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Browsing Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences by browse.metadata.type "Chapters in Books"
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- ItemReflections on the effectiveness of child support grants(African Sun Media, 2020) Siebrits, KrigeSouth Africa’s unusually large social assistance system annually transfers some 3% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to the poor as cash grants.1 The child support grant (CSG) programme is one of the cornerstones of this system. Government spending on this programme exceeds 1% of South Africa’s GDP, and, in March 2019, nearly 70% of the 17.8 million grants disbursed in South Africa were CSGs (South African Social Security Agency 2019:18). The premise of this chapter is that a humane society should maintain safety net schemes to meet the basic needs of children and other vulnerable persons. Given the extent of poverty in South Africa and its severe effects on large numbers of children, this premise implies that measures, such as the CSG programme, are essential. Yet the same factors that make such interventions essential also underscore the necessity of ensuring their effectiveness. An appropriate criterion for assessing the effectiveness of the CSG programme is the degree to which its benefits to children are maximised. The design and implementation of the programme, as well as the usage of the funds by households, all influence its efficacy. In turn, the choices that manifest in these aspects of the programme reflect the beliefs of society about its obligations to poor children, those of policymakers about the requisites and agency of the poor, and those of caregivers about the needs of children and the role of grant money within household budgets. The salience of choices rooted in beliefs imparts a strong ethical slant to attempts to assess the effectiveness of the CSG programme. The chapter proceeds with an overview of economic and social influences on the living conditions of South African children. This section highlights the high incidence of poverty in South Africa and its severe effects on children. Next, the chapter sketches the history of the CSG programme and outlines its main characteristics. A review of empirical research into the effectiveness of CSGs follows. This section also identifies limitations of the programme. Against this backdrop, the final section offers broad suggestions for improving the CSG programme itself and for enhancing its effectiveness by means of changes to other policies that affect the living conditions and future prospects of children.
- ItemStudent perceptions of the factors influencing their success in first-year accounting(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2009) Steenkamp, Len; Baard, Roelof; Frick, LiezelENGLISH SUMMARY : Introduction: The learner brings an accumulation of assumptions, motives, intentions, and previous knowledge that envelopes every teaching/learning situation and determines the course and quality of learning that may take place (Biggs, 1996:348). Biggs’s understanding of the determining influences students may have on the teaching and learning environment is supported by a variety of authors in the field of Accounting education (Byrne & Flood, 2005; Duff, 2004; Duff, Boyle, Dunleavy & Ferguson, 2004; Lucas & Meyer, 2004; Ramburuth & Mladenovic, 2004). The changed and increasingly diversified student populations in higher education across the world (Cross, 2004; Drost, 2002; Lowe & Cook, 2003) amplify the need for Accounting lecturers to take note of their students’ assumptions, motives, intentions, and previous knowledge that may influence student success (Byrne & Flood, 2005). Various studies provide general information on students entering the higher education system (for example, Masitsa, 2004; Mji, 2002; Pillay, 2004; Toni & Oliver, 2004; Wößmann, 2003). A number of studies focus on Accounting students’ approaches to learning (Byrne, Flood & Willis, 2004; Duff, 2004; Lucas & Meyer, 2004; Ramburuth & Mladenovic, 2004), while Hermanson, Deines, Eldridge, Hermanson, Ivancevich and Williams (1996) focus on the recruitment of first-year Accounting students in the USA. Du Plessis, Müller and Prinsloo (2005), Müller, Prinsloo and Du Plessis (2007), Rowlands (1988) and Van Rensburg, Penn and Haiden (1998), focus particularly on the first-year success of Accounting students at three different South African universities. The South African-based studies investigated the causal relationships between various indicators, notably students’ prior school performance, as possible predictors of future academic success.
- ItemTransport(HSRC Press, 2009) Havenga, Jan H.The current infrastructure crisis in South Africa receives a lot of attention, but consideration should be given to the fact that the country’s labour related production factors are in much worse shape than infrastructure. The deficiencies in transport infrastructure are also understated, especially when compared to the much more visible energy crisis. Combining these two issues means that an analysis of the transport, storage and communication industry (“TSC”) is important and should be carefully considered. Information on the industry is scarce and employment data for the industry incorrectly constructed. The various utilities of transport, telecommunications and postal services are unrelated in terms of output or utility that it provides and within transport, unrelated in terms of output as far as freight and passenger transport are concerned. In spite of this, these groups are often aggregated in reporting, which means that in-depth analysis, even based on statistics such as large sample surveys, is difficult or impossible. Total formal employment in the industry dipped towards the end of the millennium, but has since picked up, though not yet to the same levels as 1995. Postal employment is in decline, and even telecommunication employment is lowering – probably because of automation. Transport employment grows, but passenger transport is becoming more and more inefficient, where information is the scarcest and where a sizeable portion of informal employment is noticed. In fact, the informal employment in this subsector alone is estimated to equal the total formal TSC employment. Freight transport employment is efficient, and is especially becoming more and more efficient for rail as a large mode switch over the next 20 years to rail is expected, both for freight and passengers. This switch will be challenging, as operational employees will be impacted most, with this being the category where the lowest levels of skills, the highest shortages and most employment related ancillary problems, such as work satisfaction issues, are found. New and significantly more engineering skills are required at a time when the skills are in relative decline and where new engineering integration will be needed, not only between disciplines, but also forward and backward in the value chain. Accountability for these issues is unclear. The expected shifts are, in themselves, not managed on a national level and no integrative thinking between infrastructure owners and operators has yet been established. The creation of a national forum, with statutory participation, would at the very least, be an important first step.
- ItemValue chain-induced constraints limiting scale of conservation agriculture in South Africa(IntechOpen, 2019) Von Loeper, Wolfgang Johann; Drimie, Scott; Blignaut, JamesThe potential of scaling conservation agriculture (CA), for long-term food security, remains under-investigated within the context of agricultural food value chains in South Africa. To scale the use of CA an understanding of the current agricultural value chains, their functioning, regulatory framework and constraints, is essential and this raises a key question: What are the main shortfalls and deterrents in agricultural value chains and why might CA be faced with challenges to feed into these existing structures, through which it could, the hopes are, create a more inclusive and sustainable farming system for long-term food security? The empirical data from an ethnographic qualitative participant research showed that interviewed value chain participants (VCP) are limited in acting on account of their economic constraints. None of them had products that supported CA, while financial institutions argued that such products would not be necessary, as any risk mitigating farming system would, in any event, result in financial benefits to the farmer.