This study sets out to explore the challenges associated with small and medium enterprises (SME) in obtaining funds from financial institutions. Specifically, it seeks to identify the types of credit facilities used by SMEs in Namibia, examine the factors that limit SME access to credit from banks and to understand the challenges associated with SMEs in accessing credit facilities. This study employs the logistic technique to correlate survey data from 120 small and medium firms in Namibia, to examine the likelihood of access to credit from a financial institution. The study has found that the type of credit used by SMEs is either short-term loans, medium-term loans or long-term loans. The conclusion reached is that the majority of SME business owners preferred short-term loans to finance their business activities. This leads to another question: whether financial institutions' products, designed for the SME sector, are well aligned with this finding or if this is another challenge to SMEs in accessing funds. The study revealed factors in accessing credit by small and medium-sized enterprises, including: requests by the financial institutions for collateral and audited financial statements of account; length of operation, and details of competent management, capable of giving the banks confidence and assuring them that the loans will be repaid; rates of interest which determine the loan costs. These are some of the factors that determine SME access to finance. The study strongly recommends that SME businesses keep up-to-date business financial records for various reasons, such as to keep track of their operations, and to provide this information to financial institutions in the event of their making applications for funding. Also, SME firms should build strong balance sheets, displaying their profits, so as to ensure that they are able to meet the collateral requirements of the financial institutions.

This study analyses the relationship between electricity prices, consumption and economic growth at national and per sector levels in South Africa over the period from 2006 to 2017 using the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and error correction model (ECM). With regards to electricity consumption, in the mining and residential sectors, the relationship between electricity consumption and GDP is insignificant and thus adheres to the neutrality hypothesis. In contrast, in the services, transportation and industrial sectors, there is a positive relationship between GDP and electricity consumption, which adheres to the conservative hypothesis. Lastly, the agricultural sector has a positive relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth in the short run, and thus adheres to the growth hypothesis. In the case of electricity prices and electricity consumption, the results find that the relationship is insignificant on a national basis and this is true for the services, transport, residential and agricultural sectors too, whereas there is a negative association with electricity consumption in the mining sector while the industrial sector has a negative association with electricity prices. The results for the relationship between electricity prices and electricity consumption show that in the national, services sector, transport sector, residential and agricultural sectors, electricity consumption has an insignificant relationship with the electricity prices. This is in contrast to the mining sector, whose electricity consumption is negatively associated with electricity prices while the industrial sector electricity consumption has a positive and significant relationship with electricity prices. With regards to the relationship between electricity prices and GDP, the results find that there is an elastic association in the national, services, mining, and industrial sectors with a negative impact on the GDP in the long run. In contrast, the relationship between electricity prices and GDP in the transport and residential sectors is insignificant.

This thesis examines the inclusion of climate change in Malawian social policy, and the discourse and government documents surrounding it. In Malawi, social protection predates climate change policies – in both policy in practice – however, they have risen up the Governments agenda at the same time. This is unsurprising given the severity and frequency with which the country is impacted by climatic shocks. Moreover, vulnerability and instability in the country leave Malawian disproportionately susceptible to the impact of natural disasters and environmental irregularities. In the wake of a natural disaster, most commonly drought and flooding, there is a significant spike in mentions of both climate change and social protection in Parliamentary discourse. Similarly, Government documents exhibit a wellestablished connection between these two – mention of disaster risk reduction is frequently coupled with a call for social protection to minimize the effects of natural disasters. In many ways, the most recent and current social protection policy is the logical evolution of this. In 2018, the Government of Malawi released the Malawi National Social Support Programme II (MNSSP II) which focused significantly on shock-sensitive social protection to address and minimize the impact of climate change in the country. Previous social protection initiatives in the country have garnered very little political support, and the Government has exhibited a hesitation to provide financial and technical support to these programs.

The South African local governments are facing enormous issues that challenge their financial independence and the fulfilment of their constitutional powers in providing service delivery to communities within their jurisdiction areas, amongst other things. Although the National government provides grants to the local governments, they are not sufficient to meet the basic needs of communities within sub-national provinces – given the rapid growth in population and the high levels of unemployment. Property tax is one of the sources of municipalities' revenues, over which the local governments have full autonomy. A vast number of scholars in literature emphasize the potential and the importance of property tax revenues within local government spheres, its contribution towards the improvement of community lives, and in providing the public infrastructures with the services they require – if they are fully utilised. This study examines the impact of macro-economic factors (gross domestic product, inflation, the unemployment rate, and the population rate) on property-tax revenues in South African municipalities across the nine provinces, from the year 2005 to 2018. The panel-data model was estimated by using fixed and random effect-estimation techniques. The findings provide evidence to suggest that there is a negative and positive relationship between property tax revenues and macro-economic determinants, depending on each subcategory from which the total property-tax revenue is based. The main results of the study indicate that the variation in economic activities does not improve property-tax revenue mobilization across South African local governments. Inflation was found to have a discouraging impact on the property-tax revenues derived by municipalities. Although the population rate reflected a stable trend during the study period, the results indicated that it has had a negative impact on property-tax revenues. Generally, the unemployment rate has depicted an unstable trend over the study period; and the findings show that it has had a negative effect on property-tax revenues across South African municipalities. The study suggests some policy recommendations for achieving optimal property-tax revenues. In addition, the study has contributed to the body of knowledge; and it has provided an analysis of the various macro-economic determinants – by sing widely accepted indicators in an emerging market. This research also recommends further exploration of the impact of other macro-economic determinants on property-tax revenues, in any future research studies. These include macro-economic determinants, such as the interest rate and household income, amongst other issues, which are not part of this study.

