Capacity Building Challenges of Municipal Councillors in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality in the Free State Province

Published ArticleThrough the introduction of the relatively new council structures for metropolitan municipalities in South Africa, and the new mandate for municipalities, the traditional role of councillors has broadened to encompass additional responsibilities and functions. Therefore, municipal councillors (proportional public representative (PR) councillors) require specific competencies and skills in order to ensure the effective operation of their local municipality. The efficacy of municipal councillors in respect of service delivery is increasingly being questioned in the wake of recent service delivery protests and negative reporting on the state of the local government sphere. The current state of affairs relating to municipal councillors raises numerous questions about the required skills and capacity building challenges to successfully execute their mandate. The aim of this article is to further investigate by means of an interview schedule the training and capacity building challenges of municipal councillors in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality in the Free State Province. A qualitative research methodology is adopted for the realisation of the above aim. An interview schedule was utilised as a tool that contains the predetermined questions prepared in order to acquire the insight, knowledge and application of the persons involved and familiar with the municipal councillor processes and challenges. The requirements, purpose, roles, functions and mandate of municipal councillors will be provided. The findings of the empirical study will be provided, followed by specific recommendations pertaining to capacity building and training initiatives to address these challenges

Selecting a pricing strategy : a statistical approach

Published ArticlePricing management, as part of the marketing strategy of an organisation, is a difficult and highly complex - but also critically important - management activity, as it affects the revenue and therefore the profits of an organisation. However, scholars such as Bruck (2010), Cram (2006:5), Eugster, Kakkar and Roegner (2000:133), Hinterhuber (2004:765) and Pratt (2007) believe that the pricing function in organisations has largely been neglected by managers and academics and that price is generally set by guesswork and not by scientific means. This article maintains that the pricing function in an organisation can be successfully managed through the implementation of a pricing plan. A critically important step in the pricing plan is to select a pricing strategy or combination of pricing strategies to set the price of a product or service. A number of nonparametric statistical tests are available to assist management in the selection of the most suitable pricing strategy, or combination of pricing strategies, when determining the price of a product or service. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the use of statistical methods in selecting a pricing strategy as part of a comprehensive pricing plan. The article contains an analysis of selected literature, while taking a descriptive and statistical approach to demonstrate the use of statistical methods in selecting a pricing strategy

A programmable logic controller based laboratory analysis of conventional and intelligent control schemes for non-liner systems

Published ArticleIntelligent Neural Network (NN) based control schemes have surmounted many of the limitations found in the conventional control approaches such as Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control. Nevertheless, these modern control techniques have only recently been introduced for use on industrial computational platforms such as the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). Intelligent control on PLCs thus remains an area that is open to further research and development. In this paper, a strongly non-linear mechatronic type system, namely the Ball-on-Wheel balancing system, is developed using a PLC as its control platform. The research details the implementation of an intelligent controller on a standard, medium specification PLC. The results from the intelligent controller are then compared to those produced by a variety of conventional controllers as physical parameters are varied. Finally, the system is presented as a stimulating educational tool that addresses the knowledge gap that exists in industry pertaining to the implementation of these intelligent control algorithms on PLCs

Wireless fault monitoring of robotic cells using android tablet pcs within automotive production

Published ArticleThis paper presents the work on the development of software for an Android based mobile device. The goal being not only for a working application, but also to optimise the development process to ensure a user friendly application. Android is an ideal platform for connecting man and machine in a fast moving production environment. With its current popularity and market share it allows engineers to easily create flexible software applications to monitor and control industrial processes and machines. This software if not properly designed can lead to stability and maintenance problems. The experience gained from developing, maintaining and improving a mobile application for monitoring production faults, results in the improved response between man and machine. Further on it will be shown how the application can be used for data capturing purposes, thereby simplifying the data capturing process

Insects for turkeys

In a trial with 14 pens with in each 20 turkey pullets (males, not treated) research has been conducted to the effect of feeding 12% insect larvae (Black Soldier Fly) on technical results and behaviour. The birds were kept until 5 weeks of age. The larvae fed groups ate less, had a higher growth rate, a better feed conversion ratio and a higher body weight at 5 weeks of age. Mortality was not different between the treatments. Compared to the controls the BSF larvae fed birds had less feather damage and less skin damage and performed less aggressive behaviour. Also they performed less foraging behaviour in the third and fifth week compared to the controls and a lower water intake. On the other hand at five weeks of age the BSF larvae fed birds had more footpad lesions than the controls, although litter quality did not differ between the treatments. In conclusion it can be stated that feeding insect larvae does give small advantages, but does not solve the problem of injurious pecking

Mechanisms to strengthen accountability and oversight within municipalities, with specific reference to the Municipal Public Accounts Committee and the Audit Committee of Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality

Published ArticlePublic accountability is, to an increasing extent, becoming one of the main requirements of good governance in all spheres of government. Ijeoma and Sambumbu (2013:282) maintain that effective accountability and oversight result in improved good corporate governance, effective management of public finances and effective service delivery. Thornhill (2015:79) states that accountability refers to “a statutory obligation to provide for independent and impartial observers holding the right of reporting their findings at the highest levels of state, any available information about financial administration which they may request”. On the other hand, oversight entails the proactive control mechanisms initiated by the legislature for the executive and administrative organs of state to encourage compliance with the statutory and legislative frameworks, in order to ensure effective delivery on agreed objectives for the achievement of government priorities (South African Legislative Sector, 2008:4). This article seeks to determine what oversight and accountability mechanisms are currently applied within municipalities. For the purpose of this article the mechanisms to promote accountability and oversight within municipalities, with specific reference to the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) and Audit Committee of Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, will be discussed, followed by a discussion of the current challenges of accountability and oversight within municipalities. The article further aims to make specific recommendations to strengthen accountability and oversight within municipalities in the Free State Province

Multi-temporal Remote Sensing Land-cover Change Detection for Biodiversity Assessment in the Berg River Catchment

Due to the intimate relationship that exists between land cover and biodiversity it is possible to draw inferences on the current state of the biodiversity of an area, assess the likely future pressures and plan accordingly based on an analysis of land-cover change. As a means of assessing the state of biodiversity in the Cape Floristic Region, two land-cover maps (1986/7 and 2007) were developed and demonstrated for the Berg River catchment in the Western Cape province of South Africa using multispectral Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data. The land-cover maps were produced to an accuracy of 85% using an object-orientated nearest neighbour supervised classification. The existing vegetation types of South Africa data set were superimposed on the newly classified remnants of natural vegetation to model changes in biodiversity. It was found that the area occupied by natural vegetation increased by more than 14%, suggesting an increase in biodiversity from 1986/7 to 2007. Considerable variation between vegetation types was, however, recorded. The land cover mapping, change analysis and biodiversity modelling methods employed by this study show that land-cover change analysis provides an ideal platform from which to initiate more intensive analyses of biodiversity change and conservation. Some limitations to the use of Landsat imagery for biodiversity monitoring are discussed

The Need for Active Debt Management in Financially Challenged Municipalities in the Free State Province

Published ArticleIn terms of section 155(4) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, all municipalities (metropolitan, district and local municipalities) are expected to raise their own revenues in addition to the transfers they receive from national government. This principle is an important feature of any democratic local government system, creating a revenue-service link between the municipality and its customers that empowers customers to hold the municipality directly accountable for the services it provides. However, municipalities’ own revenue collection has been significantly declining as a result of greater reliance placed on intergovernmental transfers as a revenue source. It is of concern that in many cases, the funds dedicated to service delivery, development and growth are being mismanaged by municipal officials, and in many instances due to political interference. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to identify debt management, its consequences, and the development of an integrated debt management model for municipalities in the Free State Province. This article provides a theoretical review of debt management, legislative frameworks for local government financial administration as well as the challenges facing municipalities in financial distress within the Free State Province regarding debt management. The article concludes by discussing the integrated debt management model as a result of conclusions drawn from the theoretical and the empirical study. The article argues that the integrated debt management model as an intervention can be operationalised to assist financially challenged municipalities in the Free State Province with current debt management challenges

Strange Particle Production Via The Weak Interaction

The differential cross sections for the neutrino-induced weak charged current production of strange particles in the threshold energy region are presented. The general representation of the weak hadronic current is newly developed in terms of eighteen unknown invariant amplitudes to parametrize the hadron vertex. The Born term approximation is used for the numerical calculations in the framework of the Cabibbo theory and SU(3) symmetry. For unpolarized octet baryons four processes are investigated, whereas in the case of polarized baryons only one process is chosen to study the sensitivity of the differential cross section to the various polarizations of the initial state nucleon and the final state hyperon.Comment: This paper was originally submitted to Physical Review C and published on 30 August, 201

The modulation of stationary waves, and their response to climate change, by parameterized orographic drag

The parameterization of orographic drag processes in atmospheric models remains uncertain due to a lack of observational and theoretical constraints on their formulation and free parameters. While previous studies have demonstrated that parameterized orographic drag acting near the surface has a significant impact on the atmospheric circulation, this work follows a more systematic approach to investigate its impacts on the large scale circulation and the circulation response to climate change. A set of experiments with a comprehensive atmospheric general circulation model is used to ascertain the range of climatological circulations that may arise from parameter uncertainty. It is found that the Northern Hemisphere (NH) wintertime stationary wave field is strongly damped over the North Pacific (NP) and amplified over the North Atlantic (NA) as a result of increased low-level parameterized orographic drag, both of which are shown to be conducive to higher-latitude westerlies. A comparison with the stationary wave field presented in other studies suggests that the too zonal NA jet and equatorward NP jet biases that are prevalent in climate models may be at least partly due to their representation of orographic drag. The amplitude of the stationary wave response to climate change across the experiments is shown to scale with the magnitude of low-level parameterized orographic drag through its influence on the present-day climatological stationary wave amplitudes over different sectors of the NH, which is consistent with linear stationary wave theory. This work highlights the importance of fidelity in a model's basic state for regional climate change projections