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In Southern Africa, the human immunodeficiency virus constitutes a significant public health challenge, characterised by elevated rates of new infections in rural populations. Conversely, biomedical interventions have facilitated advancement. The incorporation of Indigenous Knowledge Systems into Human Immunodeficiency Virus preventive techniques is still little investigated. This systematic analysis assesses the incorporation of Indigenous Knowledge Systems into community-based HIV prevention strategies in Southern Africa. This systematic review complied with the PRISMA principles. A search was performed across various electronic databases, including PubMed, Google Scholar, and CINAHL, for papers published from 01 January 2015 to 31 June 2025. A total of 51,972 studies were discovered, of which 14 matched the inclusion criteria and were evaluated. The analysis revealed that incorporating Indigenous Knowledge Systems into community-based HIV prevention programs in Southern Africa improved cultural relevance, community involvement, and trust in health initiatives. Traditional healers significantly contributed to counselling, education, and the increase of HIV testing in rural regions, leading to enhanced service accessibility and diminished stigma. Notwithstanding these advantages, several projects nevertheless lacked official policy support and organised collaborations between conventional and biological health sectors.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a global economic crisis that significantly impacted the South African banking sector, already weakened by a pre-existing recession. While bank profitability and credit quality declined, stock market reactions appeared less severe, indicating a potential disconnect between fundamentals and investor behaviour. This study explores the influence of investor sentiment on credit risk, lending, and performance (ROA) of selected JSE-listed banks during the pandemic, incorporating behavioural finance perspectives. Panel regression analysis reveals that COVID-19 had a significant negative effect on stock, ROA and ROE, driven by heightened uncertainty and rising non-performing loans. Liquidity and capital positively influenced returns and ROE, reflecting investor confidence in resilient banks. Investor sentiment had a weakly positive impact on returns, but a significant negative effect on both ROA and ROE, suggesting that excessive optimism may have led to riskier lending practices and reduced profitability. Larger banks underperformed in terms of returns, likely due to operational complexity during the crisis. These findings highlight the critical role of behavioural factors in shaping financial outcomes during systemic shocks and provide new insights into emerging market banking dynamics under crisis conditions.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, grants all official languages parity of esteem and equal treatment. The Constitution also recognises injustices of the past and historical diminished use of indigenous (African) languages. It is against this backdrop that this democratic constitution calls-upon the national and provincial government to take practical and positive measures in encouraging the use and elevation of the status of African languages. In advocating for these languages, the Constitution declares that a minimum of two official languages be used by the government in executing government activities. Contrastingly, the heads of court resolutions in 2017 declared English a lingua franca in South African courts. In a diverse country such as South Africa with twelve official languages, this raises critical concerns in terms of the country’s diversity, inclusivity, and multilingualism policies. With a distinct focus on Eastern Cape legal courts, this study examines the constitutional linguistic rights on the use of English as a lingua franca in South African courts system. The study adopted a qualitative research approach embedded within the exploratory-explanatory research design. The data was obtained from secondary sources, which in this context are judicial precedents. To analyse the collected data, close-reading and thematic content analysis techniques were adopted. The findings of the study exhibit English as a language of power and access in law, this positions African languages at the periphery, limiting their development and incorporation in legalese. Also, the use of English as a lingua franca in the Eastern Cape courts contravenes the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. This study submits that legal practitioners and linguists should critically explore, language studies to bridge the knowledge gap.  Additionally, the government should create channels which allow the practical use of African languages in the court of law.                                                                                                                                             

Single motherhood is a prevalent phenomenon within low-resourced communities globally, especially within African communities. Despite the fact that discourses on single mothers have received considerable attention in social sciences, there remains a notable gap within social work literature where momentous traction is still needed. This thematic narrative literature review synthesises current evidence regarding the challenges faced by single mothers in low-resource communities across Africa. Employing a thematic approach to literature selection, the analysis found several key areas of hardship and economic instability. Further, the findings included childcare and educational barriers, health and under nutrition, limited social support and stigma for single mothers, lack of safety and protection from violence and crimes, as well as poor policy implementation and service access. These findings highlight a complex interaction among macroeconomic factors in African communities, discriminatory gender values and norms, and community service structures, which frequently intensify vulnerabilities for single mothers and their children. The recommendations made emphasises the need for policy and programme redesigns in African communities, advocating for community-based strategies that prioritise gender sensitivity and inclusivity to address the distinctive socioeconomic challenges encountered by single mothers in low-resource settings. Further, recommendations are made on establishing family-inclusive social frameworks that extend beyond marriage-based models to include strengthening of child support enforcement mechanisms and paternal responsibility legislation.  

