Retail format selection : occupancy cost and profitability

Abstract: Retail property management teams neglect the influence of occupancy costs and the resultant profitability of different retail formats when assessing their decision to expand. The aim of this research was to provide an easy-to-understand profitability equation for shopping centres and stand-alone outlets to guide retail property management teams in their decision-making process. A quantitative study, using secondary data obtained from a single retailing group and analysed using a simplified profitability formula, was conducted. The research endeavoured to determine the influence of rent on profitability to provide financial guidance to property management teams when benchmarking different retail formats. This included an investigation into the relationship between size and rent value besides the comparison of the profitability of different retail formats. Although financial considerations form an important part of the decision making process, retail property management teams should continue to combine the results of financial benchmarking with consumer preferences to achieve optimum results

Vigilantism as a feature of political decay in the post-1994 South African dispensation

Little research has been done on the phenomenon of vigilantism in South Africa. Vigilantism describes the action of citizens who take the law into their own hands, making use of violent methods, in the context of inadequate law enforcement by the state and the collapse of public order. In an environment of political instability, lack of public order and related security problems, groups such as People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD), Mapoga-a-Mathamaga and “people’s courts” have come into being as vigilante organisations. This article describes and analyses vigilantism in South Africa against the backdrop of disintegrating public order

The post-election political environment: A critical assessment

From a Political Science perspective nothing is more difficult to understand than the nature of political change and specifically disequilibrium change. Political change or "the alteration of an existing state ... (or) condition ... (or) an observed difference between a past and present condition" becomes more and more a reality of our everyday life (compare Palmer 1987:7). The well-known futurologist Alvin Toffler (1990:3), emphasized the fact that "(we) are living at a moment when the entire structure that held the world together is now disintegrating. A radically different structure of power is taking form and this is happening at every level of human society." In South Africa we are not insulated from political change and even fundamental (disequilibrium) political change on all levels of society. During the past decade South Africans experienced far-reaching political, economic and social changes with the promise of even more changes in the next five to ten years

Vigilantism as a feature of political decay in the post-1994 South African dispensation

Little research has been done on the phenomenon of vigilantism in South Africa. Vigilantism describes the action of citizens who take the law into their own hands, making use of violent methods, in the context of inadequate law enforcement by the state and the collapse of public order. In an environment of political instability, lack of public order and related security problems, groups such as People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD), Mapoga-a-Mathamaga and “people’s courts” have come into being as vigilante organisations. This article describes and analyses vigilantism in South Africa against the backdrop of disintegrating public order

The insufficient formulation and vagueness of the definition ‘Traditional Health Practitioner’ as included in the Traditional Health Practitioners Act (Act No 22, 2007) of South Africa

Background The main focus of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007) is the regulation of traditional healing in South Africa. The role player who has to deliver this traditional health service to the public is the statutorily recognized traditional health practitioner. However, thus far the precise health practice offered, training and the practitioner’s role as a healer in the society, have not been clearly defined. The various definitions and descriptions in the literature of the identity of the traditional healer are contradictory, making the formulation of a single definition and meaning impossible. Aims The study aimed to determine a definition for traditional health practitioner. Methods This is an exploratory and descriptive study in line with the modern historical approach of the investigation and review of the available research. The emphasis is on using documentation like articles, books and newspapers as primary resources to reflect on everyday thinking and opinions around the identity of the traditional healer. The findings are represented in narrative format. Results The Traditional Health Practitioners Act’s regulations, as embedded in its 52 Sections, create a legal framework of definitions. One specific definition outlines what is meant by the traditional health practitioner. This definition includes four sub-types of healers, namely the diviner, herbalist, traditional birth attendant and traditional surgeon. Various other names for and types of traditional healers seem to exists outside the Act’s statutory definitions. It also seems as if the practice scopes, training and methods of diagnosis and treatments of these different healers are not uniform. Conclusion It seems that the legal definition of a traditional health practitioner, as offered by the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22, is vague and insufficiently formulated. This shortcoming frustrates the intention of the Act to make the traditional health practitioner the exclusive role player who has to deliver a traditional health service to the publi

Regime transition in South Africa - liberation oligarchical tendencies?

The important question now is Where is the second transition (in other words the post-Polokwane epoch) taking South Africa? Is the country moving away from polyarchy and approaching “a type of hegemony” as part of a larger regime transition to a possible oligarchy? The terra incognita of 2010 and further has to be explored urgently. With this in view a deductive theoretical model will indicate the direction of the second regime transition. Central concepts and structures to be included in this part of the article are complex systems, parties and party systems, as well as neopatrimonialism. The theoretical model will secondly be applied to the post-Polokwane South Africa

The Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 (2007) of South Africa

BackgroundYears of South African legislation on traditional healing practices preceded the Traditional Health Practitioners Act (Act No 22, 2007). The first laws date as far back as 1895. It seems as if the intention of the pre-1994 legislation was not to promote traditional healing practices, but to limit the power of the traditional healer.AimsThe study aims to describe the history that came before Act No 22 of 2007.Methods This is an exploratory and descriptive study in line with the modern-day historical approach of investigation and reviewing research. The emphasis is on the use of present-day documentation, like articles, books and newspapers, as primary sources to reflect on the development and promulgation of Act No 22. The findings are offered in narrative format.Results Various political and legal processes can be identified as contributing to the promulgation of the Act in 2007, especially after the 1994.ConclusionIt had taken more than 45 years of unofficial and seven years of official struggle to get Act No 22 promulgated in 2007. Today, nearly a decade after promulgation, it has still not been fully enacted