Tourism has come to be seen as a key driver for local economic development in South Africa, as it provides opportunities for pro-poor and community-based initiatives. On a global scale, the challenges of confronting poverty and unemployment continue to dominate the development agenda. The ability of Local Economic Development (LED) to empower local people has earned favour with national governments and development theorists. The imperative facing South Africa to achieve a more equitable and sustainable economy is essentially the challenge to adopt and implement a development approach that will reduce poverty and unemployment (which are the two key objectives of LED) to the greatest extent. It is within this context that the South African government has sought to incorporate LED into their economic development framework, predominantly through the decentralisation of development control and planning to the local government level. This study examined the contribution of guest houses to economic growth and employment as key components of LED in a sustainable manner. The study revealed that guest houses are playing a key role in the development of the local economy in the Eden district region. Guest houses are providing employment opportunities to the local residents both on a full-time and part-time basis. Further to this, guest houses are buying many locally-produced products and services from local suppliers and this contributes to economic growth of the local economy. However, this study also found that many of the guest houses in the area are not aware of government incentives available to support them and very few of them have made use of these services. This is something that needs to be addressed if these guest houses are to continue to strengthen the local economy and provide employment opportunities in a sustainable manner. The study revealed that many of the guest houses are operating in an environmentally friendly manner and this will ensure their future sustainability. The broader situation and the contribution of the accommodation sector as critical assets in local and national tourism economies has been thoroughly researched in tourism research around the world. Existing work on the accommodation sector in the South African tourism economy is mainly urban-focused and indicates that its local development impacts can be positive albeit not always maximised through local linkages, however, only a limited amount of academic investigations examines the contribution of tourism sub-sectors to economic growth and employment. The authenticity of this study is based on Its contribution which must be viewed in relation to the relatively limited body of literature in the contribution of tourism sub-sectors to economic growth and employment and in this case guest houses as one type of accommodation sub-sector.

Cape mountain zebra habitat utilization and diet in the dystrophic fynbos habitat of the Bontebok National Park was found to be highly selective. Mountain zebra concentrated in specific sectors and habitat types in the park on a seasonal basis, preferring recently burnt habitat with a veld age younger than one year in all seasons, except during the warm, dry summer. Proteoid Fynbos with a veld age between one and five years was preferred in the cool winter, while Drainage Lines and the fringes of Inland Pans were preferred during summer. Asteraceous Fynbos was avoided, irrespective of veld age, as well as all other habitats with a veld age greater than five years. Within habitat types with a veld age greater than one year, specific sites were selected and avoided on a seasonal basis, which were found to differ in terms of habitat suitability, based on the availability of dietary plant species. The annual diet consisted of 72.6% grass, 11.8% restio, 5.9% sedge, 8.8% geophyte and less than 1% forb and shrub species. Three grass species formed the bulk of the annual diet, Themeda triandra, Cymbopogon marginatus and Eragrostis curvula, for which leaf use was greater than stem use. Themeda trianda was preferred throughout the year, but contributed to the diet in greatest proportion in the warm, dry summer, when it was available at greatest leaf height and diameter. Cymbopogon marginatus was preferred during the cool winter, when diet composition and greenness was also greater than in other seasons. Preference of Cymbopogon marginatus decreased as leaf height and diameter increased. Eragrostis curvula was preferred in the warm autumn, when it composed the largest proportion of the diet, and selection of this species at feeding sites was based on both greenness and volume. In summer mountain zebra also preferred grass stems and inflorescences of Aristida diffusa, Stipagrostis zeyheri and Briza maxima. During the cool spring the diet included stems and inflorescences of sedges and restios, primarily Ischyrolepis capensis, and in autumn, dry bulbs of the geophyte Moraea collina were utilized. Habitat utilization, as well as grass height and greenness surveys in the Recently Burnt Area, and the nutritional status of mountain zebra was found to be in line with the Summer Nutritional Stress Hypothesis. The hypothesis proposes that the harsh climatic conditions of the area during summer are linked to the low availability of C4 grass, on which grazers would depend in summer. This is supported by the avoidance of the Recently Burnt Area in summer, and the preference of species like Themeda triandra during summer despite low greenness levels. Faecal nitrogen and phosphorus for mountain zebra in Bontebok National Park and De Hoop Nature Reserve were at minimum levels during the warm seasons. Faecal nitrogen was below the threshold for dietary deficiency in all seasons except spring, and faecal phosphorus was above the threshold for deficiency during two seasons only. The findings of this study are in line with other recent work on mountain zebra in the Baviaanskloof suggesting that, due to a high required rate of forage intake, mountain zebra are limited by both poor resource quantity and quality in dystrophic fynbos ecosystems.

