Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suksesvolle eksplorasieprojekte en die daaropvolgende mynboubedrywighede kan as die stimulus dien vir ekonomiese groei in Suider Afrika deur middel van werkskepping, beter lewensomstandighede, en uiteindelik ekonomiese en polilieke stabilileit. Mynbou het die vermoe om dit te bewerkstellig. Die doel is om uiteindelik 'n langtermyn, veilige, vredevolle en vooruitstrewende oplossing vir die streek te vind, wat volgehoue groei gebaseer op 'n ekonomiese opbloei veroorsaak deur die implementering van suksesvolle mynbouprojekte en vooruitstrrewendheid tot gevolg het. Om dit reg te kry, is 'n deeglike en volledige studie betreffende alle moontlike risiko's, polities, ekonomies en sosiaal, wat sulke bedrywighede kan beinvloed, noodsaaklik. Ongelukkig ly die streek aan 'n gebrek aan buitelandse vaste investering as gevolg van burokrasie, politieke onstabiliteit en 'n onsekere veiligheidsituasie. Die hoof doel van hierdie studie is om 'n model daar te stel wat gebruik kan word om 'n voorlopige ontleding van 'n land se risikofaklore aangaande die algemene besigheids- en beleggingsklimaat te doen, soos gesien uit die oogpunt van beleggers in eksplorasie en mynbouprojekte. Angola en Zimbabwe, waar mynbou 'n groot rol kan speel, is geidentifiseer op die basis van die kwalitiet van hul mineraalafsettings en mynboupotensiaal. Deur gebruik te maak van die model wat in hierdie studie ontwikkel is waar gradering berus op 'Politieke', 'Finansiele', 'Sosiale Risiko', asook 'Eienaarsrisiko' onderskeidelik, gradeer Angola as 'n CBCB land met 'n matig stabiele omgewing om eksplorasie en mynbouprojekte van stapel te stuur. Dit is 'n land met uitgebreide minerale moontlikhede en alhoewel die infrastruktuur op hierdie stadium te kort skiet, het die land drie groot hawens. Geen groot bedreigings of destabiliserende faktore bestaan op die kort- tot medium termyn nie. Dit het die vermoe om tot 'n BBCB status oor die medium- tot lang termyn te beweeg. Zimbabwe verwerf 'n gradering van DDC+C, wat dui op 'n hoogs riskante omgewing om eksplorasie en mynbouprojekle van stapel te stuur. Niemand is seker wat die huidige verkiesing en die toekomstige politieke bedeling sal voortbring nie. Die huidige situasie kan amper net verbeter vir die land en sy mense met die moontlikheid van 'n regering van nasionale eenheid. Alhoewel die land dalk nog nie sy onderste draaipunt bereik het nie, kan 'n gradering van CC+C+C+ 'n moontlikheid oor die medium termyn wees, en selfs beter op die langtermyn. In 'n land met enorme minerale moontlikhede het die tyd aangebreek om te begin soek na geskikte gebiede vir eksplorasie doeleindes. Zimbabwe het die potensiaal om weer Afrika se kosmandjie te word met ondersteuning van die mynboukant. 'n Regverdige demokratiesverkose regering en baie harde werk, toewyding en deursettingsvermoe is nodig om uiteidelik te seevier. Laastens, die belangrikste deel van die risikobepaling van 'n land kom in die vorm van politieke risiko, en meer spesifiek, "leiersrisiko". Ongelukkig is die grootste struikelblok in langtermyn-vooruitskatting die feit dat die status quo vir die volgende dekade geldig kan bly, of amper oornag omvergegooi kan word. Dit kan weer lei tot 'n kettingreaksie reg deur al die sfere van die politieke en sosioekonomiese orde, binne en soms selfs buite die land in die vorm van binnelandse oproerigheid en buitelandse sanksies of ondersteuning. 'n Gevoel van dringendheid om te verander tot voordeel van almal, moet egter nog posvat. Die son wag nie vir Afrika nie. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Successful exploration projects and subsequent mining ventures can provide the stimulus for economic growth in Southern Africa through job creation, improved living conditions, and eventually economic and political stability. The aim is to ultimately ensure a long- term, safe, peaceful and prosperous solution for the region consisting of continuous growth and prosperity based upon an economic kickoff sparked by the implementation of successful mining projects. To achieve this, a thorough and comprehensive study of all possible risks, political, economic and social affecting such ventures is of the utmost importance. Unfortunately, the region suffers from a lack of foreign direct investment to make this happen largely as a result of bureaucracy, political instability and an uncertain security situation. The main aim of this study is to create a model for an initial risk analysis by analysing a country's risk factors relevant to the overall business and investment climate as perceived by investors in exploration and mining projects. Two countries, Angola and Zimbabwe, where mining can play a large role have been identified based on the quality of their mineral deposits and mining potential. Using the model developed in this research study where grading is based on 'Political', 'Financial (Transfer)', 'Social', and 'Ownership Risk' respectively, Angola rates a CBCB country with a moderately stable environment in which to launch exploration and mining ventures. It is a country with a vast mineral potential and although the support infrastructure is lacking at this stage, have three major ports. No major threats or destabilising factors exist in the near to medium terms. It has the ability to change to a BBCB status over the medium to long term. Zimbabwe receives a rating of DDC+C with a highly risky environment to launch exploration and mining ventures. No one is sure what the last election and the future political framework will bring. The current status can almost only improve for the country and its people with the possibility of a government of national unity. Although the country might not have reached the bottom turning point yet, a CC+C+C+ rating could be a possibility over the medium term and even better over the long term. In a country with enormous mineral potential, it is time to start scouting for promising regions for exploration purposes. Zimbabwe has the potential to again become the bread basket of Africa with backup from the mining industry. A proper democratically elected government and much hard work, commitment and dedication are necessary to be successful eventually. Finally, the most important/crucial part of measuring the risk associated with a country comes in the form of political risk and more precisely, sovereign risk. Unfortunately, and this is the main stumbling block in long-term forecasting, the status quo can continue for the next decade, or be turned upside down almost overnight. This in turn can lead to a chain reaction throughout all spheres of the political and socioeconomic standing, inside and outside the country in the form of domestic upheaval and foreign sanctions or support. A sense of urgency to change for the better still has to emerge though. The sun doesn't wait for Africa.

