Magister Artium - MA / Cape Town is a unique city. It has a global biodiversity hotspot, in the midst of an urban area. Historically, nature conservation practice excluded and marginalized certain groups of people based on their race and class. This has led to peoples‘ disconnection from nature. Rapid biodiversity loss is a major concern for conservators. In the last three decades, there has been a paradigm shift in conservation practice in certain parts of the world. The Cape Flats Nature programme based in Cape Town followed suit and aimed to stimulate a bottom-up participatory approach to conservation and replace the traditional top-down management strategy. The programme was tasked to reconcile the challenges of complex and conflicting relationships between urban poverty, unequal access to resources and biodiversity conservation. This study was aimed at investigating the relationships between conservation management, community partners and urban conservation areas. These relationships are vital for the progression of new conservation practice in places where people live and work. In addition, the transformative aspects of conservation in relation to social inclusion and the shift in conservation approaches was investigated. The study was conducted at five of Cape Town‘s nature reserves, Edith Stephens Wetland Park, Macassar Dunes, Harmony Flats, Wolfgat and Witzands Aquifer Nature Reserves. Data collection included in depth interviews with key informants from various conservation organizations, the Cape Flats Nature Programme team, the managers of the selected reserves and community partners. Others included observational methods and analysis of secondary data. It was found that relationships between conservators and local communities are not easily created and maintained but relationships regardless of its depth are equally beneficial to communities and the conservators. Balancing social needs with conservation needs is a struggle for conservators but many successes came in cases where this balance was realized. In addition, the transformation of conservators‘ identity has changed community perceptions of conservation practice holistically. Although, many informants feel that transformation continues to remain unequal. / South Africa

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Agenda setting is about how some issues get onto the policy agenda for discussion and action why others do not. Drawing critically on the ―policy windows‖ approach of J.W Kingdon (2003) this dissertation will describe and explain the shifting of policy agendas in health with reference to human resources in Zambia between 2000 and 2006. This research explores how and why the issue of human resource shortages in health became prominent on the state‘s agenda in 2005.The research is a qualitative study and data was collected using both primary and secondary sources of data across various stakeholders in the country. It tested the applicability of Kingdon‘s conceptual framework to a case study of Zambian health policy by analysing the degree to which agenda-formation is influenced by such factors as issue definition, the presence of policy alternatives, presidential support, interest group advocacy, media attention, political cycles, and public opinion. The general elections scheduled for the following year, coupled with media attention and strong public action contributed to the selection of the human resource crisis as an issue on the state‘s agenda for serious action. Furthermore, the slow progress on the attainment of the health related Millennium Development Goals and the poor performance of some donor funded programmes necessitated the state to act. Despite some weaknesses, Kingdon‘s multiple streams approach was found to be useful in explaining the agenda-setting of the Human Resources for Health Strategic Plan (2006-2010) in Zambia.

Domestic violence is a pressing issue in South Africa and has been the subject of much debate, activism and academic research. It is commonly argued that violence between intimate partners remains largely hidden and that women in marital and cohabiting unions endure much physical, emotional and sexual abuse. This qualitative study focuses on the experiences of a small group of women living in KwaMhlanga, in Mpumalanga. Although the women had been fearful of reporting their abuse and had spent years suffering silently, all had finally displayed much urgency in reporting the actions of their abusers. In reflecting on their circumstances, the women refer to the primary factors influencing their partners to become abusers: unemployment, financial hardships and poverty, alcohol and drugs, and factors such as immature attitudes, cultural beliefs and jealousy. It is also argued that the institutions of ‘marriage’ and ‘cohabitation’, whilst similar, introduce slightly different constraints and expectations. Married women suffered more abuse and were controlled than their cohabitant counterparts. The study makes no policy recommendations but emphasises the importance of doing substantive work to probe women’s experiences of abuse in intimate unions in all parts of South Africa. Copyright / Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Sociology / unrestricted

Cooperative education program was introduced into undergraduate hospitality degree program to help students be better prepared for their careers. A cooperative partnership between the industry and universities results in both sides receiving benefits. This study identifies the benefits industry partners receive from a cooperative education program. The implications of these benefits leads to the evaluation of hospitality cooperative education. From the results of the evaluation, recommendations are proposed for redesigning the cooperative education program.

The aim of the thesis is to carry out marketing research and to conduct an analysis of the financial advisory market followed by a brand study of the company Partners. The first part of the thesis is theoretical, and it is devoted to general information about marketing, marketing communication, marketing research, consumer behavior, and financial advisory. The beginning of the practical part is dedicated to the presentation of the company Partners, followed by the actual marketing research, whose results are further examined. Based on the results, the study then answers the main research questions. The practical benefit of this thesis are data to be used by the company Partners for planning of future marketing campaigns and for working with prospective as well as current clients.

