This is a comparative study of parental involvement in the governance of public and private schools in the Matatiele District of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Parental involvement can range from occasional attendance of the school functions to partnership through parent teacher organizations and parent management bodies. Education is a national enterprise that requires the co-operation and participation of all the role players who are parents, community, teachers, learners and the Department of Education. The problem to be investigated in this study is: Why is it that parental involvement is more positive in the governance of private schools than that of public schools? Two schools were selected for the study and the researcher administered questionnaires personally by hand and conducted face to face interviews to collect the primary data. The responses of the administered questionnaire were tabulated and recorded in table form so as to give an accurate interpretation of what was revealed in the data. Patterns in the data were considered in order to provide an accurate interpretation of the information. The findings were divided into two, that is: findings from the public school and those from private schools. From the public school it was found that: parents are not involved in the governance of the school; the school does not involve parents on financial matters; parents do not attend meetings when invited; they do not know their roles and responsibilities, for example, according to the South African Schools Act (SASA), parents must be actively involved in the governance of the school in their community and that there is an element of ignorance and negligence on the part of parents towards their children’s education. From the private schools it was found that: parents are more involved in the governance of the school; they attend and participate actively in school meetings; the school involves parents in financial matters and as such the financial support from the parents is very good; parents are much involved in the monitoring of the progress of their learner’s education and are passionate about the school and seem to own the policies and the governance of the whole school system. The conclusion drawn from the study is that private schools allow for parental involvement in the governance of their schools whereas in public schools parental involvement is low.

This research project investigates the reasons why parents are not fully involved in school governance of a selected school in the Sisonke District of KwaZulu-Natal. As a professional educator the researcher has noted that within the rural communities, especially those in KwaZulu-Natal, an area which he knows intimately, there is a general lack of involvement on the part of parents in the way in which schools, that are educating their children, are being run. The researcher has observed that the parents‟ overall contact with the school is very limited - often confined to the beginning of the school year. Thereafter the parents withdraw from all matters pertaining to the running of the school, in effect abdicating their contribution to their children‟s education by handing over all responsibility to the teachers. This, in turn, has created a demarcation that has divided the teachers and the parents, with the parents‟ input stopping at the school gate, in a manner of speaking. What should be a combined effort of both parents and teachers to achieve the best possible results for the learners, has become a rift. And, as with all splitting of resources, this has had a negative impact on the functionality of these educational institutions. In order to get insight into the possible reasons why this is as it is, the researcher collected data, primarily interviews with parents, teachers and learners. Observations of governing body meetings, parents meetings and school management meetings were also conducted. In addition to these, minutes of meetings of the school related to other relevant documents, for example, school finance committee meetings, were also examined. The approach used in this study is the qualitative study method. The researcher also tried to determine to what extent, if any, factors such as lack of knowledge, lack of experience in school governance, lack of time, insufficient training to capacitate parents for school governance, low levels of education, lack of communication, no invitations being extended from the principal, and also teachers' and parents‟ attitudes contribute to this serious lack of parental involvement in the governance of this school. Another consideration was whether educators and learners have any knowledge that parents have a right to come to school and assist with the activities in the classroom. In essence, all the research hinged on the core question: „What are the explanations for the lack of parental involvement in public schools?‟ From the data gathered, the researcher then suggests or recommends possible solutions to rectifying what is fundamentally a misunderstanding of responsibilities, in order to propose means to rectify the situation for the future benefit of the learners. It is also recognised that due to potential limitations of the study, further studies on the effects of parental involvement in schools‟ governance may need to be undertaken. To get a clearer representation of the extent and where this impacts on our society as a whole, the researcher suggests further studies to encompass other school models, as well as other schools with different racial and social/economic compositions be undertaken.

The diploma thesis reacts on the interest of the Czech foreign ministry IT department to get an overview of ITIL 2 and COBIT 4.1 world-wide acknowledged IS/IT management best practice libraries. Both libraries are put in the framework of IT Governance theory and practice. COBIT is presented as world ITG standard, meaning the alignment of organization's strategic goals and IT goals. It is focused on organizations, where the shift of IT perception towards a strategic partnership with the business is driven by top-down board initiative. On the other hand, the ITIL core texts Service Support and Service Delivery are treated as a standard of IT service management, suitable as a framework to establish processes within the foreign ministry's IT department. Three alternative implementations of the two libraries are shown, in a situation of non-existent process management and information architecture. Moreover, the IT Governance initiative has a bottom-up character. The first variant connects ITIL and COBIT process models to the goals and projects outlaid in the 2008-2010 IT Strategy draft (IT BSC was used in the strategy to set up goals). The COBIT processes are aligned to the IT BSC domains and projects; further on, more detailed ITIL tools are assigned to the COBIT processes using the toolbox [IT GOVERNANCE INSTITUTE; OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT COMMERCE. Aligning COBIT, ITIL and ISO 17799 for Business Benefit]. As the projects formulated in the IT Strategy don't focus on the fundaments of process management, a stepwise approach to document the current processes using the ITIL: Service Support and Service Delivery framework is suggested. The second variant came into reality in mid 2008: COBIT has been used without success to estimate users' preferences. The reasons of the failure are discussed. Czech translation of COBIT 4.1 maturity models by the author intended to use as one of the tools in the opinion poll is attached as Annex 2. The last variant is not directly aligned to the problems of foreign ministry's IT/IS, but it is the most pragmatic guide to the implementation of the libraries. As an external help desk has been already launched, I suggest the establishment of ITIL Incident Management and Problem Management processes, supported with a CMDB configuration database.

