Lived experiences of Gay traditional healers in the Amathole District Municipality
- Plaatjie, Nontsikelelo Margaret
- Authors: Plaatjie, Nontsikelelo Margaret
- Date: 2024-06
- Subjects: Healers -- South Africa , Gender identity -- South Africa , Ancestor worship --South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/29089 , vital:76626
- Description: The primary goal of this study was to explore the lived experiences of gay traditional healers in the Amathole District Municipality. The study focused on traditional healers who are diviners and work as cause investigators (amagqirha emvumisa).The study used qualitative research methodology and employed Interpretative phenomenological analysis research design to examine the lived experiences of gay traditional diviners.This study was based on Cass’ identity formation theory as its overarching theoretical framework and specifically on sexual identity formation with a focus on LGBTQI plus. The sample consisted of five participants recruited through the snowball sampling technique. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews. The researcher was acquainted with three of the participants and each of them brought an interview-ready subject with them. All participants were gay traditional diviners with credentials and practice in their own settings. The analysis of the research study revealed that gay traditional healers experienced multifaceted aspects. These aspects includes those coming from social factors like family background. The findings indicated that factors such as parental neglect and lack of financial support for the training needs of gay traditional healers had a negative impact. However it became clear from the findings that negative attitudes starting from participants’s upbringing, training and practice caused confusion, sadness but ultimately self acceptance. Furthermore, the research study revealed a need for awareness campaigns on traditional healing, as well as on the choice of sexual orientation. Lack of knowledge of policies and laws concerning homosexuality and traditional healing revealed the amount of work that remains to be done in our society. The researcher recommends that for future studies, more research on legislation with regards to traditional healers and gay people be undertaken. Also the researcher recommends involvement traditional medical practitioner policy decision makers. , Thesis (MPsych) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2024
- Full Text:
- Authors: Plaatjie, Nontsikelelo Margaret
- Date: 2024-06
- Subjects: Healers -- South Africa , Gender identity -- South Africa , Ancestor worship --South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/29089 , vital:76626
- Description: The primary goal of this study was to explore the lived experiences of gay traditional healers in the Amathole District Municipality. The study focused on traditional healers who are diviners and work as cause investigators (amagqirha emvumisa).The study used qualitative research methodology and employed Interpretative phenomenological analysis research design to examine the lived experiences of gay traditional diviners.This study was based on Cass’ identity formation theory as its overarching theoretical framework and specifically on sexual identity formation with a focus on LGBTQI plus. The sample consisted of five participants recruited through the snowball sampling technique. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews. The researcher was acquainted with three of the participants and each of them brought an interview-ready subject with them. All participants were gay traditional diviners with credentials and practice in their own settings. The analysis of the research study revealed that gay traditional healers experienced multifaceted aspects. These aspects includes those coming from social factors like family background. The findings indicated that factors such as parental neglect and lack of financial support for the training needs of gay traditional healers had a negative impact. However it became clear from the findings that negative attitudes starting from participants’s upbringing, training and practice caused confusion, sadness but ultimately self acceptance. Furthermore, the research study revealed a need for awareness campaigns on traditional healing, as well as on the choice of sexual orientation. Lack of knowledge of policies and laws concerning homosexuality and traditional healing revealed the amount of work that remains to be done in our society. The researcher recommends that for future studies, more research on legislation with regards to traditional healers and gay people be undertaken. Also the researcher recommends involvement traditional medical practitioner policy decision makers. , Thesis (MPsych) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2024
- Full Text:
The effect of entrepreneurial competencies on the performance of small micro and medium enterprises in or Tambo District, Eastern Cape
- Authors: Senzeni, Phumlani
- Date: 2023-12
- Subjects: New business enterprises -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Small business -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Performance -- Management
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/28960 , vital:75577
- Description: The Small Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMMEs) remain the key competitor in the development of the economy growth of the country. The SMME sector is the key driver to the national economy of countries, as it creates job opportunities, reduce poverty, supports household income, and improve the people’s standard of living. However, the rate at which SMMEs fail to succeed results in non-performance and business closure, and this is alarming and require attention. The reasons for this failure can emanate from a number of reasons, such as lack of entrepreneurial competencies, managerial skills, lack of intellectual personnel, low entrepreneurial culture and obstacles that hinder access to resources and market. Therefore, in this study the researcher examined the effect of entrepreneurial competencies on the performance of SMMEs in OR Tambo District, Eastern Cape. The researcher adopted quantitative research approach. The research data was collected using Google Forms survey method. The emails containing the link to access the instrument were sent to a sample of 399 SMMEs in the OR Tambo District. The response rate of 74%, which is 294 was attained. Thus, the findings of the study discovered that entrepreneurial competencies have significant effect on the performance of SMMEs. The study further found that entrepreneurial competencies “opportunity recognition, creative-problem solving, resource leveraging, and business networking” had a low degree of association with business performance although they are statistically significant to business performance. The self-efficacy was found with a high degree of association with business performance and statistically significant with the achievement of positive beta and low p-value which indicated a strong association to performance. The study made conclusions that entrepreneurial competencies have positive effect on the performance of SMMEs. Therefore, it was concluded that performing and successful SMMEs in the regions means employment opportunities in the country because they require human resources to do operational services and render services. The government and policymakers are encouraged to work together to form and strengthen development programs to assist SMMEs to grow the production capacity, operations and become productive. The SMMEs owners/managers and practitioners on skills development are encouraged to relook and strengthen entrepreneurial competencies that contribute to productivity and performance. , Thesis (DBA) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2023
- Full Text:
- Authors: Senzeni, Phumlani
- Date: 2023-12
- Subjects: New business enterprises -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Small business -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Performance -- Management
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/28960 , vital:75577
- Description: The Small Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMMEs) remain the key competitor in the development of the economy growth of the country. The SMME sector is the key driver to the national economy of countries, as it creates job opportunities, reduce poverty, supports household income, and improve the people’s standard of living. However, the rate at which SMMEs fail to succeed results in non-performance and business closure, and this is alarming and require attention. The reasons for this failure can emanate from a number of reasons, such as lack of entrepreneurial competencies, managerial skills, lack of intellectual personnel, low entrepreneurial culture and obstacles that hinder access to resources and market. Therefore, in this study the researcher examined the effect of entrepreneurial competencies on the performance of SMMEs in OR Tambo District, Eastern Cape. The researcher adopted quantitative research approach. The research data was collected using Google Forms survey method. The emails containing the link to access the instrument were sent to a sample of 399 SMMEs in the OR Tambo District. The response rate of 74%, which is 294 was attained. Thus, the findings of the study discovered that entrepreneurial competencies have significant effect on the performance of SMMEs. The study further found that entrepreneurial competencies “opportunity recognition, creative-problem solving, resource leveraging, and business networking” had a low degree of association with business performance although they are statistically significant to business performance. The self-efficacy was found with a high degree of association with business performance and statistically significant with the achievement of positive beta and low p-value which indicated a strong association to performance. The study made conclusions that entrepreneurial competencies have positive effect on the performance of SMMEs. Therefore, it was concluded that performing and successful SMMEs in the regions means employment opportunities in the country because they require human resources to do operational services and render services. The government and policymakers are encouraged to work together to form and strengthen development programs to assist SMMEs to grow the production capacity, operations and become productive. The SMMEs owners/managers and practitioners on skills development are encouraged to relook and strengthen entrepreneurial competencies that contribute to productivity and performance. , Thesis (DBA) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2023
- Full Text:
Developing logit calibration model for wildfire smoke characterization based on sentinel-2 multispectral data and machine learning techniques
- Authors: Sali, Athule
- Date: 2023-07
- Subjects: Wildfires -- Prevention and control -- Contracting out , Smoke plumes , Remote-sensing images
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/28467 , vital:74338
- Description: Wildfires are complicated incidents that arise as results of both natural causes and anthropological activities. They have long been regarded as the most devastating phenomena globally. Wildfires are considered a powerful natural factor which has detrimental effect on the global environment. This study was aimed at developing logit calibration models for wildfire smoke prediction based on Sentinel-2 multispectral data and machine learning techniques. Remotely sensed data, in the form of the Sentinel-2 imagery, was used as the base from which wildfire smoke plumes were spectrally characterized and distinguished from clouds and flame using endmember selection. The Smoke Detection Index (SDI) was generated to detect the relative abundance of smoke from the imagery. The Cloud Detection Index (CDI) was also generated from Sentinel-2 imagery to detect the relative abundance of clouds. The bi-level thresholding technique was also used to characterize wildfire smoke from the imagery. The logit models were developed through multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network to predict wildfire smoke plumes. The Relative Operator Characteristic - Area Under the Curve (ROC-AUC) metrics was used to evaluate the logit models performance. The spectral signature pattern from endmembers revealed that wildfire smoke behaves different across Sentinel-2 multispectral channels with shortwave 1 channel (SWIR-1) exhibiting the highest radiance value. The signature patterns from endmember selection also revealed the distinctive spectral characterization of smoke from those of clouds. The findings showed that whilst smoke exhibited high radiance value on SWIR-1 channel, clouds exhibited high radiance value in the near infrared (NIR), signifying that smoke and cloud are spectrally separatable in the NIR. The smoke-containing pixels from bi-level thresholding were characterized by SDI values that ranged between 0.089 and 0.561. Suggesting that pixels associated with wildfire smoke are limited to this range of values. The logit models developed showed that smoke is predicted in SWIR-2. The ROC-AUC value obtained by this model was 0.77. The Implications emerging from the ROC-AUC results revealed that MLP model employed on the SWIR-2 band present a viable and accurate prediction of wildfire smoke plume. The findings of this study suggest that wildfire smoke is efficiently predicted at the shortwave channels of the electromagnetic spectrum. The wildfire smoke can be spectrally distinguished from cloud in the near infrared channel. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2023
- Full Text:
- Authors: Sali, Athule
- Date: 2023-07
- Subjects: Wildfires -- Prevention and control -- Contracting out , Smoke plumes , Remote-sensing images
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/28467 , vital:74338
- Description: Wildfires are complicated incidents that arise as results of both natural causes and anthropological activities. They have long been regarded as the most devastating phenomena globally. Wildfires are considered a powerful natural factor which has detrimental effect on the global environment. This study was aimed at developing logit calibration models for wildfire smoke prediction based on Sentinel-2 multispectral data and machine learning techniques. Remotely sensed data, in the form of the Sentinel-2 imagery, was used as the base from which wildfire smoke plumes were spectrally characterized and distinguished from clouds and flame using endmember selection. The Smoke Detection Index (SDI) was generated to detect the relative abundance of smoke from the imagery. The Cloud Detection Index (CDI) was also generated from Sentinel-2 imagery to detect the relative abundance of clouds. The bi-level thresholding technique was also used to characterize wildfire smoke from the imagery. The logit models were developed through multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network to predict wildfire smoke plumes. The Relative Operator Characteristic - Area Under the Curve (ROC-AUC) metrics was used to evaluate the logit models performance. The spectral signature pattern from endmembers revealed that wildfire smoke behaves different across Sentinel-2 multispectral channels with shortwave 1 channel (SWIR-1) exhibiting the highest radiance value. The signature patterns from endmember selection also revealed the distinctive spectral characterization of smoke from those of clouds. The findings showed that whilst smoke exhibited high radiance value on SWIR-1 channel, clouds exhibited high radiance value in the near infrared (NIR), signifying that smoke and cloud are spectrally separatable in the NIR. The smoke-containing pixels from bi-level thresholding were characterized by SDI values that ranged between 0.089 and 0.561. Suggesting that pixels associated with wildfire smoke are limited to this range of values. The logit models developed showed that smoke is predicted in SWIR-2. The ROC-AUC value obtained by this model was 0.77. The Implications emerging from the ROC-AUC results revealed that MLP model employed on the SWIR-2 band present a viable and accurate prediction of wildfire smoke plume. The findings of this study suggest that wildfire smoke is efficiently predicted at the shortwave channels of the electromagnetic spectrum. The wildfire smoke can be spectrally distinguished from cloud in the near infrared channel. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2023
- Full Text:
Gender and shifting urban property relations: the impacts of tenure upgrading on women’s access to land and housing in Mdantsane, South Africa
- Stofile, Zimkhitha Sphokazi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1566-1376
- Authors: Stofile, Zimkhitha Sphokazi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1566-1376
- Date: 2023-07
- Subjects: Women's shelters , Land tenure -- South Africa , Right to housing
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/28717 , vital:74556
- Description: A detailed empirical focus on the social impacts of progressive land policy shifts on women in Africa remains limited, particularly when it comes to urban property rights. This study examined contemporary dynamics of gender and access to urban property in the context of South Africa’s post-apartheid radical policy changes that attempt to address primarily the historical exclusion of blacks from urban property rights and housing. The thesis adopted a gendered approach to the concept of ‘access’ as an overriding concept to analyse the impacts of land tenure upgrading on women’s access to urban land and housing in Mdantsane, South Africa’s second-largest township. This study also adopts a liberal feminist perspective, particularly egalitarian liberal feminism (emanating from the works of John Stuart Mill) to explore how the post-apartheid progressive institutional and legal reforms have influenced the autonomy and power of women to access urban property rights. Through this perspective, the study also draws on several key theoretical concepts to put together a conceptual schema – a framework – that provides enhanced understanding of gendered dimensions of access to urban landed property (in this case housing). In many developing countries, there has been a shift from indigenous land tenure systems to private land ownership. These shifts were caused by several factors, including population pressure, rising land income, urbanisation, and land grabbing. International organisations such as the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development and Department for International Development have expanded their land tenure reform programmes in developing countries from the 1970s until the late 1990s. These have suggested individualised land rights (land titling) as a precondition for investment, economic progress, poverty alleviation, and a framework for secure, transparent, and enforceable property rights. Gender equity became a growing concern among donor institutions that promote and fund titling and registration programmes. Land titling was viewed as a solution to bring an end to gender inequalities in land ownership. In South Africa, the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act 112 of 1991 (ULTRA) was enacted for upgrading and converting ownership of certain rights granted in respect of land. The study used a case study of women in sections of Mdantsane. Qualitative methods, mainly in-depth interviews and life histories enabled the researcher to obtain detailed personal accounts of the historical and contemporary struggles of black women in accessing land and property in South Africa’s urban peripheries. The findings demonstrate that tenure upgrading produced differential outcomes among women in Mdantsane, and some diverse meanings that women attach to their land and houses in the context of tenure upgrading in post-apartheid South Africa. While tenure upgrading has guaranteed non-eviction for most house occupants (including women), it resulted in eviction for others. Male occupants, who secretly and fraudulently acquired the title deeds for family houses, displaced some of their women relatives. The study also established that these displacements were mostly done by those men who were regarded as heirs to property in many of the urban households. As such, they took most decisions about the formal registration of family homes, thus weakening the rights and power of women over urban property. Among the dominant meanings attached to land after tenure upgrading, women in Mdantsane generally viewed the ownership of urban property – no matter how small – as a form of empowerment, socially and economically. This study also found that after tenure upgrading, other women lost access to the accommodation they rented for more than a decade, even though they qualified to become the owners. In some instances, the politicians fraudulently sold the houses, and the occupants were thus displaced. Poor housing administration by the municipal officials was one of the reasons most occupants lost access to housing. In general, the results indicate that post-apartheid, urban land laws and policies afforded women better access to land and housing. Furthermore, in several instances, titling afforded women equal ownership rights as men compared to other tenure systems. Nonetheless, the history of exclusion still negatively affects women’s access to land and housing. Even in cases where they are not excluded, women still face social, political, and cultural constraints in acquiring urban land. Such a finding indicates that, gender-sensitive land laws and policies do not automatically lead to positive outcomes for women in South Africa’s urban peripheries. Therefore, the struggle for equal property rights does not begin and end with gender-progressive laws. Urban land policy should also grapple with past and contemporary obstacles in the implementation of legislation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2023
