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Evaluating the Impact of Informal Settlements on Municipal Revenue: Saldanha Bay Municipality
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-12) Msindo, Lusanda; Du Plessis, Daniel; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Geography and Environmental Studies.
This research evaluated the potential contribution of the informal settlement residents to the revenue of the Saldanha Bay Municipality. Municipalities are required to provide the free basic services in terms of Sections 214(2)(d) and 227(1)(a) of the Constitution (South Africa, 1996). However, the financing of free basic services places a burden to the municipalities since funding from own revenue means cross subsidisation. The relevant theory reveals the need for incorporation of informality into the broader urban fabric to create sustainable urban development and resilient cities. The guidelines and standard provide the level of services which must be provided in informal settlements. The area of study are the informal settlements within the jurisdiction of Saldanha Bay Municipality. The settlements which were studied are Tsitsiratsitsi 1, 2 and 3 in Vredenburg and Joe Slovo/Marikana in Saldanha, with a total of 3 596 households. The municipality collects and maintains data with respect to the levels of water, sanitation and solid waste services provided to the informal settlements. The municipality also conducted a structured survey in 2022, which provided an important dataset for the relevant analysis in this study. The budgetary expenditure on equitable share for the period of 2018/19 to 2023/24 was used to evaluate the affordability for the upgrading. The findings reveal a shortfall in the provision of interim services for water, sanitation and solid waste, resulting into financial savings on equitable share allocation. Furthermore, the socio-economic indicators of residents within the informal settlements indicates that most of the households would qualify for indigent subsidy, in terms of the policy of the municipality. Potential loss to the municipal revenue arising from the delayed upgrading would be meagre considering the socio-economic indicators of households within these settlements. The rising cost for implementing the upgrading programme would result in future financial loss for the municipality. The generated savings from the equitable share would yield sufficient savings for the potential upgrade of 2 780 or 77% of informal settlement households. It is recommended that the incremental upgrading should be prioritised to meet the set standards and guidelines for interim services.
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A knowledge-sharing framework for improving information security in a South African financial institution
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-12) Motiang, Ntuna Clifford; Watson, Bruce; Mamorobela, Stevens; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Information Science.
Financial institutions have established themselves as a reliable way to increase access to financial services for customers worldwide, despite the information security concerns they are confronted with. The adoption of Information and Communication Technology made it easy for these financial institutions to do business and it is almost impossible to do without them. Financial institutions may be able to strengthen information security management practices and build more effective and efficient security mitigation methods by addressing knowledge-sharing hurdles. This study draws attention to the largely unexplored factors that can be considered when improving an organisation’s information security outlook.
This study draws from the unexplored factors and proposes a theoretical framework for improving the information security through knowledge sharing in the financial sectors in South Africa. The framework was developed using the Design Science Research methodology approach to enhance information security through knowledge sharing. Two theories, namely Social Exchange Theory and General Deterrence Theory were used for this study. The study found that factors such as technological factors, security support staff, policies, awareness, vulnerabilities, attitudes and management measures influence enhanced security evaluation.
Feedback provided by the study’s participants on the suggested framework overcomes some of the major information security challenges. In addition to its contribution to the body of knowledge on the subject, the research has identified areas where there is a significant scope for further research. The financial industry has benefited from research on information security and knowledge sharing which addresses the complexity of the information security environment. This framework aims to develop, design and deliver more secure organisations through improved information security management.
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Using the 7-C Protocol to evaluate the Cape Winelands District Municipality's Climate Change Response Strategy's execution
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-12) Morrie, Ricardo Arthur; Burger, Rinus Werner; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership
This study's goal was to assess the Cape Winelands District Municipality's (CWDM) response to climate change by applying the 7-C Protocol (content, commitment, capacity, context, coalitions/clients, communication and coordination). Public policy execution must be supported and promoted to avoid the complete or partial failure of policies. Therefore, raising awareness of issues within the policy-making process will lead to better execution thereof.
Local governments have paid great attention to improving the policy-making process, particularly the implementation phase. The Climate-Change Response Strategy (CCRS) was developed with the intention of addressing the effects and promoting mitigation efforts through local planning rules and other means.
This study includes a survey of the literature on public policies, and particularly the execution of climate policies. The literature analysis emphasizes the difficulties in putting policies into practice and demonstrates how a failure to consider the7-C variables could lead to implementation failure. Furthermore, the review of literature analysis indicates that a range of stakeholders must work together to implement policies.
This study examines how the CWDM developed its Climate-Change Response Strategy and how South African climate change regulations were put into effect. The challenges and complexity of implementing the Climate-Change Response Strategy are recognised, including resource constraints, issues with administrative capability and coordination challenges. This research was both empirical and nonempirical in nature, and semi-structured interviews were utilized to collect data from participants of the disaster management, town planning, environmental health, and community services departments, using non-probability purposive sampling. The results showed that the respondents’ belief that there was a deficiency in administrative capacity; a lack of political and managerial support; poor client/coalition contacts and ineffective intra-organisational communication. To strengthen policy implementation, recommendations were made by means of the 7-C Protocol.