This study examines the relationship between digital globalization and educational access in Africa. It uses publicly available secondary data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) ICT database and UNESCO education statistics. While digital transformation is widely promoted as a catalyst for inclusive human capital development, cross-country heterogeneity in Africa raises questions about whether digital expansion uniformly enhances educational access. Employing panel quantile regression for a balanced panel of African countries over the period 2005–2023, the paper investigates how ICT penetration, trade openness, and digital infrastructure affect educational participation across different points of the distribution of access indicators. The findings indicate that digital globalization exerts heterogeneous effects: countries at lower quantiles of educational access benefit more strongly from increases in internet penetration and mobile connectivity, whereas upper-quantile countries exhibit diminishing marginal returns. Institutional quality and governance metrics serve to moderate these observed relationships. The findings contribute to the existing body of research concerning the digital divide, globalization, and educational inequality, specifically by illustrating that digital transformation mitigates disparities, particularly in contexts where fundamental access limitations persist. Consequently, the policy implications emphasize the need for infrastructure expansion, regulatory adjustments, and targeted digital inclusion initiatives, all of which should be congruent with the African Union Digital Education Strategy.

The study examines how environmental sustainability reporting influences the performance of listed construction firms in Zimbabwe. The study responds to a notable research gap in developing economies, particularly within the construction sector, where limited qualitative evidence exists on how managers perceive the relationship between environmental corporate sustainability practices and organisational performance. While prior studies have largely focused on quantitative approaches in developed contexts, this paper adopts a qualitative perspective to generate context-specific insights. Guided by the interpretivist philosophy and informed by Signalling Theory and Legitimacy Theory, the study employed a qualitative research design using purposive sampling. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, and document analysis of sustainability reports from selected firms listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. The data were analysed through thematic and content analysis to identify recurring patterns and perceptions. The findings indicate that environmental sustainability reporting is generally perceived to enhance firm performance through improved corporate reputation, stronger stakeholder confidence, regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, waste reduction, and better resource management. Key environmental practices identified include environmental management systems, recycling and reuse initiatives, pollution control measures, land rehabilitation, and water conservation strategies. However, the study also found that firms face constraints such as resource limitations, economic instability, and uneven regulatory enforcement, which may hinder the full benefits of environmental sustainability initiatives. The paper concludes that the environmental dimension of corporate sustainability reporting can contribute positively to organisational performance when supported by effective implementation and strategic commitment. It recommends that listed firms strengthen environmental governance systems, integrate sustainability into core business strategy, invest in cleaner technologies, and improve disclosure quality. Policymakers are encouraged to enhance regulatory support and industry guidance for sustainability reporting. Future research may extend this inquiry to other sectors, compare listed and non-listed firms, and explore longitudinal changes in sustainability reporting practices across emerging markets.

This paper examines how a purpose-driven organisation emerging from a highly volatile developing economy can build a globally competitive business process outsourcing (BPO) platform while contributing to brain-drain reversal. Using ZimWorX, a Zimbabwean-headquartered BPO enterprise, as a longitudinal case study, the study aims to develop a theoretically grounded framework explaining strategic emergence under conditions of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) for an emerging organisation. Situated within the broader transformation of global outsourcing markets and the democratisation of digital talent, the paper positions Zimbabwe not as a peripheral participant but as a credible contender in high-value global services delivery. The research adopts a qualitative single-case study design grounded in conceptual theory-building. Drawing on secondary data, organisational records, industry reports, and contextual economic analysis, the study employs abductive reasoning to synthesise four theoretical lenses: Entrepreneurial Orientation Theory, Market Entry Strategy frameworks, Chaos Theory, and Strategic Decision-Making Theory. Through cross-theoretical integration, the analysis traces how ZimWorX navigated Zimbabwe’s macroeconomic instability, currency volatility, high unemployment, and institutional constraints to construct a resilient and differentiated service platform serving clients primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. The findings reveal that ZimWorX’s success is not attributable to cost arbitrage alone, but to a distinctive combination of entrepreneurial vision, purpose-driven culture, agile niche-focused market entry, and a disruptive “insourcing” philosophy that reframes outsourcing as premium human capital partnership. The firm’s strategic posture reflects adaptive decision-making under disequilibrium conditions, where uncertainty becomes a catalyst for innovation rather than paralysis. Importantly, the organisation embeds social purpose, specifically the reversal of skilled migration and the creation of dignified employment, into its competitive strategy, thereby aligning commercial performance with developmental impact. The study culminates in the development of the ZimWorX Strategic Emergence Framework (ZSEF), a conceptual model that illustrates how emerging-economy firms can integrate entrepreneurial orientation, strategic agility, purposeful positioning, and adaptive market entry to achieve sustained global competitiveness in VUCA environments. The framework advances emerging organisation theory by demonstrating how firms operating in structurally disadvantaged contexts can convert institutional adversity into strategic differentiation. The paper concludes that purposeful strategic emergence offers a viable pathway for developing economies seeking participation in knowledge-intensive global value chains. Rather than replicating traditional offshore outsourcing models, African BPO platforms can leverage mission-driven identity, digital infrastructure, and agile governance structures to compete on quality and relational capital. The study recommends that policymakers support digital talent ecosystems, regulatory clarity, and export-oriented service platforms, while organisational leaders institutionalise adaptive strategic processes and purpose-centred cultures. Future research may test the ZSEF across multiple African BPO firms, examine performance implications quantitatively, or explore comparative applications in other emerging-market knowledge industries.

