Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / The study focused on financial reporting in the public sector with the view to understanding the impact of the present financial management system in South Africa is adding value to the measurable outcomes-based objective process as required by the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). The study determines the role of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in financial reporting, in relation to the business plan (strategy) and measurable outcomes and results of the Department of Community Safety. The primary objective of this study was to perform an assessment of financial reporting and its effectiveness in terms of the PFMA as the legislative framework and the MTEF as a financial management tool. The secondary objectives were to: (1) to provide a theoretical perspective of public financial management and reporting in government; (2) to provide an verview of policies, legislation and strategies; (3) to record and develop a case study of financial reporting in the Western Cape Provincial Government within the Department of Community Safety (WCPG); (4) to present the research findings on financial management, and (5), to apply the theoretical framework to the case study in order to develop findings. / South Africa

Magister Artium - MA / Development thinking in the 21st century has embraced the challenge to inform development practice towards managing the relationship between the macro and micro level of development with an emphasis on people-centred development (PCD) and a participatory development approach (PDA). People-centred development advocates a process focused on people, which enables beneficiaries of communitydevelopment initiatives to empower themselves through participation. People-centred development has been universally accepted in the development community as the only viable option, with the potential to reverse decades of top-down approaches to development through the engagement of community stakeholders in a meaningful participation process. The social development scene in South Africa is characterised by a strong presence of the civil society in general and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in particular, which are major role players in socio-economic development at the grassroots. Most of these organisations are committed to participatory development methodologies in order to meet the needs of povertystricken communities in South Africa. This thesis critically assessed participatory development in the Small Business Development Departments (SBDD) programmes/projects at the Elgin Learning Foundation, in the Overberg district of the Western Cape. A qualitative research methodology was applied throughout the study. This research approach was chosen because the purpose of this project was to understand and describe community participation at the SBDD from an insider perspective, and not to predict social action or make generalisations about it. Accordingly, observation, in-depth interviews, documentary analysis, and focus-group discussions were utilised for data collection. The study also used secondary sources of information, namely policy briefs, project proposals, annual evaluation reports, and minutes of meetings. The findings indicate that the community-development activities of the SBDD are very visible in the Overberg region, and that the organisation maintains good relationships with community stakeholders. In addition, the department contributes significantly towards entrepreneurship and skills development in the  community, through its training and mentorship programmes. However, results also suggest that community-development at the SBDD is not always people-centred because training programmes are largely externally designed, monitored and evaluated, without taking into consideration the felt needs of the people. Participation that is perceived as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself can be described as tokenistic. In this light, the study recommends that the SBDD develops context-specific strategies to implement participatory methodologies at all stages of project-cycle management, in order to provide an enabling environment for the genuine participation of people at the grassroots. This approach can empower community members and build local institutional capacities to ensure project/programme sustainability in the long term. / South Africa

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / Development thinking in the 21st century has embraced the challenge to inform development practice towards managing the relationship between the macro and micro level of development, with an emphasis on people-centred development (PCD) and a participatory development approach (PDA). People-centred development advocates a process focused on people, which enables beneficiaries of communitydevelopment initiatives to empower themselves through participation. People-centred development has been universally accepted in the development community as the only viable option, with the potential to reverse decades of top-down approaches to development through the engagement of community stakeholders in a meaningful participation process. The social development scene in South Africa is characterised by a strong presence of the civil society in general and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in particular, which are major role players in socio-economic development at the grassroots. Most of these organisations are committed to participatory development methodologies in order to meet the needs of povertystricken communities in South Africa.This thesis critically assessed participatory development in the Small Business Development Departments’ (SBDD) programmes/projects at the Elgin Learning Foundation, in the Overberg district of the Western Cape. A qualitative research methodology was applied throughout the study. This research approach was chosen because the purpose of this project was to understand and describe community participation at the SBDD from an insider’s perspective, and not to predict social action or make generalisations about it. Accordingly, observation, in-depth interviews,documentary analysis, and focus-group discussions were utilised for data collection. The study also used secondary sources of information, namely policy briefs, project proposals, annual evaluation reports, and minutes of meetings.The findings indicate that the community-development activities of the SBDD are very visible in the Overberg region, and that the organisation maintains good relationships with community stakeholders. In addition, the department contributes significantly towards entrepreneurship and skills development in the community,through its training and mentorship programmes. However, results also suggest that community-development at the SBDD is not always people-centred because training programmes are largely externally designed, monitored and evaluated, without taking into consideration the felt needs of the people. Participation that is perceived as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself can be described as tokenistic. In this light, the study recommends that the SBDD develops context-specific strategies to implement participatory methodologies at all stages of project-cycle management, in order to provide an enabling environment for the genuine participation of people at the grassroots. This approach can empower community members and build local institutional capacities to ensure project/programme sustainability in the long term.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Since its conquest by Britain in 1890, Zimbabwe has witnessed a series of constitution-making projects. Spanning over 100 years, the question of constitutional development has continued to dominate public debate. The end of colonial rule did not see an end to the demand for a constitution that is legitimate and durable. The search for an enduring and good constitution continued into the 21st century. With the unveiling of the 2013 constitution-making project, however, it seemed as if a long lasting solution had been 'delivered' on the question of a legitimate and durable constitution. The thesis assesses the questions of institutions and processes in Zimbabwe’s quest to construct a new constitution. It contends that institutions and processes used to make constitutions are as important as the contents of a final constitution. That is why more time and efforts are often spent negotiating the twin questions of institutions and processes of constitution-making than is spent negotiating the content of a constitution. With this in mind, the thesis develops standards for assessing institutions and processes used in successive constitution-making projects in Zimbabwe. A major finding of the assessment is that the twin questions of institutions and processes were neglected in all constitution-making efforts undertaken in Zimbabwe, including that which culminated in the creation of the Constitution of 2013. The thesis maintains that a lot of significance must be attached to the design of institutions and processes of constitution making if a constitution is to be enduring and widely accepted as legitimate.

