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Eskom's electricity generation can't satisfy rising demand. Eskom's installed capacity of 52,000 MW surpasses production of 47,000 MW, a large discrepancy. Eskom uses voluntary load shedding to address this gap and protect the national grid. A desk review study on power outages' socio-economic effects on South African agriculture and food security is presented in the paper. The study also assessed electricity supply and load shedding legislation. Power outages have disrupted farming activities, from irrigation to food processing, and farmers' capacity to maintain production levels. This has caused crop losses, livestock production reductions, and food distribution delays. Thus, food costs have risen, worsening food insecurity, especially for disadvantaged groups. Focussing on agricultural production and energy supply, the study proposed evidence-based solutions and suggestions to lessen load shedding's detrimental effects on South Africa's food systems and improve food security for all.

The Covid-19 pandemic has profoundly transformed the competitive intelligence (CI) landscape across various businesses. The research examines the swift trend of competitive intelligence by bibliometric analysis. A total of 356 documents were picked from the Scopus database, covering the years 2020 to 2024, to delineate the domain of competitive intelligence and its research horizons.  Findings indicate a substantial shift towards digital transformation, improved data analytics, and an increased focus on agility and resilience in competitive intelligence initiatives. These findings illustrate the dynamic influence of CI and delineate the developmental trends, themes, and patterns for academic practitioners and policymakers, who must adopt these emerging trends to enhance, promote, and sustain CI longevity, operational efficiency, and capability within the swiftly evolving business ecosystem. Prevalent topics encompass digital transformation, agility, resilience, collaboration, networking, ethics, and compliance. Geographically, Asia, North America, and Europe dominate research production in CI during and after Covid-19, although emerging economies exhibit interest. Citation analysis identified prominent authors, providing direction for subsequent research. Nonetheless, research deficiencies and obstacles remain, particularly the necessity for additional empirical investigations, the amalgamation of competitive intelligence with big data, comprehensive competitive intelligence frameworks for small enterprises, innovation, and the Internet of Things (IoT). This bibliometric literature study seeks to analyse and synthesise the fast developments in CI during and subsequent to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study analyses major topics, approaches, and changes in CI practices through the examination of several academic articles. The study offers significant insights and underscores the transformative potential of CI techniques.

With the rapid advancement of information technology (IT), it increasingly becomes challenging to identify crimes devoid of a digital component. An increase in internet users correlates with a rising percentage of cybercriminals transitioning traditional crime to the online environment. It is essential to enhance the cybercrime preparedness of law enforcement agencies to effectively address and eliminate this issue. Cyber-attacks have adversely affected the escalating epidemic, necessitating effective solutions. This paper employs qualitative content analysis to examine the challenges and opportunities faced by the South African Police Service (SAPS) in addressing cybercrime. The objective is to propose strategies and methodologies for the establishment of robust professional institutions and the allocation of adequate resources to address cybercrime effectively. The findings indicate a relationship between organisational context, complexity, and control in the context of cybercrime response. Larger agencies, such as the SAPS, those whose officers perform more non-routine tasks, and agencies operating under an active collective bargaining agreement are more inclined to allocate specific resources to cybercrime. Agencies characterised by increased hierarchical layers, greater specialisation, and a higher reliance on civilian employees are more inclined to assign dedicated personnel to cybercrime efforts. This article is among the limited studies employing this framework to analyse the relationship between organisational characteristics and responses to cybercrime. This perspective is beneficial for analysing police organisations, policies, programs, and strategies.

This paper examines the causal relationship between foreign divestment (FD), economic growth, and financial development in African countries between 2000 and 2020. The research addresses the inadequately studied influence of macroeconomic variables on FD, focusing on the African context, where scholarly investigations on FD remain scarce. The study seeks to provide policymakers with insights on strategies to mitigate FD outflows and promote sustainable development. The research employs the Dumitrescu-Hurlin Panel Causality test to investigate causal relationships between FD, economic growth, and financial development. The study uses panel data covering multiple African nations over two decades, offering a robust temporal and spatial analysis. The approach emphasises examining unidirectional and bidirectional causation within the macroeconomic framework, contributing to a nuanced understanding of the interplay between these variables. The main findings of the study reveal a unidirectional causation between FD and economic growth across African countries, although this relationship is not consistent in all instances. Additionally, a bidirectional causal relationship is identified between FD and financial development (FIN). These findings underscore the interconnectedness of FD with macroeconomic stability and highlight the importance of fostering economic growth and financial sector development to address FD outflows effectively. This study contributes to the underexplored area of FD in African nations by highlighting its causal relationships with economic growth and financial development. It offers valuable insights for policymakers, scholars, and multinational enterprises (MNEs). The findings further underscore the importance of sound governance practices, economic stability, and financial sector development in mitigating FD outflows and fostering sustainable development in Africa.

