Tourism is currently the third largest industry within South Africa. Many African countries, including South Africa, have the potential to achieve increased economic growth and development with the aid of the tourism sector. As tourism is a great earner of foreign exchange and also creates employment opportunities, especially low–skilled employment, it is identified as a sector that can aid developing countries to increase economic growth and development. Accurate forecasting of tourism demand is important due to the perishable nature of tourism products and services. Little research on forecasting tourism demand in South Africa can be found. The aim of this study is to forecast tourism demand (international tourist arrivals) to South Africa by making use of different causal models and to compare the forecasting accuracy of the causal models used. Accurate forecasts of tourism demand may assist policy–makers and business concerns with decisions regarding future investment and employment. An overview of South African tourism trends indicates that although domestic arrivals surpass foreign arrivals in terms of volume, foreign arrivals spend more in South Africa than domestic tourists. It was also established that tourist arrivals from Africa (including the Middle East), form the largest market of international tourist arrivals to South Africa. Africa is, however, not included in the empirical analysis mainly due to data limitations. All the other markets namely Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America, South America and the United Kingdom are included as origin markets for the empirical analysis and this study therefore focuses on intercontinental tourism demand for South Africa. A review of the literature identified several determinants of tourist arrivals, including income, relative prices, transport cost, climate, supply–side factors, health risks, political stability as well as terrorism and crime. Most researchers used tourist arrivals/departures or tourist spending/receipts as dependent variables in empirical tourism demand studies. The first approach used to forecast tourism demand is a single equation approach, more specifically an Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model. This relationship between the explanatory variables and the dependent variable was then used to ex post forecast tourism demand for South Africa from the six markets identified earlier. Secondly, a system of equation approach, more specifically a Vector Autoregressive Model and Vector Error Correction Model were estimated for each of the identified six markets. An impulse response analysis was undertaken to determine the effect of shocks in the explanatory variables on tourism demand using the Vector Error Correction Model. It was established that it takes on average three years for the effect on tourism demand to disappear. A variance decomposition analysis was also done using the Vector Error Correction Model to determine how each variable affects the percentage forecast variance of a certain variable. It was found that income plays an important role in explaining the percentage forecast variance of almost every variable. The Vector Autoregressive Model was used to estimate the short–run relationship between the variables and to ex post forecast tourism demand to South Africa from the six identified markets. The results showed that enhanced marketing can be done in origin markets with a growing GDP in order to attract more arrivals from those areas due to the high elasticity of the real GDP per capita in the long run and its positive impact on tourist arrivals. It is mainly up to the origin countries to increase their income per capita. Focussing on infrastructure development and maintenance could contribute to an increase in future tourist arrivals. It is evident that arrivals from Europe might have a negative relationship with the number of hotel rooms available since tourists from this region might prefer accommodation with a safari atmosphere such as bush lodges. Investment in such accommodation facilities and the marketing of such facilities to Europeans may contribute to an increase in arrivals from Europe. The real exchange rate also plays a role in the price competitiveness of the destination country. Therefore, in order for South Africa to be more price competitive, inflation rate control can be a way to increase price competitiveness rather than to have a fixed exchange rate. Forecasting accuracy was tested by estimating the Mean Absolute Percentage Error, Root Mean Square Error and Theil’s U of each model. A Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) model was estimated for each origin market as a benchmark model to determine forecasting accuracy against this univariate time series approach. The results showed that the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average model achieved more accurate predictions whereas the Vector Autoregressive model forecasts were more accurate than the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model forecasts. Policy–makers can use both the SARIMA and VAR model, which may generate more accurate forecast results in order to provide better policy recommendations. / Thesis (M.Com. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The degree to which the SABC as public broadcaster gives shape to its language policy and language mandate, against the background of an investigation of language rights, establishes the central problem statement of this research. It is widely acknowledged that it is difficult to define the concept of language rights. 14khough the language-sociological literature associates this concept with minority and cultural rights, it can also be seen as individual rights. According to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa,1996,it is clear that language rights should be seen as individual rights that can be exercised within a particular community. Although this dissertation provides an extensive juridical and language sociological explanation of the concept of language rights, the description by Judge Able Sachs will be used as a working definition for this research. His division between the following four fundamental language rights, viz.: (i) the right to use your language; (ii) the right to develop your language; (iii) the right to be understood and to understand other languages as well as (iv) the right not to be discriminated against because of your language, provides a useful investigation instrument with which the degree to which the SABC-TV acknowledges and protects language rights can be measured. It is found that despite the policy documents on national and corporate level that has equal consideration and treatment of the diverse South African languages in mind, it still happens that the SABC-TV fails to give form to the language rights of individuals that belong to indigenous minority language groups in South Africa. Due to this, the research suggests that the extensive implementation of subtitles, as a form of screen translation that differs from lip synchronised dubbing, can make a significant contribution to the acknowledgement and protection of language rights by the SABC-TV. In addition to a discussion on what subtitles entail, the technical nature and specific parameters thereof, a feasibility study is included within which the affordability of this project for the SABC-TV is indicated. It is found that this form of screen translation is ideal for the South African situation because it is cheaper than both lip synchronised dubbing and the creation of new television programmes, but also because it can effectively be employed in regional broadcasts. Furthermore, the use of bilingual subtitles and pivot subtitles are also alternatives that may be considered. It is essential though that subtitles can indeed contribute to the way in which the SABC, as a public broadcaster, acknowledges and protects the fundamental language rights of the multitude of South Africans that belong to different language communities in South Africa. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2004.

