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The study explored the challenges faced by principals in implementing policies with a focus on the Policy on the South African Standard for Principalship. The implementation of policies globally and in South Africa has experienced a high rate of failure. The problem is that in many organisations' implementing policies, policy implementers are not concerned with challenges that employees face when implementing policies. This lack of focus on challenges has often resulted in policy implementation failure. This article focuses on the perceptions of principals regarding challenges they encounter in implementing policies using a qualitative approach. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews with fifteen principals from schools in Mopani East district, Limpopo province, and used a qualitative inductive analysis. The study revealed that principals encounter challenges that are both systemic DBE-based (Department of Basic Education) and school-based. The study recommends that the Department of Basic Education should focus on mediating the challenges using effective strategies to enhance the chances of policy success. 

This article explores factors affecting principals' readiness to creatively implement policies, focusing on the policy on the South African Standard for Principalship. Policy implementation globally and in South Africa has faced an extraordinary frequency of failure. This occurs due to organizations' failure to measure readiness in employees, resulting in a lack of information about processes and strategies for implementing the policies. This article focuses on the perceptions of principals regarding factors that affect their readiness to creatively implement policies using a qualitative method. Information was gathered through semi-structured in-depth interviews. The information was collected on a small sample of fifteen principals from schools in Mopani East district, Limpopo province, and was analysed through qualitative inductive analysis. The study revealed that principals' readiness to implement policies is affected by motivating factors. The study recommends that the Department of Education focus on enhancing the motivation of principals, which can result in readiness to implement, and measure the readiness of principals to implement policies in advance of the formal operation. 

Amid growing calls for efficiency, transparency, and value creation in public sector supply chain management (SCM) performance, this paper aims to investigate the impact of technological modernisation on SCM practices within the context of South Africa's public service operations. Framed by modernisation theory which historically guided structural reforms in developing economies, the study examines whether readiness to adopt Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies such as modern digital systems, automation, and data-driven tools enhance effectiveness while influencing SCM practices and performance. Despite its growing prominence in policy discourse, the adoption of 4IR in the public sector context remains uneven and not yet formally established, creating a need for empirical evidence on whether these technologies deliver tangible performance improvements. The research adopts a quantitative research design with primary data were collected via a structured, self-administered online survey from 120 purposively selected SCM officials based in the Gauteng Province, the economic hub of South Africa and the province consisting of the largest concentration of government departments. A linear multiple regression and ANOVA techniques within SPSS was employed to test for statistical significance of the relationships between the research constructs. The findings show a significant relationship between technological modernisation and SCM performance, reinforcing the role of digitally modernising business systems and practices that lead to improved efficiency, transparency, and accountability. The study contributes to business research by providing empirical evidence that technological modernisation enhances service delivery outcomes and improves operational efficiency in the public sector.

The sawmilling industry in South Africa consists of both formal and informal sawmills. How these sawmills operate and their costs of operation often differ from each other. This challenges regulations, product costings, and product offerings, as this often differs for the players. There is an urgent need to improve the competitiveness of the sawmilling industry; however, despite the various efforts from multiple stakeholders, the industry remains globally and even locally uncompetitive. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the factors affecting the competitiveness of the South African sawmill industry and how those factors impact the industry’s sustainable development. Research questions were formulated to achieve the objective. The study followed a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews. Interviews were conducted with seven personnel working in the South African sawmill industry. A non-probability purposive sampling method was employed to choose participants for the study based on their positions. By looking at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the PESTLE factors affecting the competitiveness of the South African sawmilling industry, we were able to see that there are several factors at play in the sawmill industry. The study highlighted that by looking at the sawmilling industry holistically, the stakeholders (private, public, communities, government, academia, etc) can work together to address the challenges affecting the sawmilling industry. This can be achieved by incentivising compliance with the regulations that support sustainability and competitiveness in the sawmilling industry. Future research should explore the effectiveness and success stories of initiatives, regulations and programs that address challenges in the sawmilling industry and see how they can be improved for sustainable development.

Intellectual disability is a developmental disorder that markedly affects cognitive and adaptive functioning. Learners with mild intellectual disability are capable of engaging in various occupations, including activities of daily living, leisure, social interactions, and employment. Employment is frequently regarded as a critical measure of successful outcomes following education. Nonetheless, individuals with mild intellectual disabilities often exit the educational system lacking the workforce readiness skills—such as communication, social skills, self-management, responsibility, problem-solving, decision-making, and job-specific competencies—essential for sustained employment in the open labour market. Low intelligence quotients restrict community engagement. The researcher noted that South Africa does not have adequate systems to facilitate the successful transition of these learners from school to the workplace. This research investigates the experiences of educators and occupational therapists to delineate concepts related to facilitating school-to-work transitions for learners with mild intellectual disabilities. A qualitative exploratory research design was utilised. Fifteen educators and eight occupational therapists from schools for learners with mild intellectual disabilities in the Gauteng province, Tshwane region, were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected via five focus group discussions until saturation was achieved and analysed thematically. Five primary themes were identified: challenges associated with the Differentiated Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (DCAPS), accomplishments within the DCAPS framework, collaborative initiatives, resource deficiencies, and learnership placement. Educators and occupational therapists could support learners in specific domains; however, they encountered systemic challenges. This study generated significant data for policymakers, the Department of Education, occupational therapists, and vocational skills training educators in schools for Learners with Special Education Needs, aimed at facilitating a successful school-to-work transition for learners with mild intellectual disabilities.

