Introduction:
- Authors: Bischoff, Paul, 1954-
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161700 , vital:40655 , ISBN 9780367348281 , https://www.routledge.com/African-Foreign-Policies-Selecting-Signifiers-to-Explain-Agency/Bischoff/p/book/9780367348281
- Description: This book explores, at a time when several powers have become serious players on the continent, aspects of African agency, past and present, by African writers on foreign policy, representative of geography, language and state size.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Bischoff, Paul, 1954-
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161700 , vital:40655 , ISBN 9780367348281 , https://www.routledge.com/African-Foreign-Policies-Selecting-Signifiers-to-Explain-Agency/Bischoff/p/book/9780367348281
- Description: This book explores, at a time when several powers have become serious players on the continent, aspects of African agency, past and present, by African writers on foreign policy, representative of geography, language and state size.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Effect of a low density dust shell on the propagation of gravitational waves:
- Bishop, Nigel T, van der Walt, Petrus J, Naidoo, Monos
- Authors: Bishop, Nigel T , van der Walt, Petrus J , Naidoo, Monos
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159935 , vital:40357 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1007/s10714-020-02740-9
- Description: Using the Bondi-Sachs formalism, the problem of a gravitational wave source surrounded by a spherical dust shell is considered. Using linearized perturbation theory, the geometry is found in the regions: in the shell, exterior to the shell, and interior to the shell. It is found that the dust shell causes the gravitational wave to be modified both in magnitude and phase, but without any energy being transferred to or from the dust.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Bishop, Nigel T , van der Walt, Petrus J , Naidoo, Monos
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159935 , vital:40357 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1007/s10714-020-02740-9
- Description: Using the Bondi-Sachs formalism, the problem of a gravitational wave source surrounded by a spherical dust shell is considered. Using linearized perturbation theory, the geometry is found in the regions: in the shell, exterior to the shell, and interior to the shell. It is found that the dust shell causes the gravitational wave to be modified both in magnitude and phase, but without any energy being transferred to or from the dust.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Protected and un-protected urban wetlands have similar aquatic macroinvertebrate communities: a case study from the Cape Flats Sand Fynbos region of southern Africa
- Blanckenberg, Michelle, Mlambo, Musa C, Parker, Denham, Motitsoe, Samuel N
- Authors: Blanckenberg, Michelle , Mlambo, Musa C , Parker, Denham , Motitsoe, Samuel N
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/149288 , vital:38822 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1371/journal.pone.0233889
- Description: Rapid urbanisation has led to major landscape alterations, affecting aquatic ecosystems’ hydrological and biogeochemical cycles, and biodiversity. Thus, habitat alteration is considered a major driver of aquatic biodiversity loss and related aquatic ecosystem goods and services. This study aimed to investigate and compare aquatic macroinvertebrate richness, diversity and community structure between urban temporary wetlands, located within protected and un-protected areas. The latter were found within an open public space or park with no protection or conservation status, whereas the former were inaccessible to the public and had formal protected, conservation status.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Blanckenberg, Michelle , Mlambo, Musa C , Parker, Denham , Motitsoe, Samuel N
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/149288 , vital:38822 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1371/journal.pone.0233889
- Description: Rapid urbanisation has led to major landscape alterations, affecting aquatic ecosystems’ hydrological and biogeochemical cycles, and biodiversity. Thus, habitat alteration is considered a major driver of aquatic biodiversity loss and related aquatic ecosystem goods and services. This study aimed to investigate and compare aquatic macroinvertebrate richness, diversity and community structure between urban temporary wetlands, located within protected and un-protected areas. The latter were found within an open public space or park with no protection or conservation status, whereas the former were inaccessible to the public and had formal protected, conservation status.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
An analysis of indicators disclosed in the integrated annual reports of selected South African retailers
- Authors: Blignaut, Anna Cornelia
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Financial statements -- South Africa -- Case studies , Retail trade -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140859 , vital:37924
- Description: This study aimed to analyse the indicators disclosed in the Integrated Annual Reports (IARs) of selected South African retailers. This was firstly done by identifying the six capital and governance indicators retailers report on in order to analyse the commonalities and differences between them, secondly by identifying and assessing evidence of integrated thinking and lastly by making recommendations for optimal retail sector reporting. IARs from Pick n Pay Stores Ltd, Shoprite Holdings Ltd, Spar Group Ltd and Woolworths Holdings Ltd were analysed using content analysis. The results found noteworthy differences in IAR composition in terms of report length and the sections retailers devoted more or less of their report to. Governance and Remuneration indicator disclosure did not allow for broad comparison among all four retailers. In terms of indicator disclosure few indicators were disclosed by all retailers, whilst many were only disclosed by one retailer. Disclosures related to all six capitals were found, yet some indicators were disclosed excessively. Paradoxically, insufficient disclosure of indicators that are easily measurable and low levels of negative or unfavourable indicator disclosure was also apparent in this study. The comparability of indicators was influenced by the aggregation and disaggregation of indicators as well as the lack of consistency in the terminology used in IARs. Indicator disclosure also revealed several trends in the South African retail industry. This research identified the following six themes related to integrated thinking in the sample IARs. Retailers understand the connection between capitals, express consideration for multiple stakeholders and appreciate the context in which they operate, to some extent. Retailers were also found to have different interpretations of sustainability as part of their strategy and risk management whilst the completeness and consistency of information disclosed and retailers’ conceptualisation of value-added in IAR has not yet developed to the same extent across the retail industry. This study finally makes recommendations that may be used for optimal retail sector reporting with regards to the integrated reporting process as well as the integrated report itself. Addressing the former it is recommended that: integrated reporting be viewed as a means to build an internal understanding of their sustainability practices; integrated thinking be included as part of their strategic planning process; all capitals be considered in decision making; communication be established with others in the retail industry and that retailers engage with the IIRC on integrated reporting issues. In terms of the IAR itself, it is recommended that retailers ensure consistency in the terminology used and that the disaggregation of indicators is done in a consistent way. Retailers should include a balance of positive and negative disclosures as well as context-based indicators and seek assurance of the social, environmental and ethical information in their IARs. Finally, retailers need to set measurable sustainability performance targets and link them to specific performance indicators. The results of this study are not without limitations. The identification and categorisation of an indicator was largely based on the researcher’s own judgement in the content analysis process and can be highlighted as the main limitation of this research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Blignaut, Anna Cornelia
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Financial statements -- South Africa -- Case studies , Retail trade -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140859 , vital:37924
- Description: This study aimed to analyse the indicators disclosed in the Integrated Annual Reports (IARs) of selected South African retailers. This was firstly done by identifying the six capital and governance indicators retailers report on in order to analyse the commonalities and differences between them, secondly by identifying and assessing evidence of integrated thinking and lastly by making recommendations for optimal retail sector reporting. IARs from Pick n Pay Stores Ltd, Shoprite Holdings Ltd, Spar Group Ltd and Woolworths Holdings Ltd were analysed using content analysis. The results found noteworthy differences in IAR composition in terms of report length and the sections retailers devoted more or less of their report to. Governance and Remuneration indicator disclosure did not allow for broad comparison among all four retailers. In terms of indicator disclosure few indicators were disclosed by all retailers, whilst many were only disclosed by one retailer. Disclosures related to all six capitals were found, yet some indicators were disclosed excessively. Paradoxically, insufficient disclosure of indicators that are easily measurable and low levels of negative or unfavourable indicator disclosure was also apparent in this study. The comparability of indicators was influenced by the aggregation and disaggregation of indicators as well as the lack of consistency in the terminology used in IARs. Indicator disclosure also revealed several trends in the South African retail industry. This research identified the following six themes related to integrated thinking in the sample IARs. Retailers understand the connection between capitals, express consideration for multiple stakeholders and appreciate the context in which they operate, to some extent. Retailers were also found to have different interpretations of sustainability as part of their strategy and risk management whilst the completeness and consistency of information disclosed and retailers’ conceptualisation of value-added in IAR has not yet developed to the same extent across the retail industry. This study finally makes recommendations that may be used for optimal retail sector reporting with regards to the integrated reporting process as well as the integrated report itself. Addressing the former it is recommended that: integrated reporting be viewed as a means to build an internal understanding of their sustainability practices; integrated thinking be included as part of their strategic planning process; all capitals be considered in decision making; communication be established with others in the retail industry and that retailers engage with the IIRC on integrated reporting issues. In terms of the IAR itself, it is recommended that retailers ensure consistency in the terminology used and that the disaggregation of indicators is done in a consistent way. Retailers should include a balance of positive and negative disclosures as well as context-based indicators and seek assurance of the social, environmental and ethical information in their IARs. Finally, retailers need to set measurable sustainability performance targets and link them to specific performance indicators. The results of this study are not without limitations. The identification and categorisation of an indicator was largely based on the researcher’s own judgement in the content analysis process and can be highlighted as the main limitation of this research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Decent work and informal employment: the case of Bulawayo Metropolitan Province (Central Business District) Zimbabwe
