Thesis (MPhil (Sustainable Development Planning and Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The study asserts that Swaziland’s socio-economic development challenges cannot be effectively tackled by the Government and civil society alone but requires the participation of the private sector. The study explores the prospects for collaboration between the state and business in the context of MDGs, PPPs and CSR. The study highlights the importance of the participation of beneficiaries in the design and implementation of development projects. The importance of beneficiary participation in the design and implementation of development initiatives is discussed in the context of “good governance” linked to the notion of sustainable human development. The case studies are aimed at poverty reduction/alleviation. Linkages between the private sector and SMEs in advancing broad economic growth are explored in the case studies. It is argued that economic growth is a necessary condition for creating employment and fighting poverty underpinned by the MDGs. The Moneni upgrading project (section 3.2) explores the extent the initiative aims to improve the living standards of low-income and poor communities in line with the MDGs. The STH case study (section 3.3) is a spin off from government. The STH seeks to provide a market intermediary for the SME sector particularly rural based cultural “handicraft” industries in Swaziland as way to mitigate the effects of poverty for marginalised rural producers. The last case study (section 3.4) discusses the entrepreneur of the year awards (EYA), an initiative aimed at reducing poverty and promoting local economic empowerment and sustainable development in Swaziland. The study recommended further research in view of the major constraints highlighted by the study. It was problematic to engage in critical and detailed discourse because the concepts explored by the study are new in the Swazi development context. The other dimension that compromised detailed analysis was posed by the unavailability of research data related to both the Swazi private sector and SME sectors. The majority of the SME sector operate at micro level and have insignificant economic turnover. Further studies are important to explore ways to promote linkages for growth of these sectors in the context of poverty reduction/alleviation.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / The provision of finance to the poor through group lending has evolved enormously over the years following the successful implementation by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and the BancoSol in Bolivia. Various microfinance institutions in Swaziland also adopted this model and achieved varying results. Imbita Swaziland Women’s Finance Trust Fund is the only microfinance institution that has continuously embraced this model whilst others closed down or migrated to individual lending. This paper uses Imbita as the focal organisation for the study in order to understand the adoption of group lending in Swaziland. The core objectives of the paper were to evaluate Imbita’s experience in applying this model, understanding the characteristics of the groups they lend to and how the groups manage loan repayment. Data collected from the groups suggests that Imbita has relatively succeeded in applying group lending as evidenced by the high performance of group loans compared to individual loans. This success is attributed to close monitoring of the groups and peer selection at the group formation stage. The success is coupled with a few challenges which include inaccessibility of groups, capital limitations within the organisation and non repayment of loans. A majority of the groups comprised family members, aged between 26-45 years and are involved in informal business activities. The high presence of family members in the groups negatively affects the repayment performance of a group. Groups that had known each other for a longer period (11 years and above) prior to group formation perform better in loan repayment compared to those who have known each other for a shorter period (6-10 years). Groups still struggle with ensuring repayment of loans on time by members hence they always apply pressure on members to repay. However they still maintain the joint liability obligation by paying loans on behalf of members who need help in paying their loans. However, some groups have faced dissolution and were reformed as a result of non-payment. The application of group lending still requires design and implementation improvements. Some of the design improvements include ensuring homogeneity within the groups, reducing the sizes of groups, aligning repayment periods with the nature of each particular business and collecting sufficient information on borrowers. The high presence of family members within groups needs to be discouraged to improve loan repayment performance.

