Electronic Theses and Dissertations (PhDs)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37946
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Item Policy-making and institutional crisis: Formalizing artisanal gold mining in Zimbabwe from 2005 to 2017(Policy-making and institutional crisis: Formalizing artisanal gold mining in Zimbabwe from 2005 to 2017, 2024) Mukonoweshuro, Tonderai Fadzai; https://orcid.org/ 0009-0000-6395-4758Artisanal gold mining is a crucial economic activity in Zimbabwe that gained prominence in the post-2000 period when there was a defined shifting interest from agricultural activity by many people to artisanal gold mining, with over a million people engaged in the sector. Artisanal gold mining became a part of a large and complex informal economy, with the potential to address some of the economic challenges by providing the much-needed foreign currency for the ailing economy. However, like most countries, Zimbabwe struggled to regulate the sector to make it more efficient, economical, safe and environmentally friendly. Much existing research seems to suggest that policy on artisanal mining, while being a function of the state, is an instrument or arena of contestation among powerful groups within the state and society. Thus, the study answers the question, “In what ways did politics, power and institutional dynamics influence policy trajectories on artisanal gold mining in Zimbabwe between 2005 and 2017?” It further investigated the complex reality of politics and policymaking for informal (artisanal) gold mining in Zimbabwe, seeking to dissect underlying politics, power and institutional dynamics and how these influenced policy trajectories in this growing informal gold mining sector between 2005 and 2017. Through a case study approach, I collected qualitative data through in-depth individual interviews with key informants both nationally and at two mining sites in the District of Chegutu, in Mashonaland, Zimbabwe. By situating the study's findings within theories of informal economies, institutionalism, street-level bureaucracy and human securities, this thesis contributes to the consequences of informality as they relate to production and the miners 6 wellbeing and policy development for ASM. The other is the complex and non-linear reality of politics and policy-making concerning ASM and law enforcement agencies. The local case study demonstrates the struggles between networked actors in amplifying how informal gold mining policy has evolved and the particular effects on policy outcomes for informal gold mining in Zimbabwe. The study concluded that although politics had a bearing on the continued informalisation of ASM during the crisis period, the state actors occupying critical positions in shadow networks drove policy to maximize self-interest. At a local level, policy implementation met the agency of transitional actors, including small-scale artisanal miners, gold dealers, and traders. These networked actors also operated within their own unwritten rules and shaped their policies as they extracted or traded the gold. Therefore, a policy framework for formalizing ASM must be based on enforceable legal systems that provide accountability, transparency, and human rights.Item Using Complexity to Unlock Emergent-Decolonial Development(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Chikane, RekgotsofetseThis thesis argues the need for a theoretical and philosophical understanding of emergent-decolonial development within development studies and decolonial thinking to formulate the notion of decolonisation within both fields as an ongoing developmental practice. As both a theoretical and philosophical framework, emergent-decolonial development functions as an economic, policy and philosophical analytic exercise to unravel the complex nature of the entanglement of political and economic notions of decolonisation that create an epistemological quagmire within developmental discourse, currently understood as coloniality. This quagmire is the result of the continued use of the dialectical relationship between the ideal and the non-ideal in the framing of development and decolonial thinking that has resulted in development viewing the idea of decolonisation as only the process of self-determination and limiting decolonial thinking to focusing on the epistemological and ontological expression of peripheral voices. This limitation allows for an understanding of coloniality and colonialism but denies researchers the ability to tackle both through continuous public policy interventions. The thesis argues the importance of untangling this relationship in a manner that would allow for the emergence of a new humanism in a manner that is replicable through policy interventions which would challenge the emergent nature of modernity/coloniality. In order to achieve the above, the thesis utilised a combination of two methodologies: an integrative literature review and a documentary analysis. The integrative literature review critically appraises the core theories of development, decolonial thinking and complexity to form the theoretical and philosophical framing of emergent-decolonial development. Thereafter, through the use of both thematic and content analysis of four liberatory texts from India, Tanzania, South Africa and Ecuador, respectively, the results were utilised to augment the framework where necessary. The results of the thesis indicate that the limitations of both development and decolonial studies inhibit decolonisation from being explored as an ongoing process meant to counteract coloniality and instead view coloniality as an emergent property of modernist approaches to development and decolonial