The technical and vocational education and training, (TVET) sector has shown a rapid growth since 1998 in South Africa. This sector aimed to provide education and training to empower the youth of South Africa. Policies were established and put in place to manage students’ attendance, however, absenteeism seemed to be on the rise. This study aimed to explore factors influencing students’ absenteeism and recommend strategies to address the factors influencing students’ absenteeism at a TVET College in Nelson Mandela Bay District. In an attempt to address the aim of this study, a qualitative research approach was employed and a case study method was used. Data were collected by means of focus group interviews, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The findings of this study revealed that student absenteeism was caused by students’ factors, college-related factors and socio-economic factors. This study revealed that National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) was the major contributing factor in students’ absenteeism due to delayed payments. With respect to the negative impacts of students’ absenteeism, the findings of the study further revealed that lecturers are experiencing hardships in completing the syllabi on schedule time. The result revealed that student attendance policy was ineffective to manage student attendance. This study recommended that the TVET college should exercise discipline to students and establish a disciplinary committee. This will ensure that the students adhere to the attendance policy and improve students’ attendance. / Educational Management and Leadership / M. Ed. (Education Management)

The Church and clergy, during Apartheid played a significant role in the South African political process. It was possible to divide the church into three distinct groups, pro-government, anti-government and neutral churches and clergy. The Dutch Reformed Church because of its close association to the National Party was often dubbed the “National Party of Prayer.” They played an important role in providing moral legitimacy for the regime. On the other hand, church leaders including Allan Boesak and Desmond Tutu were synonymous in their fight against apartheid. The Church still plays a significant role in a democratic South Africa. By virtue of Stats SA 2011 which states that just under eighty percent of South Africans have Christian affliations. However, democratic South Africa has secular constitution which clearly indicates the separation between church and government. Clergy find themselves in an ambiguous situation in a ‘secular state.’ What exactly is the broader role of the Church and in particular clergy in democratic ‘secular’ South Africa? The ambiguity is also fuelled by politicians who often request clergy’s participation in the political process and on other occasions state that clergy should keep to “church business” Part of this enquiry is be answered by asking clergy what they believe their role is. In 2014 a selection of Christian leaders in the Nelson Mandela Bay area decried the governance in the NMBM and South Africa in general. It is to be seen as awakening of clergy in the political process. The objectives of the study are as follows: to look at how Christian religious leaders construct their role in a post-apartheid context with a specific focus on the NMBM, to capture the views of government and political parties1 on what role the Church should play in post-apartheid South Africa, A comparative thematic analysis to determine if there are any similarities or differences in how the Church perceives their political role vis-à-vis the perception of government.

Sustainable agriculture is explained by Reddy (1995: 22) as the ability for agricultural projects to produce crops and at the same time be able to maintain production without failing. With growing populations in urban areas, the importance of urban agriculture has become increasingly important. This research aims to study the factors that contribute to the success and failure of selected urban agricultural projects within the Nelson Mandela Bay by looking at how the community benefits from two selected community projects. It is however important to note that there are various factors contributing to the success and failure of any project. This research looks into the viability of the environment that the projects are in, the level of community membership, ownership structures, how messages are communicated between stakeholders, and the purpose of the project as well as the resources available to see the project through. Urban agriculture becomes a very important practice to the urban poor, as it subsidizes household income when the produce is sold and reduces expenditure when it is consumed (Kirkland, 2008: 23). Zooming into the Nelson Mandela Bay, it is evident that this practice is also beneficial for the communities in which the projects operate, however, challenges such as theft make such projects dependent on funders and donors.

