UNAM Gā-aisib Repository (University of Namibia)
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Exploring factors affecting the success of women entrepreneurship in Namibia: The case of women entrepreneurs in Windhoek
No full textA thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Business Administration FinanceOver the past decades, the number of women venturing into business has exponentially grown,
especially developing economies such as Namibia. The challenges such female entrepreneurs face
has also equally been rising over the years. The purpose of the study was to explore factors
affecting the success of women entrepreneurs in Windhoek (Namibia). To accomplish this, the
following objectives were considered: to identify the factors affecting the success of women
entrepreneurship; to determine the factors contributing to the success of women entrepreneurs; to
establish the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and to ultimately establish the strategies to
improve the welfare and development of women entrepreneurs in Windhoek. The researcher used
the descriptive - exploratory research design, meaning that a mixed method research approach was
employed for this study, through the use of the self-administered questionnaires (60) and the semi structured interviews. Results from the study indicated that the success of women entrepreneurship
in Namibia is hindered by factors such as; gender stereotyping of women, lack of marketing skills,
lack of government support, lack of knowledge, and lack of capital, among others. The study
concluded that human capital, marketing, technology and speed with which to the market are the
major factors behind the success of women entrepreneurs in Windhoek. The study thus
recommended the support from fmancial institutions (banks and discount houses) for start-up
capital, and government support (educating women in technology, skills and expertise), as well as
support from spouses as these could create some success stories in entrepreneurship. There, also,
is need for the government to be involved to make women entrepreneurs successful through
business education, and supportive policies that make it easier for them to access fmance
Investigating the factors affecting budget implementation in the Namibian Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration
No full textA thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Business Administration FinanceDespite control and implementation being used as tools for the proper and efficient administration
of resources at the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration, the Ministry still faces difficulties
with budget implementation. As such, the study sought to investigate factors affecting budget
implementation at the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration with a focus on monitoring and
evaluation, availability of financial resources, organisational financial policies, and government
financial regulations.
The study adopted a descriptive survey research design to explore factors affecting budget
implementation within the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration. Questionnaires and
interviews were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. The respondents
comprised of Deputy Directors, Administrative Officers in the procurement department, Control
admin officers, Accountants and internal auditors, Budget Assistants and HR personnel. Out of a
population of 50 employees directly working with budgets, 44 employees f01med the
representative sample. Purposive sampling was used to select the sample to ensure that only
knowledgeable individuals were contacted for data collection.
The research findings revealed a myriad of factors behind the challenges faced at the Ministry
when it comes to budget implementation concerning monitoring and evaluation, availability of
financial resources, organisational financial policies and government financial regulations. Some
of the critical factors include frequency of budget revision, departments' coordination on
budgetary issues, staff training on budget implementation, ministerial overspending, budgeting
spending and Ministry efficiency amongst others. Despite all the factors hindering efficient budget
implementation at the Ministry, the study confinned there are systems in place to support budget
implementation. The study rejected all the null hypothesis and accepted the alternative hypothesis.
The study recommends that for the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration to curb challenges
in budget implementation, there is a need for procedures and guidelines in the allocation of funds
and operational implementation policies. This study will benefit the Central Government and the
Ministry of Finance as it proposes best practice and strategies to mitigate failures in budget
implementation and contro
An investigation into factors contributing to urban land shortage in Windhoek, Namibia
No full textA thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Business Administration Management StrategyThe main aim of this thesis was to investigate factors that contributes to the shortage
of urban land in Windhoek and its implications on housing prices and affordability.
Windhoek has been faced with a problem of slow delivery and servicing of urban land,
resulting in the gap between demand and supply widening drastically, resulting in
massive urbanisation, and increased demand for land. This research comprises a mixed
method (quantitative & qualitative). A convenience sampling technique was used to
sample study participants. Data was collected using questionnaires, observations, and
interviews to investigate the availability of urban land in Windhoek, factors that led to
urban land shortage and the implications these factors have on the housing prices and
affordability. The study found that, there is indeed shortage or urban land at the city of
Windhoek. The City of Windhoek is faced with the shortage of developable land, lack
of technical capacity, limited financial resources embedded with cumbersome
procedures in the process of preparation and approval of detailed plans as prepared by
land experts has been a catalyst for the low capacity of the municipality in allocating
land. The study also established that low-income earners are faced with serious
challenges in acquiring a dwelling due to high prices in purchasing land, high interest
rates on mortgage bonds to income and collateral requirements of financial institutions
and serviced land in Windhoek benefits only higher-income earners. The study also
proved that shortage of urban land has contributed to high prices as the City of
Windhoek continues to auction off land that is not affordable for low-income earners.
