South East Academic Libraries System (SEALS)
Not a member yet
69550 research outputs found
Sort by
The Women’s Development Foundation Award to Lorraine Keamogecoe Losabe
No full textThe Women's Development Award to Lorraine Keamogecoe Losabe, "honoring your contribution to the first Democratic National Assembly of the Republic of South Africa 1994-1999"Donated/gifted to Nelson Mandela University ArchivesForms part of: Brigalia Bam collectio
Ga III triarylcorroles with push–pull substitutions
Get PDFTwo A2B type H3corroles and two GaIIItriarylcorroles with carbazole substitutions at 10-positions were synthesized and characterized. An analysis of structure–property relationships of the corroles has been carried out by investigating the optical spectroscopy of the dyes to trends predicted in DFT and TD-DFT calculations. Interestingly, the photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT) activity properties of the GaIIItriarylcorroles were determined against the MCF-7 breast cancer line, and Staphyloccocus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli), respectively. The cationic G-2Q species exhibited the most favorable properties with an IC50 value of 7.8 μM against MCF-7 cells, and Log reduction values of 7.78 and 3.26 against planktonic S. aureus and E. coli at 0.5 and 10 μM, respectively
Sustainability challenges of community newspapers: The case study of iDike-Lethu Community Newspaper
Get PDFCommunity newspapers are an important source of information and play a vital role in the development of communities. They are, therefore, an important stakeholder in community development. IDike-Lethu community newspaper`s presence in the community of Alice and in the areas where it is distributed is facilitating communication and development in these areas. Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality is benefiting in the presence of iDike-Lethu because this newspaper is the conduit through which communication to its citizens is submitted. This study assessed the challenges iDike- Lethu is having that impact on its maximum contribution in this society. Participants in this study are residents of Alice and are readers of iDike-Lethu Community Newspaper. This study adopted a mixed method design in which questionnaires and interviews were used to collect primary data. Data collected was analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Major findings that impede smooth operations in this newspaper were discovered. These include inadequate funding, lack of technical backing and lack of community support. The study findings show that with all the challenges iDike-Lethu is having it continues to play a meaningful role by disseminating information, promoting local culture, equipping communities with skills and providing a platform on which these communities including local businesses send information across. Recommendations include the need for this newspaper to find a commercial, profitable and sustainable financial model which will support and reinforce its operations. This study will contribute in further research of methods to link communities and community newspapers to work harmoniously.Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 202
Different dimensions of inequality and sustainable economic growth in Africa
Get PDFThe recent unprecedented economic growth across Africa for over two decades has been anticipated to alleviate poverty and close up the wide inequality gap in the continent; its impact, however, on the vast majority of people in Africa appears to be insignificant as more households are still battling with poverty and the inequality gap is still wide. This has, however, raised empirical questions regarding the nature of the relationship that exists between economic growth and inequality in Africa. Hence, these questions have created gaps in the literature as some studies found positive relationship while other results state otherwise. The study fills the existing gap by re-examining the relationship between dimensions of inequality and sustainable growth in Africa. The study applied parametric and non-parametric econometric techniques on more recent inequalities data covering 28 African countries. Specifically, the study examined the relationship between income inequality and sustainable growth in Africa, investigated the relationship between education inequality and sustainable growth in Africa, analysed the relationship between gender inequality and sustainable growth in Africa and discussed the relationship between land inequality and sustainable growth in Africa. The study covered the period of 1998-2020 and the data for the study were sourced from Standardised World Income Inequality Data Base (SWIID), World Economic Forum, World Bank Online Data Base, Benaabdelaali et al‘s (2012) paper and Ziesemer, THW‘s (2016) paper. Result from the analysis of income inequality and sustainable growth indicates a positive unidirectional relationship between the two variables. The findings suggest that African growth promotes more income inequality and income inequality does not interrupt the growth potential of the continent. The findings further reveal a positive relationship between sustainable growth and poverty rate in African region. This suggests that African economic growth alone cannot solve African poverty problem. Analysis of sustainable growth and education inequality shows an inverse relationship between the two variables. The result indicates that sustainable growth helps in reducing education inequality but a further increase in education inequality drags down sustainable growth in the long-run. Also, poverty is found to have a positive relationship with education