- Authors: Bob, Shaka Keny
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Labor -- Zimbabwe , Informal sector (Economics) -- Zimbabwe , Job creation -- Zimbabwe , Poor -- Zimbabwe -- Employment , Labor policy -- Zimbabwe , Football coaches -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/115241 , vital:34104
- Description: Zimbabwe, similar to other developing countries experiences a high level of informal employment. However, most informal jobs are situated in very poor working conditions and are characterised by decent work deficits. Despite the fact that various studies have shown the importance of the informal economy in that it provides livelihood earning opportunities for the majority of people in the Global South, it has remained a largely forgotten sector in policy making in most countries. It is, therefore, important that informal work be taken seriously and efforts must be made to improve working conditions for the urban working poor in the developing world. The purpose of this study is to investigate on the self-reported experiences of informal workers to understand their perspectives surrounding the concept of decent work in the Zimbabwean context. The case study is the Bulawayo metropolitan province, and this study targeted informal workers who trade within the central business district. The study also aimed to measure the decent work deficit scores between two economic sectors (food and clothing traders). This was done by testing the suitability of the Edward Webster Decent Work Deficit Index as a methodology of measuring decent work at a micro level. The analysis is based on a mixed methods study which was carried out through the use of a semi-structured survey. The study revealed that decent work for the sampled informal workers meant work related improvements, insurances and risk management, right of expression and business advancement skills which closely resembles the International Labour Organisation's conceptualisation of decent work. The study also highlighted that childcare assistance and disability insurance are concepts which remained excluded in the current conceptualisation of decent work. The thesis offers a new policy angle which shows that to promote decent work the concept of heterogeneity must be adopted because inequalities persist within the informal economy. The study also suggested that the Edward Webster Decent Work Deficit Index can be used as an appropriate methodology of monitoring the progress towards achieving decent work at the micro level i.e. industry or individual level. This is because since the formation of the decent work concept; the International Labour Organisation has only provided a methodology of how to measure the progress of decent work at the county level. The survey findings revealed that food vendors scored more poorly on the decent work deficit index compared to the clothing traders. The study also identified that food vendors and clothing traders are faced with different challenges which suggests that policy makers must take that into consideration when attempting to design policies or programmes which are aimed at assisting informal workers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Bob, Shaka Keny
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Labor -- Zimbabwe , Informal sector (Economics) -- Zimbabwe , Job creation -- Zimbabwe , Poor -- Zimbabwe -- Employment , Labor policy -- Zimbabwe , Football coaches -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/115241 , vital:34104
- Description: Zimbabwe, similar to other developing countries experiences a high level of informal employment. However, most informal jobs are situated in very poor working conditions and are characterised by decent work deficits. Despite the fact that various studies have shown the importance of the informal economy in that it provides livelihood earning opportunities for the majority of people in the Global South, it has remained a largely forgotten sector in policy making in most countries. It is, therefore, important that informal work be taken seriously and efforts must be made to improve working conditions for the urban working poor in the developing world. The purpose of this study is to investigate on the self-reported experiences of informal workers to understand their perspectives surrounding the concept of decent work in the Zimbabwean context. The case study is the Bulawayo metropolitan province, and this study targeted informal workers who trade within the central business district. The study also aimed to measure the decent work deficit scores between two economic sectors (food and clothing traders). This was done by testing the suitability of the Edward Webster Decent Work Deficit Index as a methodology of measuring decent work at a micro level. The analysis is based on a mixed methods study which was carried out through the use of a semi-structured survey. The study revealed that decent work for the sampled informal workers meant work related improvements, insurances and risk management, right of expression and business advancement skills which closely resembles the International Labour Organisation's conceptualisation of decent work. The study also highlighted that childcare assistance and disability insurance are concepts which remained excluded in the current conceptualisation of decent work. The thesis offers a new policy angle which shows that to promote decent work the concept of heterogeneity must be adopted because inequalities persist within the informal economy. The study also suggested that the Edward Webster Decent Work Deficit Index can be used as an appropriate methodology of monitoring the progress towards achieving decent work at the micro level i.e. industry or individual level. This is because since the formation of the decent work concept; the International Labour Organisation has only provided a methodology of how to measure the progress of decent work at the county level. The survey findings revealed that food vendors scored more poorly on the decent work deficit index compared to the clothing traders. The study also identified that food vendors and clothing traders are faced with different challenges which suggests that policy makers must take that into consideration when attempting to design policies or programmes which are aimed at assisting informal workers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Rural enterprise development as a means to poverty alleviation
- Authors: Bodley, David Cyril
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Rural development -- South Africa , Economic development projects -- South Africa Poverty alleviation -- methods -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/50361 , vital:42118
- Description: South Africa’s disappointing economic performance over the last decade has resulted in a socio-economic crisis, with unemployment and inequality rates being of the highest rates anywhere in the world. Furthermore, unemployment is concentrated among the young, unskilled, and previously disadvantaged population posing a considerable threat to South Africa’s new democracy. Internationally, a method to absorb job seekers into the economy is to make small business the engine-room of economic growth and development. Consequently, the South African Government has identified in its National Development Plan the establishment of small businesses as a priority, including the development of small businesses in rural and marginalised communities. As rural communities in South Africa experience systemic problems such as the lack of infrastructure, financial capital, skills and potential markets, establishing enterprises in rural settings is often more complex than those more advanced parts of the economy elsewhere where fewer constraints exist. This makes the task of establishing and growing rural entities particularly challenging, suggesting bespoke policy and support is required. This study analyses the literature to gain an understanding of economic development theory and how this intersects with and informs small enterprise development policy. It then looks at South Africa’s strategy and policy framework pertaining to enterprise development. Specifically, the literature examines the role of rural enterprise development to establish whether this enables people to move out of poverty or further entraps people in poverty. The study collates data from a rural and marginalised community through observation and interview techniques. Firstly, multiple in-depth interviews were conducted with nineteen entrepreneurs in a rural community to collect data on business opportunities and explore the type of support entrepreneurs would require from government. Secondly, a focus group interview was conducted with entrepreneurs that had experienced institutional support to understand how well current policy and programmes support rural enterprise development. The primary data was analysed in conjunction with the literature on economic theory and enterprise development using the technique of triangulation to avoid logic leaps and formation of false assumptions. The insights and findings from the analysis reinforced certain facts within the body of knowledge pertaining to enterprise development, but there were also some interesting new insights that emanate from the data. South Africa has been able to introduce a wide range of policy initiatives and has multiple programmes and strategies to support small enterprise development. It has achieved firm success and impetus as well as experiencing certain failures. The study clearly highlights both and makes recommendations to improve policy promoting rural enterprise development as a means to alleviate poverty.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Bodley, David Cyril
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Rural development -- South Africa , Economic development projects -- South Africa Poverty alleviation -- methods -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/50361 , vital:42118
