DEd (Curriculum Studies) / Department of Curriculum Studies / The focus of this study was to investigate the sustainability of teaching Consumer Studies as a school subject. The study was conducted in Vhembe District schools. The main purpose of the study was to establish the extent of the challenges affecting the sustainability of teaching Consumer Studies and to develop the necessary measures to address them. Consumer Studies is in a struggle for legitimacy as a school subject, despite its recognition and designation by the Department of Education. The study argued that Consumer Studies as a school subject is a tool for creating a sustainable future for learners. The nature of the study demanded for the adoption of a qualitative research design. Purposeful sampling procedure was used to select the population for the study. 42 secondary schools which offered Consumer Studies in all the circuits of the Vhembe District were purposefully selected. Participants constituted of school principals, heads of departments and Consumer Studies teachers of the sampled schools. Interviews, Observation and Document analysis were used as strategies for data collection. Data was analyzed thematically. The study revealed that Consumer Studies as a school subject was gradually downgraded and was not given the value that it deserves by the relevant authorities. This was evident as five out of the fifteen sampled schools were in the process of excluding the subject from the curricular. The study also revealed that the school subject Consumer Studies was not promoted as a viable career option for learners. The subject was regarded as an elective in the curricular of most schools selected for the study. It was recommended that the value of Consumer Studies be considered in order to avoid its elimination while other learning areas were added into the system and given compulsory status as well. The study further recommends the promotion of Consumer Studies as a viable career option for learners at secondary schools. The study suggested a model for sustaining the teaching of Consumer Studies at secondary schools. / NRF

The eradication of poverty and the reduction of inequality remains one of the biggest global challenges in the 21st Century. In the last two decades the democraticg overnment of South Africa still grapple with rising levels of poverty and inequality. The aim of this research was to facilitate a roots-driven community intervention that would allow the community members from the rural village of Lubisini (Eastern Cape, South Africa) to create opportunities that will help reduce their inherent levels of poverty and inequality. In order to achieve this 132 community members were workshopped through a community asset mapping programme (CAMP) to identify their inherent human, social, environmental assets, they were then assisted to develop ideas for small businesses, their own measures of success in overcoming poverty and inequality and the improvement in their own quality of life. The CAMP process is documented, and the intervention was followed by monitoring and evaluation of challenges and successes over an 18 month period. The research concluded with various recommendations that will enable rural communities to drive their own indicators of successful sustainable development. / Geography / M. Sc. (Geography)

This research focuses on the measurement of the non-observed economic activities by sector of South Africa for the 2011 and 2016 calendar years. The purpose of the research is to determine whether the current GDP as estimated by Statistics South Africa is under- or overestimated when considering the non-observed economy. The research is based on the 2008 System of National Accounts as it determines the guidelines, definitions and characteristics of the “Non-observed economy (NOE)” sector and it allows national accountants to use/supplement the research in the estimates of the GDP. This research follows a quantitative methodology where several surveys of Statistics South Africa are used. Where lack of data exists, some administrative data is used regarding the illegal activities. The findings of the research is that the total economy of South Africa is underestimated when taking into account the NOE activities. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)

Apartheid left a legacy that is spatially skewed. This is reflected in the present patterns of poverty and inequality in South Africa. While a number of global and national initiatives are in place to reduce the levels of poverty and inequality in rural South Africa, this research aimed at the development of a tool that would be able to assist communities themselves in reducing their own levels of poverty and inequality. This research was undertaken in collaboration with the Greater Rustenburg Community Foundation and a variety of rural communities in South Africa. The Community Asset Mapping Programme (CAMP) has as its purpose the achievement of sustainable and responsible high impact social change within communities. CAMP enables community members to map their own assets and empowers them to use these assets sustainably to create a better life for themselves. Communities are empowered to identify their own entrepreneurship and livelihood strategies and opportunities in an attempt to generate their own wealth. Unlike many existing asset mapping applications, CAMP advocates that the success of any roots-driven change depends on the inclusion of processes that will provide a cognitive shift in terms of a variety of processes such as wishes, fears, trust, self-worth, and power mapping, all providing different components that ensure a process of sustainable change within communities. The research presents an argument that if communities are to achieve effective roots-driven change they would require partnerships with Non Profit Organisations, government, civil society, business, and institutes of higher learning, who are willing to stand aside and allow communities to decide their own priorities in their journey to achieve their own wealth, but who would be willing to provide funding, mentorship, skills, and a continuous monitoring process over the medium to long term. / Sociology / Ph.D. (Geography)