inequality in Africa. However, no causal relationship is found between sustainable growth and education inequality but rather a unidirectional causality running from poverty to education inequality in Africa. iv In relation to the gender inequality analysis, the study also found a negative relationship between the two variables. Specifically, while sustainable growth is found to be bridging gender gap, gender inequality on the other hand is found to be a limiting factor on sustainable growth in Africa. The results also indicate a strong positive significant relationship between poverty and gender inequality in Africa. The analysis reveals the vulnerability of African women to poverty and also suggests that many African countries are yet to harness the enormous potentials possessed by women for their regional development. Furthermore, the study found a negative relationship between sustainable growth and land inequality in Africa. The result indicates that unequal land distribution is among the factors preventing Africa from achieving its high dream of sustainable growth and it is further responsible for the severe poverty especially among the rural dwellers where agricultural land is considered as an important determinant of family income. One way causality running from land inequality to sustainable growth is also established via granger causality result which further indicates that uneven land distribution has effects on sustainable growth. Based on these findings, the study concludes that economic growth though has been helping in bridging some dimensions of inequality in Africa, income related inequality is exempted. Also, it is evident that economic growth alone is not adequate to close the wide inequality gap that has persisted for so long in Africa. In conclusion, the study recommended among other things that many African policy makers need to intensify their developmental efforts to reach everyone in their countries so as to effectively fight the ugly poverty situation across the continent. Also, salary structure needs to be revisited across Africa via introduction of appropriate tax to redistribute income and help the low income earners to relatively meet up with the higher income earners. This will help in closing income gap and at the same time alleviate poverty.Thesis (PHD) -- Faculty of Business and Economic Science, 202
African feminism(s) as it informs the experiences of African women leaders at universities in South Africa
Get PDFThe South African higher education geography is one that is met with contesting ideas. The establishment of the university in Africa was a project to mimic the exclusionary nature of the western university. Of centering a particular knowledge and way of being, leaving African women and other marginalised groups outside of the culture of the space and away from the possibility of being knowledge producers. The end of Apartheid, signaled an opportunity for new policies that address racial, gendered and various other lines of oppression and marginalisation. Universities, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges with different histories were merged to make way for the new South Africa. Access to institutions of higher education opened up across geographies, making way for a multicultural student and staff demographic. This transformation has also led to the transformation of the leadership structures of such spaces, with currently only five institutions being led by female and women, out of twenty-six in the country. The aim of this study is to understand the experiences of African women who are leaders in universities, focusing on how they negotiate a history of being excluded in the space with the present context of being able to influence the future of higher education. Using an African feminist lens, I draw on five individual interviews and secondary data from previous studies to excavate phenomenological experiences. The findings reveal that feminist traits of equality of social justice are integral in how the participants perform their leadership. The findings also show experiences of belonging in the culture of the university cause a great deal of tension of which the leaders are constantly working to change, to establish different cultures of being and existing in the South African university.Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, School of governmental science and social sciences, 202
Moult and energetics in three species from the Euplectes genus representing a gradient of elaborate plumage ornamentation
Get PDFElaborate plumage ornamentation in birds has fascinated scientists since the 1800s. The evolution and persistence of elaborate and costly ornamentation seemed to be in opposition to the theory of natural selection. However, over the years research has revealed the role and functional significance of elaborate plumage ornamentation in sexual selection. Recent studies have shown that the energetic costs associated with moulting into new plumages are higher than maintenance costs, but these costs have not been quantified for species that exhibit elaborate breeding plumage ornamentation for sexual selection. In addition, for these sexually selected ornamental traits (signals) to have evolved and be maintained, there must be some aspect of individual quality that they convey to the receiver. Despite a large body of literature on sexual selection, honest signalling and ornamental plumage in birds, the physiological correlates of honest signalling during sexual selection and the messages these signals convey to the receivers are poorly understood. In this study, I investigated four aspects related to the honesty of the sexual selection