Problems in the water sector range from degradation and depletion of water resources as a result of the impacts of land based anthropogenic activities, to the impacts of natural hydrological disasters and floods, while inadequate availability of water is at the core of most water related disputes in arid and semi-arid areas at local, regional, national and international levels. In the past, finding practical solutions for these problems fell neatly within the traditional scope of water resources management, which hinged almost entirely on economic viability of engineering oriented endeavors. However, a new set of management challenges has arisen following the high priority nowadays given to equity in water allocation and the protection of the natural environment above other issues. These new challenges have created a need for devising and adopting suitable management approaches, especially that would take social considerations into account. One of the approaches that provides promise relative to the new directions in dealing with contemporary water issues is integrated water resources management (IWRM). One objective of this study was to critically review the definitions and the fundamental principles of IWRM with the view of determining its applicability in developing countries and highlighting difficulties that may be faced regarding the adoption and implementation of this integrated approach. Swaziland is atypical example ofa developing country that is engulfed by the diverse water resources issues highlighted above and is currently engaged in updating water management legislation. Hence, Swaziland's experiences were used to put in perspective the key points and barriers regarding the adoption and implementation of IWRM. The catchment, the recommended spatial unit of IWRM, poses the first practical barrier, as catchments often cross both political and administrative boundaries, thereby creating the need for many water management problems to be solved across catchments with international security issues, cultural issues, different levels of development and different hydroclimatic regimes. The successful implementation of IWRM depends on effective participation of stakeholders. Lack of information flow between stakeholders of different backgrounds limits informed participation. Therefore, it is necessary to develop tools such as decision support systems (DSSs) that will foster easier multilateral information flow and aid decision making. IWRM requires information which itself should be managed in an integrated manner and be readily accessible. This is not always the case in developing countries with shortage of funds for data collection, manipulation and storage as well as adequately trained and experienced staff With the shortage of sufficiently long and reliable hydrological data for water management, the alternative is to synthesize records through hydrological modelling. Another objective of this study was to evaluate and test the suitability of the ACRU modelling system, a daily time-step agrohydrological model, to simulate catchment level hydrological processes and land use impacts as part of the assessment studies which form an integral part of integrated water resources management. ACRU was set up for the Mbuluzi, a 2958 km2 catchment in Swaziland. The catchment was subdivided into 40 sub catchments, after which the model was used for assessing both the impacts of land use and management changes on runoff yields and available water resources by evaluating present and future sectoral water demands, determining whether river flow from Swaziland into Mozambique meets the quantitative requirements of the international agreement existing between the two countries, and evaluating sediment yield and its spatial and temporal variation as well as its response to potential changes in land management. The physical-conceptual structure of the model, its multi-level adeptness regarding input information requirements, coupled with in-built decision support systems and generic default values make ACRU a suitable modelling tool in developing countries, as it makes it possible to obtain reasonable simulations for a range of levels of input information. Together with the model's multi-purpose nature, the ability of simulating ''what if scenarios", which was utilised in this study, makes it useful in the generation of information for IWRM. Future research needs which were identified include finding means of encouraging effective communication between scientists, water managers and other stakeholders, who may be "lay people". There is a need to conduct research that will lead to equipping ACRU with sediment routing and deposition algorithms, as well as routines to account more explicitly for dam operating rules and ecological issues, which would render its output even more useful in IWRM than the model's present structure allows. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

Teacher training is a significant and integral component of a sound education system. The need for quality programmes and relevantly qualified personnel cannot be overemphasised. Effective learning organisations result from good governance and strategic management. The purpose of this study was to determine how teacher training colleges (TTCs) in Swaziland could be transformed into effective Learning Organisations (LOs)? The following research questions guided the study. These were formulated as follows: What were the characteristics of effective learning organisations?; which factors had the potential for developing TTCs as learning organisations?; which factors restricted the TTCs in Swaziland from functioning as effective learning organizations? And how were TTCs in Swaziland governed and strategically managed? The study emanated from concerns raised for a number of years on the quality and relevancy of TTCs in Swaziland. Such concerns were noted by both the print and electronic media as well as members of the general public. The training programmes in TTCs have been widely criticized, particularly with regard to standards, quality and relevance of the training process in relation to meeting the nation and the global requirements. The study was qualitative and was underpinned by the interpretism research paradigm employing an ethnographic approach. The study was conducted in three selected teacher training colleges in Swaziland namely; the Nazarene College of Education and the William Pitcher Teacher Training College both based in the Manzini Region, and Ngwane Teachers’ College based in the Shiselweni Region. This study employed the purposive sampling procedure. Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) was used for the data analysis process. The findings of the study revealed that participants felt that characteristics of effective LOs included the availability of both well qualified academic and specialized non academic staff, adequate and relevant infrastructure, dynamic, innovative and responsive curriculum, quality assurance checks and balances mechanisms, good libraries and IT facilities , sufficient funding and innovative leadership. Regarding the factors that have the potential for developing TTCs to LOs, participants felt that institutional support from TTC leaders, adherence to professional and institutional values, using of mistakes as learning curve rather than criticism, and serious engagement in learning by all members was of paramount significance. On the factors that restricted TTCs in Swaziland from functioning as effective LOs, the study revealed that these included cumbersome bureaucracy, lack of rewards and incentives for staff members, poor mobility structures, poor promotion formula as well as lack of recognition for professional development or academic achievements. Regarding the manner in which TTCs are governed and strategically managed, the study revealed that this was characterized by a centralized, top down, weak unresponsive governance system seriously lacking autonomy, long and confusing bureaucracy, unresponsive and cumbersome procurement procedures. The conclusion was that the Government needs to restructure the governance and management systems of TTCs. The country should consider granting autonomy especially in the procurement processes. The promotion of staff in TTCs must be based on academic achievements and the Government needs to recognize the significance of giving rewards and incentive to here employees. For transformation to occur in TTCs there is need for college lecturers to adapt to change and for leaders to disseminate vital information to staff members all the time. The study concluded by developing a strategic management model to guide the development governance, management and operations of TTCs in Swaziland and their subsequent transformation to effective LOs. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Educational Management)