Financial services institutions invest in self–service technologies for various reasons. These include the demands to rationalise costs and to meet the channel preferences of a „technology- savvy‟ client base. Some advantages of self–service technologies (“SSTs”) include the optimisation of staff activities and faster and improved customer services. Retail banks experience various migration-related costs when migrating customers to an SST environment; in terms of both branch infrastructure and the development of employee skills. Some customers continue to favour face-to-face service interactions, which necessitates an identification and evaluation of the necessary skills required by employees to facilitate this migration process. This study aims to both identify and classify the requisite skills needed by financial services professionals to enable them to migrate customers from physical to electronic service channels; including ATMs. With the appropriate training and competencies, employees can guide customers more effectively through the migration process in a non-judgemental way. This would, in turn, address the lack of self-service technology understanding among customers in the longer term. The lack of support from skilled service employees has, in many instances, led to customers paying higher transactional fees and experiencing inconvenience at physical channels, thereby resulting in overall lower self-service usage. / Business Management / DBL

Apartheid left a legacy that is spatially skewed. This is reflected in the present patterns of poverty and inequality in South Africa. While a number of global and national initiatives are in place to reduce the levels of poverty and inequality in rural South Africa, this research aimed at the development of a tool that would be able to assist communities themselves in reducing their own levels of poverty and inequality. This research was undertaken in collaboration with the Greater Rustenburg Community Foundation and a variety of rural communities in South Africa. The Community Asset Mapping Programme (CAMP) has as its purpose the achievement of sustainable and responsible high impact social change within communities. CAMP enables community members to map their own assets and empowers them to use these assets sustainably to create a better life for themselves. Communities are empowered to identify their own entrepreneurship and livelihood strategies and opportunities in an attempt to generate their own wealth. Unlike many existing asset mapping applications, CAMP advocates that the success of any roots-driven change depends on the inclusion of processes that will provide a cognitive shift in terms of a variety of processes such as wishes, fears, trust, self-worth, and power mapping, all providing different components that ensure a process of sustainable change within communities. The research presents an argument that if communities are to achieve effective roots-driven change they would require partnerships with Non Profit Organisations, government, civil society, business, and institutes of higher learning, who are willing to stand aside and allow communities to decide their own priorities in their journey to achieve their own wealth, but who would be willing to provide funding, mentorship, skills, and a continuous monitoring process over the medium to long term. / Geography / Ph. D. (Geography)

Income inequality is prevalent in both developed and developing countries. In all of these countries there are workers who are highly paid while others are given very low wages. The disgruntled low-paid workers in these countries usually force their governments to intervene in the labour market and introduce the redistributive policies like the minimum wage policy. Governments usually accede to these demands of low-paid workers because they do not want to invite political troubles. That led to an increase in the number of countries using minimum wage policy as redistributive mechanism in the late 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Minimum wage policy is, however, a very controversial issue. Supporters of minimum wages regard the policy as ideal because it provides social protection to un-unionised and low-paid workers with little or no bargaining power. The opponents of the policy on the other hand argue that wages in the labour market should be determined by the forces of demand and supply. It is argued that wages that are artificially determined lead to the rationing of jobs and displacement of the very same low-paid workers that the policy is intended to protect, as employers are forced to replace unskilled workers with skilled workers and machines. South Africa’s agricultural sector workers were among some of the least paid workers in the country. Employers were able to exploit these workers because they were not protected by any labour legislation that workers in other sectors were afforded. Farm workers were only protected by common law. It was only in the 1990s that labour legislations like Basic Conditions of Employment Act, Labour Relations Act, Employment Equity Act, Extension of Security Act and Tenure Act and Skills Development Act were extended to the agricultural sector in an attempt to protect the working conditions of vulnerable workers. These acts as well failed to improve the working conditions of the agricultural sector workers and that prompted the Minister of Labour to instruct the Director-General of Labour to conduct the necessary investigations to see if it could be necessary to introduce minimum standard of employment in the sector, including minimum wages. That led to the adoption of Sectoral Determination 8 of 2003 which introduced sectoral minimum wage in the sector. The sectoral minimum wage which came into effect in 2003 was increased annually by the rate of inflation plus one per cent. It was only in 2013, after the Western Cape farm workers went on strike for higher wages, that the minimum wage was raised by 52 per cent. As argued by the opponents of minimum wages, job losses occurred among unskilled workers. The implementation of minimum wage policy in the agricultural sector was problematic, as the policy was not properly complied with due to several compliance concerns. Apart from there being insufficient inspectors to monitor and investigate cases of non-compliance, inspectors were under-trained and under-equipped. Fines imposed on offenders were too small, which further encouraged disregard for the policy. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)