- Full Text:
- Authors: Stofile, Zimkhitha Sphokazi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1566-1376
- Date: 2023-07
- Subjects: Women's shelters , Land tenure -- South Africa , Right to housing
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/28717 , vital:74556
- Description: A detailed empirical focus on the social impacts of progressive land policy shifts on women in Africa remains limited, particularly when it comes to urban property rights. This study examined contemporary dynamics of gender and access to urban property in the context of South Africa’s post-apartheid radical policy changes that attempt to address primarily the historical exclusion of blacks from urban property rights and housing. The thesis adopted a gendered approach to the concept of ‘access’ as an overriding concept to analyse the impacts of land tenure upgrading on women’s access to urban land and housing in Mdantsane, South Africa’s second-largest township. This study also adopts a liberal feminist perspective, particularly egalitarian liberal feminism (emanating from the works of John Stuart Mill) to explore how the post-apartheid progressive institutional and legal reforms have influenced the autonomy and power of women to access urban property rights. Through this perspective, the study also draws on several key theoretical concepts to put together a conceptual schema – a framework – that provides enhanced understanding of gendered dimensions of access to urban landed property (in this case housing). In many developing countries, there has been a shift from indigenous land tenure systems to private land ownership. These shifts were caused by several factors, including population pressure, rising land income, urbanisation, and land grabbing. International organisations such as the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development and Department for International Development have expanded their land tenure reform programmes in developing countries from the 1970s until the late 1990s. These have suggested individualised land rights (land titling) as a precondition for investment, economic progress, poverty alleviation, and a framework for secure, transparent, and enforceable property rights. Gender equity became a growing concern among donor institutions that promote and fund titling and registration programmes. Land titling was viewed as a solution to bring an end to gender inequalities in land ownership. In South Africa, the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act 112 of 1991 (ULTRA) was enacted for upgrading and converting ownership of certain rights granted in respect of land. The study used a case study of women in sections of Mdantsane. Qualitative methods, mainly in-depth interviews and life histories enabled the researcher to obtain detailed personal accounts of the historical and contemporary struggles of black women in accessing land and property in South Africa’s urban peripheries. The findings demonstrate that tenure upgrading produced differential outcomes among women in Mdantsane, and some diverse meanings that women attach to their land and houses in the context of tenure upgrading in post-apartheid South Africa. While tenure upgrading has guaranteed non-eviction for most house occupants (including women), it resulted in eviction for others. Male occupants, who secretly and fraudulently acquired the title deeds for family houses, displaced some of their women relatives. The study also established that these displacements were mostly done by those men who were regarded as heirs to property in many of the urban households. As such, they took most decisions about the formal registration of family homes, thus weakening the rights and power of women over urban property. Among the dominant meanings attached to land after tenure upgrading, women in Mdantsane generally viewed the ownership of urban property – no matter how small – as a form of empowerment, socially and economically. This study also found that after tenure upgrading, other women lost access to the accommodation they rented for more than a decade, even though they qualified to become the owners. In some instances, the politicians fraudulently sold the houses, and the occupants were thus displaced. Poor housing administration by the municipal officials was one of the reasons most occupants lost access to housing. In general, the results indicate that post-apartheid, urban land laws and policies afforded women better access to land and housing. Furthermore, in several instances, titling afforded women equal ownership rights as men compared to other tenure systems. Nonetheless, the history of exclusion still negatively affects women’s access to land and housing. Even in cases where they are not excluded, women still face social, political, and cultural constraints in acquiring urban land. Such a finding indicates that, gender-sensitive land laws and policies do not automatically lead to positive outcomes for women in South Africa’s urban peripheries. Therefore, the struggle for equal property rights does not begin and end with gender-progressive laws. Urban land policy should also grapple with past and contemporary obstacles in the implementation of legislation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2023
- Full Text:
Viability of government funded broiler production : lessons from Northern KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
- Mdletshe, Sifiso Themba Clement https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2668-0193
- Authors: Mdletshe, Sifiso Themba Clement https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2668-0193
- Date: 2023-04
- Subjects: Broilers (Chickens) -- Economic aspects , Broilers (Poultry) , Broilers (Chickens) -- Breeding
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27843 , vital:69947
- Description: Generally, rural areas continue to experience high poverty levels and low incomes, which seem to be occasioned by high unemployment rates, limited educational attainments, and devastating floods and droughts. This situation is further exacerbated by increase in crime rates, making livelihoods even more difficult. To mitigate such adverse situations, rural households employ diverse strategies, including maintaining community gardens, one-home-one-garden schemes, as well as livestock and poultry production. The most prevalent livelihood strategy in South Africa or KwaZulu-Natal is broiler production, since it needs less space and a short production cycle compared to other livestock or crop enterprises. At the same time, income is generated over a short period. Besides, the government of KwaZulu Natal has actively intervened in the sector as part of its broader poverty reduction strategy and farmer support programmes. In KwaZulu-Natal Province, the provincial government has been supporting broiler producers for many years. While substantial research work has been done in the province on livelihood strategies, including livestock production on a province-wide basis, there is no information about how successful the broiler production funded by the government has being. Broader concerns about production problems have not been assuaged based on systematic studies and evidence. It is this wise that this study was initiated. The objective is to assess the economic viability of government-funded small-scale broiler projects in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa and determine the implications for poverty reduction and food security. Data were collected from the government-funded small-scale broiler producers that are residing in Northern KwaZulu-Natal districts uThungulu, Zululand and uMkhanyakude. A total of 75 small-scale broiler projects 25 broiler projects in each district were selected by probability sampling procedure for the interviews. Questionnaires that combined both close-ended and open-ended questions were used to collect primary data, which include production and marketing, as well as the factors that influence the profitability of the small-scale broiler projects. After collection, data were captured and encoded on spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel and exported to Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software version 26 and STATA for analyses. Descriptive statistics applied include frequencies and means. In addition, a gross margin (GM) and gross profit margin (GPM) analysis were employed to assess the profitability of government-funded small-scale broiler projects. Both profitability and gross margin analyses were used as proxies for farmers’ motivation and incentives to participate in broiler production. Further analyses were conducted to determine the model that best explains the underlying relationships. Initially, the Multiple Linear Regression Model was applied to determine the factors influencing the profitability of government-funded small-scale broiler projects. The indication was that while positive profits were revealed, the system seemed to fall short of its potential. In light of that, it was decided to fit another model to estimate the technical efficiency of the system and gain an understanding of the causes of any inefficiency that might exist in the production system. In that regard, the one-step Stochastic Frontier Model was employed to show that the technical efficiency of broiler production systems in the project area was positively and significantly influenced by flock size, the quantity of feeds and labour costs, while medication played no role possibly because of weak extension coverage. An inefficiency model fitted as part of the one-step model suggested that age, gender and educational level were significant influencers of technical inefficiency, with the possibility that the older the farmers, the more technically inefficient the system possibly because of the strenuousness of commercial poultry production. In addition, it was found that the more educated the farmer, the less inefficient the farm, which conversely means that the system becomes more efficient as the farmer receives more education. The negative coefficient of the gender variable also implies that for farms managed by female farmers, the system was less inefficient, which is more technically efficient, and this can be explained by women’s propensity to be more gentle, caring and sensitive in managing the chickens than their male counterparts. Heteroskedasticity tests and corrections were conducted in the one-step estimation technique to show that variations in the inefficiency term (μ) and the stochastic error term were explained by age and educational level for the most part. Clearly, improvements in the broiler industry in KwaZulu-Natal will depend to a large extent on the knowledge and experience of the farmers and substantial enlargement of the flock size of adequately fed birds. Attention to these elements is expected to have important practical implications for sustainable broiler poultry development and food security in the project area, as well as locations possessing identical features and characteristics. , Thesis (MSci) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2023
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mdletshe, Sifiso Themba Clement https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2668-0193
- Date: 2023-04
- Subjects: Broilers (Chickens) -- Economic aspects , Broilers (Poultry) , Broilers (Chickens) -- Breeding
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27843 , vital:69947
- Description: Generally, rural areas continue to experience high poverty levels and low incomes, which seem to be occasioned by high unemployment rates, limited educational attainments, and devastating floods and droughts. This situation is further exacerbated by increase in crime rates, making livelihoods even more difficult. To mitigate such adverse situations, rural households employ diverse strategies, including maintaining community gardens, one-home-one-garden schemes, as well as livestock and poultry production. The most prevalent livelihood strategy in South Africa or KwaZulu-Natal is broiler production, since it needs less space and a short production cycle compared to other livestock or crop enterprises. At the same time, income is generated over a short period. Besides, the government of KwaZulu Natal has actively intervened in the sector as part of its broader poverty reduction strategy and farmer support programmes. In KwaZulu-Natal Province, the provincial government has been supporting broiler producers for many years. While substantial research work has been done in the province on livelihood strategies, including livestock production on a province-wide basis, there is no information about how successful the broiler production funded by the government has being. Broader concerns about production problems have not been assuaged based on systematic studies and evidence. It is this wise that this study was initiated. The objective is to assess the economic viability of government-funded small-scale broiler projects in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa and determine the implications for poverty reduction and food security. Data were collected from the government-funded small-scale broiler producers that are residing in Northern KwaZulu-Natal districts uThungulu, Zululand and uMkhanyakude. A total of 75 small-scale broiler projects 25 broiler projects in each district were selected by probability sampling procedure for the interviews. Questionnaires that combined both close-ended and open-ended questions were used to collect primary data, which include production and marketing, as well as the factors that influence the profitability of the small-scale broiler projects. After collection, data were captured and encoded on spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel and exported to Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software version 26 and STATA for analyses. Descriptive statistics applied include frequencies and means. In addition, a gross margin (GM) and gross profit margin (GPM) analysis were employed to assess the profitability of government-funded small-scale broiler projects. Both profitability and gross margin analyses were used as proxies for farmers’ motivation and incentives to participate in broiler production. Further analyses were conducted to determine the model that best explains the underlying relationships. Initially, the Multiple Linear Regression Model was applied to determine the factors influencing the profitability of government-funded small-scale broiler projects. The indication was that while positive profits were revealed, the system seemed to fall short of its potential. In light of that, it was decided to fit another model to estimate the technical efficiency of the system and gain an understanding of the causes of any inefficiency that might exist in the production system. In that regard, the one-step Stochastic Frontier Model was employed to show that the technical efficiency of broiler production systems in the project area was positively and significantly influenced by flock size, the quantity of feeds and labour costs, while medication played no role possibly because of weak extension coverage. An inefficiency model fitted as part of the one-step model suggested that age, gender and educational level were significant influencers of technical inefficiency, with the possibility that the older the farmers, the more technically inefficient the system possibly because of the strenuousness of commercial poultry production. In addition, it was found that the more educated the farmer, the less inefficient the farm, which conversely means that the system becomes more efficient as the farmer receives more education. The negative coefficient of the gender variable also implies that for farms managed by female farmers, the system was less inefficient, which is more technically efficient, and this can be explained by women’s propensity to be more gentle, caring and sensitive in managing the chickens than their male counterparts. Heteroskedasticity tests and corrections were conducted in the one-step estimation technique to show that variations in the inefficiency term (μ) and the stochastic error term were explained by age and educational level for the most part. Clearly, improvements in the broiler industry in KwaZulu-Natal will depend to a large extent on the knowledge and experience of the farmers and substantial enlargement of the flock size of adequately fed birds. Attention to these elements is expected to have important practical implications for sustainable broiler poultry development and food security in the project area, as well as locations possessing identical features and characteristics. , Thesis (MSci) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2023
- Full Text:
Participation dynamics in the management of protected areas: the case of Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve and its adjacent communities, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Nyamahono, James Donald https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1391-9126
- Authors: Nyamahono, James Donald https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1391-9126
- Date: 2023-03
- Subjects: Protected areas , Natural resources conservation areas -- South Africa , National protected areas systems
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27358 , vital:66947
- Description: In many parts of the developing world, participation in the management of ‘protected areas’ is among the most tangible indices of how the rural population encounters formal conservation policies, strategies and ideologies. However, some scholars have argued that the sharing of the burdens and benefits of participation is devoid of equity. While some analysts have emphasised the imperative of multi-stakeholder participation in nature conservation, citing this as a crucial socio-ecological investment, others have highlighted the inherent contradictions in the process, describing it as an avenue for manipulation, tokenism and exploitation. This study is located in this debate and focuses on narratives around the participation of different stakeholders in the management of Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve and its adjacent communities in the rural Wild-Coast, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The researcher notes that research on the degrees and participation dynamics among various role players involved in the management of protected areas in South Africa, Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve in particular is limited. Against this background, this study contributes to ongoing discussions on protected area management in South Africa but seeks to expand this discussion by interrogating the nature and degrees of participation within the Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve - to deepen intellectual understanding on the significant role played by protected areas in engendering participatory democracy, equity, justice as well as meeting the needs of marginalised communities. Primary data for the thesis were collected using in-depth and key-informant interviews with officials from government institutions and parastatals, politicians and traditional authority figures. Focus group discussions were held with ‘youth’ participants as well as ‘elders’ in the Reserve’s adjacent communities. An analysis of policy and other government documents sought to outline the institutional attributes of protected areas management in South Africa and the underpinning ideas. A thematic analysis of the corpus of empirical information helped to show how these institutional attributes inhere in Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve as well as the epistemic challenge these attributes pose vis-à-vis indigenous ecological ideas and practices in the adjacent ‘indigenous’ communities. The study revealed that participation is perceived differently by various stakeholders due to multiple, mutually contradictory impulses. While institutional stakeholders attached great importance to the structural role of institutional frameworks, hence the vigorous reliance on formal conservation strategies, narratives from community members drew attention to ‘equity deficits’. The study also found that while the selected Reserve may have fostered cooperation between government and the adjacent communities, conflict and distrust ran deep between these stakeholders. From these and other findings, the study concluded that ecological participation in the study area was characterised by clusters of stakeholders who regard one another as ‘epistemic outsiders’ and related to one another as such, with practical consequences – especially for the long-term sustainability of the Reserve. In the main, the thesis rests on the argument that in the face of epistemic differences, dominance and marginalisation could become a defining feature of protected area management that cannot be readily resolved through the mere process of participation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2023
- Full Text:
- Authors: Nyamahono, James Donald https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1391-9126
- Date: 2023-03
- Subjects: Protected areas , Natural resources conservation areas -- South Africa , National protected areas systems
