Magister Legum - LLM

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / 30% of the country's population are currently unemployed and this statistic is increasing steadily. Further deterioration of the South African economy and increased unemployment, is likely to increase social instability and continue to marginalise a major proportion of society. Global economic downturn as well as the crash of the Asian economies in the mid-1990's resulted in job losses for both the working class and middle class sectors of society. The literature however suggests that the effects of unemployment are likely to be experienced differently by working and middle class individuals. This reiterates the argument that the unemployed should not be perceived as a homogenous group. The study utilises a broad epistemological framework of social constructionism and employs the theoretical assumptions of Marxism as the theoretical basis for the research.

The South African government has indicated that the National Small Business Act of 1996 had failed to get the small business sector working successfully as engine for growth. Thus, government policy measures, using an institutional network alone, to create a thriving SME economy, has not succeeded. The Minister called for small business and other institutions to develop suggestions for inclusion in a new business strategy document. One such strategy, as proposed by this thesis, involves the introduction and implementation of the Venture Capital Schemes (VCS) Framework. The purpose of the dissertation is to conduct an exploratory study of the VCS framework and to determine if the VCS framework is worthwhile pursuing in South Africa, following its successful introduction in the United Kingdom. To achieve effective implementation of the VCT framework, specific issues to the various components and key players require addressing: • Are there potential high-growth SMEs that are being overlooked? • Is there a definite 'equity gap' to satisfy the needs of potential SMEs that is not being serviced? • Are there sufficient investors who can be attracted to fund this 'equity gap'? • Are there sufficient rewards for the private sector financial institutions (venture capitalists and associated network) to be willing to manage and drive the VCT framework? To obtain the required information, a discussion / interview was conducted with Business Partners Limited - East Fund (a leading South African venture capitalist who is involved in both 'pure' venture capital funding as well as having integral ties with SMEs). The Venture Capital Schemes Framework, in theory, appears to be a viable option. However, the response indicates that the larger venture capital / private equity firms will not be willing to drive the VCS framework, since it requires an adjustment to their investment philosophy. The response has also indicated that a RFI with a iv reasonable network of resources, operating as a private company, will be in the best position to drive the VCS framework. It will also be able to attract competition from the smaller venture capital/private equity firms, accounting firms and business advisors, to create a vibrant VCT market (industry). Hence, a thriving SME economy could become a reality. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, 2003.

The coal mining industry has played a significant role in the development of the South African economy. Coal supplies about 70% of South Africa's primary energy and is likely to remain the country's major source of energy despite the increasing trends towards renewable energy. Even though the industry has significantly contributed to the development of the country, it has also caused significant impacts on the environment with concomitant socio-economic impacts. Historically, once a coal measure was exhausted, mining companies would cease production and abandon the mines without proper rehabilitation of the environmental degradation caused by their mining activities. As a result of this, the South African Government introduced mining and rehabilitation legislation to mitigate the environmental and associated socio-economic impacts of mining. Rehabilitation guidelines for opencast coal mines were developed to provide detailed guidance for achieving successful and sustainable rehabilitation, to mitigate pollution post-mining. Despite the more stringent legislative framework and the development of international standard rehabilitation guidelines, successful mine rehabilitation remains a challenge. This research project aims to develop a better qualitative understanding of the status, challenges, gaps and opportunities pertaining to current rehabilitation practices in the case of opencast coal mines in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa, and in so doing, establish the contributing factors of unsuccessful rehabilitation. The dissertation draws on a comprehensive review of published literature and an analysis of semi-structured interviews with rehabilitation experts. The study found that the current rehabilitation practices in the Mpumalanga opencast mines are not to the standard required by the legislative framework nor prescribed by rehabilitation guidelines. As such, the current rehabilitation practices are not yielding successful and sustainable rehabilitation. According to the findings, the rehabilitation practices are hampered by physical and non-physical systemic challenges that thwart the achievement of successful rehabilitation. The study analysis shows that shortcomings in the application and enforcement of the legislative framework contributes to the legislation not achieving its intended objectives as well as the development of other physical and non-physical systemic challenges that hamper the achievement of successful rehabilitation.

