Learning pathways of key occupations relevant to sustainable development in Makana Municipality
- Authors: Mohanoe, Elma Nthabiseng
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Makana Municipality , Sustainable development -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Municipal government -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Environmental education -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Sustainable development -- Study and teaching -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Vocational qualifications -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Organizational learning -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Educational equalization -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1990 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013322
- Description: This study presents results to be contributed to the field of Environmental Education. It is a new arena for qualifications development and implementation in the South African Education and Training system. The study is located in the context of a joint research programme focusing on understanding issues of articulation and learning pathways development for sustainable development, established between the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) in partnership with Rhodes University, Environmental Learning Research Centre (ELRC). Phase 1 of the SAQA/ELRC research showed that researching workplace learning requires an understanding of learning pathways, if it is to be meaningful. It is for this reason that this research in phase 2 focuses specifically on learning pathways in the context of a local municipality in Makana. Using a case study research approach and qualitative data, this study investigated learning pathways for three occupational categories at different levels in the Makana Municipality: 1) key managerial occupations; 2) key supervisory occupations; and 3) key workers occupations relevant to sustainable development and how they are shaped and experienced. It also identified system and structural factors influencing articulation and access issues relevant to progress in learning pathways relevant to these key occupations. The study was designed using a case study research. Primarily, qualitative research techniques were employed to generate data, including observations, interviews and document analysis. The study used inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference to interpret and analyse data, using critical realist and systems perspectives. The findings on worker learning pathways show that there is a discrepancy between the Training Policy and the Environmental Training and Education Strategy of Makana Municipality. The issue of complexity in learning pathways and social structural factors such as inequality emerged as factors that strongly influenced learning pathways for workers. Learning pathways for workers involved in sustainable development practices hardly existed or simply did not exist. Interesting transitions associated with learning pathways such as from home, to work or no schooling in the case of the workers, showed a pattern of emergence. These showed that learning pathways are not accessible and equally available to everyone as can often erroneously be assumed. The findings on supervisor learning pathways show diverse complexities as well as related issues, when compared to the worker’s learning pathways. Issues such as overlapping of study and work emerge as influential to supervisor learning pathways. Lack of support is, however, an influencing factor, but in a different context compared to the workers, and mainly focuses on lack of bursaries, highlighting training policy issues. This aspect was found to also relate to lack of proper resources in order to enable them to learn and do their job better; an issue raised by the workers too. This challenge of lack of support in various forms posed a barrier to learning pathways. Findings related to the manager’s learning pathways show a noticeable gap between the workers, supervisors and managers. The manager’s generally have higher education qualifications related to sustainable development, and in certain cases managers have had exposure to international training related to sustainable development. Factors such as ample opportunities for learning, mentoring, association on professional bodies, and decision making powers influenced the manager’s learning pathways. It was also notable that while managers receive occupationally directed training, it is not necessarily sustainable development related. In theory, the results highlighted a need to understand systems as a whole and how their integration is important in influencing learning pathways. There were also underlying mechanisms and structures identified which needed to be unravelled and understood as these were found to influence learning pathways in this study. The study highlighted critical insights in understanding how learning pathways in a local municipality context (the case of Makana Municipality) are constructed by both systems and structural factors in the workplace, while also identifying ways in which agency of those engaged in learning for sustainable development in workplaces is enabled and /or constrained by such factors. It also showed the persistence of deep-seated inequalities of opportunity, especially for workers, to access and participate in sustainable development learning pathways.