In South Africa, the limited extent of indigenous forests accelerated the development of fast-growing introduced species plantations, on which the country is now heavily reliant for its fibre and timber products. However, the plantation forestry industry is challenged with limited freshwater resources, the need for sustainable management of introduced tree species in commercial forest production systems, and a diversity of plant ecological production factors such as soils that have to be manipulated for the purposes of increasing production capacities. Additionally, plantations are established in the limited high rainfall regions of the country and the industry’s water use has been regulated since 1972. Conversely, natural forests also provide valuable goods, however, their slow growth rates have restricted their development as commercial tree production systems. In this regard the forestry industry is continuously seeking to provide for the country’s timber and fibre needs while ensuring the provision of other ecosystem services from tree production systems. Recent developments in the forestry industry have therefore been focused on water use efficiency in current and alternative tree production systems. There is also widespread unsubstantiated belief that indigenous tree species are efficient users of water. Against this background this study sought to explore the single tree water use and water use efficiencies of introduced commercial plantation species (Pinus radiata) and that of important indigenous species (Ilex mitis, Ocotea bullata and Podocarpus latifolius) for timber and fibre production in the southern Cape region of South Africa. Single tree water use measurements were carried out for a year using the heat pulse velocity method. Growth measurements for utilisable stem wood were done on a quarterly basis for the specimen trees and growth increments over the year were determined. Single tree water use efficiency was a calculated as a function of grams of stem wood gained per litre of water transpired. Measurements of daily weather conditions and soil water content were concurrently taken during the year. The relationships between the variables that express daily climatic conditions, soil water content and daily volumes of transpired water were explored. Empirical models for the prediction of daily transpiration as a function of climate and soil water content were then developed using multiple linear regression analysis. Pinus radiata trees exhibited higher totals of volumetric transpiration than the indigenous species. The water use patterns of Pinus radiata showed higher peaks of maximum and minimum daily and seasonal water use while the indigenous species showed temperate patterns of water use throughout the year. Podocarpus latifolius attained the lowest water use efficiency in the year (0.49g/L) while Pinus radiata, Ocotea bullata and Ilex mitis had comparable water use efficiency values ranging between 1g/L to 2.50g/L. Significant positive correlations existed between climatic variables and daily sapflow volumes of the tree specimens. Daily total solar radiation showed the highest positive correlation with daily transpiration and the average value of the correlation coefficient for solar radiation and water use for all tree species was 0.70 (p < 0.001). Empirical models for predicting daily water use integrated the variables expressing plant available moisture and energy. The study enhances our understanding of single tree water use, water use efficiency, the drivers of transpiration and the applicability of such studies in developing rapid estimation techniques for water use in current and alternative South African tree production systems.

This treatise describes the difficulty of changing conditions of service following transfers in terms of Section 197 of the Labour Relations Act, 66 of 1995. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996, provides that ambulance services are a Provincial Legislative competence. The City of Cape Town had for many years provided ambulance services on an agency basis to the Department of Health of the Provincial Administration of the Western Cape. The impact of the constitutional provision is that those employers and employees who are performing ambulance services are not entitled anymore to perform such function. The Department of Health must take control over the ambulance services and the employees of the City of Cape Town could be transferred. The challenges facing both employers (old and new) and the trade unions to secure a transfer of the employees from the City of Cape Town to the Department of Health in terms of section 197 of the Labour Relations Act will be highlighted. It is within the context of ensuring protection of jobs whilst simultaneously effect a transfer of contracts of employment that the Labour Relations Act expressly gives various options to the parties involves in a transfer. Of the options include: • A transfer in terms of section 197(2) of the LRA where the service could be transferred from the old employer to the new employer as a going concern. This could happen without the consent of the affected employees or trade unions and collective agreements must be taken over as well, or • The new employer complies with its obligations if the transfer takes place on terms and conditions that are on the whole not less favourable to the employees what they have received by the old employer. In terms of this provision the overall package of conditions of service that was offered should not be less in comparison with that of the old employer. • The parties also have the option to negotiate a transfer agreement that could regulate the conditions of service. The focus is on the description of the conditions of service of both employers and the difficulty to persuade the trade unions to accept the Department’s conditions of service. Part of the difficulty is that the Department must obtain its mandate from the Department of the Public Service and Administration, who is also responsible for the determining of the conditions of service in the Public Service. One of the challenges is that the Department of Health cannot accommodate collective agreements of entities outside the Public Service. The City of Cape Town’s conditions of service is in the form of a collective agreement and the Labour Relations Act is very specific with the various options. These options will be discussed an analised. In conclusion recommendations are made in regard to effect a transfer of conditions of employment in terms of the Labour Relations Act to enable the Department of Health to meet its constitutional obligation.