The degree to which the SABC as public broadcaster gives shape to its language policy and language mandate, against the background of an investigation of language rights, establishes the central problem statement of this research. It is widely acknowledged that it is difficult to define the concept of language rights. 14khough the language-sociological literature associates this concept with minority and cultural rights, it can also be seen as individual rights. According to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa,1996,it is clear that language rights should be seen as individual rights that can be exercised within a particular community. Although this dissertation provides an extensive juridical and language sociological explanation of the concept of language rights, the description by Judge Able Sachs will be used as a working definition for this research. His division between the following four fundamental language rights, viz.: (i) the right to use your language; (ii) the right to develop your language; (iii) the right to be understood and to understand other languages as well as (iv) the right not to be discriminated against because of your language, provides a useful investigation instrument with which the degree to which the SABC-TV acknowledges and protects language rights can be measured. It is found that despite the policy documents on national and corporate level that has equal consideration and treatment of the diverse South African languages in mind, it still happens that the SABC-TV fails to give form to the language rights of individuals that belong to indigenous minority language groups in South Africa. Due to this, the research suggests that the extensive implementation of subtitles, as a form of screen translation that differs from lip synchronised dubbing, can make a significant contribution to the acknowledgement and protection of language rights by the SABC-TV. In addition to a discussion on what subtitles entail, the technical nature and specific parameters thereof, a feasibility study is included within which the affordability of this project for the SABC-TV is indicated. It is found that this form of screen translation is ideal for the South African situation because it is cheaper than both lip synchronised dubbing and the creation of new television programmes, but also because it can effectively be employed in regional broadcasts. Furthermore, the use of bilingual subtitles and pivot subtitles are also alternatives that may be considered. It is essential though that subtitles can indeed contribute to the way in which the SABC, as a public broadcaster, acknowledges and protects the fundamental language rights of the multitude of South Africans that belong to different language communities in South Africa. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2004.

