University of South Africa

About: University of South Africa is a education organization based out in Pretoria, South Africa. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Population. The organization has 8478 authors who have published 19960 publications receiving 237688 citations. The organization is also known as: Unisa.

Socio-economic factors influencing smallholder farmers agricultural infrastructure availability, accessibility and satisfaction: A case on North West province in South Africa

Abstract: The study investigated the socio-economic factors contributing to smallholder farmers’ availability, accessibility and satisfaction of agricultural infrastructure. Using cross-sectional data from the North West Province of South Africa. One hundred and fifty smallholder farmers were selected using the stratified sampling to group the farmers to those had agricultural infrastructure and to those that did not have the agricultural infrastructure. The data were coded, captured and analyzed using STATA 14.0, the methods used to analyze the data were descriptive analyses and Tobit Regression Models. The results of the Tobit Regression Model showed, among other factors influencing the availability of agricultural infrastructure, the following variables played a critical role; household members’ assistance in farming enterprise; farm ownership; farm acquisition; farmer Occupation; member of farmer organizations; sources of labour and farming experience and agricultural production inputs. In terms of agricultural infrastructure accessibility, the following variables played a critical role; engage in non-farming activities; contact to extension services; farm ownership; farmer occupation; member of farmer organizations; sources of labour; farming experience and land tenure. In terms of satisfaction with agricultural infrastructure, among other factors influencing satisfaction with agricultural infrastructure, the following variables played a critical role; organization for extension services; household members’ assistance in farming enterprise; farmer receives government agricultural support; farm ownership; member of farmer organisations; farmer age; education level; marital status and gender. The results from the analysis were used to close the gap of knowledge on the impact of agricultural infrastructure, availability, accessibility and satisfaction on the productivity and agricultural income of smallholder farmers in the North West Province.

Associations between Community Environmental-Level Factors and Diet Quality in Geographically Isolated Australian Communities.

Abstract: Remote Indigenous Australians experience disproportionately poor cardio-metabolic health, which is largely underpinned by adverse dietary intake related to social determinants. Little evidence exists about the community environmental-level factors that shape diet quality in this geographically isolated population group. This study aimed to explore the modifiable environmental-level factors associated with the features of dietary intake that underpin cardio-metabolic disease risk in this population group. Community-level dietary intake data were estimated from weekly store sales data collected throughout 2012 and linked with concurrent social, built, and physical environmental dimension data for 13 remote Indigenous Australian communities in the Northern Territory. Statistical analyses were performed to investigate associations. At the community level, store sales of discretionary foods were lower in communities with greater distance to a neighbouring store (r = -0.45 (p < 0.05)). Sales of sugar-sweetened beverages were lower in communities with higher levels of household crowding (r = -0.55 (p < 0.05)), higher levels of Indigenous unemployment (r = -0.62 (p = 0.02)), and greater distance to neighbouring stores (r = -0.61 (p = 0.004)). Modifiable environmental-level factors may be associated with adverse diet quality in remote Indigenous Australian communities and further investigations of these factors should be considered when developing policies to improve dietary intake quality in geographically isolated populations.

Township churches of Tshwane as potential change agents for local economic development: An empirical missiological study

Abstract: This article contributes towards ascertaining the potential of township churches as change agents for local economic development (LED) in Tshwane. Five church leaders (i.e. two from Soshanguve and three from Hammanskraal) were engaged through personal interviews to gain insights from them about their churches’ praxes and mission orientations in relation to community building, including LED in Tshwane. Based on these personal interviews, it was established that these churches have assets as well as current ministries that could be stepping-stones for LED.

The Effects of Foreign Resource Inflow and Savings on the Economic Growth of South Africa: A VAR Analysis

Abstract: This study adopts both the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) analysis and the Impulse-Response Function (IRF) to examine the importance and the effects of domestic savings and foreign direct investment (FDI) on South African economy, using data spanning over the period 1975 to 2011. While the level of domestic savings is quite low, compared to other emerging economies, South Africa has also been struggling to attract inflow of foreign resources. The form of savings in South Africa is different from the western way of savings; hence the low levels of domestic savings. The variables considered were tested for stationarity and they were all stationary before proceeding to test for cointegration and then estimate and VAR. The cointegration test revealed that there was at least one cointegrating equation; which signifies that there exists a long-run relationship among the variables. The results from the VAR Granger test of causality depicted that domestic savings lead economic growth, while economic growth leads investment. This result of the IRF also showed that while increased domestic savings is important to improve the level of economic growth in South Africa, it also leads FDI. This means that the economic environment needs to be suitable in order to attract foreign investments. The results obtained are reliable and stable as the model passes a battery of diagnostic tests. The study proposes some recommendations for policy.

Employee wellness in an ODL institutional contact centre

Abstract: Organisations can benefit from contact centres because they reduce the cost of functions and extend and improve service to customers; but do contact centres benefit an employee? A contact centre can be a stressful and demanding environment for an employee. The objective of this study was to establish the level of employee wellness in a contact centre within an open and distance learning (ODL) institution, from a sample of 102 of 138 employees working in the contact centre of an ODL university. The assessment was voluntary and the completed assessments provided for expert information with regard to the experiences of employees. The results indicate that there is an imbalance between job demands and job resources. There is also a concern with regard to the psychological conditions which negatively impact on the employees’ work and life outcomes. There is also severe pressure at this institution’s contact centre especially with regard to the availability of job resources which makes it difficult for employees to function optimally.