The study focuses on the emotional experiences of parental bereavement of African adolescents who live in a rural environment. Findings revealed that the loss of a parent is very devastating for African adolescents. The adolescents received inadequate assistance from family, peers, community members or educators. It is essential after this study to uncover ways in which these adolescents could be assisted to cope with the loss of a parent who had been providing love, care, financial and material support, as well as safety and security. To gather data the researcher drew meaning from eight participants’ lived experiences from transcriptions of interviews with the participants. The participants, seven girls and one boy, were adolescents between the ages of twelve and fifteen years, who had lost their fathers. This study recommended that educators be equipped to take a major role in dealing with children in bereavement, since there are no educational psychologists or other professionals based in the school or neighbourhood. The community needs to be made aware of the plight of bereaved adolescents and should be introduced into giving positive and constructive assistance to these young people. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Specialisation in Guidance and Counselling)

The thesis proposes solutions for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Newcastle area to perform Christ’s mission work effectively. It examines how mission could be meaningful in contemporary society, which is challenging mission so gravely. The study challenges all churches, including youth, women, men and clergy towards mission. An analysis of a mission perspective is delineated, aware of the social contexts for mission in Newcastle. The context of culture has been dealt with, encouraging the Church to be culturally sensitive, and to use cultural means to reach people. God uses cultural means to reveal himself. Evil cultural practices, for example, ancestral ‘worship’ and ‘talking to the dead’ are exposed and denounced. Bible readings promote mission in the Adventist Church. The teacher of the Bible is to study it thoroughly, ensuring that he/she is able to proclaim the gospel. Creative teaching of the Bible includes different levels of understanding, namely, a rote level, a recognition level, a repetition level, an interactive and a realisation level. The gospel is to be applied in life. Different hermeneutical approaches to the Bible are summarised, for example, a postmodern approach. Strategic planning regarding evangelism is vital. ‘Gift-based’ ministry would inspire all believers to perform mission work according to people’s ability. All Christians should be able to evangelise others, leading people as acknowledged sinners to accept Christ as Saviour and Lord, and to establish the reign of God in society according to his justice. The heart of the thesis is as follows:- The gospel of Christ is a missionary message to reach all people with the gospel of salvation and societal renewal - The church of Christ is a missional church, which stands and falls by its missionary task to proclaim Christ as Saviour and his reign and justice as ultimate in society / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

This research study focuses on the sexual encounters of teenagers. Teenagers do not always have private intimate places of their own and tend to use school grounds, toilets and classrooms to engage in sexual activities. Recently, various newspapers published articles about teen pregnancy and sex on school grounds. The alarming rate of sexual activities at schools among South African teenagers became a driving force for the researcher to investigate this phenomenon. The goal was to develop in-depth understanding of the experiences of teenagers being engaged in sexual activities at school and social work support required. A qualitative approach was employed following explorative, descriptive and contextual research designs. The study was conducted in the Gauteng province. Semi-structured interviews were employed to collect data. Purposive sampling was utilised. Analysis of data was conducted according to Tesch (cited in Smit, 2002) and Guba's model (cited in Shenton, 2004) was employed for data verification. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Science (Social Work))

German text / Die vorliegende wissenschaftliche Arbeit befasst sich mit den amaZioni, die den größten Teil der südafrikanischen AIC-Bewegung („African Independent/Indigenous/Initiated Churches“) ausmachen. Für die meisten Theologen stellen die amaZioni eine synkretistische christliche Kirchenbewegung dar, die in ihren Ritualen und Gottesdienstformen starke Einflüsse von traditionellen afrikanischen Religionen (ATR) aufweist. Nicht desto trotz öffnen sich viele der amaZioni-Kirchen gegenüber biblischer Lehre durch Missionare. Um eine solide Grundlage für die Missionsarbeit zu schaffen, befasst sich die vorgeschlagene Arbeit damit, wichtige Bedürfnisse der amaZioni zu erforschen, so dass diese als Anknüpfungspunkte für die weitere Evangeliumsverkündigung genutzt werden können. / The proposed research examines the needs of the amaZioni, who are part of the South African AIC-movement. The amaZioni, as one of the largest religious groups in South Africa, are viewed by most theologicans as syncretistic christian churches. It is obvious that their common believe system as well as their rituals show a strong influence of african traditional religions (ATR). But nevertheless, many of the members of the Zion-churches are opening up for bible teaching provided by missionaries. In order to establish a solid base for the future mission work the proposed research focuses on finding out the amaZioni's needs, so that this needs can be used as reference points in the endeavour of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the missionaries. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

Those who take the Great Commission of Christ seriously realise that enlarging today's mission force is crucial. The Two-thirds World church is in a prime position to meet the need. Cross-cultural mission training would greatly enhance and accelerate the fulfilling of Christ's final mandate to the Church. As founding director of Missions Exposure and Training (MET), a Christian ministry located in Pretoria, South Africa, the author of the thesis lays out the details of the programme for the reader. MET is the case study being considered, with particular emphasis placed on Missionary Candidate School (MCS), the backbone of MET. Before MET is introduced, the thesis begins with the challenge facing the universal Church today: the need to strengthen and enlarge the current mission force. The theological implications of Jesus Christ's mandate to the Church, the missionary purpose of the Church, as well as eschatological concerns build a strong argument for the need of a larger mission force. Demographic changes taking place within the Church mean that Two-thirds World Christians should be considered as a primary resource for cross-cultural mission endeavours. To maximise the potential of the new recruits, which the writer refers to as 'missionary candidates,' further discussion is given for the need of systematic training and equipping of Two-thirds World missionaries. After describing MET and MCS, the programme is critically evaluated. MCS is proven to be effective in training African men and women for intercultural Christian mission service, and as such it becomes a model worth investigating. The clear findings that result from the candid evaluation, and assessments made in light of current theological and missiological issues, should prove to be beneficial to those developing programmes with the purpose of training and equipping Two-thirds World missionaries. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

