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In South Africa, the population composition reveals more females than males. However, the workforce participation data affirms a more male-dominated outlook. Such disparity between male and female workforce participation is especially evident in the law enforcement institutions like police departments. Although the prevailing laws have ensured access to employment opportunities, advancement in leadership roles by female police officers (FPOs) is found to be lacking. In this regard, this study examines the challenges faced by South African women in attaining leadership roles in policing. Furthermore, the study develops a leadership development framework for ensuring the advancement of women in policing. To accomplish this aim, the study acquired information from 8 male and 100 female police officers through questionnaire and interview methods, respectively. Queries were made to understand the experiences, challenges, and ways forward. Results elucidate that there is a lack of strategic policy in place that can ensure the advancement of women as leaders in the policing field in South Africa. Moreover, the overall outlook of male police officers is affected by stereotypical assumptions about females’ strengths and abilities.

The study investigated work stress and gender determinants of job satisfaction among early childhood educators in Cross River State, Nigeria. The study adopted a correlational research design with a sample size of 362 respondents. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire developed by the researchers. Mean and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis was used to answer research questions, while Linear regression was used to test the null hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study showed that work stress is a significant determinant of job satisfaction among early childhood educators in Cross River State. Gender is also a significant factor in determining job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is enhanced when work stress is reduced. It is recommended, among others, that the government and school proprietors should always meet early childhood educators' needs to reduce work stress and enhance their job satisfaction.

Cloud computing changed our way of doing things because we now maintain our systems and data on global online platforms. The research aimed to investigate the predictive factors determining the quality of personal users' cloud computing and their effect on platform performance. The study adopted a cross-sectional, descriptive, quantitative design conducted within South African communities and received 254 responses, a response rate of 66.1%. The measurement model (SRMR = 0.071) results demonstrated that cost-effectiveness, reliability, flexibility, availability, security effectiveness, and scalability collectively define the quality of cloud computing platforms utilized by personal users. AVE (0.575 – 0.694), CR (0.844 – 0.901), Fornell-Larcker criterion, and cross-loadings confirmed convergent validity, reliability, and discriminant validity. Security effectiveness, scalability, and reliability have a statistically significant effect on platform performance with small to medium effect sizes. The theoretical implication is an enhanced domestication theory of technology based on cloud computing, thus providing insights into the needs required to fit within the prevailing environment and context. In addition, it helped understand the personal users' decisions on cloud computing. The study enhances cloud computing at a personal level through understanding that the decision and value may differ from well-researched organizational levels.

Although Knowledge Management was introduced as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for all senior management in South Africa 15 years ago, its implementation has been slow and inconsistent. This paper aimed to identify the factors that contribute to or deter the implementation of Knowledge Management in the South African government. The issue was explored through a review of literature on Knowledge Management, as well as results of an interview and questionnaire completed by government officials doing Knowledge Management practitioner work in the South African government. The quantitative data was analysed using DATAtab. The findings identified two key factors that deter the implementation of Knowledge Management in the South African government: most departments in the South African government do not value Knowledge Management, and public officials responsible for implementing Knowledge Management in their departments lack implementation skills. A lack of research on Knowledge Management in developmental governments exists. More research on this subject is necessary. The research will benefit Knowledge Management and Public Administration practitioners alike.

The South African national department of the health system is piloting the National Health Insurance (NHI). This is in preparation for the overhaul of healthcare services so that they are efficient and equitable to all citizens immaterial of their socio-economic status. This article aims to evaluate healthcare providers' perceptions of improved service delivery by the government’s health department during the first piloting phases of the NHI. The context of the study is a health district center in a rural area of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. The article is interdisciplinary in that it interrogates governance issues in the health sector. A quantitative research methodology was utilized to collect data from 30 participants who were the center’s staff. The findings indicate that the significant areas of concern are lack of improvement in response rate to emergencies, ambulances, provision of resources, and specialized staff. The implication is that the government’s health department working with provincial departments, still has major healthcare reforms to address if the NHI program contributes effectively to healthcare service delivery.