thinking. Furthermore, the thesis found that development and decoloniality can be retooled through complexity science as emergent properties within complex adaptive systems that directly contend with the influence of coloniality. The colonial situation experienced by ‘the wretch’ has created an exceedingly complex and nuanced understanding of the coloniser and the colonised in the 21st century. As a result, the need to devise an approach to understanding decolonisation in this new world has become increasingly important. This framework provides the means to begin the resurgence of decolonisation and decolonial thought as an active public policy tool that others can adoptItem Improvement of Nigeria’s Security Sector Governance to effectively control terrorism(2022) Ossai, VincentThis research explored the means of enhancing Nigeria’s security sector governance to effectively counter the threats of terrorism and its facilitation by terrorism financing. For this purpose, the subsisting status of the necessary requirements that can strengthen the sector was assessed. These requirements are those advocated in the traditional Security Sector Reform paradigm and in the African Union Policy Framework on Security Sector Reform. There are several of these but the ones concentrated on are: civil democratic oversight, human rights and good governance as well as its derivates including the country’s anti-corruption profile especially with relevance to the required transparency and accountability of the sector. Access to gainful employment as a means of poverty alleviation and to help reduce involvement in terrorism was equally assessed. The data for this purpose were sourced from relevant documents and the submissions of purposefully sampled experts. The result of the assessment showed that the subsisting quality of the above requirements, are deficient in terms of their efficacy to boost Nigeria’s security sector governance to effectively counter terrorism. This therefore, necessitated the following improvements; namely: development and application of better strategies to mitigate this crime and its illicit financial supports; strengthening the capacity of the sector through improved human resources, budgetary and equipment supports; better intelligence management; improvement of policy and legal supports; improvement in the collaboration of constituent institutions in the sector as well as complementary international cooperation supports. Others are: strengthening of the various oversight institutions and the proficiency of their functionaries as well as improvement of human rights standard of the sector through enforcement of civilized and ethical conducts of security operatives and complemented with sanctions for breaches. Further improvements revolved around provision of good governance including enhancement of Nigeria’s anti-corruption profile including the required transparency and accountability standard, entrenchment of professional responsibility etiquette and effective administration of sanction schemes. Further improvements include: provision of gainful employment opportunities through requisite skills and entrepreneurship development programmes as well as provision of supports to the private sector and investment in public infrastructure. Consequent upon the foregoing, it is expected that when the above improvement measures are undertaken and proficiently applied, that they can help to strengthen the capacity of Nigeria’s security sector governance to more effectively control terrorism in the country.Item Gender-based inequalities in access to water and sanitation in South Africa: Case study of two informal settlements(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Ntwana, Bukiwe; Wafer, AThis study is concerned with understanding the specific configurations of the institutional and infrastructural arrangements in two informal settlements that exacerbate or mitigate women's access to water and sanitation services. The study draws on a comparative case study design with some elements of ethnographic design in two informal settlements based in Cape Town and Johannesburg as case studies. The QQ Section informal settlement is situated in Cape Town, Khayelitsha. The settlement is dense, it is located on state-owned land with servitudes and it falls under the City of Cape Town municipality (CoCT) which is governed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and it falls within Ward 89, which is an African National Congress (ANC) led Ward. The second settlement is the Marlboro South informal settlement, which is situated in Johannesburg, Marlboro. The settlement is located in an industrial area with shacks situated inside and outside around abandoned private-owned warehouses. Marlboro South falls under the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), which was governed by the DA from 2016 to 2019 when the fieldwork of this study was conducted. Furthermore, Marlboro South is divided into two wards, Ward 108 is ANC-led and Ward 109 is DA-led. Both settlements further adhere to other formal and informal institutions of power such as Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and community leadership institutions. All these factors have shaped water and sanitation services, which further affect women’s access to these services in both settlements. The study reveals that the effects of the institutional and infrastructural arrangements on water and sanitation result in women experiencing unsafe access, health and hygiene challenges, maintenance challenges of water and sanitation facilities, gender-based discrimination at the household and community levels and the marginalisation of women resulting from not having private