Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-54). / The paper undertakes to research a spatial and skills mismatch in the city of Cape Town. The argument is that industry is moving towards the north of the city and away from areas of the south east. This physically displaces low and semi-skilled employees or potential employees who work or seek work in these firms. Areas of the south east are typically inhabited by low and semi-skilled workers who are forced to seek work away from where they live. This is because their areas are economically inactive and do not offer much prospects for development or employment in the current situation. We find that prospective employees or those already employed have to endure lengthy and expensive commutes to work on a daily basis. The city transport system, which includes bus, train and taxis, seems to be still largely inefficient and does not serve these employees well, or is not readily accessible in all the areas it is needed. The research was conducted in the industrial areas of Montague Gardens, Blackheath, Paarden Island, Epping Industria, Airport Industria and Phillipi. These areas were chosen because being industrial areas they would typically have a large number of low to semiskilled workers employed in their firms. Unlike professional or service related firms who would typically employ more qualified or educated (in terms of tertiary qualifications) workers. An interview schedule was prepared and we went to these areas and interviewed which ever firms agreed to it. The firms in the area were chosen in no specific way, we literally went for door to door asking for participants. The research was qualitative in nature, the interview questions were detailed and in depth (see appendices for actual schedule) and lasted for about 20m ins depending on the amount of time the interviewees were willing to spare. The results were analysed by comparing the reasons for relocating amongst each firm, the aim was to try and decipher what were the driving factors of this spatial shift and what implications it had for employees who had to endure these commutes. The significant findings are that the relocation or the move towards the north is driven by the availability of land or space and price. The north seems to offer more affordable premises and much more land, thus more value for money. There are adequate parking and storage facilities. Firms hardly considered workers in their search for new locations. Further south east employees are not left out of potential employment because of their physical distance from these economic nodes, most employees have managed to organise themselves and get to work, even with an unbalanced transport system.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-127). / The metal and engineering industry is one of the most significant contributors to South Africa’s manufacturing employment and economic performance. In recent times though debate regarding the industry has centered on reported critical skills shortages, alluding to decreased employment and performance. Studies confirmed that skills shortages at artisan, technical, engineering and management levels existed with artisans representing the most critical skills shortage in the industry. This study evaluates the nature and extent of skills development taking place in a sample of metal and engineering firms located in the industry’s most significant province, Gauteng. Research was conducted through interviews with skills development representatives from a non-randomly selected sample of firms belonging to three categories in the metals beneficiation value chain, namely: raw material processing firms; intermediate product producing firms and finished product producing firms.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-85). / This dissertation attempts to give a better understanding of how the different social environments in Cape Town and Johannesburg influence organisational culture at The Company and how this impacts on the ways that black African managers navigate borders and negotiate identity in the workplace. The hypothesis of this study is that race and 'laid-backness' are key differentiating factors between The Company in Cape Town and in Johannesburg. This is a descriptive case study that mixes both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collecting and analysing data, however it is primarily a qualitative study. The study focuses on two branches of the same company. 43 out of a total of 138 black African managers were surveyed and 22 of these were interviewed. The selection was a good cross-section of all middle and senior black African managers, as well as from both genders. A questionnaire comprising of a 21-point values survey and a series of open-ended unstructured and structured questions was used in the quantitative data collection process. A semi-structured interview schedule was used in the qualitative data collection process. The qualitative data was analysed using Miles and Huberman's (2004) two-level coding process with the assistance of Nvivo and the quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics with the assistance of Statistica.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-81). / This exploratory study aimed to investigate the role that design houses play in the Cape Town clothing value chain of production. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants, buyers in clothing retail companies, heads of design rooms in design houses, and homeworkers. Findings reveal that design houses act as intermediaries between retailers and clothing manufacturers or between retailers and homeworkers. In their latter role design houses are forging links between the informal and formal clothing economy. As in buyer-driven chains of production, retailers in the clothing value chain wield a substantial amount of power in determining prices. It was found that design houses are not completely powerless in their relationship with retailers, in fact, they posses knowledge that enables them to bargain over prices. The relationship between design houses and homeworkers was found to be an oppressive one, with homeworkers possessing little to no bargaining power. The increase in the number of design houses in Cape Town has assisted in the survival of the industry in the face of a number of difficulties. The continued presence of design houses creates the potential for development in the industry.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-69). / The south east and cape flats regions of Cape Town is home to abundant supplies of cheap and available unskilled labour. With the awareness that Cape Town may be slowly following the developmental path of Johannesburg and many other cities of the world, as decentralization, suburbanization, and the overall processes of economic 'tertiarisation' and urban transformation encompass the entire structure and culture of the city, we wonder about how the cities unskilled workforces are faring. Development has focused on the north of the city while the south east has been bypassed, causing residents to have to travel far out to find jobs and work. There is a clear spatial mismatch between places of work and places of residence for the workers of the South east, and overcoming this disconnection is challenged further by an inefficient and expensive public transport service, upon which they are fully dependent. By way of the interviews with businesses from various industrial areas in Cape Town, this thesis shows that many owners and management do not place much importance on where their workers, in particular unskilled and semi-skilled manual workers live and how they travel. It seems that when choosing a location for their businesses, size, price, and availability may limit owners' options of location choice and interviews reveal that owners may be responding to rather than driving development. Findings reveal that unskilled manual workers typically reside in the south east, while business owners, management and other white collar workers typically live in the northern and southern suburbs, as well as other central areas. Furthermore, transport patterns were evaluated and it is clear that the unskilled workers rely heavily on public transport while higher skilled occupational groups either have their own car, or are part of lift-clubs. The problem of a spatial mismatch is clearly skewed towards workers of the south east who rely on public transport, by intensifying the burdens of commuting times and costs. A further finding is that many businesses resort to highly informal methods of recruitment, such as word-of-mouth and internal referral techniques, revealing the significance of social networks in gaining access to job opportunities. This is especially important for workers trying to find employment in areas outside of the traditional economic nodes as it is expensive to commute to those areas regularly in search of employment. Having access to those businesses through employed family members, neighbours and relatives, is therefore critical.