South Africa is a very diverse country. There are eleven spoken official languages, different cultures, beliefs, backgrounds, educational levels, races as well as differences in socioeconomic status. Psychometric measuring instruments used in South Africa are mostly imported from Europe or America and are often not standardised for the South African context. The translation of such imported measuring instruments usually results in bias, in contravention of the Employment Equity Act (1998) which stipulates that all psychometric assessments should be bias–free, equivalent, and fair. It is of tremendous importance to take a country's political, economic and social history into account before developing a psychometric instrument, to ensure that the instrument will adhere to all legal requirements. A quantitative research design was used in this study. The sample consisted of students from tertiary institutions in North–West and Gauteng Provinces (SH–1: n = 473; SH–2: n = 476). Convenience sampling was used since the aim of the study was to test the reliability and validity of a newly developed instrument. Questionnaires were distributed amongst the participants from the tertiary institutions, to be completed within a set time and collected immediately after completion. The first objective of the study was to develop a valid and reliable measuring instrument that scientifically assesses the Hostility, Gratefulness and Active Support subclusters of the Soft–heartedness cluster of a new personality measure being developed for the South African context, namely the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI). Items were derived from person–descriptive terms gathered through a qualitative research design. The aim of this qualitative research design was to gather as many person–descriptive terms as possible and integrating these terms into a personality instrument. A principal component analysis was conducted to determine the item correlations, and items that did not function as expected were removed. Internal consistency coefficients were calculated to determine the item reliabilities. The second aim of this study was to determine the factor structure for the three subclusters of the Soft–heartedness cluster included in this study (pertaining to these three subclusters). A factor analysis was performed. A higher–order factor was present and a second–order analysis was performed, using the factor correlation matrix as input on the results. From the three subclusters assessed in this study, only two subclusters were extracted, and were labelled Hostility and Congenial Behaviour. This could be an indication that the positive and the negative items are clustering together in two separate groups, one indicating positive behaviour and the other negative behaviour. Finally, the construct equivalence across different race groups was evaluated by considering Tucker's phi coefficient and comparing the factor pattern matrices of the two factors obtained to compare the factor solutions between the white and African race groups respectively. The results indicated that each of the facets had similar loadings on their posited factors for both groups and that the two factors were represented by the same facets irrespective of the race groups. Recommendations were made for future research. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This research was aimed at validating the PHQ–9 in an African context. This study forms part of the project of Psychosocial Health and Biomarkers in an African context (FORT3, Wissing, 2008). The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ–9) is a nine–item depression scale that has the potential of being a dual–purpose instrument to establish the diagnosis of a depressive disorder, as well as the grade of symptom severity (Kroenke, Spitzer & Williams, 2001). The PHQ–9 was administered with criterion related measures to a multicultural convenience sample of 2214 participants from the North West Province of South Africa, including two groups of adolescents (n1 = 1480 and n2 = 559) and an availability sample of adults (n3 = 185). Instruments to determine criterion validity were the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), designed to detect symptoms of mental disorders; the Mental Health Continuum - Short Form for Adults (MHC–SF) which measures the degree of emotional, social and psychological well–being; and the New General Self–Efficacy Scale (NGSE) designed to measure an individual’s general self–efficacy. Descriptive statistics for the PHQ–9 including its reliability in the various groups is reported. The PHQ–9 manifested a Cronbach Alph are liability index of 0.86. Criterion–related validity was supported by significant correlations between the PHQ–9 and criterion measures. Confirmatory factor analysis for the PHQ–9 yielded a one–factor solution in all groups. The percentage variance explained ranged between 34.71% and 46.62%. Exploratory factor analyses yielded two factors in all groups with the second factor comprised of no more than 2 items and thus interpreted as a minor factor. The construct validity obtained in this research indicates that the PHQ–9 may be a valid measure to identify depression in a South African context. Based on the psychometric properties found in this study, it can be concluded that the PHQ–9 is a valid measure of depression in two of the samples selected for this study. Future studies may further validate this instrument in specific language and cultural groups, and explore the cross–cultural measurement equivalence. / Thesis (M.A. (Research Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the transformation process that has taken place in the local government sphere over the past sixteen years. This process is based on the Constitution, Act 108 of 1996. Transformation applies to all areas of society, including the disabled – the focus point of this study. More specifically the focus of the study is on the effect of the transformation process on the disabled. The study was done within Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, taking into consideration the Constitution of 1996, as well as internal policies. The main focus during this study is to emphasize the position of the disabled, focusing on recognition, basic needs, funding, promotion, careers, and the incorporation of the disabled into the Municipality. / Thesis (M. Development and Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This study begins with the question: "Is there a place for a Christian ethical code of conduct in the diverse and complex