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- ItemOpen AccessEvaluation of the tools and techniques impacting the culture of Benefits Realisation Management in Public Sector Projects and Programs in South Africa(2026) Sityata, Sanele; Windapo, AbimbolaThe study, titled “Evaluation of the Tools and Techniques Influencing the Culture of Benefits Realisation Management in Public Sector Projects and Programmes in South Africa,” aims to examine the tools and techniques associated with Benefits Realisation Management (BRM) and to determine their impact on the culture and success of BRM within public sector projects and programmes in South Africa. Specifically, the study seeks to identify the key tools and techniques used in BRM, assess the prevailing culture of benefits realisation management, and evaluate the level of success achieved in the realisation of benefits from public sector projects and programmes. Furthermore, the study investigates the extent to which the application of BRM tools and techniques impacts both the culture and success of benefits realisation management in the South African public sector. The study adopted a quantitative research design underpinned by a positivist research philosophy. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the key tools and techniques associated with Benefits Realisation Management (BRM), as well as the factors influencing BRM culture and success. Primary data were collected through a structured survey questionnaire involving a convenience sample of 35 project and programme management practitioners within the South African public sector. The questionnaire gathered information on BRM tools and techniques, the utilisation of BRM tools and techniques, the prevailing benefits realisation culture, and the level of BRM success. The collected data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), employing descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis to examine the relationships between BRM tools and techniques, BRM culture, and BRM success. The findings indicate that Benefits Realisation Management (BRM) tools and techniques are widely utilised within the sampled public sector projects and programmes and that a positive BRM culture exists among the participating organisations. The study further established significant positive relationships between BRM tools and techniques, BRM culture, and BRM success. The results suggest that the effective application of BRM tools and techniques contributes to the strengthening of benefits realisation practices and supports the successful achievement of intended project and programme benefits. The study also found that BRM tools and techniques play a more influential role in predicting BRM success than organisational culture alone. Based on these findings, the study recommends that public sector organisations strengthen the institutionalisation of BRM through the adoption of structured tools, techniques, governance mechanisms, and performance management practices that support the realisation of benefits. The study further recommends greater integration of BRM into project, programme, and organisational management processes to enhance value delivery from public sector investments.
- ItemOpen AccessAssessment frameworks and teacher accountability in a primary school in Cape Town. Issues of professional regulation and social justice(2026) Murphy, Henrico; Badroodien, Azeem Nur-Mohammed; Omar; YunusAssessment frameworks and teacher accountability at one primary school in Cape Town The study explores how the South African primary school assessment framework serves as a form of surveillance technology to hold teachers accountable for their classroom teaching in grades 4 to grade 6 at one Western Cape primary school. The critical focus is on assessment as a mechanism of surveillance, as well as accountability, and how this influences teacher practices and viewpoints. The study employs key concepts from the work of Jeremy Bentham and Michel Foucault to explore how surveillance is internalised, normalised, and operationalised in classrooms. Bentham's conceptualisation of the panopticon as an architectural surveillance mechanism foregrounds the study. It is used to show how the modern state has come to develop assessment frameworks as both acts of surveillance and that of utilitarianism (actions that apparently lead to ‘the greatest good for the greatest number'). It is argued that when placed alongside Foucault's (1995) work on discipline, monitoring, and punishment- namely ‘surveillance of the many by the few'- these concepts operate in ways that ensure the compliance of teachers in a strictly regulated profession. This study employed two complementary data collection methods: (1) a detailed questionnaire and (2) focus group interviews. The focus group interviews were used to triangulate and deepen the findings generated from the questionnaire data, while also providing rich, qualitative insights into how teachers interpret and make sense of assessment frameworks and assessment practices. Drawing on Foucauldian notions of discourse, surveillance, and disciplinary power, this study examines how assessment and accountability function to normalise teacher compliance within schools and embed regulatory control in teachers' everyday practices. By examining the intersecting discourses of assessment, surveillance, and accountability, this study sought to demonstrate how teacher compliance becomes normalised within school contexts and embedded in teachers' everyday practices. This normalisation operates in ways that constrain teacher agency and limit the substantive pedagogical contributions teachers are able to make towards meaningful teaching and learning. Assessment and accountability are shown to function as disciplinary technologies, operating through multiple ii forms of surveillance that emanate vertically from regulatory authorities and horizontally through collegial and community-based processes. Together, these mechanisms contribute to the production of what have been described as ‘somewhat docile teacher bodies' (Bourke, Lidstone & Ryan, 2015:85). The findings suggest that contemporary assessment frameworks in South African schools, particularly in the Western Cape, operate not merely as instruments of performance measurement but as technologies of datafication and dataveillance aligned with marketdriven logics of efficiency and control. As these regimes intensify, the object of governance increasingly becomes the digital representation of teachers and learners, rather than the lived pedagogical and learning experience. The study's main finding is that under threat of punishment and constant surveillance and as teachers internalise and embody assessment as a disciplinary accountability mechanism, levels of professional docility have risen to levels that hold serious implications for teacher agencies and their professional standing.
