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The enforcement of corporate responsibility in the South African mining industry
No full textThesis (LLM. (Development and Management Law)) -- University of Limpopo, 2025This mini-dissertation dealt with the enforcement of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the South African mining industry. The study discovered that CSR is more of a voluntary act rather than a legally enforceable concept upon the mining companies, thus it is rather difficult to enforce CSR as the mining companies are left with a wide discretion on how to implement their CSR policies. The study further found that even in instances where the CSR policies are actionable, the implementation is often hindered by factors such as lack of transparency and compliance by the mining industry. The study also discovered that though the success of these policies and the implementation is heavily reliant on the consultation with the communities concerned, this approach is found to be disregarded by the mining communities in most cases. In outlining the lessons that could be learnt in terms of effectively implementing and enforcing CSR policies, a comparative study was done between Australia, Chile and Ghana in order to understand as to what they are doing differently in having an effective CSR landscape in their mining industries. This therefore assisted in the compilation of the recommendations that can assist in improving the enforcement of CSR in the South African mining industry
Multilingualism in Sepedi Home Language essay writing in grade 11 classroom at Dimamo Circuit, Capricorn South District, in Limpopo Province, South Africa
Full text linkThesis (M. Language Education (Sepedi)) -- University of Limpopo, 2025This research focused on the essay writing challenges faced by Grade 11 learners in the Dimamo Circuit, Capricorn South District, Limpopo Province of South Africa. The challenges of writing in Sepedi Home Language are global. The study’s focus was on Grade 11 learners and their educators. The researcher used the interview and observation methods for the learners and educators. It was revealed that most teachers and learners agree that there are challenges in Sepedi essay writing and this in turn affects learners’ performance. The researcher recommended that the Department of Education should consider implementing targeted support programmes for learners who are facing difficulties with Sepedi essay writing in grade 11. These programmes should focus on providing additional assistance in drawing mind-maps, improving sentence construction, and grasping the fundamental aspects of grammar. It is also crucial to take into account the linguistic diversity among students and provide resources that cater to grade 11 learners who do not use Sepedi as their home language
Spelling in essay writing by grade 10 Tshivenda home language learners at Mvudi Circuit, Vhembe East District, Limpopo Province, South Africa
Full text linkThesis (M. Ed. (Language Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2025The study explores spelling challenges experienced by Grade 10 learners in Tshivenḓa home language essay writing. The study included 9 Grade 10 learners and 2 Tshivenḓa Home Language educators at Ḽiivha Combined School. This qualitative study aimed to understand the spelling challenges faced by grade 10 learners and their teacher’s perspective on essay writing. To fit the purpose of the study, simple random sampling was adopted based on Tshivenḓa Home Language spelling learning in the selected school, which includes nine learners and 2 Tshivenḓa Home Language educators. Interviews and document analysis were used to collect data. The social constructivism theory underpins the study.
The findings of this study indicate that the most frequently identified spelling errors included incorrect usage of consonants and vowels, omissions, substitutions, and improper application of diacritic marks. The primary causes are the use of technology, the challenges posed by multilingualism, a lack of interest in the native language, inadequate learning and teaching support materials, limited parental involvement, overcrowded classrooms, language barriers, and insufficient proofreading. The analysis revealed that the effects of spelling errors vary among learners, resulting in poor performance, hindering learning development, and low self-esteem. Future research was recommended to investigate the impact of pedagogical interventions focused on orthographic awareness and literacy skills development on reducing spelling errors among Grade 10 Tshivenḓa Home Language learners
Examining informal food traders' livelihood status and factors affecting the adoption of their livelihood strategies posti-COVID-19 Pandemic in South Africa : a case study of Polokwane Local Municipality
Full text linkThesis (M.Sc. Agriculture (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2025This study aimed to examine the livelihood status of informal food traders and the factors affecting their adoption of livelihood strategies post-COVID-19 in selected areas of Polokwane Local Municipality. To accomplish this, a structured questionnaire was used to conduct in person interviews with 120 informal traders selected through purposive sampling. Descriptive statistics were utilised to address the first objective, which is to describe the socio-economic characteristics of informal food traders. The Livelihood Assessment Index (LAI) tool was used to address the second objective, which is to examine the livelihood status of informal food traders post-COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the Multinomial Logistic (MNL) model was utilised to achieve the third objective of the study, which is to examine factors affecting the adoption of livelihood strategies by informal traders. The LAI reveal that informal food traders had limited access to financial, human, physical, social, and natural capitals, which are essential for recovery and resilience post-COVID-19, resulting in an overall LAI value of 0.44. Therefore, policy interventions should prioritise strengthening human capitals, improving access to financial capitals, enhancing the use of natural capitals, expanding physical capitals, and boosting social capitals.
