Thesis (M. Tech.) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2007 / Malaria and the mosquito that induces the disease in humans have hounded the military for decades. Malaria represents one of the most important infectious disease threats to deployed military forces. Malaria in soldiers has a serious economic impact, both in terms of lost productivity and treatment cost for the state. A contingent of South African National Defence Force members has been deployed in Burundi since November 2001, as part of a peacekeeping mission. At the time of the study no information was available regarding the prevalence of malaria among military personnel during deployments in Burundi and East Africa. In Africa, the saying is that malaria is the disease of poverty and a cause of poverty. To combat malaria, it is of vital importance that the recommended medication be taken exactly as prescribed and that the course is completed. However, one of the greatest challenges facing the African continent in the present fight against malaria is drug resistance. The discovery of Mefloquine and the subsequent development of suitable drugs, have been intimately associated with military imperatives, contingencies and requirements. Since World War II, the development of Chloroquine-resistant falciparum malaria has driven the search for new drugs. Mefloquine, developed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the United States, was first shown effective as a prophylaxis and treatment of resistant falciparum malaria in the 1970’s. To obtain data, questionnaires were administered to SANDF soldiers deployed in Burundi, East Africa. The total size of the population under investigation was 336 with a final sample size of 111 respondents. The sample was selected by using simple random sampling. The questionnaire aimed to determine the perception of respondents regarding the malaria threat, their compliance with taking the medication, and their experiencing of possible side-effects which might occur due to the chemoprophylaxis and the prophylactic efficacy of Mefliam®. The fact that, of the 111 people who used Mefliam®, only four presented with any malaria symptoms, is an indicator that Mefliam® is an effective option as an antimalarial drug to be used in East Africa and Burundi. The results of this study will be used by the personnel of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and other military forces deployed in East Africa. It is envisaged that the results will be used by military policy- and decision-makers as a control programme and by others involved in the control of malaria. The findings and recommendations should also be of interest to anyone visiting the area.

Thesis (M. Tech.) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2007

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Heritage Studies), 2017 / This research report is a critical analysis of the Free State1 art scene from 1950-1989, conducted primarily through an account of the Bloemfontein Group. It argues that this period is a significant indicator of a shift in the city’s art scene, from an earlier, formalist focus to a more conceptual orientation in the art scene in Bloemfontein. An important aspect of this research is the significance of the formation of the Bloemfontein Group, and the extent of their role and influence during this period, which together can be seen as a key catalyst in the shift to conceptual art. Through extensive archival research, I have constructed a visual timeline of the art scene in Bloemfontein, including significant events in the wider Free State region. The construction of the timeline is a crucial part of the unravelling and interrogation of undiscovered conceptual developments relating to museum practices in the Free State. This is in turn informed by conversations and debates about the history of exhibitions, the origins of an art collection, and more specifically, how an art phenomenon such as the Bloemfontein Group not only contributed to a contemporary artistic identity in the Free State, but was also the driver behind the establishment of the Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein. The methodology in this research report is based primarily on archival research and interviews:  The Free State archives (newspaper clippings from the Friend newspaper were the most useful);  Oliewenhuis Art Museum research library (where invaluable information was found on the Group itself, including more newspaper clippings, information on the individual artists, with specific emphasis on Professor Fred and Mrs Dora Scott);  William Humphrey’s Art Gallery’s research library where I found additional archival documents on the Group’s exhibition at the gallery in 1966.  The Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery archives at the University of the Free State 2 and  Louis, Willem and Fred Scott’s personal archives Interviews were conducted with the following individuals with the aim of gathering further insight into the timeline. The interviewees were selected on the basis of either their involvement during the timeframe under question, their being descendants of the Scott family, or a surviving member of the Bloemfontein Group:  Rina Lubbs (surviving member of the Free State Art Society, Social Committee and Volksblad art critic from 1969-1984);  Anna-Rosa Witthuhn (surviving member of the Free State Art Society and Social Committee);  Doctor Fred Scott and Professor Louis Scott (sons of the belated Doctor Frik and Dora Scott);  Eben van der Merwe (surviving member of the Bloemfontein Group);  Stefan Hundt (former curator of Oliewenhuis Art Museum from 1993-1997) and  Professor Suzanne Human (Head of Department of History of Art and Image Studies, University of the Free State). Throughout the Research Report I refer to different terminology that enabled me not only to construct a consistent discussion but also to demonstrate the systematic methodology I formulated to conduct the research. By using archival documentation such as newspaper clippings as primary resource to enable research on a time frame, which had never been researched before, I was prompted to apply the terminology to categorize and sort the archival material and also to explain to the reader the methodology to some extent. Visual map: I commenced the Research Report with a visual map of artworks made by the Bloemfontein Group. I used the word ‘map’ deliberately to outline/map/illustrate visual examples of the Bloemfontein Group’s artworks. The function of the visual map is to introduce the reader to artworks produced by the Bloemfontein Group on a whole without limiting the artworks to 24 pieces that were donated to Oliewenhuis Art Museum. The works are not placed in a particular order as the map merely serves to visually introduce the reader to the nature of the artworks of the Bloemfontein Group. Timeframe: Primary resources used to conduct the research were archival material. This mostly included newspaper clippings, photographs, letters, official museum records, exhibition invitations and press releases. Therefore my methodology included a large amount of ordering, numbering and systematising archival material sourced. This enabled me to order the research in different timeframes e.g. 1950, 1960, 1970 and 1980. The timeframe assisted me in examining the archival material intently and to uncover a narration of the Bloemfontein art scene within the specific timeframe. I realised that this specific timeframe indicated the majority of the art-related progression in Bloemfontein and was a crucial process as the ordering of the records lead me to design a chronological timeline within the timeframe. Chronological timeline: The methodology and my process further progressed as I ordered the timeframe into a chronological timeline that included exhibitions held in the timeframe, important progressions of art related events and important individuals that steered the mind-set of artists, art patrons and art supporters. By ordering and systematising the events and exhibitions within a specific timeframe, I was aided in my understanding of the narrative that emerged within the timeline I designed. The unravelling of the exhibitions and happenings held within a timeframe also assisted me to illustrate the timeline. Illustrated timeline and exhibition timeline: By illustrating the timeline I attempted to add imagery viz: artworks produced for specific exhibitions or illustrations of artworks produced that align with the timeframe, exhibitions or exhibition openings, exhibition invitations and photographs of leading societies or individuals. This was vital as the newspaper clippings very rarely offered imagery of artworks or exhibitions that took place. This extremely time consuming task was an essential part of the research as it enabled me to understand the timeline better and to initiate visual debates about the local art environment versus national art-related debates. Due to the lack of imagery available, some illustrations were repeatedly used also to emphasise a statement or to make the image emblematic of developments specific to the Bloemfontein region. / XL2018

