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Income inequality is a pervasive problem in South Africa and particularly affects the Eastern Cape, where poverty levels remain high despite several efforts to address this societal issue. The datasets from 1499 households used for this study, were extracted from the 2021 South African General Household Survey. This study thus examined the distributional pattern of households’ income inequality in Eastern Cape, South Africa, through the use of exploratory data analysis and application of regression-based decomposition of inequality. The EDA results revealed that relatively older households are more concentrated than those young people, female-headed households were also predominant in the study area, while the majority of the households are Black South Africans. The magnitude of the monetary variables’ departure from the mean inferred clear evidence of a widened households’ income disparity or inequality in the study area. The decomposition analysis indicated the contributions of various socioeconomic factors to income inequality. The findings from the regression-based decomposition of inequality found household size, access to basic infrastructure services, possession of assets, internet communication facilities, and households’ population group, as the major drivers of the households’ income inequality in the province, while livelihood diversity has a relatively moderate proportionate contribution. On the other hand, factors such as age and gender of the household head, as well as households’ involvements in agriculture have a minor effect on the households’ income inequality. This paper finally concludes that the relative contributions of each factor contributing to inequality were deemed important for designing effective policy-relevant interventions which can be used to promote economic growth and to address this persistent challenge of income inequality in society.

The purpose of this review is to shed light on the current state of crowdfunding and its possible effects on African communities. The goal of this article is to give a narrative overview of how crowdfunding has evolved, along with trends, challenges, and potential effects on African communities. Despite recent advancements in the usage of mobile technology on the continent, the growth of crowdfunding based on internet platforms has been quite gradual. According to research, the success of crowdsourcing initiatives in Africa depends on a hybrid strategy that involves the "offline" network of backers. The majority of research concluded that the biggest barriers to the growth of crowdfunding in Africa were a lack of knowledge and trust in public institutions, lax laws protecting the rights of backers and ensuring transparency, as well as technology (internet connection). Also mentioned was the possibility that significant cultural aspects of offline crowdfunding, if taken into consideration, would make it easier for African business owners to adopt the practice. It has lagged behind other continents in the use of crowdfunding to raise money for small businesses or individuals, which could also help with financial inclusion in Africa, either directly for individuals or by sponsoring small enterprises. It is necessary to have a regulatory framework that promotes technological advancement while also reducing crime and fraud. Additionally, establishing platforms based on continents and creating synergies with existing financial actors would raise awareness, boost confidence, and whet interest in using them.

This scoping review aims to explore the various swarm technologies and how they have been used in the object classification domain with the desire to motivate the design of a generic swarm intelligence ontology based on the components of various swarm technologies. We used the PRISMA-ScR as a guide to our scoping review protocol. We conducted a search across thirteen databases and a random search as well on the internet for articles. We performed screening of all the articles by title to remove duplicates, we further on did a screening by the year of publication to ensure that all articles to be considered were published between 2012 and 2022 and we then did abstract or text synthesis. Our search query retrieved 3224 potential articles from the thirteen databases and 10 articles from a random search on the internet making a total of 3234 articles identified. Deduplication and screening were done on the identified articles and 287 articles which satisfied our inclusion criteria remained. We grouped the articles into three categories namely year of publication, swarm technology and swarm application. The year of publication showed a linear trend line which is an indication of growth in the swarm intelligence domain. Of the six categories of aims we identified we voluntarily chose to ignore articles where the aim was not specified. We noticed that 64.9% of articles were aimed at either modifying or improving.  The swarm technology category indicated that 58.54% of the included articles were based on the Particle Swarm Optimization either independently or as part of a hybrid algorithm. 83.97% of the articles used classification as their swarm application. Interesting to note was the appearance of feature selection and optimization in this category. This scoping review gave an overview of how swarm technologies have been used in the object classification domain. Further research can be done by bringing and using existing algorithms in the development of generic swarm intelligence inspired ontologies.