<p>The dissertation examines three military interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa which took place in the mid and late 1990s in Rwanda, the DRC and Lesotho. These interventions took place despite high expectations of international and regional peace on the part of most analysts after the collapse of cold war in 1989. However, interstate and intrastate conflicts re-emerged with more intensity than ever before, and sub-Saharan Africa proved to be no exception.</p> <p><br /> The study sets out to analyse the motives and/or causes of military interventions in Rwanda in 1990, the DRC in 1996-7, and the DRC military rebellion and the Lesotho intervention in 1998. In analysing these interventions, the study borrows extensively from the work of dominant security theorists of international relations, predominantly realists who conceptualise international relations as a struggle for power and survival in the anarchic world. The purpose of this analysis is fourfold / firstly, to determine the reasons for military interventions and the extent to which these interventions were conducted on humanitarian grounds / secondly, to investigate the degree to which or not intervening countries were spurred by their national interests / thirdly, to assess the roles of international organisations like Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations, in facilitating these interventions / as well as to evaluate the role of parliaments of intervening countries in authorising or not these military interventions in terms of holding their Executives accountable. In this context, the analysis argues that the intervening countries / Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Chad, Namibia, Rwanda, Sudan, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe appeared to have used intervention as a realist foreign policy tool in the absence of authorisation from the United Nations and its subordinate bodies such as the OAU and SADC.</p>

M. Tech. Business Administration / The purpose of the study was to investigate, evaluate and validate the state of readiness of South African National Defence Force infantry military commanders to manage disasters in southern Africa. A survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire that was completed by 122 respondents from three infantry battalions and the infantry formation headquarters across South Africa, representing a reasonable cross-section of infantry battalions leaders.