M.A. (Clinical Social Work) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

From introduction: The intention of this thesis is to develop a model for multi-cultural ministry, and, in so doing, to enable Trinity Methodist Church, Charles Street, Bloemfontein to provide a comprehensive and meaningful ministry to all people, one that is not limited by the constraints of language and culture but which transcends them. The fact that Trinity is a Methodist Church means that I will be establishing the "Model for Multi-Cultural Ministry" firmly within Wesleyan theology. South Africa has undergone far-reaching political change since the general elections of April 1994. This political transformation has emphasised a need for the bringing together of people across the barriers of race, culture and religion. In this thesis I will be focusing my attention on the latter - the realm of religion - and specifically that of Christianity. Furthermore, I will be restricting my attention to a specific congregation within the denomination of Methodism, within the religion of Christianity, namely Trinity Methodist Church, Charles Street, Bloemfontein'. The "Model for MultiCultural Ministry" developed in this thesis will therefore be 'congregation specific'. The Methodist ChurcQ of Southern Africa2 proclaims itself to be a Church "one and undivided" (Minutes: 1980: 65: para l(a) ), where people from all racial groups can worship God together in a meaningful way. In many respects this is not the case. The years of political pressure that the (MCSA) has endured, in particular the years of legislated Apartheid (1948-1989), ensured that existing divisions between the Methodist congregations became entrenched along racial, cultural and religious lines (Thompson: 1990: 187ff). The Group Areas Act (1950) is but one such example where the National Party Government "divided urban areas into zones where members of one specified race alone could live and work" (Thompson: 1990: 194). The homeland policy (implemented from 1963, but legislated from 1971 in the Bantu Homelands Constitution Act).

Thesis (M. Tech. (Tourism and Hospitality Management)) -- Central university of Technology, Free State, 2013 / One of the 2011 National Tourism Sector Strategy objectives is to "provide excellent people development and decent work within the tourism sector". The hospitality industry is, however, not regarded as a provider of decent work, a factor that has a direct bearing on the job satisfaction level of employees. It is for this reason that it was decided to investigate the job satisfaction level of employees in selected five-star hotels in the Western Cape Province. The instrument used to gather the quantitative data was a newly developed index based on the literature review conducted. The review was not restricted to the hospitality industry, but included all industries, as the existing knowledge on job satisfaction in the hospitality industry is limited. A pilot study was conducted on one five-star hotel in Bloemfontein, and the empirical study was conducted in February 2012 among 124 employees of four five-star hotels in the Western Cape. The only biographic variable, for which a significant correlation with overall job satisfaction was calculated, was having a hospitality-related qualification. A significant correlation with overall job satisfaction was calculated for 38 of the 74 job satisfaction variables. The 38 job satisfaction variables were distributed among six internal, 18 external and 14 individual job satisfaction variables. The internal job satisfaction dimension predicted 39.97% of overall job satisfaction; the external job satisfaction dimension predicted 66.88%, and the individual job satisfaction dimension predicted 79.82%. In total, 79% of respondents indicated that they were satisfied with their current jobs. Recommendations were made to improve job satisfaction in the selected five-star hotels in the Western Cape.

