M. Tech. Business Administration

M. Tech. Cost and Management Accounting / This study analysed perceptions on the application of cost accounting in the budgeting process, a case of the City of Tshwane municipality. The focus was generally recognised costing techniques used. Employee perceptions were analysed to determine whether recognised costing techniques were being applied, and if so, were those costing techniques being efficiently and effectively applied. An analysis of the employee perceptions of the reliability of the currently implemented costing techniques for the preparation of budget estimates, together with the employees' perceptions of management's implementation and maintenance of the budget estimates as required by legislation governing municipal budgeting process was also carried out.

M. Tech. Public Administration. / The study investigates the management of quality of service delivery in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan municipality focusing on electricity, water provision and refuse collection. In recent years, South African consumers expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of public service delivery by means of protests. Service delivery protests have, however, not occurred to a significant extent in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan municipality though it is one of the world's largest cities. Such a state of affairs warrants research to establish how the municipality manages the quality of public service delivery.

M.Tech. Business Administration. Business School. / The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality was established on 5 December 2000 and incorporated 13 previous local authorities into a category 'A' metropolitan municipality. The City of Tshwane's three departments: Finance, Information & Management and Public Works & Infrastructure Development have been experiencing a high employee turnover since January 2005. The key research objectives of this study are (1) to determine the cause of high turnover rate, (2) how the City of Tshwane can retain talented employees, (3) to reduce employee costs, (4) to build capacity and (4) to turn the City of Tshwane into a most desired employer. It is recommended that the City of Tshwane devise organisational policies and practices that increase the excitement of employees with regard to their work in ways that will result in a funneling of their minds and efforts towards the goals of the organisation.

D. Tech. Civil Engineering. Tshwane University of Technology, 2011.

Bakalauro baigiamajame darbe yra analizuojami būdai ir metodai, kaip vertinti savivaldybės skolą bei įvertinama Šiaulių miesto savivaldybės skola. Teorinėje dalyje analizuojama savivaldybės skola teoriniu aspektu: savivaldybės biudžeto ir skolos sampratos, savivaldybių skolinimosi tikslai ir limitai, savivaldybės skolos poveikis ekonomikai, skolos įvertinimo rodikliai ir metodai. Empirinėje dalyje įvertinama Šiaulių miesto savivaldybės skola. Analizuojami 2009 - 2013 m. laikotarpio pagrindinių Šiaulių miesto savivaldybės finansinių bei miesto ekonominių rodiklių (savivaldybės pajamų, išlaidų, biudžeto deficito, skolos struktūros, taip pat miesto ekonominių, švietimo, socialinės apsaugos rodiklių) pokyčiai. Įvertinamas ekonomikos poveikis Šiaulių miesto savivaldybės skolai. Detaliam Šiaulių miesto savivaldybės skolos įvertinimui pagrindiniai rodikliai, padedantys įvertinti skolą, lyginami su kitomis savivaldybėmis. Nustatomos priemonės padėsiančios sumažinti Šiaulių miesto savivaldybės skolą. / The final bachelor work analyzes the ways and methods of municipal debt assessment and assesses Siauliai city municipality debt. Theoretical part of the work analyzes theoretical aspects of municipality debt: budget of municipality and debt concept, goals and limits of municipality borrowing, economic impact of municipality debt, debt assessment indicators and methods. Empiric part assesses the debt of Siauliai municipality. Variations of main financial and economic indicators of Siauliai municipality (municipality incomes, costs, budget deficit, debt structure, also indicators of economic, education and social protection) are assessed from 2009 till 2013.Economy impact to Siauliai municipality debt are assessed. Main Siauliai municipality debt indicators are compared with debt indicators of other municipalities for in depth debt assessment. Means to reduce Siauliai municipality debt are determined.

Section 153 of the Constitution of South Africa (RSA, 1996) states that “a municipality must structure and manage its administration, budgeting and planning process to give priority to the needs of the community and to promote the social and economic development of the community”. Despite this mandate placed on local government, De Wet and Moseki (2015, p. 61) write that insurgent South Africans engage in violent protests against continued “municipal ineffectiveness in service delivery, poor responsiveness to citizens’ grievances, and a conspicuous consumption entailed by a culture of self-enrichment on the part of councillors and staff”. The Department of Corporate Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA ) (2014) identify huge service delivery backlogs, poor communication and accountability relationships with communities, corruption and fraud, poor financial management and insufficient municipal capacity as a result of lack of scarce skills as some of the priority areas impacting hardest on the municipality’s ability to function as a well-performing municipality. Mpofu and Hlatywayo (2015) report that poor performance by workers in local government has been established as one of the major issues affecting the efficient provision of municipal services by municipalities. It thus follows that the performance and conduct of municipal employees need to be improved in order to improve the delivery of basic services to the communities they are to serve. Hanyane and Naidoo (2015) hold the view that without proper service delivery, the achievement of good governance and the effective use of public resources will remain elusive. The primary objective of this study was to contribute to improving the levels of service delivery at a selected municipality by identifying which factors the employees of the municipality consider most effective in improving their levels of service delivery within the organisation. A questionnaire was structured and used to conduct a survey with 65 middle-level managers, senior-level supervisors, middle-level supervisors and operational staff.The study concluded that talent management and retention strategies were the only independent variable that proved to have a significant positive relationship with service delivery within the selected municipality.