Staple food prices rose sharply in 2007/2008, dropped slightly after July 2008, and rose again in 2010/2011. Since 2008, food prices have remained high, indicating a structural upward adjustment in food prices amidst excessive price volatility. The 2008 food price increases led to considerable media coverage and alarm among governments who implemented a variety of responses to protect their populations from food insecurity. At the start of the high food price crisis in May 2008, the African Union and New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AU/NEPAD) invited 16 African countries to a workshop in South Africa. The aim of the workshop was to assist selected African countries identify and formulate appropriate plans to mitigate food insecurity and manage rising food prices. This study set out to investigate whether the strategies implemented by national governments at the start of the crisis mitigated high food prices through improved risk management strategies in five African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda) and evaluated these strategies to see if they were included in the national agriculture and food security investment plans. To achieve this, the study set out to explore four sub-problems, namely: What was the impact of high food prices on populations in the five selected countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda)? How did the five countries respond to the 2008 food price crisis with regard to providing for immediate needs and protecting vulnerable groups from food insecurity? How many early actions were included in country compacts and agriculture and food investment programmes? Do country investment plans include household risk management programmes that will protect vulnerable groups against high food prices in future? The involvement of the researcher in the AU/NEPAD workshop and his subsequent engagement with national government representatives provided a unique opportunity to analyse the iterative process of Country Investment Plan (CIP) development. This innovative and largely qualitative study integrated comparative, content and thematic analysis approaches, using the four elements of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme’s (CAADP) Framework for African Food Security (FAFS) to analyse the national plans. The study drew on available data from a wide variety of national, regional and international documents. Additional data were collected through a survey questionnaire completed by CAADP country focal persons. Data sourced from documents included Food Price Indices, country policy responses to high food prices, poverty and malnutrition indicators and the types of risk management strategies designed under CAADP. The study found that food prices increased across all five countries between 2007 and 2008, although the effects of the increases varied, being influenced by, among other factors, the proportion of national stocks purchased on the international market (i.e. net importers of staple crops), the availability of substitute staples on the domestic market and the magnitude of the difference between international and domestic market prices. The 2008 food price increases forced populations to spend a higher proportion of their income on food and eroded their purchasing power, impacting on the food security of these populations. Poor people adopted eroding consumption strategies that increased food insecurity. The impact of the high food prices on populations was determined by whether they were net food buyers or producers, the mix of staple commodities in their food basket and the proportion of income spent on food. As poor net food importing countries, imported staple foods became too costly, except in Uganda - a net exporter of food staples consumed in the surrounding countries. High food prices also provoked social unrest in Ethiopia and exacerbated political and economic instability in Kenya. Countries’ early responses to the food price crisis were varied and included responses that can be classified into three main categories, namely: Trade-oriented responses protected domestic stocks, reduced tariffs, restricted exports to reduce prices for consumers or increased domestic supply Consumer-oriented responses provided direct support to consumers and vulnerable groups in the form of, among others, food subsidies, social safety nets, tax reductions and price controls Producer-oriented responses provided incentives for farmers to increase production - using measures such as input subsidies and producer price support. Most responses were aimed at managing prices, suggesting that governments tried to protect citizens from price increases and buffer consumption reduction. Safety net programmes mitigated risks through the provision of food for immediate consumption. As a result, malnutrition levels unexpectedly decreased or remained static in these five countries, despite expectations and media claims that the number of hungry people would increase significantly. The early actions from the food price workshop plans were generally systematically translated into long-term programmes in the Compacts and Country Investment Plans. In Ethiopia, seven of eight early action plans were translated into the CIP, Kenya included three of eight, Malawi’s CIP included four of ten, and Rwanda included six of its ten early actions in their CIP programme, while Uganda included only six of thirteen early actions in their CIP. The study found that CIPs included risk management strategies, but these focused predominantly on improving early warning systems and crisis prevention. The risk management options largely included options for improving crisis prevention, followed by improving emergency responses and strengthening risk management policies and institutions. Only Kenya’s CIP included more risk management options for improving emergency responses – four of six risk management programmes. Despite expectations that programmes developed under CAADP FAFS would include all FAFS elements, CIPs lacked programmes to improve dietary quality. Only Rwanda’s CIP included nutrition programmes - three of six programmes in their CIP. The study concluded that while the proposed risk management strategies could mitigate risks associated with high food prices and offer some buffer for populations from food insecurity, the programmes are not comprehensive. The plans were generally weak regarding improving dietary quality through diversification of food consumption and production. Although the CIPs included risk management strategies, these strategies would not address risks in a comprehensive manner. More effective and coherent actions are still required to help the most food insecure populations cope with increasing high food prices and future price shocks; help developing country farmers respond to the opportunities offered by the rising demand for their products; and bring more stability in prices. The early food price response workshop seems to have influenced the development of programmes in the CAADP compact and CIPs, despite the fact that the workshop did not intend to assist countries with the development of comprehensive national investment plans. The large funding gaps in the CIPs constrain implementation of essential mitigation and development strategies and could leave countries vulnerable to the negative impacts of higher prices for consumers and threaten future household food security. The study recommends that countries invest in agriculture-led growth to boost domestic production and strengthen institutional capacities regarding national food stock reserves to reduce their dependency on imports and ensure food insecurity. National monitoring and evaluation systems need to be strengthened to evaluate and monitor the implementation of CIPs and to warn about future high food prices. Empirical estimation of the impact of price increases on households across all CAADP countries is needed to understand and monitor the impact of price changes and interventions. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