signal. These were (i) seasonal variation in standardised resting metabolic rates of breeding and non-breeding birds, (ii) moult phenology, (iii) physiological parameters linked to honest signalling, and (iv) the energetic costs of production and maintenance of elaborate plumage ornamentation using three species from the Euplectes genus as model species. The three species selected, the red-collared widowbird (Euplectes ardens), fan-tailed widowbird (Euplectes axillaris) and the southern red bishop (Euplectes orix) represent a gradient of plumage elaboration and although the receivers of the sexual selection signals are known for these three species, the energetic cost of the signals and the underlying message the signals convey remain unknown. I measured seasonal variation in resting metabolic rate (RMR), body mass (Mb), thermoneutral zone (TNZ) and body temperature (Tb) over the course of two years in the three selected Euplectes species (E. ardens, E. axillaris and E. orix; chapter 2). My results showed no significant effect of season on RMR (except in E. orix females) suggesting that in these species the metabolic costs in summer (associated with breeding season) are comparable to the metabolic costs associated with thermoregulation during winter. Contrary to my prediction that metabolic costs would increase along a gradient of increasing tail length (due to the energetic costs Webb V associated with elaborate plumage ornamentation), I found no significant effect of species. The lack of a significant result indicates that once the initial investment in plumage is complete, other predictor variables play a role (in this case body mass).Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, School of Environmental Sciences, 202
Fixed point theory in metric and normed Spaces
Get PDFIn this dissertation, we present major results in the theory of fixed points in metric and normed spaces. We start with a review of the Banach fixed point theorem and some of its applications (in systems of linear equations, differential equations, integral equations, and dynamical systems), and then discuss many of its extensions and generalizations. We look at the theorem of Edelstein ([8, Remark 3.1]) in compact metric spaces, and a generalizaton of it proved by Suzuki ([19, Theorem 3]) in 2009. We then give a detailed account of the work of Meyers: In [11], Meyers proved generalizations of the Banach fixed point theorem to uniform local contractions, and, in [10], a converse to the Banach fixed point theorem. Finally, we look at some of Browder’s work in fixed point theory. In [6], he showed the existence of fixed points for nonexpansive mappings on bounded, closed, and convex sets in uniformly convex Banach spaces, and, in [5], he proved similar results in Hilbert spaces using a connection between nonexpansive mappings and monotone operators. Keywords: Fixed point, Functional analysis, Metric spaces, Banach spaces, Hilbert spaces, contractions, Banach fixed point theorem, nonexpansive mappings.Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, School of Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics, 202
Developing metacognition through the use of Technology in self-organised learning environments in grade 11 Physical Sciences
Get PDFThe study was carried out to investigate the effect of the use of technology in self-organised learning environments (SOLEs) (in Physical Sciences classrooms) on learners’ metacognitive skills. The study contributes by identifying a technology-enhanced pedagogy that can effectively equip learners with metacognitive skills, which many studies have reported as having an effect on Physical Sciences learners’ conceptual understanding. The study followed an experimental (control group quasi-experimental) methods design, in which both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analysed. A multistep stratified sampling method (which caters for both quantitative and qualitative facets) was employed to choose four schools (two rural and two urban) to participate in the study. These schools were randomly chosen from the population of all schools offering Physical Sciences in Grade 11 in the Capricorn District of Limpopo Province, South Africa were assigned to urban experimental group and rural experimental group (UEG and REG) and urban control group and rural control group (UCG and RCG) using geographical demographics. The participants were selected using both simple random sampling (for quantitative methods) and purposive sampling (for qualitative methods). The experimental groups were taught by the researcher using self-organised learning environments (SOLEs) pedagogy, while control groups were taught (also by the researcher of the study) using a traditional chalk-and-talk approach. A Physical Sciences concepts pre-/post-test and the Metacognitive Self-Assessment Scale (MSAS) questionnaire were used to glean the quantitative data, while focus group interviews (FGIs) were used to obtain the qualitative data. The analysis of the quantitative data employed both descriptive (mean, standard deviation and graphs) and inferential (both parametric t-test and non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests) statistics computed using the SPSS package version 22, while qualitative data were analysed thematically using coding techniques (applied on a sentence-by-sentence basis) after the transcription of the recorded FGIs. The study found that SOLEs pedagogy improves learners’ metacognitive skills, leading to better Physical Sciences conceptual understanding. In addition, the results indicate that all v aspects of metacognitive skills improved in experimental groups; however, certain