South Africa has been experiencing service delivery protests especially in the African communities. These protests are a manifestation of conflict and dissatisfaction of communities in the ruling party in government. In order to reduce conflict, it is critical that the ruling party in government addresses the basic needs of these communities as the people start to lose confidence in the government. The study seeks to investigate whether service delivery protests could be prevented through improved provision of basic services in the communities, focusing in the New Brighton Township community, in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality as the area of study. The provision of basic services is important for the livelihood of any community. The study analyses the extent to which poor service delivery can lead to community conflicts or revolt against the ruling party in government. Some areas of New Brighton Township community are experiencing a backlog of basic service delivery. Members of this targeted community fall within the previously disadvantaged category and expected the ruling party in government to meet their basic service needs. Chapter one provides an introduction which gives a brief overview of the study, problem statement, aims, research objectives and questions, preliminary literature review and research methodology to be employed by the study. Chapter two provide a literature review of community conflicts in relation to basic service delivery needs and peoples’ expectations. Chapter three provide the legislative framework for the developmental local government and the role of section/chapter nine (9) institutions especially the Public Protector’s role in relation to conflict. Chapter three will also provide reasons for the establishment of Local Municipalities. Chapter four provides proposals for the approaches and strategies to eliminate conflicts and policy implications. The chapter also provide an analysis of the participants’ responsesfrom the questionnaires. Chapter five will be a summary with concluding remarks and recommendations, as proposals with mitigating measures arising from the research.

Managing cultural differences in today’s work environment has received the attention of researchers all over the world. What has received far less attention is the managing of the cultural differences between service provider workers and customers and how this is perceived to lead to achieving great service quality. This research project focuses on the cultural differences between culturally diverse South African service provider workers and South African customers, with some reference to international customers. The questionnaire used in this research includes questions embodying the service quality instruments developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988) and Hofstede’s (1991) cultural dimensions. The questionnaire was completed by 81 students of the East Cape Midland College in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. A Pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated for each service quality instrument and each cultural dimension. The resulting correlation coefficients were analysed and a positive or negative correlation between each service quality instrument and each cultural dimension is shown. The implications of each positive and negative correlation are shown and how it impacts on perceived service quality delivery. The implications for service quality management are shown, followed by recommendations for the management of a culturally diverse workforce.

無 / Existing literature has shown that force of mortality has amazing resemblance of interest rate. It is then tempting to extend existing model of interest rate model context to mortality modeling. We apply the model in Diebold and Li (2006) and other models that belong to family of yield rate model originally proposed by Nelson and Siegel (1987) to forecast (force of) mortality term structure. The fitting performance of extended Nelson-Siegel model is comparable to the benchmark Lee-Carter model. While forecasting performance is no better than Lee-Carter model in younger ages, it is at the same level in elder ages. The forecasting performance increases for 5-year ahead forecast is better than 1-year ahead comparing to Lee-Carter forecast. In the end, the forecast outperforms Lee-Carter model when age dimension is trimmed to age 20-100.

Este trabalho analisa e interpreta as dramaturgias de Eugene O?Neill e de Nelson Rodrigues do ponto de vista de sua expressão do trágico moderno. Partindo de uma contextualização dos autores e suas obras em seu momento histórico, estabelecendo relações entre suas visões de mundo e suas trajetórias biográficas, registrando suas influências literárias e suas filiações estéticas, bem como expondo algumas teorias do trágico moderno que cobrem aspectos importantes de sua produção, aborda-se aqui uma série de peças teatrais consideradas mais representativas dos ciclos temático-formais que constituem as obras dos dois dramaturgos. Esta tese compõe-se por uma introdução ao tema, dois textos que tratam das relações entre vida, obra e visão de mundo de cada dramaturgo, ensaios sobre oito peças de Eugene O?Neill, ensaios sobre nove peças de Nelson Rodrigues e um capítulo de considerações finais refletindo sobre as relações entre os dois autores. / This study analyzes and interprets the dramaturgies of Eugene O?Neill and Nelson Rodrigues from the standpoint of their expression of the modern tragic. Starting by placing the authors and their works on their historic background, relating their world views and their biographical trajectories, registering their literary influences and their esthetic filiations, as well as presenting a few theories of the modern tragic which cover relevant aspects of their production, this text approaches a series of theatrical plays that were considered more representatives of the thematic and formal cycles which constitute the works of the two playwrights. This thesis is composed by an introduction to the theme, two texts that have focus on the relations among life, works and the world view of the two dramatists, essays about eight Eugene O?Neill?s plays, essays about nine Nelson Rodrigues? plays and a final part speculating on the relations between the two authors.

