Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Author "Dafuleya, Gift"

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    The coverage adequacy and graduation under the Expanded Public Works Programme in South Africa
    (2022-07-15) Mulungwa, Clement; Dafuleya, Gift; Netshikulwe, Matamela Juliet
    The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) is one of the South African government’s strategies to reduce poverty. It provides income relief by availing temporary work opportunities for South Africa’s unemployed people including those in rural areas such as the Thulamela Local Municipality. Studies on the EPWP in South Africa have mostly concentrated on the impact of the programme on unemployment and poverty, leaving a critical gap on issues such as coverage, adequacy and graduation of the programme. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the coverage, adequacy and graduation of the EPWP in South Africa. The study was executed at two levels. First, national data from the Department of Public Works (DPW) and Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) were used to assess the coverage and adequacy of EPWP. Secondly, primary data collected from the Thulamela municipal area were used to analyse the graduation component of the programme. SPSS and R Studio were used to analyse the quantitative data to determine the adequacy and coverage of EPWP. Panel regression analysis was used to evaluate how EPWP work opportunities created can be predicted in the model. Furthermore, binary logistic regression was conducted to estimate the probability of getting a job or starting their own business for the people who graduated from the EPWP. The study found that EPWP work opportunities significantly contributed to temporary relief from unemployment. However, the work opportunities created are still not enough to address the major problem of poverty and unemployment in South Africa. With regard to adequacy, the study found that the EPWP daily rate was higher than the daily international poverty line and all three South African national poverty lines. It was thus concluded that the EPWP wage rate was adequate. The findings concerning graduation are that EPWP training, gender and qualification were statistically significant to the model predicting whether or not an EPWP graduate will find a job after exiting the programme.
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    Determining, social assistance level in African and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
    (2019-09-20) Netshikulwe, Matamela Juliet; Dafuleya, Gift
    The need to realise steady economic growth, measured in this research by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), has ignited a plethora of studies about the contributors of economic growth and their optimal levels. Government expenditure is one contributor to economic growth. From a theoretical standpoint, optimal government size is depicted by an inverted U-curve known as the Armey curve which is hypothesised between the relationship of government size and economic growth. Empirical literature provides evidence that optimal government size is between 20-30 percent a share of GDP. However, little has been done to investigate the optimal level of isolated components of government spending that maximizes economic growth. One component of government spending that has gained limelight over the past decade is that of social assistance. Defined as public expenditure spent as cash and food transfers to the poor, this research uses social assistance expenditure to assess its optimal level that maximizes growth. This is important because some policymakers are concerned about the ballooning budgets directed at social assistance, and argue that the scarce resources need to be transferred to other social services sectors such as health and education. Basing on the panel-data accessed from the World Bank, this research uses the quadratic equation model to determine the optimal level of social assistance for African and Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries covering the period 2009-15. The finding is that the optimal level of social assistance spending for African and OECD countries is 3.2 percent of GDP and 29.4 percent of GDP respectively. The study also finds that both African and OECD countries operate below the optimal levels and it is suggested that they need to increase social assistance spending in order to realize positive contributions to economic growth.