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27358 , vital:66947
- Description: In many parts of the developing world, participation in the management of ‘protected areas’ is among the most tangible indices of how the rural population encounters formal conservation policies, strategies and ideologies. However, some scholars have argued that the sharing of the burdens and benefits of participation is devoid of equity. While some analysts have emphasised the imperative of multi-stakeholder participation in nature conservation, citing this as a crucial socio-ecological investment, others have highlighted the inherent contradictions in the process, describing it as an avenue for manipulation, tokenism and exploitation. This study is located in this debate and focuses on narratives around the participation of different stakeholders in the management of Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve and its adjacent communities in the rural Wild-Coast, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The researcher notes that research on the degrees and participation dynamics among various role players involved in the management of protected areas in South Africa, Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve in particular is limited. Against this background, this study contributes to ongoing discussions on protected area management in South Africa but seeks to expand this discussion by interrogating the nature and degrees of participation within the Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve - to deepen intellectual understanding on the significant role played by protected areas in engendering participatory democracy, equity, justice as well as meeting the needs of marginalised communities. Primary data for the thesis were collected using in-depth and key-informant interviews with officials from government institutions and parastatals, politicians and traditional authority figures. Focus group discussions were held with ‘youth’ participants as well as ‘elders’ in the Reserve’s adjacent communities. An analysis of policy and other government documents sought to outline the institutional attributes of protected areas management in South Africa and the underpinning ideas. A thematic analysis of the corpus of empirical information helped to show how these institutional attributes inhere in Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve as well as the epistemic challenge these attributes pose vis-à-vis indigenous ecological ideas and practices in the adjacent ‘indigenous’ communities. The study revealed that participation is perceived differently by various stakeholders due to multiple, mutually contradictory impulses. While institutional stakeholders attached great importance to the structural role of institutional frameworks, hence the vigorous reliance on formal conservation strategies, narratives from community members drew attention to ‘equity deficits’. The study also found that while the selected Reserve may have fostered cooperation between government and the adjacent communities, conflict and distrust ran deep between these stakeholders. From these and other findings, the study concluded that ecological participation in the study area was characterised by clusters of stakeholders who regard one another as ‘epistemic outsiders’ and related to one another as such, with practical consequences – especially for the long-term sustainability of the Reserve. In the main, the thesis rests on the argument that in the face of epistemic differences, dominance and marginalisation could become a defining feature of protected area management that cannot be readily resolved through the mere process of participation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2023
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Grain size analysis, coastal hydrodynamics and erosion protection: a case study from Knysna and Plettenberg Bay, South Africa
- Authors: Pezisa, Ayabulela Raymond
- Date: 2022-12
- Subjects: Grain -- Analysis , Hydrodynamics , Shore protection
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27698 , vital:69394
- Description: The modern beach sands and Cretaceous Knysna Formation distributed along the coast of Plettenberg Bay and Knysna coast in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, have been examined and studied in the field outcrops and laborataries via grain-size analysis, XRD, SEM, EDX and microcope petrography analyses. This study looked into the coastal hydrodynamics and environment protection. The project aims to investigate the sediment distribution, grain-size variation, sedimentary structures, coast erosion and mitigation in the Plettenberg and Knysna coast to address environmental issues in the south coast of South Africa. The research will provide new insight onto coastal sedimentation, hydrodynamic condition, coastline erosion and the safety of the coastal environment and human property. The study will promote government attention on the sea level change, which caused flooding and environmental disaster along the south coastal area of South Africa. The rock sequence in the inland side of the study areas belongs to Cretaceous Knysna Formation, which comprises seven upward fining sequences. The stratigraphic sequence is underlain by the Table Mountain quartzite of the Cape Supergroup, and is overlain by Tertiary sediments and modern coastal dune sands. The Knysna Formation at the research area consists of massive conglomerate, sandstone and minor mudstone of mainly fluvial dominated sediments. The grain size analysis reveals that the modern fluvial channels at Plettenberg Bay and Knysna areas are of dominant coarse sands with minor silt and mud, which defines the sediments were deposited by moderate to high energy currents. Whilst the beach zones in Plettenberg Bay are predominated by fine to medium-grained marine sands. Grain-size analyses of beach sands show well-sorted, fine to coarse skewed in grain size distribution, indicating a relative lower to medium uniform energy condition during transportation and deposition. The bivariate plots of grain-size distribution demonstrate of the shallow agitated marine environment with the influence of tide and aeolian processes. Hydrodynamic condition in the beach area was more persistant and less variation compared to the river environment. The mineralogy and petrology studies revealed that in Plettenberg Bay and Knysna sediments are predominantly consisted of minerals quartz, feldspar, calcite, muscovite, aragonite, clay minerals, and salts (halite). Skeletal carbonate minerals (shell and coral fragments) are more than chemical precipitated carbonate minerals. The microtextures detected on the surface of the fluvial and marine sand grais involve V-shaped pits, upturn pits, dissolution pits and secondary mineral precipitation that were created by chemical and mechanical processes formed via sea-water dissolution, corrosion, and transport crashing. Whereas the boring holes and burrows created by activity of microorganisms boing into the surface of the grains. These microtextures of the river and beach sands exhibit a shallow marine and fluvial environments with medium to high energy conditions and active organic activities. Several sedimentary structures were detected in the coastal environments, including various types of ripple marks and dunes, burst bubble-hole, swash line, rill marks, rhomboid marks, burrows, boring and bioturbation, planar lamination and gravel pavement. In addition, sedimentary structures were also identified in the Cretaceous Knysna Formation such as air/water escape hole, convolute bedding, lenticular bedding, tabular cross-bedding and load cast. The sedimetnary structures closely linked with hydrodynamic conditions and therefore can be used as indicators for depositional environments. Flooding and erosion had become a coastal disaster that results in sediment redistribution throughout the coastal system and therefore caused landscape reform like coastal cliffs and sharpened dunes in erosive areas. Particularly, coastal hazards become more and more serious in recent years due to climate and sea leavel changes. Thus, to recognise coastal erosion and disaster and make a management strategy is of significant importance to compete against coastline retreat and to protect infrastructure and human safety in the coast area. The author had proposed a number of mitigation methods for environmental protection and for combating coastal erosion, including breakwaters, groins, jetties, vertical walls, rock armour, vegetation, boundary hardening, and revetment etc, which are the effective ways for protection of coast retreat, property damage and human safety. , Thesis (MSci) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Pezisa, Ayabulela Raymond
- Date: 2022-12
- Subjects: Grain -- Analysis , Hydrodynamics , Shore protection
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27698 , vital:69394
- Description: The modern beach sands and Cretaceous Knysna Formation distributed along the coast of Plettenberg Bay and Knysna coast in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, have been examined and studied in the field outcrops and laborataries via grain-size analysis, XRD, SEM, EDX and microcope petrography analyses. This study looked into the coastal hydrodynamics and environment protection. The project aims to investigate the sediment distribution, grain-size variation, sedimentary structures, coast erosion and mitigation in the Plettenberg and Knysna coast to address environmental issues in the south coast of South Africa. The research will provide new insight onto coastal sedimentation, hydrodynamic condition, coastline erosion and the safety of the coastal environment and human property. The study will promote government attention on the sea level change, which caused flooding and environmental disaster along the south coastal area of South Africa. The rock sequence in the inland side of the study areas belongs to Cretaceous Knysna Formation, which comprises seven upward fining sequences. The stratigraphic sequence is underlain by the Table Mountain quartzite of the Cape Supergroup, and is overlain by Tertiary sediments and modern coastal dune sands. The Knysna Formation at the research area consists of massive conglomerate, sandstone and minor mudstone of mainly fluvial dominated sediments. The grain size analysis reveals that the modern fluvial channels at Plettenberg Bay and Knysna areas are of dominant coarse sands with minor silt and mud, which defines the sediments were deposited by moderate to high energy currents. Whilst the beach zones in Plettenberg Bay are predominated by fine to medium-grained marine sands. Grain-size analyses of beach sands show well-sorted, fine to coarse skewed in grain size distribution, indicating a relative lower to medium uniform energy condition during transportation and deposition. The bivariate plots of grain-size distribution demonstrate of the shallow agitated marine environment with the influence of tide and aeolian processes. Hydrodynamic condition in the beach area was more persistant and less variation compared to the river environment. The mineralogy and petrology studies revealed that in Plettenberg Bay and Knysna sediments are predominantly consisted of minerals quartz, feldspar, calcite, muscovite, aragonite, clay minerals, and salts (halite). Skeletal carbonate minerals (shell and coral fragments) are more than chemical precipitated carbonate minerals. The microtextures detected on the surface of the fluvial and marine sand grais involve V-shaped pits, upturn pits, dissolution pits and secondary mineral precipitation that were created by chemical and mechanical processes formed via sea-water dissolution, corrosion, and transport crashing. Whereas the boring holes and burrows created by activity of microorganisms boing into the surface of the grains. These microtextures of the river and beach sands exhibit a shallow marine and fluvial environments with medium to high energy conditions and active organic activities. Several sedimentary structures were detected in the coastal environments, including various types of ripple marks and dunes, burst bubble-hole, swash line, rill marks, rhomboid marks, burrows, boring and bioturbation, planar lamination and gravel pavement. In addition, sedimentary structures were also identified in the Cretaceous Knysna Formation such as air/water escape hole, convolute bedding, lenticular bedding, tabular cross-bedding and load cast. The sedimetnary structures closely linked with hydrodynamic conditions and therefore can be used as indicators for depositional environments. Flooding and erosion had become a coastal disaster that results in sediment redistribution throughout the coastal system and therefore caused landscape reform like coastal cliffs and sharpened dunes in erosive areas. Particularly, coastal hazards become more and more serious in recent years due to climate and sea leavel changes. Thus, to recognise coastal erosion and disaster and make a management strategy is of significant importance to compete against coastline retreat and to protect infrastructure and human safety in the coast area. The author had proposed a number of mitigation methods for environmental protection and for combating coastal erosion, including breakwaters, groins, jetties, vertical walls, rock armour, vegetation, boundary hardening, and revetment etc, which are the effective ways for protection of coast retreat, property damage and human safety. , Thesis (MSci) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2022
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Digital finance and poverty in selected Sub-Saharan Countries
- Dube, Ziphozethu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4532-5346
- Authors: Dube, Ziphozethu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4532-5346
- Date: 2022-10
- Subjects: Electronic funds transfers , Transmission mechanism (Monetary policy)
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23347 , vital:57616
- Description: Since the 21st century, digital finance has emerged as a critical enabler and an excellent tool for meeting the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through increasing financial inclusion and poverty reduction. The objective of achieving universal financial access by 2030 has led to recognising that financial inclusion has a significant role in economic growth and poverty eradication. The literature demonstrates that access to finance can affect poverty through access to credit, enabling savings, thereby facilitating intertemporal consumption smoothing. Digital finance is key to unlocking financial inclusion, particularly in developing countries. Building capacity in digital payments is one of the best ways to ensure a faster, better, and more cost-effective way to access financial services. The gender gap in developing countries states that (59% of men were reported to have a bank account in 2014, while 50% of women only had a bank account). Some groups, including women and the rural poor, are financially excluded compared to others. This study applied panel data regression analysis and structural equation modelling to investigate the nature of digital finance, its relationship with poverty and the transmission mechanism from digital finance to poverty in selected Sub-Saharan Countries. The results indicate that remittance is one of the most significant determinants of the use of digital finance in the Sub-Saharan region compared to other determinants of use for digital finance. Regarding the transmission mechanism between digital finance and poverty, the path analysis results suggest that the channel for remittance in the transmission mechanism has a more substantial impact on reducing poverty than savings in the Sub-Saharan region. The study recommends that remittance is essential, but savings are not critical in this digital age. This study contributed to literature by identifying the transmission mechanism between digital finance and poverty. This is beneficial to researchers and policymakers . It provides policy practitioners with a reference point on a model to build upon towards providing solutions to the problem, Sub-Saharan Countries encounter on delivering sustainable and broad-based economic growth. The study concludes by proposing that digital finance, particularly mobile money presents an excellent opportunity to increase access to finance and reduce poverty. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Dube, Ziphozethu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4532-5346
- Date: 2022-10
- Subjects: Electronic funds transfers , Transmission mechanism (Monetary policy)
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23347 , vital:57616
- Description: Since the 21st century, digital finance has emerged as a critical enabler and an excellent tool for meeting the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through increasing financial inclusion and poverty reduction. The objective of achieving universal financial access by 2030 has led to recognising that financial inclusion has a significant role in economic growth and poverty eradication. The literature demonstrates that access to finance can affect poverty through access to credit, enabling savings, thereby facilitating intertemporal consumption smoothing. Digital finance is key to unlocking financial inclusion, particularly in developing countries. Building capacity in digital payments is one of the best ways to ensure a faster, better, and more cost-effective way to access financial services. The gender gap in developing countries states that (59% of men were reported to have a bank account in 2014, while 50% of women only had a bank account). Some groups, including women and the rural poor, are financially excluded compared to others. This study applied panel data regression analysis and structural equation modelling to investigate the nature of digital finance, its relationship with poverty and the transmission mechanism from digital finance to poverty in selected Sub-Saharan Countries. The results indicate that remittance is one of the most significant determinants of the use of digital finance in the Sub-Saharan region compared to other determinants of use for digital finance. Regarding the transmission mechanism between digital finance and poverty, the path analysis results suggest that the channel for remittance in the transmission mechanism has a more substantial impact on reducing poverty than savings in the Sub-Saharan region. The study recommends that remittance is essential, but savings are not critical in this digital age. This study contributed to literature by identifying the transmission mechanism between digital finance and poverty. This is beneficial to researchers and policymakers . It provides policy practitioners with a reference point on a model to build upon towards providing solutions to the problem, Sub-Saharan Countries encounter on delivering sustainable and broad-based economic growth. The study concludes by proposing that digital finance, particularly mobile money presents an excellent opportunity to increase access to finance and reduce poverty. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2022
- Full Text:
Clinical governance implementation challenges in the Department of Health, Mpumalanga, South Africa
- Maduna, Patrick Hawkins https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4926-1661
- Authors: Maduna, Patrick Hawkins https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4926-1661
- Date: 2022-09
- Subjects: Clinical competence , Health services administration
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27275 , vital:66532
- Description: Clinical governance (CG) is the system through which health authorities are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which clinical excellence flourishes. South Africa is one of the countries where CG has not been successfully implemented. This study sought to explore the CG implementation challenges in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa. The study objectives included the seven pillars of CG. The study was a qualitative and exploratory, using purposive sampling technique to select study participants. A total of twenty-two (22) individuals were selected for the study. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. Each interview was transcribed verbatim by the researcher. Confidentiality was ensured through the coding of interviewee names. The content analysis technique was used for data analysis, using the study objectives as themes. The study found general lack of understanding of the concept of CG, poor performance of clinical audits, sub-standard clinical performance and effectiveness, poor clinical risk management, poor patient and public involvement in patient care, lack of evidence-based practice and research, inadequate training and development of healthcare workers, and sub-standard health information management across the department. The researcher recommends that the CG policy be prioritised by the Mpumalanga DOH, that systems be put in place to facilitate policy implementation, and that the departmental staff establishments at all levels, prioritise healthcare professionals in key leadership positions. In conclusion, there are numerous challenges that confront the Mpumalanga Department of Health regarding the implementation of clinical governance, requiring urgent attention. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Maduna, Patrick Hawkins https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4926-1661
- Date: 2022-09
- Subjects: Clinical competence , Health services administration