Strategic leadership is crucial in today's complex, ever-changing global economy. To achieve wholesale pharmaceutical industry goals, all strategic leaders must be proficient in strategic leadership. Successful pharmaceutical wholesalers focus on strategic planning, process simplification, culture management, and human resource development. This exploratory research examined how strategic leadership can keep a Durban pharmaceutical company competitive in a changing industry. This paper examines how a pharmaceutical company in Durban, South Africa, used strategic leadership to gain a competitive advantage. This research included ten strategic pharmaceutical leaders. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with strategic leaders. The thematic analysis showed how strategic leadership skills and responsibilities keep a company competitive. The results showed that Alpha Pharma's competitive advantage in Durban was impacted by strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, diversity management, and collective leadership. This study confirms that strategic leadership involves establishing a course of action, dealing with business complexities, advocating for a new organisational structure, shaping the company's culture, and developing its human resources. Research about strategic leadership helps pharmaceutical companies build internal capabilities and adapt to a changing market.

Customer loyalty is crucial in the retail banking sector, given the increasing competition within the industry and the emerging non-traditional players. This paper examines the influence of external exigencies on customer loyalty of retail banks in Nigeria. Data used in this study was collected from 424 customers of eight (8) selected banks located in Ibadan, a metropolitan city in Nigeria. The primary statistical tool used was Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) in analysing data collected. The study's findings revealed that external exigencies as a construct, has a positive influence on customer loyalty with internal appearance of bank and attractive advertisement accounting for the main factors contributing to loyalty. Similarly, External Exigencies were found to have positive influence on Customer Loyalty to their banks, at significant level. The managerial implication of this study is the consideration of non-core banking factors that can enhance customer loyalty in retail banking.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) One aims to eradicate poverty in all its manifestations across the world. The key study question to be theoretically explored is "how can the South African government's commitment to the UN Post-2015 Agenda and the National Development Plan (NDP): Vision 2030 be realised to accomplish Sustainable Development Goal One?". The research method used in the article is qualitative. The data were gathered through literature and document reviews, and conceptual analysis was employed to analyze the data. The findings show that the government has put in place a variety of legal frameworks, including the NDP, as well as social protection actions, to address SDG One implementation. However, for poverty reduction programmes to be successfully executed, problems like the high unemployment rate, job losses brought on by COVID-19, corruption straining taxpayers' finances, and other difficulties need to be addressed. The article presents recommendations in a country-specific context based on the findings to eliminate poverty and achieve SDG One.

This study aims to assess the impact of communication adequacy on resistance to change at selected dealership companies in the Durban Metropolitan Region. Recent studies suggest that there could be various other factors that influence resistance including leadership skills, demographic factors and theoretical components of resistance to change. The study uses the non-random purposive sampling collected from 270 staff at selected dealership companies in the Durban Metropolitan Region using questionnaires administered to employees. The structural equation model was also applied in analyzing the data. The findings of the study show that there is a significant relationship between communication adequacy based on structure and channel efficiency in relation to resistance communication based on channel efficiency positively influencing resistance to change. The study further provides practical implications for the employees at the selected dealership companies to consider more strategic and appropriate communication tools.

A brief history of the teaching profession is related to the development of teacher education and the institutions associated with professional teacher training in Nigeria. The study adopts a qualitative research approach with a phenomenological research design and purposively selects 18 participants from 6 Geo-political zones of Nigeria with three participants from each zone. (South-South, North-East, South-East, North-Central, South-West, and North-West). A thematic approach is used to analyse the data from a semi-structured interview. The research engaged educators on thematic approaches to global citizenship education (GCE). A pilot study conducted by the researchers made a case for the de-colonisation of GCE in Nigeria to be embedded in a Continuous Professional Teacher Development (CPTD) program, for educators and stakeholders to acquire the skills that can support them to identify and manage disparities in knowledge sharing, values, ethics and social responsibility. While recommending a national adoption of UNESCO’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in professional teaching policy and praxis, the paper argues that homegrown CPTD programmes should be a core activity in the process of de-colonising GCE.

This article intends to uncover the ongoing challenges that South African municipalities are confronted with in realizing SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) and also explore common good governance principles for sustainable development. To realize SDG 6, good governance principles should be promoted and pragmatically implemented. This is a conceptual article which assesses secondary data covering SDG 6 challenges and good governance principles. Existing literature was systematically reviewed from Google Scholar, online newsletters, and other databases from May–July 2022. Secondary data was analyzed using a Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) approach. The theoretical findings of this article show that there is growing concern about attaining SDG 6 due to the bad or weak governance practices in SA. In SA, progress on good governance has been encouraging, but challenges remain. Thus, this article recommends good and inclusive governance because, without it, SA will not achieve its socio-economic goals, like SDG 6. If SA is to achieve its development goals, it must establish mechanisms that promote constitutionalism, accountability, democracy, and good governance. Weak governance, which is characterized by corruption, bribery, mismanagement, and lack of public involvement, transparency, and accountability, should be addressed. SA should have sound governance that is responsive to community needs and fights toward the achievement of the localized SDGs.