In the absence of formal legal recognition, domestic partners (i.e. persons who cohabit outside of marriage) are required to regulate the consequences of their relationship by utilising alternative regulatory measures and remedies which are, for the most part, inadequate. The traditional justification used to differentiate between domestic partners and spouses is known by some as the “choice argument”. The choice argument is based on the rationale that persons who choose not to marry cannot claim spousal benefits. It understands choice narrowly as it only takes into account an objective legal impediment to marriage. As such, it has been the driving force behind the non-recognition of heterosexual domestic partnerships. Same-sex domestic partners have, however, been able to sidestep the choice argument considering that their sexual orientation has until recently been an objective legal impediment against marriage. According to the majority of legal commentators the enactment of the Civil Union Act 17 of 2006 has removed the objective legal impediment against same-sex marriage. As such, they argue that the choice argument should now be applied to both heterosexual and same-sex domestic partners equally. The Constitutional Court has, however, held that unless the legislature intervened the benefits accrued by same-sex domestic partners prior to the enactment of the Civil Union Act 17 of 2006 should be available to them exclusively. As the legislature has not yet done so, the legislature does not appear to view the choice argument as being equally applicable to heterosexual and same-sex couples. Taking into consideration the choice argument’s narrow understanding of choice, together with the possible unfair discrimination caused by its application, an alternative theoretical basis for the future recognition and regulation of domestic partnerships has to be found. Three possible solutions will be investigated in this study, namely, the model of contextualised choice, the function-over-form approach, and finally, the Smith model. Because of the invasive effect of the latter two approaches, the study advocates for the adoption of the model of contextualised choice. If adopted it will imply that the subjective considerations of domestic partners will be taken into account and they will be afforded a minimum degree of protection based on need. If this approach is adopted it must be determined to what extent it is supported in proposed legislation. Accordingly, it has to be investigated whether proposed legislation provides domestic partners with need-based claims while still upholding the established differences between domestic partnerships and formalised relationships. It is ultimately concluded that the proposed legislation will have the effect of blurring the differences insofar as registered domestic partnerships are concerned. The reason for this is that such a partnership comes into existence through a public expression of the partners’ commitment and, as such, does not really fall within the ambit of the definition of a domestic partnership in the narrow sense of the word. With regard to unregistered domestic partners, it is concluded that the proposed legislation goes too far in protecting unregistered partners’ proprietary rights (even if only on an ex post facto basis) as these claims are not based on need. As such, it is recommended that the proposed legislation be redrafted. If not redrafted the proposed legislation can possibly have the effect of not only infringing on the autonomy of one or both of the partners but also create a regulatory system which does not fully appreciate the differences between marriage and domestic partnerships. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2014 / gm2015 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

No abstract / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Private Law / LLM / Unrestricted

Trade of South Africa with the rest of the world has changed substantially since the mid-1990s. The United States (US), which used to be the main trading partner of South Africa, is now only the third largest trading partner of the country. South African trade with Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom (UK) are also lower. The key reason is the emergence of China in the world economy. South Africa did not trade with China before 1993, but from 2009 China became the main trading partner of the country. Globalisation and China’s emergence have influenced the trade linkages of many other countries in the world. To incorporate the changes in global trade linkages, the foreign variables of all the models in the study are compiled with trade-weighted three-year moving average data. The foremost objective of the thesis is to determine how the changes in trade linkages affect the transmission of economic shocks originating in the rest of the world on South Africa. The global vector autoregression (GVAR) approach is used since one of its advantages is the incorporation of global trade linkages, which facilitates the analysis of the transmission of shocks from one country to another. As a GVAR model combines many individual country models, the study first estimates such a country-specific model for South Africa to determine whether it displays the expected impact of domestic shocks on the economy. This type of model is known as a vector error correction model (VECM) with domestic variables and weakly exogenous (X) foreign (*) variables, denoted by VECX*. The results from the VECX* for South Africa are in line with expectations, showing the effective transmission of monetary policy. The study then examines the impact of international shocks on the South African economy with a GVAR model. The GVAR, which incorporates country-specific VECX* models for 33 countries, is solved for all 33 countries using global trade weight matrices at different dates. The results indicate that over time South Africa is much more vulnerable to GDP shocks to the Chinese economy, and less vulnerable to GDP shocks to the US economy. These trends are however not confined to South Africa, and as such highlights the increased risk to the South African economy and many other economies, should China experience slower GDP growth. Finally, the thesis determines whether the forecasting performance of GVAR models is superior to that of a country-specific VECX* model. The study compares the out-of-sample forecasts of two key South African variables (real GDP and inflation) for five types of models: a VECX*, a customised small GVAR for South Africa, the more general 33-country GVAR, simple autoregressive models and random walk models. Better forecasts of both the GVAR models compared to the VECX* model at forecast horizons of more than four quarters show that, despite the complicated nature of the GVAR model with the inclusion of many countries and global trade linkages, the additional information is useful for forecasting domestic variables / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Economics / unrestricted

Please read the abstract in the dissertation / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Mercantile Law / unrestricted

Inledning: Människor blir äldre och medellivslängden ökar. Det betyder att antalet personer med demens kommer att bli fler och så även antalet anhöriga som vårdare. Att vara vårdare till en make, en maka eller partner med demenssjukdom innebär stor stress som blir en central del av deras liv. Metod: En litteraturöversikt baserade på tio vetenskapliga artiklar från databaserna CINAHL och PsycINFO. Dataanalys utfördes enligt Fribergs fyra steg för allmän litteraturöversikt. Syfte: Var att beskriva anhörigas erfarenheter av att vårda en partner med demens i hemmet. Resultat: Anhörigas erfarenheter som vårdare visar förlust och olika strategier för att hantera vårdandet av partnern. Erfarenheter av förlust är indelade i fyra underteman: förlust av jaget, förlust av sociala situationer, förlust av parets ömsesidiga relation och förlust av en säker och ideal framtid. Olika strategier för att hantera vårdandet av partnern är: acceptans, hitta mening i vård samt stöd. Slutsatser: Studien visade behovet av stöd och information som var viktig för anhöriga för att hantera stress och vårdandet av partnern. Sjuksköterskan bör se familjen som ett system så att anhöriga som make, maka eller partner kan prioriteras samtidigt som en prioritering av patienten görs.