Focusing on the policy context for social entrepreneurship in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM), this dissertation examines the processes through which social entrepreneurs participate in the processes of development of the municipality because; social entrepreneurship is increasingly being recognised as a mechanism for creating social and economic value. Social entrepreneurs play a significant role in fulfilling unmet societal needs and in filling gaps, particularly in areas where government and the market fall short. Based on this view, this study raises questions about the integrated policy guiding social entrepreneurship for better development outcomes. It aims to contribute to the body of literature on social entrepreneurship and development by examining the processes through which social entrepreneurs participate in the development of the communities at the local level. Using the Grounded Theory method, this study found that there is no integrated policy on social entrepreneurship in the NMBM and that the deficiency created by the lack of an integrated policy engenders Social Revisioning. The substantive theory of Social Revisioning emerged from the data to explain the processes through which social entrepreneurs participate in the development of communities when there is no integrated policy on social entrepreneurship. In response to the deficiencies in the policy context, differentiated and autonomous entities within and outside of the municipal government step in and support social entrepreneurs to provide services and participate in the processes of development. However, even though Social Revisioning can be used to address the policy deficiencies in social entrepreneurship and development, the differentiations and autonomy that characterise the entities, role players and processes embodied in Social Revisioning prevent cohesion among them and again beg for an integrated policy that will incorporate them.

As a clinic supervisor overseeing a cluster of clinics in the Nelson Mandela Bay Health District (NMBHD), the researcher observed a number of problems with the implementation of the re-engineering of the primary health care (RPHC) programme. The problems observed include inadequate supervision of RPHC staff, poor communication and conflict between clinic and RPHC staff, failure to filter RPHC statistics into clinic statistics and the incorrect management of patients by RPHC staff. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore and describe the experiences of professional nurses regarding the implementation of the RPHC programme in the NMBHD and to make recommendations the district manager could use to address the research findings. The study used a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design. The research population consisted of professional nurses who are implementing the RPHC programme in the NMBHD, and the sampling technique was a non-probability, purposive technique for the selection of the research sample. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data and Tesch’s model respectively. The researcher adhered to ethical considerations throughout the study and ensured trustworthiness of the data by using the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability. Three themes were identified; namely; the professional nurses expression of their concerns regarding poor working conditions; issues regarding the community health workers and their positive experiences associated with the RPHC programme. The study concludes with recommendations made to the District manager with regard to nursing practice, as well as recommendations to nursing education and research.

This study explored the role of School Governing Bodies (SGBs) in public schools in the Gert Sibande district of the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. It focused on executive members of the SGB of three institutions and their school principals, who play a key role in school governance. The study was conducted using three case studies with the pseudo names as: Lepogo, Nkwe and Tau schools. The executive members of the SGBs comprised the Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson, Secretary, Deputy Secretary and Treasurer. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of their roles on the implementation of educational policies, including the South African Schools Act of 1996. The study used qualitative methodology in the form of conducting focus group interviews (see Annexure A), doing document analysis (see section 3.7.3) and making observations (see Annexure B) during the meetings with SGBs. The findings indicated that the SGB members who were interviewed had minimal knowledge of how their roles impacted on the schools that they governed. It was also clear from the interviews that the training they received on an ad hoc basis was insufficient. Furthermore, this training was also conducted by individuals who seemed to be unsure about how to interpret the school policies in SASA policy documents. With regard to sub-committees, such as the recently introduced Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (QLTC) comprising all stakeholders in education; it was disappointing to find, based on the three schools which participated in the study, that this was ineffective, and no meetings were held after its formation. The study revealed that the school policies embodied in SASA documents and the Constitution of South Africa were not used effectively, in order to give proper guidance on how SGBs should execute their roles. Moreover, the study revealed that retired officials were given the task of training the trainers, who were then expected to train the members of the SGB, and this was ineffective. Finally, the study revealed that the principals were expected to represent their schools and simultaneously represent the Department of Education in an ex officio position. This was not working, since no person can serve two masters at the same time. Therefore, the study emphasised the need to appoint neutral people to deal with school governance and report directly to the HoD (see Figure 5.1). All stakeholders are important, but they need to respect boundaries. In conclusion, the recommendations and the proposed model were deliberately designed and structured to offer practical solutions to the problems discussed in the research findings. It is also important that the training should be accompanied by some kind of assessment, in order to determine whether or not the SGB members have understood what they were taught. Furthermore, there should be follow-ups to ascertain to what extent the SGB members have implemented what they were taught in their schools, which is not happening at present. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Education Management)