Browsing by Author "Molokwane, Masibane John"

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Free higher education policy network viewed through power, cooperation and conflict in South Africa
(2019) Molokwane, Masibane John
The notion of policy networks is an integral instrument of policy-making in democratic states. Significant policy challenges are deemed often too complex to be dealt with only through traditional hierarchal government structures. The notion of policy networks is used to analyse and evaluate policy processes and their outcomes. The knowledge gap that the study is dealing with is on the role and effects the interplay of power, cooperation and conflict has in the policy networks and the policy-making process. The aim of this study was to explore the interplay between power, conflict and cooperation in the free higher education policy network in South Africa. A dialectical approach to analysis of policy networks was applied to inform the conceptual frame used in the study. The methodology followed the interpretivist-constructivist paradigm, which then informed the use of qualitative methods in the study. A snowballing sampling approach was employed to identify the study participants. The study analysed the results by using a thematic analysis approach. Findings in the study confirmed that free higher education policy-making was happening through a complex policy network. This free higher education network was characterised by a dominance of power, along with high levels of conflict and cooperation among actors who tended to share the same interests. The presence of power, conflict and cooperation had an influence on the network’s structure, interactions, context and the policy outcome. The influence of power, conflict and cooperation demonstrated that there is an iterative and dialectical relationship between network structure, interactions, context and policy outcome.
The post-1994 land reform prism to interrogate development planning in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Molokwane, Masibane John; T.K, Pooe
The Republic of South Africa’s post-1994 government has embarked on developing numerous policies, legislations, and in 2011, a National Development Plan to advance its economic development trajectory. Yet, despite the various policies, plans and legislations, unmanageable levels of poverty, inequality, and unemployment continue to persist and, in certain areas, increased. The post-1994 government, in line with developed policies and legislations, has sought to utilise re-industrialisation, manufacturing, small business development, mining, and other such economic drivers. While land reform has featured in various policies post-1994, it has not been elevated and used as a central means in advancing development planning and development to address socio-economic challenges. This study, therefore, took a unique approach, unlike previous studies examining land reform in the context of development planning and development. The study’s unique approach was informed by the instrumentality of land reform in advancing development planning and catalysing industrialisation in selected Asian States. This study aimed to address the dearth of literature that prioritises and focuses on the instrumentality of land in development and the inability of the post-1994 South African land reform approach to view land as a development tool. An interpretive sequential mixed qualitative methods study was employed to theorise how development planning can be modelled to feature a re-shaped and re-planned land reform in a development plan. The result of this approach was to present a nuanced contribution to knowledge in the field of development planning, namely a framework that elevates land reform as a central means of development for South Africa’s problematic re-industrialisation.