An evaluation of the impact of communication on service delivery and customer satisfaction in selected municipalities, Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Tyembile, Sandiso
- Date: 2015-01
- Subjects: Community development -- South Africa , Human services , Political participation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/26270 , vital:65226
- Description: Local government has a legal obligation and a political responsibility to ensure regular and effective communication with the community. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 1996 and other statutory enactments all impose an obligation on local government communicators and require high levels of transparency, accountability, openness, participatory democracy and direct communication with the communities to improve service delivery and the lives of all. However, this study was to assess the impact of communication on service delivery and customer satisfaction in the selected municipalities in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The research involved the collection of qualitative and quantitative data through simple random and convenience samplings. The data were collected using survey questionnaires, focus groups and in-depth interviews at two municipalities namely; Lukhanji local municipality and Intsika Yethu local municipality. Subsequently, data were analysed using descriptive and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and through thematic analysis. The findings of this study showed that municipal executive, management, supervisors and the citizens or customers value communication in government because it gives support to service delivery and most of the communication programmes are effective. Nevertheless, the findings showed that a lot still needs to be done to improve municipal communication and also ensure more direct engagements and feedback with the communities. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2015
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An evaluation of the impact of social media on youth political participation in South Africa's 2014 general election: the case of Fort Hare students
- Authors: Mhlomi, Yolisa
- Date: 2014-12
- Subjects: Political participation -- South Africa , Elections -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa Maps
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/26255 , vital:65225
- Description: The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact that social media had on influencing youths to engage in political and civic participation in the campaigning for and national elections of 2014, South Africa. Different views may impact on the implementation and use of social networking sites for politics. Youths consist of a larger population in the country but young people are also considered to be apathetic in political activities. However, it is essential to understand the perceptions of youth as this strategy was implemented especially to reach out to them, as they are the beneficiaries of the democratic system as well as future leaders of the country. Using the quantitative method, 200 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents in the University of Fort Hare and analysed by the researcher. The results of the study show that, youth are not entirely apathetic to politics and the use of social media for campaigning was seen as having a positive impact on voters because it managed to shift some youth’s perspectives about voting and how important it is for them to participate in the electoral process. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2014
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An evaluation of the impact of social media on youth political participation in South Africa's 2014 general election: the case of Fort Hare students
- Authors: Mhlomi, Yolisa
- Date: 2014-12
- Subjects: Political participation -- South Africa , Social media and college student , Elections -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/29065 , vital:76585
- Description: The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact that social media had on influencing youths to engage in political and civic participation in the campaigning for and national elections of 2014, South Africa. Different views may impact on the implementation and use of social networking sites for politics. Youths consist of a larger population in the country but young people are also considered to be apathetic in political activities. However, it is essential to understand the perceptions of youth as this strategy was implemented especially to reach out to them, as they are the beneficiaries of the democratic system as well as future leaders of the country. Using the quantitative method, 200 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents in the University of Fort Hare and analysed by the researcher. The results of the study show that, youth are not entirely apathetic to politics and the use of social media for campaigning was seen as having a positive impact on voters because it managed to shift some youth’s perspectives about voting and how important it is for them to participate in the electoral process. , Thesis (MSoc Sci) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2014
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Participation and paradoxes: community control of mineral wealth in South Africa's Royal Bafokeng and Bakgatla Ba Kgafela communities
- Authors: Mnwana, Sonwabile Comfords
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Political participation -- South Africa , Natural resources -- Co-management -- South Africa , Rural development -- South Africa , Mining corporations -- South Africa , Platinum mines and mining -- South Africa , Sustainable development -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Social Sciences)
- Identifier: vital:11952 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/526 , Political participation -- South Africa , Natural resources -- Co-management -- South Africa , Rural development -- South Africa , Mining corporations -- South Africa , Platinum mines and mining -- South Africa , Sustainable development -- South Africa