The main purpose of this study is to explore the factors that contribute to occupational stress as experienced by the Student Support staff in a Further Education and Training (FET) College in the Southern Cape. The Student Support staff has displayed many symptoms of stress over the past few years. This in turn has led to absenteeism, change in staff temperament, their feelings towards the College, motivation levels and a significant change in the staff’s day to day operations. Although the Head of Department for Student Support Services has engaged with the staff on numerous occasions to discuss the reasons for their experience of stress, no substantial reasons could be established in order to make the necessary changes in the department. No interventions that have been implemented to date have relieved the staff’s experience of stress. The researcher chose to use a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design to gain insight into the situation or phenomenon in order to identify the factors contributing to occupational stress and to identify measures that can be implemented to reduce occupational stress in the Student Support staff. The participants in this research included at least 10 Student Support staff within the Student Support Services Department at a Further Education and Training College in the Southern Cape. Purposive sampling was used in this research study. Interviews will continue until data saturation is achieved. The staff members must have been employed for at least one year in the Student Support Services Department. The researcher will make use of semi-structured interviews, observations and field notes. The data will be systematically collected and meanings, themes and general descriptions of the experience analysed within the specific context (de Vos, Strydom, Fouche & Delport, 2005). The researcher will make use of Tesch’s method of analysis, and use Guba’s strategies for ensuring Trustworthiness. The researcher will apply the ethical considerations of confidentiality, informed consent, ethical approval from relevant institutions, avoidance of harm to participants, truthfulness and the debriefing of participants when conducting this study. The findings were reported as three major themes and subthemes. The three major themes were; Student support staff identified several factors that contributed to occupational stress, Student support staff identified the effect that occupational stress has on them, Student support staff offered suggestions that the college could implement to reduce occupational stress. These themes were discussed and analysed in-depth.

South Africa’s economy is in a phase of transformation. As part of this process, the South African government has identified the development of economic activities amongst previously disadvantaged black communities. However, this noble intent is challenged by a lack of entrepreneurial skills, which are seen as important elements in the economic development effort and necessary to achieve transformation goals and objectives (Smith, 2004). Since the apartheid era, South Africa has seen the emergence of two distinct economic sectors: a first world economy, consisting mostly of white owned and formal businesses, and a third world economy, consisting of mostly black owned and informal businesses. Economic activities of emerging entrepreneurs have been restricted to mostly the black townships and rural areas, whereas first world entrepreneurs have been actively involved in mainstream economic activities. The separation of emerging and first world entrepreneurs has resulted in a wide gap in entrepreneurial and technical skills and knowledge between the two. This imbalance has maintained a situation in which the minority of the population controls more than 80 per cent of the wealth of the country. Upon gaining independence in 1994, the new South African government embarked on the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) to redress the imbalances of the past (GEM, 2001; GEM, 2002). The government has since also adopted the Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) macroeconomic strategy to grow the economy, create employment and redistribute wealth. To accelerate the implementation of GEAR, the government has passed a number of Acts, namely: The National Small Business Promotion Act (102/1996), Skills Development Act (97/1998), Affirmative Procurement Act (5/2000), Mineral and Petroleum Resources Act (28/2002) and, most recently, the Mining Charter (2003), Petroleum Charter (2003), Financial services Charter (2003), and the Information Communications Technology (ICT) Charter (2004). Small business has been seen by government as a vehicle to create employment, promote economic growth and redistribute wealth; as such the promotion of entrepreneurship has been identified as a critical aspect of GEAR. However, despite supportive legislation and programmes, South Africa’s entrepreneurship rating remains below average, as evidenced by the findings of the Global Entrepreneurial Monitor reports (GEM, 2001; GEM, 2002). The wide gap in skills and knowledge between emerging and first world entrepreneurs in South Africa is a contributing factor to the country’s poor rating – and it is expected to widen as the new knowledge economy unfolds, if corrective measures are not taken by the government or private sector.