The main theme of this thesis is an analysis of post-contractual behaviour of selected contractors of public procurement. Processes behind the post-contractual behaviour are succeeding already signed contracts, and can often lead to an undesirable change in contracted price. Indetification of these processes, that lead to increased post-contractual behaviour, is the key element of this thesis. For this purpose, the collection and subsequential analysis of the collected data, i.e. data about completed public procurement, is crucial.

The state of the Tendering Process in South African Government Institutions has become an area of concern in recent years with issues related to transparency, governance and rigid retrospective procedures being cited as impediments to efficiency. In tum, Knowledge Management (KM) and its ability to be applied to all types of organisations to increase efficiency has been popularised extensively. An analysis of KM literature suggested that the principles of KM may be used to increase efficiency and create competitive advantage. This study attempted to identify whether the benefits gained by other organisations through the application of Knowledge Management principles, could be applied to the Tendering Process in South African Government Institutions. The study sought to identify how Knowledge Value Chain by Wang and Ahmed (2005) may be leveraged to create an enhanced Tendering Process. The study then reviewed the Tendering Processes conducted in Australia, United States of America, Malaysia and South Africa and sought to identify the common steps in a tendering process in order to construct a standard tendering process. The Knowledge Value Chain was then applied to this process to create a standard tendering process enhanced by Knowledge Management Principles. The model was compared to the processes currently conducted in two Government institutions and two parastals. The findings indicated that the model is well suited for Government Organisations and would assist in the creation of greater transparency, however the practical implementation of the model is yet unlikely as the model suggest electronic access to information, and the process in South African Government Institutions is predominately paper-based.

À l’intersection du design et de la muséographie, la vitrine est un objet d’étude hybride rarement abordé d’un point de vue esthétique, d’où cette thèse intitulée Esthétique de la vitrine. La vitrine est conçue, habituellement, comme décor, display et écrin. Une telle approche, en minimisant le rôle actif de la vitrine dans l’économie de la monstration, donne lieu à un esthétisme de la vitrine, dont la présente thèse souhaite se départir. Pourquoi ? Car, la transparence de la vitrine est un mythe. Bien qu’elle le soit matériellement, la vitrine est un élément interférant entre le regardeur et l’objet regardé. Elle prend part activement à la relation qui s’instaure, ou plutôt qu’elle instaure, entre l’un et l’autre. Le problème directeur de la recherche consiste à questionner ce rôle interférent, sa nature, son mécanisme et la possibilité d’une esthétique.Comment ? Par le questionnement des œuvres. Cette thèse prend pour objets d’étude les œuvres, principalement des installations et des performances – de Wall, Hirschhorn, Koh, Mayaux, Dion, Gette seront particulièrement étudiés - qui ont pour point commun de s’approprier une vitrine, soit de type commercial, soit de type muséal, pour en faire un élément à part entière de leur dispositif. Pour quelles conclusions ? L’interférence de la vitrine, par le biais de son appropriation artistique, apparaît à trois niveaux. Elle est un espace d’expositions (1er moment), un cadre de perceptions (2ème moment) et un écran de représentations (3ème moment) interférant dans le triple jeu de l’exposition, de la perception et de la représentation qu’elle met en œuvre. / At the intersection of design and museography, the showcase is an hybrid study, rarely raised in terms of aesthetic appeal, hence this thesis is titled Aesthetics of the showcase. The showcase is usually designed as a decor, a display and a case. Such a perspective, minimizing the active role of the showcase in the economy of the demonstration, gives rise to an aesthetism of the showcase, which the present thesis wants to get rid. Why ? Because the transparency of the showcase is a myth. Although it is physically, the showcase is something that interfering between the Watcher and the watched object. It participates actively into the relationship that is established, or rather that it establishes between one and the other. The problematic orientation of this study is to inquire this interfere role, its nature, its mechanism and the possibility of an aesthetic.How ? Through questioning of the art-works. My doctoral thesis, mainly, focuses on installations and works performance - Wall, Hirschhorn, Koh, Mayaux, Dion, Gette will be particularly studied - who both of them, appropriates a showcase either commercial kind or Museum kind, to make them an integral part of their device.What conclusions ? The interference of the showcase, through its artistic appropriation, appears at three levels. It is a space for exhibitions (1st time), a framework of perceptions (2nd time) and a viewing of representations (3rd time) interfering in the triple set of exposure, perception and representation that it implements.

