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Doctoral Degrees (Development Studies)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Development Studies) by Author "Casale, Daniela Maria."

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    Informal sector taxation : the case of Zimbabwe.
    (2014) Dube, Godwin.; Casale, Daniela Maria.
    The economic crisis in Zimbabwe has had a profound impact on the labour market. As job opportunities in the formal sector have shrunk due to the contraction of the economy, the informal sector has been showing rapid growth. This contraction of the economy has also had a negative impact on the government’s ability to collect tax revenues. It is within this context that this study seeks to analyse the Zimbabwean government’s recent attempts to collect taxes from its large informal sector. The study draws on conventional tax theory from the public economics literature to inform the evaluation of the informal sector tax system. The study also draws on the political economy approach to taxation (and the state failure literature in particular) given that this analysis occurs in Zimbabwe, a failing state. The three main objectives of the work are as follows: 1) To describe the informal sector tax code in Zimbabwe and to explain how it relates to the broader tax system in the country, as well as to analyse the rationale for its introduction; 2) To investigate the challenges and successes in implementing the taxes in the informal sector in the context of the economic and political crisis; and 3) To analyse the informal tax system in terms of equity and efficiency. Given the lack of reliable official (quantitative) data on Zimbabwe, this study is primarily based on documentary evidence and qualitative work. Qualitative interviews were carried out with 16 key informants from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises Development, academia and business organisations. A total of 47 informal sector operators from four activity classes (i.e. transport operators, flea market operators, hairdressing salons and cottage industries) were also interviewed. The findings presented in this thesis indicate that there have been some successes in taxing the informal sector in Zimbabwe. However, the study shows that informal sector taxes have been poorly administered. The findings also show that informal sector taxes are generally inequitable visà- vis formal sector taxes. Furthermore, the implementation of presumptive taxes has induced changes in behaviour among those in the informal sector in their attempts to evade these taxes, resulting in economic inefficiency. Given that very few academic studies on informal sector taxes in Zimbabwe have been conducted, it is hoped that this work will begin to fill the gap in the Zimbabwean context, as well as to contribute to the small but growing literature on informal sector taxes in developing countries more generally.
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    Sowing the seeds of food sovereignty or cultivating consent? The potential and limitations of Johannesburg’s community gardens.
    (2017) Kesselman, Brittany.; Ngcoya, Mvuselelo.; Casale, Daniela Maria.
    This thesis investigates the benefits and challenges of participating in community gardens in Johannesburg. More specifically, it seeks to understand whether and how urban community gardens contribute to food sovereignty, with the aim of identifying ways to enhance their contribution. For this research, six components of food sovereignty were considered: 1) access to sufficient, healthy and culturally appropriate food; 2) sustainable livelihoods and local economies; 3) environmental sustainability; 4) food system localisation; 4) empowerment and food system democratisation; and 6) gender equality. This research adopts a constructivist approach and a comparative case study method. In addition to an extended period of participant observation, the research utilises a unique array of research instruments adapted from various disciplines, including key informant interviews, an informal survey of community gardens in Johannesburg, a food diary exercise, food/life history interviews and semi-structured interviews with garden participants. The thesis finds that the community gardens do contribute to food sovereignty, though their contribution to the six elements is uneven and faces many obstacles. Some of the more unique challenges identified by this research include: 1) the role of culture and worldviews; 2) the restrictive impact of the neoliberal rationality underpinning support for the gardens—whether from government, non-governmental organisations or the private sector; and 3) conflicts and a climate of suspicion amongst gardeners which inhibit knowledge sharing, development of critical consciousness and social mobilisation. This research represents a contribution to both the urban agriculture (UA) and food sovereignty scholarship. Applying the food sovereignty framework to community food gardens in Johannesburg enables a more multidimensional and multi-scalar analysis of the gardens than previously found in South African literature on UA. At the same time, this research highlights a number of unexplored issues within the food sovereignty literature, such as: the challenge of defining ‘culturally appropriate’ food; the potential contradictions between culturally appropriate foods, sustainable livelihoods and agroecological production methods; and the role of race and gender inequality. This approach also revealed that the material benefits of UA (e.g., food security, income) are limited by the context of marginalisation, while its transformative potential can only be realised if support for UA has transformation as a principal objective.