connections to water and sanitation infrastructure in the two case studies. This study uses the qualitative research approach, the data was collected using in-depth household interviews, focus group discussions and key informant interviews in both settlements. The sampling method used in this study was purposive sampling with women as the study respondents in the two informal settlementsItem Overpromising and underdelivering: Zimbabwe’s extractive industry indigenisation and uneven development(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Manduna, Kennedy; McCandless, E.Uneven development has characterised Zimbabwe’s political economy landscape since the initial days of conquest to the present. Foreign-owned corporations and non-indigenous citizens have commanded the economy from the colonial era to the present, leaving the indigenous majority outside the mainstream economy. Zimbabwe’s indigenisation programme is a strategic policy choice responding directly to this widespread unevenness. The purpose of this explanatory study was to examine the structural and contextual factors accounting for extractive industry indigenisation underdelivering upon implementation. Findings show that extractive industry indigenisation’s implementation processes, mainly through Community Share Ownership Trusts (CSOTs), are producing largely disempowering outcomes for communities involved. These include the failure to address the uneven development problem in the mining sector, which is fuelling the persistence of uneven development. Findings further show that although the extractive industry indigenisation, may, in some instances, result in the restructuring of non- indigenous private mining capital, this is not correspondingly ‘empowering’ the disadvantaged indigenous citizens and their communities. Findings of this show that the following factors explain why extractive industry indigenisation perpetuated and maintained uneven development (i.e. in terms of scale, geography, income and wealth): (a) widespread cases of fronting; (b) except the Gwanda CSOT, all CSOTs did not get shares in the foreign mining companies, only seed capital/pledges/donations that are to this day yet to be paid in full; (c) widespread incapacitation (i.e. in terms of financial, human and managerial skills) and corruption in the CSOTs; (d) the security sector companies that got 50% equity in diamond companies operating Chiadzwa are not spreading the wealth around; and (e) the Finance Act of 2018 (No. 13 of 2018) made it optional for the qualifying companies to continue funding (as well as honouring the pledged amounts in full) the CSOTs. The combination of these factors results in further impoverishment of the disadvantaged indigenous people and their communitiesItem Impact analysis of institutional quality on foreign direct investment inflows into the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Malindini, Kholiswa; Pillay, PundyThe quality of governance has increasingly become a significant determinant of foreign direct investment inflows in recipient countries. Although extensive research has been conducted internationally to examine the role of institutional quality on foreign direct investment inflows, this concept has not been thoroughly interrogated in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) context. The region is poverty-stricken, unemployment rates are skyrocketing, economic growth is deteriorating, and the region only accounts for only one percent of global FDI. Thus, this study sought to examine three main objectives critically: first, the effect of institutional quality on foreign direct investment inflows into the SADC region; second, the influence of the financial development on the FDI-institutional quality nexus and thirdly, to assess whether countries’ income levels matter for attracting FDI inflows. FDI as a percentage of GDP was measured as a dependent variable, while institutional quality, financial development, natural resource availability, and GDP growth were the main explanatory variables. The study controlled for inflation rates, trade openness, and trade policy. An interaction term was generated to evaluate the effect of financial development on the FDI-institutional quality nexus in the SADC region. In order to achieve the research objectives, a mixed-methods approach was adopted, and a convergence research design was applied. Secondary data for other macroeconomic variables were drawn from the World Bank Development Indicators. In contrast, data for financial development were drawn from the International Monetary Fund’s Financial Development Index database, and data for governance indicators were drawn from the Worldwide Governance Indicators’ database. Primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires. Econometric models were developed to analyse panel data from 2011 – 2018 for 15 SADC member states to achieve the set objectives quantitatively. Specifically, the study adopted the Generalised System Methods of Moments (GMM) as the appropriate and efficient estimation technique for the analysis. Using a Pillar Integration Process, the data were integrated. The overall findings suggested that, while GDP growth, trade openness, and natural resources positively influence FDI inflows into the region and are statistically significant, institutional quality, inflation, trade policy and financial development are negatively and statistically significant coefficients towards FDI. The results revealed that a poor regulatory environment, the rule of law, and weak accountability are the main disincentives to improved quality of governance. The overall results indicated that weak institutional quality is still a significant challenge as far