This report presents findings from research in Ribáuè district, Nampula province, in northeast Mozambique. Our aim was to understand the living conditions of the impoverished elderly and identify strategies that may improve their situation. We conducted semi-structured interviews with elderly people, including some of the most vulnerable and some who receive income from the social assistance programme. To gain a wider context we met representatives of governmental and non-governmental organisations and referred to secondary sources. We use the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods framework to present the capital assets (natural,social, financial, physical and human) of Ribáuè district and of its elderly inhabitants. We consider how access to assets is affected by political, economic and cultural factors in the community. We set the situation of the elderly against the development history of postindependence Mozambique, and international concern about poverty, the ageing population and their human rights. We find that social assets in the form of human relationships, and natural assets in the form of land, are essential for elderly people’s livelihoods. Most of the elderly have very limited access to financial assets, apart from the few who receive social ssistance. This programme makes a very small but appreciated contribution to family welfare. However the programme’s reach has been limited geographically and eligibility regulations tend to obstruct access for the very poorest. In general the human capital of the rural and uneducated elderly is declining, as society increasingly values modern skills and knowledge. However the Ribáuè residents we met experience some benefit from infrastructure modernisation. Elderly people are receiving more attention, especially as carers of children. We have identified existing strategies for improving elderly people’s livelihoods. We suggest ways to build on these, as well as possible new strategies. If development policies are both equitable and successful, increased employment and taxation should enable formal pension and social security systems to provide for the elderly in the long-term future. In the short to medium term, expansion of the social assistance programme must be prioritised, as it is vital to the most vulnerable. It is also important that people’s customary engagement in mutually supportive social networks is strengthened rather than undermined by development changes. Key words: Mozambique, Nampula, elderly, social assistance, the food subsidy program (PSA), Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (SRL)

Mozambique remains one of the poorest countries in the world and has one of the least functional basic education systems. Despite a rapid expansion in access to basic education, the vast majority of pupils fail to complete a full seven year cycle of primary school. This research aims to better understand the characteristics, causes and consequences of children dropping out of primary school among low income families in rural areas. The research is based upon a qualitative fieldwork study in Ribáué, a rural district in the northern province of Nampula. Theoretically orientated by the Capabilities Approach, giving a holistic conception of education and development, this research will analyse the findings using the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (SRL) framework. Such a model enables the analysis to incorporate a diverse range of household, societal and exogenous aspects to give a rich interpretation of the situation. Given education’s prominence in many development discourses, particularly in relation to the Millennium Development Goals and the forthcoming post-2015 agenda, this research aims to contribute a deeper understanding of the role of education in such situations, what factors influence the dropout phenomenon, and the consequences of children failing to finish primary school. The results indicate that dropouts are characterised by situations of extreme income poverty interacting with exogenous factors which create vulnerable livelihoods and where the quality of education is considered low. The causes of dropouts generally relate to families’ lack of resilience to cope with socio-economic shocks and the paucity of post-school opportunities. The consequences are severe for the individuals, their families and Mozambique, resulting in limited capacity to create sustainable livelihoods. There is also a likely transgenerational effect, with future generations afflicted by persistent vulnerability due to a lack of capabilities and opportunities from not completing school.

M.Sc. / The upper catchment of the Olifants River, from its origin near Bethal, to its confluence with the Wilge River, north of Witbank, as well as it tributaries, are being subjected to increasing afforestation, mining, power generation, irrigation, domestic and industrial activities. These activities have a profound effect on the water quality and the major point sources of pollution in this area include mines, industries and very importantly, combined sewage purification works, located alongside the river, which, in addition to oxidizable material contains detergents, nutrients, and metals. It was therefore necessary to determine the extent to which these activities affect the water quality of the system. The impact of these activities was therefore addressed by a Water Research Commision Project namely "Lethal and sublethal effects of metals on the physiology of fish" of which the present study investigated effects at two localities, namely in the Olifants River (locality OR1) before its confluence with the Klein Olifants River and a locality in the Klein Olifants River (locality KOR1). Apart from the field study, toxicity tests were also performed in a laboratory, in order to determine the effects of low pH and elevated aluminium concentrations on the haematology, osmoregulation and carbohydrate metabolism of the Mozambique Tilapia, Oreochromis mossambicus as the acidification of soil systems may cause the transfer of aluminium into aqueous solutions, where it may be present in different forms. During the field study, the chemical and physical characteristics of the river water were evaluated, with special attention to the concentrations of certain metals (manganese, copper, chromium, lead, nickel, zinc, iron and aluminium) in the water and sediment, as well as in fish, which are known to accumulate the elements supra and are therefore valuable as indicators of these pollutants. The two fish species used for the investigations were the African sharptooth catfish, Clarias gariepinus and the moggel, Labeo umbratus. Four tissue types were dissected, namely the muscle, liver, skin and gill tissues. The metal concentrations in these organs/tissues, as well as in the water and sediment, were determined in a laboratory with an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Statistical analyses were performed on the results obtained from this study and the order and extent of bioaccumulation of these metals in the water and sediment were determined, as well as in the fish organs/tissues. Its dependence on the size, sex and species of the fish and the localities and seasons were investigated.

