Governance of state-owned companies in the energy sector of South Africa: peculiarities and challenges

Ubiquitous political interference, especially from the governing African National Congress through cadre deployment practice of patronage, has undermined strategic and operational efficacy within state-owned entities such as ESKOM, contributing to loadshedding due to the unavailability of electricity for many hours daily. A critical analysis is undertaken through desktop literature review and document analysis to juxtapose institutional performance between ESKOM as a non-performing state-owned entity and TELKOM as a performing state entity in meeting performance objectives and strategic goals to contribute to the National Development Plan of creating an economically viable and capable state in South Africa. The study aims to contribute to deepening debates and public discourse about strengthening performance efficacy within public sector institutions and entities and towards achieving the strategic goals of the National Development Plan of building a capable and capacitated South African developmental state

The implementation of the National Certificate Vocation Programme at Tswane North FET College

A curriculum change process was implemented at the further education and training colleges in South Africa as a result of the new Further Education and Training Colleges (FECT) Act of 2006. Through the FECT Act of 2006, the new National Certificate Vocation programme replaced the Nated Report 190 programme. This curriculum change process occurred in an absence of a relevant qualifications' programme suitable for lecturers at further education and training colleges in South Africa. The FET colleges have different types of lecturers such as those who possess professional educational qualifications but lack workplace experience, those with practical workplace experience but lack professional teaching qualifications, and those who have passed the N6 qualifications at the former technical colleges but do not possess professional and workplace teaching experiences. The new National Certificate Vocation programme required FET college lecturers to acquire both theoretical and workplace experience in order to be able to teach at the FET college sector in South Africa. Most FET college lecturers were found wanting during the implementation of the new National Certificate Vocation programme as they lacked the relevant qualifications for the sector. The implementation of the new National Certificate Vocation programme occurred in an absence of skills audit for lecturers in the FET college sector to align their job requirements with the demands of the new NCV programme. This resulted in poor performance in classroom teaching that has been shown through poor learner output within the FET college sector in South Africa. A research project was undertaken using a qualitative research methodology through a single exploratory case study design where an interview schedule was developed to conduct interviews with ten lecturers at the Pretoria campus of the Tshwane North FET college and a Further Education and Training Expert. The themes that emerged during data analysis as identified by respondents which are attributed to poor implementation of the new NCV programme were: selection and recruitment, commitment and motivation, favouritism in the training of FET college lecturers, continuing professional IV development, curriculum change, learner enrolment, and administrative workload. Recommendations were made to address all the implementation problems identified by lecturers at the Pretoria campus of the Tshwane North FET College

Organizational culture and management practices at technical vocational education and training colleges

Building an effective organizational culture of high performance has proven to be elusive amongst strategic and operational managers of selected public technical vocational education and training (TVET) colleges in the Gauteng province in the post-merger period of 2007 to 2010. Poor organizational culture demonstrated by a lack of the Ubuntu principles of humanness and teamwork; management inefficiency and instability undermined the role of public TVET colleges in the Gauteng province, South Africa. The identified knowledge gap is a paucity of information on how the values of Ubuntu are infused into management practices to improve organizational management practices. A mixed methods research approach that adopted multiple case studies, unstructured interviews and survey questionnaires was undertaken to assess an organizational culture and management practices by strategic and operational managers, and lecturers at selected public TVET colleges. Descriptive statistical and thematic analyses were employed to generate, interpret, and analyze the findings from participating managers and lecturers. The findings revealed the need to re-purpose public TVET colleges in South Africa to align with the strategic priorities and goals of the National Development Plan: Vision 2030. Strategic and operational managers should also be capacitated with stakeholder relations building and management skills to create student workplace opportunities with businesses and industries