Thesis (D. Tech.(Marketing)) - Central University of Technology, Free state, 2012 / A reliable sales plan and forecast is the basis for good cash flow management and capacity planning. If the sales figures are below plan, the sales manager will increase the sales efforts in order to compensate these deviations. Usually, it can be expected that these efforts should be at least partly successful in the consumer markets. This situation is expected to be different in the industrial markets, as usually the generation of sales turnover can only be achieved by either new customers or new products sold to existing customers. It is therefore expected not to be possible to immediately compensate a loss of sales turnover within the planning period by increased sales efforts. This research project investigated whether industrial markets react differently from consumer markets by investigating the sales planning and forecasting process in the Machinery & Equipment Industry, the Automotive Supplier Tier 1 and the Automotive Supplier Tier 2 Industry. It investigated several time aspects of the sales process, displayed as customer-supplier interaction. The results of the research project showed that in fact sales processes in the investigated industry sectors have such a long duration, that it is not possible for sales managers to immediately compensate low sales figures by increased sales efforts. The sales turnover raise will come in a later period and thus simply too late for the current one. This results in the fact that the reliability of the sales forecast (for the established sales plan) is reduced, if industry characteristics and special time aspects of the sales process are not taken into consideration. These time aspects can be described best by the Market Response Time (MRT). The MRT is defined as the time lag between the start of an increase of sales efforts by the supplier (first contact) and the market response in terms of increased purchase. This is at the time when the customer starts to financially respond, with the result of a sales turnover increase at the supplier’s side. If the MRT is long, sales planning and forecasting has increased importance, because sales efforts need to be planned well in advance. For this reason response times are major elements in planning and forecasting, although it was previously not very well recognised in literature and practice. Based on a qualitative empirical study with the case study methodology, 41 case studies were undertaken within the three industry sectors. The investigated companies showed that these three industry sectors have different MRTs, such as 68 weeks in the Machinery & Equipment Industry, 138 weeks in the Automotive Supplier Tier 1, and 62 weeks in the Automotive Supplier Tier 2 Industry. These different MRTs influence the companies planning and forecasting processes in different ways. This research project qualitatively showed that if time aspects were taken into consideration in sales planning and forecasting, forecast accuracy could improve. It was furthermore indicated that an adequate sales planning approach could improve forecast accuracy as well. In a second step, it was indicated that these companies, which are aware of the time aspects, have shown a better sales performance in terms of sales force productivity, growth of productivity and market position. Concluding it can be stated that the respect of time aspects, such as MRT, may increase sales performance. The study's results have some limitations, which are the research context and the research methodology. As the project only investigated the industrial context, namely the Machinery & Equipment and the Automotive Tier 1 Supplier and Tier 2 Supplier Industry, its results can only be applicable to this context. The research methodology of this project is a qualitative one, which means that the sample size is small but deep and statistical generalisations cannot be made. Based on this, further research implications of this project are that its results may further be statistically generalised by quantitative studies. Especially the sales planning and forecasting processes in the detected clusters per industry sector should be investigated on a broad sample. Thirdly, the indicated relation between market knowledge and accuracy should be further investigated. This is because it can be estimated that the forecast accuracy is the highest if the company’s information horizon is equal to the product life cycle time of the products produced. Last of all, as there are only a few research projects done in the industrial context regarding market response models and time aspects, therefore these topics should be further investigated.

Thesis (M. Tech. Public Management)) -- Central University of Technology, free State, 2013 / During 2009 the State of Local Government in South Africa 2009 Report, (2009:71-75) showed that much of local government is in distress and it also showed that much of the local government municipalities faced serious challenges such as the lack of service delivery, poor financial management and weak integration between the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and the Local Economic Development (LED). To improve the performance of the municipalities, the national government approved a comprehensive Local Government Turnaround Strategy (LGTAS) that serves as a country-wide intervention with the aim to address the communities‟ increasing dissatisfaction with poor municipal services, as well as to improve the administrative and financial performance of all municipalities. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of the Local Government Turnaround Strategy (LGTAS) on public participation and good governance with respect to the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) process in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality. It was found during the literature review that although the Local Government Turnaround Strategy (LGTAS) was successfully incorporated in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality Integrated Development Plan Review of 2013/2014, more needs to be done to ensure that the medium-term priorities are effectively implemented to promote good governance, and effective service delivery of Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality. The study found that although the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality has a well-planned and well-structured community engagement strategy to promote effective public participation, more needs to be done to ensure that the communities are effectively represented during the various public participation consultation activities to ensure that the needs of the majority of the communities are addressed. The study also found that the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality has well-defined strategies to promote good governance in its Integrated Development Plan (IDP), the effective implementation remains a challenge.

