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An organisation's performance suffers when employees are not adequately skilled in certain job areas.  This article sought to investigate whether training and development affected the delivery of citizen-centric services in a government department in South Africa. The study adopted a mixed research methodology and a non-experimental research design. The data was collected via 20 open-ended interviews and 130 structured questionnaires. The study results indicated that shifting the government's focus to citizen-centricity would improve efficiency and service delivery. One of the significant findings suggests that training in service delivery requirements awareness could positively improve and motivate public officials' performance to remain relevant to the needs of citizens.

Retracted Paper This paper aims to evaluate students’ feedback on the impediments to developing critical thinking in the classroom. Interpretative phenomenological analysis techniques were used to obtain data from postgraduate and undergraduate students of an Internal Auditing department in a South African university. The students identified several barriers to developing critical thinking in the classroom some of which are (1) the lecturers who are most times not knowledgeable in the field of critical thinking, (2) the students themselves who are simply not interested, (3) finally the educational system, according to the students who all argued that critical thinking is not ingrained in the country's educational institutions. According to the students, their lack of knowledge of critical thinking including the lecturers’ seeming insufficient knowledge of critical thinking calls for urgent intervention in the form of re-curriculation and training of lecturers. The findings of this research could have important implications for the auditing profession, as lecturers are often challenged to identify innovative ways to assist students in improving their critical thinking skills.

Retracted Paper The need to train learners to think critically has been stressed and it has become a key concern among scholars in recent years. Although there is strong evidence demonstrating the benefits of critical thinking as well as proposals for its integration in schools, scholars are still looking for evidence demonstrating how teachers instill critical thinking in the classroom and the obstacles they face. Furthering this argument necessitated lecturers’ feedback on the obstacles to teaching critical thinking in the classroom. Data was collected from academics at a South African university of technology using interpretative phenomenological analysis approaches. The lecturers identified several obstacles that inhibited them from inculcating critical thinking in the classroom. The first one is time, according to the lecturers there is not enough time to inculcate critical thinking since the average lesson last for fifty minutes. The second is the large population of students. The third is the learners themselves who according to the lecturers are indifferent, unwilling to engage. Finally, the educational system according to the lecturers is based on rote learning and memorisation at all levels, which hinders creative, unique, and logical thinking. The findings of this study could have significant consequences for the auditing profession, as teachers are frequently pushed to come up with new approaches to help students improve their critical thinking abilities.

Although Knowledge Management was introduced as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for all senior management in South Africa 15 years ago, its implementation has been slow and inconsistent. This paper aimed to identify the factors that contribute to or deter the implementation of Knowledge Management in the South African government. The issue was explored through a review of literature on Knowledge Management, as well as results of an interview and questionnaire completed by government officials doing Knowledge Management practitioner work in the South African government. The quantitative data was analysed using DATAtab. The findings identified two key factors that deter the implementation of Knowledge Management in the South African government: most departments in the South African government do not value Knowledge Management, and public officials responsible for implementing Knowledge Management in their departments lack implementation skills. A lack of research on Knowledge Management in developmental governments exists. More research on this subject is necessary. The research will benefit Knowledge Management and Public Administration practitioners alike.

The small business sector has been identified as an essential component of the global economy, especially in developing economies, where it plays a significant role in addressing job creation and poverty. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant lockdown restrictions have brought untold devastation to the sector forcing many out of operation, crippling business operations and financial viability. We seek to identify the role and impact of government relief measures in helping immigrant-owned businesses in South Africa to deal with the impact of the pandemic on their businesses. Primary data was collected using an electronic questionnaire administered to 260 foreign business owners in South Africa. The data was cleaned and statistically analysed using IBM SPSS version 27. We interpreted and discussed the results using the realistic conflict theory. Though a vast majority of the businesses (89%) reported that the pandemic had a very severe impact on their financial sustainability and liquidity, none of them reported that they benefitted from any of the South African government business support packages during the pandemic.