M.Sc. / Metal ions have become an increasing source of pollution in the natural waters of South Africa. This phenomenon is related to the rapid industrial, mining and agricultural activity growth along rivers, especially in the Upper catchment of the Olifants River, Mpumalanga. In general, metal ions have - negative effects on the physiology of fish and other aquatic biota in metal polluted waters. In this study. the sublethal effects of, manganese were determined by exposing the freshwater fish, Oreochromis mossambicus, to this metal in an experimental flow-through system. The exposure times were divided in acute (96 hours) and chronic (26 days) exposures, both at 23 ± 1°C. The results obtained showed changes in the general, haematological, metabolic, osmoregulatory variables, as well as the differential white blood cell counts. These changes indicated several effects in the physiology of a mossainblais after sublethal manganese exposure. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were found between the haematological variables of the control and exposed fish. During chronic exposure, an oxygen deficiency developed due to , the epithelial lifting of gill lamellae. As a result of hypoxia the red blood cell numbers, haemoglobin-, haematocrit and lactate concentrations increased to uplift the depleted oxygen situation. The significant differences (P < 0.05) found in the sodium, potassium,. calcium and chloride concentrations are mainly as a result of gill damage. Manganese showed a disruptive influence on the structural organization of the gill. The differential white blood cell counts performed , showed significant fluctuations. This leucocytosis and leucopenia are normal reactions of the fishes’ body against infections of foreign substances, such as metal ions. It was concluded that the general haematology, metabolism, osmoregulation and differential white blood cell counts can, be used as indicators in detecting the effects of sublethal manganese exposure on fish.

M.Sc. / This project considers the feasibility of using heated cooling water from coal-fired power stations within Eskom for the culturing of C/arias gariepinus (Sharptooth catfish) and Oreochromis mossambicus (Mozambique tilapia). The work includes: an overview of world wide trends in power plant thermal effluent aquaculture, the identification of suitable power stations for aquaculture, long term monitoring of the physical and chemical characteristics of the cooling water at selected power stations, including the effects of the cooling water on the growth response, food conversion, condition factor, survival rate and suitability for human consumption of the aforementioned fish species reared in the cooling water at Matla and Kriel Power Stations.

M.Sc. (Zoology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Phil. / Land cover changes associated with growing human populations and expected changes in climatic conditions are likely to accelerate alterations in hydrological phenomena and processes on various scales. Subsequently, these changes could significantly influence the quantity and quality of water resources for both nature and human society. Documenting the distribution of land cover types within the Shire River catchment is the foundation for applications in this study of the hydrology of the Shire catchment. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between the measured land cover changes and hydrological regimes in the Shire River Catchment in Malawi. Maps depicting land cover dynamics for 1989 and 2002 were derived from multispectral and multi-temporal Landsat 5 (1989) and Landsat 7 ETM+ (2002) satellite remote sensing data for this catchment. Other spectral-independent data sets included the 90-m resolution Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM), Geographical Information System (GIS) layers of soils, geology and archived land cover. Core image-derived data sets such as individual Landsat bands, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Principal Components Analysis and Tasseled Cap transformations were computed. From generated composite images, land cover classes were identified using a maximum likelihood algorithm. Eight land cover classes were mapped. A hierarchical multispectral shape classifier with an object conditional approach determined by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) legend structure was used to map land cover variables. LCCS was used as a basis for classification to achieve legend harmonization within Africa and on a global scale. Flexibility of the hierarchical system allowed incorporation of digital elevation objects, soil and underlying geological features as well as other available geographical data sets. This approach improved classification accuracy and can be adopted to discriminate land cover features at several scales, which are internally relatively homogeneous.In addition to compatibility with the FAO/LCCS classification system, the derived land cover maps have provided recent and improved classification accuracy, and added thematic detail compared to the existing 1992 land cover maps. Fieldwork was conducted to validate the land cover classes identified during classification. Accuracy assessment was based on the correlation between ground reference samples collected during field exercise and the satellite image classification. The overall mapping accuracy was 87%, with individual classes being mapped at accuracies of above 77% for both user and producer accuracy. The combination of Landsat images, vector data and detailed ground truthing information was used successfully to classify land cover of the Shire River catchment for years 1989 and 2002.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / The aim of this research is to highlight both the conceptual and practical factors that constrain attempts to link humanitarian assistance and development aid in political emergencies in Southern Africa by using the case study of Mozambique in the period between 1975-1995. Extensive use and reference to Norwegian relief and development aid during the above-mentioned period is made. Although cross-reference is made to other donor countries such as the Like-minded Group (comprising of Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland) and UN agencies that supported Mozambique's transition from war to peace, the major focus is on Norway as she has traditionally been the sixth largest bilateral donor by the early 1990's and incorporated long-term development priorities in her programs. / South Africa

