The purpose of this study was to identify factors contributing to non-compliance to TB treatment amongst pulmonary TB patients in Waterberg district, Limpopo. The health-belief model was the conceptual framework which guided this study. A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive study design was used. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire administered by trained data collectors. Data was collected from 215 respondents. Informed consent was obtained from each respondent prior to data collection. MS Excel and SPSS were used to analyse data. Findings on significant factors contributing to noncompliance to TB treatment include; non-availability of food whilst taking TB treatment, disbelief in the fact that TB can result in death if not treated, belief in traditional medicine for curing TB, bad healthcare worker attitudes, long distance to the clinic for treatment, belief that TB treatment takes very long and the pill burden / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

The purpose of this study was to identify factors contributing to non-compliance to TB treatment amongst pulmonary TB patients in Waterberg district, Limpopo. The health-belief model was the conceptual framework which guided this study. A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive study design was used. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire administered by trained data collectors. Data was collected from 215 respondents. Informed consent was obtained from each respondent prior to data collection. MS Excel and SPSS were used to analyse data. Findings on significant factors contributing to noncompliance to TB treatment include; non-availability of food whilst taking TB treatment, disbelief in the fact that TB can result in death if not treated, belief in traditional medicine for curing TB, bad healthcare worker attitudes, long distance to the clinic for treatment, belief that TB treatment takes very long and the pill burden / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the vulnerability to HIV of rural male youth with regard to their beliefs, sexual attitudes and behaviour. The study took place in the Waterberg, a district of Limpopo in South Africa, and provided insight into and understanding of the youths’ attitudes to and intentions regarding HIV prevention and their perceptions of how they were influenced by the Boys2Men programme. The Theory of Reasoned Action and the Social Constructionist Theory provided a framework for the study. Nine participants between the ages of 19 and 26 were purposefully selected, and data was collected via individual face-to-face and focus group interviews. A number of semi-structured questions were used to guide the study, and data captured from the interviews was analysed by thematic content analysis. / Sociology / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

The purpose of this study was to analyse the tracking systems used to identify patients with tuberculosis who missed a clinic appointment at primary health care facilities in Waterberg District. A quantitative descriptive correlation design was used to determine if there was an association between the tracking systems used and the defaulter rates. Data was collected using a questionnaire with nurses from 46 primary health care facilities, defaulter rates were accessed from the ETR.Net and the two sets of data were correlated. The results showed that the blue folder yielded the lowest mean defaulter rate while the green card yielded the highest mean defaulter rate. Nurses were unaware of the true defaulter rate in their facilities as they underestimated these rates. They therefore did not implement relevant intervention strategies to recall patients or find ways to improve the tracking systems used to reduce the defaulter rate in their health facilities. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

The purpose of this study was to analyse the tracking systems used to identify patients with tuberculosis who missed a clinic appointment at primary health care facilities in Waterberg District. A quantitative descriptive correlation design was used to determine if there was an association between the tracking systems used and the defaulter rates. Data was collected using a questionnaire with nurses from 46 primary health care facilities, defaulter rates were accessed from the ETR.Net and the two sets of data were correlated. The results showed that the blue folder yielded the lowest mean defaulter rate while the green card yielded the highest mean defaulter rate. Nurses were unaware of the true defaulter rate in their facilities as they underestimated these rates. They therefore did not implement relevant intervention strategies to recall patients or find ways to improve the tracking systems used to reduce the defaulter rate in their health facilities. / Health Studies / M. A. (Health Studies)

