This research report set out to provide an evaluation of the progress made by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development with respect to affirmative action and employment equity, and particularly with respect to the promotion of greater gender equity in employment, especially at the management levels.

M. Tech. Business Administration / The study is aimed at determining the differences in perceptions of graduates who have participated in an internship programme and those of graduates who have not participated in such a programme. It also looks at the perceptions of employees of the public service toward the internship programme that is introduced in Tshwane.

Dissertation submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Business Administration, Durban University of Technology, 2008. / The amalgamation of municipalities came into effect as a legislative requirement brought about a number of challenges for the local government. One such major challenge relates to the impact that these amalgamations will have on human resource practices of the various municipalities. Literature study reveals that during any merger or amalgamation, less attention is paid to the human element of a merger until the merger is almost complete. This lack of attention impacts negatively on the merger results. Like other municipalities, Ethekwini Municipality is a product of this legislative requirement. It was formed as a result of the amalgamation of different municipal entities that had different human resource practices. The problem facing eThekwini Municipality is the misalignment of human resources policies and their effect on the working environment. This study looks at the impact of this amalgamation on the human resources practices of the eThekwini Municipality. The sub-objectives of the study are: to ascertain employees' perceptions of amalgamation; to determine whether employees believe that the human resources' matters are handled in a manner that will bring about stability and equity in the workplace; and to establish whether different perceptions exist between employees of the former Durban Metro Central and those of the erstwhile entities. A stratified random probability sample of 150 employees was selected. The sample was drawn from 5 former entities that now form eThekwini Municipality, namely: Inner-west, Outer-west, Metro Central, North and South Operational entities. Using face-to-face interviews, employees were asked to complete a questionnaire. The results of the research revealed that there was generally a positive perception of the amalgamation process amongst employees. The study also revealed that different perceptions exist between the employees of the former entities and those of Metro central It is recommended that, during a merger, management should have detailed work plans. The plans should detail how the organization will deal with the structure of the organization, its people, culture, technology and processes. Secondly, management should consider a total reward system as opposed to total cost package. / M

A RESEARCH REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE WITS SCHOOL OF GOVERNANCE IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR A MASTER OF MANAGEMENT DEGREE IN PUBLIC AND DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT / HIV and AIDS impact severely on the capacity of the state, its skills base and the efficient use of public funds to render high quality services to the broad populace. Public sector institutions are under immense pressure to implement policies and programmes to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS in the workplace (Public Service Commission, 2006). In this context, the purpose of this research is to assess the implementation of HIV and AIDS policy in the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport to determine if employees are benefiting from this policy. To accomplish this goal, the study employed qualitative interviews and observations to obtain the necessary data from DRT managers, programme officials and employees in June 2014. An examination of the data confirmed that efforts had been made to implement the HIV/AIDS policy in the DRT, although the scope and intensity of these initiatives varied across occupational levels. It was found that an internal policy on HIV and AIDS has been developed; some employees had been informed about the risks of HIV and AIDS; some line managers had been trained on HIV/AIDS management; health screening including HIV counseling and testing takes place regularly; employees have access to 24 hour counseling services; and some units had been supplied with educative messages including pamphlets and brochures. However, the findings also revealed gaps in the current implementation strategy, including limited communications, poor participation in campaigns, lack of leadership commitment, lack of resources and time constraints. In light of this, it was concluded that the current HIV/AIDS management strategy suffers from lack of capacity and coordination

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management (in the field of Public and Development Management) December 2015 / The notion of women empowerment in South Africa is steadily gaining momentum and recognition. The country has dedicated the month of August as “womens’ month” and the increased visibility of women in parliament are some of the gains made by government. However, it remains unclear what happens in the other spheres of government regarding the promotion of women and their development. This study examined the local government context by exploring the leadership development of women. The focus of this study was on the City of Johannesburg metropolitan municipality. The City of Johannesburg states that its mission is to be a “World Class African City of the Future”. Human capital and leadership therefore becomes imperative in attaining the mission and delivering effective and efficient services to the citizens of the City of Johannesburg. This study is aimed at exploring the leadership development of women in the City of Johannesburg. The focus of the study was on their development into leadership roles. A qualitative research was carried out and data were collected using semi-structured interviews and documents as secondary data. This study revealed that there was relatively good representation of women in the Members of the Mayoral Committee: there was a 50/50 gender split within the committee. However, there was a low presentation of women in other levels. Nevertheless, the focus of the study was not entirely quantitative but it was also qualitative in relation to the development of women into leadership roles. The study found that there was leadership development of employees where women were given preference over their male counterparts with regard to the intake on the programmes. Apart from the programmes held at Wits Business School, there was nothing internally which was focused on the development of women in leadership structures. This highlighted the fact that the City needed to do more in developing women. Despite this knowledge, this study revealed that policies in the City when effectively used can help in the development of women into leadership roles. This study provided recommendations that deliberate efforts should be made in developing women. The current policies in the City should be incorporated and there should be a clear strategy and targets set out regarding the development of women. / MT2017