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27275 , vital:66532
- Description: Clinical governance (CG) is the system through which health authorities are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which clinical excellence flourishes. South Africa is one of the countries where CG has not been successfully implemented. This study sought to explore the CG implementation challenges in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa. The study objectives included the seven pillars of CG. The study was a qualitative and exploratory, using purposive sampling technique to select study participants. A total of twenty-two (22) individuals were selected for the study. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. Each interview was transcribed verbatim by the researcher. Confidentiality was ensured through the coding of interviewee names. The content analysis technique was used for data analysis, using the study objectives as themes. The study found general lack of understanding of the concept of CG, poor performance of clinical audits, sub-standard clinical performance and effectiveness, poor clinical risk management, poor patient and public involvement in patient care, lack of evidence-based practice and research, inadequate training and development of healthcare workers, and sub-standard health information management across the department. The researcher recommends that the CG policy be prioritised by the Mpumalanga DOH, that systems be put in place to facilitate policy implementation, and that the departmental staff establishments at all levels, prioritise healthcare professionals in key leadership positions. In conclusion, there are numerous challenges that confront the Mpumalanga Department of Health regarding the implementation of clinical governance, requiring urgent attention. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 2022
- Full Text:
Clinical governance implementation challenges in the Department of Health, Mpumalanga, South Africa
- Maduna, Patrick Hawkins https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4926-1661
- Authors: Maduna, Patrick Hawkins https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4926-1661
- Date: 2022-09
- Subjects: Clinical competence , Evidence-based medicine , Health services administration
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23600 , vital:58194
- Description: Clinical governance (CG) is the system through which health authorities are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which clinical excellence flourishes. South Africa is one of the countries where CG has not been successfully implemented. This study sought to explore the CG implementation challenges in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa. The study objectives included the seven pillars of CG. The study was a qualitative and exploratory, using purposive sampling technique to select study participants. A total of twenty-two (22) individuals were selected for the study. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. Each interview was transcribed verbatim by the researcher. Confidentiality was ensured through the coding of interviewee names. The content analysis technique was used for data analysis, using the study objectives as themes. The study found general lack of understanding of the concept of CG, poor performance of clinical audits, sub-standard clinical performance and effectiveness, poor clinical risk management, poor patient and public involvement in patient care, lack of evidence-based practice and research, inadequate training and development of healthcare workers, and sub-standard health information management across the department. The researcher recommends that the CG policy be prioritised by the Mpumalanga DOH, that systems be put in place to facilitate policy implementation, and that the departmental staff establishments at all levels, prioritise healthcare professionals in key leadership positions. In conclusion, there are numerous challenges that confront the Mpumalanga Department of Health regarding the implementation of clinical governance, requiring urgent attention. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Maduna, Patrick Hawkins https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4926-1661
- Date: 2022-09
- Subjects: Clinical competence , Evidence-based medicine , Health services administration
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23600 , vital:58194
- Description: Clinical governance (CG) is the system through which health authorities are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which clinical excellence flourishes. South Africa is one of the countries where CG has not been successfully implemented. This study sought to explore the CG implementation challenges in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa. The study objectives included the seven pillars of CG. The study was a qualitative and exploratory, using purposive sampling technique to select study participants. A total of twenty-two (22) individuals were selected for the study. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. Each interview was transcribed verbatim by the researcher. Confidentiality was ensured through the coding of interviewee names. The content analysis technique was used for data analysis, using the study objectives as themes. The study found general lack of understanding of the concept of CG, poor performance of clinical audits, sub-standard clinical performance and effectiveness, poor clinical risk management, poor patient and public involvement in patient care, lack of evidence-based practice and research, inadequate training and development of healthcare workers, and sub-standard health information management across the department. The researcher recommends that the CG policy be prioritised by the Mpumalanga DOH, that systems be put in place to facilitate policy implementation, and that the departmental staff establishments at all levels, prioritise healthcare professionals in key leadership positions. In conclusion, there are numerous challenges that confront the Mpumalanga Department of Health regarding the implementation of clinical governance, requiring urgent attention. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 2022
- Full Text:
Consumerism, authenticity and African communalism
- Smook, E https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4226-6029
- Authors: Smook, E https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4226-6029
- Date: 2022-09
- Subjects: Consumption (Economics) , Authenticity (Philosophy) , Philosophy, African
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23958 , vital:62022
- Description: Let me state, from the outset, that the issues raised below may be considered from various vantage points – Capitalism, Marxism, etc. However, this thesis is an endeavour to account for the loss of authenticity due to the most salient features of the consumer paradigm, which is the manufactured object, the production line and the proliferation of said objects. True relationships, or shall we say authentic dialogue, is based upon a difference of viewpoints – or epistemic distance – between the interlocutors. This difference of opinion, it may be argued, allows for a cognitive jostling between the subjects involved and represents, as it were, the reciprocal back and forth movement of ideas that betokens actively engaged dialogue. Crucial, then, to true, and by extension authentic, relationships is an epistemic distance steeped in variegated, heterogeneous points of view. For it is in sharing the differences in our points of view or interpretations of the world that we may start a dialogue far removed from each other and then sustain said dialogue in an attempt to reconcile our differences. The continuation of the dialogue, then, depends upon difference. Without the latter difference, the conditions of true dialogue, which is also a marker of authentic relationships, the need for sustained debate is forfeited and the dialogue ceases to serve a purpose – for the subjects involved in the intellectual jostling and exchange of ideas may already anticipate the thoughts of the other. In so anticipating the thoughts of the other, what is brought to the fore is not the ideas of the other, and by extension the other’s existence distinct from mine, but rather my own existence and thoughts. Were I and the other to share a constellation of beliefs, I am left with only that which I already believe in and so only with my own thoughts. The other’s differing opinion is crucial to their appearing to me as an element discreet and distinct from me. For if the other’s being is in essence of the same ilk as mine – and with that I mean if the other’s points of view and adopted systems of praxis mirror mine – we are like trees in a forest. The existence of collective nouns attests to this latter remark; we are prone to see the forest, not the similar trees that constitute it. Now the question arises as to the constitution of the self; what is it that makes up the character and nature of a person and how, if at all, may subjects be said to differ epistemically? According to Sartre, the ego is a transcendent object for consciousness, meaning that it exists out there in the world just like other objects. This is the case because consciousness is essentially empty. Recall Sartre’s famous claim that existence precedes essence, which in turn means that consciousness, or the ego, is filled up inchmeal with contents outside itself. In other words, that with which we are engaged constitutes the contents of consciousness. Repeated exposure to certain objects, or phenomena, brings about the cultivation of states and qualities – these, as it were, constituting the ego in the end. Moreover, these states and qualities, as arisen from repeated exposure to like phenomena, will instil in the subject a certain proclivity for a certain manner of action under specific conditions. As such, having been presented with something disagreeable many times over, a state of repulsion might gain a foothold in my ego regarding the phenomenon in question. This in turn will dictate how I act in the presence of said phenomenon or any other phenomena that include, adumbrationally, some of the qualities of the original phenomenon. As such, then, my actions are reflections of the states that I experience in the presence of certain objects or phenomena and, it may be argued, reflexively represent the world around me as that which constitutes my ego. The facticity of the world, then, has a great bearing upon the manner in which I perceive and engage the world. However, claims Sartre, facticity is but one side of the coin. The world and its meaning are constituted by what Sartre calls brute meaning. This refers to the fact that meaning is a matter of public opinion and does not precede the phenomenon or object itself – the latter being, in essence, but a bare, pliable, monstrous mass of being-in-itself. Due to this occurrence of meaning being man made, we are in a unique position of freedom. We are, he further claims, capable of transcending these brute meanings, enabling us to avail ourselves of the objects or phenomena in question in a bespoke manner. Freedom to choose how we interact with and interpret the world is thus the ontological ground of choice. We have, on the one side, the world in its undifferentiated state – being-in-itself – and on the other the possibility to give this world a specific meaning in accordance with our intentions – being-for-itself. Freedom to choose, so construed, thus ontologically underlies the very fabric of our existence, hence the claim that we are condemned to be free. Choosing whether to continue along the path set out by our original factual condition or to transcend it and make of it something different altogether is thus not a choice at all, but the obligatory condition of the human condition. Once again, this is the case because consciousness, as per Sartre, is empty to start with and can only be filled with the contents of phenomena or objects in accordance with our intentional engagement of them. However, Sartre continues, this freedom of meaning and the fact that brute existents represent nothing more than the convergence of publicly ascribed meaning awaken in the subject a certain nausea – a nausea born of the fact that we, the people, are at every junction in a position where we have to choose the meaning of life. Determinism, thusly, does not exist and we are not only free to choose the meanings of our own lives, but are responsible for what our lives become. This realisation proves to be too much for most to stomach and leads them along a specific path of choice: over-identification with either their factual realities or with the possibility to transcend the latter. Either way, what they aim to achieve with this overidentification is the suppression of the nauseating reality that reality is nought but what we make it to be and we are thus responsible for what it becomes. Sartre calls this bad faith. Pandering to this proclivity towards bad faith, or alternatively, the propensity for overidentification with either side on the facticity/transcendence dichotomy, we find consumerism. The consumer paradigm delineates happiness as an objective ideal, attainable through the acquisition of specific markers of demonstrable happiness. At the same time, it also provides an answer to the nauseating reality that we, humans, are never fully determined beings, but find ourselves vacillating between our factual constraints and our transcendences thereof. It offers us the crystalised means of becoming this or that individual by way of populating our immediate and personal surroundings with signifiers of happiness. Considering, moreover, that a liberalist conception of human being clearly indicates that individuation of each subject is an important aspect of existence, authenticity in terms of rights emerge as a corollary of said individuation. Each individual, so construed, is given the opportunity, the right, to acquire said markers of happiness and individuation. Obtaining these, it may be argued, allows the individual two things: firstly, to quell the nausea that haunts our dualistic lives by concretising it altogether and so doing highlighting the factual side of things; and secondly, to become discreet and individuated subjects, authentic in their beings. However, the authenticity so begotten provides nought but a thin veneer of idiosyncrasy, as the markers of said authenticity are publicly available and so the same for everyone. The problem, thus, of self-individuation is resolved by providing the subject the means of over-identification with their factual realities whilst convincing them, the consumers, that the objects on offer will afford them a degree of happiness and set them apart from their fellow subjects. The unfortunate upshot of this is that subjects all avail themselves of the same set of objects in an attempt to quell the nausea that besets the individual plunged into an undifferentiated existence. We are here at the heart of the matter. Due to the proliferation of like objects throughout the life-world, a specific system of praxis is implied. So as to navigate the life-world and utilise the similar objects that populate it, consumers are driven towards shared ideologies and courses of action. Moreover, their intentions also converge, as they all seek to establish a web of objects around them that would bespeak their individuation and happiness. Where the life-world has become such a homogeneous landscape, it may be argued, in line with Sartrean thought, that the contents of consciousness would also be similar for all. And where the contents of consciousness is similar for all, we may argue that reasoning would be similar for all. It is at this point that dialogue breaks down, for there is nothing epistemically to separate interlocutors and therefore no differences of opinion to sustain true dialogue. If, as it was reasoned some pages prior, it is the case that sustained dialogue provides the predicate upon which authentic relationships are to be based, the collapse of this epistemic distance between consumers must then also lead to a collapse of authentic relationships. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Smook, E https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4226-6029
- Date: 2022-09
- Subjects: Consumption (Economics) , Authenticity (Philosophy) , Philosophy, African
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23958 , vital:62022
- Description: Let me state, from the outset, that the issues raised below may be considered from various vantage points – Capitalism, Marxism, etc. However, this thesis is an endeavour to account for the loss of authenticity due to the most salient features of the consumer paradigm, which is the manufactured object, the production line and the proliferation of said objects. True relationships, or shall we say authentic dialogue, is based upon a difference of viewpoints – or epistemic distance – between the interlocutors. This difference of opinion, it may be argued, allows for a cognitive jostling between the subjects involved and represents, as it were, the reciprocal back and forth movement of ideas that betokens actively engaged dialogue. Crucial, then, to true, and by extension authentic, relationships is an epistemic distance steeped in variegated, heterogeneous points of view. For it is in sharing the differences in our points of view or interpretations of the world that we may start a dialogue far removed from each other and then sustain said dialogue in an attempt to reconcile our differences. The continuation of the dialogue, then, depends upon difference. Without the latter difference, the conditions of true dialogue, which is also a marker of authentic relationships, the need for sustained debate is forfeited and the dialogue ceases to serve a purpose – for the subjects involved in the intellectual jostling and exchange of ideas may already anticipate the thoughts of the other. In so anticipating the thoughts of the other, what is brought to the fore is not the ideas of the other, and by extension the other’s existence distinct from mine, but rather my own existence and thoughts. Were I and the other to share a constellation of beliefs, I am left with only that which I already believe in and so only with my own thoughts. The other’s differing opinion is crucial to their appearing to me as an element discreet and distinct from me. For if the other’s being is in essence of the same ilk as mine – and with that I mean if the other’s points of view and adopted systems of praxis mirror mine – we are like trees in a forest. The existence of collective nouns attests to this latter remark; we are prone to see the forest, not the similar trees that constitute it. Now the question arises as to the constitution of the self; what is it that makes up the character and nature of a person and how, if at all, may subjects be said to differ epistemically? According to Sartre, the ego is a transcendent object for consciousness, meaning that it exists out there in the world just like other objects. This is the case because consciousness is essentially empty. Recall Sartre’s famous claim that existence precedes essence, which in turn means that consciousness, or the ego, is filled up inchmeal with contents outside itself. In other words, that with which we are engaged constitutes the contents of consciousness. Repeated exposure to certain objects, or phenomena, brings about the cultivation of states and qualities – these, as it were, constituting the ego in the end. Moreover, these states and qualities, as arisen from repeated exposure to like phenomena, will instil in the subject a certain proclivity for a certain manner of action under specific conditions. As such, having been presented with something disagreeable many times over, a state of repulsion might gain a foothold in my ego regarding the phenomenon in question. This in turn will dictate how I act in the presence of said phenomenon or any other phenomena that include, adumbrationally, some of the qualities of the original phenomenon. As such, then, my actions are reflections of the states that I experience in the presence of certain objects or phenomena and, it may be argued, reflexively represent the world around me as that which constitutes my ego. The facticity of the world, then, has a great bearing upon the manner in which I perceive and engage the world. However, claims Sartre, facticity is but one side of the coin. The world and its meaning are constituted by what Sartre calls brute meaning. This refers to the fact that meaning is a matter of public opinion and does not precede the phenomenon or object itself – the latter being, in essence, but a bare, pliable, monstrous mass of being-in-itself. Due to this occurrence of meaning being man made, we are in a unique position of freedom. We are, he further claims, capable of transcending these brute meanings, enabling us to avail ourselves of the objects or phenomena in question in a bespoke manner. Freedom to choose how we interact with and interpret the world is thus the ontological ground of choice. We have, on the one side, the world in its undifferentiated state – being-in-itself – and on the other the possibility to give this world a specific meaning in accordance with our intentions – being-for-itself. Freedom to choose, so construed, thus ontologically underlies the very fabric of our existence, hence the claim that we are condemned to be free. Choosing whether to continue along the path set out by our original factual condition or to transcend it and make of