The study recommended that, existing policies on land allocation be reviewed, such as
the Deeds Office Act of 1937. Land delivery and servicing models needs to be
reformed, and the study ft.rrther recommends that the City of Windhoek needs technical
and financial capacity to faci litate provision of effective and efficient services of
providing land for housin
Literary archives of conflict, the decoloniality of materialities and resilience in selected narratives of genocide in Namibia
No full textA research submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English StudiesThe 1904-1908 Conflict has not received much attention as other genocides such as the Holocaust or the Armenian Genocide and with some scholars even arguing that it was not a genocide but just a colonial war. During this period in question, the natives of the then German South West Africa were stripped of both materialities and immaterialities. The extermination order issued by German General Lortha van Trotha meant to annihilate a nation as its instruction was to execute any native found by the Schutztruppe (German troops) as reflecting in the selected fictional texts for this study. The study explored the decoloniality of materialities
and resilience in the selected genocidal fiction in Namibia’s 1904-1908 Conflict. Additionally, the study was informed by secondary sources that facilitated more understanding on the topic of genocide and an expansion of knowledge regarding historical events in Namibia. Moreover, it was a qualitative desktop research and employed content analysis where the selected novels: The Lie of the Land by Utley (2017); The Weeping Graves of Our Ancestors by Tjingaete (2017); The Scattering by Kubuitsile (2016); Parts Unknown by Van Den Berg (2018); and Mama Namibia by Serebrov (2013), were the reference material. Three theories namely:
Trauma and Resilience supported by Ecocriticism and New Historicism framed the study. The findings of the study reveal literary evidence that the 1904-1908 Conflict is a genocide. Also, the dislodgment of the Hereros found them wanting of home, social set ups meddled, religion, culture and tradition invaded as well as sacred places pried on. The study also found that there exists a thin line between fictional historical novels and history proper and as such they could be used as perfect substitutes of each other, though an argument not readily accepted by some
historians. The pragmatic disposition of these selected novels is promising and certain as the imaginary may naturally be transmuted into reality. Moreover, all the texts under study employ the selected art forms but in different ways considering the different backgrounds and motivations of the authors. The selected novels conjure literature’s nearness to recreate some critical arguments that are still unsolved even in present day Namibia about the general wellbeing of the people with the conundrums still concomitant to a nation’s past. With the genocide
still making headlines in the contemporary media (newspapers), it is inevitable that there are unsaid issues that are still unsolved such as the reparations that are still to be attended to, meaning ‘the show isn’t over’. Additional to the findings, revenging and fighting back as well as the conscientising and mobilising amongst the Hereros and Namas emerge as forms of resilience in some of the novels. The study recommends for future studies that there may be need to merge fictional and nonfictional works on the 1904-1908 genocide and establish the link between the two. Also, like other genocides, the 1904-1908 genocide should have a
representation of the epoch in film form to increase awareness of its existence and also be studied as part of human history. Lastly, there may be need to introduce genocide studies at the University of Namibia
The coronavirus and social justice in Namibia
No full textOver the past 30 years, the successive SWAPO regimes that governed Namibia always followed a neoliberal policy path. Co-existing with the neoliberal elites are thousands of Namibians living in squalors in a country that has been declared as one of the most unequal nations on the face of the earth. Over the years, social justice activists never gave up the fight for a just and equitable society. They fought for better shelter, housing, economic equality, land, water, and sanitation, free tertiary education, and income grants to cushion the poor. The successive SWAPO regimes have been indifferent. Interestingly, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government ended up implementing the very initiatives it rejected over the years. This text explores several social justice struggles over the years and demonstrates how these were implemented by the government as a Covid-19 response in 2020. It thus argues that social justice is possible and the state has demonstrated its capacity in implementing these programs. It then calls on social justice activists to use the Covid-19 currency to ensure that social justice becomes central in a post-Covid-19 economic order
Ecological dynamics of Bacillus Anthracis in water and soils at selected sites in Etosha National Park, Namibia
No full textA thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of ScienceBacillus anthracis, is an endospore-forming, soil borne bacterium, also found in water and vegetation, which causes the disease anthrax. The species most affected by anthrax in Etosha National Park are the plains zebra (Equus quagga), blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) and African elephant (Loxodonta africana) Anthrax occurs seasonally with a peak incidence during the late wet season in the plains zebra (Equus quagga), blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), and during the late dry and early wet seasons in the African elephant (Loxodonta africana). Anthrax is generally assumed to be transmitted through grazing.