- Description: South Africa’s disappointing economic performance over the last decade has resulted in a socio-economic crisis, with unemployment and inequality rates being of the highest rates anywhere in the world. Furthermore, unemployment is concentrated among the young, unskilled, and previously disadvantaged population posing a considerable threat to South Africa’s new democracy. Internationally, a method to absorb job seekers into the economy is to make small business the engine-room of economic growth and development. Consequently, the South African Government has identified in its National Development Plan the establishment of small businesses as a priority, including the development of small businesses in rural and marginalised communities. As rural communities in South Africa experience systemic problems such as the lack of infrastructure, financial capital, skills and potential markets, establishing enterprises in rural settings is often more complex than those more advanced parts of the economy elsewhere where fewer constraints exist. This makes the task of establishing and growing rural entities particularly challenging, suggesting bespoke policy and support is required. This study analyses the literature to gain an understanding of economic development theory and how this intersects with and informs small enterprise development policy. It then looks at South Africa’s strategy and policy framework pertaining to enterprise development. Specifically, the literature examines the role of rural enterprise development to establish whether this enables people to move out of poverty or further entraps people in poverty. The study collates data from a rural and marginalised community through observation and interview techniques. Firstly, multiple in-depth interviews were conducted with nineteen entrepreneurs in a rural community to collect data on business opportunities and explore the type of support entrepreneurs would require from government. Secondly, a focus group interview was conducted with entrepreneurs that had experienced institutional support to understand how well current policy and programmes support rural enterprise development. The primary data was analysed in conjunction with the literature on economic theory and enterprise development using the technique of triangulation to avoid logic leaps and formation of false assumptions. The insights and findings from the analysis reinforced certain facts within the body of knowledge pertaining to enterprise development, but there were also some interesting new insights that emanate from the data. South Africa has been able to introduce a wide range of policy initiatives and has multiple programmes and strategies to support small enterprise development. It has achieved firm success and impetus as well as experiencing certain failures. The study clearly highlights both and makes recommendations to improve policy promoting rural enterprise development as a means to alleviate poverty.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Synthesis and in vitro biological evaluation of 2,3-substituted quinoline derivatives
- Bokosi, Fostino Raphael Bentry
- Authors: Bokosi, Fostino Raphael Bentry
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Quinoline , Malaria Chemotherapy , Tuberculosis Chemotherapy , African trypanosomiasis Chemotherapy
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/163193 , vital:41017
- Description: The urgent need for new systemic pharmacological entities prompted us to report a library of 2,3-substituted quinoline derivatives. Considering the ubiquity of quinoline-containing compounds in pharmacologically active small molecules, synthesized 2,3-substituted quinoline derivatives were in vitro biologically evaluated for their potential antitubercular, antimalarial and antitrypanosomal activities. Quinoline scaffold was achieved by the Vilsmeier-Haack methodology, affording synthetically useful chloro and formyl substituents on C-2 and C-3 respectively. These two substituents acted as handles in expanding the chemical space around the quinoline ring. Target compounds were synthesized in six to seven steps, employing conventional synthetic organic protocols adapted from various literature. The final compounds were accessed in moderate to good yields. The structural identity of each compound was confirmed by common spectroscopic techniques. Aryl quinoline carboxamide derivatives 3.113 – 3.126 were isolated as rotamers, hence, Variable-Temperature Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (VT-NMR) was employed in resolving 1H splitting. At elevated temperature (~328 K); N-methylene carbons were not visible on 13C NMR due to signal line broadening effects. The presence of these nuclei in such cases was, however, supported by 2-dimensional NMR and high-resolution MS data. Most of the compounds achieved in this study displayed promising antimalarial activity against chloroquine-sensitive 3D7 strain of Plasmodium falciparum compared to antitrypanosomal activity against Trypanosoma brucei brucei 427 strain. In particular, compounds 3.80 and 3.108 showed superior activity against chloroquine-sensitive 3D7 P. falciparum strain with IC50 values < 1 μM. More importantly, most of the compounds were non-toxic as determined by HeLa cells, indicating their selectivity towards the parasites. Exploring the space provided on the quinoline scaffold revealed that methoxy incorporation on C-2 is very critical in enhancing antimalarial activity of this class of quinoline compounds. The preliminary SAR of compounds 3.57 – 3.72 showed that compounds containing the 3-cinnamate exhibited enhanced antimalarial activity compared to 2 and 4-cinnamates. Finally, benzamide compounds 3.113 − 3.126 showed poor activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv strain with only compounds 3.113, 3.117 – 3.120 and 3.126 showing appreciable MIC90 values in the range of 40 – 85 μM. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Chemistry, 2020
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Bokosi, Fostino Raphael Bentry
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Quinoline , Malaria Chemotherapy , Tuberculosis Chemotherapy , African trypanosomiasis Chemotherapy
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/163193 , vital:41017
- Description: The urgent need for new systemic pharmacological entities prompted us to report a library of 2,3-substituted quinoline derivatives. Considering the ubiquity of quinoline-containing compounds in pharmacologically active small molecules, synthesized 2,3-substituted quinoline derivatives were in vitro biologically evaluated for their potential antitubercular, antimalarial and antitrypanosomal activities. Quinoline scaffold was achieved by the Vilsmeier-Haack methodology, affording synthetically useful chloro and formyl substituents on C-2 and C-3 respectively. These two substituents acted as handles in expanding the chemical space around the quinoline ring. Target compounds were synthesized in six to seven steps, employing conventional synthetic organic protocols adapted from various literature. The final compounds were accessed in moderate to good yields. The structural identity of each compound was confirmed by common spectroscopic techniques. Aryl quinoline carboxamide derivatives 3.113 – 3.126 were isolated as rotamers, hence, Variable-Temperature Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (VT-NMR) was employed in resolving 1H splitting. At elevated temperature (~328 K); N-methylene carbons were not visible on 13C NMR due to signal line broadening effects. The presence of these nuclei in such cases was, however, supported by 2-dimensional NMR and high-resolution MS data. Most of the compounds achieved in this study displayed promising antimalarial activity against chloroquine-sensitive 3D7 strain of Plasmodium falciparum compared to antitrypanosomal activity against Trypanosoma brucei brucei 427 strain. In particular, compounds 3.80 and 3.108 showed superior activity against chloroquine-sensitive 3D7 P. falciparum strain with IC50 values < 1 μM. More importantly, most of the compounds were non-toxic as determined by HeLa cells, indicating their selectivity towards the parasites. Exploring the space provided on the quinoline scaffold revealed that methoxy incorporation on C-2 is very critical in enhancing antimalarial activity of this class of quinoline compounds. The preliminary SAR of compounds 3.57 – 3.72 showed that compounds containing the 3-cinnamate exhibited enhanced antimalarial activity compared to 2 and 4-cinnamates. Finally, benzamide compounds 3.113 − 3.126 showed poor activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv strain with only compounds 3.113, 3.117 – 3.120 and 3.126 showing appreciable MIC90 values in the range of 40 – 85 μM. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Chemistry, 2020
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Socio-economic Impacts of Solar Energy in Rural Communities’ Livelihoods and the Scale/type of Technology Intervention: Case of Ingquza Hill Local Municipality, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Authors: Bongoza, Sibulele
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Solar energy Renewable energy sources
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Geography)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/18610 , vital:42613
- Description: Energy from renewable sources has attracted significant global interest in recent years due to climate change, pollution, extreme environmental impacts and a marked increase in fuel costs for conventional generation methods, which is coal. This has led to major investment in renewable energy sources. Through the lens of sustainable livelihoods framework, the study aims at establishing the socioeconomic impacts brought by the provision of solar energy systems on rural livelihoods at Ingquza Hill Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study adopts an intensive research design in line with the qualitative approach. Data were collected using questionnaires from the households at Mkhamela village and in-depth interviews with the local councillor and the Chief of Mkhamela village at Ingquza Hill Local Municipality. The use of solar energy systems has been found to improve the rural people’s livelihoods. The rural people’s livelihoods have been transformed in terms of creation of employment opportunities, improved levels of education through powering schools and households as well as improved health conditions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Bongoza, Sibulele
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Solar energy Renewable energy sources
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Geography)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/18610 , vital:42613
- Description: Energy from renewable sources has attracted significant global interest in recent years due to climate change, pollution, extreme environmental impacts and a marked increase in fuel costs for conventional generation methods, which is coal. This has led to major investment in renewable energy sources. Through the lens of sustainable livelihoods framework, the study aims at establishing the socioeconomic impacts brought by the provision of solar energy systems on rural livelihoods at Ingquza Hill Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study adopts an intensive research design in line with the qualitative approach. Data were collected using questionnaires from the households at Mkhamela village and in-depth interviews with the local councillor and the Chief of Mkhamela village at Ingquza Hill Local Municipality. The use of solar energy systems has been found to improve the rural people’s livelihoods. The rural people’s livelihoods have been transformed in terms of creation of employment opportunities, improved levels of education through powering schools and households as well as improved health conditions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Implementing prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD in a context of ongoing adversity: a clinical case study
- Booysen, Duane D, Kagee, Ashraf
- Authors: Booysen, Duane D , Kagee, Ashraf
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/149275 , vital:38821 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1177/1534650120925918
- Description: Obstacles regarding the implementation of empirically supported treatments (ESTs) for mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) still require further investigation. One notable obstacle is whether persons in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) residing in a context of ongoing adversity would benefit from an EST for PTSD. We reflect on the utility of a brief prolonged exposure intervention at a primary care community-counseling center in South Africa. “Sam,” a 45-year-old, female was assessed at baseline, during treatment, postassessment, and at 3-month follow-up. At the beginning of treatment, Sam had a positive diagnosis for PTSD (PSSI-5 = 55, and cutoff is 23) and at the end of treatment (PSSI-5 = 17), and 3-month follow-up (PSSI-5 = 21), she had a negative diagnosis for PTSD. We reflect on the mediating effects that contextual factors such as gang violence had on the treatment process and the feasibility of implementing ESTs for PTSD in LMICs under conditions of ongoing adversity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Booysen, Duane D , Kagee, Ashraf