it something different altogether is thus not a choice at all, but the obligatory condition of the human condition. Once again, this is the case because consciousness, as per Sartre, is empty to start with and can only be filled with the contents of phenomena or objects in accordance with our intentional engagement of them. However, Sartre continues, this freedom of meaning and the fact that brute existents represent nothing more than the convergence of publicly ascribed meaning awaken in the subject a certain nausea – a nausea born of the fact that we, the people, are at every junction in a position where we have to choose the meaning of life. Determinism, thusly, does not exist and we are not only free to choose the meanings of our own lives, but are responsible for what our lives become. This realisation proves to be too much for most to stomach and leads them along a specific path of choice: over-identification with either their factual realities or with the possibility to transcend the latter. Either way, what they aim to achieve with this overidentification is the suppression of the nauseating reality that reality is nought but what we make it to be and we are thus responsible for what it becomes. Sartre calls this bad faith. Pandering to this proclivity towards bad faith, or alternatively, the propensity for overidentification with either side on the facticity/transcendence dichotomy, we find consumerism. The consumer paradigm delineates happiness as an objective ideal, attainable through the acquisition of specific markers of demonstrable happiness. At the same time, it also provides an answer to the nauseating reality that we, humans, are never fully determined beings, but find ourselves vacillating between our factual constraints and our transcendences thereof. It offers us the crystalised means of becoming this or that individual by way of populating our immediate and personal surroundings with signifiers of happiness. Considering, moreover, that a liberalist conception of human being clearly indicates that individuation of each subject is an important aspect of existence, authenticity in terms of rights emerge as a corollary of said individuation. Each individual, so construed, is given the opportunity, the right, to acquire said markers of happiness and individuation. Obtaining these, it may be argued, allows the individual two things: firstly, to quell the nausea that haunts our dualistic lives by concretising it altogether and so doing highlighting the factual side of things; and secondly, to become discreet and individuated subjects, authentic in their beings. However, the authenticity so begotten provides nought but a thin veneer of idiosyncrasy, as the markers of said authenticity are publicly available and so the same for everyone. The problem, thus, of self-individuation is resolved by providing the subject the means of over-identification with their factual realities whilst convincing them, the consumers, that the objects on offer will afford them a degree of happiness and set them apart from their fellow subjects. The unfortunate upshot of this is that subjects all avail themselves of the same set of objects in an attempt to quell the nausea that besets the individual plunged into an undifferentiated existence. We are here at the heart of the matter. Due to the proliferation of like objects throughout the life-world, a specific system of praxis is implied. So as to navigate the life-world and utilise the similar objects that populate it, consumers are driven towards shared ideologies and courses of action. Moreover, their intentions also converge, as they all seek to establish a web of objects around them that would bespeak their individuation and happiness. Where the life-world has become such a homogeneous landscape, it may be argued, in line with Sartrean thought, that the contents of consciousness would also be similar for all. And where the contents of consciousness is similar for all, we may argue that reasoning would be similar for all. It is at this point that dialogue breaks down, for there is nothing epistemically to separate interlocutors and therefore no differences of opinion to sustain true dialogue. If, as it was reasoned some pages prior, it is the case that sustained dialogue provides the predicate upon which authentic relationships are to be based, the collapse of this epistemic distance between consumers must then also lead to a collapse of authentic relationships. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2022
- Full Text:
A structural equation model on small business performance: the mediating role of effectuation & entrepreneur identity
- Muchineripi, Justice Ngonidzashe https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8058-731X
- Authors: Muchineripi, Justice Ngonidzashe https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8058-731X
- Date: 2022-08
- Subjects: Small business -- Management , Entrepreneurship
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/28806 , vital:75099
- Description: The role of effectuation and entrepreneur identity in the performance of small business has not received much attention in the African small business context. Effectuation plays a critical role in determining the success of a business. All businesses need to have inherent strategies within the business on how to deal with financial and operational challenges. Despite the impact of entrepreneur identity on performance, there is a noted gap in literature on the possible role that effectuation can play. Research purpose: The research aim is to test the structural model on small business performance in the South African small business context. The research thus investigates the mediating role of effectuation on entrepreneur identity and performance amongst small businesses in South Africa. Research approach/design and method: The study was undertaken in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. A quantitative research approach was utilised and primary data was collected from 380 Small Medium and Micro Enterprises through structured questionnaires. Structural Equation Modeling was used for testing the hypotheses. Main findings: The findings revealed that spiritual identity and business identity exert a positive effect on subjective performance in Small Medium Micro Enterprises. Findings further revealed that spiritual identity and effectuation significantly predict objective performance. Spiritual identity, social identity and business identity significantly predict effectuation in SMMEs. Contribution: The study makes a major contribution in the body of knowledge for small business practitioners, policymakers and researchers who would like to explore the role of effectuation and entrepreneur identity on small business performance. The study findings encourage effectual decision making by small businesses as it reveals that facing challenges is inevitable, but what is important is that the business should be able to resolve various challenges using available resources. Originality/value: The empirical evidence provided in the study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the theory of effectuation in the South African context. The study also provides policy guidelines for policymakers to entrepeneurs who would like to venture into business. , Thesis (DBA) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Muchineripi, Justice Ngonidzashe https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8058-731X
- Date: 2022-08
- Subjects: Small business -- Management , Entrepreneurship
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/28806 , vital:75099
- Description: The role of effectuation and entrepreneur identity in the performance of small business has not received much attention in the African small business context. Effectuation plays a critical role in determining the success of a business. All businesses need to have inherent strategies within the business on how to deal with financial and operational challenges. Despite the impact of entrepreneur identity on performance, there is a noted gap in literature on the possible role that effectuation can play. Research purpose: The research aim is to test the structural model on small business performance in the South African small business context. The research thus investigates the mediating role of effectuation on entrepreneur identity and performance amongst small businesses in South Africa. Research approach/design and method: The study was undertaken in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. A quantitative research approach was utilised and primary data was collected from 380 Small Medium and Micro Enterprises through structured questionnaires. Structural Equation Modeling was used for testing the hypotheses. Main findings: The findings revealed that spiritual identity and business identity exert a positive effect on subjective performance in Small Medium Micro Enterprises. Findings further revealed that spiritual identity and effectuation significantly predict objective performance. Spiritual identity, social identity and business identity significantly predict effectuation in SMMEs. Contribution: The study makes a major contribution in the body of knowledge for small business practitioners, policymakers and researchers who would like to explore the role of effectuation and entrepreneur identity on small business performance. The study findings encourage effectual decision making by small businesses as it reveals that facing challenges is inevitable, but what is important is that the business should be able to resolve various challenges using available resources. Originality/value: The empirical evidence provided in the study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the theory of effectuation in the South African context. The study also provides policy guidelines for policymakers to entrepeneurs who would like to venture into business. , Thesis (DBA) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2022
- Full Text:
Xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa: A case study in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Eastern Cape
- Duma, Vusumzi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8115-3399
- Authors: Duma, Vusumzi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8115-3399
- Date: 2022-05
- Subjects: Xenophobia
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23873 , vital:61089
- Description: The central thesis pursued in this study is that xenophobia and its violent manifestation thrive in post-apartheid South Africa owing to contextual dynamics chiefly characterized by normlessness and weak law enforcement. The scourge of xenophobia and its attendant violent reaction to the presence of foreign citizens in immigrant receiving countries, such as post-apartheid South Africa, is not only a threat to global peace and security, but also an impediment to achieving our full humanity and a common future. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the contexts and manifestations of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa. The study endeavoured to achieve the following objectives: to explore the underpinnings of xenophobia in contemporary post-apartheid South Africa; to expound the manifestations of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa; to investigate the effectiveness of agents of social control in dealing with xenophobia; to suggest interventions to address xenophobia in contemporary post-apartheid South Africa, and to discuss, if any, integration deficits experienced by foreign nationals. The overarching theoretical framework that was utilised in this study was constituted by the following frames: labelling theory of deviance; social control theory of deviance; learning theory of deviance; and social construction theory – these are theoretical frames situated in the theoretical field of sociology of deviance. The multi-faceted and complex nature of the phenomenon under investigation evidently necessitated a methodological approach and design strategy involving the utilisation of a qualitative research approach and methodology. Qualitatively, the data was collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, key informants’ interviews, and secondary data sources. The study revealed, amongst other things, that: the expression of the xenophobic sentiment and associated violence in contemporaneous post-apartheid South Africa was underpinned and driven by a potpourri of factors, amongst which are negative attitudes, perceived competition, perceived fear and illusions, inflammatory xenophobic rhetoric from government representatives, national identity, and afrophobia; and that xenophobia manifested itself through violent behaviour, prejudice and discriminatory behaviour, hatred, labelling, and impunity. Another revelation of this study was that immigrants (particularly black African immigrants) were socially constructed as deviants by society and official agents for social control purposes. Once labeled, the label sticks with disastrous and violent consequences. This situation is exacerbated by the liminal status that immigrants, particularly Black African immigrants, occupy in the post-apartheid South African context. Additionally, the study revealed that law enforcement agents were perceived to be ineffective in dealing with xenophobia, and violence. In response to the findings the following recommendations are made: training and capacitating agents of social control; conscientising society about migration policies vis-à-vis the rights of foreign nationals; coming out with novel strategies to job creation; inculcating the spirit of Ubuntu in young children; embracing the pan-African spirit ; making immigration policies more humanising; mainstreaming xenophobia in social and learning institutions’ curricula; and engaging in perennial research on xenophobia. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Duma, Vusumzi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8115-3399
- Date: 2022-05
- Subjects: Xenophobia
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23873 , vital:61089
- Description: The central thesis pursued in this study is that xenophobia and its violent manifestation thrive in post-apartheid South Africa owing to contextual dynamics chiefly characterized by normlessness and weak law enforcement. The scourge of xenophobia and its attendant violent reaction to the presence of foreign citizens in immigrant receiving countries, such as post-apartheid South Africa, is not only a threat to global peace and security, but also an impediment to achieving our full humanity and a common future. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the contexts and manifestations of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa. The study endeavoured to achieve the following objectives: to explore the underpinnings of xenophobia in contemporary post-apartheid South Africa; to expound the manifestations of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa; to investigate the effectiveness of agents of social control in dealing with xenophobia; to suggest interventions to address xenophobia in contemporary post-apartheid South Africa, and to discuss, if any, integration deficits experienced by foreign nationals. The overarching theoretical framework that was utilised in this study was constituted by the following frames: labelling theory of deviance; social control theory of deviance; learning theory of deviance; and social construction theory – these are theoretical frames situated in the theoretical field of sociology of deviance. The multi-faceted and complex nature of the phenomenon under investigation evidently necessitated a methodological approach and design strategy involving the utilisation of a qualitative research approach and methodology. Qualitatively, the data was collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, key informants’ interviews, and secondary data sources. The study revealed, amongst other things, that: the expression of the xenophobic sentiment and associated violence in contemporaneous post-apartheid South Africa was underpinned and driven by a potpourri of factors, amongst which are negative attitudes, perceived competition, perceived fear and illusions, inflammatory xenophobic rhetoric from government representatives, national identity, and afrophobia; and that xenophobia manifested itself through violent behaviour, prejudice and discriminatory behaviour, hatred, labelling, and impunity. Another revelation of this study was that immigrants (particularly black African immigrants) were socially constructed as deviants by society and official agents for social control purposes. Once labeled, the label sticks with disastrous and violent consequences. This situation is exacerbated by the liminal status that immigrants, particularly Black African immigrants, occupy in the post-apartheid South African context. Additionally, the study revealed that law enforcement agents were perceived to be ineffective in dealing with xenophobia, and violence. In response to the findings the following recommendations are made: training and capacitating agents of social control; conscientising society about migration policies vis-à-vis the rights of foreign nationals; coming out with novel strategies to job creation; inculcating the spirit of Ubuntu in young children; embracing the pan-African spirit ; making immigration policies more humanising; mainstreaming xenophobia in social and learning institutions’ curricula; and engaging in perennial research on xenophobia. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2022
- Full Text:
Effect of pomegranate (Punica granatum L) peel powder meal on growth performance, gut integrity, haemato-biochemical indices, meat, and bone quality of broiler chickens
- Akuru, Eunice Amaka https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3093-0247
- Authors: Akuru, Eunice Amaka https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3093-0247
- Date: 2022-04
- Subjects: Broilers (Chickens) , Meat -- Quality
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23611 , vital:58218
- Description: The objective of the current study was to investigate the overall response of broiler birds to varying dietary levels of pomegranate (Punica granatum L) peel powder meal (PPPM). A total of 432-day-old Cobb 500 broiler chicks were randomly divided into six experimental groups of four replications with 18 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design (CRD). The birds were fed isonitrogenous and isocaloric experimental diets designated as: T1-control diet with 0percent additives (negative control; NEGCON); T2- control diet supplemented with α-tocopherol acetate at 200g per ton (positive control; POSCON): T3, T4, T5 and T6-control diet supplemented with 2, 4, 6 and 8g/kg PPPM (PPPM2, PPPM4, PPPM6, PPPM8). The phytochemical, nutritional and antioxidant properties of the pomegranate peel powder were determined. Results showed that the South African-grown pomegranate peel (“Wonderful” variety) had rich protein and trace mineral contents. Higher (p < 0.05) antioxidant and hepatic anti-lipid peroxidative activities were recorded in the ethanol and acetone extracts than the water extract, whereas the three extracts had no toxic effects on liver and kidney cells (p > 0.05). The dietary effects of PPPM supplementation on growth performance, digestibility, carcass, and organ weight indices of Cobb 500 birds were determined. The POSCON diet enhanced (p < 0.05) feed conversion ratio (FCR) at week 3. The average final body weight and average daily weight gain were highest (p < 0.05) in birds fed PPPM2 and PPPM4 diets, whereas birds fed PPPM2 diet had enhanced (p < 0.05) FCR and protein efficiency ratio when compared with birds on POSCON. Thigh and breast weights were highest (p < 0.05) in birds on PPPM4 and PPPM8 diets, whereas birds fed PPPM4 diet had enhanced (p < 0.05) nutrient digestibility compared with those on POSCON. The antioxidant status and breast meat quality of Cobb 500 broiler birds fed diets supplemented with PPPM were determined. Meat from birds fed PPPM8 diet had the highest (p < 0.05) thawing loss, while cooking loss was lowest (p < 0.05) in the PPPM2 group. The highest (p < 0.05) ability to scavenge ABTS [(2, 2-azinobis (3ethylbenzothiazoline-6 sulfonic acid))] radical cation (ABTS+) was recorded in the PPPM2 and PPPM4 meat while PPPM8 meat had increased (p < 0.05) catalase activity. The fatty acid composition, oxidative status, and drip loss in breast meat of Cobb 500 broiler birds fed graded levels of PPPM was determined. Meat from birds fed PPPM4 diet had the lowest (p < 0.05) margaric (C17:0) and arachidic (C20:0) acids, while meat from birds fed PPPM8 diet had higher (p < 0.05) levels of eicosadenoic (C20:2, n-6) and arachidonic (AA, 20:4) acids. The POSCON had higher (p < 0.05) ability to reduce TBARS levels in meat on day-1 and day-16 of storage than the NEGCON and PPPM diets, whereas TBARS levels were lowest (p < 0.05) in PPPM6 meat on day-16. The gut pH, histology, haematology, serum-biochemical indices, and bone quality parameters of Cobb 500 broiler birds fed diets supplemented with PPPM was determined. Birds fed POSCON, PPM2 and PPPM4 diets had the lowest (p < 0.05) pH in the duodenum, jejunum, and caecum, whereas duodenal pH values were lowest (p < 0.05) in birds fed PPPM2 and PPPM4 diets compared with birds on NEGCON. Birds fed PPPM4 diet had the highest (p < 0.01) duodenal, jejunal and ileal villi height (VH), and the highest (p < 0.01) VH to crypt depth (CD) ratio in the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. The lowest (p < 0.05) CD in the duodenum, jejunum and ileum was also recorded in birds fed PPPM4 diet. Birds fed PPPM8 diet had higher (p < 0.05) values for white blood cell count, red blood cell count, haemoglobin concentration and packed cell volume, whereas the lowest (p < 0.05) concentration of serum aspartate transaminase was recorded in birds fed PPPM4 diet. Birds on PPM4 diet had longer (p < 0.05) bones. Bone weight and bone breaking strength were highest (p < 0.05) in birds fed PPPM8 diet. Tibia zinc and iron concentrations increased as the inclusion levels of pomegranate peel powder meal increased. It was concluded that broiler birds require 4 g/kg pomegranate peel powder for enhanced growth performance, nutrient digestibility, gut histology, quality, and antioxidant enzyme activity of meat, whereas 8 g/kg pomegranate peel powder meal supplementation is required for enhanced heamato-biochemical indices, bone quality, fatty acid composition and lipid peroxidative parameters in broiler birds. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Akuru, Eunice Amaka https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3093-0247