Marriage, despite its evolving role in society, has for generations played a fundamental role in shaping social relations. This paper examines household income by gender and the marital status of the head of household, with a focus on assessing the average total incomes for these different groups. The significance of household income in determining a household's poverty status cannot be overstated. While the use of multidimensional measures of poverty, such as the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and other household resources, has increased, it remains true that these measures are directly influenced by the household's income level. Therefore, household income continues to be the primary determinant of poverty. Analyzing income dynamics by gender provides insight into broader household issues, such as gender relations and the significance of marital status in the 21st century. The study employed Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression and descriptive analysis to derive the results. The findings indicate that married individuals have higher household incomes compared to all other groups. Notably, never-married single females have the lowest income among these groups. The analysis also reveals that, on average, males have higher incomes than females within the same marital status categories. These results confirm that both gender and marital status continue to influence household income levels. The policy implication is that, while marriage cannot be regulated, gender disparities can be addressed to ensure that individuals with the same qualifications and experience receive equal pay. To address these disparities, it is recommended that policies focus on promoting equal pay for equal work and enhancing women's economic empowerment, particularly for vulnerable groups. Supporting cohabiting households through legal and financial protections will also contribute to improved economic stability. These measures aim to reduce income disparities associated with gender and marital status, ultimately fostering greater social equity and economic growth.

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.

This study examines the most significant challenges facing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa, drawing on firm-level data from the 2022 World Bank Enterprise Survey. Using probit regression analysis, it explores how firm size, sector, geographic location, and female ownership influence the severity of perceived business constraints—namely, access to finance, infrastructure, regulation, workforce skills, crime, and the informal sector. The results indicate that sectoral differences are the strongest predictors of obstacle severity. Due to their capital and logistics needs, sectors such as Fabricated Metal Products, Construction, and Retail face heightened financial and transport challenges. Regionally, firms outside Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape report more severe infrastructure issues, particularly electricity, while those within these provinces face greater skills shortages. Medium-sized firms generally report fewer constraints than smaller firms. Female ownership is not a consistent determinant of obstacle severity; however, firms without female ownership perceive corruption and crime as slightly less severe. These findings underscore the need for targeted, sector- and region-specific policy responses, particularly in enhancing financial access for capital-intensive industries and addressing regional disparities in infrastructure and workforce development.

Cyberbullying is the most common form of violence and aggression that affects the wellbeing of learners during their schooling days. Globally, cyberbullying is increasingly gaining recognition among the social scientists. It is locally becoming a phenomenon that is problematic threatening the mental health of learners. The phenomenon of cyberbullying violates the human rights of learners as outlined in the Constitution of South Africa. Bullying is a phenomenon that is destructive in nature and brings out the culture of violence in learning environment. Cyberbullying is a complex social issue and has close association with mental health illness/problems. It has consequence which includes, trauma, drop in school performance, school dropout and suicide. Cyberbullying is not a new concept among social workers because of their involvement with the phenomenon daily. Cyberbullying involves the use of social media, technology and texts to inflict harm on the victims. The study adopted the qualitative research approach, and this approach was used to provide the knowledge about the destructive nature of cyberbullying on learners in schools. The primary goal of this study was to develop an in-depth knowledge on the destruction or learners in schools. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews was used in the study with the adoption of purposive technique of sampling. The Interview guide was utilized as a data collection instrument exploratory research designs was employed. The researcher obtained permission from the participants prior to data collection and sought permission for the audio-recording of the participants. The study applied the thematic content as a method of data analysis. The study employed two theoretical framework which were ecological approach and the strength-based approach. The study found that emotional, psychological and educational effects are some of the destructive effects of bullying which puts too much pressure on learners.

This study aimed to emphasise the growing significance of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in company sustainability conversations, particularly in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, which highlighted the essential nature of OHS beyond simple awareness. Despite organisations' prior awareness of OHS principles, the pandemic's catastrophic effects underscored the imperative to comprehensively align OHS with overarching sustainability initiatives, particularly the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The advancement of global digitalisation requires safety experts to utilise management and data analytics tools, with Business Process Management (BPM) and Process Safety Management (PSM) being essential in this context. This study employs an extensive literature review to provide a conceptual framework integrating BPM and PSM aspects to advance the development of OHS students as future leaders in sustainable practices. The results support the incorporation of Sustainable Development Goals into Occupational Health and Safety courses, highlighting the necessity of providing students with Business Process Management, including data analytics, and Project Management skills to foster leadership in sustainability. This study introduces an innovative framework designed to augment students' abilities to spearhead sustainability-focused learning activities in the domain of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS). Integrating SDGs, BPM, and PSM into OHS education can substantially enhance the development of a more sustainable and resilient global future. This indicates that such integration can equip students to effectively tackle difficult challenges, such as pandemics and other global disasters. This study offers novel insights by presenting a paradigm that amalgamates BPM and PSM with SDGs in OHS education, hence cultivating future leaders capable of promoting sustainable practices. Nonetheless, as a theoretical investigation, additional empirical research is required to examine particular curricular requirements in other countries and to substantiate the framework's effectiveness.

This study examines the role of informers in murder investigations in Krugersdorp, South Africa, through the lens of Social Learning Theory (SLT). Using semi-structured interviews with 14 law enforcement officials, the study explores the values of informers, highlighting how detectives recruit, assess, and engage with informers. Findings reveal that informers, categorised as voluntary, hidden agenda, and paid informers, enhance investigative efficiency by providing insider intelligence but also pose ethical and reliability challenges, requiring trust-building and intelligence verification. The study concludes that detectives learn informer management through observation, collaboration, and crisis-based decision-making. Recommendations emphasise structured training, ethical oversight, and institutional safeguards to optimise informer use in murder investigations and law enforcement practices in Krugersdorp. By situating informer use within both theoretical and local investigative realities, the research contributes insights to criminological scholarship, bridging criminological practice with social theory and offering policy-relevant recommendations for training, ethical oversight, and institutional safeguards in resource-constrained environments.