This paper examines vowel elision and ellipsis in Mqapheli Mngadi’s cartoons. It intends to explore how these two aspects are employed by Mngadi for artistic effects in his cartoons. Even though vowel elision and ellipsis have been widely explored, there has not been a study, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, that considers these aspects in Mngadi’s cartoons. The study is done literary, and it adopts literary stylistics as a theoretical framework.

Gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) is a multifaceted complex phenomenon that needs urgent comprehensive attention in South Africa and other similarly or worse-off affected countries. Central to combating and eliminating GBVF starts with a systematic understanding of the drivers of GBVF. The research aims to develop a conceptual framework of drivers of gender-based violence and femicide, which can be applied to different GVBF improvement studies. The conceptual framework was developed using ecological system theory having 20 indicators relating to: microsystem – personal history and individual factors; mesosystem – interpersonal relationships; exosystem – community factors; macrosystem – societal factors; and chronosystem – significant changes over time. The framework interlinking these GBVF drivers allows for the diagnosis of the main drivers of GBVF and estimates its impact on the victims and their families. This, in turn, can help to combat and eliminate GBVF through moderation with GBVF policies and strategies. This study contributes to systematically demystifying of drivers of GBVF, especially in South Africa and similar African countries.

Big data (BD) adoption is still relatively slow despite the numerous business opportunities that it embodies. Within the context of financial institutions in South Africa, the specific drivers of big data adoption remain largely indeterminate. Consequently, this study explores the possible relationships between perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use and actual big data adoption, while being duly cognisant of the role that behavioural intention to adopt big data could play. The study employed a survey research approach and relied on data collected from a purposive sample of 195 management level employees of financial institutions. Regression analysis to test the hypothesised relationships in the study revealed that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were statistically significant predictors of big data adoption. Instructively, this relationship was subject to the extent of behavioural intention of respondents. For respondents with a low behavioural intention to adopt big data, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use displayed a statistically insignificant relationship with big data adoption. Conversely, the regression model for the group of respondents with a high behavioural intention to adopt big data is statistically significant. These findings enrich literature related to big data from a developing country context while concurrently identifying veritable antecedents of big data adoption in financial institutions.

The activities of social enterprises have been neglected despite the efforts of the government, individuals, and other supportive agencies. Much of this neglect could be attributed to the failure to adopt suitable business model/entrepreneurial marketing (EM) models that address the many challenges these enterprises face. This paper aims to evaluate extant literature and models on EM to propose a new and comprehensive model for social enterprises. In this pursuit, a background literature review on EM was conducted in several peer-reviewed journals. Eight core dimensions were adapted from existing models: social innovativeness, social proactiveness, socially calculated risk-taking, social resources leveraging, social customer intensity, social value creation, social market sense, and social alliance. Based on these dimensions, a new and all-inclusive model of SEM is proposed. This paper concludes that applying these EM dimensions to social enterprises would significantly promote innovative and sustainable success.

Women shoulder the dual responsibilities of managing their households and professional commitments. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced a new working model that has blurred these roles. Even before the pandemic, women encountered numerous barriers in the workplace, and the pandemic may have exacerbated these challenges. Therefore, it is essential to explore this topic further. This study aims to investigate women's experiences in the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic, utilising a qualitative approach within an exploratory and interpretivist paradigm. The research adopts a case study methodology focusing on one of South Africa's leading banks, with women from different levels of seniority selected for sampling. From September 2021 to February 2022, interviews were conducted with fifteen women from the case study bank using Microsoft Teams. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the collected data, resulting in four themes and thirteen sub-themes. The first theme explores changes in the working model, while the second theme delves into organisational support. The third theme focuses on continued career growth, and the final theme addresses work-life conflict. The findings indicate that women in the case organisation perceive the remote working model as advantageous, increasing productivity and facilitating the integration of their professional and personal roles. However, a drawback of this new arrangement is the emergence of work-life conflict as work responsibilities intrude upon their personal lives. Although the case organisation provided some support, there is room for improvement. This study offers valuable insights for the financial services sector regarding women's experiences and areas that require enhancement within the industry. By shedding light on women's workplace experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, this research contributes to the existing knowledge and presents a conceptual model for organisations to support female employees working remotely.