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/149275 , vital:38821 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1177/1534650120925918
- Description: Obstacles regarding the implementation of empirically supported treatments (ESTs) for mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) still require further investigation. One notable obstacle is whether persons in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) residing in a context of ongoing adversity would benefit from an EST for PTSD. We reflect on the utility of a brief prolonged exposure intervention at a primary care community-counseling center in South Africa. “Sam,” a 45-year-old, female was assessed at baseline, during treatment, postassessment, and at 3-month follow-up. At the beginning of treatment, Sam had a positive diagnosis for PTSD (PSSI-5 = 55, and cutoff is 23) and at the end of treatment (PSSI-5 = 17), and 3-month follow-up (PSSI-5 = 21), she had a negative diagnosis for PTSD. We reflect on the mediating effects that contextual factors such as gang violence had on the treatment process and the feasibility of implementing ESTs for PTSD in LMICs under conditions of ongoing adversity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
The feasibility of prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD in low-and middle-income countries: a review
- Booysen, Duane D, Kagee, Ashraf
- Authors: Booysen, Duane D , Kagee, Ashraf
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/148505 , vital:38745 , DOI: 10.1080/20008198.2020.1753941
- Description: There is a need in the global south to evaluate and implement empirically supported psychological interventions to ameliorate symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Empirically supported treatments (ESTs) have increasingly been developed and implemented, yet the majority people in the global south do not have access to these treatments for mental disorders such as PTSD. Prolonged exposure therapy has accrued substantial empirical evidence to show it as an effective treatment for PTSD. Research on the effectiveness and acceptability of prolonged exposure in a low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are sparse. This brief report presents a review of prolonged exposure (PE) therapy and its feasibility as a trauma therapy for PTSD in LMICs. First, we present a brief overview of PE as a first-line treatment for PTSD. Second, using South Africa as a case example, we present a brief overview of traumatic stress in South Africa and how mental healthcare has developed since the abolishment of apartheid in 1994. Lastly, we discuss the challenges pertaining to the dissemination and implementation of PE in LMICs and propose future perspectives regarding the implementation of ESTs such as PE in LMICs.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Booysen, Duane D , Kagee, Ashraf
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/148505 , vital:38745 , DOI: 10.1080/20008198.2020.1753941
- Description: There is a need in the global south to evaluate and implement empirically supported psychological interventions to ameliorate symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Empirically supported treatments (ESTs) have increasingly been developed and implemented, yet the majority people in the global south do not have access to these treatments for mental disorders such as PTSD. Prolonged exposure therapy has accrued substantial empirical evidence to show it as an effective treatment for PTSD. Research on the effectiveness and acceptability of prolonged exposure in a low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are sparse. This brief report presents a review of prolonged exposure (PE) therapy and its feasibility as a trauma therapy for PTSD in LMICs. First, we present a brief overview of PE as a first-line treatment for PTSD. Second, using South Africa as a case example, we present a brief overview of traumatic stress in South Africa and how mental healthcare has developed since the abolishment of apartheid in 1994. Lastly, we discuss the challenges pertaining to the dissemination and implementation of PE in LMICs and propose future perspectives regarding the implementation of ESTs such as PE in LMICs.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Making sense of a scam: MMM Mutual Fund participants in Kagiso negotiate dissenting mainstream new coverage on social media
- Authors: Boqo, Bella Makhulu
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Ponzi schemes -- South Africa , Fraud -- South Africa , Social media -- Influence -- South Africa , Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox -- In mass media
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145771 , vital:38465
- Description: Pyramid, Ponzi and various fraudulent investment schemes are common feature in post-apartheid South Africa. The record levels of participation have generated much discussion in public discourse. Newspapers often abound with reports of participants who’ve lost large sums of money – in many instances their life savings. While on social media, thousands debate the merits and threats of new ventures as they emerge, in some instances using these platforms as the newest recruitment platforms. The sheer size and frequency of their appearance especially in post-revolutionary societies – those which experienced dramatic structural transformation following the end of the Cold War and growth of a neoliberal market economy – has drawn substantive scholarly attention. Much like media reports, however, this research often points to the morality of such practices, asking questions like what factors lead people to make the apparently irrational decision to participate in a scam? This study, however, contributes to a different body of emerging literature concerned with the larger structural contexts in which such forms of economic practice and organisation exist, and the meanings participants make of their involvement. Looking at the recently high profile of case of Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox (MMM), it employs a qualitative research methodology rooted in cultural studies to examine how participants based in the Johannesburg township of Kagiso used social media, specifically WhatsApp, to make sense of and contest the dissenting mainstream news coverage about MMM. Ultimately, it is a question of how their participation in particularly illegal pyramid or Ponzi type schemes and opposition to traditional news reports are rooted in their lived experiences, and what opportunities social media offer as alternate platforms for meaning-making, deliberation and public contestation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Boqo, Bella Makhulu
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Ponzi schemes -- South Africa , Fraud -- South Africa , Social media -- Influence -- South Africa , Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox -- In mass media
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145771 , vital:38465
- Description: Pyramid, Ponzi and various fraudulent investment schemes are common feature in post-apartheid South Africa. The record levels of participation have generated much discussion in public discourse. Newspapers often abound with reports of participants who’ve lost large sums of money – in many instances their life savings. While on social media, thousands debate the merits and threats of new ventures as they emerge, in some instances using these platforms as the newest recruitment platforms. The sheer size and frequency of their appearance especially in post-revolutionary societies – those which experienced dramatic structural transformation following the end of the Cold War and growth of a neoliberal market economy – has drawn substantive scholarly attention. Much like media reports, however, this research often points to the morality of such practices, asking questions like what factors lead people to make the apparently irrational decision to participate in a scam? This study, however, contributes to a different body of emerging literature concerned with the larger structural contexts in which such forms of economic practice and organisation exist, and the meanings participants make of their involvement. Looking at the recently high profile of case of Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox (MMM), it employs a qualitative research methodology rooted in cultural studies to examine how participants based in the Johannesburg township of Kagiso used social media, specifically WhatsApp, to make sense of and contest the dissenting mainstream news coverage about MMM. Ultimately, it is a question of how their participation in particularly illegal pyramid or Ponzi type schemes and opposition to traditional news reports are rooted in their lived experiences, and what opportunities social media offer as alternate platforms for meaning-making, deliberation and public contestation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
The validity of dismissals for refusing to accept changes to terms and conditions of employment
- Authors: Bosch, Lauren
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Employees -- Dismissal of -- Law and legislation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , LLM
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/47336 , vital:39848
- Description: Operational circumstances often create the need for employers to change the employment conditions of employees. Such conditions can include difficulty in obtaining raw materials which may require employees to do different work, a takeover or a merger, market shifts, orders from clients, an increase or reduction in work volumes, new technology, or even in some instances skill shortages. Regardless of the reason, in order to allow the business to remain operational, employers are often obligated to change terms and conditions of employment. Section 187 of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 deals with automatically unfair dismissals and lists a number of reasons for dismissal that, if it complies with the requirements listed, the dismissal will be found to be automatically unfair. The definition was amended by the Labour Relations Amendment Act 6 of 2014 as a result of the courts incorrectly interpreting this section in Chemical Workers Industrial Union (CWIU) v Algorax (Pty) Limited (2003 11 BLLR 1081) (Algorax) and Fry's Metals (Pty) Limited v National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa and Others (JA9/01) [2002] ZALAC 25 (Fry’s Metals). Section 187(1)(c) of the LRA has always been contentious due to the fact that the definition of automatically unfair dismissals, employers’ rights to terminate contracts of employment on the basis of operational requirements and the institution of collective bargaining are intertwined. The Labour Relations Amendment Act of 2014 brought about significant changes to how section 187(1)(c) should be interpreted and fundamentally changed the enquiry that should be adopted when determining cases of this nature. The main aim of this study is to provide clarity to the question of when will it be valid and fair for an employer, in the course of restructuring his business, to dismiss any of his employees who refuse to accept the proposed changes to the terms and conditions of their employment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Bosch, Lauren
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Employees -- Dismissal of -- Law and legislation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , LLM
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/47336 , vital:39848