business world of today?" In chapter 2 I explain the context wherein one should understand this question. If you look at the history of South Africa you will see that there was discrimination that took place over a long period of time on the basis of race, religion and gender and that makes this issue a very sensitive one. The reason why it is so sensitive is if there were to be a Christian ethical code of conduct in the workplace could it lead to discrimination again? That is not allowed to happen under the current Constitution of South Africa. But the other side is also true, if you don?t have a Christian ethical code won?t you loose the beautiful things Scripture gives us on how to treat all people equally and fairly within the workplace? This study will show that according to the Constitution of South Africa it is possible to have a Christian ethical code of conduct as long it does not exclude any employee. In chapter 3 we have a look at Scripture that gives us guidelines on how to treat all people and also people in the workplace. Here are some examples: * the way employees should be handled; * the number of working hours the employees should be working; * the remuneration of the employees – is it fair; * how the Shareholders? / Stakeholders? interests are looked after; * the manner in which the business is being managed; * the Constitutional business environment; * the international law that transcends borders where macrobusinesses do business. In chapter 4 we look at the Christian ethical perspective in the business. We look at the role of the economy and the core values to manage a business. In chapter 5 we end with an example of a workable Christian ethical code of conduct and we compare two large business codes of conduct. / Thesis (Th.M. (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The services sector has played an increasingly important role in international trade in recent years. The negotiations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in recent years have initiated a global drive to liberalise services trade. However, this liberalisation process holds many challenges, especially for developing countries that do not have an adequate regulatory system to sufficiently support and promote these new export sectors. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in South Africa recognised a need to undertake scientific research to identify the development and export potential of key services sectors. In the period from 2005 until 2009, the services sector contributed 65% on average to the GDP of South Africa. In 2010, 79% of the labour force in South Africa was employed in the services sector. However, services only contributed 19% to total exports from South Africa in the period from 2005 until 2009 (ITC, 2010a). The largest services export sectors for South Africa over the five–year period were travel (63%), transportation (11%), and business services (9%). This indicates that South Africa?s services exports are mostly concentrated in one sector, namely travel, and this clearly indicates the need for South Africa to diversify exports of services into other sectors. Export promotion is one of the methods that governments can use in order to stimulate the export growth of a country. Given the need to increase and diversify the exports of South African services, this study aimed to investigate the literature in order to establish possible guidelines for the export promotion of services specifically. Export promotion instruments should aim to identify potential export opportunities in order to allocate scarce government resources to the active promotion of the sectors with the highest export potential. In order to aid government with this process, Cuyvers, De Pelsmacker and Roozen (1995) developed a decision support model (DSM) that could determine potential export opportunities for products in Belgium by using a scientifically–based method. This model was adapted for South African products in 2007 and further refined in 2009 and 2010 for the DTI in South Africa. In all cases, the DSM analysis was only applied to products and the services sector was never taken into consideration owing to the data differences and the nature of services. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a similar model for the services sector in South Africa that could identify the sectors and countries with the highest potential for services export diversification. The results of such a model could also be incorporated into a services sector strategy for South Africa. Such a services strategy does not currently exist for South Africa and if the results of this model were incorporated into such a strategy, it would be the first of its kind. The study reviewed the methodology of the DSM for products and found that the methodology of the first two filters could be applied to the available services data in a similar manner. However, owing to the nature of services and the limited availability of data, the third and fourth filters had to be adapted to consider these differences. Therefore, a new model was developed to incorporate the nature of services, and the new model was named the export opportunities model (EOM) for services. A new methodology was developed for the third and fourth filters in the EOM for services. A new cell structure was also constructed to categorise the results of the EOM according to the specific market characteristics, which could be used in export promotion strategies to develop specific promotion instruments for each type of market. The results of the EOM for services on a geographical basis showed that the highest export opportunities for services in South Africa were in Eastern and South–Eastern Asia, followed by the European market. The results also identified specific sectors that have high export potential for South African services. The sectors with the highest export potential are travel, transportation, construction services, communications services and other business services. These results can be incorporated into a services sector export promotion strategy for the DTI in South Africa. The study also compared the results of the DSM for products with the results of the EOM for services, in order to establish guidelines on regional export opportunities for both products and services. The study found that the highest export opportunities were in the Asian and European regions. The DTI in South Africa could use these product/country combinations and services/country combinations to develop specific export promotion instruments and strategies for