aspects exhibited outstanding improvement such as “Respect shown to myself”; “Respect shown to others”; “Respect shown for empathy towards others” and “Respect shown towards problem solving”. Furthermore, the results of the FGIs revealed that a plausible explanation for the ability of SOLEs pedagogy to enhance metacognitive skills lies in its effortlessness to enable learners to link their classroom experiences to real-life experiences; simulate practical work; adapt to collaborative learning; use multiple channels for receiving information; and reducing learners’ reliance on the teacher. Hence, this study recommends the implementation of SOLEs pedagogy in the Physical Sciences classroom to improve learners’ metacognitive skills and conceptual understanding. However, the study had limitations, some of which included the sample size (which has an effect on the degree of generalisability of the research findings) and the period during which SOLEs pedagogy was implemented which might not have been long enough to exhaust its effect on metacognitive skills. Accordingly, further studies employing a longitudinal study design with a sample size bigger than 350 participants would be useful in understanding the effects of SOLEs pedagogy on metacognitive skills and improving the generalisability of research findings.Thesis (PHD) -- Faculty of Education, 202
An exploration of the benefits of information and communications technology for SMMEs in the Construction Industry in Gauteng Province, South Africa
Get PDFThis paper explores the beneficial impact of ICT adoption on the performance of Small, Micro to Medium Enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa, specifically in the construction sector. The population of the study comprises construction SMME owners and managers in Gauteng, South Africa. The objectives of this study are fourfold as follows. Firstly, it aims to determine the benefits of ICT for SMMEs in the construction industry in South Africa. Secondly, it aims to establish the challenges SMMEs face in ICT infrastructure systems. The third aim is to determine the barriers that impede SMMEs from adopting ICT. And fourthly it aims to recommend an ICT framework for the effectiveness and success of ICT infrastructure systems for SMMEs. The research consisted of data collection from 15 SMMEs in the construction industry in Gauteng Province, South Africa through the means of interviews. The study employed an interpretivist paradigm which necessitated a qualitative approach. The data was then analysed thematically. The study was motivated by a Technology-OrganisationEnvironment (TOE) framework. The study findings show that SMMEs profit greatly from the adoption of ICT in their battle for survival and expansion. ICT is one of the main resources that may be employed by organisations in this digital age, according to the Resource-Based Theory. The majority of respondents stated that ICT has improved performance and that tasks are completed more efficiently than before. According to the findings, sustained government help to extend broadband access for underprivileged groups, particularly in places underserved by private sector activities, is suggested. Government funding should be made available to assist SMMEs in developing ICT skills. This financing might be linked to organisations like SEDA to guarantee that new SMMEs are ascertained of the importance of ICT skills that will benefit their enterprises. To improve awareness of the benefits of ICT in the construction industry, training providers, NGOs, and government agencies must collaborate more closely.Thesis (MBA) -- Faculty of Business and Economic Science, Business School, 202
The extension of collective agreements to non- parties for dismissal for operational requirements
Get PDFSection 23 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa1 states that “Everyone has the right to fair labour practice. (2) Every worker has the right to – (a) to form and join a trade union; (b) to participate in the activities and programmes of a trade union; and (c) to strike’’. The Labour Relations Act 2 (the LRA) was enacted to give effect to section 23 of the Constitution, to regulate the organizational rights of trade union, to promote and facilitate collective bargaining at the workplace and at sectoral level. Its purpose is to advance the economic development, social justice, labour peace and democratization of the workplace by fulfilling the primary objectives of this Act. Firstly, this study seeks to critically examine the extension of collective agreements and effect of section 23(1) (d) in both small- and large-scale retrenchments (s189 & 189 A). A right to fair dismissal is a guaranteed employment right as outlined in section 185 of the LRA. Danielle Venn writes that “legislation is not the only source of employment, labour law clearly set a minimum standard while collective agreements or individual contracts can include provisions more generous to employees than those in legislation.3 This indicates that collective agreements are mechanisms aimed at creating conducive working conditions of employment between the employer and employee in the workplace. By ensuring that resolutions aimed at promoting general welfare of employees are implemented, regulating and enhancement of employee benefits, and other matters of mutual interest are expressed in the agreement. Individual employment law has express terms which clearly state that an employment contract may incorporate the employer’s disciplinary code of conduct. This mostly include procedure to be followed during termination of service or dismissal.Thesis (LLM) -- Faculty of Law, Department of Mercantile law, 202