The aim of my diploma thesis is to introduce cloud computing as an alternative to traditional internal information technology and its benefits for a company. Diploma thesis focuses on three main goals. The first one concerns advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing in comparison to internal information technology. The second one is identification of possible processes and services available for migration into cloud computing. The third goal of the diploma thesis is development of investment analysis which compares not only initial costs on internal information technology and cloud computing, but also costs of both variants within three years. The main contribution of the diploma thesis is to define whether the cloud computing is economically beneficial for the company or not. The argument for categorizing cloud computing is in the reason that the company does not have to use all services within the cloud computing but only these, which the company considers as the most beneficial from cost and operation point of view. Another contribution of the diploma thesis is deployment of data, services and processes into a chosen cloud computing platform. Investment analysis allows through cost comparison of both options understand whether it is more beneficial to choose cloud computing or internal Information Technology platform. During this decision making the company also considers its business character and the fact whether the company operates locally or globally.

Research in the field of impression management has presented evidence that suggests as a company's performance declines, the readability of its financial reports also declines in order to confound the user. In an attempt to determine whether similar impression management strategies are implemented amongst South African listed public companies, a mixed-effects linear regression model was applied to analyse data over the period 2016- 2018. Performance was regressed to the report readability measures over time, where readability was divided into the aspects of length (through the word count) and complexity (as quantified by the Gunning Fog Index). The findings indicate that as the financial performance of a South African company declines, the length of all its reports increases: including the annual financial statements, Integrated Report and the annual results market announcement. However, there is limited evidence of a relationship between complexity and performance. Therefore, when South African companies perform poorly, despite producing lengthier reports, the complexity therein is not impacted. These results thus caution users when faced with reports that are unusually lengthy in nature, because this trait could signal poor performance. Users are advised accordingly to critically analyse excessively lengthy reports in order to separate decision-useful information from the impression management related content elements. Lastly, this research contributes to the foundation of impression management research in the context of the South African capital market and puts forward several suggestions for important future research.

"Death is inevitable. A funeral, in one form or another, regardless of culture or religion, is inevitable. Obtaining insurance cover for a funeral is usually easy, generally affordable, and most importantly: based on an inevitability. It is therefore not surprising that funeral insurance is a considerable portion of Life Insurance business in South Africa. Countless South Africans ensure that, even if they have no other insurance policies in place, they have, at the very least, funeral cover for themselves or their loved ones. In terms of the Insurance Act 18 of 2017, there are a total of nine classes of Life Insurance Business, namely: Risk, Fund Risk, Credit Life, Funeral, Life Annuities, Individual Investment, Fund Investment, Income Drawdown and Reinsurance. Funeral cover can be underwritten under either the Risk class or the Funeral class of Life Insurance Business. The classes of Life Insurance Business have various prudential and market conduct standards that need to be adhered to. Although some of these standards are constant throughout the various classes, there are some standards that differ. The mini-dissertation explores these differences, as well as what effect these differences would have on the public. In essence, the author discusses the two classes in which funeral insurance can be underwritten, the various standards that are applicable to the two classes, as well as whether or not the choice of class would ultimately affect the policyholder, and if so, if said effect is to the policyholder’s detriment." / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Mercantile Law / LLM / Unrestricted

Much research has been performed on the quantitative amount of formal savings held by various racial and gender groups. Such research has often concluded that Black women are the least prepared for retirement. Therefore, a narrative of scarcity has been perpetuated without fully understanding the underlying reason “why”. These traditional accounts erase and reduce social phenomenon to simplistic representations without recognizing the vast complexities of retirement for Black amaXhosa women in South Africa. This research aims to address this gap by providing first-hand accounts of why Black amaXhosa women believe they are the least prepared for retirement, as well as the alternative ways in which Black amaXhosa women save. This research uses open-ended, face-to-face interviews to collect data. In analysing the interviews, the researcher used Thematic Analysis and the Theories of Intersectionality and Socialization to interpret and analyse the interview transcripts. The researcher specifically focused on the use of inductive, semantic analyzation. All interview participants understood the importance of having retirement savings and either have or had some form of retirement savings. However, low savings were often due to income covering the cost of living, the emergence of unexpected events, and Black Tax. Other themes that emerged are the distrust in the formal financial sector, lower levels of accumulated wealth, and the financial responsibility of motherhood. All participants, in some way, supplemented their savings through the use of informal savings. This research is the first of its kind as it aims to create a “conversation” around retirement savings. It offers an introduction into “why” Black women could be seen by previously reviewed literature to save less for retirement, as well as to identify the alternative ways in which Black amaXhosa women prepare themselves for retirement. This “why” can assist further research and policymakers to better understand the complexity with regard to saving for retirement.