Foreign aid comprises of a provision of financial resources or commodities such as food parcels or technical advice and training. The most prevalent type of foreign aid, particularly in developing countries, is Official Development Assistance (ODA) that strives to promote development and combat poverty. In Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a significant dependency on foreign aid which prompts the question; Is foreign aid completely necessary in developing African countries? With a high reliance on foreign aid the focus tends to shift from developing into self-sufficient economies and combating poverty to being dependent states. The paper explores the impact of foreign aid on the development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Because low-income countries are significantly reliant on aid, the study took a qualitative approach using the case study method featuring case studies from Kenya, Togo, and Zimbabwe. From the literature of the study, it is evident that the three countries had become dependent on foreign Aid. Conclusions drawn from the study show that foreign has become a recipe for dependency syndrome. Based on the findings from the literature, there is a need for private investments.

The 2020 #EndSARS protests in Nigeria gained global attention. The protests drawn thousands of youths to the streets in a wave of rolling fury that built into one of the largest demonstrations for years in the country.  Unlike previous protests in the country, the 2020 year's protests played out across social networks in a buildup of videos, images, and stories on Twitter Facebook, and other platforms displaying pictures and footage from the streets. This study employed the Social Network Theory in identifying the influence of social media as a strategy for protest movements and for the diffusion of information about #EndSARS and the sustenance of this movement over a long period, despite forces that have tried to silence it. This study argued that the sustenance of protests such as #EndSARS over a long period was dependent on factors such as: (i) that some individuals were more resistant to being influenced than others; (ii) that some individuals tended to be more responsive than others; and (iii) that some individuals seemed to be more affected than others (and were, therefore, more likely to pass the information on to others). The findings revealed that protesters used emotional dynamics, collective identities, symbolic artifacts, and mutual values to sustain protests if their demands were not met on time.

This study was premised on the Community of Inquiry model and a qualitative method approach was used with an online individual semi-structured interview protocol as the data collection instrument to collect and analyse data gathered from the respondents’ individual interviews. A case study design was used with six participants (3 lecturers and 3 students) being sampled. The participants comprising three (3) Mathematics education lecturers, and three (3) Mathematics education students (preservice teachers) either in the first, second or third year of study in Mathematics education. Interviews were conducted online with the participants through Skype and Zoom. A thematic analysis was used to identify themes and patterns. The findings of the study revealed that the participants, understanding the use of social media, have transformed their teaching and learning in higher education institutions. Apart from making the shift from face-to-face teaching to teaching online using a technology-based independent mode to continue teaching in the Covid-era, lecturers have experienced academic well-being through a change in their pedagogy and teaching approaches as Mathematics lecturers. This change has ensured that students are exposed to a more student-centred approach through the use of social media platforms which has enhanced students’ learning of Mathematics. Recommendations are made.

This article discusses the influence of historically disadvantaged background on the culture of reading in some primary school learners from a school district. Investigation for this article was administered through a qualitative research approach, assisting in attaining first-hand information directly from the participants, thereby generating nonnumerical data. Embedded in this qualitative investigation was a case study design. As qualitative research concentrates on acquiring a comprehended understanding of how individuals perceive lived experiences, the main purpose of entrenching a case study was to dig deep into the in-depth descriptions coupled with the personal experiences of the subjects. It draws from semi-structured interviews conducted with primary school language teachers. The interview schedule specifically designed for this inquiry contained open-ended question types. During interviews, recordings were made in their natural settings through interacting with each participant. Data coding and analysis were informed by the iterative approach. The main findings of this investigation indicate that (i) teaching reading remains one of the basic skills in learning but was (ii) compromised by the lack of reading material, stemming from the disadvantaged background of the studied schools. Also, though motivation by parents seems to yield good results, there seemed to be (iii) a lack of influence and intervention strategies regarding available resources in the learners’ homes. I argue that family background does correlate (have an impact on learner reading ability) with learners’ reading ability. I conclude and propose that teachers need to employ teaching and learning methods that accommodate various cultural notions learners bring to school, as this is likely to impart positively on their academic performance.

