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Societal impact reflects the changes that transform the society which affect the well-being of individuals and their families. This study aimed to understand the perceived societal impact of the fourth industrial revolution in South Africa. The investigation used an exploratory mixed research method, with six experts in round table discussion (focus group) and a survey questionnaire with 1,1105 responses. The findings of the study confirm the existential relational proposition that the fourth industrial revolution has a societal impact in South Africa. It is influenced by socio-demographic (province, age) and socio-economic (education and employment) factors. The findings also revealed that the perceived highest impact of fourth industrial revolution’s will be on improved re-industrialisation (RII = 68.6 percent), increase in work mobility (RII = 68.1 percent) and improved service delivery (65.1 percent). Regarding benefits, if correctly leveraged, these new disruptive technologies create a significant opportunity to leapfrog the advancements made in the previous industrial revolutions and help develop society. However, this might widen socio-economic gaps further, especially if there is no action to change the status quo of the highly unequal society in South Africa.

This article explored police methods and challenges in the identification of human trafficking activities by the South African Police Service (SAPS). A qualitative research method was employed in this study that used semi-structured interviews to collect data. Participants were sourced from three key stakeholder groups: (1) the SAPS (Headquarters), (2) Sunnyside Community Service Centre, and (3) Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) officials with expertise related to human trafficking. This sample comprised 15 participants and a purposive sampling procedure was adopted. The study found that there are various methods of identifying human trafficking identified by the SAPS in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM). Furthermore, the findings highlighted that human trafficking has a national dimension despite that trafficking could occur within the same province or policing area. However, it remains a concern that policing methods to reduce the scourge are not effectively implemented hence an increased rate of human trafficking not only in the CTMM policing area but in many parts of South Africa. It was also found that in the process of identifying human trafficking activities, the SAPS is often faced with various challenges that may be linked to ineffective implementation of methods of identifying human trafficking activities

It is inevitable and regrettable that inmates continue to commit crimes while serving their sentences. This is rather bizarre because prisons are naturally confined spaces that leave one with little or no liberty to do what one would normally do outside of prison, let alone committing crime.  This raises questions concerning the pragmatic position of scientific theories that are not only formulated to explain, predict, and understand phenomena but are also seen as a bedrock of scientific research. It would not be far-fetched to expect any research paper to include a section on a theoretical framework that is essentially a representation of some level of the application of particular scholarly theories. However,  not much has been documented about the usefulness of scientific theories that normally form part of research papers. This analytic paper evaluated the usefulness of scholarly theories in the criminal justice system field, specifically punishment theories, by reflecting on the crimes committed by inmates while serving their time. This study found that retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation are not useful theories in terms of theoretical scope. The incapacitation theory is not useful in terms of heuristic value, and deterrence, and rehabilitation are not useful in terms of validity. 

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.

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.

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.

This study explores the law enforcement model for vehicle speed in Tshwane municipality of South Africa.  South Africa has comparatively high road traffic crashes and casualty rates. Most of these crashes are associated with illegal speeding. This study was designed against the background of protracted road traffic crashes the triple causative factors as well as existing traffic law enforcement systems and processes aimed at managing illegal speeding. Data were collected from a sample of 28 senior law enforcement officials from the Tshwane Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD) traffic division, the Gauteng Traffic Police and the National Traffic Police. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis’ open and axial coding processes on Atlas.ti.8. In its findings, the study developed a model that shows that illegal speeding and consequential road crashes were caused by an interaction of multiple factors. These were poor human behavioural elements as the main factor, road-environment factors and vehicle-related factors in the presence of inadequate and uncoordinated traffic law enforcement, weak penal systems for offenders, corruption, poor driver training and low road safety education.

This article explores the nature and extent of crime in the railway environment in South Africa. Crimes against Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, Transnet Freight Rail, Gautrain, and commuters are prevalent and the victims are being exposed to serious damage emanating from criminal activities. The challenges and implications for individuals and businesses, rich or poor consumers are recurrent themes in this study. A qualitative research approach was adopted to follow a non-probability purposive sample comprising 25 participants from the South African Police Service Rapid Rail Police Units. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews from research participants deployed in the Division: Visible Policing. The findings highlighted that the most prevalent crimes are cable theft, robberies and malicious property damage. The targeted trains are the Metro trains that operate locally, as they transport many commuters because it is the affordable mode of public transport in South Africa. The perpetrators also target this mode of transport because the train stations have an open system where perpetrators can easily access the entrance, therefore some do not even buy tickets and board the trains illegally. It is understood that Gautrain has a closed system and the security is advanced and watertight because of extra security measures such as the closed-circuit television cameras. Based on the findings, effective implementation of policies to improve safety is essential. Critical dialogues between all relevant.

