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The post-secondary vocational education system in South Africa encounters many challenges, including a lack of professionalism among certain teaching people, an unresponsive curriculum, and inadequate management of day-to-day operations, leading to fragmentation within the system. This is corroborated by a 2014 Training Needs Assessment Study (TNAS) that uncovered a dearth of effective college leadership management abilities and the utilisation of insufficient instructional approaches in certain vocational schools. This study aimed to investigate the possible factors influencing the quality of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in certain colleges located in the Gauteng area of South Africa. The study employed a quantitative research methodology, collecting data using a survey. Subsequently, the data was subjected to analysis using SPSS. This study hypothesised that the current state of affairs may be attributed to inadequate and fragmented leadership and management techniques. The researchers expressed uncertainty regarding the implementation of a more integrated and focused leadership approach that would disperse responsibility for student accomplishment in order to enhance outcomes. This study aimed to examine the main obstacles to enhancing students' performance in TVET colleges and explore how a dispersed instructional leadership approach may be conceptualised to tackle these challenges at the institutional level. The study highlights the significance of collaboration and a fair allocation of power and competence to promote a collective leadership vision in the pursuit of enhanced institutional performance in a sector in need of positive results.

Road traffic accidents are a major, but neglected global public health problem, requiring intensive efforts for effective and sustainable prevention. Of all the systems that people must deal with daily, road transport is the most complex, and the most dangerous. Road safety is an issue of national concern, considering its magnitude, gravity and the consequent negative impacts on the economy, public health and the general welfare of the people in South Africa. Road traffic accidents are a collective responsibility and all major stakeholders need to play their role in road safety and ensure that road users are safe whenever they are on the road. One of the major challenges for road traffic authorities in preventing road traffic accidents in South Africa is the inability of road users to understand and interpret the rules of the road and this contributes to a high rate of fatalities on the road. This qualitative article adopted the non-empirical research design: Systematic review. This study is completely based on the secondary data. A systematic review was done in detail for the collected literature. The key findings indicated that road users do not obey the rules of the road: jaywalking, speeding, driving and walking while impaired contribute to a high rate of fatalities on the road. The findings further indicated that law enforcement officials are not enforcing the law consistently which compromises the road safety project. Based on the findings, the author provided possible recommendations such as providing road safety campaigns throughout the year; capacitating law enforcement officials with resources to prevent road traffic accidents.

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.

This qualitative study investigated the forte of load-shedding on the gains of digital technology integration in a selected South African university in Gauteng province. This case study made use of interviews which were conducted using MS Teams among 8 lecturers and 8 students that were selected purposefully. The interpretive paradigm was used to understand the participants’ plight in the reversal of gains that load-shedding continues to bring in their university post-COVID-19 outbreak. The complexity theory was used to underpin the study and the main findings revealed through themes that both the students and lecturers struggle with the learning and teaching activities that need digital tools because of the persistence of load-shedding that affect innovation and skill impartation. It was also revealed that modems that are used as internet sources fail to function during load-shedding because the network is often affected when lights are off. The study recommends that South African universities should invest in renewable energy and resort to an uninterruptible power supply to keep the lights on. All the role-players of ESKOM need to pull in one direction to have a lasting solution that should keep the lights on for digital tools to keep working.

The study analyzes the development of business incubation literature in South Africa. The VOSviewer software was used to perform the bibliometric analysis of 44 articles on business incubation in South Africa conducted between 1996 and 2023 that were obtained from the Scopus database. The study has also revealed literature on business incubation started to appear in 1996 in South Africa. The study’s keyword co-occurrence analysis also revealed that the following words had the most occurrences and were clustered into the following: entrepreneurship and business incubation, business incubators and effectiveness, entrepreneurial education and informal Business, SMEs and start-up, business and sustainability, and business development and competitiveness. The study sorts the articles based on the following indicators: number of documents published in a year, eminent authors and keyword co-occurrence, which identified six categories of the most prominent research themes being covered by articles reviewed. The study only used articles that were written in English language only. Therefore, future research should consider articles written in other languages and expand the study to other regions, continents, and even global scale.