The business environment is impacted by technology both negatively and positively. To this extent, therefore, it is only prudent that the business environment adopts technological platforms, such as e-commerce, but there is a need to ascertain the risks involved, in order to optimize the benefits. This study set out to determine the impact of e-commerce on corporate governance in the retail sector in Zimbabwe. The corporates under investigation were Total Zimbabwe, Complete Solutions Architects, Venturecom and Kenac. The study included gathering the views of suppliers, customers, employees, government, and trade as well as investors. It employed a quantitative research design which involved the ultimate determination of the regression equation and a qualitative design which used interviews from stakeholder respondents. Some of the notable results from the questionnaire indicated poor customer relationship management on e-commerce platforms, a more stringent control than regulatory requirements and inadequate monitoring of the behaviour and activity of clients on e-commerce platforms. The investors also felt that the impact of electronic commerce impact on shareholder activity was not satisfactory especially with regards to meetings, but they indicated satisfaction with the enhancement of resources with regards to the generation of organizational profits. The regression equation finally revealed that for overall satisfaction, as a proxy for good corporate governance, as the dependent factor the statistically independent factors were investors and government as a trade, which could imply that these are the definitive stakeholders. From the interviews, there was indication some of the salient issues about e-commerce that were indicated included the untrustworthiness of intermediaries, the difficulty in describing physical goods and the difficulty of eliminating unethical practices on electronic commerce platforms. Inter-organizational compliance between the organizations and their stakeholders was also revealed as being a major factor that was needed in order to reduce the contagion effect. This action was followed by the view that the boards’ responsibilities and roles of the corporate boards needed had to change to manage risk on e-commerce platforms. The study concluded by suggesting a longitudinal study of the same topic incorporating more stakeholders and including more hypotheses to test all the possible and proposed relationships. More time is also recommended to cater for the fast development of ecommerce and IT in general / M. Sc. (Computing Science (Information Systems)) / School of Computing

This study sought to find out ways in which teachers can be supported to implement inclusive education at a primary school in the Kwaluseni district of Swaziland. The government of Swaziland introduced Free Primary Education ( F.P.E) also called mainstreaming. As per governments order, parents brought their learners for grade 1 and that was in 2010 January. That marked the beginning of the problem as teachers were not used to teaching disadvantaged learners in their classes but believed that such learners have to be transferred to specials schools of which the country only has four. The study is a case study using a qualitative approach. Purposive sampling was used in choosing the sample. The key informant were teachers from Kwaluseni primary school. For data collection a designed interview with semi structured and open ended items was used. Data was analysed using codes and there was a search for patterns of thinking or behaviour, words or phrases that appeared with regularity was the coding categories. A report was then written based on the findings. Then recommendations were stated. / Inclusive Education / M. Ed. (Inclusive Education)

The study aims to explore the role of children’s homes in the educational performance of primary school learners. It employed qualitative approach which follows a case study design. It was conducted in three schools and children’s home. The participants consisted of six caregivers, six teachers and six learners whose responses were collected using in-depth interviews as an instrument. They were all purposefully selected as they possess information that is rich and relevant to my study. Participants were told that their interview was voluntary and they were free to withdraw at any time if they feel uncomfortable. The confidentiality in order to protect the identity of the participants was maintained. The data were collected by writing response from participants and using tape recorder. It was then transcribed, organised, marked by hand, and coded to produce themes. The major findings are that children’s homes can affect the performance negatively or positively; positively, if homes create enough time for children to study and have more access to people and resources in support of their studies and negatively in that there are numerous educational barriers that the caregivers in the children’s home face daily when it comes to assisting the orphaned and vulnerable learners in their school work. Based on the findings, the study gives a number of recommendations, namely, there is need to strengthen collaborative efforts between government and other non-governmental organisations to ensure increased availability of necessary resources to the orphaned and vulnerable learners; caregivers in children’s homes need to receive proper training and assistance in order to be able to handle the psychological difficulties experienced by the orphaned and vulnerable learners; education and legal campaigns must be put in place to eliminate stigma associated with orphan-hood. / Inclusive Education / M. Ed. (Inclusive Education)