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- Date Issued: 2014
The informal sector : micro-enterprise activities and livelihoods in Makana Municipality, South Africa
- Authors: Mtero, Farai
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Makana Municipality , Local government -- South Africa , Informal sector (Economics) -- South Africa , Microfinance -- South Africa , Economics -- Sociological aspects , Financial institutions -- Social aspects -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3359 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007706 , Makana Municipality , Local government -- South Africa , Informal sector (Economics) -- South Africa , Microfinance -- South Africa , Economics -- Sociological aspects , Financial institutions -- Social aspects -- South Africa
- Description: This study examines the nature and characteristics of the informal sector within the Makana municipal area in South Africa. The focus is on the socio-economic characteristics of the informal sector operatives; operational characteristics of the microenterprises that we studied, such as longevity, employment generation, growth potential, and linkages of the informal sector with the formal sector of the economy. Extensive studies on the informal sector have been conducted in many parts of the world relative to South Africa. The key finding in most of these researches is that the informal sector is highly heterogeneous. These studies provide us with the parameters for analysing the nature and characteristics of the informal sector in the Makana Municipality. The results of the thesis show that the majority of people in Makana Municipality join the informal sector as a result of such push factors as unemployment, retrenchment and the need to survive. While there is evidence of lucrative activities amongst the surveyed enterprises, most of the informal sector micro-enterprises are concentrated in the lower segment of the sector where earnings are very low. Results from this study reveal that employment generation (beyond owner-operator) is very limited. The co-existence of a small number of remunerative activities alongside a large proportion of relatively unproductive activities is not only a sign of restricted economic potential but, most importantly, it points to the heterogeneous nature of the informal sector. Precisely, the informal sector encompasses activities which are different in terms of asset holdings, earnings, etc. From the study, it is also evident that the informal sector micro-enterprises play a crucial role in distributing goods produced in the formal sector. Evidence indicates that these micro-enterprises are Iinked to the formal sector. The idea of a 'second economy' devoid of linkages with the 'first economy' is of limited heuristic value. Thus, the 'second economy' is an extension of the first.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Public sector industrial relations in the context of alliance politics: the case of Makana Local Municipality, South Africa (1994-2006)
- Authors: Makwembere, Sandra
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Makana Municipality , South African Municipal Workers Union , African National Congress , Cosatu , South African Communist Party , Local government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Industrial relations -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Labor unions -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1994-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3301 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003089 , Makana Municipality , South African Municipal Workers Union , African National Congress , Cosatu , South African Communist Party , Local government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Industrial relations -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Labor unions -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1994-
- Description: This thesis is in the field of Industrial Relations. It concerns a micro-level investigation of the dynamics of public sector industrial relations in post-apartheid South Africa. It focuses on the Tripartite Alliance between the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and explores what the Alliance relationship has meant for the traditional roles of employees and their representatives on the one hand, and employers and their representatives on the other. The thesis examines the political, organisational and societal contradictions and implications for COSATU public sector union affiliates and their members in their relationship to the ANC as an ally (via the Alliance) and the context in which ANC members form part of management (in government). The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) was used as an archetype of a COSATU public sector union affiliate that engages with the State as employer at the municipal level. It is a case study of Makana Local Municipality (Eastern Cape Province, South Africa) using qualitative research techniques and content analysis to derive the relevant information. The author conducted a series of in-depth interviews of key informants and observations at Makana Local Municipality were done. Based on the empirical data obtained from the investigation, the thesis argues that the traditional roles in the employment relationship at the workplace have been affected by the political alliance. Industrial relations roles have become increasingly vague especially since many within local government share ANC/SACP memberships with members of the trade union. The study also highlights that within an increasingly globalising post-apartheid environment, the Alliance provides mixture of benefits and challenges for workplace negotiations and employment relations in ways that macro-level analyses of employer-employee relationships do not always capture.
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- Date Issued: 2007
An investigation of integrated development planning (IDP) as a mechanism for poverty alleviation in Grahamstown in the Makana Municipality, Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Alebiosu, Olumide Ademola
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Makana Municipality , Local government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poor -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poverty -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poverty -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4841 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005517 , Makana Municipality , Local government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poor -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poverty -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poverty -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: Poverty among individuals, households or communities is not a static condition. There are many factors which contribute to its causes and depth. In South Africa the economic gaps imposed by the previous apartheid government aggravated economic inequalities and caused considerable disparities, which has resulted in high unemployment rates. Inequalities were also manifest in the neglect of infrastructural and service provision as well in the effective absence of independent governance among some race group. This led to a call for pro-active initiatives by the post-1994 democratic government to remedy the living condition of the previously disadvantaged people. As part of its poverty relief drive the South African government has embarked on a series of developmental initiatives in bringing infrastructure related services to the poor and to reduce the enormous prevailing backlog, with the aim of increasing community participation, improving service delivery and promoting the upliftment of the lives of poor people through the medium of local governance. This study investigated the Integrated Development Planning, which has been undertaken in Grahamstown in the Makana Municipality in the Eastern Cape to respond to the prevailing poverty and underdevelopment among the poor communities. Relying on their developmental mandate to initiate and co-ordinate all development activities within their area of jurisdiction through the IDP, the Makana Municipality has drawn up a development strategic plan in conjunction with the local communities and with other stakeholders and organisations to identify and assess development backlogs within the communities with the aim of addressing such backlogs. This study revealed from the interviews conducted with some municipal personnel and questionnaires administered to sampled residents of Grahamstown that some faces of poverty, such as unemployment and lack of access to some of the most basic of infrastructure such as, sanitation facilities, water, electricity, formal house, education, security and recreation facilities are apparent in Grahamstown. However, the Makana Municipality through, the IDP has achieved some notable feats in the provision of providing some of the basic amenities such as water, housing, electricity and sanitation albeit at a slow rate. The mechanism of delivery is hampered by bureaucratic settings within government and the ambiguity attached to some of the projects. The service and infrastructural developments targeted towards the poor and the involvement of communities in the affairs of the local government might be seen as a partially panacea for poverty alleviation in South Africa. However the capacity of the local governments to effectively carry out this developmental challenge assignment might be a new twist in the developmental challenge facing local governments in South Africa. The thesis provides an overview of the Makana Municipality IDP and the degree to which is serving as one mechanism to address poverty in the Grahamstown urban area
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- Date Issued: 2006