each region in the world. / Thesis (Ph.D. (International Trade))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This thesis identifies realistic export opportunities for South African products in the rest of the world and specifically in the rest of the African continent. The method chosen to achieve this goal is the Decision Support Model (DSM) developed by Cuyvers et al (1995) and Cuyvers (1997) that was specifically designed to assist export promotion institutions in planning and assessing their export promotion activities. This model is positioned into the international market selection literature and four main refinements to the DSM methodology are introduced to address the limitations of the model and to make it more applicable for the South African international trade conditions. The refined model is then applied to identify product–country combinations with the largest export potential for South Africa in the rest of the world and in the rest of the African continent specifically. The refinements to the DSM filtering process introduced in this study contribute to the effective use and application of the DSM results by South African exporters and more focused export promotion activities by South African export promotion organisations. The four refinements include (i) running the DSM on a HS 6–digit level, (ii) introducing a method to calculate the potential export value of each identified export opportunity in order to prioritise between the product–country combinations identified as realistic export opportunities, (iii) taking the production capacity of South Africa into consideration in order to identify export opportunities that can be pursued immediately due to the country's existing revealed comparative advantage in the production and exportation of these products and (iv) developing a market accessibility index per product–country combination from a South African point of view on a HS 6–digit level in order to make filter 3.2 (barriers to trade) of the DSM applicable for South African conditions. The results of the application of the refined DSM to identify export opportunities for South Africa in the rest of the world include the top 50 worldwide export opportunities. There are 17 countries in which the top 50 worldwide product–country combinations identified as export opportunities for South Africa are located. These include the United States, Japan, India, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, Israel, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Singapore, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Italy and Brazil. Mineral products (coal, copper and aviation spirit); transportation products (1500 - 3000 cc automobile engines and diesel powered trucks); stone/glass (diamonds, platinum and rhodium) and metals (aluminium, iron/steel structures, nickel) are the product classifications within the top 50 worldwide product–country combinations that hold the largest worldwide export potential for South Africa. In terms of the product–country combinations with the highest export potential for South Africa in the rest of the African continent, there are 18 countries in which the top 50 product–country combinations for South Africa in the rest of the African continent are located. These include Nigeria, Namibia, Ghana, Morocco, Egypt, Zambia, Tunisia, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mauritius, Tanzania, Senegal, Mozambique, Algeria, Malawi and Cote d'Ivoire. The products with the highest potential export values in the top 50 product–country combinations for South Africa in Africa include mineral products (aviation spirit, iron ore, sulphur and coal) and transportation products (1500 - 3000 cc automobile engines and diesel powered trucks weighing less than 5 tons). / Thesis (Ph.D. (International Trade))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

AIM Poor iron status and under–nutrition among children are of concern not only in South Africa but worldwide. Both independent and combined associations between poor iron status, under–nutrition and cognitive development and function have been investigated. This mini–dissertation investigated possible associations between iron status indicators, anthropometric nutritional status and cognitive performance in the Beverage Fortified with Micronutrients (BeForMi) study population (black South African children aged 6–11 years in the North–West province of South Africa). METHODS The study was cross–sectional and based on the BeForMi study baseline data. Primary school children (n = 414) with the highest serum transferrin receptor (STR) and zinc protoporphyrin (ZnPP) levels were included. Anthropometric z–scores - BMI–for–age (BAZ), height–for–age (HAZ), and weight–for–age (WAZ) - and iron status indicators - haemoglobin (Hb), serum ferritin (SF), STR and ZnPP - were determined. The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second edition (KABC–II) was used to generate cognitive scores. RESULTS Fourteen percent of children were underweight (WAZ <= 2 SDs), 12.8% stunted (HAZ <= 2 SDs) and 8.4% wasted (BAZ <= 2 SDs). Of the children, 7.1% were anaemic (Hb < 11.5 g/dL), 13% iron depleted (Hb < 11.5 g/dL and SF < 12 ug/L) and 2.7% had iron deficiency anaemia (Hb < 11.5 g/dL and SF < 12 ug/L). Low iron stores (SF < 12 ug/L) were observed in 15.7% of the children. Positive correlations were found between SF and WAZ (r = 0.1, p = 0.047), Hb and HAZ (r = 0.13, p = 0.007) and WAZ (r = 0.13, p = 0.009). Positive correlations with small effect sizes were observed between some cognitive scores and z–scores (p < 0.05, r–value range 0.10 – 0.24). Negative correlations with small effect sizes were observed for the subtests Triangles and Rover (both subtests on simultaneous processing) with Hb (p = 0.008, r = –0.13) and SF (p = 0.04, r = –0.1) respectively. Higher HAZ, WAZ and education level of the head of household were all significantly associated with the likelihood that a child would fall within the upper quartile of Hb values in our study group (p = 0.036, p = 0.032 and p = 0.036 respectively). CONCLUSION The results suggested that under–nutrition was positively associated with poor iron status and lower cognitive scores in this study population. Further research, investigating specific effects of poor iron status at different stages of growth and the relationship with cognitive function later in life may help explain the negative correlations observed between current iron status indicators and cognitive scores. / Thesis (M.Sc (Dietetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.