The erosion of the South African state and its public services can be understood through various social, political and economic factors. These issues are complex and multifaceted, often intertwined and mutually reinforcing. Several theories and patterns can help explain the erosion of the state and public services in the country. The core objective of this paper is to elucidate the foregoing factors, using purposely selected theories as philosophical lenses through which to understand why service delivery dilemmas prevail, and why state institutions are eroding. This paper is located within a qualitative paradigm, in particular narrative reviews, where secondary sources of information was consulted. This paper makes a conceptual contribution to the notion of the erosion of South African public sector institutions in general, and the field of Public Administration in particular. The paper recognises that addressing the erosion of the South African state and public services requires comprehensive strategies and reforms, including tackling corruption, improving the education and healthcare systems, creating jobs, and addressing economic inequalities. It also necessitates strengthening institutions and promoting good governance to restore public trust and to ensure sustainable development.

The South African National Framework towards the Professionalization of the Public Service, moots the belief that professionalizing public administration is one of the key requirements for building state capacity. An efficient and effective public service may positively impact the state’s development agenda. The United Nations’ (UN) 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) serve as a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all with the focus on an end to poverty, and inequality, the protection of the planet, and the assurance that global citizens enjoy health, justice and prosperity. The core question that this paper addresses is: To what extent will professionalization of the South African public sector through learning and training programs offered at the National School of Government (NSG), contribute to the UN’s SDGs specifically and Africa Agenda 2063 (Agenda 2063) and the South African National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 in general? The paper is premised on a systematic stand-alone literature review. Content analysis was used to make sense of the secondary data consulted by honing in on pre-identified search terms. The study found that while the training programs offered at the NSG are aligned with the government’s focus on professionalization of the public service, specific mention of the SDGs, the NDP and Agenda 2063, are not made. It is recommended that with much talk around the re-calibration of the public sector by way of the NSG, an opportunity exists to explicitly teach the principles, objectives and aims of the aforementioned SDGs, NDP goals and Agenda 2063 objectives, in all its training programs, or that new programs are devised by the NSG solely focused on the attainment of the SDGs.

Municipalities are mandated to follow the principles of democracy, accountability, and good governance. This is evident in the delivery of basic services. Municipalities are directly responsible for ensuring that communities have water, sanitation, and so on, and that community members have a voice that affects their existence. This is, however, not the case in most South African communities, where squalor and sordid conditions prevail. In 2021, it was reported that 64 municipalities were dysfunctional and that the dysfunction was attributed to “poor governance, weak institutional capacity, poor financial management, corruption, and political instability”. A Code of Conduct is available in the South African public sector, governing the behavior and work ethic of public officials, councillors, and the like. Yet corruption and maladministration at the local government level prevail. Therefore, the Local Government Ethical Leadership Initiative was launched in 2020 with the view of devising another code focused on ethical governance in South African local government by October 2023. The research question that this article addresses is centered on whether a new code of conduct is needed and whether the problem with the existing code does not lie with its enforcement or the ethnicity of the public officials in leadership positions and their view on how to conduct business. The article employed a qualitative research approach where secondary sources of information, constituting document analysis, premised around disruption and ethnic leadership as well as the legislative framework in relation to the Code of Conduct governing South African local government in particular and anti-corrupt behavior in general, were explored. Four provinces were purposefully selected to partake in the study. Extracts from the AG’s report formed the locus of the study. It was found that one cannot explicitly say that ethnicity plays a role in how municipalities are governed. However, governance in selected provinces was marred by poor governance practices and inadequate leadership. The Code of Conduct for Public Servants is generally not adhered to. Further research around ethnic leadership in the South African public sector is called for.

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 IAF assists organizations in achieving accountability and integrity, enhancing the implementation of organizational programs, fostering public confidence, and mitigating the risk of mismanagement of public funds. Even though the significance of internal audit functions has been acknowledged and recognized in South Africa, the South African public sector is plagued by numerous issues resulting from the IAF's poor performance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that influence the efficacy of the internal audit function (IAF) within the Department of Defense (DoD). The investigation employed a qualitative methodology. Twenty-five professionals were interviewed in-depth, and the data were subjected to thematic analysis. Five factors have been identified as affecting the performance of the IAF within the DoD: limited resources, outmoded data collection techniques, a lack of automated data analytics software, the inaccessibility of audit records, and a lack of support from senior management. This article suggests that upper management invests in hiring competent and qualified personnel to automate its data collection and in purchasing data analysis software such as iAuditor, SAP, and TeamMate. It is recommended that audit records be well managed and securely stored and that internal auditors have complete access to information for conducting audits in all DoD sectors. The budget of the IAF within the DoD must be increased.