This paper examines the emergence and strategic evolution of InnBucks MicroBank Limited, a Zimbabwean Microfinance organisation that evolved from a restaurant-change management digital wallet into a licensed deposit-taking microfinance bank serving around 3 million users within 4 years. Operating in what is arguably one of the most extreme VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environments globally, characterised by currency failures, chronic hyperinflation, regulatory unpredictability, and severe infrastructure deficits, InnBucks offers a compelling case for exploring how organisations emerge, adapt, and scale amid genuine chaos.  The analysis incorporates five theoretical frameworks: Chaos Theory, Entrepreneurial Orientation Theory, Disruptive Innovation and Frugal Innovation, the Viable System Model, and Strategic Decision-Making Theory. These are utilised to explain InnBucks' institutional pivots, its evolution to a registered deposit taking microfinance, its utilisation of Simbisa Brands' restaurant network as financial infrastructure, and its recent shift to cloud-native banking through the Mambu/AWS partnership. The paper proposes the ARISE (Agility, Resilience, Innovation, Systemic, Entrepreneurial) conceptual framework, which combines five theoretical perspectives into a practical model to steer strategic emergence in resource-limited, institutionally fragile environments. It concludes that InnBucks' trajectory challenges traditional assumptions about the prerequisites for financial innovation and provides transferable insights for emerging organisations operating within Sub-Saharan Africa's growing fintech ecosystem.

This conceptual theory-building study examines how African FinTech organisations navigate volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA), using Mukuru as a paradigmatic single case. It develops the Mukuru Ambidextrous Strategic Emergence Model (MASEM) by integrating Entrepreneurial Orientation, Strategic Agility, Organisational Ambidexterity, Chaos Theory and Strategic Decision-Making Theory. Using secondary evidence, longitudinal organisational analysis and abductive cross-theoretical synthesis, the study explains how Mukuru combines exploitation of established remittance and agent-network capabilities with exploration of digital innovation. The analysis identifies multidexterity, the orchestration of multiple, potentially contradictory business models across heterogeneous regulatory settings, as a key capability linking strategic agility to sustained emergence. MASEM conceptualises VUCA pressures as external conditions, entrepreneurial and adaptive capabilities as the strategic core, responsible AI and green digital finance as enabling capabilities, and resilience, inclusion and antifragility as intended organisational outcomes. The model is conceptual rather than empirically validated; accordingly, future research should test its constructs and causal relationships across multiple African FinTech organisations. The study contributes an Africa-centred framework and practical guidance for managers seeking to align innovation, governance, sustainability and regulatory adaptability under persistent environmental turbulence.

This study examined behavioural risks associated with internal restructuring in the South African banking industry. The study was motivated by the increasing frequency of restructuring as banks respond to digital transformation, branch rationalisation, technological disruption and growing competition from fintech institutions. A qualitative exploratory research approach was adopted, using semi-structured interviews conducted with 13 employees from five major South African banks who had experienced internal restructuring. The interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. Five recurring behavioural risk themes were identified: workload pressures and performance strain; pressure to prove organisational value and internal competition; declining morale and workplace culture; job insecurity and talent loss; and organisational clarity and communication breakdowns. Participants described how increased workloads, uncertainty and anxiety could affect concentration and perceived work performance, indicating that behavioural risks associated with restructuring may also have operational consequences. A particularly important finding was the pressure employees experienced to continually demonstrate their organisational value during restructuring. This pressure sometimes encouraged increased effort and visibility, but could also contribute to stress, unhealthy internal competition and strained workplace relationships. The findings underscore the importance of transparent communication, clearly defined roles, visible leadership, employee involvement and psychological support during restructuring. The study contributes context-specific evidence on behavioural risks associated with internal restructuring in the South African banking industry and draws attention to the need to consider their implications for employee wellbeing, organisational culture and operational effectiveness.