Thousands of rural households along the South African coast rely on fisheries resources, forest products and agricultural resources in order to support their livelihoods. These customary livelihoods have continued in many rural areas despite restrictive policies and laws during the colonial and apartheid administrations. More contemporary restrictions have emerged in the post-1994 democratic state due to an expansion of the conservation estate and increased efforts to improve compliance in existing protected areas. This conservation drive is due largely to environmental concerns as well as the country’s international and national commitments to enhance biodiversity protection. Statutory conservation governance in rural areas in South Africa often operates in parallel to traditional and customary systems of governance. This results in confusion and conflict emanating from the plurality of governance systems, actors and institutions whose powers, roles and approaches are informed by different norms, discourses, values, images and worldviews. This study seeks to enhance understanding about the conceptual linkages between livelihoods and plural governance systems, using the case study of Kosi Bay, a coastal region in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This was done using a case study methodology and empirical research to: a) describe livelihood strategies; b) identify and document statutory, traditional and customary governance structures linked to coastal resource governance; c) explore the norms, discourses, images, values and worldviews that have informed coastal resource governance in this area; d) review and analyse the influences of plural coastal governance systems on livelihood strategies; e) contribute towards conceptual frameworks that link livelihoods and governance and; f) make recommendations for improved livelihoods and governance in rural areas in the South African context and beyond. The study underscores the manner in which legal pluralism and historical context affect and influence governance processes, and demonstrates that the day-to-day livelihoods of rural people are diverse and dynamic, and can be profoundly affected by meta-level and institutional governance processes and practices. It concludes by highlighting the manner in which legal pluralism and historical context significantly affect and influence governance processes that shape rural livelihoods, and provides a set of recommendations for consideration.

The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between corporate governance and disclosure of corporate information by listed companies in developing economies. A comparative study was carried out covering listed companies in South Africa, East Africa and Nigeria. The study is based on the agency theory which asserts that enhanced disclosure is one of the fundamental goals of a company's reporting system aimed at reducing agency costs and information asymmetries between shareholders and managers, hence a tenet of any effective governance system. Although corporate disclosure provides a channel through which shareholders obtain valuable information to make investment decisions, prior studies reported mixed empirical evidence on the role of corporate governance in enhancing corporate disclosure. Furthermore, empirical evidence from Sub Saharan Africa and developing economies in general remains scanty. Despite the fact that corporate governance systems have been widely used in strengthening the quality of financial reporting and disclosure, several corporate scandals and failures have continued to occur around the globe and the efficacy of corporate governance on disclosure activities in preventing managers from misappropriating corporate resources remains an empirical question. A comprehensive literature review revealed six corporate governance attributes (CEO non-duality, board size, board composition, composition of audit committees, block and director share ownership) and three control variables (Firm size, leverage, and profitability) that may have a significant influence on corporate disclosure. Corporate disclosure was categorized into disclosure of financial and non-financial information. Data was collected from annual reports of non-financial listed companies on selected securities exchanges in Sub Saharan Africa for the period 2010 to 2013. A comparative panel data analysis was then carried out using STATA MP Version 13, to obtain Random-Effects Regression models which were used to examine the relationship between corporate governance and corporate disclosure. Overall, the findings revealed that CEO non-duality, board size and board composition have a positive significant effect on corporate disclosure, while the effect of block and director share ownership is negative. The study concluded that for effective disclosure of information in developing economies, companies should minimize block and director share ownership, separate roles of chief executive officers and chairpersons of board of directors, increase board size and ensure that there is a higher proportion of non- executive directors on boards.

This study analyses the possible effects of constructive lease capitalisation on all companies in four sectors of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) namely Industrial Transportation, Food and Drug Retailers, General Retailers and Travel and Leisure, in light of the impending adoption of IFRS 16.1 The capitalisation is performed using a model developed by Imhoff Jr., Lipe, & David, (1997) & Imhoff Jr., Lipe, & Wright, (1991) as well as further refinements in Dillon, (2014) & Fulbier, Silva, & Pferdehirt, (2006). The analysis looks at the effects of constructive capitalisation on key leverage and profitability ratios, and line items in the financial statements. The study also assesses the impact on disclosed loan covenants and whether constructive capitalisation will result in the breach of any covenants. The results show that the adoption of IFRS 16 has an impact on key ratios and line items specifically leverage ratios and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin. The sector most impacted is the Food and Drug Retailers. No loan covenants were breached as a result of constructive capitalisation, however the impact on the covenants was both positive and negative.