This paper assesses the relational impacts of attitude towards organizational change (ATOC), perceived social support (PSS), teleworking (TW), and self-harming behaviors (SHB) on the psychological health (PH) of married career women (MCW) post-Covid-19. The sample for this research was extracted from six (6) work organizations in the Lagos and Oyo States of Nigeria. The participants were married career women who were employees within the study organizations. This study advocated a cross-sectional survey using self-reported questionnaires. 222 of the 240 questionnaires distributed were examinable and subject to statistical analysis using the Social Sciences Statistical Package (SPSS version 28). This study revealed a link between attitude toward organizational change and mental health. Additionally, it demonstrated a strong positive association between perceived social support and psychological health. It also mentioned the extent to which teleworking correlates with mental health. Further, it showed a negative association between self-harming behaviors and psychological health. Moreover, this study demonstrated the joint, potent, and substantial impacts of attitude towards organizational change, perceived social support, teleworking, and self-harming behaviors on the psychological health of married career women.

In comparison to more common crimes like robbery of cash-in-transit, the idea of bank-related robbery—also known as "associated robbery"—has received very little attention. Even though the crime of bank-associated robbery has seen a large rise in instances and related losses, there is still little to no scientific research on the topic. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate and characterize the modus operandi (MO) employed in bank-related robberies, a crime phenomenon that appears to be specific to South Africa. Eleven participants who are subject matter experts (SMEs) on the topic participated in in-depth qualitative interviews to learn more about the phenomena. According to the report, bank-related robberies fall into two primary categories: robberies that occur before cash deposits and those that occur after cash withdrawals. The police do not categorize bank-related robberies in the same way that the banking industry does, which is the biggest obstacle to preventative efforts. In order to address the aforementioned issue, this study adds to the body of knowledge on the subject in order to inform prevention initiatives. The results also show that carrying a lot of cash increases the risk of becoming a victim of crime for bank customers. Therefore, it is advised that bank customers carry the least amount of cash possible on them to make themselves less appealing to robbers.

With the increased emphasis on financial inclusion by developing countries, the emergence, impact and sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) is considered topical. This paper assesses the influence that financial literacy has on the growth outreach of MFIs, from a South African context. Using an online questionnaire, we collected data from 44 respondents, representing various MFIs in Limpopo, South Africa. In addition, interviews were conducted with four subjects from the regulatory body, MFSA. We applied panel data fixed effects regression, with binary logit component to measure relationships and effects of the variables under study. According to the results, there was strong consensus that financial literacy of MFI clients, proxied by loan portfolio education, and financial budgeting and investment training offered to MFI clients, improves overall MFI growth outreach, and MFI sustainability in the long run. The contribution of this paper is that, since microfinance institutions by mandate, pursue socio-economic goals, many are not geared towards being financially sustainable. However, with the drying up of grants, donor funds, subsidies and other capital injections into MFIs, it is important for them to implement alternative measures to ensure that their borrowers meet their repayment obligations timeously, hence improving institutional growth and sustainability.

The study investigates the relationship between masculinities, narcissism, and gender-based violence (GBV) among Congolese male refugees in Durban, South Africa. The research uses a qualitative approach and 25 in-depth interviews to identify major themes. Results show that Congolese male refugees reinforce their masculinities through narcissistic behaviors, which contribute to GBV. Societal stakeholders in Durban should be involved in addressing GBV prevention initiatives to hinder men's narcissistic attitudes and beliefs. Recognizing a partner's depth can help reduce GBV by recognizing the positive attention they expect from them.