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Detection and identification of viruses and viroids in nuclear grapevine material in South Africa
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-12) Morgan, Seamus William; Burger, Johan T.; Pietersen, Gerhard; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of AgriSciences. Dept. of Genetics.
Grapevine (Vitis spp.) is one of the most widely cultivated crops and one in which several viral
diseases exist, many of which can severely impact crop yield and grapevine health. It is therefore
necessary for the grapevine industry to be supplied with healthy and virus-free plant material. This
generally starts with virus-tested nuclear plants from which the entire industry’s material is
propagated. Over three years, 97 of these nuclear Vitis accessions were subjected to next
generation RNA sequencing for the identification of virus and virus-like agents present in these. Five
viruses were observed in six nuclear accessions and four viroids were identified and found to be
prevalent in the accessions. The viruses found were grapevine Rupestris stem pitting-associated
virus, grapevine fleck virus, grapevine Syrah virus, grapevine leafroll-associated virus 4, grapevine
Rupestris vein feathering virus, while the viroids hop stunt viroid (HSVd), grapevine yellow speckle
viroid 1 (GYSVd-1), grapevine yellow speckle viroid 2 (GYSVd-2), and Australian grapevine viroid
(AGVd) were identified. In addition, grapevine hammerhead viroid-like RNA (GHVd) was also
detected, which is currently only considered a putative viroid species. The occurrence of grapevine
fleck virus (GFkV) as a single infection in accession BA8 of the nuclear material provided the
opportunity to obtain more definitive sequence data for this understudied virus. Fortuitously, a
second GFkV positive sample (I4233) was obtained in a parallel study and was therefore also
subjected to NGS analysis along with the isolate BA8. From these two RNA sequence datasets, two
genomes of GFkV were generated. For GFkV BA8, 77% of the putative whole genome was
assembled from NGS data, and PCR amplification, and Sanger sequencing of amplicons obtained
using primers designed to fill the gaps in the genome. A genome of 90% coverage was assembled
for sample I4233. Analysis revealed regions of high variability and high cytosine content. This study
has extended the sequence information available for this poorly characterised virus. Given the
presence of viroids in many of the nuclear accessions, and the availability of NGS datasets from the
South African Vitis germplasm collection, the viroid presence of the collection was assessed. This is
the first study on the diversity of grapevine infecting viroids in South Africa, which apart from
identifying five grapevine infecting viroids also provides only the second report of Japanese
grapevine viroid (JGVd) internationally and the first report of it outside of Japan.
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Assessing the effectiveness of municipal standard chart of accounts implementation : a case study of two low-capacity North West Province municipalities
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-12) Moloto, Morufa; Ajam, Tania; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership
This study assesses the effectiveness of the implementation of the municipal standard chart of accounts (mSCOA) in South African municipalities. Two category B municipalities in the North West province were used as case studies. The Municipal Finance Management Act 53 of 2003 (MFMA) places emphasis on enhancing the quality of information to improve the relevance of financial reporting by municipalities. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) provides that national legislation must prescribe measures to ensure transparency and expenditure control in each sphere of government by introducing generally recognised accounting practice (GRAP), uniform expenditure classifications, and uniform treasury norms and standards. The most recent reform introduced is the mSCOA which came into effect on 1 July 2017. The reform requires that there be a uniform and standardised financial transaction classification framework. This means that mSCOA prescribes the method (the how) and format (the look) that municipalities and their entities should use to record and classify all expenditure (capital and operating), revenue, assets, liabilities, equity, policy outcomes and legislative reporting.
Phenomenology is the research paradigm adopted in this study. A total of sixteen (16) participants were selected through purposive sampling to participate in the study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, using the inductive approach. The knowledge of the objectives of mSCOA by the participants was the limitation of the study. Participant responses are limited to the level of involvement in the project implementation.
The study found that, despite the requirements of mSCOA, municipalities in the case study are not mSCOA compliant as not all business processes have been implemented due to challenges ranging from budgetary constraints to human capital capacity challenges. Furthermore, lack of capacity contributed to the system vendors not being able to implement the (7) seven minimum business processes. The increase in the amount of unauthorised expenditure for the municipalities in the study between 2019/20 and 2020/21 financial years suggests that municipal officials are not budgeting, transacting and reporting in alignment with mSCOA. Therefore, the controls built into the mSCOA system, which are aimed at preventing overspending on a vote, can be overridden. The constant version updates of the chart of accounts by National Treasury continue to put financial burdens on municipalities. The mSCOA implementation should be regarded as a continuous learning process to ensure that all stakeholders tasked with implementation are conversant with the objectives and requirements of a complaint mSCOA system. Also, the National Treasury should implement more effective change management as an integral part of any project.