- ItemOpen AccessNavigating motherhood through the cancer care journey(2026) Bray, Shameem; Day, Sarah KathrineBackground Breast and cervical cancers are the most diagnosed cancers among women in South Africa, and a substantial proportion of women diagnosed are mothers of dependent children. While cancer care is often framed through biomedical and health system perspectives, less attention has been paid to how motherhood shapes women's experiences of navigating cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. This study explores how maternal identity, caregiving responsibilities, and relationships with children influence women's cancer care journeys in South Africa. Methods Drawing on intersectionality and the cancer care continuum, this a qualitative study drew on patient journey mapping with focus group discussions with women diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer across three South African provinces. Results Twenty-four participants who were mothers were included in this study. Seven interrelated themes were identified: (1) navigating the health system as a mother; (2) motherhood, identity, and maternal responsibility; (3) guilt and perceived failure in mothering roles; (4) caregiving practicalities and childcare arrangements; (5) children as caregivers and role reversal; (6) economic and structural constraints; and (7) child-centred fear and anticipatory end-of-life concerns. Motherhood shaped illness interpretation, care-seeking, and treatment decisions, as women navigated caregiving pressures, guilt, and fear for their children within the context of health system barriers, financial strain, and limited support. In some cases, children assumed caregiving roles, introducing emotional complexity and role reversal. Conclusions Motherhood fundamentally shapes women's experiences of cancer care in South Africa, with illness experienced as a relational and moral disruption to caregiving identity and family stability amid intersecting structural barriers.
- ItemOpen AccessNavigating Digital Transformation: A Multi-Level Perspective Analysis of New Zealand's Cadastral Reform and Lessons for South Africa(2026) Akoue, Mve Melissa; Whittal, JenniferThe South African cadastre, a hybrid system with paper-based foundations and digitised components, faces significant challenges including tenure exclusivity, poor accessibility, and siloed land information. In response, the SA government is pursuing a transition to a fully digital e-cadastre; a complex socio-technical endeavour that extends beyond mere technological adoption. While numerous international case studies document cadastral digitalisation, this research focuses specifically on New Zealand's Landonline as a globally recognised exemplar of successful reform. The study employs the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) as its primary analytical framework. The MLP is a socio-technical transition theory that analyses systemic change through the interaction of three levels: the exogenous Landscape (macro-trends), the established Regime (dominant rules, practices, and technologies), and the innovative Niche (protected spaces where novelties emerge). This framework moves beyond a simplistic technical narrative to reveal the dynamic interplay of political, economic, environmental, and social factors that enable or constrain change. The MLP analysis reveals that New Zealand's e-cadastral transition was not a simple deterministic outcome of technological progress but the product of a complex interplay between landscape pressures, niche innovations, and regime reconfiguration. A confluence of pressures—sweeping neoliberal political-economic reforms and the unique geophysical demands of a dynamic tectonic environment—created a 'window of opportunity' by destabilising the old paper-based system. This window was exploited by niche-level innovations, such as the NZGD2000 datum, the LandXML standard, and the Landonline platform, which were nurtured within protective spaces through pilot projects, phased governance, and embedded stakeholder representation. These innovations ultimately reconfigured the entire regime, replacing decentralised manual practices with a centralised digital system characterised by automated validation, a client-centric ethos, and a new devolution of responsibility onto accredited professionals. Building on this analysis, the study diagnoses the South African cadastral system through the same MLP lens. The findings reveal that SA faces a Double Transition: the simultaneous need for institutional integration (creating coherence across siloed departments, fragmented legislation, and disparate digital assets) and socio-legal transformation (designing a system capable of recognising diverse social and customary tenures). This challenge is further understood as a wicked policy problem (Balla, Madureira & Zevenbergen, 2025): inherently complex, contested, and without definitive solution. The MLP framework provides an analytical mechanism for operationalising this wickedness, specifying which regime-level misalignments generate intractability and where intervention is most likely to succeed. The study delineates specific opportunities, constraints, and strategic leverage points to inform SA's digital cadastral strategy, contributing to both global and African land administration discourse.
- ItemOpen AccessExperiences of (non)-belonging and identity formation of teachers of colour teaching at independent schools with predominantly white learner populations in the Western Cape(2026) Sylvester, Michelle; Badroodien, Azeem; Nelson , TaraThis thesis explores the lived experiences of teachers of colour (TOCs) at predominantly white independent schools in the Western Cape, with a focus on perceived feelings of TOC "non-belonging". The focus of the thesis is to examine and analyse some of the reasons and factors that lead to notions of whiteness and white superiority prevailing as key cultural artefacts within independent schools with predominantly white populations, despite legislative efforts to decolonise the South African educational landscape. Attention is given to what is understood as core to the development of the institutional identity of Western Cape independent schools, highlighting the evident tension between teacher professional or societal contributions and teacher (un)willingness to be assimilated or subsumed into what is understood as the school's core identity. In other words, how does integration get operationalised within Western Cape independent schools, and what are some of the key challenges that emerge within the schools tied to systemic power dynamics? Analysing its findings through the dual conceptual lenses of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and intersectionality, the thesis teases out key elements of the schools' institutional culture and their efforts in relation to (racial) transformation. It further unpacks the make-up of what is claimed to be meritocracy within Western Cape schools and the conceptual interplay of meritocracy and narratives of whiteness and racial superiority at these independent schools. Through semi-structured, open-ended interviews with teachers of colour at these independent schools, the study shows how navigating physical school spaces, experiences of bias, carrying the weight and invisible labour in leading transformation agendas, persistent fear and anxiety, and the need for ever-present perseverance, places an enormous burden and stress on teachers of colour at the schools. A key finding was that the study participants all lived through apartheid and are seasoned teachers with substantial experience of working in both public and independent schools. A further interesting finding was that in the post-apartheid period the experience and professional identities of teachers of colour often complicated their navigation of 'white' spaces, transforming their professional 1 authority into arenas and contested sites of negotiation, survival, and resistance. Teachers of colour reported a profound sense of non-belonging, noting that they were further taxed (and uncompensated) by having to lead the ‘diversity and inclusion work' at these schools, without much recognition and assistance from the majority of their colleagues self-identifying as white. The study reveals how systemic microaggressions are the main tools by which ‘whiteness' is maintained and sustained within the school's culture and how the boundaries of institutional norms are policed.