The Funding of a Public Service Broadcaster in View of Competition: a South African Perspective

The South African public service broadcaster (SABC) was transformed significantly by the Broadcasting Act 4 of 1999. Since the transformation, there have been many developments that have had an impact on the broadcasting industry, in particular public service broadcasting. The developments in the broadcasting industry left the SABC with serious financial problems. It also had to contend with other problems such as management and the issue of focusing on its mandate. This triggered intervention from the government in an effort to rescue the SABC from the disaster. There is currently a high rate of non-payment of television license fees. Further, the public service broadcaster is competing with commercial broadcasters which make it difficult for the SABC to focus on its mandate. In view of these problems, it is important to explore some of the issues which could resolve some of the problems faced by the public broadcaster. Most recently, the Department of Communications made an announcement about a discussion paper which will focus mainly on reviewing the Broadcasting Act, restructuring and shaping of the SABC.Â

The role of ex-offenders in implementing the Community Work Programme as a crime and violence prevention initiative

This article deals with the perceived impact of the Community Work Programme (CWP) (a statesponsored job creation project) in preventing crime and violence in the townships of Ivory Park and Orange Farm, South Africa. The focus of this article is on the role that ex-offenders who work in the CWP play in the implementation of crime and violence prevention initiatives in the two communities. Individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with ex-offenders involved in the CWP. The thematic content analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings show that the involvement of ex-offenders in the CWP was found to be a positive factor in that it protected them from recidivism by providing them with job opportunities and facilitating their re-integration into their communities. Ex-offenders described their involvement in the CWP as an opportunity to apologise for the pain they had caused community members when they committed crimes against them. It is against this background that the CWP is perceived to have a positive impact through the community work done by ex-offenders who talk to the youth-at-risk about the negative consequences of crime and violence, as well as of substance abuse.Key words: Community Work Programme, crime, ex-offenders, violence, youth

Analysis of the Relationship between Inflation, Economic growth and Agricultural growth in Swaziland from 1980-2013

While there is an on-going debate on the nexus between economic growth and inflation, with some authors arguing a positive relationship and others arguing a negative relationship, policymakers are faced with the need to balance economic growth with low inflation. Although monetary policies have been undertaken to curb inflation in Swaziland, its economic growth remains slow. This study investigated the relationship between inflation, agricultural growth and economic growth in Swaziland for the period 1980 to 2013. The existence of long-run relationship and causality were tested. The study also determined the inflation threshold in Swaziland. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ADRL) model, a long-run relationship between these variables was found to exist. Granger causality results show that, in 1980-2013, there was uni-directional causality in Swaziland that flows from economic growth to inflation, no causality was detected between economic growth and agricultural growth, and between inflation and agricultural growth. Using the non-linear model, Swaziland’s inflation threshold was estimated at 12.56% with respect to economic growth and 10.36% with respect to agricultural growth. The elasticities from the long-run and short-run regressions showed that inflation has a negative impact of about 2% in the long-run on the economy and  impacts positively by about 0.05% in the short-run. In the short-run, the agricultural growth has a positive relationship with the economic growth in Swaziland, with an influence of 15% on economic growth.Based on these findings it is recommended that the Government promote the agricultural sector and that the monetary authorities in Swaziland Government pay more attention to the inflation trend and pursue policies that will ensure single digit inflation. Keywords: Agricultural growth, ARDL, GDP, economic growth, inflation, threshol

Investigation into the phenomenon of reduced household travel survey derived trip generation rates in Gauteng province

Gauteng Province has carried out two household travel surveys (HTS) ? the first was carried out in 2000 and the recent one was completed in 2014. HTSs are the mainstay of transport planning and modelling, being used by the province to update the Gauteng Provincial Strategic Transport Model, among other things. The household AM peak trip generation rates according to this recent survey are indicated to be lower than that found in the 2000 HTS. A similar trend has been reported in South Africa, albeit with moderate changes. The paper investigates the statistical significance of the lower trip generation rates for the current HTS and further interrogates the results to determine plausible causes for the lower trip generation rates. While factors such as reduced household size, increased unemployment and peak spreading are found to be present, it is the design of the survey instrument resulting in respondent fatigue that is found to be the main cause. In response, the paper provides some recommendations for improved design of survey instruments for cases where whole day travel is being measured.Paper presented at the 35th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 4-7 July 2016 "Transport ? a catalyst for socio-economic growth and development opportunities to improve quality of life", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.The Minister of Transport, South AfricaTransportation Research Board of the US

