3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item The emerging principle of free, prior and informed consent in development: evaluating development projects in the Limpopo Province of South Africa(2019) Mukwevho, Naledzani HendrickThe problem that I wish to address in this thesis is the failure by development agents, be it corporations or government departments, to obtain genuine consent from local communities before developmental projects can be launched in their territories or localities. The research aims to investigate if the application of the emerging principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) could assist in obtaining genuine consent from affected communities; and to capacitate such communities to fully understand the implications of the proposed projects on their lives before they can agree or disagree to such projects taking place. Theoretical and practical research in the form of case studies was conducted to trace development patterns in South Africa and to establish if FPIC, or at least its spirit, has been applied in development projects. The results are that although South Africa has policies and a legislative framework that is in line with FPIC, the country has not formally adopted this principle. Neither has the principle been fully applied by development agents when they carry out their projects in communal lands. Consequent to these observations, I recommended that South Africa considers to formally adopt the FPIC principle as a policy, and if possible, legislate it; corporate organisations or institutes such as the Minerals Council of South Africa, for example, should adopt the FPIC principle and make its implementation by their members compulsory; and Government must ensure that every Act of Parliament that deals with development as well as land and environmental management incorporates public participation and consent pre-requisites for the granting of licences to carry out development project in lands belonging to local communities.Item Revisiting the Facilities Management (FM) definition debate-a study of South African stakeholders(2020) Phiri, Isaac EdsonFacilities Management (FM) stakeholders have been struggling to define precisely what FM is. FM is defined differently, and the debate is ongoing. Lack of a criteria to appraise definitions appears to be the root cause for variations. Sadly, multiple definitions have led to confusion which affects the cohesive theoretical development to underpin the discipline, and the establishment of a unified profession. This study attempts to seek a solution, that could possibly settle this never-ending definition debate, by adopting a criterion for a good definition, as a basis for appraising proposed FM definitions to alleviate variations in definitions. The study entails applying the criteria to selected current definitions to identify flaws, and thereafter conducting a focus group discussion with experienced FM stakeholders to arrive at a preferred definition in South African context. From literature review, current definitions of FM, characteristics of FM, and a criterion for a good definition were identified. Subsequently, FM definitions were analysed based on the criteria, and it was discovered that current definitions do not satisfy the conditions for a good definition, due to either lack of focus, clarity or both. At that point, a focus group discussion to explore what FM is, as well as the establishment of a preferred definition was conducted. Focus group findings indicates that participants are generally knowledgeable on the subject. While only eight FM definitions were appraised, the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) definition of FM was found to be more comprehensive compared to the rest. In spite of this attempt, the study does not claim to have reached a consensus definition due to small sample size of study. Further, empirical research to establish consensus in the industry is requiredItem Assessing the causes of schedule and cost overruns in South African mega energy projects: a case of the Limpopo Province(2020) Tshidavhu, Fhumulani JudithCost and schedule overruns are the most common challenges in mega construction projects around the globe. The frequency of megaprojects failing to be completed on time and within budget is creating a poor reputation in the construction industry. This research aimed to assess the causes of cost and schedule overruns in the construction of megaprojects in South Africa. The objectives were to identify the local challenges militating against a project’s implementation success, to analyse the local conditions that could contribute to project implementation sluggishness, to assess planning and implementation practices in such projects and to assess the local expertise and acumen during the front-end project preparation process. Quantitative research method was employed. Questionnaires were used to collect data from engineers, quantity surveyors, architects, contractors and project managers. Limitation of the study is that leadership instability at Eskom, the South African public electricity utility company, has occasioned a climate of mistrust to outsiders making assessing informative sources difficult. Data were analysed using mean item score. The analysis indicates that poor site management, inadequate managerial skills, poor monitoring and control, lack of experience, poor financial planning, changes in the scope of work on site, variation orders, omission and errors in the Bill of Quantities, and unstable management structure were the major causes of cost and schedule overruns. Specific solutions that mitigate the causes of schedule and cost overrun should be investigated in future studiesItem The magnification of endemic construction industry problems in the implementation of mega projects in South Africa(2019) Moalusi, Pearl NozukoThis study aims to identify and investigate the extent of magnification of the endemic construction industry implementational problems in the mega projects within South Africa. South Africa has shown a great deal of interest in mega construction projects to become more economically and socially advanced. South African Government has adopted Mega Construction Projects to upgrade dilapidated infrastructure, as a speedy delivery mode to address the housing backlog and create mega cities. The implementation of Mega Projects in South Africa has been followed by a plethora of problems which causes delays in the delivery of MCP. This research undertook descriptive research which adopted a mixed methodology strategy based on cross ‐ sectional survey of six registered Project Managers with the South African Council for Project, two registered Consulting Engineers with Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), one registered Architect with South African Council of Architectural Profession (SACAP) and seventeen non – registered Project Managers, Professional Resource Teams(PRT) registered within the Gauteng Human Settlement database using questionnaires distributed by email. Total number of 26 were distributed to 12 registered PM, 4 Consulting Engineers, 1 Architect and 8 non‐ registered PM and 25 responded. The endemic problems identified with implementation of mega projects and normal projects were time and cost overruns, stakeholder mis‐ management and unforeseen conditions. The research revealed that in the South African construction industry 72% of the practitioners indicated that the identified problems are magnified in mega projects. 60% respondents showed that cost and time overruns are magnified in mega projects by double to triple which causes delay in the delivery of project objectives. In normal projects, problems are less magnified as they would not exceed 50% of the initial budget and time of the project. Findings based on the respondents, has revealed that MP encounter excessive cost and time overruns due to unforeseen conditions as critical factor that impedes successful delivery of MP in South Africa. An in‐depth cost estimate is minimal at the planning stage of projects. This can be accomplished by developing realistic cost estimate model / tool that can overcome the excessive cost overruns. This proposed tool can be utilised at the planning stage of a project to identify and plan all possible unforeseen conditions to maximise all possibilities to meet project objectives within the set time and cost. Lastly, it is recommended that South African Government enforces integrated governmental relations and community engagement through constant consultation to meet project objectives.Item Development of a systems front end research framework to inform strategic planning of projects in Transnet SOC Ltd(2018) Madzibane, Shihungasi SamanthaThe research involved investigating the occurrence of project failure within the Transnet environment and developing a conceptual framework, called the Front End Research Framework, to guide the organisation in mitigating project failure through the application of Systems principles. Project failure, whether it be partial or complete non-delivery on the organisational and/or market needs, leads to the inefficient use of Transnet’s resources including time, capital and manpower. Twenty key causes for project failure in various industries, including transportation and logistics, were derived from critical literature review. In this thesis, these are titled the “20 Project Failure Red Flags”. These 20 Project Failure Red Flags were narrowed down through archival research of Transnet project reports as well as a survey conducted on Transnet project and programme team members. The results indicated that the five most pertinent causes for project failure in Transnet were lack of sponsor support/buy in, unclear strategic direction by top management, communication breakdown among stakeholders, interdependencies not identified in the early stages of planning and lack of documented requirements and/or success criteria. The Front End Research Framework was developed by adapting the Zachman Framework™ (Zachman, 2008) as well as the Viable Systems Model (Beer, 1989) to indicate how stakeholder engagement, needs elicitation, requirements analysis and management, Systems Engineering management and system design can be applied during the pre-project phase in order to mitigate project failure.Item Constraints and enablers of effective knowledge sharing practices of South African construction project managers(2018) Zungu, ZamagedaDue to budget and time constraints, construction projects are fast paced and rely heavily on quick but sound knowledge input and application by the different participants in a project team. This requires accurate information retrieval and management of the social interactions between different project participants through knowledge sharing. Although knowledge sharing between construction project managers working within the same organisation exists, the knowledge sharing practices of construction project managers are ineffective and that has a negative impact on the development of innovative ideas, the way project members deal with changes, cope with crisis, deal with coordination and complex tasks, define plans, and make decisions. The aim of this research report was to examine the factors constraining effective knowledge sharing practices among construction project management colleagues working within the same organization with a view to developing recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the knowledge sharing practices. A quantitative research methodology was applied in the examination of the factors constraining and enabling effective knowledge sharing of South African project management colleagues working within the same organization. The main findings indicate that, the reluctance to share knowledge, the lack of affiliation and time limitations are the knowledge sharing constraints faced by most construction project managers. Conversely, the findings also reveal that the allocation of time (in the form of organisational systems), team member relationships, and sense of self-worth would equally motivate the sharing of knowledge. Main conclusions indicate that companies need to formalise the knowledge sharing process through structured mentorship programmes and facilitate team building activities.Item An investigation into the implementation of in-house versus outsourcing protect management firms in South Africa(2018) Tseki, AhakaThe face of construction is changing globally and with the growing complexity and dynamic nature of construction projects, stakeholders are increasingly under pressure to ensure the successful delivery of projects to their clients. The construction industry has responded to the increasing demands placed on it, with increased specialisation of the services provided by stakeholders, making the management of construction projects increasingly important competencies to ensure that the input of the various contributors on a project is implemented for maximum efficiency. With the increasingly important role construction project management plays in the successful delivery of construction projects, strategic sourcing and organisational boundary decisions have become significant topics of discussion, focusing on the internal organisational issues of project, and the subsequent management of resources and processes. While the fundamental “make or buy” decision has been researched and explored by various researchers in a number of different fields. Research into the boundary decision in the field of construction project management services, particularly the factors influencing large property development firms in making the boundary decision, has been found incomplete and this research aims to add to this body of knowledge. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to explore the factors/ considerations that influence clients, specifically large property development firms, in making the choice between retaining project management services in-house sourcing the same services externally from the market. To investigate the above, a qualitative research strategy was applied using two case studies. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews as the primary method and using a questionnaire survey as a supplementary, secondary method. Where respondents both the interviews and questionnaire survey were selected using a non-probabilistic purposeful sampling strategy. The research found trust and ognanisational capabilities were the two most important factors for large property development firms when making this boundary decision. Where trust and ognanisational capabilities were found to have an inversely proportional and directly proportional relationship respectively with the likelihood of a large property development firm retaining construction project management services in-house, rather than outsourcing the same services. It is anticipated that the results of the research will provide a better understanding of not only the advantages and disadvantages of implementing either sourcing option but perhaps more importantly, insight into the reasons why either sourcing option chosen.Item Joint decoding of parallel power line communication and visible light communication systems(2018) Onwuatuelo, Daniel ObinnaMany indoor applications operate at narrow band (3kHz148.5kHz) speed and for such applications, power line communication (PLC) and visible light communication (VLC) networks can be naturally connected and adapted to complement each other in order to gain more overall system performance in terms of bit error rate (BER) and computational complexity. In this research,the joint decoding of parallel PLC and VLC systems is proposed and its BER performance is compared to that of the PLCa nd the VLC systems. The joint decoding is applied either at the inner (Viterbi) or at the outer (Reed-Solomon) decoder. The proposed system is adopted according to the PLC G3 physical layer specification but direct current optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM (DCO-OFDM) is used in the VLC system to ensure that only positive (unipolar) signals are transmitted. A realistic VLC channel model is adopted in this research by considering the VLC channel as an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel affected by attenuation in terms of angle of orientation between the source and the receiver and effective surface area of the receiver. Furthermore, the PLC channel is modeled as an AWGN channel with background and impulsive noise generated using Middleton Class Anoisedistributionmodel. Itisshownthroughsimulationresultsandanalysisthatthe proposed joint decoded system outperforms the PLC and the VLC systems in terms of BERperformancedependingonthedistanceofseparationbetweenthesourceandthe receiver. Key words: Power line communication (PLC), Visible light communication (VLC), Bit error rate (BER), Joint decoding, Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), DCopticalOFDM(DCO-OFDM),AdditivewhiteGaussiannoise(AWGN).Item Challenges faced by professional construction project managers in South Africa in complying with their professional code of conduct(2018) Kamanda, Learnmore TatendaEmpirical evidence has revealed prevalence of unethical practices in the Construction industry. These malpractices results in project failures. On the contrary, successful delivery of construction and infrastructure projects brings physical development which promotes economic growth and improves the country’s Gross domestic product. For that reason, professional codes of conduct are established as a deterrent to unethical behaviour. The debate whether the adoption of professional codes of conduct bear improved results remains ongoing. Although literature has identified non-compliance to the codes of conduct as one of the factors leading to such malpractices, little is known about challenges facing construction professionals in complying with their code of conduct. This study answered the question, “what challenges do construction project managers in South Africa face in complying with their code of conduct?” Interpretivism research philosophy and an inductive approach to theory development was adopted. The investigation is conducted to study professional construction project managers registered with SACPCMP in the category of professional construction managers and professional construction project managers. A systematic review of the SACPCMP code of conduct identified 39 obligations imposed on professional construction project managers by their code of conduct. An internet based questionnaire survey was used to examine the extent of compliance with these 39 professional obligations, followed by semi structured face to face individual interviews to identify challenges. The interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis technique. Results of the questionnaire survey showed that 76% of the participants fully comply with all 39 obligations. 12 out of the 72 respondents of the questionnaire survey admitted to being non compliant to certain obligations of their code of conduct. 10 out of 72 respondents did not respond to certain obligations. 10 out of the 12 respondents who admitted to being non-compliant participated in the face to face semi structured interviews. The findings of the semi structured interviews revealed the following challenges, obedience to authority, peer pressure, low moral awareness, time constraints, breach of confidence, act of kindness and socio political pressure.Item Analyses of South African mining projects: technical variances and impact of these on project success(2018) Gasela, IpeloMining projects are known for having a poor success rate. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of technical shortcomings on the value of mining projects and define success in mining projects, using an empirical equation. This study was focused on South African mining projects, due to the uncertainty of how successful South African mining projects are. A total of 11 projects were reviewed. Six from the platinum, three from the gold and two projects from the coal industry were selected due to the importance of these commodities in the South African economy. Actual technical and cost parameters were analysed and compared against the initially planned values. Financial comparisons were carried out in similar money terms. An impact of the planned NPV by actual performance was also analysed. This was only undertaken for projects whose DCF was published in the public domain. Most of the projects reviewed in this study did not reach the planned production, exceeded operating costs and/or capital expenditure. Technical factors contributing to this, included change in design during development, additional water handling, ageing infrastructure, lack of mining flexibility, and geological difficulties being the most common factor. The most common non-technical factors included community and labour unrest. Following the approach developed by Khosravi and Afshari (2011) in the construction industry, an empirical equation was formulated based on success criteria identified by McCarthy (2014), which were rated by mining professionals, in a survey, according to their sensitivity to the success or failure of mining projects. Capital cost overrun was rated the most sensitive criterion to project failure, while schedule overrun was deemed to be the least sensitive to project success by mining professionals. Only five projects, out of the 11 selected for this study, were assessed using this equation, due to insufficient data on other projects in the public domain. The results of this assessment enabled the projects to be ranked according to their relative success. The results of this assessment demonstrated that a project can still be in operation although it is performing far below its original design criteria.