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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.

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.

This paper systematically reviews literature with the aim of conceptualizing a change management framework for the effective use of the Examination Administration System (EAS). Information systems (IS) change management factors in the implementation and the post-implementation phases are systematically reviewed to identify 37 reports between 2015 and 2023 and content was analyzed. Post-acceptance phase poses many challenges that often result in resistance from the user community thus relinquishing the expected gains. This paper explains change management factors in the post-implementation phase of information systems as they are not adequately addressed in existing literature. The conceptualization of the change management framework draws on the integration of the Unified Theory of Acceptance, Use of Technology and Effective Use Theory and nine change management factors as facilitating conditions. The paper concludes that effective use of EAS is realized through change management factors (i.e., user training, top management support activities, information flow, planning EAS as a change, change shared vision, performance measurement, user involvement and change recognition, user satisfaction and effective communication). This study further adds the indirect mechanisms (i.e., technology use and IS adaptive use) through which the change management factors can impact effective use. The study provides a useful guide to the practitioners and researchers to explain the change management strategies for the effective use of information systems and improve it. This paper also proposes that future studies adapt and/or empirically test conceptual change management apparatus for effective use to ascertain its validity within various contexts.

The aim of this article was to explore the role of Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) in promoting good governance, with the contextual setting being Blouberg Local Municipality. There is general consensus among academics, practitioners and policy makers alike in South Africa that the allocation of functions and responsibilities of municipal council and that of executives are often not clear, thus creating confusion in the officialdom and weakening oversight structures including MPAC. Hence the qualified audit reports in four consecutive years in Blouberg Municipality (see Auditor General, 2016-2021), signals internal failure not only to improve the municipal financial health status but to promote good governance generally. Methodologically, the study adopted qualitative designs and used interviews as instrument to collect data from key members of the committee. Consequently, the study revealed many underlying weaknesses, but the critical one was the demonstrable poor capacity within the committee which is twofold; (1) lack of expertise to facilitate oversight and (2) insufficient budget to enable performance of the Committee. Essentially, these challenges affect the proper functioning of MPAC which is constitutionally bestowed the responsibility of holding the executive accountable and guard against any misappropriation of municipal funds. The study recommended a number of solutions to improve the state of MPAC in the municipality, amongst them were that, council should develop an integrated reporting mechanism framework to conduct an oversight role which can be done with the assistance from experts in governance. The committee’s programme of action must also be funded, sufficiently. 

Contact centre operations are essential for providing customer support and managing client enquiries. A contact centre, akin to any other business, necessitates numerous essential components. A significant number of these components directly influence the business. Recognising and improving these elements can assist a contact centre in achieving its overarching objectives. The report seeks to analyse the essential elements that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of contact centre operations. The emphasis is on technology, personnel, and processes as the essential elements that enhance the efficient and effective operation of contact centres. The efficacy and efficiency of a contact centre environment encompass personnel, procedures, and technology across all organisational levels. These components must not be considered in isolation, as they influence the success or failure of a contact centre environment. Consequently, comprehending the interaction between these components is of paramount importance.Quantitative data were evaluated with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The convenience sample approach was deemed suitable for sampling contact centre agents, team leaders, and managers at the Department of Home Affairs. The study's principal findings indicate that both the literature research and the results highlighted the significance of components in facilitating the functioning and performance of contact centre operations. The data corroborate the idea that numerous contact centre failures stem from the absence of essential components necessary for its operation. The inclusion of suitable components in the contact centre has revolutionised management's oversight of these facilities. The analysis indicates that an effective team inside the company facilitates the management of contact centres. The report advocates for the implementation of integrated technological solutions to expedite customer interactions and improve operational efficiency in contact centres. It is advisable to invest in frequent employee training to ensure that staff are equipped to handle complex enquiries and effectively utilise advanced systems. Optimised process enhancement initiatives, including workflow simplification and decrease of call handling duration, are deemed essential for augmenting functionality.

The aim of this article was to explore the role of Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) in promoting good governance, with the contextual setting being Blouberg Local Municipality. There is general consensus among academics, practitioners and policy makers alike in South Africa that the allocation of functions and responsibilities of municipal council and that of executives are often not clear, thus creating confusion in the officialdom and weakening oversight structures including MPAC. Hence the qualified audit reports in four consecutive years in Blouberg Municipality (see Auditor General, 2016-2021), signals internal failure not only to improve the municipal financial health status but to promote good governance generally. Methodologically, the study adopted qualitative designs and used interviews as instrument to collect data from key members of the committee. Consequently, the study revealed many underlying weaknesses, but the critical one was the demonstrable poor capacity within the committee which is twofold; (1) lack of expertise to facilitate oversight and (2) insufficient budget to enable performance of the Committee. Essentially, these challenges affect the proper functioning of MPAC which is constitutionally bestowed the responsibility of holding the executive accountable and guard against any misappropriation of municipal funds. The study recommended a number of solutions to improve the state of MPAC in the municipality, amongst them were that, council should develop an integrated reporting mechanism framework to conduct an oversight role which can be done with the assistance from experts in governance. The committee’s programme of action must also be funded, sufficiently. 