Lack of institutional services: the impact on household food Insecurity in Ntambanana, KwaZulu-Natal

The aim of this study was to explore how food security at household level is affected by lack of institutional services. This study particularly looks at how these constraints affect access to food and assess the availability of institutional services such as the availability of extension services in Ntambanana. The availability of institutional support in rural areas is regarded as means of rural development which eliminate problems of access to food and other services. The general findings of the study reveal that assessment and evaluation of policies that are based on rural development and food security is very important. These include improving communication amongst various stakeholders, creating an enabling environment for local businesses, ensuring the availability of facilities such as storage, communication and transport facilities. The results reflect that socio – economic conditions play an important role in accessing food by looking at the level of purchasing power in the community. This study concludes that the cost effective ways to improve access to food is to assist local small scale businesses to earn cash through creating market for them and invest in institutional services that lead to improving food security. The study recommends that improved rural institutional services sustains food security as well as contributes to the improvement in the living conditions of rural households

How universal is the Wigner distribution?

We consider Gaussian ensembles of m N x N complex matrices. We identify an enhanced symmetry in the system and the resultant closed subsector, which is naturally associated with the radial sector of the theory. The density of radial eigenvalues is obtained in the large N limit. It is of the Wigner form only for m=1. For m \ge 2, the new form of the density is obtained.Comment: 16 pages; references adde

Fischer–Tropsch: Product Selectivity–The Fingerprint of Synthetic Fuels

The bulk of the products that were synthesized from Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is a wide range (C1–C70+) of hydrocarbons, primarily straight-chained paraffins. Additional hydrocarbon products, which can also be a majority, are linear olefins, specifically: 1-olefin, trans-2-olefin, and cis-2-olefin. Minor hydrocarbon products can include isomerized hydrocarbons, predominantly methyl-branched paraffin, cyclic hydrocarbons mainly derived from high-temperature FTS and internal olefins. Combined, these products provide 80–95% of the total products (excluding CO2) generated from syngas. A vast number of different oxygenated species, such as aldehydes, ketones, acids, and alcohols, are also embedded in this product range. These materials can be used to probe the FTS mechanism or to produce alternative chemicals. The purpose of this article is to compare the product selectivity over several FTS catalysts. Discussions center on typical product selectivity of commonly used catalysts, as well as some uncommon formulations that display selectivity anomalies. Reaction tests were conducted while using an isothermal continuously stirred tank reactor. Carbon mole percentages of CO that are converted to specific materials for Co, Fe, and Ru catalysts vary, but they depend on support type (especially with cobalt and ruthenium) and promoters (especially with iron). All three active metals produced linear alcohols as the major oxygenated product. In addition, only iron produced significant selectivities to acids, aldehydes, and ketones. Iron catalysts consistently produced the most isomerized products of the catalysts that were tested. Not only does product selectivity provide a fingerprint of the catalyst formulation, but it also points to a viable proposed mechanistic route

Government social protection and households’ welfare during the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa

Purpose – This study evaluates the impact of government social protection interventions on households’ welfare in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses survey data comprising 393 observations and the multinomial logistic regression technique to analyse the effect of government interventions on households’ welfare. For robustness purposes, a negative binomial regression model is also estimated whose results corroborate the main results from the multinomial regression model. Findings – The study’s findings show that government economic interventions through social protection significantly reduce the likelihood of a decrease in household income or consumption. COVID-19 grant/social relief of distress grant, unemployment insurance, tax relief and job protection and creation are all significant in sustaining household income and consumption. Practical implications – The findings have policy implications for social development. Specifically, the findings support the use of government social protection as a safety net for low-income groups in South Africa. Originality/value – The study presents preliminary evidence on the effectiveness of several measures used to ameliorate the COVID-19-induced recession within the South African context