- Date: 2022-04
- Subjects: Broilers (Chickens) , Meat -- Quality
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23611 , vital:58218
- Description: The objective of the current study was to investigate the overall response of broiler birds to varying dietary levels of pomegranate (Punica granatum L) peel powder meal (PPPM). A total of 432-day-old Cobb 500 broiler chicks were randomly divided into six experimental groups of four replications with 18 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design (CRD). The birds were fed isonitrogenous and isocaloric experimental diets designated as: T1-control diet with 0percent additives (negative control; NEGCON); T2- control diet supplemented with α-tocopherol acetate at 200g per ton (positive control; POSCON): T3, T4, T5 and T6-control diet supplemented with 2, 4, 6 and 8g/kg PPPM (PPPM2, PPPM4, PPPM6, PPPM8). The phytochemical, nutritional and antioxidant properties of the pomegranate peel powder were determined. Results showed that the South African-grown pomegranate peel (“Wonderful” variety) had rich protein and trace mineral contents. Higher (p < 0.05) antioxidant and hepatic anti-lipid peroxidative activities were recorded in the ethanol and acetone extracts than the water extract, whereas the three extracts had no toxic effects on liver and kidney cells (p > 0.05). The dietary effects of PPPM supplementation on growth performance, digestibility, carcass, and organ weight indices of Cobb 500 birds were determined. The POSCON diet enhanced (p < 0.05) feed conversion ratio (FCR) at week 3. The average final body weight and average daily weight gain were highest (p < 0.05) in birds fed PPPM2 and PPPM4 diets, whereas birds fed PPPM2 diet had enhanced (p < 0.05) FCR and protein efficiency ratio when compared with birds on POSCON. Thigh and breast weights were highest (p < 0.05) in birds on PPPM4 and PPPM8 diets, whereas birds fed PPPM4 diet had enhanced (p < 0.05) nutrient digestibility compared with those on POSCON. The antioxidant status and breast meat quality of Cobb 500 broiler birds fed diets supplemented with PPPM were determined. Meat from birds fed PPPM8 diet had the highest (p < 0.05) thawing loss, while cooking loss was lowest (p < 0.05) in the PPPM2 group. The highest (p < 0.05) ability to scavenge ABTS [(2, 2-azinobis (3ethylbenzothiazoline-6 sulfonic acid))] radical cation (ABTS+) was recorded in the PPPM2 and PPPM4 meat while PPPM8 meat had increased (p < 0.05) catalase activity. The fatty acid composition, oxidative status, and drip loss in breast meat of Cobb 500 broiler birds fed graded levels of PPPM was determined. Meat from birds fed PPPM4 diet had the lowest (p < 0.05) margaric (C17:0) and arachidic (C20:0) acids, while meat from birds fed PPPM8 diet had higher (p < 0.05) levels of eicosadenoic (C20:2, n-6) and arachidonic (AA, 20:4) acids. The POSCON had higher (p < 0.05) ability to reduce TBARS levels in meat on day-1 and day-16 of storage than the NEGCON and PPPM diets, whereas TBARS levels were lowest (p < 0.05) in PPPM6 meat on day-16. The gut pH, histology, haematology, serum-biochemical indices, and bone quality parameters of Cobb 500 broiler birds fed diets supplemented with PPPM was determined. Birds fed POSCON, PPM2 and PPPM4 diets had the lowest (p < 0.05) pH in the duodenum, jejunum, and caecum, whereas duodenal pH values were lowest (p < 0.05) in birds fed PPPM2 and PPPM4 diets compared with birds on NEGCON. Birds fed PPPM4 diet had the highest (p < 0.01) duodenal, jejunal and ileal villi height (VH), and the highest (p < 0.01) VH to crypt depth (CD) ratio in the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. The lowest (p < 0.05) CD in the duodenum, jejunum and ileum was also recorded in birds fed PPPM4 diet. Birds fed PPPM8 diet had higher (p < 0.05) values for white blood cell count, red blood cell count, haemoglobin concentration and packed cell volume, whereas the lowest (p < 0.05) concentration of serum aspartate transaminase was recorded in birds fed PPPM4 diet. Birds on PPM4 diet had longer (p < 0.05) bones. Bone weight and bone breaking strength were highest (p < 0.05) in birds fed PPPM8 diet. Tibia zinc and iron concentrations increased as the inclusion levels of pomegranate peel powder meal increased. It was concluded that broiler birds require 4 g/kg pomegranate peel powder for enhanced growth performance, nutrient digestibility, gut histology, quality, and antioxidant enzyme activity of meat, whereas 8 g/kg pomegranate peel powder meal supplementation is required for enhanced heamato-biochemical indices, bone quality, fatty acid composition and lipid peroxidative parameters in broiler birds. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2022
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Grappling with food and livelihood practices in the context of socio-ecological displacement: The case of 2014 Tokwe-Mukorsi flood victims in Chingwizi, Zimbabwe
- Mudefi, Elmon https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3448-5432
- Authors: Mudefi, Elmon https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3448-5432
- Date: 2022-04
- Subjects: Food security , Households , Natural disasters -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22056 , vital:51979
- Description: This study sought to examine how the socio-ecologically displaced Tokwe-Mukorsi community in southern Zimbabwe grappled with adverse circumstances that threatened to obliterate their age-old food and livelihood practices after five years of being resettled 150km away in Chingwizi. The investigation is done against the backdrop of the dominant narrative on resilience, which often overlooks resilience outcomes associated with specific contextual experiences of socio-ecological disadvantage. The study examined the nature and character of emergent food and livelihood practices in Chingwizi, with a view to establishing how they were impacted by socio-political dynamics encountered vis-à-vis displacement, resettlement and in processes of attempting to recover. The study also examined how local narratives about the new food and livelihood practices in Chingwizi intersect with dominant resilience discourses, especially those related to climate change adaptation, sustainability and food security. A triangulated research design was utilised. It consisted of survey, focus group discussion, in-depth interview, and key informant interview. Qualitative research participants were selected based on their knowledge and experience on food and livelihood practices before and after displacement. This included the displaced flood victims that met this criterion, local leaders, government officials and local opinion leaders. The findings revealed that food and livelihood practices in Chingwizi had deteriorated over the five-year period under investigation. This was reflected in a diminution in livestock herds, crop production, income streams and average household monthly incomes. As a result, food insecurity was very high, and households were forced to rely more on donations. The displaced flood victims, however, adapted to the harsh conditions by engaging in a variety of livelihood alternatives, including food vending, buying and selling, craftwork, small livestock rearing, and migrating to neighbouring South Africa to seek employment opportunities. Nevertheless, efforts to rebuild food and livelihood practices were hampered by socio-political dynamics. This resulted in the loss of key livelihood assets, a situation aggravated by compensational injustice, contestations over land and resources by the host communities, dysfunctional social networks, and victims’ cultural ‘fixations’. The study concludes from these and other findings that achieving transformation in the form of adaptation, food security and sustainability following involuntary displacement and resettlement is more than just a question of resilience, and that displacement and resettlement are complex processes that create invidious dynamism for the stakeholders concerned. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2022
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- Authors: Mudefi, Elmon https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3448-5432
- Date: 2022-04
- Subjects: Food security , Households , Natural disasters -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22056 , vital:51979
- Description: This study sought to examine how the socio-ecologically displaced Tokwe-Mukorsi community in southern Zimbabwe grappled with adverse circumstances that threatened to obliterate their age-old food and livelihood practices after five years of being resettled 150km away in Chingwizi. The investigation is done against the backdrop of the dominant narrative on resilience, which often overlooks resilience outcomes associated with specific contextual experiences of socio-ecological disadvantage. The study examined the nature and character of emergent food and livelihood practices in Chingwizi, with a view to establishing how they were impacted by socio-political dynamics encountered vis-à-vis displacement, resettlement and in processes of attempting to recover. The study also examined how local narratives about the new food and livelihood practices in Chingwizi intersect with dominant resilience discourses, especially those related to climate change adaptation, sustainability and food security. A triangulated research design was utilised. It consisted of survey, focus group discussion, in-depth interview, and key informant interview. Qualitative research participants were selected based on their knowledge and experience on food and livelihood practices before and after displacement. This included the displaced flood victims that met this criterion, local leaders, government officials and local opinion leaders. The findings revealed that food and livelihood practices in Chingwizi had deteriorated over the five-year period under investigation. This was reflected in a diminution in livestock herds, crop production, income streams and average household monthly incomes. As a result, food insecurity was very high, and households were forced to rely more on donations. The displaced flood victims, however, adapted to the harsh conditions by engaging in a variety of livelihood alternatives, including food vending, buying and selling, craftwork, small livestock rearing, and migrating to neighbouring South Africa to seek employment opportunities. Nevertheless, efforts to rebuild food and livelihood practices were hampered by socio-political dynamics. This resulted in the loss of key livelihood assets, a situation aggravated by compensational injustice, contestations over land and resources by the host communities, dysfunctional social networks, and victims’ cultural ‘fixations’. The study concludes from these and other findings that achieving transformation in the form of adaptation, food security and sustainability following involuntary displacement and resettlement is more than just a question of resilience, and that displacement and resettlement are complex processes that create invidious dynamism for the stakeholders concerned. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2022
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An analysis of the internship programme in the Sarah Baartman Health District of the Eastern Cape: a model for effective implementation
- Authors: Feni, Monde Ludick
- Date: 2022-03
- Subjects: Internship programs , Public service employment , South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23359 , vital:57617
- Description: The study’s main purpose was to evaluate the processes for Internship Programme Implementation in the Sarah Baartman Health District of the Eastern Cape Department of Health, to determine a Model that can be postulated for improving the Internship Programme Implementation in the Sarah Baartman Health District, wide Public Service and Private Sector. An empirical Study reveals the process for the Internship Programme Implementation has been marred with a significant number of challenges. As part of the recommendations, it was highly stressed that the Sarah Baartman Health District must adopt and embrace the Internship Programme Implementation Model in Figure 6.1 to effectively implement the Internship Programme as a means to deal with the challenges. Data was collected by the investigator from four main groups within the Sarah Baartman Health District. These were Senior Managers, Corporate Services Managers, Mentors, current and past interns. All these groups were directly involved in the internships in the Sarah Baartman Health District Health Department. The investigator got accurate and verified reflections, experiences and understandings of four constructs surrounding the internship programme and they include recruitment and employment of Interns using Best Practices, Training and Development Programmes for Interns Training, Performance Management and Development System for Interns and Mentoring as a Tool to Transfer Knowledge, Skills, Competencies and Attitudes required to Perform Optimally. During interviews, the researcher requested permission from the participants to record their responses digitally. This was done to make sure that no data was lost during the writing of responses from the participants. The questionnaires that were distributed to the interns and mentors had closed-ended questions, but the validity of the questionnaire was ensured by having a space for comments under each question to allow participants to support their answers. An analysis of the questionnaire was done by employing Microsoft Excel and statistics that are descriptive and inferential. The study findings revealed that the recruitment and employment of interns using best practices had a mean score above the required mean of 3, meaning that it is applied acceptably. As much as the construct is acceptable and meets the standard, the item in the construct that pertained to security checks for interns was not done and this is a worrying factor, meaning that the recruitment and employment of interns might be at risk of bringing in interns into the programme who are risky for the organisation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2022
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- Authors: Feni, Monde Ludick
- Date: 2022-03
- Subjects: Internship programs , Public service employment , South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23359 , vital:57617
- Description: The study’s main purpose was to evaluate the processes for Internship Programme Implementation in the Sarah Baartman Health District of the Eastern Cape Department of Health, to determine a Model that can be postulated for improving the Internship Programme Implementation in the Sarah Baartman Health District, wide Public Service and Private Sector. An empirical Study reveals the process for the Internship Programme Implementation has been marred with a significant number of challenges. As part of the recommendations, it was highly stressed that the Sarah Baartman Health District must adopt and embrace the Internship Programme Implementation Model in Figure 6.1 to effectively implement the Internship Programme as a means to deal with the challenges. Data was collected by the investigator from four main groups within the Sarah Baartman Health District. These were Senior Managers, Corporate Services Managers, Mentors, current and past interns. All these groups were directly involved in the internships in the Sarah Baartman Health District Health Department. The investigator got accurate and verified reflections, experiences and understandings of four constructs surrounding the internship programme and they include recruitment and employment of Interns using Best Practices, Training and Development Programmes for Interns Training, Performance Management and Development System for Interns and Mentoring as a Tool to Transfer Knowledge, Skills, Competencies and Attitudes required to Perform Optimally. During interviews, the researcher requested permission from the participants to record their responses digitally. This was done to make sure that no data was lost during the writing of responses from the participants. The questionnaires that were distributed to the interns and mentors had closed-ended questions, but the validity of the questionnaire was ensured by having a space for comments under each question to allow participants to support their answers. An analysis of the questionnaire was done by employing Microsoft Excel and statistics that are descriptive and inferential. The study findings revealed that the recruitment and employment of interns using best practices had a mean score above the required mean of 3, meaning that it is applied acceptably. As much as the construct is acceptable and meets the standard, the item in the construct that pertained to security checks for interns was not done and this is a worrying factor, meaning that the recruitment and employment of interns might be at risk of bringing in interns into the programme who are risky for the organisation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2022
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Determinants of Foreign Direct Investments into the Southern African Development Community Region: The case of financial sector development, institutional quality and financial openness
- Authors: Makalima, Sisonke
- Date: 2022-03
- Subjects: Investments, Foreign -- Africa , International finance , Monetary policy
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/21954 , vital:51855
- Description: The SADC region is a 15-member states grouping. Countries in the region have experienced low growth coupled with high levels of poverty and inequality. Attracting FDI to the region has been top priority. However, much is still to be realised. The study employed the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) technique for the period 1980 to 2019. Empirical results show that financial sector development and financial openness are important determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. The results also showed that institutional quality is also a very important variable in determining the inflow of FDI, even though its effect is conditional on financial sector development and financial openness. These results imply that countries with good institutional framework, as well as a developed financial sector and are financially open tend to attract more capital inflows in the form of FDI, thereby creating adequate conditions to boost private sector and investment abroad. Countries in the SADC region should therefore pursue policies which are aimed at improving the institutional framework, the level of financial sector development and further enhance the openness of their financial openness. , Thesis (MCom,) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2022
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- Authors: Makalima, Sisonke
- Date: 2022-03
- Subjects: Investments, Foreign -- Africa , International finance , Monetary policy
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/21954 , vital:51855
- Description: The SADC region is a 15-member states grouping. Countries in the region have experienced low growth coupled with high levels of poverty and inequality. Attracting FDI to the region has been top priority. However, much is still to be realised. The study employed the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) technique for the period 1980 to 2019. Empirical results show that financial sector development and financial openness are important determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. The results also showed that institutional quality is also a very important variable in determining the inflow of FDI, even though its effect is conditional on financial sector development and financial openness. These results imply that countries with good institutional framework, as well as a developed financial sector and are financially open tend to attract more capital inflows in the form of FDI, thereby creating adequate conditions to boost private sector and investment abroad. Countries in the SADC region should therefore pursue policies which are aimed at improving the institutional framework, the level of financial sector development and further enhance the openness of their financial openness. , Thesis (MCom,) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2022
- Full Text:
Determinants of foreign direct investments into the Southern African Development Community Region: the case of financial sector development, institutional quality and financial openness.