The South African Police Services (SAPS) has a constitutional responsibility to prevent, combat, and investigate crime that would naturally occur within communities. It therefore stands to reason that, if the police are to fullfil this responsibility, community members should be involved. This paper examines the phenomenon of lack of community involvement in the fight against stock theft in Dr. Pixley ka Isaka Seme Municipality, Mpumalanga Province. To achieve this objective, it was necessary to first determine the extent to which community in the Dr. Pixley ka Isaka Seme Municipality is involved in the fight against of stock theft. A qualitative research approach was adopted for this study with the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews to collect data. The sample consisted of 22 participants selected through purposive sampling, who included farmers, herdsmen, Community Police Forum members, and community leaders. The study found that the community in the Dr. Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Municipality is not involved in the fight against stock theft and that this could mainly be attributed to the poor relationship between the South African Police Service and the community. It was also found that there are no regular meetings taking place to ensure that there is a common understanding regarding various stakeholders’ responsibilities in an attempt to combat stock theft within the area of study. There are no awareness campaigns to discuss the stock theft trends in Dr. Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Municipality area between the police and the community.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the challenges encountered by the South African Police services (SAPS) when dealing with 4IR. The study used a qualitative approach because the study wished to obtain practical answers to the problem, as well as the explanations provided by participants who are practitioners in the field and a total of forty (40) police officers were selected to participate in the study. The researcher followed purposive sampling. The reasoning for using purposive sampling is that it is based on the assumptions that the participants have in-depth knowledge in the chosen areas of the study.  The findings of the study are that the local police stations of SAPS Gauteng are where many victims of crimes emerging from 4IR get turned away by officials who do not understand the various cybercrimes, the applicable charges, or how to go about escalating the matter. The study further found that the Government policy seems to prioritize statistics, quotas, and the images they reflect as opposed to the true situation hence crimes emerging from 4IR are poorly understood, prevented, and investigated. The study recommends that IT capacity and resources within SAPS have to be developed in order to ensure that the SAPS in Gauteng province is able to investigate, combat and trace the sophisticated crimes caused by the criminals. The SAPS needs to allocate funds to buy IT equipment, software and headhunt personnel who have skills, knowledge, and capacity to curb, investigate and combat 4IR crimes.

Over the three decades, the democratic dispensation ushered in transformative constitutionalism which is an ideal model to anchor constitutionalism and respect for human rights in South Africa. Female offenders are the key informants of this study, as they are the end-users of the rehabilitation programmes that the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) offers. A qualitative technique was used for this study. In-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 10 female ex-offenders, who have been enrolled in rehabilitative programmes were selected using purposive sampling to explore their experiences and or views. The findings of this study indicate that lack of offense-specific programmes s results in recidivism and offenders re-entering the correctional system to repeat the same programmes to meet their parole requirements. Furthermore, highlighted in the findings is the magnitude of the lack of understanding among most criminal justice professionals regarding the actual need for the programmes earmarked for female offenders. The risk factors of female offending identified within this study include poverty, anger, and drug use. Although the DCS has firm policy documents in place, implementing these has failed the offenders and negatively impacted recidivism rates.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) Training College, Paarl is facing challenges to reward, motivate and ensure service delivery at the Academy. In any organisation, employees are working to provide service to both internal and external clients for this it is important to take care of employees because they are interacting with these clients. Thus, a cardinal question is how can organisations retain and motivate employees in order to offer a quality service to their clients? The aim of this study was to determine the influence between rewards, motivation and service quality at the SAPS Training College, Paarl. Semi-structured interviews with 10 managers and supervisors utilizing purposive sampling were conducted. The findings revealed that participants at the Training College, Paarl are motivated by only intrinsic as the morale is slow due to a lack of extrinsic factors with particular emphasis on pay or remuneration. Lack of recognition or perceived favouritism with the SAPS where rewards are not linked to performance was identified to be the best de-motivating factor for employees at the SAPS Training College, Paarl. The quality of academic services has a significant effect on the consumer behavior of customers, the students.

Social media is considered a double-edged sword, with both positive and negative effects. A qualitative research approach was adopted to explore the extent to which and the ways in which South African police use social media in the study area. The findings were collected through semi-structured interviews with 22 participants comprising the South African Police Service (SAPS) officials in the Giyani Cluster policing area. The findings indicate that criminals in the Limpopo Province use social media to commit crimes in the country, other countries in Africa, and elsewhere. The findings also indicate that social media is used to bring positive attention to law enforcement agencies and aid in criminal investigations. Although the positive impact of social media was highlighted in these experiences, persistent problems and challenges also featured in the data. Finally, officer insights were drawn upon to make recommendations for future policing policy and research. This paper concludes that social media as a tool can be utilised in terms of data gathering, prediction and spotting broader patterns, for combating organised crime by the SAPS.

Substance abuse is one of the most pervasive problems facing our nation, especially in the townships. Curbing this problem requires an integrated approach in which community stakeholders and society work together to improve safety by tackling the fundamental causes of criminality through mobilising state and non-state capacities and resources at all levels. This study seeks to assess the strategies and successes of community initiatives and circumstances that bestow on the path towards helping to fulfill the community’s aim to prevent and combat drug abuse. This study made use of a sample of 90 respondents 18 years and older who responded to the survey. A purposive sample of 10 staff members from the community-based organisations participated in oral interviews, while a simple random sample of 80 community members responded to questionnaires. Furthermore, secondary data sources were consulted to back up the claims that emerged from this study. While the study evaluated community strategies and documented some of the successes, including the rehabilitation of drug addicts, it also highlighted the lack of capacity of community organisations to make meaningful contributions in this regard. In particular, the lack of cooperation/collaboration and trust between the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the community stakeholders is a cause for concern that may hinder any efforts to combat drug abuse. This study, therefore, highlights strategies that require a collective effort from government stakeholders.