Magister Artium (Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science) - MA(SRES) / Over the years cricket has developed from a traditional and conservative game into an extremely lucrative sport, which requires a great deal of professionalism in all surrounding areas. In recent years cricket has evolved and resulted in the emergence of Twenty20 cricket. The aim of this study focused on identifying batting trends through a comparative analysis between Varisty Cup winning teams and the University of the Western Cape Cricket Club between the age group of 18 – 25. The study used a quantitative research approach with a content analysis methodology research design. Nine key batting variables were analysed in three phases of a cricket match (Powerplay, Middle overs and Death overs) between winning teams and the University of the Western Cape Cricket Club to establish the magnitude of differences (Cohen’s effect size). The top indicators for success in the tournament were averaging a higher number of boundary fours, accumulating a higher number of single runs throughout the match, averaging a high number of sixes during the Middle and Death Overs of a batting innings and accumulating two’s throughout all three phases of a match. The overall summary of this study’s results navigates to a batting strategy that should focus on batting trends by maintaining a higher batting run rate, target to scoring more boundary fours and sixes, good running between the wickets to accumulate two’s, select batsmen with a low dismissal rate and select batsmen with a high single scoring rate [equates to better strike rotation].

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Emerging contractors play a significant role in the employment and skills development landscape as they are the employers of unskilled and semi-skilled labour in the construction industry (Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works (DTPW): Contractor Development Policy, 2016; Rass, 2019). In 2004, the National Cabinet approved the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to encourage job creation imperatives through the provisioning of skills and business enhancement initiatives for the targeted Historically Disadvantaged Individuals (HDIs), specifically the unskilled and semi-skilled labour force of the South African construction industry (Makiva, 2015; DTPW, 2021; DTPW: Contractor Development Programme (CDP) Policy, 2016; Rass, 2019). In response to this call, in 2012 the Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works (WC DTPW) designed and implemented the Contractor Development Programme (CDP) with parallel aims.

Bibliography: pages 105-109. / This study develops a conceptual framework for policy analysis and uses it as the basis for an analytical framework to describe the Western Cape's textbook procurement policy (WCTPP). The study starts by defining policy as a purposeful intervention with key attributes, these being: intention; action; practice; status; resources and capacity; and power. The conceptual framework attempts to answer the question, "Are there features which consistently characterise the policy-making process and do the factors which gave shape to policy consistently fall into particular categories?" The framework suggests factors which shape, locate and give rise to policy can be described in terms of contexts and frames which denote arenas within which policy can be constrained or enabled, politically and practically. The key contexts necessary for policy analysis are spatial and historical and the key frames are the frame of discourses of state, the resources/ capacity frame and the legislative/ regulatory frame. The key features characterising policy are that policy-making is characterised by fluidity and that policy is the expression of a balance or a compromise of interests. The framework is then used to develop an analytic framework for the WCTPP. The analysis attempts to answer the question, "What are the key features of this policy and what factors have shaped its emergence?" The analysis suggests that as the WCTPP was conceived, developed and translated into practice within the province, it has a coherence not always possible within an education system characterised by national/ provincial policy fragmentation. As a policy, it is shaped by the relatively well-resourced province from which it emerges. The analysis shows that resources and capacity are a factor at all the sites (department private sector suppliers and schools) involved in the state-private sector partnership that is exemplified in this policy. This policy is given form by the selective recruitment of divergent discourse of the state with two key discourses being manifest, these being that of a democratic, developmental state which sets parameters to and regulates the private sector, and a neo-liberal state, which supports free market forces. Through the legislative/regulatory frame the analysis also shows the inter-dependence of the WCTPP and other policies. The key features which characterise policy-making are portrayed as its on-going nature, and the fact that this policy represents a fragile balancing of competing interests. Educational interests harness commercial interests for educational ends. The analysis allows for a description of the policy that expresses both its functionality and its fragility. The study concludes that the framework developed provides for a dynamic iteration thus illustrating that policy analysis requires an understanding of how policy develops out of the interplay between the contexts, frames and features identified.

The revegetation of severely, disturbed areas using indigenous vegetation forms the topic of this thesis. Mountain Fynbos was chosen for the study because of its importance as a unique vegetation-type worthy of conservation. Unfortunately, this vegetation faces long-term threats associated with escalating development pressures, which include the demand for improved infrastructures. These factors are discussed and a process is developed for using indigenous vegetation to revegetate severely disturbed areas. This use of indigenous vegetation represents a significant and innovative move away from the traditional use of commercially available grasses in South Africa. Fynbos is adapted to periodic droughts and nutrient poor soils and as such has practical advantages over artificial plant covers in terms of its low maintenance requirements for long term establishment. Theoretical perspectives of disturbance and succession are contrasted with the requirements for revegetation as observed in the field.