Financial services institutions invest in self–service technologies for various reasons. These include the demands to rationalise costs and to meet the channel preferences of a „technology- savvy‟ client base. Some advantages of self–service technologies (“SSTs”) include the optimisation of staff activities and faster and improved customer services. Retail banks experience various migration-related costs when migrating customers to an SST environment; in terms of both branch infrastructure and the development of employee skills. Some customers continue to favour face-to-face service interactions, which necessitates an identification and evaluation of the necessary skills required by employees to facilitate this migration process. This study aims to both identify and classify the requisite skills needed by financial services professionals to enable them to migrate customers from physical to electronic service channels; including ATMs. With the appropriate training and competencies, employees can guide customers more effectively through the migration process in a non-judgemental way. This would, in turn, address the lack of self-service technology understanding among customers in the longer term. The lack of support from skilled service employees has, in many instances, led to customers paying higher transactional fees and experiencing inconvenience at physical channels, thereby resulting in overall lower self-service usage. / Business Management / DBL

The rise of civil society organisations in South Africa is crucial to development as it contributes to the bridging of the communication gap between civil society and local government organisations and municipalities and promotes access to resources. The contribution of civil society organisations to development has been widely acknowledged as they are involved in service delivery, advocacy, innovation and poverty reduction initiatives. In spite of the development work done by civil society organisations in developing countries, they still face challenges in promoting development as poverty, inequality and unemployment persist. This research focused on the social capital approach as a strategy for the development of local communities in South Africa. The social capital approach involves increasing social stability and enhancement of development issues. Social capital relies on the basic idea that “it is not what you know but who you know”. Social capital refers mostly to social cohesion, which makes a community more committed to better living conditions for all. People in communities have the capacity to improve the quality of their lives with the support of all sectors, civil society, the state and the market by letting the people in communities get involved in all the stages of the programmes because they know better from living in those communities. Civil society organisations can meaningfully add value to economic and social development in any third world country through their work. The government, the market and civil society can complement each other and add value to the development of the country. This study employed a qualitative research design. It used in-depth interviews, direct observation and focus-group interviews to collect data, which was later transcribed and analysed thematically. The main focus of this study was to critically evaluate the roles and strategies of civil society organisations in the development of South African communities, using Planact as a case study. The specific objectives were to: 1) To explore the role Planact plays in development in Johannesburg; 2) To evaluate how Planact uses social capital as a strategy in promoting development if at all; 3) To explore the challenges of civil society organisations, particularly that of Planact in the development process of poor communities and 4) To make possible recommendations in the light of the roles and strategies of civil societies identified in analysing Planact ‘s strategy in development process for the poor. This study found that as a civil society organisation Planact is acting as a voice for the voiceless through its advocacy programme. It contributes to policy making, good governance and accountability. In addition, Planact promotes participation and assists in education and training. Planact uses different strategies to promote development in the community, such as mentoring, promoting integrated human settlement, using technology in networking, encouraging participation, community economic development and social organisation. Furthermore, the organisation uses forums, awareness campaigns and empowerment as strategies to promote development in the community. However, the study found that the organisation faces challenges because of limited funding. The community also encounters certain challenges as they engage with the organisation, for example, lack of accountability, unresponsiveness and inaccessibility. It was noted that civil society organisations should adopt a higher priority in development planning and practice and should allow the participation of poor people in the development process. / Development Studies / M.A. (S.S.)