This research paper applies the synthetic control method to measure the economic cost of sanctions imposed on South Africa between 1985 and 1994. The economic sanctions imposed on South Africa between 1985 and 1994 by the United Nations, the United States of America, and the European Community negatively affected the economy. This negative effect on the economy, measured by the gross domestic product per capita, continued until 1998 despite the sanctions having ended four years earlier. Using the synthetic control method, this research paper measures the economic cost by estimating the difference in the gross domestic product per capita between the treated country (South Africa) and the counterfactual (synthetic South Africa). Synthetic South Africa represents South Africa without undergoing treatment (sanctions). What would have happened if sanctions were not imposed? The results indicate that the economic cost is most pronounced after the sanctions ended, indicating a substantial lag effect. South Africa's gross domestic product per capita is 30% lower than synthetic South Africa by 1998. This potentially indicates that the sanctions had a long-lasting effect. The results are not sensitive to the composition of the donor pool. Furthermore, the placebo tests reveal that the results are statistically significant at the 10% threshold with only one country (Philippines) having a treatment effect that is larger than South Africa's and a better fit. For target nations, it means that policy makers should acknowledge that a policy that leads to sanctions may have a severe and long-lasting impact on the economy. Potential areas for future investigation include estimating the humanitarian effect of the sanctions imposed on South Africa and applying the synthetic control method approach to other sanctions episodes in the past.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-93). / The author discusses postdevelopment theory by exploring unintentional effects of development practices in Cape Town's craft scene. A heterodox research design is adopted, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's ideas on cultural production, notions of authenticity, representation and the modern/traditional dichotomy as well as thoughts on the making of a New South African identity. This is applied to the dynamics of Cape Town's craft scene in the pursuit of answering four research questions: (i) What role does the township play in the image of post-apartheid South Africa? (ii) How does development discourse contribute to the re-imagining of post-apartheid South Africa through 'township craft'? (iii) Is development discourse conducive to maintaining and creating tensions between centres and peripheries in the New South Africa? (iv) To what extent can a heterodox research design contribute to the postdevelopment debate? Through the socio-semiotic analysis of qualitative data obtained from interviews with fourteen stakeholders in Cape Town's craft scene as well as observations made at sites, where 'township craft' is presented and/or produced, the author is able to give three main insights in relation to the stated questions: (i) The image of the township, represented through cultural commodities, plays a crucial role as a place of creativity and positive change in the making of a post-apartheid identity. (ii) Development discourse manifests itself in the making of a New South African identity through material culture in the form of 'township craft' and its conceptual as well as spatial contexts. (iii) The use of development discourse in the making and marketing of 'township craft' in combination with supposedly 'common knowledge' about the art/craft divide has the potential to create and maintain patterns of inequality between producers and sellers of 'township craft'. A recommendation is made to explore further possibilities of heterodox research designs for studies using a postdevelopment theoretical framework.

Theoretical models of crime underlying the deterrent approach to crime control often fail to account for the role of mental health in mediating deviance. Nor does this approach account for the role of system responses, unique to a post-apartheid context. There is paucity in the literature on the role of mental health on recidivism in South Africa. This study was therefore designed to determine the relationship between mental health and recidivism among incarcerated youth offenders in South Africa and the role of substance use. The Ecological Systems Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour provided the theoretical frameworks for this study. A cross-sectional quantitative exploratory research design was used. 280 youth offenders (male and female, aged 18-35) incarcerated at a Durban Maximum Correctional Service in KwaZulu-Natal who do not have a known psychiatric diagnosis were sampled, using multi-stage random sampling. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. The final instrument consisted of six sections. Section 1 consisted of socio-demographic data. Section 2, measured the history of imprisonment. Section 3, is the Hopkins symptoms checklist (HSCL-25), which measures depression and anxiety disorder. Section 4, measures youth offenders' attraction to crime using an adapted version of the appetitive aggression scale. Section 5, is a measure of substance use using the CRAFFT measure (Car, Relax, Alone, Forget, Friends, Trouble). Finally, section 6 was an adapted version of the Measure of Criminal Attitudes and Associates scale (MCAA). Data were analyzed using SPSS. Several statistical analyses were used in this study to include, descriptive analysis, multiple regression, binary logistic regression, factor analysis, cluster analysis and chi-square analysis. The minimum age for participants was 19 and maximum age is 35, the majority of participants were aged 32 and the average age is 30. The majority of participants have secondary school education (65.8%, n=171), and participants who have not received any formal education are (3.5%, n=9). The majority of participants are black (91.4%, n=245), and Coloured (6.3%, n=17), male (93.0%, n=251) and from KwaZulu-Natal (87.1% n=237). Descriptive analysis also showed that the rate of recidivism (re-offending) among this offender population is 32.4% (n=82), while 67.6% (n=171) of the participants have not recidivated. This study promotes social change by highlighting the need for the further exploration of combined factors that increase recidivism. Findings from this study are helpful to health and criminal justice organizations as they indicate the need for strengthening the provision of programs that address mental health screening, diagnosis and treatment as well as programs that address appetitive aggression issues in efforts to curb recidivism.

