In this paper we study savings behavior in South African Metropolitan Townships and households' ability to manage "shocks" ex-post to their occurrence. In particular we want to determine if the availability of instruments like mobile-money solutions, that allow households to save anywhere , anytime, next to community savings schemes like stokvels and more traditional ones like funeral plans, insurance and bank accounts affects the savings behavior to the extent of improving households' shock-coping strategies. We investigated how variables like education level achieved, employment status and approach to life of the respondents influence their behavior. Poor people periodically face a variety of "shocks", events that can be overwhelming, like ill-health or death of a family member (sometimes the breadwinner), or natural disasters causing loss of home or crop. By providing them with means to save anywhere, anytime they have a chance to mitigate shocks by saving over time, enabling them increase their productivity, maintain their expenditure on nutrition and education during hard times and preventing them from falling back into poverty. While many scholars argue that poor people do have surplus money to save, and the data from this research confirms this statement, traditional financial institutions, especially large commercial banks, find it hard to reach these customers as it is too costly to establish branches in remote areas and they do not have business models to deal with a large number of customers that require low savings and small transactions. Instead mobile operators have experience and technology in place in handling low-value, high-volume transactions and can therefore run the payment and account management platforms instead (or on behalf of) banks. We interviewed 528 households in the Metropolitan Township of Khayelitsha, Cape Town and found statistical evidence that employment status, education level and approach to life affect savings behavior and the adoption of an "optimal" vs. "sub-optimal" strategy when facing unexpected events or shocks. Usage of mobile-money products is low as only 15% of the sample declared to use any of them: this can be partially explained by the fact that bank penetration in the Metropolitan Townships is surprisingly high, with 80% of the population formally banked as confirmed by other studies. We did not find enough statistical evidence that savings through mobile-money instruments improves shock-coping behavior although all the respondents who use some mobile-money product indicated that they perceive an improvement in their ability to deal with unexpected events. We found statistical evidence that education level, employment status and approach to life affects savings behavior and the financial situation of the household. Correlation tests showed statistically significant relationships between better strategies and employment status or education level. Respondents who save using use methods that do not allow immediate withdrawals of the funds like stokvels or funeral plans adopt better strategies than those who rely only on bank accounts.

Beekeeping is an important industry in South Africa yet it is in decline. The South African government and development agencies see the increasing production deficits in the industry as a business opportunity for income generation for social-economically disadvantaged groups. However, most of these developmental initiatives, which have taken the form of beekeeping training programmes have not succeeded in creating a profitable and sustainable source of income. My study interrogated one such project in order to determine how beekeeping training programmes could be revised to increase the likelihood of trainees becoming viable beekeepers. I have drawn on the International Labour Organisation’s knowledge and skills development framework (called Training for Rural Economic Empowerment) to assess the methodological processes used in the development and implementation of the beekeeping programme. I collected data using a combination of qualitative interviews, documentary sources and participant observation, and then used Miles and Huberman’s thematic coding approach to analyse the qualitative data. My main finding is that there were methodological gaps in the pre-training, training and post-training phases of the beekeeping programme, either because of the exclusion of participants’/targeted groups’ inputs in the processes, or because participatory decision-making processes with participants were misapplied. As a result, the beekeeping training programme did not match the participants’ needs, economic opportunities in their area, and their social situations, and these circumstances contributed, in large part, to the graduates not taking up beekeeping.

Historically, there are many examples of countries that have had to deal with the unpleasant consequences of economic mismanagement. A recent example is Venezuela, which has imploded into hyperinflation. It is therefore important to consider the question of fiscal sustainability in the South African context. This study ultimately aimed to test the sustainability of South Africa’s fiscal policy and public debt, with fiscal policy defined as the satisfaction of the intertemporal budget constraint. The Augmented Dickey–Fuller test was used to assess the stationarity of national government revenue and national government expenditure – both expressed as percentages of GDP – while the Engle–Granger test was used to test the residuals of the regression between national government revenue and national government expenditure for a long-run relationship. A long-run relationship was found between these two variables, suggesting that fiscal policy and South Africa’s public debt are sustainable. However, due to weakened institutions, the South African government should remain aware that the country’s fiscal policy could easily move into unsustainable territory.

This dissertation investigated the constraints that inhibit women from getting access to formal housing and land in Ficksburg in the Free State province of South Africa. The study sought to substantiate the hypothesis that inequalities within South African societies have been aggravated by gender dynamics and conservative macro-economic development agendas in post-apartheid South Africa in the form of development programmes like the Redistribution and Development Programme (RDP), Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR), as well as Building New Ground (BNG). Throughout the study, women were viewed from a marginalisation perspective. This study relies heavily on qualitative research methods. The instruments used for data collection were semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The interviews were conducted with fifteen women dwelling in shacks that are legally located in those settlements, ten women dwelling in Masak'hane/RDP houses, five women living in shacks in the informal settlements, but illegally located, and six women living in the informal settlements in self-built houses, as well as the Senior Manager at Setsoto Municipality Department of Housing. The practical and strategic gender needs of women were also used to analyse the situation of women in the informal settlements. The main findings of this study revealed that large numbers of participants do not have financial backup, and that made them ineligible to meet the requirements of the financial institutions for housing funds. Low wages limited women from getting access to land and housing from the market like their male counterparts. Along with this, constitutional laws, customary laws and registration of title deeds seemed to have complicated women's access to land and houses. Low standards of education, lack of knowledge, age and absence of identity documents were found to be other constraints. Although women in all categories struggled to get access to land and formal housing in Ficksburg informal settlements. The findings revealed that single, separated women and women under 21years struggled more than old, divorced and married women.