Motivation is a critical factor that impacts the performance of both employees and organisations. Consequently, it is imperative that supervisors and management ascertain the motivating factors that significantly influence employee performance. The motivation levels of administrative employees were assessed in this study to determine the factors that influence them. The current study is focused on evaluating the motivational level of administrative employees and determining the sequence in which these motivational factors are ranked by administrative employees in the same department. A quantitative research methodology was implemented. An adapted questionnaire was implemented to implement a survey research design. The sample was comprised of 150 administrative employees from a total of 463 employees. The non-probability convenience sampling method was employed to select the respondents for this study. The motivational level of administrative personnel was analysed using descriptive statistics. The study's primary findings indicated that employees were most motivated by job security, job responsibility, goal setting, working conditions, leadership, feedback, salary, and job characteristics. The following was also determined: the most significant motivational factors for employees were ranked in the following order: leadership (1), salary (2), training and development (3), job security (4), feedback (5), rewards (6), working conditions (7), the opportunity for advancement (8), recognition and appreciation (9), job characteristics (10), job responsibility (11), performance appraisal (12), and goal setting 13.

MSMEs are widely regarded as important building blocks for economic prosperity and broader social well-being for both developed and developing nations. However, MSMEs face several challenges that impede their ability to fully provide the much-needed boost to the socio-economic development of countries. Tourism MSMEs are often significantly impacted by crises that include economic downturns, natural disasters, and public health emergencies that destroy infrastructure and affect human movement, notably the outbreak of pandemics and epidemics. The Covid-19 pandemic altered every business operation across the globe. This was mainly because the pandemic was new and no reference case for the Covid-19 crisis existed in living memory. As such the survival of all businesses was at high risk, particularly, the tourism MSMEs in South Africa. The industry’s operations were severely affected by the restrictions imposed by the government of South Africa especially in the year 2020 and 2021. Despite operating their businesses in a crisis, the tourism MSMEs entrepreneurs exhibited resilience as they navigated the pandemic, through being agile, adaptive, and exploring new opportunities of operating and utilising government support. It is in this regard that gaining a deeper understanding of the resilience strategies that were employed by the tourism MSMEs during and strategies being employed during post Covid-19 pandemic crisis is of paramount significance. The study adopted qualitative interpretivist approach through document analysis.  Collected data was analysed using the ATLAS.ti.software. The study concludes that even though the Covid-19 had some devastating effects on the MSMEs tourism entrepreneurs, that are still being felt now, it forced the entrepreneurs to adapt and be innovative. It is in this regard that the study concludes that the identified strategies are very vital for the survival of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The study also concludes that the tourism MSMEs entrepreneurs became more resilient to the pandemic as it progressed hence, they implemented the identified strategies revealed by the study findings.

Intra-SADC trade has not met the target that was set by the African Continental Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) of achieving 22% by the year 2022 due to a myriad of various trade-related challenges. This present study aims to compare the results of using a Poisson Maximum Likelihood Estimator (PPML) with Random Effects (RE), Fixed Effects (FE), and an Ordinary Least Squares (POLS) model on a balanced panel of select eight Southern African Development Community (SADC) members that trade with South Africa over the period 2010-2022. The paper empirically examines how South Africa’s overlapping Regional Economic Community (REC) membership affects bilateral trade. Also, the examination of how the impact of distance between South Africa and its trading partners impacts bilateral trade. The study findings are that PPML provides more robust results than other estimation techniques in estimating the gravity model for a balanced micro panel. From the PPML results, distance has a significant negative impact at a 5% level on bilateral exports from South Africa which implies that SADC countries that are relatively far in terms of distance from South Africa and landlocked tend to experience a relative fall in exports from South Africa.  However, multiple REC membership has a positive and significant impact of 1% level of significance on bilateral trade contrary to the negative relationship that was expected. The study recommends the speedy conclusion of outstanding AfCFTA issues for member states to effectively benefit from the economies that economic geography presents.