History and Background: The history of statutory labour dispute resolution of South Africa dates back to 1909, when the Transvaal Disputes Prevention Act of 1909 was promulgated which applied only to the Transvaal. The Industrial Conciliation Act of 1924 established industrial councils and ad hoc conciliation boards and excluded black workers from the statutory definition of employee and this resulted in a dual industrial relations system that existed up to 1979. The history of statutory labour dispute resolution of Swaziland dates back to 1980 when the first Industrial Relations Act of 1980 was promulgated which established the first Industrial Court. Research Findings: The dispute resolution systems of South Africa and Swaziland contain both similarities and differences. Lessons for Swaziland include combining general and specific dispute resolution procedures, providing the right of a referring party to apply for condonation for late referral of a dispute, using conciliation-arbitration, making arbitration proceedings public hearings, influence of parties on the appointment of arbitrators, court adjudication, pre-dismissal arbitration, court adjudication by judges only, establishment of a constitutional court, full protection of protected strikes/ lockouts from interdicts, legalization of sympathy strikes, and removal of strikes/ lockout ballot. Lessons for South Africa include plural representation of parties at conciliation and arbitration, re-direction of some disputes by the Labour Court to the Commission for arbitration, reporting of labour disputes direct to the Head of State for determination.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION THE UNIVERSITY OF WITWATERSRAND July, 2014 / This study seeks to establish key differences in pedagogical practices associated with and facilitated by different modalities of course delivery. These are: face-to-face instruction in a traditional university lecture-based environment; print-based course delivery, whereby off- campus distance learning students attend face-to-face lectures and tutorials on campus from time-to-time, and Moodle-based online course delivery integrated into the lecture and tutorial-based environments. The key aspect of the study concerns changing pedagogy as a consequence of the introduction of online learning tools within the traditional delivery modalities. I investigate the nature of and extent to which a Moodle platform has been introduced into the traditional face-to-face teaching and learning situation. This is done to ascertain exactly how the pedagogies established and practiced within the traditional delivery modalities are recontextualised in the digital delivery modality. Recontextualisation in this context refers to how the curriculum and pedagogic practice are transformed when interpreted and delivered by instructors to both full-time and distance education students through the three teaching and learning delivery modalities used at UNISWA. The extent of the recontextualisation is accounted for through an experiential case study of four different instances in which the same course is taught by the same instructor to the two student groups. The content and aim of each course is identical, but the pedagogy is not intended by each instructor to be the same in each case. This scenario provided a distinctive, perhaps even unique, opportunity to study the recontextualisation of pedagogic content, pedagogic practices, and assessment practices in a controlled manner across the three modalities. The research goal was realised by employing a multiple-case study design where four faculty staff members completed a 36 item Likert scales type questionnaire. On the basis of a content analysis of this limited quantitative data, each instructor was interviewed in-depth on their pedagogical practices to establish what lay beneath their beliefs in teaching and learning and espoused practices. Key themes were identified and continuous comparison was executed to analyse the transcribed questionnaire data against the interview data. I strengthened the qualitative aspect of this study by means of documentary analysis of course texts ranging from printed course learning materials, such as; course outlines, handouts, modules and Moodle web pages. I also conducted, 3 recorded and transcribed face-to-face as well as content and learning pathway (Moodle) observations, to once more contrast enacted pedagogic practice against espoused pedagogic beliefs. I use Bernstein’s (1990, 2000) theory of pedagogic discourse extensively,particularly his notions of classification and framing principles. Weak classification (-C), specifically in the case of this study, means the more there is reference to online lessons, materials, assignments, feedback and so on or use of e-learning in face-to-face instruction,the more e-learning is integrated into the traditional modalities of teaching. In the same way, strong classification (+C) denotes that the more face-to-face and e-learning are kept apart, the less integration of e-learning into traditional modalities of teaching is taking place. Likewise, the framing principle relates to the transmission of knowledge through pedagogic practices. Strong framing (+F) is used to indicate a visible pedagogic practice that is traditional and therefore opposed to a constructivists approach expected when teaching distance education students and when using e-learning. Weak framing (-F) is applied to indicate an invisible pedagogic practice that is closely related to the mandated constructivist approach. The research findings answered the research question of whether an instructor’s pedagogic practice remains unchanged whichever delivery modality is used. Bernstein’s classification and framing principles are employed to check and establish the instructor’s pedagogical practice and provide the framework for presenting the main findings of this study. With the exception of one out of four case study instructors, the practice is strong classification and framing (+C/F) throughout. This reflects that the traditional approach is predominantly applied in the classroom. This study thus recommends that multiple pedagogical approaches should be acknowledged and applied in all teaching and learning.

This qualitative case study concerns the educational processes undertaken in an environmental programme of Timeleni Bomake group at Nsingweni, a rural community in Swaziland. At the time of the research most of the group members were elderly women with about four men among whom is the facilitator, a teacher at Nsingweni Primary School. The inquiry occurred through fieldwork involving interviews, observation and photography. Data analysis followed an inductive process that builds concepts. Formed in 1990, the group saw dramatic economic gain in the 1990's through a gardening project supported by Yonge Nawe environmental action group and the facilitator. At the beginning of the new millennium the participants' intrinsic abilities to sustain the group were put to test. Challenges emerged that reduced the enthusiasm of some group members such that the study found the group at the edge of collapse. This report concludes with recommendations on ways to sustain community programmes. / Educational Studies / Thesis (M. Ed. (Environmental Education))