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The aim of this thesis is to probe how Mozambican people were represented or constructed in the colonial and post-colonial periods through the columns of the Portuguese newspaper, ‘O Século de Joanesburgo’. The study examines a corpus of 58, 070 tokens (consisting of 100 articles, 50 for colonial and 50 for postcolonial periods), which were systematically selected from the political, sport, letters to the reader and editorial domains published from 1970 to 1980. The analytical framework for this study is threefold. It is informed by corpus linguistics (CL) as described by, amongst others, McEnery and Wilson (1996/2001) and Bennett (2010); critical discourse analysis (CDA), in particular the work of Van Dijk (1996; 2003), Wodak (1995; 2011) and Wodak and Meyer (2009) and multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) as used by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996; 1998; 2006), Kress (2010) and Machin and Mayr (2012)

Magister Economicae - MEcon / The 21st century marked the beginning of an era in which countries became increasingly dependent on information and communication technology (ICT). Technological change has not only become one of the key contributors to economic growth, it is also regarded as an essential element to enhance the general welfare of society (Hu, 2006). Not surprisingly, even governments of developing countries undertake various activities aimed at internalising the positive external impact of technological innovation in order to enhance the development of knowledge-based economies. Examples are the provision of basic information services, such as telephone- and internet services as well as distance learning technologies to make education more generally accessible. Another instrument that recently gained worldwide interest is the development of science parks, also known as information technology (IT) parks, techno parks or cyber parks. The rationale is to promote technological change, regional and/or urban development and to facilitate the diffusion of knowledge and technology through the establishment of knowledge networks. In 2004 there were approximately 600 science parks in the world, 70 percent of which were situated in the United States of America, Europe and Asia, but there is a growing trend towards its establishment in developing countries. However, the financing of such mega-projects in developing countries is especially problematic. A science park can be provided as a pure public project or pure private or through public-private partnerships (PPPs). Pure public financing is usually found in countries that have strong public sectors, such as China and India. On the other hand, in countries with well-developed private sectors they are mostly privately financed. In the case of most developing countries, private sectors are generally not developed enough and the public sectors cannot afford to finance projects of such a nature on a sustainable basis. These countries have no other option but to investigate the possibility of some other variation of a public-private-partnership (PPP) model.The Mozambican government acknowledges the urgency to enhance the development of a knowledge based economy and regards the establishment of a science park as a necessary policy intervention to provide the institutional basis for the diffusion of technological and communication innovation. As a result the country launched its first science park, to be developed in different stages, in 2008. But the real challenge for Mozambique lies in the financing of the park. It was estimated that only the first phase will require about 25 million USD. These funds were secured from the Indian government in the form of a loan. However, the government of Mozambique relies to a large extent on foreign aid to balance the national budget and there are no surplus funds to secure the sustainability of a project of such magnitude. This study firstly explored the economic rationale behind the establishment of a knowledgebased economy and the development of ICT. It then focused on science parks as institutions to secure the diffusion of technological innovation in Mozambique and also on empirical evidence from countries that have benefited greatly from investment in science park projects. The study also investigated the possibility to use a PPP-type of project to finance the science park in Mozambique and pointed out very important determinants for the successful implementation of PPP-projects. The study showed that the government of Mozambique is serious in its efforts to develop a knowledge-based economy although many projects are still in their 'infant' stages. It is strongly recommended that policy makers in Mozambique should study the outcomes of empirical research on various science parks projects in other developing countries. The study shows that Brazil seems to be successful in its use of a PPP for the country's science parks. Policy makers should also pay careful attention to other PPP-projects in Mozambique. Although they are mostly used for infrastructural projects, some failed, while others seem to be functioning efficiently and important lessons can be derived.