The study emanated from the researcher’s experience and involvement in clinical nursing and nursing management. The researcher noted how heavy losses of recruited professional nurses might have had an influence on the quality of service delivery. It is a costly and time-consuming task to recruit enough nurses into the profession and retention of staff is especially difficult. There had been a significant increase in the number of professional nurses leaving the district hospitals either to primary health care service, private hospitals or other countries. Before the commencement of the study the turnover rate at the district hospital where the study was conducted, almost doubled the accepted norm, which was ten percent of the staff. For those reasons the researcher decided to conduct a study named, “Accelerated staff turnover among professional nurses at a district hospital.” The constant heavy losses of qualified nurses from the profession constitute one of the serious challenges for nursing managers. The researcher wanted answers to the following question: “What were your experiences of your job as a professional nurse at the district hospital?” The objectives of the study were: · to explore and describe factors leading to high staff turnover of professional nurses at a district hospital · to develop guidelines to help retain professional nurses. The design of this study, which was conducted in one of the district hospitals in the Makana Local Service Area in the Eastern Cape, is qualitative, descriptive and contextual. Informed permission for conducting the research was obtained from relevant authorities and participants were asked to sign a consent form before the researcher proceeded with the study. Participants that met the selection criteria were selected by means of purposive sampling. Data was obtained by means of semi-structured telephonic interviews that were audio-taped and later transcribed verbatim. To ensure trustworthiness of the study, the researcher applied the four strategies as proposed by Lincoln and Guba (De Vos, 2002:351) namely, credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. Collected data was analysed according to the descriptive method proposed by Tesch (in Creswell, 1994:154). The services of an independent coder, who was provided with transcripts and a protocol to guide data analysis, were utilised. A consensus meeting was held between the researcher and the independent coder to discuss the identified themes and sub-themes. Following the data analysis, a literature control was undertaken to highlight the similarities to and differences in comparison between this and previous studies. Four major themes and sub-themes were identified through analysis.

The Mngazana and Mngazi estuaries are situated just south of Port St. Johns close to the biogeographical boundary between the warm temperate and subtropical zones along the east coast of Southern Africa. The Mngazana estuary is a permanently open estuary with three species of mangrove. The Mngazi estuary is a temporarily open/closed system. The ichthyofauna was sampled with seine nets and gillnets during June 2005, August 2005, November 2005, February 2006 and April 2006. The fish community structure was significantly different between the two estuaries with the differences being especially noticeable in the larger fish sampled with gillnets. There were significant differences in the fish community sampled with the seine net on both spatial and temporal scales in both of the estuaries. Certain warm temperate species were less abundant and certain subtropical species were more abundant at the Mngazana estuary than they were during a study conducted in 1975. Stomach content analysis revealed that most species had similar diets in the two estuaries with the only differences occurring among benthic feeding species. The diet of sub-adult piscivores comprised of a large proportion of penaeid prawns while the juveniles feed mainly on mysids. The zooplanktivorous fish feed mainly on copepods and mysids with the proportions varying between the species. Benthic feeding fishes showed the greatest variability in diet with plant material, detritus, crabs and copepods being the main food sources. Stable isotopes revealed that particulate organic matter and microphytobenthos were the most important carbon sources to fish in the Mngazi estuary. In the Mngazana estuary a combination of mangrove material, detritus, particulate organic matter and Zostera material were the most important carbon sources. The importance of each of these sources did, however, vary greatly between the different trophic guilds of the fish in the Mngazana estuary. The distribution of certain fish species was investigated in relation to physical parameters (temperature, salinity, turbidity and depth) and biological parameters (prey and predators) in the environment. It was found that most small fish (< 100 mm SL) were strongly correlated with turbidity where-as they showed weak correlations with their prey. Sub-adult piscivores fell into two groups, i.e. those that could tolerate turbid water and those that were only found in clear water. The group that also occurred in turbid water showed very strong correlations with their prey but the clear water group did not. It would appear that the small and thus vulnerable fish seemed to occur in areas that offered them protection rather than areas where their food supply is most abundant, where-as the piscivores were more influenced by prey distribution, as long as the physical conditions were tolerable to them.