This paper focuses on physically disabled children as violence victims in the Eastern Cape's rural areas. The research sample comprised 100 physically disabled children from special needs schools in Eastern Cape. These respondents were chosen according to their knowledge of the research content and experience in the context studied. The researchers used purposive sampling for selecting physically disabled respondents. The questionnaires were used to collect data and the collected data were analyzed by using SPSS Version 22 and thematically. Findings: physically disabled children are victimized due to their disability. Their disability conditions make them vulnerable to victimization. The study also finds that these physically disabled children succumbed to severe long-term effects because of their victimization. Most of the abuse/crimes committed against these children are not reported to the police. Recommendation: future research should be conducted on the victimization of physically disabled children by other physically disabled children (bullism).

The study presents a burden on theory and practice for discovering a reward criterion that achieves workspace morale in a hyperinflationary context. It aimed to determine the relationship between the individual components of rewards (extrinsic, intrinsic, and social) and workspace morale and the mediating role of employee engagement in a hyperinflationary context. The study applied a cross-sectional study. It employed a structured questionnaire as a study instrument. The target population for the study comprised 900 employees and managers of Bindura municipality in Zimbabwe. The study employed a sample of 269 employees and managers, and the methodology used was a case study. A total of 269 questionnaires were hand delivered after administering the ethical consent form. A total of 214 questionnaires were returned, and after preliminary review and cleaning, 17 questionnaires were found with missing values leaving 197 analyzable questionnaires thus, achieving a 73.2% response rate. The study used multiple regression analysis. The results reveal a significant direct effect of total reward, intrinsic reward, and social reward on workspace morale. The direct effect of extrinsic reward on workspace morale was statistically insignificant. It also reveals that the effects of total reward on workspace morale are mediated only partially by employee engagement. The study viewed employee engagement as a mediating force between rewards and workspace morale but did not examine the bond longitudinally. The study recommends exploring reward options, specifically supportive supervisory relations, work autonomy, role clarity, skill variety and regular feedback to improve workspace morale in hyperinflation. The results demonstrate the importance of practices that win employee hearts to enhance commitment instead of external motivation in an inflationary environment.

Scholars contend that public administration, as a discipline, is still in its infancy and, more often than not, fumbles for its own identity.  It is generally regarded as an amalgamation of various disciplines. It is therefore no wonder that scholars in public administration, more often than not, fail to locate their empirical research, in sound theoretical frameworks for research in public administration, in general.  The core objective of the study was to determine whether Master of Public Administration (MPA) graduates, from a selected university of technology in South Africa, grounded their research in theoretical frameworks, rooted in the identified public administration domains.  Desktop research was employed where purposely selected MPA dissertations were scrutinised, using content analysis. MPA qualifications generally comprise a range of modules in conjunction with the production of a mini-thesis.  This has not been the case at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) since 2016.  MPA graduates are required to produce a full dissertation only.  The study intended to highlight the importance of conducting research that contributes to public administration theory development, especially at universities of technology. The study found that if CPUT wants to acquire a competitive edge in the international higher education landscape in general and in the field of public administration in particular, it must aspire to deliver MPA graduates who demonstrate the ability to grow the mass of theoretical knowledge in the discipline.  The study recommends that theoretical frameworks, in the study domains associated with research in public administration be taught explicitly in the form of seminars in the absence of teaching them in formal credit-bearing modules, which is the case at CPUT.

Under the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Government has long mooted the notion of becoming a developmental state in response to rising unemployment, inequality and poverty. This idea was moulded along the folds of the rise of economic growth and industrialisation, as experienced by East Asian developmental states such as Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong. There would be an attempt to channel the state’s administrative capacities, policies and resources towards attaining national development goals. A developmental state plays an active role in guiding economic development and using the country's resources to meet the needs of the people. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as the Electricity Supply Commission (Eskom) were meant to be the catalyst in the National Development Plan’s (NDP) bid to reignite the country’s stagnant economy. However, the country's state institutions, administrative capacities and resources have been challenged by the state capture debacle that shed light on the corrupt relationship between the political and business elite. As a lack of effective leadership, mismanagement and a complex regulatory framework appear to be at the core of the crisis at Eskom in particular, the main objective of this paper was to determine to what extent the aforementioned constructs perpetuated the energy crisis at Eskom and in turn, negatively impacted the socio-economic aims of the NDP and South Africa’s endeavour to become a developmental state. To achieve this objective, the paper pursued a qualitative research approach where secondary information about the crisis at Eskom, and South Africa’s goal to become a developmental state, were perused. One of the article’s recommendations was that Eskom's grip on the regional power economy must end and that independent power plants must be enabled.