on social housing were biased against the co-operative housing approach; limited understanding of the co-operative approach exists among officials of government responsible for the implementations and a lack of training to members of the housing co-operatives by agencies of government responsible for propagating the approach was evident. Based on the findings, framework for sustainable housing co-operatives in South Africa was proposed from the strategies identified. The strategies identified were classified into the following factors: Policy and legislation; support services; education, training and information; and governance.

South Africa together with the rest of the world have been caught up in a new policy wave of developing policies that support the move towards sustainable, low-carbon and climate resilient economies. However, like any other transition, the social and economic impact of the new policy initiative towards a low-carbon economy is not yet fully understood, both in short- and long-term. While it is clear that the low carbon agenda presents major opportunities in terms of job creation, improved standard of living levels, improved resource consumption patterns as well as economic benefits. It also presents challenges, given the level of education and lack of skills for the installation, construction and operation of many technologies during the process of retrofitting the existing plants as well as infrastructures associated with the new low carbon agenda. The primary objective of this research study is to explore implications of skills availability in order to gain better understanding into the nature, extent and severity of skills shortage impact on the transition to a low-carbon economic future. The research study has revealed that shortage of skills may have a negative impact on the progress of the envisaged South Africa’s transition to a low-carbon economic growth trajectory. However, to varied factors, the study could not clearly articulate the nature, extent and severity of the skills shortages impact on the transition to a low-carbon economic future. These factors may include but not limited to the following: The concept of low-carbon economy is still a new concept with no universally agreed on definition, thus; leading uncertainties with regards to what it entails as well as policy dilemmas; Low-carbon economy is cross-cutting and cannot be clearly defined as a sector. With no clear sectorial boundaries it is difficult to plan for low-carbon economy sector; Skills shortage is chronic and is persistent but due to the fragmented and non-coherent approach by South African government when dealing with skills development. There are a number of reports by different departments on skills shortages but these reports do not talk to each other making it difficult to articulate at national level the nature, extent and severity of the challenge, due to scattered research. This research study has recommended some initiatives that the government of South Africa can consider in order to deal with uncertainties surrounding the low-carbon economy as well as the nature, extent and severity of skills shortages in South Africa. The study also suggested some possible future research interests that need to be pursued in order to develop useful data for decision makers both in the low-carbon economy and skills shortage space.

The purpose of this research study is to assess the funding and governance models utilised in the operations of cooperatives, with specific reference to Magwa and Majola Tea Estates in the Eastern Cape. Luyt (2008) observes that poverty levels in South Africa remain high, and have not been greatly reduced since 1994. There is general agreement amongst Eastern Cape communities that more than two decades after apartheid has ended, nearly half of South Africa’s population continue to live in poverty. A common understanding, is that cooperatives are geared and established to address poverty, address both social and economic development, even though they also emphasise a social focus, they are expected to be operated on sound business principles.

This research study focuses on investigating the sustainability of cooperatives in the peri urban areas of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The researcher described a cooperative concept, identified and explained a research problem. Research study addressed literature extensively on the local and international scenes; looking at cooperative case studies of India, California, United Kingdom, Ghana, Bangladesh and South Africa. The researcher used a qualitative research methodology using structured and semi structured questionnaires that were distributed to thirty identified cooperatives in Walmer Location and external stakeholders supporting cooperatives. Face to face and telephonic interviews were used during research in three identified funded cooperative members, registered cooperative members and external stakeholders supporting cooperatives. Research findings confirmed unequitable age distribution in cooperatives. Young people constituted 10% of cooperatives’ membership which led to non-transference of knowledge and experience from the elderly to the young; dominance of women in cooperatives who joined or registered cooperatives with the intention of receiving a sustainable income so that they could support their families; poor governance in cooperatives caused cooperatives to fail. Eighty percent of registered cooperative members during research confirmed that they do not have access to the markets, while 2% confirmed that they have access to the markets although they are unable to secure contracts; research confirmed that the majority (59%) of Walmer Location registered cooperative members do not have matric (grade 12) while 25% of cooperative members have matric and 16% have a post-matric qualification; research findings confirmed a decrease in the survival rate of cooperatives after registration without receiving financial support; research findings confirmed that cooperative members do not receive all training programmes that would ensure cooperatives’ sustainability; other cooperative challenges include lack of cooperation among cooperatives, lack of monitoring and evaluation systems, high crime rate and continuous service delivery protests and lack of integration among stakeholders supporting cooperatives.