The backdrop of this research is the developmental state which requires government to make interventions. These interventions and programmes have to take into account the constitutional dispensation of the human rights culture which requires consultation and a responsive government in respect of the poor and vulnerable. The researcher selected to embark on a descriptive research journey using the quantitative approach to engage the concept of social capital, the youth and the public sector. The researcher used the 3 types of social capital, bonding, bridging and linking to assess the stock of youth social capital. The hypothesis posited is that the public sector is a key contributor to the significant stock of social capital among the youth in the Western Cape. The researcher will respond to the following research question: what is the nature and utilisation of social capital among youth in the following six geographical areas of the Western Cape: Khayelitsha, Manenberg, Gugulethu, Mitchell's Plain, Beaufort West and Oudtshoorn?

Summary in English.|Bibliography: leaves 329-360. / Welfare services generally were racially segregated and highly unequal, being heavily skewed towards the needs of the white population. Such welfare policies and service patterns were increasingly justified in ideological terms by reference to a specific form of cultural relativism rather than overt racist argument. With the dramatic political changes heralded by the unbanning of anti-apartheid political organisations in 1990 South Africa entered an uncertain interregnum period in which the existing government lacked legitimacy but a new democratic government was not yet in place. This period, up to the general election in 1994, represented a ""Prague spring"" in which open debate and argument regarding future social policy and government flourished. It was therefore a time of both great excitement and hope for most South Africans yet anxiety for those who were identified with the old order. It was within this cntext that this study explored, by means of a national survey, the views and attitudes of social work educators in all tertiary institutions in South Africa towards issues of culture, race and transformation.

The research considers the question: What can emerging market economies do to leverage sustainable growth opportunities from resource constrained, involuntary migrant entrepreneurs? It explores the positive economic impact that involuntary migrant entrepreneurs have made in an emerging market economy, South Africa, through the establishment of sustainable businesses. The objective is to understand the underlying enablers and constraints that facilitated the establishment of such businesses historically and to use them to develop a model that might be implemented by public and private institutions to maximise the economic benefits that groups of migrant entrepreneurs can deliver. It took the form of an inductive study of behavioural attributes to which a critical realist epistemology has been applied, using network theory and the lens of “desirable difficulties” within the context of social, economic and migration capital. The research was inspired by the work of Elizabeth and Robert Bjork (1996 and 2015) and extends the concept of desirable disabilities into the realm of societal “disabilities” that have been overcome by resource constrained migrant entrepreneurs, to accumulate the necessary social, knowledge and economic capital (Bourdieu, 1985) to establish sustainable businesses. The theoretical contribution of the research is to take the involuntary migrant debate beyond the "refugee as burden" paradigm, by focusing on constrained, involuntary migrants as potential economic contributors through: 1. A theoretical proposition that the legal, knowledge, language and economic capital required by constrained migrant entrepreneurs to leverage the enabling disabilities that they have and to establish their locus of power, is augmented by additional "migration capital", an offshoot of mobility capital, which originates from the interactions within and between the migrant group networks. 2. The development of a model, based on migration capital, which may be used by emerging market countries to maximise the economic growth opportunities that severely resource constrained entrepreneurs can offer. The model utilises a newly defined form of capital, namely migration capital, as its basis. It provides an alternative view to traditional, “push” based economic theories which have categorised refugees and migrants as economic burdens that must be supported by the host country for extended periods of time, to the detriment of the local population. The “pull” model is premised on the finding that migration is a temporal rather than geographic or ethnic issue and that there is additional value to be extracted over the lifespan of a migrant business if the social integration can be expedited through the facilitation of migration capital in addition to individual social, knowledge and economic capital. It considers the benefit that can be realised by the host country, where the process driver remains the migrant entrepreneur, eager to become established in a new country and achieve their long term vision.