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public and Development Management 6 April 2017 / Since the inception of the democratic era in South Africa, citizen engagement has been a contentious issue for the local government sphere. In hardly a decade of democracy, cracks began to manifest on the newly-ushered system of public participation in the country, which saw communities embarking on various acts of protests around the country. Sadly, the ugly actions of dissatisfaction by the citizenry have been the order of the day since the early days of democracy, and some have been labelled it ‘a cry for attention by the disgruntled citizens’. As evidence of the disconnection in the local discourse, the aforesaid factor was regarded as a starting point in this research. As such, numbers of, and various reasons for the violent protests were examined thoroughly to establish the truth behind same. Public conversations and discussions, albeit informal, were held wherever possible, and all these pointed to the crisis of democracy in the local government. The research explored the notion of meaningful citizen engagement as a panacea for alleviating service delivery backlogs in the local government. To avoid challenges of the cause-effect scenario in analysing the processes, measurements of meaningful citizen engagement in the local government, named ‘condition’, were developed in this research. Focusing on five different categories of municipalities, fifteen officials and ten councillors were interviewed using in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Further to that, two focus group discussions were held with ten community members and eight ward committee members each, using unstructured interview questions as focal themes. Apart from the interviews, four non-participant observations (IDP/Budget meetings) were conducted in order to get a sense of the current engagement processes. Furthermore, various public documents, both internal and external of the organisations, were analysed and utilised as part of the literature review. Data from the above sets of sources were explored and analysed using the basic interpretive qualitative design and phenomenological methods to make meaning of same. The research findings suggested that current mechanisms of engagement lacked depth, and are limited in terms of opening meaningful engagement spaces for the citizens. These findings pointed to the dire need to move away from the normal, passive public participation towards the engaging, deliberative notions wherein the citizens would have opportunities to influence the final outcomes of planning and budgeting. / MT2017

Mini-thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Management in the field of Security (MM-S) In the Graduate School of Public and Development Management University of Witwatersrand February 2017 / This is a report on Security Vetting in the Department of Home Affairs. The South African Public Service (including the Department of Home Affairs) as an employer has an obligation to deliver services in an accountable and transparent manner and because of that people who obtain employment in the public sector are expected to possess a high level of integrity and professional ethics. The Security Screening Investigation (SSI) commonly known as Security Vetting or Vetting was introduced in government departments with the objective of ensuring that all the individuals employed in government with access to classified information possess the qualities that will enable them “not to cause classified information or material to fall into unauthorised hands, thereby harming or endangering the security and/or interests of the State”. The process of vetting is, however, the mandate of the State Security Agency (SSA), with the responsibility of a larger portion of the vetting process while the smaller portion of the function lies with some government departments, of which the DHA is one. It has been observed that regardless of the decentralization of the functions of vetting by the SSA, there are still challenges that are experienced in DHA with the current vetting approach/strategy. This study was undertaken with the purpose of identifying and describing the challenges relating to the current vetting process in the DHA and as a follow-up to determine the possibility of establishing a strategy that will address the current shortcomings. Interviews were undertaken with Home Affairs officials to collect data on the effectiveness and efficiency of the current vetting strategy in the department, the challenges and the shortcomings concerning vetting, as well as how vetting strategy can be constructed in order to alleviate the challenges and the shortcomings. The findings indicate that the current vetting strategy is neither effective nor efficient. The report further indicates that there are several challenges with the current vetting strategy in DHA, such as DHA reliance on SSA for the completion of the vetting process, a shortage of vetting officers in the department, delayed turnaround times on the conclusion of the vetting process as well as failure in the implementation of the vetting strategy. The conclusion is that the current vetting strategy needs to be reviewed and improved. / MT2017

M. Tech. Business Administration / The purpose of this exploratory research was to determine the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of employees managing projects in the GDoH with regard to project management (PM) within the department; and to determine the training required by employees to manage the infrastructure related projects more effectively. The researcher made use of quantitative and qualitative research designs to gather data.

M. Tech. Public Management / The research problem involves the challenges encountered during the implementation of the performance management and development system at the Department of Education (Gauteng North District) (Department). The study aimed at identifying the challenges which personnel face when implementing the system and to contribute towards the body of knowledge by suggesting an acceptable and simple method of implementing the performance management system in the Department. The performance management and development system is vital in the sense that every government department uses the system to measure the performance of personnel against the set standards of the Departments objectives. It should be borne in mind that without personnel performing according to the set objectives, the Department will not be able to achieve its goals.

(MTech. degree in Policing) / Focuses on how to improve poor service delivery at the Galeshewe Community Service Centre.