- Authors: Makalima, Sisonke
- Date: 2022-03
- Subjects: Investments, Foreign (International law)
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/21948 , vital:51856
- Description: The SADC region is a 15-member states grouping. Countries in the region have experienced low growth coupled with high levels of poverty and inequality. Attracting FDI to the region has been top priority. However, much is still to be realised. The study employed the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) technique for the period 1980 to 2019. Empirical results show that financial sector development and financial openness are important determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. The results also showed that institutional quality is also a very important variable in determining the inflow of FDI, even though its effect is conditional on financial sector development and financial openness. These results imply that countries with good institutional framework, as well as a developed financial sector and are financially open tend to attract more capital inflows in the form of FDI, thereby creating adequate conditions to boost private sector and investment abroad. Countries in the SADC region should therefore pursue policies which are aimed at improving the institutional framework, the level of financial sector development and further enhance the openness of their financial openness. , Thesis (MCom) (Economics) -- University of Fort Hare, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Makalima, Sisonke
- Date: 2022-03
- Subjects: Investments, Foreign (International law)
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/21948 , vital:51856
- Description: The SADC region is a 15-member states grouping. Countries in the region have experienced low growth coupled with high levels of poverty and inequality. Attracting FDI to the region has been top priority. However, much is still to be realised. The study employed the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) technique for the period 1980 to 2019. Empirical results show that financial sector development and financial openness are important determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. The results also showed that institutional quality is also a very important variable in determining the inflow of FDI, even though its effect is conditional on financial sector development and financial openness. These results imply that countries with good institutional framework, as well as a developed financial sector and are financially open tend to attract more capital inflows in the form of FDI, thereby creating adequate conditions to boost private sector and investment abroad. Countries in the SADC region should therefore pursue policies which are aimed at improving the institutional framework, the level of financial sector development and further enhance the openness of their financial openness. , Thesis (MCom) (Economics) -- University of Fort Hare, 2022
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Development of a strategy to promote prenatal physical activity participation among women in Buffalo City Municipality, South Africa
- Okafor, Uchenna Benedine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0435-2041
- Authors: Okafor, Uchenna Benedine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0435-2041
- Date: 2022-03
- Subjects: Prenatal care , Exercise for pregnant women
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22919 , vital:53218
- Description: Research has proven that prenatal physical activity practice is associated with multiple health benefits; however, most women in South Africa rarely participate in prenatal physical activity. In contrast to more developed countries, there is dearth of research focusing specifically on prenatal physical activity and exercise among South African women. Nevertheless, in order to effectively, and strategically promote such prenatal activity, such information is important to plan for an intervention strategy. The main aim of this study was to assess the level, patterns, and associated factors of prenatal physical activity; beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, perceived benefits, and sources of information women received during pregnancy; and, furthermore, to develop an effective and relevant intervention strategy to facilitate the participation in this particular activity in Buffalo City Municipality, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Methods The study was a mixed-method, cross-sectional study design with both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses. The sequential explanatory design was adopted to merge and mix different datasets to be collected and analysed. The quantitative data involved a convenient sample of 1082 pregnant women in 12 randomly selected primary healthcare clinics offering antenatal health services in Buffalo City, Eastern Cape. The Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire was interviewer-administered to women at each antenatal health clinic on pre-specified days, in a designated room allocated to the primary researcher by the health facility manager. The descriptive statistics were frequency distribution, percentages, mean and standard deviation. Furthermore, the bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed on two categories of participants, namely inactive or active, to determine the factors affecting prenatal physical activity behaviour. Furthermore, multiple logistic regression analyses were used to assess associations between physical activity and the predictor variables during pregnancy. Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were applied to estimate factors associated with physical activity levels, and the associations between prenatal physical activity levels and socio-demographic, lifestyle, and obstetrics characteristics were determined using a chi-squared analyses. The significance level was set at p = 0.05. In addition, a qualitative descriptive approach was applied, using semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 15 purposively selected pregnant women, as well as 17 midwives offering antenatal health-care services to pregnant women in the 12 selected healthcare clinics. Qualitative data were analysed using a thematic content analysis. To develop the physical activity strategy for the promotion of prenatal physical activity practice, three frameworks were applied, namely the Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT), the Political, Economic Growth, Socio-Cultural, Technological, Laws and Environmental (PESTLE), and, lastly, the Build, Overcome, Explore and Minimise (BOEM) analytical frameworks. To facilitate the validation of the strategy, the findings were additionally analysed, after which, appropriate intervention strategies promoting prenatal physical activity were developed by again using the SWOT and PESTLE analytical strategic frameworks. This process involved a purposive sampling of seven experts with knowledge of and a proven academic and scholarly background in prenatal physical activity and maternal health. Next, the developed physical activity strategy was presented to various stakeholders, which included six primary healthcare managers, two midwives, and pregnant women purposively selected in each of the 12 chosen antenatal health clinics for the validation process. The stakeholders discussed, deliberated on, and provided comments and opinions of the feasibility and implementation of the developed prenatal physical activity for promotion of physical activity practices in the Eastern Cape Province. Results The findings of this particular study demonstrated low levels of prenatal physical activity among pregnant women, and, further indicated that the most preferred form of activity was light-intensity and household activities. Only 278 of the women (25.7%) met recommendations for prenatal activity (≥150 min moderate intensity exercise per week). The average time spent in moderate–vigorous physical activity was 151.6 min (95% CI: 147.2– 156.0). Most of the women participated in light exercises with a mean of 65.9% (95% CI: 64.8–67.0), and 47.6% (95% CI: 46.3–48.9) participated in household activities. The majority of the women did not receive physical activity advice during prenatal care sessions (64.7%). Lower age (<19 years) (adjusted odd ratio (AOR) = 0.3; CI: 0.16–0.76), semi-urban residence (AOR = 0.8; CI: 0.55–1.03), lower educational level (AOR = 0.5; CI: 0.20–0.71), unemployment (AOR = 0.5; CI: 0.29–0.77) and nulliparity (AOR = 0.6; CI: 0.28–1.31) were negatively associated with prenatal physical activity, while prenatal physical activity was positively associated with starting physical activity in the first trimester (AOR = 1.9; CI: 1.06–3.31) compared to other trimesters. In addition, the pregnant women were aware of the safety (88.2%) and benefits of physical activity for both mother and baby (79.6%), improved labour and delivery (93.1%), promote energy (89.0%), and should be discontinued when tired (76.6%). However, they also held the contradictory belief that pregnancy is “a time to rest” (56.5%). Furthermore, the most common sources of information about prenatal physical activity were the media, television, the radio and Internet-based websites (70.2%). Most women affirmed that prenatal physical activity reduced infant weight (61.4%), lessen moodiness (90.4), decreased risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (92.9%), pregnancy-induced hypertension (92.5%), and complications at birth (97.8%), while common negative perceptions included musculoskeletal discomfort (82.7%), and back pain (85.7%). The majority of women indicated that prenatal physical activity improved self-image (95.7%), sleep patterns (94.2%), and respiratory function (95.8%). The results from the quantitative data revealed that the major modifiable barriers to prenatal physical activity were tiredness (73.3%), lack of advice from healthcare professionals (nurses/midwives) (64.7%), low energy (64.5%), and non-accessibility to physical activity facilities (63.0%). The results were confirmed in the qualitative data, based on the Ecological Model, in which women also mentioned tiredness, work and household responsibilities, a lack of motivation, and the lack of physical activity advice and information on the relevant recommendations and guidelines. Overall, 62.4% women had high knowledge regarding prenatal physical activity; and half of the women showed a positive attitude toward it (50.1%). Whilst participants had knowledge of other types of antenatal exercises, 80.9% of the women had no knowledge of swimming exercise. Negative attitudes towards physical activity included the feeling of tiredness (67.7%), lack of interest (64.8%), and inadequate information on physical activity (59.5%). In addition, the study highlighted that midwives rarely educate and counsel pregnant women about prenatal physical activity during scheduled antenatal visits, which was attributed largely to the shortage of midwives handling many responsibilities at clinics. Nevertheless, the midwives did express a willingness to provide effective physical activity education and counselling on prenatal physical activity, if supported by relevant training and workshops. Furthermore, they further recommended the use of the Mom Connect application, which is a technological device designed by the National Department of Health, to distribute relevant information about maternal and child health. The prenatal physical activity strategies developed to address the above-mentioned and other barriers associated with prenatal physical activity include the use of scientific and technological innovations to provide basic information on prenatal physical activity to pregnant women by means of Mom Connect, and, by collaborating with the various cellphone and network companies in South Africa. Another strategy was to integrate prenatal physical activity training into the curricula of the existing higher institutions of learning that provide teaching of maternal health in the Eastern Cape Province. Additional strategies included the documentation and subsequent clarification of misconceptions about the safety concerns often associated with prenatal physical activity by making the documents accessible to all women at the clinics in the form of a small pamphlet or booklet. Lastly, stakeholders suggested that the government offer periodic prenatal physical activity campaigns, which should be presented in local community town halls and clinics and by other stakeholders to address the current lack of awareness and effectively eliminate misrepresentations and falsehoods around the safety of prenatal physical activity within geographical setting of the Eastern Cape Province. Conclusion Despite the advantages of prenatal physical activity practices, most pregnant women in South Africa do not participate in moderate-intensity physical activity. Notably, while women perceive prenatal physical activity as beneficial to both mother and baby, such theoretical knowledge is not easily translatable into practice. The predominant sources of information on prenatal physical activity are the television, the radio, and other media, which may be potentially misleading or contradictory to evidence-based physical activity practice. Furthermore, tiredness, a lack of time, work and household responsibilities, and a lack of motivation were major modifiable barriers to prenatal physical activity by the women. In addition, pregnant women rarely receive information on prenatal physical activity. Consequently, to address the needs of the pregnant women as highlighted in this study, a prenatal physical activity intervention strategy was developed and validated by key stakeholders to promote prenatal physical activity and exercise practice among women, taken in account the local context. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Okafor, Uchenna Benedine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0435-2041
- Date: 2022-03
- Subjects: Prenatal care , Exercise for pregnant women
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22919 , vital:53218
- Description: Research has proven that prenatal physical activity practice is associated with multiple health benefits; however, most women in South Africa rarely participate in prenatal physical activity. In contrast to more developed countries, there is dearth of research focusing specifically on prenatal physical activity and exercise among South African women. Nevertheless, in order to effectively, and strategically promote such prenatal activity, such information is important to plan for an intervention strategy. The main aim of this study was to assess the level, patterns, and associated factors of prenatal physical activity; beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, perceived benefits, and sources of information women received during pregnancy; and, furthermore, to develop an effective and relevant intervention strategy to facilitate the participation in this particular activity in Buffalo City Municipality, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Methods The study was a mixed-method, cross-sectional study design with both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses. The sequential explanatory design was adopted to merge and mix different datasets to be collected and analysed. The quantitative data involved a convenient sample of 1082 pregnant women in 12 randomly selected primary healthcare clinics offering antenatal health services in Buffalo City, Eastern Cape. The Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire was interviewer-administered to women at each antenatal health clinic on pre-specified days, in a designated room allocated to the primary researcher by the health facility manager. The descriptive statistics were frequency distribution, percentages, mean and standard deviation. Furthermore, the bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed on two categories of participants, namely inactive or active, to determine the factors affecting prenatal physical activity behaviour. Furthermore, multiple logistic regression analyses were used to assess associations between physical activity and the predictor variables during pregnancy. Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were applied to estimate factors associated with physical activity levels, and the associations between prenatal physical activity levels and socio-demographic, lifestyle, and obstetrics characteristics were determined using a chi-squared analyses. The significance level was set at p = 0.05. In addition, a qualitative descriptive approach was applied, using semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 15 purposively selected pregnant women, as well as 17 midwives offering antenatal health-care services to pregnant women in the 12 selected healthcare clinics. Qualitative data were analysed using a thematic content analysis. To develop the physical activity strategy for the promotion of prenatal physical activity practice, three frameworks were applied, namely the Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT), the Political, Economic Growth, Socio-Cultural, Technological, Laws and Environmental (PESTLE), and, lastly, the Build, Overcome, Explore and Minimise (BOEM) analytical frameworks. To facilitate the validation of the strategy, the findings were additionally analysed, after which, appropriate intervention strategies promoting prenatal physical activity were developed by again using the SWOT and PESTLE analytical strategic frameworks. This process involved a purposive sampling of seven experts with knowledge of and a proven academic and scholarly background in prenatal physical activity and maternal health. Next, the developed physical activity strategy was presented to various stakeholders, which included six primary healthcare managers, two midwives, and pregnant women purposively selected in each of the 12 chosen antenatal health clinics for the validation process. The stakeholders discussed, deliberated on, and provided comments and opinions of the feasibility and implementation of the developed prenatal physical activity for promotion of physical activity practices in the Eastern Cape Province. Results The findings of this particular study demonstrated low levels of prenatal physical activity among pregnant women, and, further indicated that the most preferred form of activity was light-intensity and household activities. Only 278 of the women (25.7%) met recommendations for prenatal activity (≥150 min moderate intensity exercise per week). The average time spent in moderate–vigorous physical activity was 151.6 min (95% CI: 147.2– 156.0). Most of the women participated in light exercises with a mean of 65.9% (95% CI: 64.8–67.0), and 47.6% (95% CI: 46.3–48.9) participated in household activities. The majority of the women did not receive physical activity advice during prenatal care sessions (64.7%). Lower age (<19 years) (adjusted odd ratio (AOR) = 0.3; CI: 0.16–0.76), semi-urban residence (AOR = 0.8; CI: 0.55–1.03), lower educational level (AOR = 0.5; CI: 0.20–0.71), unemployment (AOR = 0.5; CI: 0.29–0.77) and nulliparity (AOR = 0.6; CI: 0.28–1.31) were negatively associated with prenatal physical activity, while prenatal physical activity was positively associated with starting physical activity in the first trimester (AOR = 1.9; CI: 1.06–3.31) compared to other trimesters. In addition, the pregnant women were aware of the safety (88.2%) and benefits of physical activity for both mother and baby (79.6%), improved labour and delivery (93.1%), promote energy (89.0%), and should be discontinued when tired (76.6%). However, they also held the contradictory belief that pregnancy is “a time to rest” (56.5%). Furthermore, the most common sources of information about prenatal physical activity were the media, television, the radio and Internet-based websites (70.2%). Most women affirmed that prenatal physical activity reduced infant weight (61.4%), lessen moodiness (90.4), decreased risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (92.9%), pregnancy-induced hypertension (92.5%), and complications at birth (97.8%), while common negative perceptions included musculoskeletal discomfort (82.7%), and back pain (85.7%). The majority of women indicated that prenatal