Thesis (M. Tech. (Business administration)) - Central University of technology, Free State, 2013 / This study was necessitated by the fact that being labour intensive, hair salons provide partial solution to South Africa’s high unemployment, poverty and inequality problems hence need to be supported so that they can grow and continue performing their expected labour absorption role. Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati district municipality in the North West Province of South Africa is a socio economically depressed area that depends on hair salons for employment. The prosperity of hair salons is therefore critical to the well-being of the inhabitants of the area. Unfortunately, proliferation of hair salon business in Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati district municipality since the dawn of democracy in South Africa has created fierce competition for customers leading to lack of profitability and hair salons failures. While many reasons can account for business failure in the face of intense competitive environment, there is consensus from the literature that in the current information economy, appropriate management of records allows for quick access to reliable information and this is key to business success. In fact, resource-based view (RBV) of the firm suggests that a company’s quick access to reliable information that is contained in its resources allows that firm to gain sustainable competitive advantage that allows for superior performance. This calls for proper management of a company’s records. Accordingly, it is crucial that managers/owners of hair salons recognise the importance of good records management in their businesses in order to continuously have timely access to accurate information. Unfortunately, the researcher has informally observed a disturbing trend among some hair salons in Dr Ruth Mompati local municipality that flies in the face of what can be termed good records management. An informal visit to some of the salons in the region revealed an apparent laxity with which transactions were recorded. Worst still, Informal conversations with a few hair salons operators seem to suggests that records management may be a problem among hair salons as some even see it as more a liability than asset. This suggests that hair salons in Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati district municipality might not be taking records management seriously. The question then is, how wide spread is this negative attitude towards records keeping in Dr Ruth Mompati local municipality? Or could this be the general sentiment in the hair salon industry as a whole? The purpose of this study was to assess the status of records management among hair salons in Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality. The key finding of this study is that most hair salons in Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati district municipality do practice records management to a certain extent. However, there are certain records that hair salons in the area regard as of no importance and therefore are neglected. The study also revealed that those hair salons that engage in good records management outperform those that do not. The study further revealed that most of the salons keep paper records although they would prefer electronic format. Lack of access to computers was cited as the greatest problem in keeping electronic records. Details of the study including findings, conclusions and recommendations are presented and discussed in the main report.

Thesis (M. Tech. ( Business administration )) - Central University of technology, Free State, 2012 / Proliferation of the hair salon business in the Bophirima region has led to intense competition for customers and this can have unfortunate consequences for hair salon’s competitiveness hence survival and economic performance. The only choice left for hair salons in the words of owner/managers who were informally interviewed is to obtain accurate information on market trends and customer preferences so as to tailor products and services to meet customer preferences. From a strategic management perspective, it makes perfect sense that in the highly competitive arena that hair salons in the Bophirima find themselves, research on industry environment to obtain accurate information on market trends and customer preferences so as to tailor products and services that meet customer preferences is a must if they are to prosper. In other words, hair salons in the Bophirima region need to conduct marketing research if they must prosper. Conceptually, it is argued in this study that market research will reveal variables such as market demand, market opportunities, market threats, etc. which if scientifically analysed can produce information that can aid management in making informed decision that can lead to superior business performance. Unfortunately, there is the perception among the few hair salon operators informally interviewed in the Bophirima region that for small businesses such as hair salons, engaging in marketing research will be too expensive, cumbersome, and time consuming hence unnecessary. However, this perception may not be true as normative assertions and research evidence elsewhere suggests that for service organisations, regardless of size, marketing research leads to superior performance. The purpose of this study was to determine the status of marketing research within the hair salons in the Bophirima region and the impact that hair salon’s engagement in generally accepted (conventional) elements of marketing research activities have on the economic performance (as measured by profitability). Analysis of data obtained from 118 owner managers suggest that marketing research may not be something they engage in although they are very much aware of the business benefits of engaging in marketing research. The findings also suggest possible positive link between marketing research activity and profitability. Details of the research as well as conclusions and recommendations are presented and discussed in the report that follows.