Predator reintroductions are becoming increasingly more common for multiple reasons, including assisting with the conservation of a predator species, the restoration of ecosystem functions and the economic benefits of their reintroduction for ecotourism ventures. There remains however, little knowledge on prey species responses to these predator reintroductions. As such, the reintroduction of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) into Samara Private Game Reserve provided an opportunity to investigate prey responses to predator reintroduction across a range of spatial and temporal scales. More specifically, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cheetah predation risk on habitat use and behavioural responses of the resident ungulate community. Samara is divided into “predator present” and “predator absent” sections, providing the opportunity to conduct a comparative study investigating the effect of cheetah on prey responses. It was hypothesized that different ungulate species would respond differently to the presence of cheetah, depending on differences in perceived vulnerability to cheetah predation. To address this, shifts in habitat use, and behavioural responses of the ungulate community reflected at landscape and patch scale were investigated. Overall, ungulate species have not shifted habitat use since cheetah reintroduction, this was possibly related to life history strategy constraints and the need for individuals to obtain suitable forage and therefore remain in specific habitats. While no shift in habitat use was observed for the majority of ungulate species, a shift in behaviour was observed for kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) at a landscape scale, where kudu dedicated more time to vigilance and less time to foraging within the predator section. In addition, individuals within smaller kudu groups were observed to be more vigilant than individuals within larger groups of kudu within the predator section. Although the other three ungulate species monitored did not increase time spent vigilant within the predator section, they still maintained relatively high levels of vigilance, potentially as a means of social monitoring. At a patch level, ungulate species responded strongly to a predator cue as a proxy for cheetah proximity, and increased time spent vigilant with a trade-off of lower foraging effort. This vigilant response was strongest for kudu. Differences in perceived predation risk were reflected within eland (Tragelaphus oryx) and kudu species demographic classes, with juvenile eland and kudu, adult female kudu and subadult female kudu spending more time vigilant within manipulated patches than respective males of each species. Kudu were also observed adopting fine-scale behavioural responses to minimize predation risk within patches. The asymmetrical prey species response to perceived predation risk from cheetah supports the hypothesis that different species respond differently to the presence of a predator. Furthermore, this study illustrated the importance of measuring prey responses to predation risk across multiple scales and highlighted the need to replicate this study for a number of different sites where predators have been reintroduced, to better understand the range of factors influencing these predator-prey interactions.

This research report investigated the effects of a poverty alleviation project, the Cala bakery, on the community members of the Sakhisizwe Municipality in the Eastern Cape. This chapter provides a background to the study and also provides an introduction to the research report by discussing the relevance and problem statement, the research questions, sample and setting, research design and methodology and finally considers the ethical implications of the investigation. May 1997 described South Africa as being a developing nation with the majority of households in poverty, and having unequal distribution of income and wealth. Due to this, the democratic government of 1994 had adopted pro poor policy that focused on social services which its budget increases every year. Within this realm, poverty alleviation projects remained an important component of the government‟s challenge of tackling poverty (May, 1997). After almost 16 years of democracy in South Africa, poverty and unemployment remained a major challenge facing government in provision of basic services (Shasha, 2004). South Africa continued to be characterised by a large scale of unemployment and poverty in the formal sector of the economy in both rural and urban areas (Shasha & Liesle, 2004).Although there was poverty throughout South Africa, poverty was distributed unevenly among the nine provinces of the country. The Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Free State provinces have the highest poverty rates especially among the rural areas (DOS, 2009). The only people who survived poverty in the South African country were people that were well to do, people that could be able to make economic gains. Those people who were unemployed found themselves in debt, as it had been identified that a majority of homes and people do not save. This was due to being a country depending on social welfare services which resulted to disserving of people and to unsustainable levels of household debts. These debts were usually based on social, economic and psychological problems (Shasha & Liesle, 2004). In response, the South African government introduced community based projects whose operation was limited to a particular neighbourhood, and were run and managed by the local members of a community. The white paper for social welfare 1997 had encouraged the establishment of income generating projects which were run and managed by the group of community members who were predominantly unemployed people. The Department of Social Development (DOS, 2004) had further emphasised that these people had to include unemployed youth and that the project beneficiaries would not come from the same household to ensure that the initiative was touching a number of households within the community(DOS, 2004). Furthermore, these government intervention programmes aimed to reduce unemployment and poverty in South Africa by encouraging people to reduce poverty by themselves (Shasha, 2004). An example of one of these programmes was the Cala Development Project. The Cala community‟s youth had a business idea of producing baked products for the community and the surrounding areas. The purpose was to bring people together in order to reduce poverty and unemployment, specifically targeting young people who were household heads. The project has 8 beneficiaries that were committed to working together in this project, with the aim of producing baked foods.

