Foreign direct investment amongst other mechanisms provides capital inflow

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Purpose A strategic plan is a document used to communicate an organisation’s goals and the actions needed to achieve those goals. Strategic planning in public organisations promotes timely decisions, enhances the management of limited resources in a more rational manner, improves service delivery and induces greater satisfaction of customers. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to critically examine the strategic planning challenges facing the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS), and how these impact organisational performance; second, to identify strategies that can be implemented to enhance strategic planning and performance management in the DTPS. Design/methodology/approach This paper used a qualitative case study design with the aid of document analysis to provide insight into the research questions. Findings The paper concludes that public institutions such as the DTPS face a plethora of challenges that militate against successful strategic planning and implementation. A major challenge is resistance to change arising from a desire to maintain the status quo. This paper argues that it is important to promote strategic planning, and aligning organisational objectives with performance in public institutions. Research limitations/implications This study is based on documentary research and therefore its findings may lack current findings that would have emerged from direct interviews. Practical implications This research contributes towards efforts being made to make strategic planning and implementation effective and credible in public institutions especially in sub Saharan Africa. Originality/value In many South African public institutions, strategic planning is viewed as the work of top management, a misconception which compromises service delivery. In addition, strategic planning has been implemented as a direct attempt to inhibit poor budgetary planning and corruption in procurement systems, and in order to effectively manage public resources. There is a need for the department to conduct regular skills development programmes, uproot top-level bureaucracy, and increase innovation, monitoring and evaluation of organisational activities.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to estimate the determinants of household food insecurity in the Gauteng City-Region, South Africa. This is motivated by the fact that food insecurity remains a key challenge at the household level in South Africa. Furthermore, the Gauteng Province has been rapidly urbanising due to a migrant influx, both locally and internationally. The findings will assist the country in achieving its mandate on the local economic development policy, Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a quantitative cross-section design, utilising the binary logistic regression technique, drawing on the Gauteng City-Region Observatory Quality of Life 2020/2021 data, consisting of 13,616 observations, randomly drawn from nine municipalities in Gauteng City-Region.FindingsThe main findings of the study highlight unemployment, health status, education, household size, indigency and income as the main determinants of food insecurity in Gauteng City-Region. Policies towards sustainable urban agriculture, improving access to education, increasing employment and income, and health for all can help improve the food insecurity status of households in the Gauteng City-Region.Research limitations/implicationsFurther studies would require an in-depth assessment of household coping mechanisms, as well as the influence of household income (notably government social grants) and access to credit on household food security status, to better understand the dynamics of food security in the Gauteng City-Region.Practical implicationsDeterminants of food insecurity should be considered when developing and implementing policies to reduce food insecurity in urban municipalities.Social implicationsThe study is of interest as it interdicts food insecurity issues, which have an effect on socio-economic well-being.Originality/valueThe study adds value by providing evidence on the determinants of food insecurity in an urban setting in a developing country. Gauteng is the richest of all provinces in South Africa and is also at the receiving end of internal and international migration. Factors affecting food insecurity have changed in the nine cities. This compromises nutrition safety and calls for targeted policy interventions.

In South Africa, government departments are under legislative obligations to adopt a systematic and organised approach to the management of records. This is because sound records management is fundamental for good governance and effective and efficient administration of government units. This article analyses records management trends at Statistics South Africa (StatsSA). Qualitative desktop research was used with key legislative and policy sources, StatsSA documents and international literature. The study revealed that numerous challenges existed in the organisation’s records management. These challenges include: creation of the record retention and disposal authority granted by the Archivist; stakeholder relations and engagement; compliance with the National Archives and Records Services of South Africa (NARSSA) Act No. 43 of 1996 as the primary legislation for records and archives management in South Africa; and digitalization and transformation. The article recommends that the resource centre be digitalized by adopting the Millennium and Sierra Integrated Library Systems software for records management, skills development archiving and enhanced stakeholder relations. An effective and efficient records and archives management system promotes good governance, accountability, and transparency.

Background: Southern African countries adopted diverse responses to the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, which manifested itself as both a health and economic disaster.Aim: Using a case study approach of two South African countries, namely Botswana and South Africa, the article assessed their response measures to the COVID-19 pandemic.Setting: Southern African countries applied ‘domesticated’ forms of responses thus, there has been no one-size-fits-all approach to managing the pandemic.Methods: The study adopted a qualitative approach. Two case studies namely Botswana and South Africa were used. Documentary evidence was drawn from these case studies.Results: To ensure that Southern African countries and indeed the world in general navigate the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed operational planning guidelines that had sought to balance the demands of responding effectively to COVID-19 and the need to serve economies from collapse. However, an analysis of the programmes of responses in South African countries such as Botswana showed the ‘domestication’ of the guidelines. Nevertheless, the guidelines, although having met with criticism in some cases had significantly contributed to the effective management of COVID-19 health and economic effects.Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic required the state and its institutions to exercise effective leadership and unified action. In South African countries such as Botswana and South Africa, this pandemic showed the importance of governments in shaping the effectiveness of national responses, strategies and approaches in tackling the crisis.

<p>This study examines the structure, value, intensity and complementarity of South Africa’s trade with its Brazil–Russia-India-China (BRIC) partners. It highlights the increasing dynamism of intra- BRICS trade, which started on accession to the World Trade Organisation in 2010. Key determinants to this dynamism include the rapid growth of Chinese and Indian economies accompanied by a steep rise in demand for South Africa’s primary commodities. The rising intensity with China is demand-oriented, while the intensity with India is supply-oriented, mostly in semi-finished and finished commodities.</p><p>South Africa’s addition to BRIC coincided with three key developments; its trade balance with most BRIC economies narrowed; the quality of its exports to the BRIC improved; and the value of its exports to BRIC exceeded the value of exports to the European Union and Central Asia. The latter development is attributable to trade diversion from the European Union and Central Asia to the BRIC.</p><p>Inclusive growth is probable if South Africa could leverage trade with the BRIC. More, so while employment is at peak in labour- intensive primary industry, intra-industry trade with the BRIC would resuscitate the manufacturing and services sectors so that the complementary effects of trade would be feasible.</p>

Food security has always been a contemporary issue in urban South Africa, which is gripped by high inequality. This has recently been exacerbated by risks and hazards pertaining to climate change and the more recent COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of the study was to ascertain the food security status and the determinants thereof for urban households in the City of Tshwane. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and Multinomial Logistic Regression were used to scale the patterns of household-level determinants of food security of 775 households, distributed in 73 clusters, from the 7 regions of the City of Tshwane, South Africa. The study found that 39.2% of the households were food secure, 16.6% suffered from mild food insecurity, 12.1% were moderately food insecure, and 32.1% were severely food insecure. Food security was significantly more prevalent in male-headed households, households with younger members, households with educated heads, and those that are employed. Household size and income were also determinants of food security. The results indicate that age, gender (male), education, employment, household size, income, and grant type were significant at the 1% level in extreme changes in food insecurity, while only the grant was insignificant in mild changes in food security, with none of the variables being significant in slight food security changes. Government social grants were inadequate to guarantee food security status. The study concludes that there are extremes of food security and severe food insecurity indicating inequality, with various socio-economic factors affecting food security.