In this study, fiscal sustainability is defined consistent with the government intertemporal budget constraint framework which is related to the solvency of the government. Fiscal sustainability analysis in this context, therefore, considers the revenue side of the budget as well as the expenditure obligations. On the revenue side, the study highlights that fiscal authorities in South Africa continue to rely on income, profit and wealth taxes as they account for a larger share of government revenue compared to indirect taxes. However, immediately prior to the first democratic South Africa, there was a substantial shift from company taxes to personal taxes; a trend that has continued onto 2010. Analyses in this study show that the structure of the main taxes of South Africa compares less favourably to other emerging economies, and the worldwide averages. For instance, even though fiscal authorities have reduced the CIT rate from a high 50% to 28%, this rate is still higher when compared to other upper middle income economies and the rest of the world‟s average. The country compares no better either when the PIT rate is considered but its VAT rate compares favourably to that of the economies mentioned. Since the new era, in particular between 2000 and 2010, fiscal authorities in South Africa focussed on the reduction and stabilisation of marginal tax rates for the major taxes as well minimising the complexity in tax administration by reducing the number of tax brackets. Despite such effort, the wedge between the statutory rates and the realised average tax rates for the three main taxes is a concern regarding the protection of the revenue base. With regards to budget allocations, this study shows that collectively, expenditure on the social sector accounts for slightly below half of government consumption expenditure; specifically, however, there was a reduction in the proportional allocation to Education whilst at the same time the proportional allocations to Social Protection, Public Order and Safety and Social Grants increased. Defence expenditure was high pre-1994 and immediately after the first democratic election, but declined in the later years of the democratic South Africa. In general, the policy of fiscal prudence after 1994 resulted in a substantial decline in debt service cost, whilst the real growth rate of the economy increased considerably. Nevertheless, the former still exceeded the latter for most part of the period between 1994 and 2010. Having reduced its debt burden over the past decades, the South African government again finds itself facing a problem of rising debt due to an increase in the fiscal deficit. On the basis of this background, this study addresses four broad questions, namely: (i) was the fiscal stance taken in the past, sufficient to attain fiscal sustainability in South Africa? (ii) How did fiscal policy in the past adjust to budget imbalances and to what extent did that affect fiscal sustainability? (iii) Which are the optimal ways to v protect the revenue base; and (iv) How does the current fiscal dispensation (i.e. composition of expenditure and tax) affect the economy and inter alia fiscal sustainability? Different econometric techniques, namely: the Smooth Transition Error Correction model; the Logistic quadratic model; the Currency Demand model and the Bayesian Structural Vector Auto Regression Model are applied in the analyses. The findings of this study suggest that fiscal policy over the sample period has been sustainable but likely to be adjusted more quickly when the budget deficit exceeds 4.02% of GDP. However, the stabilisation policies by fiscal authorities are fairly neutral at deficit levels below the estimated threshold; that is, at deficit levels of 4.02% of GDP and below. The fiscal reaction speed of the South African government (i.e. increasing the tax burden) to lower the large deficit levels towards a band of tolerable values, indicate that they are indeed concerned about solvency. Thus, on the basis of this historical fiscal stance, it can be expected that fiscal policy will remain sustainable in the medium-term; and that the government‟s projection to reduce the fiscal deficit from a high 5.3% of GDP in 2010 to 3.0% in 2015 is plausible. In South Africa the main fiscal challenge, therefore, is to find ways through which the recent gains in fiscal solvency are not at the expense of the future revenue base. Consequently, the next objective in this study is to analyse one important element of protecting the revenue base, namely, possible leakages from it. In this regard, shadow economic activity is being investigated. This study finds that on average, the size of the South African shadow economy is 22.18% of GDP with estimated revenue evaded at about 7% of GDP. Further analysis shows that there is a strong positive relationship between the tax burden and shadow income but that this relationship is not symmetric. In South Africa, businesses and individuals are likely to react quicker when the tax burden changes fall outside the band of -3.64% to +2.13% of GDP but remains neutral as long as they are within this band. The implication of this finding is that, any attempt by the fiscal authorities to increase the tax burden to levels above the estimated threshold of 2.13% in order to close the budget deficit might trigger a significant response from the shadow economy thereby reducing the tax base and further worsening the fiscal deficit. Next, the analysis shows that an increase in total government spending has a “crowding–in” effect as real GDP per capita and real private investment respond positively. When government expenditure is disaggregated into consumption and capital expenditure per capita, the analysis shows that a one standard deviation positive shock in government consumption expenditure per capita increases real GDP per capita with a multiplier effect of 0.22, which is higher than the growth multiplier effect (0.16) of government investment expenditure per capita. In addition, the effect of the total tax burden on the GDP and private investment is negative and persistent in the long-term (i.e. after 4 years). The net effect of fiscal policy, therefore, is