The transportation sector is one of the sectors that contribute to the South African economy and its people’s well-being. This sector facilitates goods transportation and people’s mobility through air, water and land transportation. In recent decades passenger transportation journeys experienced a decline and this decline may due to various causes such as cost of transportation, low economic growth, exchange rate volatility, unemployment and petrol price. This study aimed to analyze the effect of petrol price, exchange rate and unemployment rate on on-road passenger journeys. The study applied ARDL and ECM models to data from 2008 to 2021 to examine how the variables above influence long-term and short behaviour in road passenger journeys.  Findings revealed that, in the long run, all independent variables influence road passenger journeys. Yet, unemployment has more power over road passenger journeys than exchange rate and petrol price. Short-term dynamics reveal that only the exchange rate and unemployment influence road passenger journeys. The study recommends job creation, exchange rate strengthening and petrol subsidies to increase the number of road passenger journeys in South Africa.

The small business sector has been identified as an essential component of the global economy, especially in developing economies, where it plays a significant role in addressing job creation and poverty. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant lockdown restrictions have brought untold devastation to the sector forcing many out of operation, crippling business operations and financial viability. We seek to identify the role and impact of government relief measures in helping immigrant-owned businesses in South Africa to deal with the impact of the pandemic on their businesses. Primary data was collected using an electronic questionnaire administered to 260 foreign business owners in South Africa. The data was cleaned and statistically analysed using IBM SPSS version 27. We interpreted and discussed the results using the realistic conflict theory. Though a vast majority of the businesses (89%) reported that the pandemic had a very severe impact on their financial sustainability and liquidity, none of them reported that they benefitted from any of the South African government business support packages during the pandemic.

The National Development Plan (NDP) of South Africa identifies the main ills that must be dealt with by 2030. These are poverty and inequality. The NDP also clearly points out the need to deal with unemployment. These build into the sustainable development goals with 2030 as the target year for achievement. Both the NDP for South Africa and the SDGs at the global level had these targets set way before the 2019 coronavirus hit. Now given the disruption that this pandemic caused, the trends and possibility of achieving these goes must be investigated. This paper looks at employment focusing on the characteristics of the people that had a job to return to after the hard lockdown in South Africa.  The main objective is to identify the significant predictors of employment status at the household level. The paper uses data from Statistics in South Africa that were collected in 2021 during the midst of the pandemic. Variables such as age, province, race or population group and gender were included in the analysis. The results of the logistic regression show that age, race, age of the province, and household size are all significant predictors of whether the head of the household was in salaried employment during the Covid-19 pandemic. The fact that females were more likely to be in employment is painting a unique picture of the labour force than what is normally observed in the surveys.

This paper investigated interaction and discourse during teacher classroom practices in the Senior Phase Natural Sciences in some rural schools positioned in the Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province, South Africa. The research method employed was a qualitative interpretative multiple case study design. Two schools were selected, and one Natural Science teacher from each school participated in this study. Classroom observations and interviews were used to collect data from Senior phase Natural Sciences teachers. Natural sciences teachers were interviewed in their schools and observed during classroom practice. The findings of the study show that the type of discourse observed from Natural Sciences teachers was authoritative discourse and the pattern of discourse employed was Initiation Response Evaluation. Teacher questioning was used to develop the lesson and evaluate learner understanding. Teachers used an interactive-authoritative communicative approach during their lesson presentations. The consequences of the approaches the teachers use limit the opportunities for learners to interact amongst themselves and the subject content. It is recommended that besides focusing on subject matter knowledge during continuous development programs, there is a need to focus on interactions and discourse. Furthermore, there is a need to conduct further studies on a large scale so that a suitable intervention program can be designed for in-service teachers.

Cable theft is a severe problem affecting South Africa, the loss of signal due to theft causes trains and all other forms of transportation to derail or collide, and many innocent lives and livelihoods are lost and this also affects the free flow of traffic. It disrupts the movement of people, goods and costs of the South African economy. The inability of law enforcement agencies to combat cable theft is a significant problem in South Africa and more should be done to counteract this problem as to a greater extent cases of cable theft are reported daily. This article focused on the impact of cable theft on the free flow of traffic in South Africa. The article is based on a qualitatively rooted methodology including a wide range of primary and secondary sources. The article further draws on the findings from the world on the impact of cable theft on the free flow of traffic and formulate steps to counteract the problem. The research-based key steps lead to the prevention of cable theft in South Africa. The first step related to capacitating law enforcement agencies with resources to combat cable theft; strengthening partnerships between law enforcement agencies, the business community, and all other significant stakeholders; Increasing the visibility of traffic officials to ensure the free flow of traffic.