Thulamela's tourism sector has experienced growth in recent years, contributing to a steadily rising regional GDP. However, persistent unemployment and poverty raise concerns about the extent of local community involvement in tourism planning and decision-making, which is essential for ensuring equitable benefits, cultural preservation , and sustainable development. this study examined community participation and interactions with local businesses and authorities in Thohoyandou and surrounding villages within the Thulamela Local Municipality. A quantitative survey involving 304 community members was conducted, and the data were analyzed using SPSS version 29.0 with appropriate statistical techniques. the results reveal a significant gab between communities and administrative governance structure , along with a strong demand for inclusion in the formulation and drafting of tourism policies and participatory planning platforms. This study contributes to the scholarship on community involvement in tourism and offer potential insight for academics, managers, planners and policymakers who seek to enhance inclusive, community-centered tourism governance in developing contexts such as South Africa.

Unlawful mining poses a significant global challenge. It contributes to environmental degradation, corruption, and exploitation, with Africa being disproportionately affected. This qualitative, exploratory study investigated the factors that drive unlawful mining in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa, in response to growing concerns about its substantial economic and social impacts. Through semi-structured interviews, 26 purposively selected participants from diverse backgrounds, including law enforcement and key stakeholders, provided varied perspectives. The findings consistently highlight unemployment and poverty as primary drivers that compel individuals to engage in illegal mining activities. The participants also emphasized the inherent dangers faced by illegal miners and the complex socio-economic dynamics that perpetuate this illicit enterprise. Critically, existing policing strategies were perceived as inadequate. The study concludes that effectively mitigating unlawful mining in Ekurhuleni requires comprehensive approaches that address underlying socio-economic vulnerabilities and foster active community involvement. This underscores the need for coordinated efforts to reduce its impacts and support local safety and development.

The study aims to examine the key drivers and financing mechanisms of infrastructure development in Africa and their impact on trade facilitation and regional economic integration. It focuses on understanding the political, economic, and institutional factors shaping sustainable infrastructure growth and trade expansion across the continent. The African continent engages in relatively limited intra-continental trade, with intra-African trade consistently averaging between 12% and 15%. At a broader level, trade growth is widely regarded as a key driver of economic development, employment generation, and poverty reduction. However, the persistent low levels of trade among African countries coupled with high unemployment and widespread poverty have sparked discussions around the urgent need to strengthen both intra-regional and continental trade. In pursuit of regional integration, various regional economic communities were established, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Despite these efforts, concerns persist regarding weak economic infrastructure across several regions of the continent, including within the SADC bloc. Inadequate infrastructure has been identified as a major impediment to enhancing intra-African trade. Against this backdrop, the present study aims to empirically examine the relationship between economic infrastructure and intra-regional trade within the SADC region. The analysis employs panel data covering all 15 SADC member states, utilizing datasets from the SADC Secretariat and the World Bank. Applying the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation technique, the findings indicate a positive and statistically significant relationship between infrastructure development and intra-SADC exports.

The Marshall-Lerner condition states that a trade balance improves after currency depreciation if trade elasticities exceed one. Using the Vector Error Correction Method (VECM), this study tests the condition for South Africa, focusing on how exchange rate changes affect the trade balance under a floating exchange rate regime. The analysis examines short- and long-run impacts on exports and imports to assess whether exchange rate adjustments can improve the trade balance. Findings reveal that global income growth and exchange rate appreciation positively influence exports, while imports increase with both appreciation and higher domestic income. Although exports and imports respond strongly to exchange rate changes, the Marshall-Lerner condition does not hold for South Africa, suggesting that exchange rate adjustments alone may not improve the trade balance.

The continued increase in food demand globally, has witnessed a corresponding growth in the fast-food restaurant business. The study of food and service quality as major drivers of customer satisfaction and behavioural intention has therefore become a strategic area of interest. This study explored how food and service quality affect customer satisfaction and behavioural intention in the context of quick-service restaurants in Tshwane City of South Africa. Guided by a positivist philosophy, the study employed a deductive approach to theory development. A cross-sectional descriptive research design was adopted and a structured survey instrument was used to collect data from 173 online participants. The results were analysed using IBM SPSS 26, and partial least squares structural equation modelling in Smart PLS 4 to test hypotheses. The findings showed that although food quality had a significant positive effect on behavioural intention, it was not a predictor of customer satisfaction. All the elements of service quality exhibited significant positive influence on satisfaction and behavioural intention. This study offers invaluable insights for managers to embrace customer-driven strategies such as offering high quality food and service because the success of culinary business revolves around achieving customer satisfaction, which is vital for creating positive behavioural intentions. Future studies can be done using relatively larger sample sizes for more generalisability in related studies or other service domains.