This research focused on constructing a psychological profile for change interventions by investigating both the interrelationships and overall relationships between work stress (as the independent variable), psychological attachment (job embeddedness and organisational commitment) (as the mediating variables) and attitudes towards change (as the dependent variable). A non-experimental cross-sectional quantitative survey design approach using standardised valid and reliable measuring instruments (Sources of Job Stress Scale, Organisational Commitment Questionnaire, Job Embededdness Questionnaire, Attitudes towards Change Questionnaire) was used on a non-probability purposive sample of employees from one of the largest, fast-moving consumer goods companies in South Africa (N = 350), ranging from administrative to executive level. Bivariate correlations showed a statistically positive inter-relationship between sources of work stress, psychological attachment (job embeddedness and organisational commitment) and attitudes towards change. A canonical correlation analysis indicated a significant overall relationship between the sources of work stress, psychological attachment (job embeddedness and organisational commitment) and attitudes towards change dispositions. Mediation modelling revealed the mediating role of psychological attachment (organisational commitment and job embeddedness) in the sources of work stress and attitudes towards change relationship. Moderated hierarchical regression analyses showed that age and gender significantly moderated the relationship between individuals’ sources of work stress and their attitudes towards change dispositions. Tests for mean differences revealed that significant differences exist between age and sources of work stress, affective and continuance commitment, fit and sacrifice embeddedness. Differences exist between race groups’ affective and continuance commitment. Job security is a concern across all employment levels in the organisation. Individuals at an executive, upper administrative and administrative level revealed significant differences in terms of their continuance commitment. Cognitive and behavioural attitudes towards change did not differ significantly across all employment levels. At a theoretical level, this study developed an understanding of the cognitive, affective, conative and interpersonal behavioural dimensions of the hypothesised psychological profile to manage change. At an empirical level, it developed an empirically tested psychological profile for change interventions in terms of the various behavioural dimensions. At a practical level, organisational change practices in terms of the behavioural dimensions of the psychological profile were recommended. / Psychology / D. Phil. (Psychology)

Breast cancer poses a serious public health concern. This case-control study describes the relationship of night-shift working on the development of breast cancer in 57 women diagnosed with breast cancer compared to 49 women with other types of cancer in the Vaal Triangle area (selected through non-probability purposive sampling from CANSA). The study revealed that women who work night-shift developed breast cancer 1.24 times more often than women who do not work nightshift (OR=1.24 [95% CI 0.52 to 2.89]). The odds ratio was further increased in women who worked rotating-shift (OR=1.44 [95% CI 0.58 to 3.59]). Night-shift work exposure was not statistically related to the development of breast cancer. It is recommended that the relationship between night-shift exposure and breast cancer risk be further explored through cross-sectional and cohort studies, and other breast cancer pathways. / Health Studies / M. A. (Public Health)

The aim of this study was to explore absent fathers' experiences. This involved determining absent fathers' conceptualisation of fatherhood, exploring the psychological well-being of absent fathers, and how absent fathers cope with being absent from their children‟s lives. An ecosystemic approach was employed as the epistemology to understand the participants in terms of organisation of their behaviour in social contexts. Qualitative research was used, and in-depth interviews were conducted to collect the data. The research found that these fathers' experiences of being absent from their children's lives have negatively affected several aspects of their lives, both emotionally and behaviourally. Furthermore, the study concluded that fathers who are absent from their children‟s lives, while aware of the roles they need to play, seem unable to fulfil these roles. Lastly, the absent fathers revealed a tendency to react ambivalently towards their identities as fathers. / Psychology / M. A. (Clinical Psychology)

Land reform in South Africa has not been very successful. The process of land delivery has been slow and livelihoods in South Africa are becoming increasingly vulnerable as land reform fails to meet its objectives. Since 1994, millions have been made homeless due to farm evictions that have counteracted the positive impact of land reform. Intensive debate has been initiated about the approach to land reform; however, current programme-specific information has been unreliable in providing insight into the impact of land reform projects that have been implemented. This thesis exammes the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) programme, to determine how it can be enhanced to improve the lives of the programme's intended beneficiaries. Monitoring and evaluation is examined as a tool for improving programmes. This research also explores some of the shortcomings of the current monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for land reform. It is proposed that the LRAD programme should have a comprehensive ME promulgation of appropriate new land reform policy. An LRAD project at Loteni in rural KwaZulu-Natal is used as a case study and exposes some of the contextual challenges for LRAD policy. The qualitative analysis given provides insight into some of the problems of implementing the programme and reveals challenges for extension support. As a result of this critique, some recommendations are provided for improving the performance of LRAD. Key among the recommendations made to enhance LRAD is a set of measurable indicators for each of the stated objectives of the LRAD programme. Adopting such indicators will enable the programme to contribute to the improvement ofthe lives and livelihoods of the intended beneficiaries ofLRAD. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This study was undertaken in order to investigate mentoring as a dynamic factor in leadership development. Although the subject matter is broad, - this particular study focuses on mentoring in ”Living Word Ministries” as part of leadership development. Methodology consisted of a theoretical and qualitative interviewing process. During the informal interviews, ”Living Word Ministries” was used as target group to investigate mentoring, discipleship, development time line, succession and development of leaders. In conclusion this study unanimously identified the lack of mentoring as crucial factor in ”Living Word Ministries”. Mentoring and discipleship as two related concepts in leadership development need to be incorporated into ”Living Word Ministries” and the body of Christ. Discipleship can therefore be used as a conduit for the mentor to develop leadership abilities of the prospective leader. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / (M. Ed.(Practical Theology))