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This article systematically reviews literature on the challenges affecting the delivery of low-income housing in Cape Town, South Africa. A systematic method, informed by PRISMA, was employed to identify, evaluate, and select relevant scholarly works, official documents, policy papers, and governmental publications. The identified sources were subjected to a thematic analysis with the objective to pinpoint recurrent issues that impact the provision of low-income housing. The review found that low-income housing delivery in Cape Town is affected by interconnected challenges, including land availability, spatial inequality, funding constraints, infrastructure limitations, administrative delays, weak institutional coordination, limited stakeholder participation and transparency concerns. The results demonstrate that low-income housing delivery should be viewed as a major governance, planning, and service-delivery issue in addition to the building of housing units. This paper suggests that integrated human settlements, better financial planning, more transparent approval processes, more intergovernmental cooperation, significant stakeholder participation, and open communication should be given top priority when it comes to Cape Town's low-income housing delivery. Through summarizing previous research and emphasizing the necessity of an integrated strategy to address Cape Town's low-income housing issues, the article adds to the conversation regarding housing delivery.

This paper examines how drawing skills can be taught to unemployed youth in under-resourced contexts to support the expression of their lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Framed within a vocational education and training (VET) skills ecosystem orientation, the study positions creative skills development as part of broader human development and livelihood sustainability initiatives in informal settings. The paper aims to explore the potential of arts-based research (ABR) as a pedagogical and methodological approach for developing 21st-century skills, with a specific focus on drawing as a tool for communication and reflection during a crisis. We employed a qualitative arts-based research design that combined creative workshops, visual artefacts, and participant reflections. Due to pandemic-related restrictions, the research design was adapted to a digital environment, with WhatsApp used as the primary platform for skills instruction, interaction, and data collection. The dataset comprised visual drawings produced by unemployed youth participants, reflective narratives, and facilitator observations generated during a series of online creative workshops. The qualitative and visual data were analysed thematically, resulting in six key themes that captured participants’ experiences of unemployment, uncertainty, resilience, identity, and the challenges of learning creative skills in a digitally mediated, resource-constrained context. The main findings demonstrate that (i) drawing skills can be effectively taught using low-cost digital platforms, even in under-resourced settings; (ii) creative processes enable unemployed youth to articulate and reflect on their lived experiences during a pandemic; and (iii) a VET-oriented skills ecosystem provides a useful framework for situating arts-based skills development within broader livelihood and social support structures. Despite a small sample size, the study contributes practical insights into conducting arts-based research during crises and offers guidance for integrating creative skills development into informal youth skills ecosystems.

This article examines the influence of mentorship on women entrepreneurs in Cape Town, South Africa. The study assesses the extent to which mentorship contributes to personal empowerment, entrepreneurial performance, and innovation, while accounting for the effects of systemic barriers and the policy environment. A qualitative research design was employed, incorporating a systematic literature review guided by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework to synthesize existing evidence. The review followed an iterative screening process, identifying three peer-reviewed studies that explicitly address mentorship in relation to women entrepreneurs within the African context. The findings from the literature indicate that women entrepreneurs across Africa face persistent structural constraints, including social-cultural norms, limited access to skills development, weak support systems, financial exclusion, and inadequate policy frameworks.  To complement the literature, primary data were collected from ten young female entrepreneurs in Cape Town who participated in a mentorship programme at RLabs. The empirical finding reinforce the significance of mentorship as a critical enabler of entrepreneurial growth, particularly in enhancing self-efficacy, business capabilities, and innovative practices. The study concludes that mentorship functions as a context-dependent and multifaceted mechanism that bridges personal empowerment and entrepreneurial outcomes. However, its effectiveness is contingent on the alignment of mentorship programmes with the specific social-economic realities of women entrepreneurs. The article recommends the design and implementation of targeted, context-sensitive mentorship interventions supported by enabling policy frameworks. While women's entrepreneurship is increasingly recognised as a catalyst for economic development in Africa, persistent systemic constraints continue to impede their full potential. This study contributes to literature by advancing a nuanced understanding of mentorship as both an individual and structural lever for entrepreneurial success within emerging economies. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming digital marketing by enabling advanced analytics, automation, and personalised customer engagement. Despite growing adoption, qualitative insights into how small retail enterprises in emerging economies adopt AI remain limited. This study examines AI adoption in digital marketing among small retailers in Cape Town using an interpretivist qualitative case study design. Grounded in an integrated Technology–Organisation–Environment (TOE) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 18 participants identified via snowball sampling. Thematic analysis shows that AI adoption is driven by competitive pressure, customer expectations, and perceived performance benefits, but is constrained by skills gaps, cost concerns, and data-related challenges. The study extends TOE–UTAUT theory by demonstrating how platform-based AI tools reduce technological barriers while amplifying organisational and capability-related constraints in emerging market contexts. The findings provide actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners aiming to support sustainable digital transformation in small business ecosystems.