An experimental study was conducted in the laboratory at the Etosha Ecological Institute to investigate the behaviour of an avirulent B. anthracis strain. Jars filled with water and soil were inoculated with blood containing avirulent anthrax spores and subjected to repeated settling and disturbance. One jar with no soil but only water served as a control. The aim of the experiment was to determine whether most of the anthrax spores remained in the water or attached to the soil particles. The study further investigated how B. anthracis behaves in the soil through an outdoor enclosure experiment in which thimbles were filled with three soil types, namely, ferralic arenosol, calcaric regosol and lithic leptosol. Soils were inoculated with blood containing virulent anthrax spores and water. The aim of the experiment was to determine deep transport of B. anthracis in the three soils. Sampling was done over four weeks, with the thimbles being tested for the presence of B. anthracis every centimeter (1-12cm). In both experiments, a selective media polymyxin-lysozyme-EDTA-thallous acetate (PLET) agar was used to isolate B. anthracis from the water and soil samples in this study. This study revealed that there was a significant difference in the colony counts of B. anthracis sampled from the different layers in the water jar (χ2= 54.244, df =4, p <0.05). Most of the anthrax spores were attached to the finer sediments of the soil and not in the suspension of the disturbed samples as hypothesized. Fewer B. anthracis spores were found at the surface of the water, which suggests that animals are unlikely to ingest a lethal dose of B. anthracis to cause an infection which may in turn lead to death. Furthermore, the outdoor experiment revealed that significantly higher numbers of B. anthracis spores were transported further down in the sandy ferralic arenosol throughout the study period compared to the other two soils. It is concluded that the likelihood of animals contracting anthrax from sandy soil is low
An analysis of the (re)constructions of gender identities through language use on selected Facebook pages of Namibian youth: A case study of the University of Namiia's postgraduate students
No full textA research project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in EnglishThe rising popularity of social networking sites among university students has led to invisible lines between students’ offline and online identities. Students are often lured into expressing themselves openly on social networks in ways that expose their personalities. The study explored how the University of Namibia’s post-graduate students (re)construct their gender identities on Facebook
through language use. The researcher further explored whether students performed and sustained the societally assigned gender roles on virtual spaces as often as they may do during daily face-toface conversations. Previous scholars have provided inadequate data surrounding aspects such as socio-pragmatic competence, cyber language and gender differences among post-graduate
students, and this has prompted this study. By employing the Linguistic Appraisal Theory, the Difference Approach and the Dominance Approach, the researcher pinpointed different ways of gender performance and presentation on social networks. A qualitative approach was used; ethnographic analysis was performed on Facebook walls of 12 male and 12 female students. Furthermore, one-on-one interviews were conducted with eight participants. It emerged that male
participants use language that portrays dominance and order (harsh and direct). On the other hand, female participants use polite and subordinate language when engaging in conversations in virtual spaces. It is thus safe to conclude that when engaging in conversations, post-graduate students present ‘an extended offline self’ in virtual spaces. Social networks grant them an opportunity, not to reconstruct identities, but rather extend their already existing ones into more socially acceptable
ones. The choice of language employed in virtual environments is similar to the traditional patterns of the language; this shows that Facebook users are still deeply engrossed in culture and maintain societal expectations on virtual environments
Mineral processing technology II: Student manual
No full textMineral processing equipment performance depends on the behaviour of each particle that is processed. It is however impossible, though necessary, to design equipment (base Computational procedures) that considers each of the particles due to their bigger number and their difference. Useful models cannot be based on average properties of particles either.