- Description: Resource control as a form of community participation in the mineral economy has gained much recognition. One prevailing argument is that direct control of natural resources by local communities is an important precondition for equitable utilisation of the natural resource wealth, peaceful co-existence between mining corporations and indigenous communities, and congenial relations between local communities and the state. Studies have also shown that the absence of direct community control of mineral wealth remains a major factor in the communal resistance and socio-political conflict witnessed in the natural resource-endowed regions of countries such as Nigeria, Ecuador, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, little is known about mineral resource control at the community level. Does community control necessarily translate to equity? How does local involvement in the mobilisation of mining royalties benefit different segments of the community? Indeed, how do different segments of the community “control” the wealth? What is the specific model adopted to engender broad-based community participation in the utilisation of mineral wealth – and does it matter? These theoretical and practical questions were the impetus for undertaking this study in the Royal Bafokeng and Bakgatla Ba Kgafela – two platinum-rich ‘traditional’ communities in South Africa’s North West Province that have significant control over platinum resources in their territories. Utilising ethnographic data collected in the two study communities in 2008 and 2009, the thesis examines the character of community participation in platinum wealth utilisation; specifically, the conditions under which community participation promotes or hinders sustainable community development. The analysis uses a “three-dimensional participation ladder” conceptual scheme, based in part on Sherry Arnstein’s (1969) “ladder of citizen participation” and subsequent typologies of participation. Among the key findings of the thesis are that despite observed benefits, the interface of resource wealth and community development is fraught with tokenistic participation, elite-targeted grassroots anger, and local tensions – all linked to the contradictory nature of participation. The thesis further reveals that in some instances the challenge of platinum wealth-engendered community development tends to undermine existing customary and democratic spaces for participation, and that this is exacerbated by community-level issues such as poverty and inequality. The findings of the study compel a shift of analytical focus from conflict as an epiphenomenon of collective community exclusion and deprivation (as in the case of many natural-rich countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere), to conflict as also resulting from collective community inclusion (in natural resource utilisation). At the policy level, the study generates insights that will, hopefully, assist mineral resource-endowed countries, such as South Africa, in dealing with the challenge of developing appropriate policy frameworks for regulating business and social partnerships between local communities and mining corporations, and within resource-rich communities themselves.
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Social policy and the state in South Africa: pathways for human capability development
- Authors: Monyai, Priscilla B
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Human capital -- South Africa , Apartheid -- South Africa , Equality -- South Africa , Poverty -- South Africa , Political participation -- South Africa , South Africa -- Economic conditions , South Africa -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Social Science Dev)
- Identifier: vital:11439 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1007230 , Human capital -- South Africa , Apartheid -- South Africa , Equality -- South Africa , Poverty -- South Africa , Political participation -- South Africa , South Africa -- Economic conditions , South Africa -- Social conditions
- Description: The main focus of this thesis is the challenges that are facing social policy development and implementation in South Africa in relation to the enhancement of human capability. The study adopted a historical approach to assess the model of social policy in South Africa and identified that social relations of domination inherited from the apartheid era continuing to produce inequalities in opportunities. Social policy under the democratic government has not managed to address social inequalities and the main drivers of poverty in the form of income poverty, asset poverty and capability poverty which are the underlying factors reproducing deprivation and destitution of the majority of the population Although South Africa prides itself of a stable democracy, social inequalities continue to undermine the benefits of social citizenship because political participation in the midst of unequal access to economic and social resources undermine the value of citizenship. Also, inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth, and in the control of economic production undermine political equality which is an ethic upon which social rights are predicated. As a result, state interventions are lacking inherent potential to build human capability for people to live the life that they have reason to value. The paradox of social policy in South Africa is that the majority of those who are marginalised are those who were excluded by the apartheid regime even though state intervention is claimed to be targeting them. This points to the failure of incremental equalisation of opportunities within a context of stark social inequities. It is also an indication that the economic growth path delivered by the political transition is working to reinforce the inherited legacy of deprivation and it is avoiding questions related to the structural nature of poverty and inequalities. Therefore, a transformative social policy is an imperative for South Africa. Such a framework of social policy should be premised upon a notion of human security in order to built human capability. Human security focuses on the security of individuals and communities to strengthen human development. It emphasises on civil, political and socioeconomic rights for individual citizens to participate fully in the process of governance. Although this thesis is a case study of social policy in South Africa, it can be used to appreciate the role of social policy in other developing countries, particularly the impact of political decision making on social distribution. Poverty and social inequalities are growing problems in developing countries and so is the importance of putting these problems under the spotlight for political attention.
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