In this study, a household resilience score was developed as a measure of rural household resilience to identify households with low resilience and to measure progress towards improved household resilience. Resilience is the ability of households to cope with risk. The motivation for the study originated from the first objective of the Framework of African Food Security (FAFS) of improved household risk management, and the indicator of progress towards this objective – proposed by the FAFS - a resilience score. A review of the literature indicated that the assets owned by a household could be used as a proxy for resilience. The household component of the Demographic and Health Surveys for six African countries was used to develop and apply the resilience score. The score was estimated using an index of assets owned by the household and information regarding household access to certain services and characteristics of the dwelling. There is disagreement in the literature concerning the best method of constructing an asset index in terms of how to weight the variables included in the index. As a result, four methods of constructing an index of socio-economic status (SES) were selected for comparison in this study: two linear principal component analysis (PCA) techniques; a non-linear or categorical principal component analysis (CATPCA) method; and a simple sum of assets technique. The results from the application of each of the four indices to the country data and the resulting classification of households into quintiles of SES were compared across several assessment criteria. No single method out-performed the others across all the assessment criteria. However, the CATPCA method performed better in terms of the proportion of variance explained by the first principal component and the stability of the solution. The results showed that for all methods, SES was not evenly distributed across the sample populations for the countries analysed. This violates the assumption of uniformity implied when using quintiles as classification cut-off points. As an alternate to the quintile split cluster analysis was applied to the SES scores derived for each country. The classification of households into SES groups was repeated using k-means cluster analysis of the household SES scores estimated by the CATPCA method for each country. The results showed that a greater proportion of households fell into relatively lower levels of SES, which is in contrast to the assumption of uniformity of SES made when using the quintile cut-off approach. Cluster analysis better reflected the clustered nature of the household data analysed in this study, compared to the quintile cut-off method. In a final analysis, the index of SES along with k-means cluster analysis was applied to household data from two different time periods for five African countries to determine whether the resilience measure was able to detect changes in household SES between the two periods and, therefore, whether the tool could be used to monitor changes in household resilience over time. The results showed evidence of adjustments in SES over time: there were differences in the per cent of households allocated to the clusters of SES between the two periods. Using the CATPCA index and k-means cluster analysis, Egypt, Uganda and Mali showed an increase in the per cent of 'poor' households, while for Kenya and Tanzania there was a reduction in the per cent of households allocated to the first cluster between time periods: the decrease for Kenya from 2003 to 2008 was as much as 13 percentage points. The observed changes in SES were then compared to changes in national poverty estimates reported in the literature. The resilience score developed in the study displayed an ability to track changes in household SES over time and could be used as a measure of progress towards improved household resilience. As such, the resilience measure could be valuable to policy-makers for monitoring the impacts of policies aimed at improving household resilience. Future research is recommended before the reliability of the resilience measure developed here can be fully ascertained. / Thesis (M.Sc.Agric.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

The current plight of biodiversity decline has led ecologists, resource managers and policy makers to search for new approaches to reverse the gloomy trend. The aims of the present study were to investigate the potential contribution of indigenous knowledge systems in wildlife management/conservation as a basis in improving community based natural resources management projects in Botswana and to asses the link between indigenous ecological principles and conventional ecological approaches in wildlife conservation. For the purpose of this research, hunting was chosen as a parameter for assessment of the indigenous conservation/management strategies. The choice was based on the knowledge that hunting, as a consumptive form of wildlife utilisation, plays a pivotal role in the long-term viability and sustainability of wildlife populations. The research approach made use of documentary data, traditional gathering, interviews involving key informants and focus groups and participant observation. The nature and purpose of the research called for snowball sampling technique which ensured purposive sampling. The greatest challenge that face indigenous knowledge systems is that they lack systematic documentation as they are only in the minds of local people and they are orally transmitted between generations. The threat towards this knowledge base is that it is often marginalised and lost in the modern times due to fragmentation and homogenisation of cultures and traditional institutions that supported it. It was through the urgent need dictated by this status quo that this research project was conceived in an attempt to document, understand and cautiously interpret the systems and practices for potential contribution to conventional natural resources management strategies. Research findings showed that communities had resource management and conservation strategies based on sound ecological principles though these were marginalised in favour of conventional inadequate conservation attempts that had no relevance to the cultures resident within the ecosystems. It is these resource use strategies together with the traditional institutions and structures which regulated them, that suggestions and recommendations made by this research calls for their revitalisation and policy, legal and institutional reforms and harmonisation to accommodate and give way to the adoption process in conventional conservation endeavours. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.