The results for livelihood strategies indicate that most traders maintained a "food trading only" strategy, suggesting that many faced barriers or lacked incentives to diversify into other revenue-generating activities. The MNL results indicate that significant factors reducing the likelihood of adopting multiple livelihood strategies included age (p < 0.05), gender (p < 0.01), trading hours (p < 0.05), trading experience (p < 0.10), trading license (p < 0.01), and shelter (p < 0.05). Conversely, marital status (p < 0.05), educational level (p < 0.01), monthly household income (p < 0.10), trading area (p < 0.05), and access to transport (p < 0.01) significantly increased the likelihood of diversification..Therefore, policy interventions should focus on addressing inhibiting factors and promoting enabling ones to facilitate greater diversification and build resilience in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic.National Research Foundation (NRF
The changing world of work : work-life balance amongst women in leadership at selected South African institutions of higher learning
Full text linkThesis (M. COM. (Human Resources Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2025In the African culture, women’s roles involved raising children, cooking, and cleaning, but today women have changed this and made a mark in the corporate world by occupying leadership positions. However, the world of work is changing, which has brought too many challenges to women in leadership at institutions of higher learning, requiring them to balance their personal and professional lives. This study aimed to explore work-life balance challenges brought about by the changing nature of the world of work among women in leadership at selected institutions of higher learning. The study used an exploratory research design, following a phenomenology research method which falls under a qualitative research approach. Sixteen participants were sampled using the purposive sampling technique, which falls under the non-probability sampling methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data from research participants and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Six themes emerged from the research findings, namely: Work Interfering with personal life as the main challenge of work-life balance; high expectations from management level; workload from leadership responsibility and supporting structure as the causes of work-life balance challenges; health and wellness issues as the consequences of work-life balance challenges; and lastly work-life integration pathways used by women in leadership as probable solutions to work-life balance challenges. The study recommends that top management to come up with alternatives such as amending policies to accommodate a balanced work-life; attending wellness programs; hiring more assistants; reducing NQF level requirements for leadership positions; having software where employees express their work-life balance; and women in leadership taking ownership of their work-life imbalance by setting boundaries and limitation to time spent on their work
Determination of the association of minimum inhibitory concentrations of antituberculosis drugs and resistance mutations of clinical isolates of mycobacterium tuberculosis from Limpopo, Province, South Africa
Full text linkThesis (M.Sc. (Medical Sciences)) -- University of Limpopo, 2025Background: Tuberculosis (TB) maintains its position as the leading global infectious disease, and South Africa is among the countries most affected by drug-resistant strains. The situation of tuberculosis is exacerbated by the emergence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), which presents significant challenges to TB control efforts, especially in regions such as Limpopo Province, where high transmission rates and limited resources worsen the problem.
Genetic mutations are the primary drivers of drug resistance, altering the effectiveness of both first-line and second-line antituberculosis drugs. Despite the revolution in TB detection and treatment brought about by molecular diagnostics, it remains necessary to deepen our understanding of how these genetic mutations impact the level of drug resistance. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of anti-TB drugs, which indicates the lowest concentration needed to inhibit bacterial growth, plays a crucial role in clinical decision making. However, current diagnostic tools often do not account for the correlation between MIC levels and specific resistance mutations, especially for newer drugs like Bedaquiline.
This study aimed to address the gap by examining the relationship between MICs and resistance mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates from Limpopo province. By utilizing advanced molecular techniques such as whole genome sequencing (WGS) and phenotypic drug susceptibility testing. Methods: This cross-sectional, quantitative study analyzed 281 clinical isolates from the tuberculosis repository of the Polokwane National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS). The MICs for levofloxacin (LVX), moxifloxacin(MXF), and bedaquiline (BDQ) were determined using the BD BACTEC MGIT 960 system. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) was performed on phenotypically resistant clinical isolates to identify mutations associated with drug resistance. Statistical analyses, including T-tests and logistic regression, were performed to correlate MICs with specific resistance mutations.Results: A total of 147 drug-resistant tuberculosis clinical isolates met the study inclusion criteria and were tested for MIC. Seventy-seven (52.4%) isolates were from men in the age group of 26-45 years with a mean age of 39 (IQR 18 to 46) years. A total of 139 (94.6%) were susceptible to LVX while 144 (98.0%) and 128 (87.1%) were susceptible to MXF and BDQ, respectively. Of the eight fluoroquinolone (FLQ)-Not resistant clinical isolates, most were associated with mutations in the gyrA gene. The most common mutations were substitutions in Condon 94 of 6 (75.5%), leading to low-level resistance. In bedaquiline-resistant clinical isolates, mutations were identified in the Rv0678, Rv1979c, and atpE genes, with most mutations linked to increased levels of resistance. Conclusions In conclusion, this study identified key mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates from Limpopo province that are associated with resistance to LVX, MXF, and BDQ. These findings highlight the need for continuous monitoring of resistance mutations and MIC levels to inform clinical decision-making and optimize treatment regimens for DR-TB (drug resistant tuberculosis). Understanding the genetic drivers of drug resistance is crucial for developing effective diagnostic tools and therapeutic strategies.National Research Foundation (NRF
The development of a text generation model for Sepedi language using transformer-based machine-learning techniques
Full text linkThesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science)) -- University of Limpopo, 2025The transformer-based machine learning technique is a deep learning model that