The aim of this research was to investigate the socio economic impact of electrification in Mnquma Municipality in the province of Eastern Cape. Mnquma Municipality has a backlog of about 25475 households that have not yet been electrified. There is a high demand of electricity in villages that have not yet been electrified. Eskom Southern Region has about 5 Million electrified households. The year 2012 was declared as year of universal access of electricity in South Africa. In the last three years amount of electrified households has been coming down at alarming rate. It is against this background that the study sought to investigate the socio economic impact of electrification of households. This study is a comparative study where two villages are compared. One village is electrified whilst the other village is not electrified. The study is based on the questionnaire opinion survey where respondents‟ views and opinion are solicited to test if electricity improves the socio economic conditions of Mnquma households. The study confirmed the findings of the research if electrification has improved the socio economic condition and if electricity is a preferred source of energy. The study proposed recommendations encompasses strategic responses to check if Government is achieving the desired goal through electrification of households.

This research sought to better understand and explain the factors that account for the non-involvement of parents in their children’s school affairs. It also sought to recommend to the Department of Education developmental strategies that can be utilised towards ensuring the participation of parents by equipping them with knowledge and skills that can help them to become more involved in the success of their children in schools. This research employed a case study design to collect data from parents and teachers using qualitative methods. The qualitative approach was considered appropriate because it affords both exploration and explanation of parents’ non-involvement in the Kotana administrative Area in which three schools were selected by the researcher. Interviews with a total of nine participants constituted by both parents and teachers were conducted. These tape recorded interviews were then transcribed and interpreted by the researcher. Emerging themes were then extracted and presented as explanatory findings on the issue of the non-involvement of parents in their children’s schooling matters. The study found that the level of education; fear of victimisation; language barrier; poor communication of information; lack of personal time; lack of confidence on the part of parents; cultural expectations; transport problems; misbehaviour by teenagers; HIV and AIDS; and the new curriculum accounts for parental non-involvement, and uncovered reasons for non-participation by parents in the affairs of their children at school.

Poverty in South Africa is vast. This is an open secret as it manifests itself in so many ways. It is widely known that South Africans are faced with one of poverty indicators, such as unemployment; hence our government is committed to fight poverty in various ways like, poverty alleviation, poverty eradication and poverty reduction programmes. This study looked at poverty of targeted people after Zamokuhle Ngcweleni was implemented. The researcher looked at the project’s contribution on poverty under sustainable livelihood approach with guidance of OECD(1991) criteria of judging the project these being; relevance, effectiveness and sustainability South Africa is committed in this regard with policies and strategies directed to fight poverty, Altman, Hart and Jacobs (2009). In the Constitution of South Africa (Act 1996) section 27 (1) (b)-(c) of this country, poverty is set to be fought, that people must have access to food sustainably through food security strategy. Government, through its departments commits to deliver to mostly affected people, services that deal with poverty reduction. The Department of Social Development is one of the vehicles to get these services to poverty stricken people blamed to history, politics and social ills. It is upon this background the study is done. The community of Ngcweleni with the assistance of the Department of Social Development and Special Programme has assumed this project, the Zamokuhle Ngcweleni with two activities, household gardens and egg production. 30 beneficiaries would sell for income and feed from the produce .This project started in 2010/11 financial year by the sub section, sustainable livelihood in the DOSD, based from the socio economic conditions of Ngcweleni where poverty is one the characteristic. The Zamokuhle Ngcweleni project was randomly chosen by the researcher for this study. The research was based on the aims and objective of the study. The study took place in a natural setting and was descriptive. Interviews, focus groups, documents and household survey were used by the researcher as data collection tools. The study was qualitative. Data was analysed using themes and interpreted thereafter. Participants were the beneficiaries of the Zamokuhle Ngcweleni project and officials of the department. Tables and graphs were used for biographical information to show age, gender, educational and marital status of the beneficiaries; for officials it showed qualification, designation and gender. The researcher gathered that the project has contributed positively to the poverty of the beneficiaries because of its relevance and effectiveness. It made beneficiaries food secure and the impact showed poverty is reduced. The project showed unsustainability and the researcher recommends the needs to investigate this further.