Crystal methamphetamine (meth) is quickly becoming one of the most used synthetic drugs worldwide, adding to the growing pandemic of substance abuse worldwide. Crystal meth may cause serious health effects including infertility, cancer and even DNA damage, especially among long-term users. Crystal meth users are often not aware of the serious health implications caused by crystal meth until it’s too late. This qualitative research paper employed the phenomenological research design to explore and describe lived experiences of crystal meth users. A total of 11 crystal meth users in the Witbank hotspots were identified through purposive convenience and key informants sampling. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and the thematic content analysis was used for analysis. The study's findings reveal that crystal meth users have an uncontrollable urge to use the substance which results in them being stigmatized in society and negatively affecting their family functioning. The findings also show that some crystal meth users engage in criminal activities. There is a need for further studies on lived experiences across all types of drugs. Policymakers in South Africa should work towards an Instant-admission policy for people who use substances, through the capacity of social workers.

Intricacies concerning indigenous languages in the South African milieu demonstrate intransigence that necessitates a scholarly contestation. This is in addition to the parades that have been made by the post-colonial government and language experts to ennoble the stature of these indigenous languages. With that context, this article underscores the historical component of indigenous languages and retainment strides - including challenges – that have been underlined in respect of South African indigenous language matters. The objective, among others, is to underscore those challenges concerning indigenous African languages, and in particular, South African indigenous languages exhibit tenacity. To ratify the claims of the article, a systemic literature review is appreciated as a fragmentary qualitative research methodology while conceptualization of language matters in South Africa couches the theoretical underpinnings. The principal discussion is that challenges that prevail within the phenomenon of language in the South African context must be acknowledged in a bid to solicit reasonable solutions to the problematized phenomenon. For future scholarly implications, it is debated that indigenous language matters must be contested.

Despite all the migration policies implemented in South Africa and the world at large, the illicit immigrants continue to suffer in the hands of the host communities. This paper seek to address the challenges and experiences of illegal immigrants in South Africa and the hostility by the host communities. In this qualitative study, linguistic data was collected through the focus group discussions with illicit immigrants from different countries in the African continent as well as the blinded focus group with communities in Limpopo province. The aim of the study was to explore the hostile environment that the illicit immigrants find themselves in while in South Africa and the problem of integration with the host communities. Findings from this study revealed that the illicit immigrants continue to become a problem in the receiving communities, and this is because they are snatching job opportunities for the locals since they do not mind exercising cheap labour, that’s is why there is tension between them and the locals. Most employers prioritise employing illicit immigrants instead of the locals. Furthermore, the participants indicated that the immigrants continue to temper with job security in the host communities. The researcher conducted two focus group discussions, one consisted of illicit immigrants from different African countries like Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Burundi, and the other focus group with the locals as blind group discussion. This is conceptualized as fear or black-on-black hatred which is also famously known as Afrophobia

The widespread fear of crime and its detrimental consequences have propelled various research studies on the correlates of fear of crime. An impressive body of knowledge has accumulated, which informs both scholars and policymakers of the correlates of fear of crime. However, very little is known about the fear of crime among immigrant populations. Fear of crime associated with immigrants remains a global phenomenon, which drives political rhetoric, media discourse, policymaking, criminal justice, and immigration control and enforcement. The perceived association between immigrants and criminality is a phenomenon with deep historical roots that transcends any particular culture. It is linked to ethnocentrism and othering, wherein dominant groups react to their exposure to alien cultural practices by criminalizing those practices and dehumanizing the immigrants who practice them. The study aims to explore the level of fear of crime among illicit immigrants. Literature analysis was adopted as a methodology to explore the factors impacting the level of fear and the places where illicit immigrants are likely to be victimised are further discussed. The study contributes significantly to the finding that higher crime levels in countries increase the fear of crime; however, they do not affect feelings of unsafety. Social protection expenditure proves to be an important determinant of both fears of crime and feelings of unsafety. Moreover, distrust in the police, generalized social distrust, and perceived ethnic threat induce fear of crime as well as feelings of unsafety. When considered in the context of social harm, immigrants’ relationship to crime and criminality becomes more complex. The study recommends that protective factors, such as neighborhood informal social control, social networks, cultural norms, and expectations about migration and life overall, may contribute to the lower rates of crime and violence among illicit immigrant groups.