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa’s tourism sector increasingly rely on business excellence practices to enhance competitiveness and performance. This study examines how employees in Cape Town tourism SMEs perceive business excellence, using a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative survey data with qualitative thematic insights. The findings identify key critical success factors underpinning business excellence, namely customer and employee satisfaction, operational efficiency, and organisational growth, with satisfaction emerging as the most dominant driver of performance. Additional enabling factors include strong leadership, continuous employee training, effective communication, and the implementation of quality management practices. While most employees indicated the presence of quality plans, gaps in understanding formal business excellence frameworks were evident, suggesting a disconnect between practice and conceptual awareness. These findings reinforce the importance of service quality as central to achieving sustained competitiveness in tourism SMEs. The study contributes to the effective and efficient adaptation of business excellence in both existing and future strategies for tourism SMEs' organizational development. The study contributes empirically to the limited South African literature on business excellence in SMEs and highlights the relevance of employee-centred performance dimensions. Practically, the results suggest that tourism SMEs should prioritise staff development, embed quality management systems, and foster a culture of continuous improvement, while policymakers and industry stakeholders should support SMEs through targeted training and capacity-building initiatives to enhance the effective adoption of business excellence frameworks. The main implication of the study results is that when business excellence principles are implemented, success and better results are easily achieved.

Globally, student assessment surveys are utilised to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. Student evaluation questionnaires require a substantial investment of effort from both students and teachers.  This research aims to elucidate students' attitudes towards evaluation questionnaires, hence enhancing comprehension of the quality of information in completed assessments. The research encompassed undergraduate students enrolled in a Business and Information Management program within the Faculty of Accounting and Informatics at the Durban University of Technology, Midlands Campus, South Africa. The experiences and attitudes of students about teaching evaluation questionnaires were examined through metaphorical drawings and focus group discussions. The results reveal that students possess both favourable and unfavourable opinions toward student ratings. Positive themes encompass assessments as a systematic procedure and a chance for students to propose modifications. Negative attitudes encompass perceptions of evaluations as oppressive and threatening, reflecting a lack of profound contemplation by students when filling out the questionnaire, and raising enquiries about the subsequent activities made after completing the evaluations. Findings elucidate several elements influencing student evaluations of education, including the timing of administration, the individuals responsible for providing them, and the methods employed in their administration. The document advocates for other methods of gathering student feedback and the discontinuation of paper-based surveys. Feedback may be acquired using online questionnaires and qualitative interviews. Furthermore, learning analytics technologies can be integrated into the LMS utilised for administering online surveys, facilitating the provision of tailored feedback to individual students.