This study investigated whether the PGCE adequately develops the WIL skills of student teachers. WIL skills have contributed extensively to the effectiveness of the facilitation of teaching and learning in schools. The definitions of WIL in this study refer to the skills required to succeed in practice. The four domains of Danielson provide the WIL skills, namely Preparation and Planning, the School Environment, Instruction and Professional Responsibilities. The study showed that there is a link between the four domains and the capacity of student teachers to integrate the theory they acquire at the HEIs and practice in the schools. The quantitative approach is referred to by Creswell (2005:39) as a type of educational research in which the researcher decides what to study, asks specific narrow questions, collects numeric data, which is numbered data from participants, analyzes these numbers using statistics, and conducts the inquiry in an unbiased, objective manner. As this study requires numeric data that ask specific questions, two questionnaires were distributed. One questionnaire was directed at school – based mentors and the other at PGCE student teachers. The mentors rated the students’ capacity in the four domains and the students rated themselves on the same items based on the four domains. The research instrument provides insight from school-based mentors with regard to whether there is a balance between the theoretical knowledge provided by HEIs and the WIL skills that student - teachers need. The questionnaires completed by PGCE student teachers provided perspectives from the students with regard to the relevance of their WIL skills for the schools at which they were placed. The hypothesis for this study is: The PGCE makes a significant contribution to the development of the WIL skills of ITE student teachers. Some of Some of the key findings in this study indicated that: • Constant curriculum changes in the schools create uncertainty for student teachers. • Student teachers need assistance to motivate learners to take pride in their work and achievements. • Managing learner behaviour is cause for concern for student teachers. • Language proficiency continues to be problematic in the teaching and learning environment, because it impacts on questioning, discussion techniques and the student teachers’ capacity to explain concepts. • Student teachers need assistance with the pacing of their lessons. • Adjusting their lessons, which requires spontaneity from student teachers is needed. • Opportunities need to be created for student teachers to gain access to the parents of their learners. • Student teachers need to devote more time to the development of reflective skills. • Excessive administrative tasks hamper delivery in the classroom and teacher and learner productivity. The findings strongly suggested that a significant relationship exists between the WIL skills of PGCE students and their effectiveness as facilitators of learning. The findings of the study indicated that the PGCE curriculum needs to incorporate the crucial WIL skills as identified in the four domains. The findings of this study supported the hypothesis that the PGCE makes a significant contribution to the development of the WIL skills of Initial Teacher Education student teachers (ITE).

The research was conducted in the Hewu area situated between Queenstown (20 km) and Whittlesea (15km) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. In this area communal farming is practiced. Livestock and livestock products (wool) are the main sources of income. The farmers are mainly farming with Merino and Döhne Merino sheep. The lack of management systems (production, reproduction and management) for communal farmers resulted into ineffective communal farming defining the research problem. The research objectives set were: • To establish production norms for wool sheep. • To establish reproduction norms for wool sheep. • To establish effective management practices for wool sheep farmers. • To examine key constraints of wool sheep farmers. The farmers shear their sheep every 12 months usually in October of every year. The average wool production per sheep is 2.17kg. The clip averages a fineness of 19.1-20 micron. That is far below the wool production of the commercial farmers of the Eastern Cape who are producing between 4kg to 5kg per sheep at an average growing period of 12 months. The lack of proper fencing and camps causes major reproduction problems. The lambing percentage of the ewes is 94.85 percent. The weaning percentage referring to the reproductive efficiency of the mated ewes is only 17.24 percent. The survival rate of the lambs born alive is only 18.18 percent. Reproduction is the biggest problem of communal farms. Effective livestock- and grazing management systems for communal areas are essential for the successful development of farmers on communal grazing areas. Unfortunately the Hewu farmers still have many problems effecting their wool production and the production of lambs.

The study sought to evaluate the extent to which poverty alleviation programmes of the Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform (DRDAR) addressed the agricultural needs of the Ndakana community. The emphasis had been on the effectiveness with which these programmes were implemented. Ndakana Village is situated in the Nqamakwe District. The village consists of Hili-hili, Mathafeni, Ncora and Diphini locations which are approximately twenty kilometres from the rural town of Nqamakwe in Amathole District. In the Eastern Cape, several poverty alleviation programmes are implemented which should, inter alia, alleviate the phenomenon of poverty in the rural areas. Despite these programmes it, however, appears that there is very little, if any, improvement in the poverty situation. Against this background it is essential that the progress in the alleviation of poverty be evaluated and if necessary, steps be taken to ensure that the envisaged objectives be achieved. On the importance of evaluating the program, Monette et al. (2011:5) write that in the past few decades, many large, ambitious expensive programmes intended to cope with social problems and to provide services to individuals have been developed. Along with the growth of these programs has emerged an increasing concern over their results: Do they achieve their intended goals? These programs are costly, and some evaluation is needed to assess whether resources are, indeed, being used effectively. Equally important, a program that fails to achieve its goals leave a problem unresolved or a service undelivered. Monette et al. (2011:6) further regard evaluation as a use of scientific research techniques to assess the result of a program and evaluate whether the program, as currently designed, achieve its stated goals In accordance with the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) (1994:20), a national land reform programme is the central driving force of rural development. Such a programme aims to effectively address the injustices of the forced removals and the historical denial of access to land. The RDP aims to ensure security of tenure for rural dwellers in implementing the national land reform programme, and through the provision of support services, the South African government intends to build the economy by generating large-scale employment, increasing rural income and endeavours to eliminate overcrowding.