Por meio da análise da obra de quatro autores brasileiros do século XX José Lins do Rego, Lúcio Cardoso, Nelson Rodrigues e Raduan Nassar procuramos demonstrar a maneira sui generis pela qual se dá a formação da individualidade do personagem, relacionando-a a aspectos da história nacional, como a escravidão, e a elementos presentes em todas as obras estudadas, como a loucura e o incesto. O ensaio procura revelar como, na estrutura de cada obra particular e no plano geral da obra de cada autor, se manifesta a presença do elemento trágico, regressivo, no qual a figura do indivíduo se submete a um destino que esmaga seu livre-arbítrio, tornando-o incapaz de traçar sua própria trajetória, num movimento que não apenas destoa daquele do personagem do romance europeu do século XIX, mas que também possui consequências formais nas obras de todos os autores aqui estudados. O objetivo de nossa tese é demonstrar, na concretude da narrativa literária, que o sentido da individualidade moderna e da tragicidade, no Brasil, é diverso do que o encontrado na literatura moderna dos países centrais, dada as peculiaridades de nossa formação. / Through the analysis of four brazilian writers of the 20th century José Lins do Rego, Lúcio Cardoso, Nelson Rodrigues and Raduan Nassar we try to demonstrate the singularity of the shaping of the character\'s individuality, by relating it with aspects of national history such as slavery, and also to other elements which are common to all the works studied, such as madness and incest. Our essay aims to reveal how, in the structure of each particular work, is manifested the presence of the tragic, regressive element, in which the individual is bound to a destiny that denies his self-will, turning himself into someone unable of making his own path, in a phenomenon that not only is far from the main characters of the 19th century european novels, for instance, but that also has formal consequences in the works of all the authors studied here. The aim of our thesis is to demonstrate, in the concreteness of the literary narrative, that the meaning of modern individuality and tragedy, in Brazil, is diverse from the one we find in the modern literature of central countries, given the particular aspects of our history.