that it is growth enhancing in the short and medium-terms leading to fiscal sustainability (since r < g) but in the long-term, the growth promoting effects of increased public intervention is offset by the growth inhibiting effects of increased taxes; hence, a threat to long-term fiscal sustainability. vii The composition of the tax regime has a substantial influence on growth; whilst taxes on income and wealth reduce growth, indirect taxes have a positive effect on growth in the short and medium term. On the basis of the above findings the following suggestions are proposed: Firstly, the nature of fiscal policy in South Africa over the post-1994 period has shown to be successful from a fiscal sustainability perspective and should therefore be continued. However, the fact that government only seem to be pro-active in the case when the budget deficit exceeds the 4% margin and actually seem to be fairly neutral at deficit levels below this ratio should be noted. By implementing drastic tax increases in such a scenario could be detrimental to the growth of the revenue base. Conversely, tax relief at lower levels of the margin outlined, and even in times of surpluses could be growth enhancing and should be implemented actively. Secondly, the 2012 medium-term budget document requesting for additional taxes to boost revenue might lead to further growth in the shadow economy, as the projected tax burden increase recommended is above the estimated threshold of 2.13% in this study. Such a reaction from shadow income poses a threat to long-term fiscal sustainability. Thirdly, in their attempt to expand and secure the revenue base fiscal authorities in South Africa should consider further adjustments to the composition of the revenue base. The continuous reliance of the government on direct taxes is shown in this analysis to affect growth adversely, which could destabilise the fiscal gains already achieved. The results of this analysis, therefore, support the international trend towards a shift to indirect taxes from direct taxes. Fourthly, expenditure priorities have to be carefully considered. Fiscal authorities should guard against populist spending patterns and prioritise those expenditures that result in capacity building and enhancing growth and employment. In this regard, the declining trend in expenditure on education and health has to be reversed. A priori, only by focussing its expenditures coupled with enhanced efficiency within such “productive” areas, would government be able to contribute towards enhancing growth which in turn is essential for long-term fiscal sustainability. Thus, the analyses in this study show that in the short- and medium-term, there is no serious threat to fiscal sustainability in South Africa but long-term fiscal sustainability remains a challenge. To enhance long-term fiscal sustainability would require continuous adjustment of policies including the speed of policy adjustment, the stabilisation of the tax burden but with a redirection of focus from direct to indirect taxes; the protection of the revenue base, in particular a reduction in the existing level of tax revenue evaded and the reprioritisation of government expenditures. A broader social and political context of fiscal sustainability has, however, not been included in this study. In a middle income country like South Africa where the role of government is politically and socially important and controversial, future research could explore how the quest to enhance fiscal consolidation can affect political and social stability which may in turn endanger the sustainability of fiscal policy. On the other hand quantifying the fiscal implications of expected developments such as demographic changes, development in health cost and public pension liabilities, could initiate future research on this topic should more relevant data becomes available. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Economics / unrestricted

Tax revenue forms the backbone of the South African economy. Although the tax gap in South Africa has shrunk in recent years, there is still a large tax gap in South Africa. Hence, there is an urgent need to enhance taxpayer compliance. The South African Revenue Service’s (SARS’s) image in the community is a key driver of voluntary taxpayer compliance. The quality of the services provided by SARS is therefore crucial, as service quality directly affects SARS’s image in the community and thus voluntary tax compliance. The objective of the present research was therefore to establish the perceptions that tax practitioners hold with regard to the services rendered by SARS in order to develop a service quality model that can be used to measure SARS’s service quality continuously. The development of a service quality model for the assessment of the services provided by SARS is justified, because it is an essential means to improving the services that SARS provides and therefore also voluntary compliance. The present research defined services, quality, service quality and perceived service quality on the basis of a literature review. These definitions served as a theoretical underpinning for the development of the proposed service quality model. The literature review suggested that a user-based approach to quality was the most relevant approach to this study and that it is important to build the “lens of the customer”. In order to develop the specific “lens of the customer” needed to evaluate the services of SARS, an in-depth, qualitative approach was required to identify a comprehensive range of determinants that potentially drive service quality in the revenue service industry and setting. One such qualitative method is the critical incident technique, which was chosen as the method to be used for building the “lens of the customer” to measure tax practitioners’ evaluations of the quality of the services SARS provides. The critical incident technique relies on a set of procedures to collect comments on service experiences, to perform a content analysis and to classify the observations of service experiences. The critical incident data were collected by means of open-ended questionnaires which tax practitioners registered with SARS