Individual particles differ from each other by:
- Properties that influence their behaviours in equipment, the two most important of
these properties are the size and mineralogical composition.
- Other properties such as shape, specific gravity, fracture energy, surface area, surface energy.
In addition to the particle size and mineral composition, comminution, classification and concentration are dependent also on specific gravity, brittleness which influences the behaviour of particles. Examples: Gravity concentration makes use of differences in specific gravity between particles to separate them.
Particles properties are not totally independent of each other. For example the specific gravity is related to the mineralogical composition. Surface energy of a particle is related to mineral composition on the surface of the particle.
Some aspects of the particle’s properties in a population are needed with more details for models to be sufficiently sensitive to individual particle properties although these properties cannot be defined for each individual particle. Such aspects or scheme are provided by a description using distribution functions
An investigation of vocational interests of Grade 9 learners at selected secondary schools in WIndhoek
No full textA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Educational Psychology (Guidance and Counseling)This research study was conducted to shed light on the vocational interests of Grade 9 learners in specific secondary schools in Windhoek. Vocational interests form an integral component of the educational and career decisions of adolescents. This research study employed a pragmatic methodology with a sequential transformative design. The quantitative component of this design included administering, scoring, recording and analysing data from the Namibian Vocational Interest Inventory (NAMVII) to determine the participants’ fields of interest, broad areas of study and Holland codes. Differences pertaining to vocational interests between male and female participants were also investigated. The research comprised qualitative matching of the broad areas of interest to the schools’ offered fields of study in order to determine whether each school offered subjects which matched the learners’ vocational interests. It was found that fields of high
interest among learners included biological and medical sciences, social caring, business and performing arts and music. Additionally, broad areas of study that yielded a high interest were in the science, social, creative and commercial fields. Another finding, in terms of the Holland codes, revealed a high interest in the social, enterprising and artistic categories. Additionally, it was concluded that there was a significant difference between males and females’ vocational interests. Furthermore, the matching of broad areas of study with available fields of study and choice subject combinations revealed that, although many broad areas were represented by available fields of study in each school, certain fields of study were lacking. These included the social, creative and agricultural areas specifically. The research revealed important findings related to vocational interests as an important factor in career guidance in secondary school. Thus, it would be beneficial for stakeholders to take note of these findings and apply them accordingly in their career guidance and counselling activities
An exploration of social protection financing aid as an instrument for poverty alleviation among the elderly and people with disabilities in Namibia.
No full textA thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Business Administration (Finance)At present, the Government of Namibia, through the MGPESW, provides a universal OAP of N 600 in 2015. However, poverty is still the highest among old age pensioners (33%) and adults living with disability (5%) as compared to other vulnerable groups such as war veterans at 1.2%. This study aimed to explore whether, and how, social protection as financial aid in the form of grants, assists in alleviating poverty (absolute poverty) among the elderly and people living with disabilities in Namibia. This study employed a qualitative research design which was exploratory in nature. Semi-structured interviews were used as a tool for data collection and a thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The study revealed that, even though
the beneficiaries receive N$1 300.00 monthly, the funds are not enough to meet their basic needs as they still struggle to pay municipal bills, rent, and medical costs. Although beneficiaries use their grants for different expenses, the main expenses for the elderly were found to be food, household needs and municipal bills. For those living with disabilities,their main expenses constitute medical and rehabilitation costs, children’s school needs, and household needs. It was further found that the benefit received in the form of grants does not cover all needs due to annual inflation; however grant amounts are not increased every year which challenges the concept of “adaptive social protection”.
The study recommends that the inability to afford necessities can be overcome through empowering citizens, especially the disabled, through creating businesses, by offering medical aid, and providing discounted water and electricity bills for these vulnerable groups. The government is further urged to re-evaluate the criteria of the food bank and to include the elderly and people with disabilities so as to reduce bills on food and promote “adaptive social protection”