The need for globalisation and a competitive edge in the ever-changing policing trends and crime-combatting strategies necessitates training and development interaction on a global platform. Essential in this regard is the development of skills, among others the training, development, and support of the South African Police Service (SAPS), through local and international training interventions in policing. This study followed the quantitative research design using the random sampling method. One hundred respondents from various SAPS divisions and at provincial level who attended international police training interventions were used as respondents and subjected to the completion of structured questionnaires. The main topic of this research revealed that international law enforcement training interventions were beneficial to the SAPS as it impacts positively on the SAPS’ effectiveness in service delivery. The results of this study is indicative that SAPS engages in the international field on policing practices as a means to train and develop its members beyond the scope of local practices to enable them to expand their knowledge and skills in order to further improve service delivery.

A little over two years ago, from the 9th to the 18th of July 2021, South Africa experienced one of the worst incidents of civil unrest since the beginning of its democratic dispensation. Although the main catalyst for this unrest was not directly issues of service delivery or public participation, many observers, experts or not could not help but see the connection to issues of poverty, unemployment and overall lack of service delivery. Public participation has long been established as a vital tool in the hands of the government for efficient service delivery & development. The Newcastle Local Municipality (NLM) as an institution in South Africa, is governed by numerous public participation legislation which essentially states it must always consult & involve all its citizens on all issues that affect the community at large. Despite its adherence to these stipulations, this brief study, through a qualitative inquiry making use of an interview schedule, finds that NLM practices a type of participation strategy known as “Degrees of tokenism” where the result is the appeasement and placation of the masses as opposed to true participation that gives the masses real power. The results indicated that the officials entrusted with ensuring the implementation of the public participation mandate faced numerous challenges that rendered their stellar efforts inefficient. Issues such as a lack of understanding of the fundamental importance of good governance and public participation led to a shortage of resources and increased apathy toward municipal affairs. In investigating the nature of the public participation framework in NLM the researcher aimed at providing more insight into the complex issues at play responsible for the largely concerning state of local government in South Africa, thus possibly providing solutions in the process.

The majority of state-owned power companies (SoEs) have experienced organizational cancer for nearly three decades without showing any signs of ceasing operations. Academicians generally agree that organizational politics are to blame for the ongoing energy-generating dilemma that has plagued rising nations. Worldwide, economies rely heavily on electricity as an energy source, to the point where they would not function or even survive without it. In order to reduce unfavorable political behavior, this study examines organizational politics at the Zimbabwe Supply Authority, a SoE in charge of energy production. A sample of 1400 individuals who were chosen at random from a population of 2210 staff members participated in the study using a quantitative research approach to collect data. By the deadline, 358 completed questionnaires had been returned; however, 11 of them were rejected because they had been wrongly filled out, with a response rate of 24.78%. The data were analyzed using the statistical tool SPSS 21.0 for Windows. To ensure that the samples were adequate for factor analysis, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett's Test of sphericity were applied to the data before exploratory factor analysis could be conducted on them (Field, 2007:619). The results of the study showed that bad political behavior and ineffective managerial leadership techniques had a detrimental impact on the power generation crisis. According to the report, managers should receive training on modern managerial leadership behavior, managerial methods for behavior modification, and improved communication.

The primary objective of this research paper was to investigate the determinants of poverty in South Africa in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. To accomplish this, the study employed data from STATS SA collected in 2021, calculating the poverty status of households based on the national poverty line, and generating a binary variable comprising two categories: poor and non-poor. The research employed descriptive, cross-tabulation analysis and binary logistic regression models to ascertain the associations between selected independent variables (gender, age, household size, population group income, and province) and the dependent variable (poverty status). The findings demonstrated that 62% of the households surveyed were living below the upper-bound poverty line, with 49% classified as poor based on the lower-bound poverty line. Furthermore, the regression analysis revealed that gender, age, and income were significant predictors of poverty status, with females, younger household heads, and those with lower incomes being more likely to be poor. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for the South African government to mitigate poverty, such as investing in education and skills development, promoting job creation, expanding social protection programs, and enhancing access to fundamental services such as water and sanitation.