- Description: Operational circumstances often create the need for employers to change the employment conditions of employees. Such conditions can include difficulty in obtaining raw materials which may require employees to do different work, a takeover or a merger, market shifts, orders from clients, an increase or reduction in work volumes, new technology, or even in some instances skill shortages. Regardless of the reason, in order to allow the business to remain operational, employers are often obligated to change terms and conditions of employment. Section 187 of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 deals with automatically unfair dismissals and lists a number of reasons for dismissal that, if it complies with the requirements listed, the dismissal will be found to be automatically unfair. The definition was amended by the Labour Relations Amendment Act 6 of 2014 as a result of the courts incorrectly interpreting this section in Chemical Workers Industrial Union (CWIU) v Algorax (Pty) Limited (2003 11 BLLR 1081) (Algorax) and Fry's Metals (Pty) Limited v National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa and Others (JA9/01) [2002] ZALAC 25 (Fry’s Metals). Section 187(1)(c) of the LRA has always been contentious due to the fact that the definition of automatically unfair dismissals, employers’ rights to terminate contracts of employment on the basis of operational requirements and the institution of collective bargaining are intertwined. The Labour Relations Amendment Act of 2014 brought about significant changes to how section 187(1)(c) should be interpreted and fundamentally changed the enquiry that should be adopted when determining cases of this nature. The main aim of this study is to provide clarity to the question of when will it be valid and fair for an employer, in the course of restructuring his business, to dismiss any of his employees who refuse to accept the proposed changes to the terms and conditions of their employment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Between nationalism and transnationalism: entanglements of history, individual narrative, and memory in diaspora spaces in selected transnational fiction
- Authors: Bosman, Sean James
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Literature and transnationalism , Gurnah, Abdulrazak, 1948- , Gurnah, Abdulrazak, 1948- -- By the sea , Gurnah, Abdulrazak, 1948- -- Gravel heart , Nguyen, Viet Thanh, 1971- , Nguyen, Viet Thanh, 1971- -- The sympathizer , Nguyen, Viet Thanh, 1971- -- The refugees , Urrea, Luis Alberto , Urrea, Luis Alberto -- The house of broken angels , Urrea, Luis Alberto -- The water museum
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140932 , vital:37930
- Description: This thesis offers close readings and a comparative analysis of selected works by Abdulrazak Gurnah, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Luis Alberto Urrea. The selected primary texts used are Gurnah’s By the Sea (2000) and Gravel Heart (2017), Nguyen’s The Sympathizer (2015) and The Refugees (2017), and Urrea’s The Water Museum (2015) and The House of Broken Angels (2018). Analyses are informed by a conceptual framework that draws on critical works by Avtar Brah, J. U. Jacobs, Sarah Nuttall, Homi K. Bhabha, Judith Butler, Stuart Hall, Paul Ricoeur, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Christopher B. Patterson. These theories are deployed to analyse how the selected works engage with the entanglements of history, individual narratives, and memory in the diaspora spaces they articulate. The thesis argues that the selected works indicate an emerging subgenre within the broader category of transnational literature. This subgenre rejects disempowering interpolations of transnational identities. Instead, it prioritises ethical forms of memory. These acknowledge that transnational subjects share at least partial accountability for the precarity they experience in diaspora spaces. The selected literature limns how this may be accomplished by rejecting the label of victim. In so doing, the selected literature also suggests that the elevation of transnationals to full ethical agency would enable them to exercise power in their diaspora spaces. All three authorial projects studied here also give rise to uncomfortable juxtapositions that suggest a mounting fear that, as nationalisms become more pronounced in the UK and the USA, transnationals may have to re-experience conditions from which they have already fled. The thesis concludes by identifying four additional areas of confluence amongst the selected literature worthy of future study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Bosman, Sean James
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Literature and transnationalism , Gurnah, Abdulrazak, 1948- , Gurnah, Abdulrazak, 1948- -- By the sea , Gurnah, Abdulrazak, 1948- -- Gravel heart , Nguyen, Viet Thanh, 1971- , Nguyen, Viet Thanh, 1971- -- The sympathizer , Nguyen, Viet Thanh, 1971- -- The refugees , Urrea, Luis Alberto , Urrea, Luis Alberto -- The house of broken angels , Urrea, Luis Alberto -- The water museum
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140932 , vital:37930
- Description: This thesis offers close readings and a comparative analysis of selected works by Abdulrazak Gurnah, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Luis Alberto Urrea. The selected primary texts used are Gurnah’s By the Sea (2000) and Gravel Heart (2017), Nguyen’s The Sympathizer (2015) and The Refugees (2017), and Urrea’s The Water Museum (2015) and The House of Broken Angels (2018). Analyses are informed by a conceptual framework that draws on critical works by Avtar Brah, J. U. Jacobs, Sarah Nuttall, Homi K. Bhabha, Judith Butler, Stuart Hall, Paul Ricoeur, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Christopher B. Patterson. These theories are deployed to analyse how the selected works engage with the entanglements of history, individual narratives, and memory in the diaspora spaces they articulate. The thesis argues that the selected works indicate an emerging subgenre within the broader category of transnational literature. This subgenre rejects disempowering interpolations of transnational identities. Instead, it prioritises ethical forms of memory. These acknowledge that transnational subjects share at least partial accountability for the precarity they experience in diaspora spaces. The selected literature limns how this may be accomplished by rejecting the label of victim. In so doing, the selected literature also suggests that the elevation of transnationals to full ethical agency would enable them to exercise power in their diaspora spaces. All three authorial projects studied here also give rise to uncomfortable juxtapositions that suggest a mounting fear that, as nationalisms become more pronounced in the UK and the USA, transnationals may have to re-experience conditions from which they have already fled. The thesis concludes by identifying four additional areas of confluence amongst the selected literature worthy of future study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Chasing Eden: Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy and the value of reading in a technological age
- Authors: Bosman, Zoë June
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Atwood, Margaret, 1939- MaddAddam trilogy , Speculative fiction -- History and criticism , Capitalism in literature , Dystopias in literature , Science fiction -- History and criticism , Technology in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145796 , vital:38467
- Description: This thesis is focussed on Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy: Oryx and Crake (2003) The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013). Detailing Atwood’s own specifications as to why these texts should be categorised as works of speculative fiction, the thesis examines how this literary genre, and Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy in particular, is uniquely capable of encouraging readers to interrogate critically the socio-economic, environmental, and ethical problems to which she, and the contemporary reader, bear witness in the present technological age. With reference to Atwood’s essays and critical writings, Darko Suvin’s Metamorphoses of Science Fiction, and Wolfgang Iser’s The Act of Reading, this project explores the value of reading speculative fiction and details how Atwood has constructed the fictional, yet plausible, possible future world of her trilogy by extrapolating our current scientific capabilities, environmental challenges, and political configurations to their logical conclusions. It explores the close relationship that exists between the near-future world of Atwood’s texts and the contemporary context from which she has drawn her subject matter, and argues that the trilogy demonstrates graphically the long-term consequences of capitalism, sustainability, and the doctrine of human exceptionalism, which this project, following Yuval Harari, defines as orthodox guiding narratives: fictions that humanity has created, and which structure our perception of reality and guide our behaviour. The project maintains that Atwood’s trilogy presents the reader with a hypothetical future that looks towards and beyond the end of contemporary technological society in order to urge her reader to imagine, and actualize, alternatives to the scenarios that these texts depict. The most significant question Atwood’s texts ask is whether contemporary technological society is willing and able to transform in order to avert the ecological apocalypse that is the logical conclusion to the Anthropocene?
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Bosman, Zoë June
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Atwood, Margaret, 1939- MaddAddam trilogy , Speculative fiction -- History and criticism , Capitalism in literature , Dystopias in literature , Science fiction -- History and criticism , Technology in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145796 , vital:38467
- Description: This thesis is focussed on Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy: Oryx and Crake (2003) The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013). Detailing Atwood’s own specifications as to why these texts should be categorised as works of speculative fiction, the thesis examines how this literary genre, and Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy in particular, is uniquely capable of encouraging readers to interrogate critically the socio-economic, environmental, and ethical problems to which she, and the contemporary reader, bear witness in the present technological age. With reference to Atwood’s essays and critical writings, Darko Suvin’s Metamorphoses of Science Fiction, and Wolfgang Iser’s The Act of Reading, this project explores the value of reading speculative fiction and details how Atwood has constructed the fictional, yet plausible, possible future world of her trilogy by extrapolating our current scientific capabilities, environmental challenges, and political configurations to their logical conclusions. It explores the close relationship that exists between the near-future world of Atwood’s texts and the contemporary context from which she has drawn her subject matter, and argues that the trilogy demonstrates graphically the long-term consequences of capitalism, sustainability, and the doctrine of human exceptionalism, which this project, following Yuval Harari, defines as orthodox guiding narratives: fictions that humanity has created, and which structure our perception of reality and guide our behaviour. The project maintains that Atwood’s trilogy presents the reader with a hypothetical future that looks towards and beyond the end of contemporary technological society in order to urge her reader to imagine, and actualize, alternatives to the scenarios that these texts depict. The most significant question Atwood’s texts ask is whether contemporary technological society is willing and able to transform in order to avert the ecological apocalypse that is the logical conclusion to the Anthropocene?
