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This study examines the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices on corporate financial performance in Zimbabwe's mining sector using a case study of Zimplats Holdings Limited. The main aim was to determine whether and to what extent ESG practices contribute to financial outcomes at the firm level. The objective of the study was to examine the overall ESG and financial performance relationship, to analyse the effects of individual ESG dimensions on financial performance, and to assess the moderating role of firm-specific factors on ESG practices. Informed by the stakeholder theory, the resource-based view, and legitimacy theory, a quantitative approach was adopted, using secondary data extracted from Zimplats' Integrated Annual Reports (2023–2025) through a structured data extraction template aligned with GRI standards. Key findings reveal a positive but lagged ESG and financial performance relationship. Governance emerged as the most stable and financially material ESG pillar, while environmental and social investments showed transitional efficiency deterioration before expected long-term gains. Firm-specific factors such as asset expansion, capital structure, production volume, and multinational ownership, significantly moderated the timing and magnitude of financial returns, compressing short-term profitability indicators such as return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). The study contributes firm-level empirical evidence on unlisted Zimbabwean mining firms, extending ESG theory to emerging market contexts. Recommendations include targeting governance enhancements for immediate financial returns, allowing longer investment horizons for environmental and social initiatives, and maintaining conservative capital structures to sustain ESG investment during earnings volatility.

The study sought to investigate the factors influencing environmental reporting in developing countries. This has been necessited by the inconsistances and non compliant to regulations and laws of environmental reporting among the developing countries. Through examining the factors that influence environmental reporting the study hope to establish context based solutions to the challenge of environmental reporting. The study used a quantitative research method and factor analysis to establish the factors influencing environmental reporting. It was discovered that there are seven key factors influencing environmental reporting among Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. These factors are: regulatory drivers, risk management drivers, market drivers, management influence drivers, strategic communication drivers, value creation drivers and legitimacy drivers. The study also revealed that there are several sub-factors that influencing environmental reporting under each key factor identified. The study concluded that environmental reporting influenced by the seven key factors. The study recommends that SADC sought for in-depth understanding of factors influencing environmental reporting. This is because understanding of the factors affecting environmental reporting is essential for the formulation and reporting that that satisfies stakeholders' requirements.

Climate change is increasingly recognised as a significant threat to economic development. As efforts to transition to a low-carbon economy continue to intensify, there is a growing realisation among proponents of sustainable development that public sector organisations need to disclose climate risks and opportunities associated with their operations.  Climate risk disclosures in the public sector offer countries unique insights and opportunities to pursue a sustainable path toward a low-carbon economy. Although there are many studies on climate-risk disclosures in the private sector, studies on the public sector are scarce. A systematic review of academic and grey literature was used to analyse the potential of adapting the TCFD framework to the public sector of South Africa. The study found that the TCFD recommendations provide a globally standardised approach to climate risk disclosure, allowing comprehensive reporting and comparison of climate-related information between sectors and entities to promote climate resilience and transition to a green economy. To effectively implement the recommendations of the TCFD in the public sector of South Africa, improved capacity building, strong legal and institutional frameworks, bold multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral approaches, adequate budget support and strong advocacy and communication efforts are needed. The study will be important to the IPSASB and other stakeholders to develop sustainability reporting standards for the public sector, as well as promote climate risk disclosures by government entities. 

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the adoption of responsible business practices concerning economic, environmental and social principles, is a tool to develop market value for various stakeholder groups. CSR can create several competitive advantages and should not be seen as a cost, but as a strategic initiative to aid organisations in competing in the market. Effective internal CSR communication to employees enhances an organisation’s corporate identity (CI) – ultimately affecting employees’ attitudes and behaviour. This paper aims to explore South African retail employees’ perceptions of internal CSR communication methods used by their organisations. A dataset of 229 employees participated by completing a computer-aided self-administered survey, which was distributed via LinkedIn. The main findings of the study indicate that employees perceived their organisations to make use of e-mail communication, internal newsletters, web and social media platforms to communicate with them regarding CSR, indicating that other internal communication platforms such as intranet or internal meetings can be utilised more to communicate with employees.