This study rigorously analysed policy deficiencies and structural vulnerabilities in climate-resilient water and sanitation governance in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The research employed a qualitative approach, utilising semi-structured interviews with fifteen purposefully selected stakeholders, comprising municipal water technicians, engineers, planners, national and provincial authorities, and civil society representatives. The investigation examined the interaction between climate-induced pressures—such as droughts, floods, and rainfall variability—and governance deficiencies that undermine water and sanitation systems. The data collection concentrated on personal experiences of infrastructure failure, discrepancies between policy and reality, and obstacles in institutional coordination. Findings indicated that despite the province functioning inside advanced national frameworks like the National Water Act and the Disaster Management Act, their execution is cursory and predominantly reactive. Participants emphasised an excessive dependence on obsolete national climate models that neglect spatially distinct vulnerabilities across urban, peri-urban, and rural areas. Chronic underinvestment in infrastructure maintenance has become a persistent issue, as municipal budgets prioritise new capital projects over lifespan asset management. The technical team had institutional memory but lacked decision-making power because of bureaucratic procurement processes and disjointed interagency collaboration. The study additionally revealed significant deficiencies in real-time monitoring and enforcement capabilities, as well as gender discrepancies that marginalised women's involvement in governance frameworks. The study concludes that without immediate reforms to decentralise climate data generation, incorporate localised risk assessments, enhance preventive maintenance systems, and institutionalise participatory, technology-driven governance mechanisms, the water and sanitation systems in Eastern Cape will continue to be structurally fragile and susceptible to climate impacts. These insights provide novel empirical evidence to the discourse on sub-national climate adaptation in Africa, highlighting the necessity for multi-tiered, data-driven, and gender-sensitive reforms rooted in the realities of communities impacted by climate change.

The article seeks to explore the factors which restrict doctoral graduate throughput rates at a selected University of Technology faculty located in the Western Cape, South Africa. In a developing economy like South Africa higher education qualifications are important as it is universally accepted that doctoral studies, in particular advance knowledge and innovation is important in any society. Furthermore, doctoral graduates play a significant role in the knowledge economy, promote innovation organisations, boost credibility of organisations and connect ideas between academia and industry. A positive nexus exists between a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the number of doctoral candidates produced. To achieve the aim of this article a qualitative interpretive design was adopted to identify the factors which restrict throughput rates and the extent or significance thereof. The locus for this study was a selected faculty in a University of Technology (UoT) located in the Western Cape, South Africa with the target research population delineated as employees who hold a master’s degree within the same faculty. Using qualitative interpretive design and thematic analysis of survey responses from 40 master’s-qualified employees, the study identifies key barriers and proposes targeted interventions. The forty participants were purposively selected to participate in the questionnaire survey. The paper will propose interventions to facilitate the improvement of the doctoral throughput rate premised on the analysis of the results arising from the questionnaire survey. The paper proposes targeted and contextualized interventions to address the systemic challenges restricting doctoral enrolment and completion by the faculty employees.

This study examines how Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption in digital marketing enhances the competitiveness of small retail businesses (SRBs) in Cape Town, South Africa. Guided by an integrated Technology–Organisation–Environment (TOE) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework, a systematic review following PRISMA 2020 guidelines was conducted across eight databases, resulting in the inclusion of 37 empirical and conceptual studies published between 2015 and 2025. Findings show that AI adoption remains modest, with only 39% of small businesses planning to develop internal AI capabilities by 2025. The most common entry points are ChatGPT, text-to-image generators, predictive analytics systems, and WhatsApp-based chatbots. Businesses using these tools reported an average 11% increase in sales and a 28% reduction in marketing costs within six months. However, adoption is constrained by infrastructure challenges (patchy broadband, power cuts, high cloud costs), organisational limitations (low digital literacy, managerial scepticism, fear of automation), and socio-cultural barriers (language diversity and customer mistrust of chatbots). This study provides the first Cape Town-focused synthesis linking AI adoption to SME competitiveness through the TOE–UTAUT framework. It recommends policy measures to improve digital infrastructure and data governance, practical initiatives to strengthen AI literacy and ethical awareness, and theoretical extensions to contextualise socio-cultural dimensions of AI use. Collectively, these insights contribute to advancing inclusive, trust-based digital transformation in Cape Town’s small business ecosystem.