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
An anthropoligical Inquiry on knowledge and understanding of Diabetes: a cultural analysis of knowledge construction amongst the youth in Humewood, Port Elizabeth
- Authors: Bota, Zizipho
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Diabetes -- Port Elizabeth --South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/46659 , vital:39606
- Description: The study sought to inquire about the youth’s knowledge and understanding of diabetes in relation to its different types with regards to determined societal components such as education, culture, healthcare and socioeconomic status. It then became important to establish what the youth in Humewood, Port Elizabeth, understand about diabetes in relation to its three different types with regard to education, culture, healthcare and socioeconomic status in Humewood, Port Elizabeth. Previous studies have failed to inquire about knowledge construction and understanding of diabetes in Port Elizabeth, this provided an opportunity to do so, especially since diabetes is growing rapidly and is a lifelong illness. Most studies tend to focus on disseminating information to those that already have diabetes, overlooking the importance of diabetes education as a preventative strategy. The research followed a qualitative approach which included semi-structured individual face-to-face interviews as a method of data collection amongst ten participants using convenience sampling. The data revealed the importance of diabetes education and representation, and showed that financial standing and healthcare are interconnected. Complex inferiorities and social stratification hinder the betterment of the general welfare and therefore signifying social injustice. This research is an important contribution to medical anthropology in the context of Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Bota, Zizipho
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Diabetes -- Port Elizabeth --South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/46659 , vital:39606
- Description: The study sought to inquire about the youth’s knowledge and understanding of diabetes in relation to its different types with regards to determined societal components such as education, culture, healthcare and socioeconomic status. It then became important to establish what the youth in Humewood, Port Elizabeth, understand about diabetes in relation to its three different types with regard to education, culture, healthcare and socioeconomic status in Humewood, Port Elizabeth. Previous studies have failed to inquire about knowledge construction and understanding of diabetes in Port Elizabeth, this provided an opportunity to do so, especially since diabetes is growing rapidly and is a lifelong illness. Most studies tend to focus on disseminating information to those that already have diabetes, overlooking the importance of diabetes education as a preventative strategy. The research followed a qualitative approach which included semi-structured individual face-to-face interviews as a method of data collection amongst ten participants using convenience sampling. The data revealed the importance of diabetes education and representation, and showed that financial standing and healthcare are interconnected. Complex inferiorities and social stratification hinder the betterment of the general welfare and therefore signifying social injustice. This research is an important contribution to medical anthropology in the context of Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Detecting the transnational space: metaphysical detecting in Kazuo Ishiguro’s When we were orphans, Michiel Heyns’s Lost ground, and Amitav Gosh’s The Calcutta chromosome
- Authors: Botes, Niki
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Literature and transnationalism , Detective and mystery stories -- History and criticism , Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954- , Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954- -- When we were orpahns , Heyns, Michiel , Heyns, Michiel -- Lost ground , Ghosh, Amitav, 1956- , Ghosh, Amitav, 1956- -- The Calcutta chromosome
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140971 , vital:37933
- Description: The transnational detectives in the three primary texts under scrutiny—Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans, Michiel Heyns’s Lost Ground, and Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome—are regarded as metaphysical detectives in this thesis. As transnational figures, they criss-cross physical and national borders, but their investigations also often require the crossing of epistemological and ontological borders, as well as thinking outside of binaries. The fictional transnational, postcolonial worlds presented in these texts all feature a lack of change and the persistence of the socio-economic inequalities and discriminations of the colonial or, in the case of Lost Ground, the apartheid past. This thesis will argue that the three texts foreground the inability to break free from conceptual frameworks and a lack in human relationships as two possible reasons why the communities and societies in question have not been able to affect change. To solve the various mysteries in the texts, the transnational detectives need to find new ways of knowing and being. The lessons that these detectives learn and the personal changes they experience serve as synecdoche for how a better tomorrow for the transnational, postcolonial world could possibly be achieved. The methodology employed in this thesis involves a comparative reading of the three primary texts. To analyse and interpret these texts, this thesis draws on the philosophies of postmodern philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Emmanuel Levinas, as well as postcolonial theorists like Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Homi K. Bhabha. The thesis will contend that especially Derrida’s work on deconstruction, which forms the conceptual basis for Bhabha’s notion of the ‘third space,’ as well as Levinas’s anti-totalitarian approach with regard to the ethical relationship between the self and the other, are viable better ways of knowing and being in the transnational, postcolonial worlds presented in the texts. Derrida’s notion of différance and the trace, as well as Bhabha’s third space, this thesis contends, completely destabilises binary thinking and offers ways to think outside of the limited frameworks of ideological discourse. This thesis also posits that Levinas’s metaphysical and pluralistic interpretation of how the self should, and can, relate to the other, presents a better way of forming human relationships and has the potential to affect positive change.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Botes, Niki
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Literature and transnationalism , Detective and mystery stories -- History and criticism , Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954- , Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954- -- When we were orpahns , Heyns, Michiel , Heyns, Michiel -- Lost ground , Ghosh, Amitav, 1956- , Ghosh, Amitav, 1956- -- The Calcutta chromosome
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140971 , vital:37933
- Description: The transnational detectives in the three primary texts under scrutiny—Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans, Michiel Heyns’s Lost Ground, and Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome—are regarded as metaphysical detectives in this thesis. As transnational figures, they criss-cross physical and national borders, but their investigations also often require the crossing of epistemological and ontological borders, as well as thinking outside of binaries. The fictional transnational, postcolonial worlds presented in these texts all feature a lack of change and the persistence of the socio-economic inequalities and discriminations of the colonial or, in the case of Lost Ground, the apartheid past. This thesis will argue that the three texts foreground the inability to break free from conceptual frameworks and a lack in human relationships as two possible reasons why the communities and societies in question have not been able to affect change. To solve the various mysteries in the texts, the transnational detectives need to find new ways of knowing and being. The lessons that these detectives learn and the personal changes they experience serve as synecdoche for how a better tomorrow for the transnational, postcolonial world could possibly be achieved. The methodology employed in this thesis involves a comparative reading of the three primary texts. To analyse and interpret these texts, this thesis draws on the philosophies of postmodern philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Emmanuel Levinas, as well as postcolonial theorists like Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Homi K. Bhabha. The thesis will contend that especially Derrida’s work on deconstruction, which forms the conceptual basis for Bhabha’s notion of the ‘third space,’ as well as Levinas’s anti-totalitarian approach with regard to the ethical relationship between the self and the other, are viable better ways of knowing and being in the transnational, postcolonial worlds presented in the texts. Derrida’s notion of différance and the trace, as well as Bhabha’s third space, this thesis contends, completely destabilises binary thinking and offers ways to think outside of the limited frameworks of ideological discourse. This thesis also posits that Levinas’s metaphysical and pluralistic interpretation of how the self should, and can, relate to the other, presents a better way of forming human relationships and has the potential to affect positive change.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Impacts of cattle grazing pressure on vegetation and soil characteristics in an arid grassland of South Africa
- Authors: Botha, Gert Stephanus
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Grazing -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa , Cattle -- Feeding and feeds -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/${Handle} , vital:39749
- Description: Natural rangelands are often degraded due to the implementation of incorrect grazing systems. One potential solution is the use of short duration, high intensity grazing. The impacts of this grazing system on, inter alia, vegetation and soil properties have not yet been comprehensively tested within the arid rangelands of South Africa. This study aimed to determine the impacts of grazing intensity on vegetation composition, forage quantity and quality, and soil compaction, soil water infiltration rates and soil chemical properties in an arid grassland in South Africa. The following three grazing treatments were compared: no grazing (NG), low intensity grazing (LIG) and high intensity grazing (HIG). A total of 18 plots (six replicates per treatment) were grazed with Bonsmara cattle. Each plot, 4 ha in size, was surveyed pre-grazing, directly after grazing, and again three, six and 12 months post-grazing. The results indicated that different grazing intensities did not affect grass diversity and the veld condition a year after grazing. Phytomass was influenced by grazing intensity, with no grazing having the highest phytomass throughout the study period. Soil compaction differed among seasons but not among treatments, with summer surveys recording the lowest soil compaction rates. The soil water infiltration rates did not differ between the three different treatments, indicating that grazing intensity did not affect infiltration rates. However, grazing did seem to improve soil nutrient levels when compared to NG. The grazed treatments had higher NH4+, K+, and organic carbon than the NG treatment. Nevertheless, there was no significant difference in nutrients levels when comparing the LIG system to the HIG system. When comparing the soil nutrients levels within a treatment over time, only the HIG treatment showed an increase in soil nutrient levels (Mg2+) over time, whereas the LIG and NG treatments showed no changed throughout the study period. Generally, the study results indicated that in the short term there was no advantage to using higher grazing intensity, although the presence of grazing (as opposed to no grazing) is advantageous to arid grassland functioning.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Botha, Gert Stephanus
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Grazing -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa , Cattle -- Feeding and feeds -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/${Handle} , vital:39749