processes the sequential input data using an encoder-decoder process. Transformers process the input data simultaneously using a parallelism approach while paying attention to each word at the time by applying an attention mechanism to each unit text being processed. The transformer-based model has been known to provide more state-of-the-art performance in natural language processing (NLP) tasks than a recurrent neural network (RNN) such as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). RNNs have the drawback of suffering from the problem of vanishing gradients and exploding gradients in implementation. The GPT-Sepedi transformer-based model has shown great success in dealing with the process of text generation for the Sepedi language. This has led to a limited text generation system developed using a transformer-based model for the under resourced African language, namely, the Sepedi language. This research project aimed to develop a text generation model for the Sepedi language using transformer based machine learning techniques. The LSTM-Sepedi Attention-based model and the GPT-Sepedi Transformer-based model were developed and trained using a National Centre for Human Language Technology (NCHLT) Sepedi text corpus. The models were compared based on the results that they generated. A GPT-Sepedi Transformer-based model was used to generate the text. The generated text was then compared with the Sepedi language vocabulary to
determine the validity of the text. It was found that 61% of the text within the generated texts is found in the Sepedi language vocabulary. The Recall-Oriented Understudy for Gisting Evaluation (ROUGE) score was used to compare the model generated text to human-written text. The ROUGE score result indicates that the GPT-Sepedi Transformer-based text generation model was able to generate words that humans can write with 83% precision. Even though the precision results indicated a better percentage, the text generated cannot be comprehensible with the recall percentage of 0.05% and 0.1% F1-score results.NRF (National Research Foundation
Integration of project-based learning in secondary school commercial curriculum
Full text linkJournal article published in African Perspectives of Research in Teaching and Learning Journal
Issue 2, Volume 9, 2025This paper proposes the integration of project-based learning in secondary school commercial curriculum delivery following the assertion that learners of commercial subjects lack the practical skills that are imperative in the current economic difficulties that South Africa is facing. The study adopted the qualitative research methodology and was guided by the learner-centred theory pioneered by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Ten commercial departmental heads from ten secondary schools in Capricorn South District were purposively sampled to provide their perspectives on the barriers hindering effective commercial curriculum delivery in secondary schools. The results show that there is a gap between theory and practice in the delivery of commercial subjects. Data were collected through interviews and document analysis, and was analysed using thematic content analysis. The study revealed lack of support for commercial educators, a gap between theory and practice, subject combination issues, language barriers, content gaps and insufficient resources. The project-based learning model is therefore proffered as an alternative model to close the gap between theory and practice in commercial subjects. The results were important in highlighting the downward trend of commercial subjects in schools and the need to revitalise the commercial stream by integrating project-based learning as an option for economic revival in the countr
Examining the factors influencing undergraduate students’ use of digital arts playrooms in South African university game studies programs
Full text linkJournal article published in African Perspectives of Research in Teaching and Learning Journal Issue 1, Volume 9, 2025Integrating digital arts playrooms into education provides an innovative opportunity to enrich creative learning for 21st-century students, notably within game studies. While digital tools and interactive spaces are gaining attention globally, there is limited research that specifically explores the dynamics of these innovative resources. This study seeks to examine the factors influencing students' utilization of digital arts playrooms as an innovative educational resource. To guide this exploration, the study employs the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology as the theoretical framework, which helps identify key determinants of technology adoption. The study adopts a survey-based quantitative research design, utilizing data collected from 279 South African university students who have prior experience or exposure to the digital arts playroom. The research design involved demographic analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and regression analysis to identify significant predictors of usage. The findings reveal that effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions are significant predictors of digital arts playroom
utilization, emphasizing the importance of these factors in shaping student engagement with digital art platforms. However, it was found that performance expectancy does not influence usage, possibly due to the novelty of the technology. This research contributes to educational practices by providing practical insights for enhancing creative learning experiences in game studies programs. By aligning theoretical perspectives with practical applications, the study advances the integration of digital tools in education, offering guidelines for educators and policymakers to effectively foster engagement with digital
technologies
Understanding the barriers to successful curriculum transformation in teacher education in Zimbabwe
Full text linkJournal article published in African Perspectives of Research in Teaching and Learning Journal Issue 4, Volume 9, 2025In 2023, Zimbabwe initiated a comprehensive curriculum transformation programme termed Education 5.0 in teacher education to align with the nation’s social and economic goals. This qualitative study, which uses a case study approach, explores the policy gaps and challenges encountered by lecturers and heads of departments in implementing the transformed curriculum. The case study approach involved conducting interviews with key stakeholders to gather insights into their experiences. The findings reveal the various challenges encountered during the transformation programme and these include inadequate policy frameworks, lack of financial and material resources, insufficient technical and pedagogical support, and resistance to the rapid pace of reform. The study also noted the existence of a strong desire to address community needs and improve the relevance of teacher education thereby providing opportunities for success. The study concludes that the Zimbabwean experience highlights the need for an inclusive and carefully planned approach to curriculum transformation. Recommendations gathered from the study include the provision of in-service training for lecturers for them to appreciate the need for transformation, enhancing funding for staff development, and supporting teacher development institutions. Ultimately, the study offers critical lessons for policymakers and education practitioners involved in curriculum reform across Africa