<p>The dissertation examines three military interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa which took place in the mid and late 1990s in Rwanda, the DRC and Lesotho. These interventions took place despite high expectations of international and regional peace on the part of most analysts after the collapse of cold war in 1989. However, interstate and intrastate conflicts re-emerged with more intensity than ever before, and sub-Saharan Africa proved to be no exception.</p> <p><br /> The study sets out to analyse the motives and/or causes of military interventions in Rwanda in 1990, the DRC in 1996-7, and the DRC military rebellion and the Lesotho intervention in 1998. In analysing these interventions, the study borrows extensively from the work of dominant security theorists of international relations, predominantly realists who conceptualise international relations as a struggle for power and survival in the anarchic world. The purpose of this analysis is fourfold / firstly, to determine the reasons for military interventions and the extent to which these interventions were conducted on humanitarian grounds / secondly, to investigate the degree to which or not intervening countries were spurred by their national interests / thirdly, to assess the roles of international organisations like Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations, in facilitating these interventions / as well as to evaluate the role of parliaments of intervening countries in authorising or not these military interventions in terms of holding their Executives accountable. In this context, the analysis argues that the intervening countries / Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Chad, Namibia, Rwanda, Sudan, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe appeared to have used intervention as a realist foreign policy tool in the absence of authorisation from the United Nations and its subordinate bodies such as the OAU and SADC.</p>

Just as conflict is part of everyday life, mediation can and is practiced everyday and everywhere. It is a way of reaching decisions in a cooperative, non-hierarchical way, allowing for clear and open communication processes. Conflicts can be resolved in a formal manner through courts, arbitration, ombudspeople, diplomacy and mediation, or an informal manner through friends, colleagues, religious and community leaders, and dialogue. The way in which people resolve their disputes has an impact on how societies and institutions are governed. The war in Bakassi has taken its toll on the people of that area for several years now and has witnessed people from Bakassi facing some of the worst effects of armed conflict known to man. This study investigated the use of international mediation in the management of intractable conflict with a specific case study on the Bakassi peninsula conflict between Cameroon and Nigeria. It focused on the mediation process as a conflict management technique in relation to the international relations theories which has been used as a basis for conflict resolution practices. The researcher conducted a document review, content analysis on selected documents and this was supported by strategic interviews. The findings as well as the researcher‘s recommendations are discussed in the study in order to assist the future work of conflict management specialists and other stakeholders who have devoted their efforts to the recovery of areas emerging from conflict.

No description available.

It is currently hypothesised that the chokka squid (Loligo reynaudi) consist of a single stock. This was tested through a spatial comparison of the morphology of this species. Forty three morphometric characters were measured from 1079 chokka squid collected from three regions: the south coast of South Africa, the west coast of South Africa, and southern Angola. While no significant differences were found for the hard body parts, results from discriminant function analyses showed the soft body morphometric characters from each of the three regions differed, with an overall correct classification rate of 100% for males and 99% for females in all three regions. Due to the existing model being used to assess the resource currently being updated it was not feasible to apply this model to the area-disaggregated data from this study. Rather, the CPUE trends and catches from the area-disaggregated data were compared against those of the area-aggregated data, as a first attempt to discern any appreciable differences which would suggest the use of disaggregated data in future assessments. Both the trawl and jig CPUE trends from the area-disaggregated analysis differed only slightly from those of the area-aggregated data. Similarly, the spring and autumn biomass trends for the main spawning area (east of 22°E) followed the same trends as for the full area. It is therefore concluded that there is currently no need to assess the resource on an area-disaggregated basis.