- Description: Natural rangelands are often degraded due to the implementation of incorrect grazing systems. One potential solution is the use of short duration, high intensity grazing. The impacts of this grazing system on, inter alia, vegetation and soil properties have not yet been comprehensively tested within the arid rangelands of South Africa. This study aimed to determine the impacts of grazing intensity on vegetation composition, forage quantity and quality, and soil compaction, soil water infiltration rates and soil chemical properties in an arid grassland in South Africa. The following three grazing treatments were compared: no grazing (NG), low intensity grazing (LIG) and high intensity grazing (HIG). A total of 18 plots (six replicates per treatment) were grazed with Bonsmara cattle. Each plot, 4 ha in size, was surveyed pre-grazing, directly after grazing, and again three, six and 12 months post-grazing. The results indicated that different grazing intensities did not affect grass diversity and the veld condition a year after grazing. Phytomass was influenced by grazing intensity, with no grazing having the highest phytomass throughout the study period. Soil compaction differed among seasons but not among treatments, with summer surveys recording the lowest soil compaction rates. The soil water infiltration rates did not differ between the three different treatments, indicating that grazing intensity did not affect infiltration rates. However, grazing did seem to improve soil nutrient levels when compared to NG. The grazed treatments had higher NH4+, K+, and organic carbon than the NG treatment. Nevertheless, there was no significant difference in nutrients levels when comparing the LIG system to the HIG system. When comparing the soil nutrients levels within a treatment over time, only the HIG treatment showed an increase in soil nutrient levels (Mg2+) over time, whereas the LIG and NG treatments showed no changed throughout the study period. Generally, the study results indicated that in the short term there was no advantage to using higher grazing intensity, although the presence of grazing (as opposed to no grazing) is advantageous to arid grassland functioning.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
A framework for price tariffs in the costing structures of South African private hospitals
- Authors: Botha, Gideon
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Hospitals, Proprietary
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/47489 , vital:40126
- Description: The increase of South African health care costs can be extrapolated into the global healthcare cost challenge, with various factors contributing to this problem. One of the factors viewed as being central to the rising cost of health care is the inability of health care provider organisations to accurately measure unit costs of resources used to treat a patient for their medical condition and patient outcomes. The measurement of an accurate unit cost and patient outcomes is imperative to improving value, which is seen as an improvement in outcomes for every rand spent. The determination of price tariffs and the price tariff payment model used to onward bill the price tariff for medical services have also been identified as having a central role in improving value in health care. In order for price tariffs to improve value, they should be reflective and be based on an accurate unit cost that reflects the cost of resources used to provide efficient and effective care for a patient’s medical condition. For the price tariff payment model to improve value, it needs to reward providers for delivering superior patient outcomes at a lower cost by making price tariffs contingent on achieving specified outcomes as well as incorporating performance payments or holdbacks based on outcomes achieved. This study provides a framework for price tariffs in the costing structures of South African private hospitals. Secondary research was conducted in the form of a comprehensive literature search in order to do an interpretative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the various combinations of unit costing models and price tariff payment models used to determine prices in private hospitals. The literature review was followed by primary research that involved three phases, all of which used a qualitative research approach. In Phase 1, primary data were collected using unobtrusive measures that consisted of a data request first, followed by unstructured interviews with representatives of Hospital A and Hospital B to obtain an analysis of the combinations of unit costing model and price tariff payment model used for a laparoscopic appendectomy. In Phase 2, data were collected by means of an unstructured interview with a surgeon describing a laparoscopic appendectomy procedure in detail and based on this process description, the approximate costs for the various resources that were sourced from different suppliers could be calculated. The data analysis and interpretation were done in three phases, with each phase having different research objectives. The data were first coded and then interpreted. In the first primary research phase, the combinations of unit costing models and price tariff payment models used by private Hospital A and Hospital B were evaluated. In the second phase, the recommended combination of unit costing model and price tariff payment model was applied to a hypothetical example and evaluated. In the final phase, based on the outcome of the first and second research phases, a combination of unit costing model and price tariff payment model for private hospitals was recommended. The results showed that the recommended combination of unit costing and price tariff payment model namely time-driven activity-based costing with the global fee price tariff payment model was the most appropriate to determine price tariffs in private hospitals when compared to the unit costing models and price tariff payment models used by Hospital A and Hospital B for a laparoscopic appendectomy. Furthermore, the recommended combination of unit costing model and price tariff payment model was found to be usable for the determination of price tariffs in the costing structures of private hospitals. The time-driven activity-based costing model and global fee price tariff payment model should be adopted or used as guidelines for determining price tariffs in private hospitals in South Africa. Price tariffs would be more transparent as they would reflect the actual resource cost of treating the patient and the resources used and treatment provided could then be assessed against the delivery value chain that charts the principal activities involved in a patient’s care for a medical condition to ensure that patient best-practice protocols are followed. The proposed framework enables the determination of price tariffs based on an accurate unit cost reflecting the actual resources used to provide efficient and effective care and also improve value for the patient.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Botha, Gideon
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Hospitals, Proprietary
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/47489 , vital:40126
- Description: The increase of South African health care costs can be extrapolated into the global healthcare cost challenge, with various factors contributing to this problem. One of the factors viewed as being central to the rising cost of health care is the inability of health care provider organisations to accurately measure unit costs of resources used to treat a patient for their medical condition and patient outcomes. The measurement of an accurate unit cost and patient outcomes is imperative to improving value, which is seen as an improvement in outcomes for every rand spent. The determination of price tariffs and the price tariff payment model used to onward bill the price tariff for medical services have also been identified as having a central role in improving value in health care. In order for price tariffs to improve value, they should be reflective and be based on an accurate unit cost that reflects the cost of resources used to provide efficient and effective care for a patient’s medical condition. For the price tariff payment model to improve value, it needs to reward providers for delivering superior patient outcomes at a lower cost by making price tariffs contingent on achieving specified outcomes as well as incorporating performance payments or holdbacks based on outcomes achieved. This study provides a framework for price tariffs in the costing structures of South African private hospitals. Secondary research was conducted in the form of a comprehensive literature search in order to do an interpretative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the various combinations of unit costing models and price tariff payment models used to determine prices in private hospitals. The literature review was followed by primary research that involved three phases, all of which used a qualitative research approach. In Phase 1, primary data were collected using unobtrusive measures that consisted of a data request first, followed by unstructured interviews with representatives of Hospital A and Hospital B to obtain an analysis of the combinations of unit costing model and price tariff payment model used for a laparoscopic appendectomy. In Phase 2, data were collected by means of an unstructured interview with a surgeon describing a laparoscopic appendectomy procedure in detail and based on this process description, the approximate costs for the various resources that were sourced from different suppliers could be calculated. The data analysis and interpretation were done in three phases, with each phase having different research objectives. The data were first coded and then interpreted. In the first primary research phase, the combinations of unit costing models and price tariff payment models used by private Hospital A and Hospital B were evaluated. In the second phase, the recommended combination of unit costing model and price tariff payment model was applied to a hypothetical example and evaluated. In the final phase, based on the outcome of the first and second research phases, a combination of unit costing model and price tariff payment model for private hospitals was recommended. The results showed that the recommended combination of unit costing and price tariff payment model namely time-driven activity-based costing with the global fee price tariff payment model was the most appropriate to determine price tariffs in private hospitals when compared to the unit costing models and price tariff payment models used by Hospital A and Hospital B for a laparoscopic appendectomy. Furthermore, the recommended combination of unit costing model and price tariff payment model was found to be usable for the determination of price tariffs in the costing structures of private hospitals. The time-driven activity-based costing model and global fee price tariff payment model should be adopted or used as guidelines for determining price tariffs in private hospitals in South Africa. Price tariffs would be more transparent as they would reflect the actual resource cost of treating the patient and the resources used and treatment provided could then be assessed against the delivery value chain that charts the principal activities involved in a patient’s care for a medical condition to ensure that patient best-practice protocols are followed. The proposed framework enables the determination of price tariffs based on an accurate unit cost reflecting the actual resources used to provide efficient and effective care and also improve value for the patient.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
A framework for price tariffs in the costing structures of South African private hospitals
- Authors: Botha, Gideon
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Medical care, Cost of -- South Africa , Medical economics -- South Africa Medical care -- South Africa -- Cost control Cost accounting
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/50432 , vital:42167