as inward FDI attraction is concerned; the lack of an enforcement mechanism directly impacts foreign investor property rights protection and eventually deters foreign investment inflows. Also, the unstable political framework that fails to sufficiently support economic institutions and ensure certainty, and the lack of political will, particularly by heads of government to implement and prioritize regional objectives over national interests, is a significant problem and stifles progress towards more profound integration. It also transpired that the financial markets and institutions within the region are not efficiently developed and are still fragmented, and this is attributed to macroeconomic instability and weak macroeconomic convergence. The findings also revealed that the countries’ income levels do not matter as far as FDI attraction is concerned. Based on these results, it may be necessary for SADC member states to adopt an institutional framework that promotes collaboration in the region and ensures effective and efficient implementation of the potential protocols. Given the dominance of national sovereignty over regional objectives, it may be worth examining the regimes that govern the member states; based on the view that sometimes non-compliance by member states emanates from the regime, which may sometimes not support regionalism. Convergent bilateral and multilateral arrangements are necessary for the region. The region needs to raise its export competitiveness by attracting domestic and foreign investments, and a rigorous trade integration process is a prerequisite. Policymakers in the region should focus on working together with institutions to promote development in the banking sector. Further, given the adverse effects of financial development on FDI inflows due to rising domestic credit by the banking sector, efforts should be made to maintain domestic credit levels to allow room for more FDItem Complexities of the professionalisation process and ethics of community development in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Ditlhake, Kefilwe Johanna; Pillay, PundyThis thesis examined the professionalisation process complexities and ethics of community development in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to examine the current move to professionalise the community development sector to explain professionalisation process complexities, the tensions, challenges, and the values of community development in South Africa. The quest for professionalisation calls for the standardisation of knowledge, certifications, the establishment of occupational membership associations, and a system of self-regulation for community development practitioners and community workers into a formalised profession and be committed to serving the public interest. The professionalisation process of the community development sector was explicitly acknowledged in the White Paper on Social Welfare in 1997. In October 2011, the national Department of Social Development (DSD) organised a three-day Inaugural Summit held at the Vulindlela Village in Coega, Eastern Cape, which paved the way for the professionalisation process, and consulted stakeholders within the community development sector to plan the professionalisation process in this field. This summit was the first step undertaken towards the professionalisation process. The national DSD was mandated to lead, oversee and coordinate the professionalisation of community development. The Steering Committee, the South African Council of Social Service Profession (SACSSP), and the Task Team to professionalise community development in the planning and implementation process. The study adopted multiple case study designs to explore and explain how the community development practitioners, social workers, and community development workers view the professionalisation process complexities and the values of community development. This case study research took place in Gauteng at the local, provincial, and national levels of government. The four cases underpinning the study include the practitioners from non-governmental organisations (NGO), community development workers (CDWs) from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), the provincial and national Department of Social Development (DSD), and the higher education institutions (HEI). The case study analysis focused first on each case separately (within-case analysis), including the connection of each case to the phenomenon underpinning the study. Understanding each case (within-case analysis) was essential to understanding the case context. By adopting multiple case study research designs, contributions to existing research on community development and the professionalisation process are made. The research questions underpinning the phenomenon under study are answered by accumulating findings from all four cases (cross-case analysis findings). Interviews and secondary data analysis were used to collect data. The interviews are the primary data source, and documentary analysis was used to corroborate the findings of the interviews. Non-probability purposive sampling and theoretical sampling were employed in this study. The empirics consist of seventy-four interviews with community development workers, social workers, and community development practitioners. The data analysis process followed the constructivist grounded theory constant comparison iterative and coding process, including two cycles of initial and focused coding. The theoretical codes developed in the study represent the foundation of the theory developed. Given the plethora of research in this field of study, the constructivist grounded theory data analysis process was