were asked to complete, first in a focus group and then individually, using an e-mailed questionnaire. The main data collection instrument was administered by SARS to all tax practitioners registered with SARS country-wide. The data analysis of the responses provided by the tax practitioners involved three processes. The first was the identification of usable critical incidents, the second was the development of a classification scheme for the content analysis and the third was a content analysis of the critical incidents that had been identified. After a content analysis process that involved the preparation of summaries of the frequencies of the responses in accordance with a relevant classification scheme, a process of natural language argument was used to convert the data analysis results and the relevant elements of the theory from the literature survey into two proposed models, one for the traditional services and one for the electronic services provided by SARS. These service quality models can be used as a basis for studies to establish the perceptions of tax practitioners with regard to the quality of SARS’s services. The conceptual models of service quality that were proposed should also enable SARS to identify quality problems and assist SARS in planning for the launch of a quality improvement programme, and thereby improving the efficiency and overall performance of SARS. Copyright / Thesis (DCom)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Taxation / unrestricted

According to Saville (1993), the economic growth of less developed countries is impeded due to the presence of four “gaps” in these economies. However, Saville (1993), states that, by filling these gaps, developing economies are able to achieve economic growth and development. The main objective of this research is to update the study of Saville (1993) in order to determine the impact of the multinational corporation on the host economy in reference to the drivers of exogenous and endogenous growth in contribution to filling these gaps.This is a quantitative study which makes use of secondary data obtained from JSE listed firms operating in the mining sector in South Africa. Statistical regression analysis was conducted and results are compared to the previous Saville (1993) study.In summary, the results of the study are mixed however in terms of informing government policy, this study confirms the importance of FDI in emerging markets. The caveat however, firstly, is to inform policy to attract the right kinds of FDI to contribute to filling specific gaps in to achieve the required economic growth. Secondly, policy should require collaboration between MNC’s, private firms as well as public sector firms in order to share knowledge and profits in having a positive effect on social welfare and economic growth in the domestic economy. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The implementation of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Royalty Act was anticipated to have a significant impact on the South African economy and mining industry. The mineral royalty is an effective instrument in the collection of compensation for extraction of mineral resources that cannot be renewed. An overview of the development, evolution and application of the mineral royalty indicated that the newly enacted Mineral and Petroleum Resources Royalty Act has constituted a more formal regulative system in determining the royalty amount payable. Various fundamental principles have been established in the act, such as distinguishing between refined and unrefined mineral resources, different royalty formulae to be applied to each of mineral resources and circumstances resulting in a mineral royalty obligation. The South African mining industry has been a cornerstone in forming the economy for many years. The industry has on average contributed approximately 8.8% directly to the country’s gross domestic product during 2011. The potential impact by the new royalty reform was predicted by researchers to impact mining operations’ profitability between 2% and 5%, whilst the sector’s contribution to total taxes was expected to rise by 8%. The actual impact of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Royalty Act on the country’s fiscal and mining industry was reviewed to determine just how many circumstances have changed in South African mining, if any. The research study has found that although there has been an impact it was not as significant as anticipated. Die implementering van die Minerale en Petroleum Reserwes Tantieme Wet sou na verwagting ‘n groot impak op die Suid-Afrikaanse ekonomie en die mynbedryf hê. Minerale tantieme is ‘n doeltreffende instrument in die invordering van vergoeding vir die ontginning van minerale hulpbronne wat nie hernu kan word nie. ‘n Ondersoek oor die ontwikkeling, evolusie en toepassing van minerale tantieme het aangedui dat die onlangse Wet op Minerale en Petroleum Reserwes Tantieme ‘n meer formele regulerende stelsel teweeggebring het in die bepaling van tantieme betaalbaar. Verskeie fundamentele beginsels word onderskryf deur die Wet, soos die onderskeid tussen verwerkte en onverwerkte minerale hulpbronne, verskillende tantieme formules toepaslik op elk van die minerale hulpbronne en omstandighede wat lei tot ‘n mineraal tantiem verpligting. Die Suid-Afrikaanse mynbedryf was ‘n hoeksteen in die ontwikkeling van die ekonomie vir baie jare. Die bedryf het gemiddeld ongeveer 8.8% direk bygedra tot die land se bruto binnelandse produk gedurende 2011. Navorsers het voorspel dat die potensiële impak van die nuwe mineraalhervorming mynbou se winsgewendheid met tussen 2% en 5% sou beïnvloed, terwyl die sektor se bydrae tot die totale belasting na verwagting sou styg met 8%. Die werklike impak van die Mineraal en Petroleum Reserwes Tantieme Wet op die land se ekonomie en mynbedryf was hersien om vas te stel presies hoeveel omstandighede verander het in Suid-Afrikaanse mynbou, indien enige. Die studie het bevind dat selfs al het die nuwe tantieme stelsel ‘n impak gemaak op Suid-Afrika, dit nie so wesenlik was soos verwag nie. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / am2014 / Taxation / unrestricted