- Description: The increase of South African health care costs can be extrapolated into the global healthcare cost challenge, with various factors contributing to this problem. One of the factors viewed as being central to the rising cost of health care is the inability of health care provider organisations to accurately measure unit costs of resources used to treat a patient for their medical condition and patient outcomes. The measurement of an accurate unit cost and patient outcomes is imperative to improving value, which is seen as an improvement in outcomes for every rand spent. The determination of price tariffs and the price tariff payment model used to onward bill the price tariff for medical services have also been identified as having a central role in improving value in health care. In order for price tariffs to improve value, they should be reflective and be based on an accurate unit cost that reflects the cost of resources used to provide efficient and effective care for a patient’s medical condition. For the price tariff payment model to improve value, it needs to reward providers for delivering superior patient outcomes at a lower cost by making price tariffs contingent on achieving specified outcomes as well as incorporating performance payments or holdbacks based on outcomes achieved. This study provides a framework for price tariffs in the costing structures of South African private hospitals. Secondary research was conducted in the form of a comprehensive literature search in order to do an interpretative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the various combinations of unit costing models and price tariff payment models used to determine prices in private hospitals. The literature review was followed by primary research that involved three phases, all of which used a qualitative research approach. In Phase 1, primary data were collected using unobtrusive measures that consisted of a data request first, followed by unstructured interviews with representatives of Hospital A and Hospital B to obtain an analysis of the combinations of unit costing model and price tariff payment model used for a laparoscopic appendectomy. In Phase 2, data were collected by means of an unstructured interview with a surgeon describing a laparoscopic appendectomy procedure in detail and based on this process description, the approximate costs for the various resources that were sourced from different suppliers could be calculated. The data analysis and interpretation were done in three phases, with each phase having different research objectives. The data were first coded and then interpreted. In the first primary research phase, the combinations of unit costing models and price tariff payment models used by private Hospital A and Hospital B were evaluated. In the second phase, the recommended combination of unit costing model and price tariff payment model was applied to a hypothetical example and evaluated. In the final phase, based on the outcome of the first and second research phases, a combination of unit costing model and price tariff payment model for private hospitals was recommended. The results showed that the recommended combination of unit costing and price tariff payment model namely time-driven activity-based costing with the global fee price tariff payment model was the most appropriate to determine price tariffs in private hospitals when compared to the unit costing models and price tariff payment models used by Hospital A and Hospital B for a laparoscopic appendectomy. Furthermore, the recommended combination of unit costing model and price tariff payment model was found to be usable for the determination of price tariffs in the costing structures of private hospitals. The time-driven activity-based costing model and global fee price tariff payment model should be adopted or used as guidelines for determining price tariffs in private hospitals in South Africa. Price tariffs would be more transparent as they would reflect the actual resource cost of treating the patient and the resources used and treatment provided could then be assessed against the delivery value chain that charts the principal activities involved in a patient’s care for a medical condition to ensure that patient best-practice protocols are followed. The proposed framework enables the determination of price tariffs based on an accurate unit cost reflecting the actual resources used to provide efficient and effective care and also improve value for the patient.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Botha, Gideon
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Medical care, Cost of -- South Africa , Medical economics -- South Africa Medical care -- South Africa -- Cost control Cost accounting
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/50432 , vital:42167
- Description: The increase of South African health care costs can be extrapolated into the global healthcare cost challenge, with various factors contributing to this problem. One of the factors viewed as being central to the rising cost of health care is the inability of health care provider organisations to accurately measure unit costs of resources used to treat a patient for their medical condition and patient outcomes. The measurement of an accurate unit cost and patient outcomes is imperative to improving value, which is seen as an improvement in outcomes for every rand spent. The determination of price tariffs and the price tariff payment model used to onward bill the price tariff for medical services have also been identified as having a central role in improving value in health care. In order for price tariffs to improve value, they should be reflective and be based on an accurate unit cost that reflects the cost of resources used to provide efficient and effective care for a patient’s medical condition. For the price tariff payment model to improve value, it needs to reward providers for delivering superior patient outcomes at a lower cost by making price tariffs contingent on achieving specified outcomes as well as incorporating performance payments or holdbacks based on outcomes achieved. This study provides a framework for price tariffs in the costing structures of South African private hospitals. Secondary research was conducted in the form of a comprehensive literature search in order to do an interpretative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the various combinations of unit costing models and price tariff payment models used to determine prices in private hospitals. The literature review was followed by primary research that involved three phases, all of which used a qualitative research approach. In Phase 1, primary data were collected using unobtrusive measures that consisted of a data request first, followed by unstructured interviews with representatives of Hospital A and Hospital B to obtain an analysis of the combinations of unit costing model and price tariff payment model used for a laparoscopic appendectomy. In Phase 2, data were collected by means of an unstructured interview with a surgeon describing a laparoscopic appendectomy procedure in detail and based on this process description, the approximate costs for the various resources that were sourced from different suppliers could be calculated. The data analysis and interpretation were done in three phases, with each phase having different research objectives. The data were first coded and then interpreted. In the first primary research phase, the combinations of unit costing models and price tariff payment models used by private Hospital A and Hospital B were evaluated. In the second phase, the recommended combination of unit costing model and price tariff payment model was applied to a hypothetical example and evaluated. In the final phase, based on the outcome of the first and second research phases, a combination of unit costing model and price tariff payment model for private hospitals was recommended. The results showed that the recommended combination of unit costing and price tariff payment model namely time-driven activity-based costing with the global fee price tariff payment model was the most appropriate to determine price tariffs in private hospitals when compared to the unit costing models and price tariff payment models used by Hospital A and Hospital B for a laparoscopic appendectomy. Furthermore, the recommended combination of unit costing model and price tariff payment model was found to be usable for the determination of price tariffs in the costing structures of private hospitals. The time-driven activity-based costing model and global fee price tariff payment model should be adopted or used as guidelines for determining price tariffs in private hospitals in South Africa. Price tariffs would be more transparent as they would reflect the actual resource cost of treating the patient and the resources used and treatment provided could then be assessed against the delivery value chain that charts the principal activities involved in a patient’s care for a medical condition to ensure that patient best-practice protocols are followed. The proposed framework enables the determination of price tariffs based on an accurate unit cost reflecting the actual resources used to provide efficient and effective care and also improve value for the patient.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Strategies to improve employee financial intelligence
- Authors: Botha, Perine
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Financial literacy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/47486 , vital:40118
- Description: South African employees are largely indebted, with the majority of their disposable income used to service debt. The potential causes of this problem include the levels of education of individuals, how investors perceive the political climate in the country, levels of disposable income and the spending habits of individuals. This study aims to assist organisations to improve employee financial intelligence by investigating what influences financial intelligence. To ascertain these influences, the respondents’ level of financial literacy is to be determined as well. Financial literacy is assessed by determining a respondents’ knowledge of numeracy, risk diversification, compound interest and inflation. Additional factors such as debt management, saving culture and access to digital information too have an impact on financial literacy. An empirical study, consisting of a questionnaire was conducted among employees of a state-owned enterprise (SOE) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. These employees represent both the management and junior employee profiles. The study found that 75% of the respondents were not financially literate. Financial literacy rates globally are at 51%, however, in a major emerging economy such as South Africa, the rate is between 48% and 51%. The results of the study however indicate that it is much lower than the global average as well as for that of similar developing countries. The results of the study indicate that age, gender, job grade, level of education, access to digital information, a savings culture, budgeting and debt management do not significantly influence financial literacy in the context of SouthAfrica.The research indicates that the respondents are, however, willing to learn and be educated to increase their financial knowledge and awareness. Possible strategies which could assist in improving levels of financial intelligence are:•Financial literacy courses offered by employers;•Research undertaken by employees themselves could increase their financial literacy; Employee wellness programmes, such as debt counselling, could improve the financial literacy of employees;•Completion of online courses would improve the employees’ level of financial literacy;•Budgeting and money management courses;•Financial advisors to be appointed by employers;•Debt counselling of employees.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Botha, Perine
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Financial literacy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/47486 , vital:40118
- Description: South African employees are largely indebted, with the majority of their disposable income used to service debt. The potential causes of this problem include the levels of education of individuals, how investors perceive the political climate in the country, levels of disposable income and the spending habits of individuals. This study aims to assist organisations to improve employee financial intelligence by investigating what influences financial intelligence. To ascertain these influences, the respondents’ level of financial literacy is to be determined as well. Financial literacy is assessed by determining a respondents’ knowledge of numeracy, risk diversification, compound interest and inflation. Additional factors such as debt management, saving culture and access to digital information too have an impact on financial literacy. An empirical study, consisting of a questionnaire was conducted among employees of a state-owned enterprise (SOE) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. These employees represent both the management and junior employee profiles. The study found that 75% of the respondents were not financially literate. Financial literacy rates globally are at 51%, however, in a major emerging economy such as South Africa, the rate is between 48% and 51%. The results of the study however indicate that it is much lower than the global average as well as for that of similar developing countries. The results of the study indicate that age, gender, job grade, level of education, access to digital information, a savings culture, budgeting and debt management do not significantly influence financial literacy in the context of SouthAfrica.The research indicates that the respondents are, however, willing to learn and be educated to increase their financial knowledge and awareness. Possible strategies which could assist in improving levels of financial intelligence are:•Financial literacy courses offered by employers;•Research undertaken by employees themselves could increase their financial literacy; Employee wellness programmes, such as debt counselling, could improve the financial literacy of employees;•Completion of online courses would improve the employees’ level of financial literacy;•Budgeting and money management courses;•Financial advisors to be appointed by employers;•Debt counselling of employees.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020