applicable in generating the nascent theory that suits the nature of this inquiry. This study found that the professionalisation process was motivated by the need for status recognition and that the process is evolving as state regulation. Professionalisation process complexities are connected to the complex context of the history of the multidisciplinary nature of community development practice, lack of engagement and broader consultative processes, the qualification versus the occupational wider set of professionalisation processes, a crisis of status recognition, professional identity issues, the unclear scope of practice, and a lack of regulatory framework. Against this backdrop, challenges, tensions, turf issues, and contestations are identified. Including the ethical issues of conflict of interest, professional misconduct, and malpractice are raised as the major challenge of the evolving profession of community development practice. A substantive theory developed in this study is inductively theorised from data and contributes to existing research on community development professional practice. Based on the study findings, recommendations for policy and practice and further research are suggestedItem A Mixed Methods Sequential Explanatory Study of the Determinants of the Insurance Purchase Decision-Making in Zambia(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2020-03) Haamukwanza, Chimuka Leo; Masie, DesnéZambia has low insurance consumption and penetration. The particularities around the insurance purchase decision-making have not been researched. Financial decision-making has been a topic of interest as increased financial services uptake is one method of increasing financial inclusion. This thesis defines and compares the Insurance Purchase Decision-making (IPD) of the Workers in the Pensions and Insurance Industry (WPII) and the Urban Poor (UP) using a mixed methods sequential explanatory design. In the quantitative phase, data was collected using a questionnaire and analysed using IBM SPSS and IBM AMOS for Structural Equation Modelling. Significant differences emerged in the two populations regarding their IPD: the risk coping mechanisms, the extent of loss aversion, and education attained. The qualitative phase delved into detail on the areas that were not clear in the quantitative phase and used structured interviews to collect data. The thesis has confirmed that the decision-making of the two populations and their perceptions on insurance differ. The thematic analysis in the qualitative phase of the thesis highlight three major themes from both populations that insurance practice and management and the government need to undertake to enhance insurance consumption: financial literacy, service quality and regulation. This thesis has contributed to the literature on the IPD in Zambia; towards a detailed understanding of the IPD in Zambia through the integration of an interdisciplinary mixed methods approach; and highlights how the WPII and the UP make their IPD. The thesis highlights the potential consumers’ needs and inclination towards insurance and how insurance practice could take advantage of the consumers’ needs in undertaking market segmentation and penetration. The thesis optimises the insurance needs of the two populations: their expectations, their experiences, their understanding of and perceptions on insurance. The activities that insurance practice and management should do to enhance insurance consumption in Zambia have been highlighted.Item Measuring the Fiscal Space for South Africa to Support Economic Growth and Development(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Motsepe, Dikgang; Pillay, PundyA number of developing and emerging market economies are faced with economic challenges that will require governments to access additional resources in order to invest in their economies. This thesis seeks to answer two research questions: 1) Should governments increase fiscal spending or government debt to finance the investment in the productive capacity of the economy in order to support and drive economic growth? and 2) Will an increase in government debt reduce investment and economic growth? Time series data of emerging market economies were used from the period 1994 – 2017 to answer the research questions. The key findings from the emerging market economies analysis confirm the positive relationship between government debt and economic growth across all the identified countries. The research findings indicate that in the identified emerging market economies, economic growth was high, showing an average growth of 5.0% when debt levels were below the 90% ratio. For debt levels above 90% of GDP, economic growth was significantly low, averaging 0.5%. The study’s findings indicate that the emerging market economies showed an average public sector investment to GDP ratio of 23.6% at debt levels below 90% of GDP. For debt above 90% of GDP, public sector investment to GDP was slightly lower, averaging 15.3%. The key findings with regard to measuring debt sustainability using the debt limit of 68% to 97% to GDP as calculated by Ganiko, Melgarejo and Montoro (2016), is that all the emerging market economies have significant room to increase their debt levels, with South Africa obtaining an average debt ratio of 41% for the study period. The findings from the emerging market economies support the themes in the literature review that government debt can influence economic growth through the total factor productivity channel. This will entail increased government investment in infrastructure development, industrial development, education, health and nutrition. The thesis acknowledges that increases in debt levels