Thesis (Ph.D. (Curriculum Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / The main purpose of this research study is to investigate and analyse the role of the Principal towards effective educational leadership in selected Secondary schools in Waterberg Education District. The effectiveness of the educational leadership depends on the educational managers’ personal backgrounds, con-duciveness of the school climates, positive learning school cultures, availability of resources in the classrooms, utilisation of learner-teacher support material (LTSM), effective organisation of educational excursions, and other related issues. Principals, by virtue of their positions need to be empowered so as to coordinate activities and provide resources that can be used to enhance effect-tive educational leadership. The most important aspect pertaining to effective educational leadership in schools, is that it must be managed properly. This actually implies that correct and relevant resources should be provided to reinforce the quality of effective educational leadership. The primary study revealed that effective educational leadership cannot be achieved by school Principals in isolation, but through the School Management Team as a whole. Due to the nature of the study, the researcher has employed phenomenology, stratified random sampling and qualitative research design to achieve the in-tended goal of the research project. The researcher has also used case studies and interview research instruments to collect relevant data from twenty (20) SMT members in area of the study. The data collected through case studies and interviews was analysed by coding derived from audio tape recorder. Descriptive analysis was used to analyse the data whose findings were based on to make conclusions and recommendations. The results indicated that the role of the Principal contributes significantly to the quality of effective educational leadership. The results also showed that there is a need for continued support from the members of the School Management Teams. The need for support from the parents, SGBs and government in terms of resources, is vital. The abovementioned support, can also assist the Principals to make a positive impact on effective educational leadership. The researcher believes that, if the findings and the recommendations from the study can be applied properly, they can add value to the educational practice in Waterberg District in particular and Limpopo Province as a whole.

PhDRDV / Institute for Rural Development / Land reform programmes have been implemented to address challenges of inequality in land ownership and poverty in many countries worldwide. They provide the poor people with important livelihood opportunities, such as livestock rearing, crop production and game farming in many rural areas. The government of South Africa, through the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) allocated various farms through the restitution programme to deal with unemployment, poverty, unsustainable livelihoods, shortage of skills and inequality challenges. This study focused on the restituted farm beneficiaries in Waterberg District. This was informed by the fact that since these farms were restituted, the majority of the farm beneficiary’s livelihoods have not significantly changed. A transformative sequential mixed method design was applied in this study in order to enable beneficiaries define their own issues and seek solutions. This involved concurrent collection of both quantitative and qualitative data; a stratified random sampling method was used to select 474 respondents. Qualitative data was collected using Interview guides, photo-voice and focus group discussions mainly from key informants- traditional leaders and the Ward Councillors. Two focus group discussion were held with the key informants and an observation was also used to collect qualitative data from the farmers. The data were analysed using ATLAS. ti version 7.5.7 and Thematic Content Analysis. The quantitative data was collected using a survey questionnaire and the Geographical Information System (GIS) approach to provide trends of the farm production. Remote sensing analysis was used to determine farm production performance of these restituted farms while the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS version 25) was used for computing descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation. The data indicated that farm production has declined since occupation of farms by the farm beneficiaries from 1995 to 2015. The decline has negatively affected the livelihoods of farm beneficiaries since more than half (61.6 %) indicated difficulties in effective operation of the farm due to lack of markets. About 64% of the farm beneficiaries have not been trained in farming. From 1995 to 2015, most of the restituted farms have lacked markets for their produce due to poor production arising from lack of funds to manage the farms. This has impeded beneficiaries from receiving any benefits, in terms of income or employment. Generally, the study concluded that there were no changes in the socio-economic status of the farm beneficiaries in the Waterberg District because most of the farms are not being utilised. The study recommends that the sector Department and private organizations should work together in ways, such as assisting the farm beneficiaries with capacity building, developing marketing strategy for the farm produce, with funds and infrastructure to improve production. With respect to farm performance satisfaction, the majority (77.2 %) of the farm beneficiaries were not satisfied with the restituted farms. Their benefits in terms of human development, financial, social and physical capitals had not changed as the majority (83.3 %) said there are no improvements in terms of salaries or wages. They claim that their livelihoods have remained the same because the farms are not operational due to lack of basic farming skills and conflicts. Agricultural Extension Advisors, Councillors, Traditional leaders and officials from DRDLR confirmed that production levels have declined because the land was transferred to people with no basic training in farming; most (54 %) of the respondents confirmed that the beneficiaries, therefore utilise only a portion of the farms. It is imperative, thus, to ensure that production on the restituted farms is enhanced to improve the areas, such as social, financial, human and physical capital. A three-pronged intervention strategy was, therefore, developed to help restituted farm beneficiaries in Waterberg District to improve their livelihoods, emancipate themselves from poverty and ultimately contribute to the National Development Plan of South Africa. The developed strategy is anchored on three key factors: the need for thorough assessment by the government on the farm beneficiary’s level of commitment to the farm prior to farm allocation and funding, need to incorporate new experts in agricultural economics and agricultural engineers into the restituted farms personnel and the need to decentralize the services of mentors and agricultural extension advisors at District and local Municipalities. / NRF