physical activity improved self-image (95.7%), sleep patterns (94.2%), and respiratory function (95.8%). The results from the quantitative data revealed that the major modifiable barriers to prenatal physical activity were tiredness (73.3%), lack of advice from healthcare professionals (nurses/midwives) (64.7%), low energy (64.5%), and non-accessibility to physical activity facilities (63.0%). The results were confirmed in the qualitative data, based on the Ecological Model, in which women also mentioned tiredness, work and household responsibilities, a lack of motivation, and the lack of physical activity advice and information on the relevant recommendations and guidelines. Overall, 62.4% women had high knowledge regarding prenatal physical activity; and half of the women showed a positive attitude toward it (50.1%). Whilst participants had knowledge of other types of antenatal exercises, 80.9% of the women had no knowledge of swimming exercise. Negative attitudes towards physical activity included the feeling of tiredness (67.7%), lack of interest (64.8%), and inadequate information on physical activity (59.5%). In addition, the study highlighted that midwives rarely educate and counsel pregnant women about prenatal physical activity during scheduled antenatal visits, which was attributed largely to the shortage of midwives handling many responsibilities at clinics. Nevertheless, the midwives did express a willingness to provide effective physical activity education and counselling on prenatal physical activity, if supported by relevant training and workshops. Furthermore, they further recommended the use of the Mom Connect application, which is a technological device designed by the National Department of Health, to distribute relevant information about maternal and child health. The prenatal physical activity strategies developed to address the above-mentioned and other barriers associated with prenatal physical activity include the use of scientific and technological innovations to provide basic information on prenatal physical activity to pregnant women by means of Mom Connect, and, by collaborating with the various cellphone and network companies in South Africa. Another strategy was to integrate prenatal physical activity training into the curricula of the existing higher institutions of learning that provide teaching of maternal health in the Eastern Cape Province. Additional strategies included the documentation and subsequent clarification of misconceptions about the safety concerns often associated with prenatal physical activity by making the documents accessible to all women at the clinics in the form of a small pamphlet or booklet. Lastly, stakeholders suggested that the government offer periodic prenatal physical activity campaigns, which should be presented in local community town halls and clinics and by other stakeholders to address the current lack of awareness and effectively eliminate misrepresentations and falsehoods around the safety of prenatal physical activity within geographical setting of the Eastern Cape Province. Conclusion Despite the advantages of prenatal physical activity practices, most pregnant women in South Africa do not participate in moderate-intensity physical activity. Notably, while women perceive prenatal physical activity as beneficial to both mother and baby, such theoretical knowledge is not easily translatable into practice. The predominant sources of information on prenatal physical activity are the television, the radio, and other media, which may be potentially misleading or contradictory to evidence-based physical activity practice. Furthermore, tiredness, a lack of time, work and household responsibilities, and a lack of motivation were major modifiable barriers to prenatal physical activity by the women. In addition, pregnant women rarely receive information on prenatal physical activity. Consequently, to address the needs of the pregnant women as highlighted in this study, a prenatal physical activity intervention strategy was developed and validated by key stakeholders to promote prenatal physical activity and exercise practice among women, taken in account the local context. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 2022
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Threatened plant species in Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, Limpopo province, South Africa: Problems and prospects of conservation and utilization
- Ramarumo, Luambo Jeffrey https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2393-6982
- Authors: Ramarumo, Luambo Jeffrey https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2393-6982
- Date: 2022-03
- Subjects: Plants -- Extinction , Rare plants , Botany, Economic
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22754 , vital:52738
- Description: Threatened plant species are those species that are vulnerable or at the risk of extinction. According to Version 3.1 of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List Categories and Criteria, the three categories of threat in order of increasing risk of extinction are: Vulnerable (VU), Endangered (EN) and Critically Endangered (CR). These species are oftenly protected by both national and international obligations. Scientific evidence suggests that threatened plants are disappearing at an alarming rate. The current expansion of agricultural land, urbanization, over-exploitation of biological resources, climate change and invasive alien species are regarded as major drivers of biodiversity loss and high rate of species extinction worldwide. Scientists and conservation managers are seeking to understand and monitor plant species that are likely to be on the verge of extinction. Monitoring of threatened plants can be better achieved through insights about indigenous knowledge dynamics associated with such species. Scientific scholars including botanists, ethnobotanists, conservationists and anthropologists, all share common interest about the use of indigenous knowledge for livelihoods, scientific and economic growth. As a result, there is a growing interest on indigenous knowledge researches, particularly involving utilization and conservation of plant species. Given the fact that recent scientific evidence suggests that such studies are lacking in South African Biosphere Reserves, as well as the fact that scientist and conservation managers are seeking to understand species likely to be on the verge of extinction risk. It is within this context that this study is aimed at investigating threatened plant species utilization, conservation statuses and distribution in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, Limpopo Province in South Africa. The hypothesis of this study states that traditional knowledge about utilization, distribution and conservation statuses of threatened plant species provide suggestions for appropriate conservation practices. Since the current study is ethnobotanical in nature that is focusing on human interactions with plants, the research methods used addressed multidisciplinary aspects and involved disciplinary integration. An integrated participatory research approach focusing on shared learning, forging collaborative relations with participants, analyzing and validating the shared knowledge was used to document ethnobotanical data within the study area. This research approach was selected as it is considered to be a quick and effective way of acquiring data associated with indigenous knowledge systems. To offset the elements of bias during data collection, the research technique was designed to accommodate core principles that interlinked participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and rapid rural appraisal (RRA). Furthermore, the integrated core principles of participatory rural appraisal and rapid rural appraisal were used with conventional methods such as field surveys and interviews using questionnaires. Therefore, ethnobotanical data were collected through interviews with 203 participants. The data associated with threatened plant’s population size were gathered through literal counting of individual plants as per the IUCN’s Red List Criteria. Data associated with the conservation statuses were gathered from both the South African National Biodiversity Institute and IUCN databases. A total of 13 useful threatened plants belonging to 12 families were recorded with their conservation statuses ranging from being Vulnerable to Critically Endangered. The majority of the threatened plant species (46.0percent) were used for medicinal purposes only, followed by species used for medicinal purposes and as ornamentals (23.0percent). The frequently cited useful threatened species with use values (UV) > 0.024, relative frequency citation (RFC) > 0.059 and fidelity level percentage (FLpercent) > 5.911percent, included Asparagus sekukuniensis, Bowiea volubilis, Brackenridgea zanguebarica, Ocotea bullata, Rhynchosia vendae, Siphonochilus aethiopicus and Warburgia salutaris. About 47.0percent of the recorded useful threatened plants were distributed in remote areas of the Thathe Vonḓo and its surroundings. Threatened plants with population size < 100 adult individuals constituted the majority (61.54percent). Birdlime-making plant species were also documented in the current study. A total of 12 birdlime-making plants belonging to six families were recorded, including threatened Huernia nouhuysii, which is categorized as Vulnerable in South Africa. Amongst the recorded families, Loranthaceae and Euphorbiaceae were categorized as the most frequently utilized families. Among the recorded species, six of them were reported to being used in the birdlime-making for the first time and these species include Euphorbia pulvinata (17.2percent), followed by Tapinanthus forbesii (8percent), Tapinanthus rubromarginatus (7.2percent), Erianthemum ngamicum (7.2percent), Englerophytum magalismon-tanum (3.6percent), Huernia nouhuysii (2.0percent), and Euphorbia tirucalli (0.8percent). Only three plant parts were utilized for birdlime-making. The milky latex was preferred plant part (58.3percent), followed by fruit (33.3percent) and root bark (8.4percent). Birdlime-making techniques involved crushing, which accounted for 55.7percent, followed by air blown (29.6percent) and boiling (14.7percent). Furthermore, the complementary contribution of birdlime toward human development included, being used for bird hunting or trapping small birds (45.8percent), adhesion (23.2percent), teeth cleaning (17.2percent) and roof-waterproofing (13.8percent). The indigenous conservation strategies employed by participants included harvesting of single lateral root per individual medicinal plant (15.3percent), medicinal and timber materials are only harvested during winter season (16.7percent), the use of moist soil to cover injured plant part after bark harvest (18.2percent), prohibit harvesting of and/ or from an injured plant (11.8percent), collection of dried or fallen plants for firewood (8.4percent), issuing of permits by traditional council through the chief or headman to allow collection of medicinal materials and timber (9.9percent), prohibit chopping down of medicinal plant species (13.8percent) and collection of some Critically Endangered plant species such as Brackenridgea zanguebarica and Siphonochilus aethiopicus during the night by authorized people only (5.9percent). The hypothesis which stated that traditional knowledge about utilization, distribution and conservation statuses of threatened plant species provide suggestions for appropriate conservation practices can therefore, not be rejected as there is room for further and more detailed ethnobotanical investigations that is focused on human interactions with threatened plant species. The data presented in this thesis could be used as baseline information for formulating new conservation strategies, monitoring and management plans of threatened plant species not only in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, but in other regions of South African. This study provided insights associated with ethnomedicinal uses of Asparagus sekukuniensis, Protea laetans and Encephalartos hirsutus. Results of this study could also stimulate interest in other scientific disciplines such as the phytochemistry, pharmacology, bioprocessing, conservation and anthropology involving documentation threatened plant species. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Ramarumo, Luambo Jeffrey https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2393-6982
- Date: 2022-03
- Subjects: Plants -- Extinction , Rare plants , Botany, Economic
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22754 , vital:52738
- Description: Threatened plant species are those species that are vulnerable or at the risk of extinction. According to Version 3.1 of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List Categories and Criteria, the three categories of threat in order of increasing risk of extinction are: Vulnerable (VU), Endangered (EN) and Critically Endangered (CR). These species are oftenly protected by both national and international obligations. Scientific evidence suggests that threatened plants are disappearing at an alarming rate. The current expansion of agricultural land, urbanization, over-exploitation of biological resources, climate change and invasive alien species are regarded as major drivers of biodiversity loss and high rate of species extinction worldwide. Scientists and conservation managers are seeking to understand and monitor plant species that are likely to be on the verge of extinction. Monitoring of threatened plants can be better achieved through insights about indigenous knowledge dynamics associated with such species. Scientific scholars including botanists, ethnobotanists, conservationists and anthropologists, all share common interest about the use of indigenous knowledge for livelihoods, scientific and economic growth. As a result, there is a growing interest on indigenous knowledge researches, particularly involving utilization and conservation of plant species. Given the fact that recent scientific evidence suggests that such studies are lacking in South African Biosphere Reserves, as well as the fact that scientist and conservation managers are seeking to understand species likely to be on the verge of extinction risk. It is within this context that this study is aimed at investigating threatened plant species utilization, conservation statuses and distribution in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, Limpopo Province in South Africa. The hypothesis of this study states that traditional knowledge about utilization, distribution and conservation statuses of threatened plant species provide suggestions for appropriate conservation practices. Since the current study is ethnobotanical in nature that is focusing on human interactions with plants, the research methods used addressed multidisciplinary aspects and involved disciplinary integration. An integrated participatory research approach focusing on shared learning, forging collaborative relations with participants, analyzing and validating the shared knowledge was used to document ethnobotanical data within the study area. This research approach was selected as it is considered to be a quick and effective way of acquiring data associated with indigenous knowledge systems. To offset the elements of bias during data collection, the research technique was designed to accommodate core principles that interlinked participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and rapid rural appraisal (RRA). Furthermore, the integrated core principles of participatory rural appraisal and rapid rural appraisal were used with conventional methods such as field surveys and interviews using questionnaires. Therefore, ethnobotanical data were collected through interviews with 203 participants. The data associated with threatened plant’s population size were gathered through literal counting of individual plants as per the IUCN’s Red List Criteria. Data associated with the conservation statuses were gathered from both the South African National Biodiversity Institute and IUCN databases. A total of 13 useful threatened plants belonging to 12 families were recorded with their conservation statuses ranging from being Vulnerable to Critically Endangered. The majority of the threatened plant species (46.0percent) were used for medicinal purposes only, followed by species used for medicinal purposes and as ornamentals (23.0percent). The frequently cited useful threatened species with use values (UV) > 0.024, relative frequency citation (RFC) > 0.059 and fidelity level percentage (FLpercent) > 5.911percent, included Asparagus sekukuniensis, Bowiea volubilis, Brackenridgea zanguebarica, Ocotea bullata, Rhynchosia vendae, Siphonochilus aethiopicus and Warburgia salutaris. About 47.0percent of the recorded useful threatened plants were distributed in remote areas of the Thathe Vonḓo and its surroundings. Threatened plants with population size < 100 adult individuals constituted the majority (61.54percent). Birdlime-making plant species were also documented in the current study. A total of 12 birdlime-making plants belonging to six families were recorded, including threatened Huernia nouhuysii, which is categorized as Vulnerable in South Africa. Amongst the recorded families, Loranthaceae and Euphorbiaceae were categorized as the most frequently utilized families. Among the recorded species, six of them were reported to being used in the birdlime-making for the first time and these species include Euphorbia pulvinata (17.2percent), followed by Tapinanthus forbesii (8percent), Tapinanthus rubromarginatus (7.2percent), Erianthemum ngamicum (7.2percent), Englerophytum magalismon-tanum (3.6percent), Huernia nouhuysii (2.0percent), and Euphorbia tirucalli (0.8percent). Only three plant parts were utilized for birdlime-making. The milky latex was preferred plant part (58.3percent), followed by fruit (33.3percent) and root bark (8.4percent). Birdlime-making techniques involved crushing, which accounted for 55.7percent, followed by air blown (29.6percent) and boiling (14.7percent). Furthermore, the complementary contribution of birdlime toward human development included, being used for bird hunting or trapping small birds (45.8percent), adhesion (23.2percent), teeth cleaning (17.2percent) and roof-waterproofing (13.8percent). The indigenous conservation strategies employed by participants included harvesting of single lateral root per individual medicinal plant (15.3percent), medicinal and timber materials are only harvested during winter season (16.7percent), the use of moist soil to cover injured plant part after bark harvest (18.2percent), prohibit harvesting of and/ or from an injured plant (11.8percent), collection of dried or fallen plants for firewood (8.4percent), issuing of permits by traditional council through the chief or headman to allow collection of medicinal materials and timber (9.9percent), prohibit chopping down of medicinal plant species (13.8percent) and collection of some Critically Endangered plant species such as Brackenridgea zanguebarica and Siphonochilus aethiopicus during the night by authorized people only (5.9percent). The hypothesis which stated that traditional knowledge about utilization, distribution and conservation statuses of threatened plant species provide suggestions for appropriate conservation practices can therefore, not be rejected as there is room for further and more detailed ethnobotanical investigations that is focused on human interactions with threatened plant species. The data presented in this thesis could be used as baseline information for formulating new conservation strategies, monitoring and management plans of threatened plant species not only in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, but in other regions of South African. This study provided insights associated with ethnomedicinal uses of Asparagus sekukuniensis, Protea laetans and Encephalartos hirsutus. Results of this study could also stimulate interest in other scientific disciplines such as the phytochemistry, pharmacology, bioprocessing, conservation and anthropology involving documentation threatened plant species. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2022
- Full Text: