3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item The state of spectrum management reforms and the mobile broadband industry in the SADC region(2017-10-24) Thukani, Thabiso KennethSpectrum management reforms involve a departure from state-commanded administrative methods to market-driven property rights and or technology-enabled spectrum commons. This study explores spectrum management reforms that have been undertaken in the last decade, between 2006 and 2016, in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, with specific focus on the mobile broadband (MBB) industry. As a result, only spectrum bands allocated to terrestrial mobile and identified for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in ITU Region 1 (Europe, Middle East and Africa) were considered. The purpose was to firstly analyse the progress thus far in reforming spectrum management practice in the region and secondly to critically analyse the effects of these reforms on the MBB industry in SADC within the framework of high demand for more spectrum as the cornerstone for rapid diffusion of MBB. Using a constructivist case study methodology, qualitative research was conducted in three SADC countries, namely, Botswana, Zambia and South Africa, representing small, medium and large markets respectively. The study draws on published documents such as policies, legislation, regulations and directly from individuals tasked with spectrum management in public and private sector organisations in these countries. The findings reveal that several market-driven reforms such as technology and service neutrality, spectrum re-farming and administrative incentive pricing (AIP), together with technology-enabled reforms such as commons or license-exempt spectrum for MBB technologies are all becoming widespread in the region. However, secondary trading and auctions have been stillborn concepts, partly due to market concentration concerns and appropriateness issues. The artificial scarcity of MBB spectrum supply in SADC is laid bare against a backdrop of general scarcity for demand and a discord over how this spectrum should be assigned and to whom. Vast amounts of allocated mobile spectrum in SADC lie fallow or are encumbered by other services such as broadcasting or at times are historically assigned to Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) applications. Analysis of the data from these three country case study provides insights that may be relevant to many other countries in the region. In conclusion, the study advances that the implementation of spectrum management reforms should be nuanced as these can impact, positively or negatively, on the distributive agenda of government. This research further advances knowledge by positing a novel conceptual framework for spectrum management reform based on the finding that the latter is not a binary exercise of a departure from administrative approach to either a market-driven or a technology-enabled one. However, spectrum management reform can be a continuum on which different elements of administrative, market-driven and technology-enabled approaches can be applied to varying degrees, depending on the respective country’s context.Item Measuring the effect of regional integration on economic efficiency in the Southern African development community(2018) McGraw, Benjamin PatrickThis research report concerns the exploration of the efficiency effects of regional economic integration at the level of each member country. In specific, the question addressed is: does regional economic integration improve the economic efficiency of member countries? This broad question is narrowed down by focusing on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and by focusing on the integration index created recently by the three continental institutions of Africa: the AU, AfDB and UNECA. Efficiency will be measured using stochastic frontier, a parametric methodology that allows the estimation of a country’s production possibility frontier. Efficiency is thus estimated according to how close to its production possibility frontier an economy produces its output. The program used will be FRONTIER Version 4.1: http://www.uq.edu.au/economics/cepa/frontier.php.Item The legality of quantitative restrictions, sanitary and phtosanitary measures in the Southern African development community(2017) Thopacu, HildaAmong the trade restrictions that are prevalent in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are quantitative restrictions, sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS measures). When SADC members adopted the SADC Protocol on trade (Protocol) as the key legal instrument to regulate the liberalisation of intra-SADC trade in goods, it meant that SADC members should open up their borders to free trade in goods. This would also mean that trade restrictions appearing in the form of quantitative restrictions and SPS measures had to be removed, and for those that should be maintained, they must be consistent with the terms of the Protocol. The possibility of achieving this goal may be difficult due to specific gaps and inadequacies in some of the rules relating to the application and removal of quantitative restrictions. In addition, the SPS Annex to the Protocol has not been domesticated. Another challenge is the failure by SADC to effectively implement the requirements of transparency under the WTO SPS agreement. There is also the foreseeable challenge of failing to effectively fulfill the requirement to base SPS measures on scientific evidence due to lack of financial and technical resources. Even more, specific fundamental rules on harmonisation of SPS measures under the Protocol and SPS Annex are so mixed up that the nature and extent of SADC members’ commitment to harmonise SPS measures is uncertain. This mixture also creates a complex regime which could raise difficult challenges during implementation of the SPS Annex, should it finally enter into force. The fact that the development integration approach prioritises socio-economic development may even make the achievement of economic integration harder since divergent national interests’ takes precedence and overshadows effective leadership and decision making processes. Coupled with lack of political will, lack of strong leadership, and differences in culture and ideologies it is difficult to foresee how the legality of quantitative restrictions and SPS measures can be effectively determined within such a legal and political economy. That notwithstanding, it is possible to determine the legality of quantitative restrictions and SPS measures if there is a paradigm shift in the regulation of quantitative restrictions and a deliberate v concerted effort to jointly meet the terms of the SPS Annex especially for generic and prevalent health and life threatening risks in SADC. Again, SADC states need to be willing to respect their regional commitments, surrender even part of their sovereignty so that the legislative inadequacies in the fundamental provisions of the Protocol can be addressed in order to establish a broad set of rules that regulates NTBs and NTMs and also meets the peculiar trading conditions in the SADC region.Item Regional economic communities influencing policy: a study of information communications technology policy (on telecommunication) of four SADC countries(2017) Maulana, Godfree W.In the last three decades’ information and communication technology (ICT) has been a catalyst for an unprecedented social and economic revolution. In part, the revolution can be accredited to the rapid change in technology over the years, while on the other hand it can be attributed to reform changes which include, but are not limited to, the liberalisation of the sector. Countries introduced reforms in the ICT sector via targeted policy changes which facilitated change in the sector. They either formulated policies with the objective to remedy specific issues in their environment or adopted policies guided by the regional bodies. This study evaluates the extent to which country specific ICT policies adopt recommendations made by regional bodies. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) region is used for this research with four Member States ICT policies evaluated for conformity to the SADC recommendations, specifically with respect to the SADC Protocol on Transport, Communication and Meteorology. The policies are also evaluated against policy formulating techniques recommended when formulating policies. The focus of this study is the telecommunications policies of each of the chosen Member States and policy recommendations by SADC on same. The study employed desktop research and an analysis of the relevant documentation, which were interrogated for specific content with respect to previously identified policy objectives. These were then analysed against the SADC Protocol and the policy techniques. The policy formulating techniques are to ensure the policies under analysis are not conforming to the SADC recommendation due to poor policy writing techniques, however it is imperative for the reader to note that the research is on the conformity of the Member States to the policy recommendations by SADC. It emerged from the research that the Member States in SADC, under study, adopted policy recommendations made by SADC to varying degrees. There is also evidence of the use of specific policy-formulation techniques. Countries that have some evidence of use of policy techniques have better policy as evidence by achievements of the policy objectives. In order to formulate good policy not only must the regional body provide concise policy recommendations, the Member States must be able to formulate policy that would be in line with the recommendations. Regional bodies have an influence in member state policy formulation and there are benefits to be gained by regional economic communities if they have harmonised polices supported by Mwasha (nd). It also emerged that whilst there is policy reform in the ICT sector there is a dearth of research with regards to policy analysis and evaluation of the existing policies.Item Integration and leadership in Southern Africa: South Africa's strategy, opportunities and limitations(2018) Mamphogoro, Rabelani DanielAfter South Africa experienced a political transition in 1994, the regional integration dynamic in southern Africa also went under a considerable change. The new South Africa became a natural member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and also adopted the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). South Africa’s accession into SADC and its membership in SACU raised questions about its capability to lead and strengthen regional integration in the southern African region. Also central to this question was the debate around the best institutional framework that South Africa should use to promote regional integration in southern Africa. However, since the 1994 political transformation, South Africa has maintained a neutral policy position and strove to prove its capacity to lead and integrate the southern African region using both SADC and SACU. Thus, South Africa’s policy position has inspired two postures that are evoking that Pretoria should take a decisive policy position that will reflect on the path that it is has chosen to promote regional integration in southern Africa. However, despite the evocations from these two perspectives, South Africa has not yet taken either side of the policy positions on its approach to regional integration in southern Africa. Therefore it is against this background that this study seeks to engage into the argument of these perspectives, however, driven by the main objective of assessing South Africa’s capacity to lead, drive and strengthen southern African regional integration in the post-1994 era.Item Evaluating the peacemaking effectiveness of SADC(2018) Motsamai, DimphoThe purpose of this thesis is to contribute to research on how peacemaking interventions by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in member states experiencing recurrent political conflicts should be evaluated, and how their effectiveness can be measured. Peacemaking is understood as a varied approach to resolving conflicts, encompassing negotiation, diplomatic engagement, and mediation. Mediation refers to third party facilitation aimed at resolving conflicts. The main argument is that SADC mediation– which forms the core of its approach to peacemaking – is not oriented towards transforming conflicts. Most, if not all, of the political conflicts SADC has mediated have recurred in one form or another. These include conflicts in Lesotho, the recipient of the most SADC interventions to date in any member state since SADC’s formation, as well as Zimbabwe, whose political situation remained precarious five years after SADC mediation. Moreover, SADC lacks formal criteria for evaluating the efficacy of its mediation efforts. This has also been limited by the way in which it problematises conflicts, and conceptualises their resolution. This study applies the concept of systemic conflict transformation (SCT) as a conceptual framework for evaluating SADC’s mediation efforts in Lesotho and Zimbabwe. It finds that SADC was effective in managing those crises in the short term, but that the link between short-term progress and the longer-term transformation of conflicts was underemphasised in its mediation mandates. This is attributed to the absence of a comprehensive peacebuilding framework; an inadequate institutional interface between SADC and the countries in which it mediates; and an over-reliance on ‘track one’ diplomacy that excludes non-state and developmental partners from its peacemaking processes. The study concludes that the main condition driving SADC’s effectiveness in achieving conflict transformation is the degree to which it draws a distinction between achieving the objectives of its broader peacemaking mandate, and those outlined in the specific mediation mandate. It further concludes that the efficacy of SADC’s mediation efforts should therefore be evaluated against its broader regional mandate to promote democracy, stability, and development in its member states, regardless of the specificities of the given mediation.Item Civil-society participation in the Southern African development community (SADC) policy formulation and implementation processes(2018) Moyo, QhubaniThe research sought to find out whether the decision-making institutions of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) allow for stakeholder participation in policy-making. It is premised on an understanding that SADC claims to provide for stakeholder participation in its policy-making processes. This is stated in Article 23 of the SADC founding treaty which speaks of the institution’s desire to open up democratic space and allow for inclusivity in decision-making. Furthermore, there are practical and operational provisions for the participation of citizens through the SADC National Committees (SNCs) and an agreement with the SADC Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (CNGO). The research was done in 12 SADC countries, namely: Tanzania, Mauritius, Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho, Seychelles, Malawi, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. It was a qualitative study done through interviews of civil-society organisations (CSOs), government officials and employees of the SADC Secretariat. Data was collected using both primary and secondary data methods. Primary data was sourced from four categories of respondents, including: senior officials from the SADC Secretariat, senior government officials whose duties require interaction with civil-society institutions and senior officials from the SADC-CNGO. Secondary research data was sourced from documents, including records of the minutes of the SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government (Summit), the minutes of the SADC Council of Ministers (COM), SADC communiqués, SADC policy documents, civil-society policy drafts, SADC protocols, CSOs and SADC press releases. The key finding was that while in its founding documents SADC provides for participation of stakeholders in the policy-making processes, it is a different story in practice. The research revealed that the statutes of SADC, which speak of a need for promoting the participation of stakeholders in policy-making processes, have been largely ignored, as there is monopolisation of power by the SADC institution of the Summit. The primary institution for the participation of stakeholders in policy-making was identified as the SNCs, but these were found to be non-operational in most of the countries where the research was conducted. The reason for the inactive SNCs was identified as the absence of a structured framework by SADC to operationalise what is provided for in its statutes. The research found that if SADC is to achieve its goal of enhancing stakeholder participation in its policy-making processes, it needs to revive and strengthen the SNCs in each member state. The research concludes that for SADC to ensure effective stakeholder participation in its decision-making processes, the first point of call is to rehabilitate, strengthen and resource the SNCs. The research further concludes that civil society also needs to strengthen its organisational capacity for effective engagement with SADC leadership. The limitations of representative democracy are identified as one of the inhibiting factors for limited participation by stakeholders in SADC policy-making processes, and the research proposes the application of deliberative democracy as a way of enhancing stakeholder participation in the decision-making processes of the institution.Item Constructing a regional common foreign policy: a case study of ECOWAS and SADC(2016) Majoro, LehlohonoloThis study seeks to interrogate how regional institutions in Africa construct their foreign policies. States are faced with a continuously evolving global structure and as a result face complex challenges that require the collaboration of collective efforts to resolve. In order to overcome such challenges states are tasked with the challenge that involves finding ways to amalgamate their policy frameworks. This is a serious challenge, but one that states must overcome if they are to find effective solutions to growing global challenges. What this research has endeavoured to achieve is show exactly how the task of forging collective or common foreign policy is achieved and what institutions are best suited to help African regions achieve their goals of a common foreign policy. To this end, the study uses qualitative design and employs document and content analysis, focusing on the structure and history of the two organisations (ECOWAS and SADC). It then looks at the three foreign policy approaches (climate change, terrorism, and maritime security), comparing the coordination of each and seeking out what works in terms of finding and/ or building of the necessary institutions in order to gauge the cohesion of the regional organisations given different contexts. The adherence to sovereignty by member states has proven once again to be an impediment where collaboration particularly of the supranational nature is concerned. What this study has endeavoured to do is to show that despite an adherence to sovereignty certain goals can be achieved. While the adherence to sovereignty is deemed a constraint towards cohesive regionalisation, this study finds that the issue is not necessarily an adherence to sovereignty, but the imposition of unrealistic or misplaced targets such as the vision of the two African sub-regions to acquire supranational institutions. For the most part, the findings were that African regionalism continues to evolve as intergovernmental organisations. Using Brosig’s (2013) typology of convergence This study has not only shed light into what works as a framework for achieving set goals and targets, but it has also shed light into the different types of arrangements that can be achieved given different contexts. This study hopes to add value to the understanding of the African regional society and how it makes and implements its decisions, The hope is that this also sheds light into understanding reasons behind policy failures and their successes thereof.Item The politics and economics of regional integration in Africa: a comparative study of COMESA and SADC, 1980-2015(2016) Nagar, Dawn IsabelThis thesis examines the efforts of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to promote regional integration between 1980 and 2015 in the areas of trade and security. The conceptual framework provides a focused review of general and specific literature on two key concepts of regional integration: divergence, and convergence. Throughout the thesis, the core focus is on the divergence and convergence of COMESA and SADC. The thesis articulates two analytical frameworks: the neoclassical economics approach, and the neoclassical realist approach. A historical account focuses on the history of the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) of 1981 that evolved into COMESA by 1993. A history of Southern Africa’s Frontline States (FLS), which evolved into the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) in 1980, and later into SADC in 1992, is then provided. The thesis discusses apartheid South Africa’s involvement in the Eastern and Southern African regions. The thesis provides a discussion on the debate on the rationalisation processes of these two organisations: COMESA and SADC, between 1991 and 1997. The thesis next expands on the regionalisation processes of COMESA and SADC between 2008 and 2015. The main actors and factors assessed involve South Africa’s market-led regional approach, its regional developmental role and its economic impact on both regions since it joined SADC in 1994. The thesis expands on the two main regional integration approaches adopted by the COMESA–EAC (East African Community)–SADC Tripartite bloc (created in 2008) of variable geometry and trade liberalisation, as it moved towards its Tripartite Free Trade Area that was signed in June 2015. The thesis also provides definitions and assumptions of two new theories deployed to strengthen the research: i) neoclassical economic regional integration, and ii) neorealist security convergence, which are applied in the thesis. The thesis thus expands on how COMESA and SADC (as both institution and member states) manage multiple memberships. A central argument of the thesis is that multiple memberships have become a stumbling block for convergence. In furtherance of this argument, the thesis explains the benefits of regional integration schemes. Therefore assessed, is how developing countries are likely to be better served by “North–South” than by “South–South” free trade agreements. The analysis is expanded by a discussion of economic convergence in the neoclassical economic approach of open trade in regional trade agreements within the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) – whose five members all belong to SADC - with the presence of a regional hegemonic state: South Africa. To further expand the concept of regionalism to encompass security cooperation, the thesis finally assesses COMESA and SADC’s managing of regional security since the 2008 Tripartite Agreement, by employing the concept of regional security complexes.Item Transaction costs in foreign exchange markets as an impediment to intra-SADC trading(2011-11-10) Manyadu, SithembeleThe main goal of this research is to investigate whether foreign exchange transacting costs are an impediment to intra-regional trading within the Southern African Development Community SADC region. The research question posed has been whether foreign exchange trading costs affect the amount of intra-regional trading within the SADC region. Once the impediments relating to regional trading have been broken down and the cost effect on Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises SMMEs is established, then possible solutions are proposed. The research discovers that the cost of foreign exchange has an impact on intra-regional trading, but it is not the main hindrance to intra-regional trading in the SADC. It also discovers that the settlement risk of a foreign exchange transaction in the region has not yet been addressed to the same or similar extent as in the developed world. The extent of trading partners’ currency volatility is a function of the amount of trade between those trading partners. The SADC countries’ currency pairs volatility can be reduced by increased trade. Having said that, businesses need to plan and high levels of volatility tend to be disruptive. This is now the area where it is suggested that central banks within the region should actively participate in foreign exchange markets. Central banks should be the facilitator or price-maker of last resort in cases of lack of liquidity of local or foreign currencies. The research suggests that they should play a role in ensuring or reducing the amount of rapid currency spikes that lead to disorderly markets. The research also discovers that SMMEs are a core part of the economies of developing countries, and therefore a serious look at this sector of the economy is suggested. Mobile communication networks, like cell phones, are the current accessible and preferred communications tool among the geographical regions and areas that are hard to reach. Cell phones have also doubled as a form of payment among rural, African countries. The research suggests leeching on the current cell phone iii banking platforms to enable better foreign exchange reach to SMMEs and the general public. It suggests interlinking relationships between banks and cell phone networks, where the cell phone companies facilitate the accessibility and the banks’ liquidity. The report takes cognisance of the fact that, inasmuch as the countries in SADC are geographically close to each other, their political, economic and social dynamics can be wildly different. This would therefore mean that the proposed solutions are not necessarily a one-size-fits-all, but could be adjusted and tweaked to suit individual country dynamics.