will increase interest rates, thus reducing the fiscal space available to government. The increase in interest rates calls for a more effective utilisation of monetary policy instead of fiscal policy via the reduction of interest rates and purchasing of zero interest rate government bonds. To achieve this, this study calls for the increased role of monetary policy to use interest rates to achieve debt sustainability and to support economic growth. The thesis provides the policy direction for both fiscal and monetary policy on how to increase the ‘fiscal space’ available to government to raise additional resources to support economic growth and development. The study’s contribution to knowledge is the call for a change to the orthodox paradigm and narrative that debt is bad for economic growth and to promote the policy direction of using debt and increased spending to get economies to full employment. The policy directive seeks to support the use of government debt to fund structural reforms, to recapitalise State-Owned Entities, to support industrial development as well as to promote infrastructure and human capital development, with the objective to support economic growth. The thesis argues that debt is not harmful if directed towards the productive side of the economy. The paradigm is embedded within the Keynesian approach which is supported by the new growth theory, functional finance and modern monetary theory on fiscal stimulus and how to finance it. The paradigm shift also talks to moving away from conventional monetary policy and recommends that central banks decrease interest rates, monetise government debt, and create sovereign money in order to support government debt sustainability. The paradigm shift also seeks to change the conventional policy direction of central banks of increasing money supply indirectly using the banking sector, to directly increase money supply through fiscal policy in order to support economic growth. This will give central banks the tool to direct and influence spending in the economy to meet the objectives of economic growth and job creation. As argued by various economists, this can be achieved through better policy coordination between monetary and fiscal policy, and improved institutional arrangements which will ensure that the creation of money is directed towards economic growth and job creationItem The Contribution of Non-Governmental Organisations to the Fight against Poverty in Chegutu District, Zimbabwe(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Kabonga, Itai; Moyo, Bhekinkosi; McCandless, ErinThe study explored the contribution of NGOs to the fight against poverty from an assetaccumulation perspective. The research was motivated by the paucity of studies in Zimbabwe examining NGOs and poverty reduction from an asset accumulation perspective. The reality in Chegutu District reflects asset challenges emanating from income struggles, vulnerability to economic shocks and infrastructural shortages. Some of the problems are caused by politics and broader poor governance practices in the district and country at large. The study deployed a qualitative approach; given the goal of capturing NGOs’ beneficiaries, staff, and government officials' perspectives, lived realities and experiences. Data to answer the research questions were collected using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs) and documentary analysis. It emerged that NGOs in Chegutu District rely more on supply side asset accumulation interventions to fight poverty. They include household economic strengthening (HES), vocational training, community apprenticeship, nutritional gardens as well as service provision, with only referral strategy and lobbying resembling demand side interventions. Several asset accumulation strategies mentioned above generate income (financial assets) in poor households; enabling them to buy food, pay for children's school fees, afford medical care, and meet other daily needs. As households build financial assets, their investments in children's health and education improve, a view supported by many scholars. Guided by a theoretical framing – the Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF), which argues that poverty is a function emanating from lack of access to five forms of assets–financial, social, physical, natural, and human (Arun, Annim, and Arun, 2010) – findings suggest the need to widen the framework. NGOs also facilitate the building of informational and psychological assets which are key factors in the process of poverty reduction. This research also established that asset accumulation interventions by NGOs hinge on both institutional and non-institution enablers such as government ministries, partner NGOs, community volunteers and community leaders. The study argues that for NGO beneficiaries to reap benefits from NGO interventions, agency taken to be a component of the SLF human assets in the form of patience, resilience, innovation and thinking outside the box plays a critical role. Asset building interventions by NGOs are not operating without challenges and drawbacks. Asset accumulation at household level supported by NGOs is being slowed by bad governance induced macro-economic challenges such as inflation as well the advent of COVID-19 which disrupted v asset accumulation interventions like household economic strengthening, nutritional gardens, and educational support. While the supply side interventions are key in fighting poverty, this study recommends that NGOs need to intermix their interventions with more demand side interventions that include watchdog and advocacy to deal with structural causes of poverty. This may call for NGOs to re-examine their orientation.