Este trabalho analisa e interpreta as dramaturgias de Eugene O?Neill e de Nelson Rodrigues do ponto de vista de sua expressão do trágico moderno. Partindo de uma contextualização dos autores e suas obras em seu momento histórico, estabelecendo relações entre suas visões de mundo e suas trajetórias biográficas, registrando suas influências literárias e suas filiações estéticas, bem como expondo algumas teorias do trágico moderno que cobrem aspectos importantes de sua produção, aborda-se aqui uma série de peças teatrais consideradas mais representativas dos ciclos temático-formais que constituem as obras dos dois dramaturgos. Esta tese compõe-se por uma introdução ao tema, dois textos que tratam das relações entre vida, obra e visão de mundo de cada dramaturgo, ensaios sobre oito peças de Eugene O?Neill, ensaios sobre nove peças de Nelson Rodrigues e um capítulo de considerações finais refletindo sobre as relações entre os dois autores. / This study analyzes and interprets the dramaturgies of Eugene O?Neill and Nelson Rodrigues from the standpoint of their expression of the modern tragic. Starting by placing the authors and their works on their historic background, relating their world views and their biographical trajectories, registering their literary influences and their esthetic filiations, as well as presenting a few theories of the modern tragic which cover relevant aspects of their production, this text approaches a series of theatrical plays that were considered more representatives of the thematic and formal cycles which constitute the works of the two playwrights. This thesis is composed by an introduction to the theme, two texts that have focus on the relations among life, works and the world view of the two dramatists, essays about eight Eugene O?Neill?s plays, essays about nine Nelson Rodrigues? plays and a final part speculating on the relations between the two authors.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-08-29T11:32:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Carla Cristine Souza de Almeida.pdf: 766081 bytes, checksum: 1c7c325b58b455869537c02fb2bbdd53 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-29T11:32:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carla Cristine Souza de Almeida.pdf: 766081 bytes, checksum: 1c7c325b58b455869537c02fb2bbdd53 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This dissertation analyses if narcissism can be considered a contemporary sin and, therefore, creates a category of behavior. In order to answer central questions: who Nelson Rodrigues was and what the importance of his work is for a declining society, if narcissism can be considered a contemporary sin and if the reading of Rodrigues’ plays reveals us a miserable and misfortune human condition, leading us not to live narcissism as a contemporary sin. The hypothesis is while having clarity of the “life as it is”, of its own tragedy, the reading of Nelson Rodrigues’ plays - Álbum de família; Otto Lara Resende ou Bonitinha, mas ordinária; and Toda nudez será castigada – selected for this study, opens the possibility of leaving the suffering behind, and on that account, living with the courage to have a position free of identifications and thus, living a space of desire. The general objective or the background is to identify if in the subjectivity of the contemporary man, amid his anguishes, his peculiar way of acting and living could become a type of contemporary sin, or: “narcissism updated to the 21st century”. And also think that reading Nelson Rodrigues’ plays, there is a possibility of the man to have a life with less narcissistic identifications, freeing himself from such suffering. Three plays are analyzed and other texts can shed a light on a possible exit from this type of behavior. Nobody is free from narcissism, everybody needs a little bit of it to wake up and look in the mirror every day, not count one day less in one’s life, but: get up, work, live, eat, have fun, love, cry, fight. So, this narcissism makes us live our lives because what makes us dull is its excess, the thing that goes with you, without limits, to an abyss without name nor place / Esta dissertação analisa se o narcisismo pode ser considerado como pecado contemporâneo, e deste modo, cria uma categoria de comportamento a fim de responder a três perguntas centrais: quem foi Nelson Rodrigues e qual a importância de sua obra para uma sociedade em declínio; se o narcisismo pode ser considerado um pecado contemporâneo; e se a leitura das peças rodrigueanas nos revela uma condição humana miserável e desgraçada, isto nos levaria a não habitarmos o narcisismo como pecado contemporâneo. Tendo como hipótese que ao se ter a clareza da “vida como ela é”, de sua própria tragédia, a leitura das peças rodrigueanas – Álbum de família; Otto Lara Resende ou Bonitinha, mas ordinária; e Toda nudez será castigada –, selecionadas para este estudo, abre a possibilidade de saída do sofrimento e, em vista disso, de viver com a coragem para assumir uma posição mais livre das identificações e, por conseguinte, habitar um espaço de desejo. O pano de fundo ou objetivo geral é identificar se na subjetividade do homem contemporâneo, em meio a suas angústias, seu modo peculiar de agir e de viver poderia se tornar uma espécie de pecado contemporâneo, dito de outro modo, um “narcisismo atualizado para o século XXI”. E, assim, pensar se com a leitura da obra de Nelson Rodrigues há uma possibilidade de o indivíduo ter uma vida com menos identificações narcísicas e, assim, libertar-se de tamanho sofrimento. Atravessa-se as três peças de Nelson Rodrigues e outros textos para trazer luz a uma possível saída deste modo de comportamento. Ninguém está livre do narcisismo, todos precisamos de um pouco dele para levantar e se olhar no espelho diariamente, não contar um dia a menos de vida ao acordar, mas, sim, levantar, trabalhar, viver, se alimentar, se divertir, amar, chorar, brigar. Enfim, este narcisismo nos faz viver a vida, pois o que nos embota é o seu excesso, aquilo que vai sem limite com você para um abismo sem nome e sem lugar