Retracted Paper The need to train learners to think critically has been stressed and it has become a key concern among scholars in recent years. Although there is strong evidence demonstrating the benefits of critical thinking as well as proposals for its integration in schools, scholars are still looking for evidence demonstrating how teachers instill critical thinking in the classroom and the obstacles they face. Furthering this argument necessitated lecturers’ feedback on the obstacles to teaching critical thinking in the classroom. Data was collected from academics at a South African university of technology using interpretative phenomenological analysis approaches. The lecturers identified several obstacles that inhibited them from inculcating critical thinking in the classroom. The first one is time, according to the lecturers there is not enough time to inculcate critical thinking since the average lesson last for fifty minutes. The second is the large population of students. The third is the learners themselves who according to the lecturers are indifferent, unwilling to engage. Finally, the educational system according to the lecturers is based on rote learning and memorisation at all levels, which hinders creative, unique, and logical thinking. The findings of this study could have significant consequences for the auditing profession, as teachers are frequently pushed to come up with new approaches to help students improve their critical thinking abilities.

Although Knowledge Management was introduced as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for all senior management in South Africa 15 years ago, its implementation has been slow and inconsistent. This paper aimed to identify the factors that contribute to or deter the implementation of Knowledge Management in the South African government. The issue was explored through a review of literature on Knowledge Management, as well as results of an interview and questionnaire completed by government officials doing Knowledge Management practitioner work in the South African government. The quantitative data was analysed using DATAtab. The findings identified two key factors that deter the implementation of Knowledge Management in the South African government: most departments in the South African government do not value Knowledge Management, and public officials responsible for implementing Knowledge Management in their departments lack implementation skills. A lack of research on Knowledge Management in developmental governments exists. More research on this subject is necessary. The research will benefit Knowledge Management and Public Administration practitioners alike.

The small business sector has been identified as an essential component of the global economy, especially in developing economies, where it plays a significant role in addressing job creation and poverty. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant lockdown restrictions have brought untold devastation to the sector forcing many out of operation, crippling business operations and financial viability. We seek to identify the role and impact of government relief measures in helping immigrant-owned businesses in South Africa to deal with the impact of the pandemic on their businesses. Primary data was collected using an electronic questionnaire administered to 260 foreign business owners in South Africa. The data was cleaned and statistically analysed using IBM SPSS version 27. We interpreted and discussed the results using the realistic conflict theory. Though a vast majority of the businesses (89%) reported that the pandemic had a very severe impact on their financial sustainability and liquidity, none of them reported that they benefitted from any of the South African government business support packages during the pandemic.

An organisation's performance suffers when employees are not adequately skilled in certain job areas.  This article sought to investigate whether training and development affected the delivery of citizen-centric services in a government department in South Africa. The study adopted a mixed research methodology and a non-experimental research design. The data was collected via 20 open-ended interviews and 130 structured questionnaires. The study results indicated that shifting the government's focus to citizen-centricity would improve efficiency and service delivery. One of the significant findings suggests that training in service delivery requirements awareness could positively improve and motivate public officials' performance to remain relevant to the needs of citizens.

Retracted Paper This paper aims to evaluate students’ feedback on the impediments to developing critical thinking in the classroom. Interpretative phenomenological analysis techniques were used to obtain data from postgraduate and undergraduate students of an Internal Auditing department in a South African university. The students identified several barriers to developing critical thinking in the classroom some of which are (1) the lecturers who are most times not knowledgeable in the field of critical thinking, (2) the students themselves who are simply not interested, (3) finally the educational system, according to the students who all argued that critical thinking is not ingrained in the country's educational institutions. According to the students, their lack of knowledge of critical thinking including the lecturers’ seeming insufficient knowledge of critical thinking calls for urgent intervention in the form of re-curriculation and training of lecturers. The findings of this research could have important implications for the auditing profession, as lecturers are often challenged to identify innovative ways to assist students in improving their critical thinking skills.