One of the main challenges that modern software developers face is the coordination of dependent agents such as software projects and other developers. Transparent development environments that make low-level software development activities visible hold much promise for assisting developers in making coordination decisions. However, the wealth of information that transparent environments provide is potentially overwhelming when developers are wading through information from potentially millions of developers and millions of software repositories when making decisions around tasks that require coordination with projects or other developers. Overcoming the risk of overload and better assisting developers in these environments requires a principled understanding of what exactly developers need to know about dependencies to make their decisions. My approach to a principled understanding of how developers use information in transparent environments is to model the process using signaling theory as a theoretical lens. Developers making key coordination decisions often must determine qualities about projects and other developers that are not directly observable. Developers infer these unobservable qualities through interpreting information in their environment as signals and use this judgment about the project or developer to inform their decision. In contrast to current software engineering literature which focuses on technical coordination between modules or within projects such as modularity or task assignment mechanisms, this work aims to understand how developers use signals to information coordination decisions with dependencies such as other projects or developers. Through this understanding of the signaling process, I can create improved signals that more accurately represent desired unobservable qualities. My dissertation work examines the qualities and signals that developers use to inform specific coordination tasks through a series of three empirical studies. The specific key coordination tasks studied are evaluating code contributions, discussing problems around contributions, and evaluating projects. My results suggest that when project managers evaluate code contributions, they prefer social signals over technical signals. When project managers discuss contributions, I found that they attend to political signals regarding influence from stakeholders to prioritize which problems need solutions. I found that developers evaluating projects tend to use signals that are related to how the core team works and the potential utility a project provides. In a fourth study, using signaling theory and findings from the qualities and signals that developers use to evaluate projects, I create and evaluate an improved signal called “supportiveness” for community support in projects. I compare this signal against the current signal that developers use, stars count, and find evidence suggesting that my designed signal is more robust and is a stronger indicator of support. The findings of these studies inform the design of tools and environments that assist developers in coordination tasks through suggestions of what signals to show and potentially improving existing signals. My thesis as a whole also suggests opportunities for exploring useful signals for other coordination tasks or even in different transparent environments.

More and more complex semi-automated systems are being developed, aiding human operators to collect and analyze data and information and even to recommend decisions and act upon these. The goal of such development is often to support the operators make better decisions faster, while at the same time decrease their workload. However, these promises are not always fulfilled and several incidents have highlighted the fact that the introduction of automated technologies might instead increase the need for human involvement andexpertise in the tasks carried out. The significance of communicating information regarding an automated system's performance and to explain its strengths and limitations to its operators is strongly highlighted within the system transparencyand operator-centered automation literature. However, it is not common that feedback containing system qualifiers is incorporated into the primary displays of the automated system, obscuring its transparency. In this thesis, we deal with the investigation of the effects of explaining and visualizing system reasoning and performance parameters in different domains on the operators' trust, workload and performance. Different proof-of-concept prototypes have been designed with transparency characteristics in mind, and quantitative and qualitative evaluations together with operators of these systems have been carried out. Our results show that the effects of automation transparency can positively influence the performance and trust calibration of operators of complex systems, yet possibly at the costs of higher workload and longer decision-making times. Further, this thesis provides recommendations for designers and developers of automated systems in terms of general design concepts and guidelines for developing transparent automated systems for the future.

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