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Community Development

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/6675

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Browsing Community Development by Author "Khalema, Ernest Nene."

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    Appraising the participation of Khula village communities in Isimangaliso Wetland Park tourism initiatives in South Africa.
    (2016) Moloi, Marole Nkosikhona.; Khalema, Ernest Nene.
    Tourism is one of South Africa’s major drivers of economic growth, which has been growing over the past decade. As such, South Africa remains focused on developing and expanding tourism etiquette to boost the industry in order to stir up and achieve development growth through it. This research explores the effectiveness of tourism in impacting development by looking one of the most impressive centers of tourism in the country, iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Since South Africa has adopted tourism as a developmental strategy, it tries to maximize on the industry to benefit local communities, and reach out to the poor people within those communities especially in rural areas. Therefore, the research utilizes the understanding of Pro-poor tourism (PPT) to bring out an understanding of how strategies in tourism can be considered for generating benefits for the poor in various communities. Others include, responsible tourism, eco-tourism, community-based tourism and sustainable tourism. Therefore, the South African tourism sector is actively taking an upfront approach to proactively pursue sustainable tourism measures that can quickly accrue much benefits to millions of local people ([mostly] in rural areas), particularly poor people living in and around Tourist Destination Areas (TDAs). However, these strategies may face some challenges in reaching their anticipated targeted goals. The research therefore, investigates the various positive and negative environmental and socio-economic impacts that lie behind tourism that have been imparted onto the surrounding communities/areas of iSimangaliso Wetland Park in South Africa.
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    Community development: evaluating governance sphere and service delivery challenges: the case study of Inkosi Langalibalele local municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
    (2021) Moloi, Marole Nkosikhona.; Khalema, Ernest Nene.
    Since the advent of democracy in South Africa, municipal governance and service delivery has been marred with many challenges. These include but are not limited to high levels of corruption, performance, lack of transparency, poor financial management, lack of competent leadership and poor service delivery. All these challenges reflect poor governance across most local governments, often resulting in service delivery protests. This study sought to reflect and evaluate governance and service delivery sphere challenges in the Inkosi Langalibalele Municipality as one of the municipalities placed under “provincial intervention” as per Section 139 of the Constitution of South Africa of 1996. Since 2017, Inkosi Langalibalele Municipality has been under “provincial intervention” to address failures in delivering essential services, poor functioning of oversight structures, lack of consequence management, and inability to demonstrate sound financial management. Though there is a consistent exploration of different challenges and loopholes existing in municipal governance across studies, there remains a dearth of the researcher that engaged in critical evaluation of the impact of “provincial intervention” in addressing governance and service delivery challenges in South Africa. Therefore, this study aimed to provide a detailed evaluation of governance and service delivery challenges in a municipality under “provincial intervention”. To adequately address this, a contextual study approach had to be conducted, and the following questions were crucial in guiding the study: (i)What is the relationship between good governance and service delivery in Inkosi Langalibalele Municipality?;(ii) What are governance and service delivery approaches utilized by the Municipality?; (iii) What are existing governance and service delivery challenges in the Municipality? and; (iv) What are strategies to improve governance and service delivery in the Municipality? Using a qualitative exploratory research design, 20 in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants to understand the governance and service delivery challenges and identify measures that can be used to address these challenges. The study's findings revealed that there have not been any significant improvements in the governance infrastructures with the provincial intervention in place. On the contrary, service delivery remains very slow, and public participation processes have been grossly affected. Improving standards of local governments while detached from the constitutional values of public participation is a crucial challenge that needs attention if “provincial interventions” are to be successfully effective in practice.
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    Examining career development approaches to address youth unemployment in Ixopo, KZN: community-informed perspectives.
    (2019) Dlamini, Lindokuhle Simphiwe.; Khalema, Ernest Nene.
    Youth unemployment in South Africa has significantly increased in the last few years. While youth unemployment rates have increased across all racial groups and geographical areas in the country, the black youth from rural areas seem to be carrying more burden of unemployment. Ixopo town in Kwa Zulu Natal province, which has a predominantly rural African population was selected for this study. The rural village was chosen because, like many rural areas in South Africa, it is facing enormous challenges of youth unemployment. The study aimed to examine the career development approaches and practices used to address youth unemployment in rural areas. A qualitative study was undertaken at the Ixopo community to examine the career development approaches and practices used. In collecting the data, semi-structured interviews, a focus group discussion and documentary sources used. A sample population of twenty-three (23) participated in the study through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Semi-structured interviews administered to 4 local teachers, 2 community members, 2 community development workers,1 municipal official and 4 university students who originate from the community. A focus group discussion was held with ten (10) Grade 12 learners from the local high school — thematic data analysis employed to analyse the collected data. The findings show that the rate of youth unemployment is very high in rural areas. It is also evident that there is an increasing rate of unemployed youth which is not in education, employment or training (NEETs). Meanwhile, the rising number of young unemployed graduates is also becoming a massive concern to the rural communities and the country. The research concluded that some of the major causes for the high rural youth unemployment include: Low levels of education due to early exit from the schooling system; high levels of poverty resulting to high rates of school dropouts; unavailability of industries to employ in the rural communities; as well as the lack of adequate career development and guidance to prepare youth for future careers and employment. The study also found that learners in rural areas lack career ambition and inspiration because they often struggle to balance their severe socio-economic condition and studies. In terms of career development approaches and practices, it emerged that the schooling system is weak in the delivery of career development and guidance. The study revealed that teachers not equipped to deliver career guidance to learners; they lack sufficient training on career guidance and counselling, and there is a lack of resources and relevant updated information for them to the effective delivery of career guidance in the rural schools. The study also shows that the schools and the local municipalities are making an effort to provide career guidance services through annual career exhibitions, roadshows and other interventions. However, these do not seem to achieve the desired outcome because the responses often compete with socio-economic challenges like poverty, which distract the youth from focusing on their education and careers. Hence, the study also scrutinized the socio-economic, environmental and individual factors that affect the delivery of career development and guidance in rural areas. The study shows that the socio-environmental and individual factors have massive influence in the delivery of career development and future employability of rural youth. These factors include the influence of family; poverty; peers; career gender and stereotypes; lack of role models, lack of self -confidence and lack of access to information, communication and technology (ICT), among others. The effect of these influences is that they either limit or increase future employment prospects for rural youth. The recommendation from the study that, to alleviate and address rural youth unemployment, career development approaches for youth in rural communities should be tailor-made to accommodate their unique, disadvantaged socio-economic situations.