Bibliography: leaves 69-74. / An exploratory study was conducted at a Social Services Department in Mitchell's Plain on sensitively exploring the feelings and experiences of single parents whose children were found in need of care. A qualititative approach was used, with data being gathered from focus group sessions and semi-structured interviews. Some of the majory findings focussed on the needs of single parents as well as the re-intergration of the child within the biological family composition. Certain perceived reasons for child removals were also highlighted by single parents. In respect of a parent support programme single parents felt a sense of solidarity within the focus group session.

This dissertation focused on two key issues that concern policy implementation in South Africa. Firstly, the researcher analysed the extent to which formal government policy implementation successfully occurs. Secondly, the researcher analysed the implementation of a specific policy, the Operational Alcohol and Drug Strategy 2007-2010 (OADS), through the use of a case study in the Ottery Marble Flats community, in order to illustrate the major issues concerning policy implementation in South Africa.

An increasing interest in international volunteer service (IVS) has resulted in a large number of companies offering volunteers from developed countries the opportunity to work with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and service organisations in developing countries. Amidst a growing body of research into the impacts and benefits of different IVS models, there remains limited literature available on whether IVS can be harmful. A study, entitled 'AIDS orphan tourism: A threat to young children in residential care' by Richter and Norman has given some prominence to IVS harm in residential child care settings and, in part, motivated this study. This descriptive case study explores how benefits and harm in shortterm international volunteer service (STIVS) is understood and experienced by both international volunteers (IVs) and local host organisations (LHOs). The study places emphasis on whether IVs had considered harm prior to starting their IVS, and whether IVs and LHOs shared similar understandings or concerns to those identified in the Richter and Norman study. A problem-driven framework, drawing on quantitative and qualitative approaches, was used to explore the understanding of harm and benefit by IVs and LHOs. The study adopted a mixed methods approach to obtain data from a variety of sources. Univariate statistics, percentages, thematic and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. Data was collected between the 27th May and the 31st August 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa. Cross- Cultural Solutions South Africa (CCS-SA) provided the study site, with all field work for this study integrated into the regular operational, monitoring and evaluation processes of the CCS-SA programme.

The researcher was appointed into the position of General Manager within the Clothing and General Merchandise Supply Chain in a large retail organisation as part of a transformation strategy to turn around a business unit which had historically been delivering substandard performance and had led to significant impacts on organisational performance. Despite the organisation having a number of mechanisms in place to assist line managers to manage the life cycle of an employee during their employment, the performance measures as well as selection of a talent pipeline were measured against the framework of an underperforming environment. Competence was therefore benchmarked on overrated performance against underrated goals which led to ineffective performance and no validity in talent identification. Critical Realism was chosen as an ontological philosophy. Data was generated through four research cycles and processed through grounded theory meta-synthesis methodology. Four core variables emerged from the research: Identification of inherent DNA required for talent succession development, Quality of leadership, Effectiveness of a performance plan and Leading with heart. The driving variable within the balancing loop identified in the causal mechanism was Quality of leadership which is the initial point of influence in the system, and sets off a chain of cause and effect interactions between all the other variables, resulting in either a positive or negative stabilization within this system. This research suggests interventions and mechanisms to improve performance while simultaneously developing a future fit workforce who have the ability to focus on a number of moving parts at the same time. Efficiency is created through their competence in ensuring outstanding operational performance, the engagement and effective management of staff as well as the ability to handle constant change, complexity and uncertainty. The theory built, as well as the proposed interventions and mechanisms were tested and modified within the environment and delivered significant business results. The results achieved as a result of the implementation of the theory, are therefore concrete evidence of relevance, validity and utility. Contributions to practice, theory and research are discussed in this closing chapter of this dissertation.

Since 2015, the South African National Treasury has experienced declines in tax-paid cigarette revenues. The declines have been attributed to upward spikes in the illicit tobacco trade. This dissertation explores the upward spike in the illicit tobacco trade, in order to assess whether or not a relationship exists between tobacco companies’ actions and the spike in illicit activity. The study analyses information gathered from semi-structured key informant interviews in order to derive expert insights into the spike. The results indicate that the tobacco industry as a whole is using a variety of tactics to protect their interests. This thesis suggests that the recent increase in the illicit tobacco trade is the result of an increase in under-declared cigarette production by the tobacco industry, which exploits a weak enforcement of antitobacco laws.

This study explored parent involvement in Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in Masiphumelele, Cape Town. The researcher aimed to gain an understanding of the following; how parents are involved in Early Childhood Development centres, factors that enhance parent involvement in ECD centres, factors that hinder parent involvement in ECD centres and challenges faced by parents in getting involved in ECD centres. This research study adopted a qualitative, exploratory approach using a semi-structured interview schedule. The researcher used non-probability, purposive sampling to select the participants. Nineteen participants were interviewed using an interview schedule as a guide. The data collected was analyzed using Tesch's (1990) method of analysis. The research findings revealed that even though there are parents who participate in activities taking place at ECD centres, there is still lack of parent involvement in ECD centres. The thesis affirms that unity among parents, take-home activities, hosting general parent meetings, effective communication between parents and ECD staff especially teachers, parent days, hosting parent workshops, adopting a positive attitude towards parents, parent class visits and adequate physical space are factors that enhance parent involvement in ECD centres. Evidence from the research study show that lack of time, single parenthood, lack of interest, lack of education, poverty and unemployment are factors that inhibit parent involvement in ECD centres. According to the research findings, challenges that parents face in getting involved are; coping, trust issues, participation in education activities, provision of basic needs and payment of ECD centre fees. The study recommends that ECD centres should initiate parent involvement programmes so that parents gain skills and self-confidence. Parents are then more likely to be involved in their children's education.